Chapter 430 – Welcome back Tsunade 01.

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As the Hokage sensed the chakra of the new team getting closer to his office, he shifted his eyes to Daichi. The old kage had a humorous twinkle in his eyes as he looked at the boy. "Do you want to wait while I assign your friends their first mission? I have a feeling you might enjoy it."

Daichi looked at the Third Hokage and gave a small mischievous smile. "Oh I'm looking forward to this."

At that moment the door fully opened and four people came in. Kakashi entered first with hands in his pockets and a laid back smile behind his mask.

Behind him, Naruto strode in with a big smile and barely contained excitement while Sakura walked with polite nervousness. Lastly Sasuke quietly followed behind everyone and took in every detail of his surroundings and tried to look professional. He saw Daichi standing quietly in the corner and gave a small nod and turned his attention back to the leader of the Leaf village.

Kakashi looked at the Hokage and gave a small bow. "Team Seven reporting."

He then glanced at Daichi and gave the boy a small nod acknowledging him.

Just then Naruto ran to the front of the table and snapped into what he thought was a respectable stance. "Hey old man. We're here for our first ninja mission."

Suddenly Sakura's fist connected with the back of Naruto's head.

"Ow! What was that for?!" Naruto protested as he rubbed his head.

"Show some respect, you idiot. It's Lord Hokage." Sakura snapped back. She then looked at the old kage with a nervous smile. "Greetings Lord Hokage." 'Chaa! Please don't give us some super difficult mission because this dumbass doesn't know how to show respect.'

Hiruzen chucked softly, amused by the spectacles in front of him. "It's alright. I'm glad to see you're all energetic. Congratulations on becoming Genin you three."

Hearing those words, Naruto, Sakura and even Sasuke had smiles on their faces.

That's when Naruto noticed Daichi standing in the corner of the room. "Oh!? Hey Daichi! What are you doing here?" He asked with a grin.

"Just giving the reports on my mission." The Gamer ninja replied with a smile.

Sakura smiled politely at her old classmate. "Good morning Daichi."

Daichi greeted the girl and the team focused their attention back on the old kage.

"Now then," Hiruzen slightly straightened in his seat and had a somewhat serious expression. "Team Seven. I have your first assignment."

Naruto's eyes lit up with excitement. Sasuke's eyes narrowed with focus and Sakura clasped her hands together with slight nervousness.

The Hokage began telling them the details. "Several important dignitaries and their family members have arrived from the Fire Capital."

Naruto gasped. "Whoa! Important people?"

"A protection mission already?" Sakura whispered with surprise.

Sasuke was quiet as he listened to the details.

While the Genin were excited, Kakashi and Daichi could almost see the mischievous grin the old Kage was trying to hide.

The masked silver-haired Jonin inwardly sighed. 'I think I'm beginning to get where Lord Jiraiya picked up his prankster nature from.'

Hiruzen paused just long enough to let their expectations climb and then continued with a serious face. "Team Seven. Your mission… is to escort the young children of those dignitaries on a tour of the village."

There was complete silence in the room for several seconds before it was broken by Naruto. The blonde ninja blinked as he processed that information. "Huh!?"

Even Sakura and Sasuke were taken aback by the nature of the mission. "What?"

"Wait, wait!" Naruto spoke slowly, his grin slowly vanishing. "That's it?"

"Yes." The Hokage nodded calmly.

"You mean, we're babysitting?" Naruto's shoulders slumped instantly. His face turned into a dramatically deflated expression.

"Not exactly. They're not babies… but yes." The old man said with a smile.

"Bwahahaha…" Daichi looked at the team's reaction and let out a small laugh and turned to the kage. "You were right."

"Right about what?" Naruto asked as he looked between them suspiciously.

"That I would enjoy this. And I did." Daichi gestured vaguely at Team Seven. "I get why you do this." He said to the Hokage with a grin.

Hiruzen let out a smoky breath from his tobacco pipe and smiled. "It's the simple pleasures in life…"

"You're enjoying this way too much." Naruto pointed and accused.

Hiruzen chuckled and tapped the pipe softly against the table. "Welcome to the life of a Genin."

—-

April 03 - Night.

Inside the treatment room deep in the Hokage tower, Shizune and Daichi were running several tests in Tsunade while Jiraiya and Hiruzen were nervously waiting for them outside the isolation chamber.

The monitors recording the Sannin's vitals showed a steady rhythm. Daichi noted down something on his patient's chart and then placed his palms near the heart of his teacher. They glowed green with medical ninjutsu and about a minute later Daichi stopped.

He took a step back and nodded to himself as a smile formed on his face. "Finally. It's done. It was much faster than the first predicted timeline."

Shizune nodded with her fellow medic. "Yes. The serum has achieved full integration and there are no mutations. Assimilation is complete and stable." She looked at her sleeping teacher with relief on her face. She took a step closer to the bed and adjusted the blankets over Tsunade's shoulder.

"Haaa…" Daichi sighed aloud and flexed his hands. "Looks like my work is done." He glanced to the other side and saw two anxious faces. "I'll go tell them the good news. You can handle things here."

Shizune smiled and nodded at the boy. Daichi dismissed his shadow clone near Shizune and walked outside the isolated chamber.

"Well!?" Jiraiya's anxious sound came as soon as Daichi came near them.

"Her body is completely healed. No negative side effects."

"Hu!" Hearing Daichi's words, Jiraiya let out a breath of relief and he felt as if a great weight had been lifted off his shoulders. "You hear that, old man? She's going to be fine."

"Yeah." Hiruzen looked at his sleeping student and then turned to the Genin. "Well done Daichi. You saved her life."

"It's not just me. If it wasn't for everyone who contributed to my work, we wouldn't be standing here like this."

Hiruzen mentally agreed with that reply as he looked at the sleeping Tsunade. 'He's right. Without the Nara clan's medical encyclopedia or the Aburame clan's special insect and Jiraiya… I don't even want to think about such an outcome.' His eyes then glanced towards the Genin near him. 'But then again, without you, nothing would have been possible.'

"How long before she wakes up?" Jiraiya asked Daichi at that moment.

"Her body is healed but her mind still needs rest."

The Toad sage nodded in understanding. "Yeah. Okay, I understand."

Daichi turned his head and looked at him with a small smile. "You don't need to be so anxious. Based on my estimates, she'll wake up in two or maybe three days."

The Hokage nodded with a smile. "Get some much needed rest Daichi. You've more than earned it."

Daichi nodded and turned to look at his teacher.

The strongest kunoichi in the world was sleeping but for the first time in days, Daichi felt that Tsunade was truly at peace.

—-

April 04: Night.

Daichi was home, in his room going through several documents he had taken from Orochimaru and Danzo's hideouts. He began going over the Snake Sannin's work first. Two shadow clones were already working in the background. One cataloguing, the other burning anything too dangerous or redundant.

The Gamer ninja pulled out a blank sheet and began marking important information.

Base names. Regions. Notes.

Some were obvious research hubs for large-scale testing, prisoner intake and long-term incubation chambers. Others were supply nodes—sealed storerooms, reagent caches, scroll libraries. A few were labeled with cold little terms like "disposal," or "extraction," or "recovery."

Daichi flipped open another thick folder, eyes skimming the neat handwriting.

"Human experimentation, curse mark rendition 3.6…" he muttered. "Failure. Subject liquefied…" 'Of course.'

He turned the page.

"…Prototype chimera fusion, batch 12. Note: 'Promising, but unstable. Subject attempted to eat the ceiling.'"

Daichi snorted softly and kept going.

'If I didn't know he was a monster, I'd admire the sheer volume of work he crammed into a few decades.'

Daichi paused on one line. 'Stability Trials – Artificial Chakra Networks' 'Now what do we have here?'

Under it were notes about rebuilding damaged coils, creating supplementary pathways, and something that made Daichi's jaw tighten. 'That guy. He was trying to remove the limiters on the body and grow additional chakra pathways completely separate from the original. But it was only partially successful.'

He continued reading.

There were references to experiments Daichi recognized from older notes: cell integration trials, enzyme stabilizers, cursed seal compatibility, forced chakra pathway expansion, and multiple attempts at artificial body regeneration without total rejection.

Daichi turned the page. It was info on more projects. More bases. Some were marked "terminated." Some "ongoing." Some "moved." And then—

Daichi's finger stopped. He stared at one line for a full second.

"Z07," he said.

A clone looked over to him. "That a location?"

"Not sure." Daichi read the entry slowly..

Z07: "Special Project. Restricted access. Primary materials isolated."

Status: Ongoing.

Base: —

Daichi stared at the blank where the location should have been. The rest of the entry only had a single notation in Orochimaru's precise script.

"See primary file Z-07 in the archive. Access: personal."

Daichi quickly glanced at several documents and scrolls and didn't find any more information.

He leaned back in his chair and frowned. 'Nothing else regarding this special project. It's still marked as ongoing but since there's nothing else…'

As Daichi was about to move on to the next piece of information available, a system notification suddenly appeared.

[Congratulations. You have encountered a lucky break]

"This just got interesting." Daichi muttered with a grin.

The clones going through the other documents looked at him. "What is it?" "Find something?"

"Just got a lucky break."

The clones immediately understood what their creator was implying. They quickly began going over the files in their hands for any mention of Z07 but soon came up empty handed.

"There's nothing here. It must be really important. We need to know more." One of the clones spoke up.

The other one agreed with that sentiment. "Especially since the system considers it a lucky break."

"But how?" The real Daichi was quickly analysing and sorting the information he learned so far. "I've already taken everything of value. Even if we get to the other bases, I'm not so sure they'll have anything related to this mystery project."

After a few seconds of silence one of the shadow clones spoke. "You could use the reanimation on Kimimmaro. He was a close loyalist. He would at least know where to start."

Daichi sighed at that option. "It's not like I haven't considered that option…"

He was silent for several seconds before making a decision. "Once sensei is completely healed and ready, I'll find some way to get out of the village and use that jutsu. I need to look for Kabuto anyway. Having him loose just doesn't sit right with me."

The clones nodded and all of them resumed their work. Soon Daichi finished going through the Snake Sannin's work and reached into his inventory again. He pulled out a different bundle of scrolls and documents marked with Danzo's seal.

He gave some scrolls to his clones and flipped a file open.

Mission logs, foreign intelligence, intercepted reports, half-burned letters taken from foreign outposts… 'Man, Danzo really did hoard everything.'

As Daichi read the information taken from the Root Archives he noticed the difference between Danzo and Orochimaru's ledgers. 'Orochimaru wrote everything from a more scientific perspective. This feels like I'm reading a battlefield report. Cold and tactical.'

Soon a particular page heading caught his eye.

"Land of Sky…?"

Daichi's eyes narrowed and he began to carefully and slowly go through the intel recorded. There were sketches. Crude diagrams. Notes about an isolated territory above the normal trade routes, hidden with wind currents and chakra mist. Some terms repeated: "Sky Ninja," "aerial fortress," "chakra propulsion arrays."

Daichi leaned a little closer. 'Land of Sky… sky ninja and a literal flying fortress. Right. That movie event.'

'Based on the date marked on these sheets, these are notes from during the Second Shinobi world war.' He turned another page and read the notes.

"Scouts confirm the existence of an aerial structure. Appears to be sustained by large-scale chakra converter arrays. Power use suggests either a sealed beast or an external reservoir of energy."

"Technological sophistication: high. Not purely ninjutsu. Uses machinery. Chakra-reactive alloy?"

Known Assets:

– Aerial strike squads ("Sky Ninjas") utilizing glider rigs and chakra-assisted propulsion.

– Fortress-class airborne platform (designation: floating castle).

– Weapon systems: explosive payload deployment, long-range bombardment, possible chakra-reactive cannons.

– Defensive systems: unknown barrier generation, high-altitude concealment, rapid repositioning.

"Potential threat to Fire Country and the Hidden Leaf village. Long-term risk factor: extreme."

Daichi's eyes flicked over a small sketch of the fortress. His eyes paused and his lips slowly curled. An idea came to his mind and refused to leave.

'A flying Laboratory.' Daichi clasped his hands and quickly thought about the feasibility of such an idea.

'A mobile laboratory that could hide above normal detection ranges. Out of reach from most ground assaults. A base that could vanish in the cloud cover, relocate on command, and descend only when needed. Far from the village. A place of my own to stash dangerous projects, or prototypes without worrying about anyone finding out.'

"Aerial mobility… stealth… experimental labs…" Daichi muttered, mind already building frameworks. Seal arrays, barrier layers, storage, ventilation, water systems, emergency exits, teleportation anchors.

And then Daichi's thoughts came to a stop.

Power source.

The Gamer quickly resumed reading the intelligence recorded by the Root ninjas. He frowned and flipped deeper into the folder, searching for any mention of what made the fortress fly.

There were mission logs referencing trade convoys that vanished under clear skies. Patrol reports about shadows crossing the moon. Soon he read some of Danzo's plans for them.

Recommendation: Acquire core propulsion blueprint and power-source information.

Primary Use: Strategic aerial advantage. Invasion deterrent. Rapid deployment platform.

Secondary Use: Mobile research station beyond standard surveillance.

'So he had the idea too huh? Then why didn't he…? If the Third knew about Danzo's plan to build a flying base of operations, then he would have been concerned. He would have stopped Danzo… Or maybe he didn't get the chance to send his Root ninjas after them…? Well, whatever the case, it doesn't matter now.'

Daichi frowned down at the document in front of him.

"What were they using to power it?" he muttered. 'Well, in the movie they were using Zero tails as a power source. But did they change anything in this world or is it the same…? And even if they did use Zero tail, that's not what I want to use as a power source. Its too unstable and dangerous.'

The notes about the fortress were frustratingly vague. Danzo had speculated, but he hadn't gotten close enough to confirm anything. Daichi leaned back in his chair, eyes drifting to the ceiling of his room as he thought of ways to proceed.

'If I can track down whatever's left of their technology, even fragments, I can reverse-engineer the support frameworks. Combine that with modern seals, my system, and I might be able to get it to work… The power source is the tricky part. I can't just plug a tailed beast into a generator and call it a day. Dragon Veins, maybe.. Or a hybrid reactor of sorts using controlled natural energy… How would I even create… Yeah. My Creation skill. After leveling it up, I should be able to make most things.'

[Quest Created. - Find the Flying Fortress]

Daichi looked at the details of the quest and exhaled. 'Looks like another long term project to complete.'

—-

April 05 Morning.

Jiraiya stood in front of the Hokage's desk, arms crossed and his expression was unusually serious. "So it finally blew up. The news is spreading fast. 'A masked man slaughtered Orochimaru's guards and destroyed the labs.' " he said.

Hiruzen took the pipe from his lips and set it aside. "We've expected this. How big is the fallout?"

"Well, word's spreading fast among the locals and whatever's left of Orochimaru's people about his death," he said. "There are riots in the outer settlements, skirmishes near the old compounds. Some of the smaller gangs are fighting for territory. Orochimaru's followers are panicking. Some of them are trying to flee. Some are trying to take over what remains. Prisoners heard the rumors too. They're rioting because they think their chance to escape is now. The local daimyo's forces can't contain it." Jiraiya replied.

Hiruzen's eyes narrowed slightly as his mind analyzed the situation.

"Sone of them might look for proof or they might wait for Orochimaru's closest subordinates." Hiruzen said slowly,

"You're thinking that Kabuto kid is going to take control?" The Toad sage asked with a frown.

"Maybe. If they believe Orochimaru is dead and if they're not looking for a new leader then that removes the thin leash Orochimaru had on them. If they run wild, it could destabilize the whole region." Hiruzen sighed as he thought about the neighboring small villages.

He looked at the white haired Sannin and asked his opinion on the matter. "What do you think will happen, Jiraiya?"

"Hmm…" The Toad sage was silent for a few moments to gather his thoughts and then he spoke. "Given time they'll either tear each other apart or someone organized will sweep in and take control."

Hiruzen's eyes slightly narrowed. "But you haven't said the most dangerous outcome that could happen."

Jiraiya looked at his teacher and recalled the incident with Anko's curse seal. "Orochimaru's revival… I don't want to believe something like that is even possible…"

The Third Hokage clasped his fingers and leaned forward. "It's a disturbing thought but we need to be prepared. We were lucky things worked out the way they did with Tsunade and Shizune… Otherwise…" He shook his head and asked the other question that's been on his mind. "Any news on Dragon?"

Jiraiya shook his head. "None. Nothing about him or his people. No one knows anything. I've asked almost every one of my contacts. They haven't even heard of him. It's as if Dragon appeared one day and then vanished off the face of the earth the next."

"Another dead end." The old kage groaned in frustration.

"I still can't believe he appeared in Daichi's home… Are you sure he wasn't trying to recruit the kid or something." Jiraiya asked with concern.

Hiruzen shook his head. "It didn't seem like it. And he hasn't made any attempts to contact Daichi after that…" His fingers tapped against the desk as he thought of the missions he had assigned the last few days. "Regarding the matter of the Land of Rice Paddies, I'll have a few additional teams watch the borders."

Jiraiya nodded. "Let's hope they'll be able to handle the situation."

Just then–

"Lord Hokage!" The door opened quickly.

Genma Shiranui stepped in, face composed but urgency visible in his eyes. He dropped to one knee, then rose immediately when Hiruzen gestured.

"My apologies for interrupting," Genma said. "But… it's Lady Tsunade."

Hiruzen's eyes immediately sharpened.

Jiraiya's posture shifted and he slightly tensed. "What about her?"

Genma's voice was firm as he looked at the two. "Her vitals spiked. Shizune says she's showing signs of waking up. Soon."

The room went still. Jiraiya's eyes widened. "…You serious?" he asked.

Genma nodded once. "She's conscious enough to respond to stimuli," he said. "The med-nin on rotation called Shizune and Daichi. They checked and asked me to inform you immediately."

Hiruzen was already on his feet. "Let's go," he said.

The three immediately vanished from their spots.

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