Konoha was already deep into the night.
The weak moonlight was covered by clouds, and almost all the lights were out, leaving only a single lamp shining brightly in the darkness.
The leaves of the paulownia rustled in the night wind. A Root ninja with the codename "Owl" hid his body among the branches, staring at the distant window where the light was still on.
Through the gaps in the study blinds, he could see the kid named Ryuji Hyuga bent over the desk, writing. The surface of the diary reflected the warm glow of the desk lamp.
According to Root intelligence, this habit of writing a diary had been kept up for many years.
"Meow."
A faint cat cry mixed with the sound of insects. "Owl" frowned and looked toward the sound, only to see two shadows moving up and down, two cats calling loudly at each other.
He fell silent and slowly looked away. In his heart, he cursed himself for being paranoid, since the target was only a child.
Even so, his thoughts drifted to Kamaitachi and the miserable sight of that person losing an arm. A chill rose in his chest.
He could never look down on anyone, since he did not want to end up like that.
At that moment, he saw Ryuji Hyuga suddenly stop writing. The boy glanced at the clock, rubbed his reddened eyes, clipped the fountain pen into the diary's leather strap, and stood up to leave the study.
Click.
As the bedroom door closed softly, the light went out, and the entire compound fell into darkness.
"Owl" did not move at all and stayed hidden among the trees.
Only after he heard clear snoring from afar did he finally relax his hands from the sensing seals. Like a leaf blown by the wind, he quietly used Shunshin to appear outside the window.
The opened window made a faint sound. "Owl" slipped into the study without a trace, first sealing the diary into a scroll, then searching the room in silence.
He did not attempt to assassinate Ryuji Hyuga like Kamaitachi had. Finding nothing abnormal in the study, he decided to leave with only the diary.
He restored everything to its original state and was about to climb out the window.
"Who's there!"
A sudden shout exploded in his ears, and "Owl's" pupils shrank at once.
Before he could react, a sharp howl of wind came from behind him, like a shrieking ghost riding the air.
"Wind Release·Wind Cutter Technique."
Slash.
"Owl" barely managed to dodge to the side. A crescent-shaped wind blade swept past him, blood splattering across the wall in an uneven arc as a red line rapidly spread along his arm.
Squelch.
Blood burst out as if a dam had broken, and the arm was cleanly severed and slammed onto the floor.
"Owl" let out a muffled grunt as his body trembled. He did not even glance at the fallen arm and leapt out the window without hesitation.
What he did not see was that after he left, the black cat riding on the calico cat froze. Its pale eye turned toward the direction of his escape, and it raised a paw to slap away the foolish companion that came too close.
"If you want to take something, you have to leave something behind."
Inside the bedroom, Ryuji Hyuga lowered his hands from the seals, a faint smile on his face as he quietly waited for the system's prompt.
At the same time, "Owl," clutching his wound, quickly reached a mountain wall. He opened a hidden mechanism and slipped into dense, heavy shadows.
As he went deeper underground, water stains and moss spread across the dark corners, wrapping him in damp air. Instead of feeling stifled, he felt a strange sense of safety, like returning home.
"That kid's strength really isn't simple. No wonder Kamaitachi fell to him."
Looking at the arm still bleeding heavily, "Owl" clenched his teeth, fear and shock mixing in his chest.
In the vast sealed underground space, the lighting was bright as day.
There was even a laboratory with a huge observation window, where figures in white coats and masks moved busily about.
Rows of glass cold storage units displayed all kinds of materials, unknown reagents, and culture dishes holding cell tissue.
Nearby were glass containers filled with clear green liquid, soaking strange plant specimens and parts of animal bodies, including bloody organs like eyeballs and kidneys.
On the other side of the observation window stood Danzo Shimura with a blank expression. His narrow left eye was filled with deep darkness as he stared fixedly at the scene.
No, he was staring at the item on the experiment table.
It was a thumb-sized piece of white flesh, cell tissue from the First Hokage.
Soon, however, a researcher turned around and gently shook his head at the man.
Seeing this, Danzo Shimura's expression darkened. He raised a hand to touch his bound arm.
"Useless trash. Without Orochimaru, can you do nothing at all?" he cursed in a low voice while feeling the increasing erosion of the Hashirama cells.
This arm had been severely injured in a past battle, so in the eyes of others, including Hiruzen Sarutobi, the arm he kept bound was thought to be an old wound. They did not know that this arm was no longer his own.
Even Danzo Shimura himself did not know where the arm came from. That bastard Orochimaru had kept silent, only saying it was a byproduct of his Wood Release cultivation experiments.
Hungry for power, Danzo Shimura chose the transplant and used up all his stored Sharingan. What he never expected was that the Hashirama cells would be far more aggressive than he imagined.
In just a few years, the cells had begun to completely erode the arm, and even now they still could not understand how Orochimaru had made this arm capable of bearing them.
No one in Root had managed it, only discovering that Sharingan could suppress the cells.
But if this continued, the Sharingan he currently possessed would no longer be enough.
"Damn it," Danzo Shimura cursed inwardly. "If 'Kinoe' hadn't been taken by Sarutobi, I might have been able to send him to steal Kakashi Hatake's Sharingan."
As he was thinking about where to get more Sharingan, the masked "Owl" appeared at his side. Holding the scroll, he knelt on one knee beside Danzo Shimura and spoke with a trembling voice.
"Lord Danzo."
Catching the strong smell of blood, Danzo Shimura's expression tightened. He frowned and looked at "Owl's" arm.
"Another arm?"
With his own arm injured, Danzo Shimura's face twitched slightly, as if he felt singled out. He quickly shook off the thought, took the scroll, and waved him away.
"Owl" hurried off to treat his wounds, while Danzo opened the scroll and scanned its contents.
He had ordered Ryuji Hyuga's diary brought back to carefully assess this "waste" of the Hyuga Clan and see whether he was worth recruiting.
The diary was mostly trivial daily matters. Danzo Shimura read quickly, forming a rough image in his mind.
A child who was once timid and weak, but after his father was forced to death by his own clan, began to crave power.
Craving power was good.
He feared only those who wanted nothing at all.
When Danzo Shimura reached the "tribute" written to Hiruzen Sarutobi, his reaction was a snort mixed with bitterness and jealousy.
That hypocrite Sarutobi did not deserve such praise.
Only the part mentioning the "tree" made Danzo Shimura pause for a moment.
But when he turned the next page, his hand froze. He stared at a single line in the diary, his expression subtly shifting.
[Perhaps my heart is like a tree. The more it longs for the light above, the deeper its roots must grow, down into the soil, into the depths of darkness.]
At the same time, in Ryuji Hyuga's bedroom, the system's prompt finally sounded in his mind.
Ding. Your lie has been judged as "sweet talk." Danzo Shimura has experienced emotional fluctuation and reached the level of "kindred spirit." You have gained 400 Reality Points.
"Who even writes diaries seriously?" Ryuji Hyuga chuckled, thinking to himself. "Manifest ninjutsu, Lightning Release Armor."
The cost is 1000 Reality Points. Do you wish to manifest?
"Yes."
1000 Reality Points deducted. Remaining Reality Points: 10593.
Good. There was still a way to go before ten thousand, and he silently thanked Lord Danzo for the points.
Ryuji Hyuga lay back on the bed and slowly closed his eyes as the memory of Lightning Release Armor poured into his mind.
As he did, a question he had been pondering resurfaced once more.
"If ninjutsu can be manifested, then can abilities from other worlds be manifested too?"
He had already tested direct manifestation of abilities unrelated to the shinobi world, and it clearly did not work.
The system's manifestations were based on the rules and logic of this world, and aside from Chakra, it could not create entirely new systems out of nothing.
Still, Ryuji Hyuga had a lingering guess.
"What if I imitate and recreate abilities from other worlds using the existing foundations of soul, body, natural energy, and Chakra?"
If he could truly create something from nothing, if he could shatter everyone's understanding of the world and make them believe in this unfamiliar power, then the Reality Points he could gain would be enormous.
In truth, his design involving Orochimaru was meant to test this very idea.
Pure lies were not convincing.
Three parts false and seven parts true were what fooled people.
So to perfect this plan, he would need the help of the respected Lord Orochimaru.
With the guidance hidden in that scroll, someone as deeply versed in the soul as Orochimaru would surely be able to weave a self-consistent theory and logic.
At that point, Ryuji Hyuga could turn theory and logic into real rules that existed in the world.
He would become an existence like the Sage of Six Paths, ruling over an independent small world and commanding countless powerful souls.