After that small secret discussion with Naomi, Homusubi left the laboratory and came to the meeting room where the meeting is supposed to be held.
The meeting room has only three seats around a circular table, which means, apart from Homusubi, only Danzo and Orochimaru are supposed to be present, but of course, because Danzo himself doesn’t have that much knowledge when it comes to biotechnology, so Danzo’s chief researcher will also be present in the meeting, though he will be standing behind Danzo for the entire duration of the meeting.
As Tsukihi, wearing the Homusubi mask entered the meeting room, Danzo’s face turned into a subconscious frown… Danzo doesn’t know exactly why, but he has been feeling sort of uneasy ever since Homusubi replaced Fujin in this project.
One of the reasons he is worried is that Homusubi––who according to him is on Sarutobi Hiruzen’s side––might secretly leak the information about him colluding with Orochimaru in this sensitive period which would be very harmful to his reputation.
For this very reason, and to eliminate the possibility of those two working together against him, Danzo has also done his best to avoid any sort of contact between Homusubi and Orochimaru.
But because Homusubi was adamant about today’s meeting as it is related to the success or failure of the improvement of the Chimera Jutsu––which he will be using for his ritual in order to become a perfect Shinobi––so Danzo had no other choice but to let the two of them meet…
At the same time, Danzo is very depressed… In the past month, he has repeatedly tried to contact Fujin and other members of the Amatsukami Organization, using all the resources that he can use, but he has found nothing and received no response which has made him more frustrated… its as if Amatsukami doesn’t even value him!
Helpless, he has been left with no other choice but to suppress his temper and tolerate Homusubi’s involvement in the core plan, because, despite the bad feeling she has been giving him, she has indeed shown results that are more than enough to prove her worth and knowledge.
Be that as it may, Danzo has not let down his guard against Homusubi, and he has appointed several of his capable and trustworthy subordinates, including Naomi to keep watch over her all the time in order to make sure that all her movements are within his control all the time… even as Homusubi entered the meeting room, Danzo was able to notice Naomi’s presence just outside the room…
As Homusubi took one of the seats at the round table, the two nodded slightly and remained silent, waiting for the arrival of the last person.
He didn’t make them wait for too long, as after a while, Orochimaru too entered the meeting room and proceeded to take his seat.
As Orochimaru passed by Homusubi, he smiled slightly and whispered lightly, “Although this is our first official meeting, I have a feeling that I have seen you somewhere… the aura you have seems very familiar to me…”
Orochimaru may have said so in a humorous tone, but Homusubi knew better than anyone that Orochimaru was being very serious…
For the identities of the two Homusubi of Amatsukami, Orochimaru has his own guesses… and he feels that his guesses are very accurate.
After all, he is one of the very few people who know that Uchiha Itachi has awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan, at the same time, Orochimaru also knew that Uchiha Tsukihi’s Sharingan wasn’t an ordinary Sharingan…
Orochimaru was very regretful that Uchiha Tsukihi died, but recently he has begun to think otherwise… All that ‘sacrifice’ for the sake of the village was just a ruse/drama to fake her death in order to fool him and the Akatsuki Organization…
Therefore, Orochimaru believes that the two Homusubi of the Amatsukami Organization is…
As Orochimaru was about to say his next words, Homusubi’s cold voice filled with killing intent entered his ears, “I advise you Orochimaru… it would be best to watch out your mouth…”
Hearing Homusubi’s cold voice, Orochimaru snorted softly and without continuing to entangle on this subject, he took his seat.
The Amatsukami Organization doesn’t have just two Homusubis, it also has Fujin, Suijin, and Yama who are recognized as the current strongest in the Shinobi World, so Orochimaru also understands that he can’t use this information to threaten Homusubi… The Akatsuki Organization alone is already proving too much of a threat to him, if Amatsukami is also offended at the same time, then he might really die a terrible death.
So, Orochimaru restrained himself and took the last seat.
After Orochimaru sat down, Danzo said, “Save the pointless tittle-tattle for later… for now, focus on the subject at hand, the two of you strongly demanded that this meeting be held… I want to know why?!”
Homusubi immediately spread out the reports before Danzo, and asked, “I need to know the Kekkei Genkai that you want to fuse using the Chimera Jutsu ritual.”
Danzo frowned, and shook his head, “I haven’t decided yet…”
No way, Danzo who doesn’t have an ounce of trust in Homusubi and Orochimaru would obviously not reveal such an important piece of information that is related to the core part of his strength to the two of them so easily.
Homusubi also knew Danzo’s reasons, but she refused to give up, and stated, “If you haven’t decided yet… then decide immediately!”
Orochimaru also said from the side, “This information is related to the further adjustments in the Chimera Jutsu, and we need to know what Kekkei Genkai you are using in order to design the Ritual… otherwise, the project will halt at this point and there is nothing we can do to move to the next step…”
Homusubi nodded, “Yes.”
Danzo didn’t doubt Orochimaru and Homusubi’s words and truth be told, he had actually anticipated this scenario because even his chief researcher has already explained all these things to him as per the information, they have summarized up until now…
The fusion of different Kekkei Genkai requires a different degree of fine-tuning in the Chimera Buds, and this fine-tuning is related to the improvement in the entire Chimera Jutsu and absorption ritual. As such, the different Kekkei Genkai that the user wants to absorb must be determined early so that these final improvements can be completed as early as possible.
After all, after the fine-tuning, the final absorption and fusion ritual ceremony also needs to be planned and arranged as per the layout, and it will definitely consume a lot of time and resources.
Precisely because of these reasons, Homusubi and Orochimaru are unanimously pressing Danzo and demanding that he better reveal all the Kekkei Genkais that he plans to absorb… only then will they be able to proceed any further… And this reason is making Danzo feel even gloomier…
Although he knows the truth and is aware of the fact that both of them are indeed very correct, however, he who is used to hiding his abilities and power in the dark is highly uncomfortable in revealing any piece of information that is related to his core secrets and might become an important factor in his life and death battles.
And this is also not going according to what he had planned…
Originally Danzo had assumed that improvements in the Chimera Jutsu would take several months more so he wanted to delay revealing this information as much as possible… And while waiting for all the improvements in Chimera Jutsu to be completed, he wanted to ascend to the position of Konoha’s Godaime Hokage and then kick away both Amatsukami and Orochimaru after they had played their respective roles…
As per his plans, after becoming Hokage and kicking away the two foreign parties, Danzo would let his own researcher completely take over the project, and then using the power of Konoha Village, he would complete the final absorption ritual in secrecy, thus ensuring that intelligence about his core secrets is not leaked to anybody.
However, Danzo greatly underestimated Homusubi and Orochimaru’s capabilities, and as such, he made the wrong estimation of the rate of progress.
At this moment, he has yet to ascend to the position of Konoha’s Hokage, but the improvement in the Chimera Jutsu has already entered the final stage…
Of course, he can still kick away both Orochimaru and Amatsukami, but unless he ascends to the position of Hokage, he doesn’t want to turn his face with the two of them… So, he is greatly frustrated at this point.
There is one more thing troubling him… that is the Kekkei Genkai that Naomi’s niece Mika possesses, Danzo wants to absorb Mika’s Kekkei Genkai because it is very attractive to him, but he doesn’t want to reveal Mika or her Kekkei Genkai’s existence to either Homusubi or Orochimaru… as that could be highly troublesome.
Seeing Danzo’s hesitation and frustration, Homusubi said in a blunt tone, “There’s no need to think too much, you don’t really have that many choices in the first place…”
As soon as Homusubi’s words were heard, Danzo’s expression turned into confusion, and he asked, “What do you mean?”
Orochimaru also looked at her with doubts in his mind…
Seeing both Danzo and Orochimaru looking at her, demanding an explanation, Homusubi shrugged and answered, “You can’t just absorb any arbitrary Kekkei Genkai using the Chimera Jutsu Ritual… In order for the absorption and fusion ritual to be a success, all the Kekkei Genkai have to be carefully selected based on the individual Chakra Natures as a focus and their combinations must provide mutual growth and restrain… Basically, what I am saying is that you have to search for a balance… As the balance is the key.”
Danzo’s brows frowned deeper, and the Chief researcher who stood behind him also seemed to be lost in thought.
Orochimaru on the other hand nodded lightly, as he has obviously considered this issue…
While Danzo and the chief researcher were thinking, Homusubi remained silent, she wanted to let them digest the information she had just provided…
After a while, Danzo asked vigilantly, “If you say so… then what advice do you have?”
Homusubi lightly glanced at Danzo, then said thoughtfully, “The fact that you have transplanted Senju Hashirama’s Cells and several three-tomoe Sharingan makes–…!”
As soon as Homusubi mentioned the Hashirama Cells and Sharingan transplantation, Danzo didn’t let her finish her words, he stood up abruptly and backed away, as he questioned her with a solemn expression, “How do you know that I have transplanted Sharingan and Shodaime-sama’s Cells?”
At the same time, intense killing intent was directed towards Homusubi and Orochimaru by not just Danzo, but also several other presences that were hiding in the dark…
A single wrong word and they would instantly attack both Homusubi and Orochimaru.