Chapter 262 - 262 (1/2)
After a few days observing Kakuzu, Nagato confirmed that he could be trusted enough, and fulfilled his promise; Konan handed over the financial management of the Akatsuki to Kakuzu.
After many years as a mercenary organization, the Akatsuki actually had an abundance of funds in hand. When Kakuzu had access to the records, he eyes shone golden in joy.
As for Sasori, he was out at his own hideout during those days, and no one knew what he was doing.
Nagato sent out Tendo Pain and Gakido Pain to find him more bodies of Jonins he has seen before. He wanted to complete all six paths as soon as possible to avenge Yahiko.
…..
Back In Konoha, Ryo was observing the growth of his sister, Lain.
He was far from worried. She was competing with two talented Uchiha, and all three were growing through that competition, which was a good thing.
However, when Lain and Izumi were having a practice fight, Lain's wood release was suddenly exposed!
When learning of the news, Ryo immediately teleported to the academy, and picked up Lain. Back home, he asked her about what had happened, and she told him that after feeling a peculiar Chakra from Izumi, her wood release went out of control!
Izumi was had nothing special about her power wise in the Anime. She was just shown to be Itachi's love interest, until she died by his hands during the Uchiha massacre.
As for her family, her father was normal Ninja, and her mother was Uchiha civilian.
Besides her Uchiha blood, Ryo could think of nothing special about her that could trigger such a reaction. So, how could it happen? How could an Uchiha trigger a Senju specific Kekkei Genkai?
Unfortunately, Ryo had no time to think about this matter, for the news about Lain spread across the entire village.
Wood Release had a special significance for Konoha. With this power, the first Hokage was the man who ended the chaos of the Warring State Era, and then built the foundation of what Konoha was today.
On top of that, this was also a Kekkei Genkai of the Senju clan. How could a Yamanaka ever awaken such an ability?
Very quickly, the Yamanaka clan fell under a lot of pressure. Konoha's citizens, whether civilians or Ninjas, all wanted to know what was going on.
In the Hokage's office, Sakumo was looking at Lain and Ryo standing before him, feeling a headache from the whole matter. He never expected that Ryo would bring him such a big ”surprise”.
”Ryo, speak up! What happened to this little girl?”
With Lain's power already exposed, Ryo had nothing to hide and he said: ”Sakumo san, Lain was initially a girl with outstanding amounts of Spiritual Power for her age. I conducted some experiments on her, and….”
Ryo gave Sakumo a general idea about the experiment, and intentionally emitted Orochimaru, who was present in the meeting, from his narrative!
Right now, Danzo's old plans were not in action, and Orochimaru did not have to leave Konoha. While the latter did have the idea, Ryo had been trying to retain him recently, and Orochimaru's attitude eventually loosened up. Therefore, Ryo did not want him bothered by the matter, for he did not want to awaken his d_e_s_i_r_e to leave.
However, as soon as Sakumo heard the word ”experiment”, he immediately thought of Orochimaru. After taking a deep breath, he decided to go with Ryo's version of the events and did not say anything.
”Ryo, what are you going to do about this?”
After some thought, Ryo said: ”We should drag this out for a while. During this time, I will go and find Tsunade hime, and ask her for help. If I could get her to claim that Lain is related to the Senju, we would have no more problems.”
As soon as Ryo finished his words, Orochimaru interfered: ”No! I will take the full blame for this. Recently, I've been looking for an excuse to leave Konoha; this is my chance.”