Kuroto slowly walked in the forest from tree to tree followed by a young child.

The child's name was Yuki Haku, and he looked at Kuroto from time to time as they continued their travel and after repeatedly hesitating, he finally mustered the courage to ask, "Ano… K-Kuroto-Sama, w-where do you want to t-take me?" ​​

Most of Kuroto's attention was currently delved towards planning out his experimental project so he answered somewhat absent-mindedly, "Konohagakure."

Haku got the answer and lowered his head to murmur, "Konoha…gakure…?"

Haku obviously has no concept of where is Konohagakure. He couldn't even begin to imagine just what kind of place Konohagakure would be, and considering his time of living in the Land of Water, he was a little nervous at the moment.

Kuroto perceived Haku's nervousness and fear and said with a calming smile, "Don't be afraid, you won't be in danger."

Calming down a little, Haku asked lightly, "I… will I still be able to meet Jugo and the others?"

Even though it hasn't been very long since he met them, but Haku has become friends with Jugo and Kimimaro, who are of the same age as him, and now that he had to suddenly part ways with them, this made him feel sad.

Noticing Haku's sadness, Kuroto gently touched his head and then said with a reassuring tone, "Don't worry, if everything goes well, maybe you will be able to see them again in a few months."

Listening to Kuroto's reassuring words; Haku nodded slightly and then continued their travel.

It didn't take them very long to reach Konohagakure.

After sneaking into Konoha through a secret path, instead of bringing Haku to his home, Kuroto led him to the secret laboratory that Orochimaru left him.

He has already transferred all the equipment that Orochimaru left him to his own laboratory, therefore, this place was now modified into a secret underground residence that can be used as a small shelter during an emergency.

As a shinobi Village, Konoha's investigation procedure of all outsiders is very thorough and strict.

Even an ordinary child is no exception to this, not to mention, Haku isn't an ordinary child, but most probably the last survivor of the Yuki Clan of the Land of Water, and the child has already awakened the unique Kekkei Genkai of the Yuki Clan; Ice Release. If his presence in Kuroto's home is discovered by anyone, then Kuroto will in big trouble.

Therefore, he obviously wouldn't keep Haku at his home in the Hyuga Compound, but at this secret underground residence, that would prevent anyone from discovering him.

After arranging Haku at the secret underground residence, Kuroto directly returned to his home to retrieve all the memories of his Shadow Clone.

Through the memories passed back by the Shadow Clone, Kuroto learned that nothing noteworthy happened in the Village during his absence, aside from the regular Anbu duties.

But there was information that relieved him a little, it was about the peace talks with Kumogakure.

The peace talks that have been in a deadlocked state for such a long time seem to have made some progress recently.

Additionally, there was also the news that the Uchiha Clan has been continuously searching Uchiha Shinichi's whereabouts, but up until now, they haven't received any helpful trail.

Poof…

While Kuroto was going through the memories he got, the greedy Orange Cat, Kasai appeared in his room with a puff of white smoke.

While leisurely licking its fur on the paw, it spoke boringly, "Nya, One thousand Ryo, Kuroto-San!"

Kuroto immediately paid a One Thousand Ryo note and took the small information scroll from the cat.

It's been a little while since Shinichi last sent him any message, therefore Kuroto was a little worried, now that a message has finally come, so he was really relieved.

After unfolding the scroll, Kuroto glanced at the lines:

"This guy Shinno is really a rat; he was hidden so deeply that it took me and Biwa Juzo such long to find his trace and catch him!"

"Do you know his true identity? Oh, you wouldn't believe it and might be highly surprised, it turns out that the old doctor was just a façade, in reality, he is the leader of the remnant Shinobi of the Land of Sky, surprised, right? Even me and the rest of the members of the Akatsuki were too! Bet you couldn't have thought of this!"

"Oh, by the way, I tortured out the secret information he was hiding, this guy actually intends to create an artificial tailed beast called Reibi, and use it to destroy the five great Shinobi Villages and rule over the entire Shinobi World!"

"Hahaha…, that's hilarious, right!? Putting aside the thought of destroying the five great powers and ruling the shinobi world, the mere thought of him wanting to create an artificial tailed beast cracked me up! How can anyone make an artificial tailed beast? He is an idiot I am telling you…!"

"Oh, and also…

After reading everything, Kuroto burned the scroll and thought to himself, 'Control yourself, don't get angry, don't be angry, Shinichi is neurotic and you know that… So, don't get affected by his monologue.'

Every time Shinichi sends him a message or some intel, instead of directly describing the detail going straight to the point, he would choose the roundabout way as if he is talking like an idiot.

But Kuroto also doesn't have much of a choice to berate Shinichi, as the guy is only venting out his depression from his time at the Akatsuki.

Being a spy in the Akatsuki is obviously not as easy as it may sound, and since there aren't any allies in Akatsuki, therefore, he can't open up to anyone, so Kuroto is the only one he could speak freely to while passing on the intelligence.

So Kuroto is also helpless in this matter.

Sighing heavily, Kuroto completed some of the trivial matters and came to the secret laboratory.

As soon as he entered the secret laboratory after passing through several layers of security, he was immediately greeted by Sandaime Kazekage puppet, "Kuroto-Sama!"

Ever since he created this laboratory, Sandaime Kazekage puppet has been left in the laboratory by Kuroto for twenty-four cross seven. The purpose is obviously to guard the secret laboratory so that even when Kuroto, himself is not in the village, there are no tedious issues.

…

At the edge of the Death Forest.

Jonin Minazuki Yuki looked at the three genins of Team-2 and said with utmost seriousness, "Three of you listen very carefully, this task is not easy, there are chances that you might lose your life if you aren't careful!"

Izumo Tenma, a young boy with somewhat long, grey hair spiked more so towards the right side with his bangs framing his face, black eyes, wearing a blue Konoha forehead protector that his bangs hung to the side of; lazily kept both his hands behind his head and spoke in annoyance, "What danger? It's another one of those boring D-Class missions, to drive out a wild boar? What's the big deal about it!"

"Minazuki-Sensei, you are underestimating us way too much, it's just a wild boar, how can it kill us?" – said Shinko Inari, a young girl with two small pigtails and a blue bandana with the village symbol facing forward and a foreign appearance that isn't very hard to identify.

The final and last member of Team-2, Uchiha Itachi didn't say a word, but carefully checked the map of the Death Forest.

Minazuki Yuki held his forehead and said with a headache, "Didn't the official at the mission commission office already told you that it's no ordinary wild boar but a ninja boar. A-Ninja-Boar!"

Initially, when he saw the content of the mission, Minazuki Yuki didn't care too much, as it's just another one of those simple D-Class missions that any new Genin team has to complete to develop a better understanding of one another, but when he inquired some of the details about the mission, he realized that this task is not as easy as it may seem as first glance.

According to the content of the mission, a very powerful wild boar has appeared in the Death Forest not long ago, but the problem is that it has immediately become the boss of the forest with no natural enemies.

His appearance has seriously affected the ecological balance of the Death Forest.

It should be understood that the Death Forest isn't any ordinary forest but a practice field specifically managed by Konoha to have the same or even more fierce ecosystem than anywhere. So, if the Wild Boar has already become the boss of the Death Forest, he would no longer be allowed to continue to stay here and disturb the ecosystem anymore

But with that comes a problem, can newly Graduate Genins handle such a task? This is worrying.

Seeing that neither Tenma nor Shinko had any change even after he reminded them, Yuki shook his head helplessly and ordered, "Go!"

He thought about it a little, although this task seems a bit tricky, his Team-2 is still quite good, even if that Wild Boar happens to be strong, the three of them should manage it somehow without any accidents.

What's more, with Uchiha Itachi in the team, Minazuki Yuki wasn't that worried.

…

In Kuroto's Secret laboratory.

Looking at the two large nutrition tanks, Kuroto sighed.

At this time both the nutrition tanks have a deformed clone each, immersed in the Nutrient Solution.

These two clones were Kuroto's first attempt in the branch of Cloning before he went to see his teacher Orochimaru.

Looking at the distorted and deformed shape of both the clones, even an amateur in the field of Biotechnology could tell that the first attempt resulted in a complete failure.

Shaking his head helplessly, Kuroto readjusted his mentality and took out a scroll to record all the data.

After doing that, he took out the information scroll that Orochimaru gave him about the data and Cloning Technology and read it line by line.

Kuroto believes that experiencing failure is not a terrible thing, but if one can't learn anything from their past failures then that is a really terrible thing! Therefore, he must figure out what went wrong in his first attempt.

While Kuroto was busy, suddenly slight vibration was felt in the laboratory.

Byakugan…

Although the vibrations were very weak, they weren't unnoticed by Kuroto. Frowning slightly, he activated the Byakugan and looked in the direction of the source past the walls…

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