Leaf, Uchiha Clan District.
Haru did not even wait until the morning shift ended before slipping away, rushing straight toward the laboratory.
"Tobirama! Tobirama! Your beloved Third Hokage is here!"
Haru walked into the laboratory. The entire place was busy. Dozens of Tobirama clones were working at different experiment tables.
No, wait. There seemed to be one extra person.
Hmm?
Wasn't that Orochimaru?
Wasn't he supposed to be at school?
Haru saw Orochimaru hurriedly trying to hide in a corner.
But this had happened too suddenly. Haru had never raided the laboratory in the morning before. He usually came at night to check whether Tobirama was honestly working, mostly because he simply could not get up early.
Orochimaru had been caught completely off guard. He walked out of the corner with an awkward smile.
His little pale face was not pale because he had powder on. He was just drained.
The dark circles under his eyes had gotten worse again.
"Orochimaru, during this recent period... have you been secretly staying up all night doing experiments behind my back again? And at this hour, shouldn't you be in school?"
"Lord Hokage... listen to my sophistry... No, listen to my explanation. I really have been attending class. My shadow clone is in class."
Orochimaru, that greedy little snake, stammered out an explanation.
"I don't want to hear your sophistry. I'm doing this for your own good. At your age, how can you sleep so... little? Are you trying to work yourself to death? Do you think you're Tobirama? He's already dead. And you even dare skip class?"
Haru rambled on, lecturing the truant Orochimaru. Tobirama, who was doing experiments at the side, could not take it anymore. He was still standing right there.
"Orochimaru is my disciple. You're an outsider, so stay out of it!"
"I'm still here watching! If I don't say anything, are you really going to treat me like a dead man?"
Tobirama removed his safety goggles and mask, extremely dissatisfied with Haru's behavior.
Orochimaru was his disciple. With a famous teacher like him personally giving guidance, did Orochimaru still need classes at the ninja school?
"Orochimaru, show this dog-eyed Hokage the latest results you discovered in your recent experiments!"
Tobirama was very satisfied with Orochimaru as a disciple. His ninja talent was passable.
But his scientific talent was simply maxed out. As long as he was trained properly, Orochimaru's future achievements would be limitless. He might even become a great ninja-world researcher on par with Tobirama himself!
"Yes, Second!"
When Orochimaru heard this, he immediately grew spirited.
He had been studying under Tobirama for quite a long time. Tobirama had always cultivated him carefully, even assigning him independent research projects for practice. Recently, Orochimaru had indeed made some small achievements.
As long as his research results earned Lord Hokage's approval, he might be able to stay in this laboratory permanently from now on and never waste time at school again.
"Lord Hokage, the Second asked me to research how to increase grain yield. At first, I planned to start with grain seeds. However, cultivating a seed into a mature plant takes quite a lot of time. But the Second gave me a tube of special solution that can make plants grow instantly."
"However, cultivating superior seeds is essentially... selection. A plant's traits require constant trial and error. In addition, I also discovered the laws of gene segregation in plants, dominant and recessive traits..."
Orochimaru spoke endlessly about his latest research results. Haru listened until his head started to ache.
Damn it, was Mendel chasing him even here?
"All right, you don't need to explain the specific content to me. Just pick the most important part."
"All right, Lord Hokage."
Orochimaru looked slightly disappointed. Lord Hokage still did not understand the charm of scientific research.
But that was fine. Lord Hokage only needed to provide research funding.
After studying under Tobirama, Orochimaru had seen the world. The research equipment he had touched was worth hundreds of thousands, even millions of ryo.
Orochimaru deeply understood that without money, experiments could not be done!
Although his teacher always cursed Lord Hokage as less than human, he had never denied that Lord Hokage still understood a little about scientific research.
"Lord Hokage, cultivating high-yield crop seeds still requires some time. But during the experiments, I discovered three special substances mentioned on Lord Hokage's research list called nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. They can greatly increase the amount of grain produced from ordinary seeds."
"With the Second's help, I've already extracted these three substances. Lord Hokage, look."
Orochimaru picked up a tray. On it was a pile of white and pale-yellow mixed granules.
Haru's eyes lit up.
This... this...
Wasn't this damn fertilizer?
Well done, Orochimaru!
Superior grain seeds could increase grain yield, but modern grain production could not rely on seeds alone. The most important thing was unlocking the fertilizer technology tree. Compared with fertilizer, superior grain seeds were only icing on the cake.
The fertility of land had an upper limit. Blindly farming it would only make the soil barren.
Even the world of Naruto had to follow the basic law of conservation of matter and energy. Wood Release had such exaggerated effects because chakra was a special form of energy.
Expecting a group of farmers who could not even read to handle such advanced operations was not something Haru had ever considered. It was more practical to honestly use fertilizer to boost production.
With fertilizer, combined with superior grain seeds and the various unique black technologies of the ninja world, future grain yield was truly promising. The bottom-level laborers of the ninja world should finally be able to eat their fill, right?
As long as they did not starve, no major trouble should break out.
In the future, after Leaf swept across the ninja world, electronic products and entertainment culture would all be developed with full force. Why fight wars? Everyone could sink into pleasure and enjoy themselves. Unless enemies came from the sky, large-scale war should become avoidable.
But now that he thought about it, there really were enemies from the sky. Wasn't that what the non-canon movies and Boruto fought against, the Otsutsuki Clan from beyond the heavens?
What a sin.
Haru grabbed a handful of mixed white and pale-yellow granules, countless thoughts flashing through his mind.
But there was no point thinking too much. He still had to get past Madara first.
Right now, Madara was a crazed middle-school syndrome patient who wanted to drag all humanity into a beautiful dream. Haru did not want to become a White Zetsu hanging on a tree for fun.
"Ahem. Orochimaru, well done. Keep working hard on the path of research. In the future, you may come to the laboratory more often, but you cannot skip ideological education classes at school. When you have nothing to do, read the books I wrote more often. They'll be good for you. That's it. I won't hold this against you today."
What Haru feared most was Orochimaru going astray and researching forbidden experiments.
Orochimaru was still too young. He could not control those things at all. Coming into contact with those experiments too early would definitely twist his mind.
In the original story, he had toyed with human experiments and warped his soul so badly that he scattered fragments of it all over the ninja world.
For now, Tobirama could handle those things in his place. Tobirama's mind had been abnormal for a long time anyway, and he had also served as Hokage before. He knew how far he could go.
"All right, Orochimaru, go play to the side. I need to talk with the Second about something important."
Haru waved his hand, signaling Orochimaru to stay far away.
Orochimaru tactfully hid in a corner of the laboratory. Although he was very curious about the conversation between Lord Hokage and his teacher, his life was more important.
Lord Hokage usually came at night. This time, he had come to see his teacher before noon. It had to be something major.
He would not get involved. Absolutely not.
"Speak, brat. What do you need from me today?"
Tobirama's expression turned serious. He had also realized something was unusual.
Haru only ever came to him at night. Today, he had come in the morning, which clearly meant he had encountered something extremely troublesome.
There were almost no things in the ninja world that could make Haru feel troubled.
Except Madara.
"There's good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?"
"Are you being cryptic again?"
"Start with the bad news."
"Madara intends to meet me."
Just as expected.
Tobirama did not show a surprised expression. He looked as though he had already anticipated it.
"And the good news?"
"Madara is meeting me under a different identity. He probably doesn't intend to fight me."
After Haru told Tobirama the intelligence, Tobirama frowned and began thinking about Madara's objective.
Such a roundabout method did not resemble Madara's style.
After thinking for a long time, Tobirama still could not figure out why. It was probably because Tobirama did not have a pair of Sharingan.
"So what do you plan to do?"
"Are you really planning to meet him?"
"Madara is far too dangerous. Why don't we gather Leaf's elite forces? We've already prepared my brother's reanimated body. It can almost display thirty percent of his strength from when he was alive. If we're lucky, maybe forty percent."
"Brat, with your Mangekyo Sharingan and Sister-in-law's Nine-Tails, while I use Flying Thunder God to look for a chance to sneak attack him and seize the opportunity to cut off Madara's head, a desperate fight may not be unwinnable."
"To deal with Madara, I even developed some interesting techniques specifically meant to counter Uchiha, such as..."
Tobirama spoke with growing enthusiasm. When he got to the techniques he had newly developed, his entire spirit seemed to rise.
You damn...
Haru restrained his temper.
Leaf had too many people and responsibilities. Fighting a lonely old man like Madara, no matter whether they won or lost, would cause Leaf to lose horribly. The results of Haru's more than a year and a half of struggle could vanish in an instant.
"Stop, stop, stop. You can think about that kind of thing, but that's all. Leaf is no match for Madara. We can't afford the damage."
"Let's talk with Madara first. He's hiding his identity right now, which clearly means he wants to talk to me. As long as he doesn't want to fight, let him do whatever he wants."
"You really don't care about the cost when you're selling someone else's estate. I can see it now, Tobirama. You just want Madara dead."
Besides, Madara probably would not lose.
Haru was not the type to go all-in.
"Tch. Then what can we do? Are we supposed to let Madara keep secretly watching Leaf? Sooner or later, he'll make a move against Leaf. A disaster like him has to be eliminated."
Tobirama was somewhat helpless.
Madara's danger level was far too high, and he had bad intentions toward Leaf. Sooner or later, Leaf would have to face Madara. If Madara did not die, Tobirama could not feel at ease.
Action had to be decisive.
This time, Madara had lowered his guard and wanted to contact Haru. It was the perfect chance to launch a sneak attack.
"We can calculate against him while he's unaware."
"First, set up dozens of sealing techniques at the negotiation location. Have more than ten sealing teams form a joint sealing space. Bury hundreds of thousands of explosive tags there. At the signal of a dropped cup, everyone will attack Madara together. My brother's Wood Release will suppress him with full force."
"Haru, during the conversation, you must deliberately get close and place a Flying Thunder God mark on Madara. We can also poison the tea with lethal neurotoxins and chakra-suppressing toxins. Put them all in. If Madara drinks tea during the conversation, then we'll be ready."
"And also..."
Tobirama still refused to give up. He explained his ambush plan in detail. Haru kept shaking his head as he listened.
No, no. This was far too beastly. It was too dirty.
Haru was an Uchiha. If he worked with Tobirama to murder his own ancestor, Madara, then perhaps Madara, who might originally have only wanted to talk and promote the Eye of the Moon Plan to let him join in, would be turned into a life-and-death enemy.
As long as Haru dragged things out for a dozen years, he could drag Madara until he became old. Then Leaf would win.
If they pulled something like this, Haru would definitely become Madara's irreconcilable enemy. Once an enraged Madara went all-out inside Leaf, Haru did not even dare imagine the consequences.
As expected of an innately evil Senju old ghost. He was actually an extreme all-in gambler!
Also, Tobirama, your Danzo content is way too high!
"No, no. Tobirama, you're far too extreme!"
Generally speaking, Uchiha were the extremists, while Senju were the conservatives. But now Haru, the representative of the extremists, believed that Tobirama, the representative of the conservatives, was too extreme.
"I'm extreme? How am I extreme?"
Tobirama immediately became unhappy. He had gone through so much effort to help Haru and eliminate Madara, a disaster for Leaf, yet Haru actually thought he was extreme?
"Peace is precious. This time, we probably won't fight. We must not act rashly!"
"Haru, this is a heaven-sent opportunity. If you miss this chance, you will definitely regret it!"
"Shut up, Tobirama. I am the current Hokage. The safety of all Leaf rests on my shoulders!"
Haru took out the authority of the current Hokage and directly rejected Tobirama's plan.
If he had known Tobirama was this extreme, he would not have come to listen to Tobirama's opinion.
"Hmph!"
Tobirama slammed the table, breathing rapidly. One day, Leaf would pay the price for Haru's softness.
They absolutely could not be soft-hearted when dealing with Madara!
Haru looked at Tobirama slamming the table and jumping with anger. His head hurt a little.
Why had he just said the Third Hokage's classic line again? It seemed his Third Hokage content was also a bit too high.
"All right. This matter is decided."
"Then if you've already decided, why did you come to discuss it with me?"
Tobirama rolled his eyes at Haru and spoke in an annoyed tone.
"Hashirama cells. I plan to inject the Hashirama cell solution, just in case. If the talks really fail, I'll still have enough time to restrain Madara for a while and buy Leaf some time."
"Then you might as well just ambush Madara directly."
"Shut up! Stop bringing up that plan. I don't agree. The probability of talks breaking down is very small!"
"I just want one more layer of insurance!"
Haru was too lazy to keep arguing with Tobirama.
He could kneel very quickly. It was just that there were too many people here, so Haru was too embarrassed to say it out loud.
(End of Chapter)
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