524 Naruto the Flame-Flame Fruit

As he took down Deepa, the thunderous noise of the battle drew in a group of enemies. Leading them was a short, one-eyed old man with a limp, leaning on a cane. When he saw Kiyosuke, he froze in shock.

"You… you're—"

"Oh? So you're the person in charge of this company, Victor? I've heard you can regenerate your body?"

"You… Asakawa Kiyosuke? This is a private company! You people from Konoha are trespassing on private property! Does the Land of Fire plan to start a war?"

The old man steadied himself and immediately tried to pin a crime on Kiyosuke.

"Haha, interesting. Lying through your teeth with your eyes wide open. Take a look at the cultivation pods behind me before you talk. The matter of the God Tree—did you think only the Land of Fire is paying attention? All Five Great Nations would kill for a chance like this."

Kiyosuke grinned. The significance of the God Tree was on another level entirely.

Madara never planted the God Tree, but everyone had seen the power of the Ten-Tails. On top of that, Naruto had already educated the shinobi of the Five Great Villages about what the God Tree was and how dangerous it could be. Add in the threat of the Ōtsutsuki—there was no way they wouldn't take it seriously.

And what's more, they were conducting human experiments here—explicitly forbidden in the shinobi world. That alone was enough to doom them.

"You—" Victor glared at Kiyosuke, then suddenly smirked. "If that's the case, then I can't let you walk out alive."

He formed hand seals. "Water Style: Water Shockwave!"

A torrent of water gushed from Victor's mouth. Kiyosuke dodged, and the lab instantly turned into a shallow pond.

"Your ability is tricky, but it's well-known you fear Water Style. Against water, your powers aren't worth much."

"I do fear Water Style, but did anyone ever tell you…"

Kiyosuke appeared in front of Victor and smashed his fist straight through the man's head.

"My taijutsu is also pretty damn strong."

Victor's headless body fell—then, in the very next moment, fleshy buds sprouted from his neck and rapidly regenerated.

"So this is body regeneration? Interesting."

This sort of regeneration likely came from research into Hashirama's cells. Orochimaru probably mastered it as well—after all, no one in the entire shinobi world had researched Hashirama's cells more deeply than him.

He'd been researching since his twenties or thirties. Now he was in his sixties or seventies—that was fifty years of research. As Orochimaru's student, Kiyosuke refused to believe Orochimaru hadn't cracked body regeneration.

"HAHAHA! This is my masterpiece! No matter what you do, you can't kill me!"

Victor laughed wildly, as if Kiyosuke was beneath his notice.

"Troublesome. Anyone who sees this is going to think I'm bullying an old man."

Kiyosuke was only surprised by Victor's ability—not afraid of it. It was just regeneration.

"You—! Lightning Style!"

Lightning erupted from Victor and surged toward Kiyosuke.

Kiyosuke waved his hand casually. Flames burst forth and clashed with the lightning, triggering an instant explosion.

"Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet!"

"Water Style: Water Formation Wall!"

The Water Dragon slammed into the wall and both collapsed into the flooded lab.Kiyosuke formed more seals.

"Wind Style: Thousand Blades Gale!"

A storm of slicing wind blades tore through the surroundings. Victor clapped his hands together.

"Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall!"

"Oh? Konohamaru told me you could use Wind and Fire. And now Water, Lightning, Earth—you've mastered all five nature transformations?"

"That's right. I can use all five, just like your Third Hokage."

Victor said proudly, as if this were some incredible feat.

Kiyosuke dug at his ear.

"The Third? He's practically senile by now, though still tough as ever. Amazing he's still alive. Old man Ōnoki already kicked the bucket. And one more thing—my daughter can do it too. Actually, she can use seven chakra transformations."

Five natures? Big deal.

Konoha had several people who could.

Victor felt deeply insulted. His face twisted. "Then I'll just kill you first!"

"Wind Style: Grand Tornado!"

A whirlwind blasted from Victor's mouth.

Kiyosuke spread his hands and unleashed a fiery vortex. The two forces collided and neutralized each other.

"All right. Warm-up's over."

"What?"

Victor jolted. A hand reached from behind him and clamped around his neck.

"Water Style: Instant Torrent."

Kiyosuke whispered, "Shadow Clones are really convenient, aren't they?"

The Kiyosuke who'd been fighting Victor vanished. He had been behind Victor from the start, curious to see what tricks the old man had. Disappointingly, he had none.

"Don't underestimate me!"

Additional arms burst from Victor's shoulders—thick, muscular ones—and grabbed Kiyosuke tightly.

"Now I've got you!"

"Yep. No running for me."

Kiyosuke twisted lightly, snapping Victor's neck for the moment. The arms loosened. He pressed his palm against Victor and sealing marks spread across the man's body, locking him down.

"Mm. This company still has a lot of staff. That's going to be troublesome."

He scratched his head. Whatever—Konohamaru could handle the clean-up.

He contacted Konohamaru and had him immediately summon Konoha's larger forces.

In less than half a day, Naruto arrived with Konoha's shinobi to take control of the situation.

"Really appreciate you, Kiyosuke-san. Sorry we had to make you come all this way."

Naruto wrapped up the matter and briefed the daimyō of the Land of Valleys. Once the daimyō saw the human experiments and the God Tree with his own eyes, the tech company was shut down entirely.

Victor, meanwhile, was taken into custody by ANBU and escorted back toward Konoha.

But something went wrong on the way back.

The ANBU escort team was ambushed. They were gravely injured and left unconscious. Victor had been burned alive—reduced to a charred corpse.

A direct slap in Konoha's face.

"The Kara Organization is bold enough to silence him openly… I didn't expect this."

Kiyosuke's expression darkened. Another lead, gone. If he'd known, he would've gone along himself.

"This is my failure," Itachi said quietly. "I should have escorted him personally."

Even though he sent multiple ANBU in disguise, only the Victor escort team was attacked. That meant Kara had some special method of tracking him—or simply didn't trust Victor at all.

"It's my mistake too. Should've transported him with a serpent through Ryūchi Cave."

Years without missions had dulled his vigilance.

But whatever. If Kara was taking action already, then it meant they were losing patience. Soon enough, they'd expose their tails.

"By the way, where's Konohamaru?"

Itachi replied, "A blimp crashed in the northern region of the Land of Fire. The Seventh sent him to check."

"A blimp?"

"Yes. Interesting, isn't it? I'll go take a look."