Chapter 132: An Alias

Chapter 132: Chapter 132: An Alias

Because of his status as an ANBU, Hyuga Kagami needed only half a day to thoroughly investigate the details of Barrier Team Three, confirming that none of its four members were sensory-type ninja.

With that, Kagami finally made up his mind to establish his laboratory inside the Forest of Death.

The location he ultimately chose was deep within a dense patch of woodland in one corner of the Forest of Death.

The area was extremely secluded, situated along the very edge of the training grounds, and ninja rarely ever set foot there.

More importantly, that particular stretch of forest lay within the area affected by one of the barrier’s nodes.

From inside the village, whenever a sensory-type ninja approached the area, their perception would be disturbed by the nearby barrier node, causing a certain degree of deviation in their senses.

From outside the village, meanwhile, a sensory-type ninja’s perception would be blocked outright by the barrier.

Therefore, this place could be considered one of the many sensory blind spots within the village.

It was simply that the area was too small, held no strategic importance, and had no important facilities nearby, so practically no one paid any attention to it.

Once the location had been chosen, Kagami wasted no time.

He immediately began construction.

In Kagami’s plans, the laboratory would be located more than ten meters underground, so the scale of the entire project was enormous.

Kagami, his shadow clone, and the Third Kazekage human puppet worked together for an entire week before they finally managed to complete the laboratory’s main structure.

The surface entrance to the underground laboratory was hidden inside the hollow of a large tree.

A special mechanism had been installed inside the tree hollow. If someone accidentally triggered it, the explosive tags hidden within would immediately detonate, completely destroying the surface entrance.

As for the underground passage beneath the tree hollow, Kagami had also placed several concealed sealing formulas throughout it.

The moment an outsider intruded, the sealing formulas would activate, causing the more than one hundred explosive tags hidden along the entire underground passage to detonate simultaneously and collapse the whole tunnel.

Only after passing through this underground passage could one reach the main section of the laboratory.

From then on, the Third Kazekage human puppet would spend most of its time guarding the laboratory, ensuring its security. If a powerful enemy ever broke in, its job would be to move the important experimental specimens to safety before the enemy could reach them—and then destroy the laboratory itself.

Throughout the entire construction process, Kagami had taken extreme precautions to maintain secrecy.

All the soil, rocks, and debris excavated from underground were sealed inside storage scrolls, then carried by the Third Kazekage human puppet to a distant wilderness area for disposal.

As a result, although the construction project itself had been quite extensive, the appearance of the ground above the laboratory had remained completely unchanged from beginning to end.

Even someone intimately familiar with the area could pass through without noticing the slightest clue that anything was hidden beneath their feet.

After completing the main section of the laboratory, Kagami began moving his experimental equipment inside, piece by piece.

The large experimental workbench, high-precision microscope, large-scale cell incubator, large nutrient tank, large refrigerated storage unit, and the other equipment he had looted from Danzo’s laboratory became the first batch of assets in Kagami’s own laboratory.

After arranging each piece of equipment in a suitable location, Kagami took out the notebook he always carried with him and began writing and sketching.

Before long, his expression darkened.

This laboratory was the key to whether he could one day climb to the very pinnacle of the shinobi world.

And within the enormous plan he had envisioned, this laboratory would have to shoulder at least sixty percent of all his future research work.

That meant he would need a massive variety of experimental equipment.

According to his estimates, he would need at least twenty pieces of large-scale equipment alone, while the accompanying smaller instruments would number in the hundreds.

But at present, his laboratory only contained the eight large pieces of equipment he had looted from Danzo.

He was missing more than half of what he needed.

As for the smaller instruments, he was missing more than ninety percent.

"Adding everything together... I’ll need at least three billion ryō!"

After listing every piece of equipment he was missing and roughly calculating their prices, Kagami’s brows immediately furrowed into a deep frown.

Scientific research had always been a bottomless money pit.

If you wanted research to produce results, you first had to pour enormous amounts of money into it.

Whether in ancient times or modern times, in the East or the West, that principle had never changed.

And this was precisely why Orochimaru had chosen to cooperate with Danzo.

As one of the village’s advisor elders, Danzo was one of the only people capable of providing him with sufficient financial support.

It was obviously unrealistic to obtain three billion ryō in a short period of time, so Kagami began crossing things out in his notebook, selecting only the equipment he urgently needed at the moment.

"One billion, huh..."

After calculating the cost, he estimated that all of the urgently needed equipment together would come to roughly one billion ryō.

As long as he could scrape together that one billion and purchase those essential instruments, Kagami’s enormous plan could immediately be set into motion.

After thinking it over again and again, the only way to gather one billion ryō quickly seemed to be becoming a bounty ninja.

After all, with Kagami’s current strength, he could easily deal with the vast majority of bounty targets.

As long as he avoided targets with sensitive identities or those who were exceptionally powerful, making money this way should be relatively easy for him.

But if he wanted to operate as a bounty ninja, Kagami would first need to prepare an entirely new identity.

The black market had its own rules for survival, after all. They generally wouldn’t accept some complete nobody who appeared out of nowhere.

So Kagami needed an alias—a persona capable of surviving under the rules of the black market.

Only after making a name for himself in the black market and earning the trust of potential employers would he be able to smoothly accept bounty missions and collect their rewards.

After pondering for a moment, Kagami took out a cloak and a mask.

He had specially prepared both of them beforehand, originally intending to use them to conceal his identity whenever he needed to act secretly in the future.

Now that he needed a new persona, they were perfect for the job.

The cloak was entirely black, with golden patterns running along its edges.

On the inside were sealing formulas personally inscribed by Kagami, capable of blocking the vast majority of detection-type ninjutsu.

The mask was black and white, painted with the eerie visage of a demon king.

Its inner surface also contained sealing formulas, allowing it to block detection-type ninjutsu to a certain extent.

After trying on the cloak and mask, Kagami’s entire aura underwent a sudden transformation.

Viewed from a distance, he looked like a God of Death lurking within the darkness.

"What should I call myself...?"

After thinking for a moment, Kagami played with the demon mask in his hand, the corner of his mouth curling into a smile.

"How about... ’Yama’?"

...

Meanwhile, outside a cave somewhere within the Land of Fire.

Obito stepped out from a twisting vortex, while Zetsu slowly emerged from beneath the ground.

Looking toward the pitch-black cave, Obito asked,

"He’s inside?"

Zetsu nodded.

"Yeah. Looks like he’s recuperating in there."

Obito said nothing more and slowly walked into the cave.

Inside, Uchiha Shinichi, who had been recovering from his injuries, immediately sprang to his feet.

"Who’s there?!"

Obito replied indifferently,

"It’s me."

The instant Shinichi saw Obito, all the rage bottled up inside him erupted at once.

"You bastard! You actually dare show your face in front of me?!"