Chapter 141: We Must Eradicate the Weeds at Their Root and Return to Konoha
"I meant it can't be used as an energy source for your puppets." Kenichi froze for a moment, genuinely confused. "What else would I mean? Chakra is energy."
Then he stared at Sasori.
"What do you think I was talking about?"
Sasori's expression did not change, but he silently turned his head away, refusing to admit he had overthought it.
Fortunately, Kenichi did not press him. Right now, he was busy working with the architect, testing whether Nine Tails chakra could be converted into a power source for the fortress's flight system.
"No." The man shook his head, staring at the runes glowing along the wall. "This chakra contains too much power. The machine can't recognize it, and it can't convert it. If we force activation, it will most likely explode."
Kenichi rubbed his temple.
To be honest, he had not expected this at all. This strange fortress could fly using Zero Tails chakra, yet it could not handle Nine Tails chakra.
What, was tailed beast chakra too noble for it?
"Meaning the Nine Tails chakra is too advanced for it to process?" Kenichi asked.
The man hesitated, then nodded.
Kenichi finally understood, as if some painfully obvious truth had only just clicked into place. A wild boar could not handle fine bran. Simple, clear, humiliating.
So for this massive fortress, only dark chakra converted from Zero Tails was suitable. Meanwhile, Nine Tails chakra was simply too vast and too violent for the system to digest.
Kenichi glanced at the ball of Nine Tails chakra, then at the trembling Zero Tails nearby, and sighed.
"So can you modify it?"
He could not help muttering again, half amused and half annoyed.
"Tailless Tailed Beast? We might as well rename it Tailless Coward."
Kenichi had clearly forgotten how intense, even crushing, his own fear had been when he faced the Nine Tails back then. In that moment, the sheer pressure had shaken him to the core.
Sasori stood off to the side, studying the ominous chakra in silence. Once his embarrassment had faded, a new thought rose in his mind.
Could Nine Tails chakra be used as a power source for a puppet?
Kenichi said it could not, but the amount of power inside that chakra ball was terrifying. Maybe the problem was not that it was unusable, but that the output was too extreme, impossible to balance with consumption.
If you built a puppet as tall as a mountain, then maybe it could handle Nine Tails chakra as fuel.
"…That's difficult." The man wiped sweat from his forehead. "We have never studied something like this before."
He was not lying. He had never seen a Nine Tails fox in his life.
Back when Konoha crushed the Sky Village, who had led the campaign? Orochimaru, Tsunade, Jiraiya, the Legendary Sannin, along with an elite shinobi force.
Kushina, the Nine Tails jinchuriki, had not even shown her face. There had been no need to bring out the Nine Tails as a deterrent against a small village like theirs.
"It's fine, it's fine." Kenichi chuckled and patted the man's shoulder. "We'll study it. If possible, I still want to see this fortress fly using that chakra. Understand?"
Kenichi had already learned the timeline. For the aerial fortress to take off with Zero Tails, they would need at least ten years, because Zero Tails had to grow. That cycle could not be rushed.
But ten years was far too long.
According to Kenichi's plan, he would not even need ten years. By then, the shinobi world might have changed completely, and Zero Tails would be pointless.
More than that, the fortress itself might no longer matter. What if they were already riding on an Otsutsuki ship while this fortress was still babysitting a half grown Zero Tails?
It would be completely useless.
Like finally having enough money to consider buying a luxury car, only for some app to send you a coupon for one hundred yen off an electric scooter.
It was not that the scooter could not be used. It was just unnecessary when better options existed.
"Okay… we'll do our best." The man wiped his sweat again.
What else could he do? He could only try, while secretly hoping Shinno would return soon and save them.
He also prayed the ones who escaped had already gone to find Lord Shinno. As the Sky Village's leader, Lord Shinno could definitely defeat these two monsters.
Kenichi created three shadow clones to supervise the researchers' work, then turned to Sasori with a casual smile.
"Sasori, do you remember the Shinno they mentioned earlier?"
"I do." Sasori watched the Nine Tails chakra being carried away, a trace of regret in his eyes. "I think I've heard of him. A doctor. A doctor with excellent medical skills."
Kenichi did not leave all of the Nine Tails chakra behind. This stuff could be used to create a fake Nine Tails jinchuriki. If he handed it over completely, and it sparked ambition in these researchers, it would become a headache later.
So he split it up, leaving only a small portion for experiments and sealing the rest back into the scroll.
"A doctor…" Kenichi's brows lifted slightly. Hearing that, a vague memory surfaced.
He had never watched the full movie, so he did not know the exact story of the Sky Fortress. But he remembered seeing compilations in his previous life, like those videos counting how many girls had fallen for Naruto.
One of those stories mentioned a girl, the movie's female lead. She had studied under a miracle doctor since childhood. At the beginning, she fell for the miracle doctor, and later she confessed to Naruto.
That miracle doctor's name had been Shinno.
A name that almost made Kenichi want to complain. Naruto really did have quite a few oddly familiar elements.
"That guy might come back," Kenichi said, narrowing his eyes. "I don't know how strong he is, but he's definitely not stronger than me. If he was, he wouldn't need to restrain Zero Tails like this."
"It doesn't matter," Sasori replied calmly. "We can leave some puppets and shadow clones here."
"It's better to kill him." Kenichi's voice stayed light, but his intent was clear. "Also, my teacher will be very interested in this aerial base."
Kenichi planned to discuss it with his teacher and invite him to move the laboratory here.
For one, his teacher's research ability was frighteningly strong. With him involved, the fortress might be improved, reinforced, made safer.
For another, his teacher was rich.
Sasori was rich too, but upgrading a fortress this large would devour money. It would take a fortune.
And Kenichi's teacher was a veteran shinobi with connections. Procuring materials through him would be far cheaper than Kenichi sourcing everything himself.
Still, this was not something Kenichi could decide alone. Sasori had discovered this place with him, so Kenichi asked for his opinion.
"I'm not familiar with him," Sasori said after a pause, hesitating mid sentence, "but I feel like he… no, the body he's using right now is… strange."
To be honest, Sasori felt uneasy whenever Orochimaru appeared. Something about that presence rubbed him the wrong way. It was an instinctive rejection he could not explain.
Even after learning Orochimaru was currently using a female body, Sasori still did not want close contact.
"However, if this is your idea, Kenichi, I won't object." Sasori nodded. "I just hope my lab and your teacher's lab stay separated."
He agreed entirely out of respect for Kenichi. If Kenichi had not asked, Sasori would never have volunteered to work alongside Orochimaru.
He did not know why, but he simply could not get along with that person. It felt like their very auras were incompatible.
Hearing that, Kenichi quietly exhaled in relief. He had been prepared for resistance. This small request was easy.
The aerial base was massive. Even though it was still under construction, most areas were already complete. Kenichi had begun mapping it out in his mind.
Left side for his teacher.
Middle for himself.
Right side for Sasori.
If they later found new talent suited for research, they could bring them up and expand the team.
Of course, it had to be done carefully. Someone like Deidara could not be included.
If Kenichi came back one day and found the entire fortress missing, he would not be surprised.
That man was not a researcher. He was a shinobi who worshipped explosions. Not scientific explosions, shinobi explosions.
Unless they trained him in the future, taught him how to combine ninjutsu and science in a controlled way, he could not be allowed anywhere near the base.
Even if Deidara started researching, he still could not come up unless he agreed, in writing and in blood, not to test his art here.
After settling things with Sasori, Kenichi split up with him.
Sasori would remain at the base, waiting for possible retaliation from Shinno.
Kenichi would go out, hunt Shinno down, take the initiative, and ideally kill him in one clean strike.
The air base was too important. Any potential threat had to be uprooted.
But after asking around, Kenichi learned something that left him speechless.
Shinno happened to be practicing medicine in Konoha at that very moment.
Standing on the soil of the Land of Fire, Kenichi could point toward Konoha's direction without even checking a map. His expression turned strangely distant.
It would be a lie to say he felt nothing for Konoha. He had lived there for several years.
Spend enough time in one place, and you will grow attached even to a dog. How much more a village you once called home?
Kenichi did not expect that after being away for so long, the first reason he would return would be this.
But he had no choice.
If Shinno wandered freely for even one more day, the base's safety could not be guaranteed.
And truthfully, Kenichi was curious about him.
How could a former Sky Village leader, someone who endured the annihilation of his village and the destruction of his country, act as if nothing happened, change identities, and become a famous miracle doctor?
Universal love? God's love for humanity?
Pfft.
If this old man was truly some kindhearted saint, Kenichi would rip his head off and kick it around like a ball.
Kenichi had never met Shinno, but Shinno's actions screamed danger. This was not a good person. This was a man with the patience and cruelty to become a mature villain.
If Kenichi had not uncovered the information, and if he had not remembered fragments from his previous life, he would never have known an aerial base was hidden there.
And the researcher had mentioned a weapon designed to wipe out Konoha.
That alone proved how dark Shinno's heart was.
A vengeful old devil who secretly planned to slaughter countless people, yet he wore the face of a divine doctor.
That was like a butcher laying down his knife, becoming a monk, eating vegetarian meals, and chanting scripture as if he had never spilled blood.
"So what are you plotting?" Kenichi muttered as he moved quickly through the forest.
He knew Shinno would never act without a reason.
But what was it?
Kenichi did not know.
He only knew he would find out soon.
As long as he reached Konoha while Shinno was still there, even if the Third Hokage and Danzo stood together, they would not be able to stop him from taking Shinno away.
"Hm?"
Kenichi suddenly halted.
He crouched on a tree branch and peered forward through the leaves. A group of Konoha shinobi were gathered ahead.
Twelve in total, split into three teams. They sat on rocks, eating boxed lunches.
They looked like a unit preparing to return to the village. Kenichi could not tell if they were on a mission, or if they had just come back from the battlefield in the Land of Frost.
Then his gaze paused.
In one of the squads, there was a young woman with pale eyes. Her bangs fell over her forehead, hiding the spot where the Caged Bird Seal would be.
"A Hyuga?" Kenichi stroked his chin, watching from above.
Down below, the Hyuga kunoichi suddenly raised her head, confused. Her eyes shifted as she scanned the nearby woods.
But it was empty. There was nothing there.
"…Was that just my imagination?" Hanako murmured, still uncertain.
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