Time flew, half a year had passed.
In the past months, there had been two major events in the shinobi world. The first was that people were still mysteriously disappearing. All the ninja villages were actively investigating this matter, but so far, no results had come to light. The second was that calls to subjugate the Land of Whirlpools had grown louder, accompanied by many new rumors.
For example, some said the Land of Whirlpools harbored an extremely evil power, if released, it would threaten the entire shinobi world. Following this claim, another rumor spread: that the ninjas of Uzushio were absorbing this evil power for their own grand ambitions.
Now, the great ninja villages, all except Konoha, seemed to be on the verge of joining forces to attack the Land of Whirlpools. They appeared determined not to rest until this "future calamity" was wiped out.
---
Inside the laboratory, Orochimaru asked with some concern.
"Are you really going to experiment on yourself?"
"Wasn't this decided long ago? Besides, if I want to restore the sight in my eyes, do I even have another choice?"
"Our research on both the cells and senjutsu has been highly successful. The theories have been verified many times, nothing will go wrong."
"Still, shouldn't we wait a bit longer?" The usually mad scientist actually hesitated. "If something does go wrong, all our future research..."
Hearing Orochimaru's honest concern, Shin chuckled. This guy wasn't worried about his life, he was worried that if Shin died, their research couldn't continue.
"Let's wait three more days," he said. "We'll run one final theoretical test. If the results match, we begin immediately."
While Orochimaru was re-verifying the experiment, he headed to the Soul Enhancement Laboratory.
Over the past year, he had made breakthrough progress in many fields of research, but soul-related research had stagnated for the first six months.
That was, until half a year ago, when he did something important: He went to visit Dan and successfully acquired the Spirit Transformation Technique.
From then on, his soul research began to advance rapidly.
As of five months ago, he had already mastered the Spirit Transformation Technique, separating his mind from his body, turning his spirit into a living soul.
This soul form could ignore distance, travel freely, and even kill enemies. It could also enter others' mental worlds and exert control over them. The Spirit Transformation Technique opened an entirely new door for his soul research.
Most importantly, in soul form, Shin could see. Though he couldn't use his Sharingan powers, this new sight still greatly aided his research.
The difference between being able to see and being blind was, after all, significant.
At one experimental table, he stood before a sealed corpse. He activated a detection device, forming an energy barrier around the body.
As he used the Soul–Body Separation Technique, a spirit emerged from the sealed corpse, floating in midair.
"Shin!" the soul shrieked hysterically upon seeing him. "How much longer will this continue? Haven't you extracted enough from me?"
"It was Koharu who wronged you, why make me suffer for her actions?"
"You were her right hand. Out of all her dirty deeds, which didn't involve you? And now you're trying to act innocent? The day you carried out her orders against Tsunade, you sealed your fate. But don't concern yourself with Koharu. She'll join you soon enough. Before that happens, though, I intend for her to experience the complete dissolution of everything she's built."
Because of the rapid progress Shin and Orochimaru made in the early stages of their research, finishing animal testing in just three months, they now needed to enter an entirely new phase.
This next stage required new materials. Unsurprisingly, Tsunade was strongly opposed to their madness from the beginning.
It was terrifying, these two had gone completely insane. But Shin was incredibly persuasive. He claimed they would only target assassination subjects from Konoha and those who were truly evil and deserved to die.
After all, these people were either already near death or were so harmful that their existence only caused more suffering. Eliminating them would reduce harm to others, might as well have them make one last contribution.
Their actions, he argued, were nothing short of heroism. The shinobi world should be thanking them. Eventually, he managed to convince Tsunade.
After all, the existence of ninjas had never been something noble or righteous. It was a world filled with darkness, cruelty, and bloodshed. As long as Shin and Tsunade didn't completely lose their moral bottom line, it was still somewhat acceptable.
Thus, Orochimaru took charge of gathering intelligence and selecting targets, while Shin was responsible for capturing the subjects.
In the shinobi world, someone as kind as Minato was hard to come by, but finding scum was easy. So, over the past year, mysterious disappearances occurred all over the shinobi world, Konoha included.
Most of the missing Konoha ninjas were from the so-called clans of the Council, with Koharu's clan suffering the heaviest losses. Nearly all her trusted operatives had vanished without trace.
It wasn't coincidental, her clan simply harbored the greatest concentration of individuals who met their selection criteria.
Combined with some of Shin's other maneuvers, Koharu had been driven nearly insane over the past year. Her mental state had become increasingly fragile, characterized by paranoia and instability.
"I may have made mistakes," the captured soul admitted, "but you've already killed me and subjected my consciousness to these experiments for three months. Isn't that sufficient retribution?"
Looking at the energy barrier surrounding him, the soul finally broke. He had thought death would bring relief. Instead, his soul couldn't even escape the barrier. Wasn't the afterlife supposed to be the Pure Land? This was straight-up hell!
"Why can't you approach this rationally?" Shin asked, his attention divided between the spirit and the data readings. "Your contribution to this research benefits humanity. In death, you're serving a greater purpose than you ever did in life."
"Greater purpose?!" the soul screamed. "Then why don't you experiment on yourself?!"
"Who says I haven't?" Shin replied, checking data as he spoke.
"The soul energy is dissipating again," he noted with disappointment. "Even with this containment seal, I can't completely prevent the gradual deterioration of the spiritual energy. The technique needs refinement."
With a new idea in mind, he pulled out a scroll and began jotting down his improvements to the soul-sealing technique.
---
[Mastery of Fuinjutsu exceeds Tobirama's. Reward: 1000 Research Points!]
[Total Research Points have reached 10,000. Would you like to upgrade the Senju Tobirama's talents?]
---
A long-awaited system prompt made Shin jump to his feet, face full of excitement.
Upgrade! Upgrade! Shin said mentally without hesitation, what kind of question was that?
---
[Senju Tobirama's talents has been upgraded.]
[Acquired Senju Tobirama's talents (Triple Version) (Upgradeable).]
---
Holy shit!
The so-called Senju Tobirama's talents (Triple Version) meant that he now possessed three times the talent of Tobirama himself.
Shin was trembling with excitement, it felt like even his soul had ascended. Problems he used to struggle with for days suddenly became clear in an instant. Concepts he once couldn't grasp no matter how hard he tried were now starting to make sense. He was confident he'd figure them out completely very soon.
After the excitement passed, he quickly used a sealing technique again, sealing the soul back into his corpse.
Then, in a flash, he vanished from the spot and reappeared in front of Orochimaru.