Chapter 192 - 190: Model Worker

"Tobirama on Natural Energy, Tsunade on the human body, Orochimaru on technology." Azula ticked them off on her fingers, alone in the dim room. "And me on Chakra. With my reserves and control, that's the obvious split."

It was neat and efficient. She approved of her own plan, and everything was moving exactly as she'd intended.

She would have preferred to handle everything personally. But she'd seen what happened to leaders who couldn't let go. Naruto, as the Seventh Hokage, drowned in unimportant paperwork while the world burned around him.

'Now, the manpower problem.' Azula stood and left the Tobirama discussion behind. The next chamber was waiting.

The next chamber was larger and way darker, with a floor covered in black markings—concentric rings, jagged script and a single empty space at the center. A table against the wall held bottles of preserved flesh, each labeled in Azula's own handwriting. Beside them, five human bodies stood wrapped in white burial shrouds, motionless.

Azula knew exactly what she wanted to do. She channeled her chakra, and a second Azula appeared beside her without ceremony.

They exchanged an amused glance, and without needing words, the clone vanished to do its part

Her eyes flicked to the bottles on the table. 'Later.'

She pulled a sealing scroll from her hip pouch, laid it on the floor, and unsealed it with a complex circulation of chakra.

"Tsk, it's really troublesome." Her storage ring would have been faster, it was superior to these cumbersome scrolls in every way. But the ring was for things that mattered, and the thing in the scroll wasn't on that list.

Another bottle of flesh. She opened it, sliced off a piece with a practiced kunai stroke, and tried not to think about what she was touching.

The Shadow Clone reappeared, a bound man dangling from one hand like a bag of particularly unappealing groceries. "This one should work, rape, torture, the full set."

Azula nodded. The clone dumped the man in the center of the black markings, his mouth still bound, his eyes already wide with the beginning of panic.

"Mhmp! Mhmp! Mhmp!" The muffled sounds came faster now, sweat streaking down his face. The Shadow Clone's expression flickered with annoyance.

"If you know what fear feels like, why did you make others feel it?" The clone didn't wait for an answer. She pressed her hand to his forehead and the Temporary Paralysis Technique seized his body. He went still, with only his eyes blinking.

Azula, seated at the edge of the circle, met her clone's eyes with a brief nod and began the Edo Tensei without another word.

The prisoner's body began to decompose from the feet up, unwinding into strips of paper and ash.

His eyes found Azula's, wide, desperate, the only part of him still able to move, but the paralysis held his throat, and the scream never came.

Beside him, the piece of flesh she'd cut for the invocation dissolved too, both sacrifices consumed together.

The paper pulled itself together again, but the shape it rebuilt was someone else entirely. An X-shaped scar on the chin, a black kimono, and one arm where there should have been two.

"It really is one arm." Azula frowned. She'd expected this, but seeing it confirmed was still irritating. Now she'd have to adjust the Edo Tensei after all.

"Azula?!" Danzo's voice came out hoarse, his mind still catching up to the fact that he had a voice at all.

The last thing he remembered was Tsunade's fist, the last thing he'd seen was the beautiful sky. Now he was in a basement, staring at the Hokage, and something felt fundamentally wrong with his body.

Azula's frown smoothed into a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Danzo, You must have missed me terribly, all alone in the Pure Land."

'What did she reincarnate me for?' Danzō had a bad feeling.

His eyes moved across the room, the stone walls, the low ceiling, the decorations, he knew this place.

"Don't be so wary." Azula didn't seem bothered by his silence, or by anything else. "If I wanted to do something to you, there's nothing your weak self could do about it. Don't you agree?"

'Yeah, she can control me, the caster controls the reanimated.' Danzō had seen Tobirama do it, moving corpses like puppets with nothing more than a thought. Now he was the corpse, and Azula was the one holding the strings.

"What exactly do you want with me?" Danzo's voice came out steady, close enough to pass for calm, if no one looked too closely at the way his remaining hand was clenched at his side.

"Oh, nothing to worry about." Azula's tone was light, conversational. "You're tireless now, surely you'd want to contribute to the village's development. Wasn't that always your philosophy?"

"You won't be doing anything dangerous." She paused, as if reconsidering. "For now, anyway. You'll help with the Hokage Building reconstruction."

"How—" Danzō opened his mouth, and Azula's Mangekyō acted on him before he could finish the thought, his voice dying in his throat.

'The Mangekyō and the Edo Tensei, what a perfect combination.' The reanimated were essentially chakra constructs, and her eyes had always been good with those.

The Mangekyō controlled Bijuu easily, they had no physical bodies, just chakra given form, and the Edo Tensei was no different. The reanimated were chakra constructs wearing borrowed flesh, and Danzo's chakra was a shadow of what it had been in life. He was even easier to dominate than a tailed beast.

"From now on, you will be unable to speak, you will assist in the reconstruction of the Hokage Building and be the most enthusiastic worker on the site. And you will be unable to inform anyone of your situation." Her Mangekyō spun in Danzo's eyes as she spoke, each command etching itself into what was left of his will.

When she finished speaking, his eyes faded back to their natural brown, or what passed for natural now, with the dark sclera of the Edo Tensei framing them.

"Oueoe...? Ouoio?" Danzo's mind cleared, and he tried to form words, demands, questions, anything, but his mouth wouldn't obey. The sounds came out garbled and wrong. He couldn't speak, and he didn't know why.

"Oh?" Azula raised her eyebrows, the picture of polite surprise. "Does that mean you agree? I knew you would. Everything for the village, wasn't that always your philosophy? I knew from the beginning you'd accept."

"Don't worry." She patted him on the shoulder like he was a loyal hound.

Danzo's body didn't flinch because he couldn't, but something behind his eyes recoiled. "You can work day and night now with no need for food or sleep. Just pure, dedicated service to the village."

She looked into Danzo's eyes, the despair there, the fury, the helplessness, and savored it. 'So satisfying.'

"Now for the rest of your crew, one undead worker wasn't going to finish a building." She looked at the bottles of flesh

"Ah, shit. Here we go again." The Shadow Clone, who'd been enjoying the show, shot Azula a look of pure resignation before vanishing to collect the next prisoner.

(END OF THE CHAPTER)

Okay guys, really unfortunate to announce, but some circumstances forced me to change my schedule, now, I can only publish chapter every two days like in the old schedule, I promise to stay consistent like I've been in the past few days, and the new chapters would be longer, mostly over 1800 words, thanks for your understanding.