521 Naruto the Flame-Flame Fruit

Not long after, Kiyosuke heard that Boruto's team had been severely injured in the Land of Valleys. Boruto and Sarada were being treated in the hospital, while Mitsuki—gravely wounded—had been taken back to Orochimaru. Kiyosuke went to investigate personally.

Mitsuki had forced himself into Sage Mode, and his still-immature body collapsed under the strain. Orochimaru and Mitsuki's synthetic brother, Log, were now working full-force to cultivate new internal organs to keep Mitsuki alive. But the situation didn't look good.

"Tell me everything. What exactly happened?"

On the hospital rooftop, Kiyosuke questioned Konohamaru.

"Hashirama Cells," Konohamaru said.

"We went to the Land of Valleys on a missing-person mission. Our client's husband had disappeared. While searching, we discovered there were people secretly trafficking Hashirama Cells.

After we located the husband, he'd already gone berserk, so we handed him over to his company for treatment. We tracked the operation all the way to the Land of Silence.

We fought a scientist named Victor. His regeneration technique and terrifying taijutsu stalled us, and Boruto's team faced an even more dangerous enemy. Mitsuki pushed himself to bring them back alive—barely."

"Hashirama Cells, huh? What a pain. Why hasn't anyone destroyed this stuff?" Kiyosuke muttered helplessly. But he understood—no one could resist the power contained in those cells. Whether it was Wood Release or regeneration, it was far too tempting.

Back then, the First Hokage had left behind only a small amount of cells. But after repeated cloning, there were now Hashirama Cells circulating in the black market. Even with Konoha doing everything possible to retrieve them, they were still being sold.

Hashirama Cells were priceless, always in demand.

They absolutely weren't being leaked by Konoha. Some White Zetsu remnants contained Hashirama Cells, and Danzo's stock had already been reclaimed. So most likely these were from Orochimaru's side—Kiyosuke had heard rumors that his lab had been attacked once, leading to several samples being stolen.

Most had already been retrieved.

Which meant the cells appearing in the Land of Silence were likely leftovers from that attack.

Did Log fail to recover all of them?

Recovering Hashirama Cells was Log's job, but the ninja world was huge. Missing a few was normal.

"I understand. Has Naruto been informed?"

"The Seventh already knows."

"Alright. Looks like I'll have to visit the Land of Valleys myself."

Hashirama Cells were too dangerous to ignore.

Konohamaru quickly grabbed him.

"Please wait, Kiyosuke-sama! You're not planning to go straight there, are you?"

"Is that a problem?"

"It is! Victor's research institute is the Land of Valleys' most important scientific facility. Their daimyō values it highly. If you clash with them, it'll cause a major diplomatic incident!" Konohamaru said, sweating.

This wasn't wartime anymore. Kiyosuke couldn't just go around punching every country in the face. Back then, he'd done whatever he pleased—Water Country, Wind Country… all had suffered his wrath. But times had changed. He couldn't do that now.

"Tch, annoying. Don't worry, I won't act recklessly. They're Hashirama Cells—Hashirama Cells! Of course they belong to us. It's not like there's a second Senju Hashirama out there. You're coming with me! Show some Konoha spirit!"

"Yes, but… we should still wait, right? Let the Seventh decide."

"Fine."

Let Naruto decide?

Whatever. Let him.

"Your injuries need time to heal anyway. We'll depart later."

"Alright."

Kiyosuke left and returned home.

"Shinichi isn't back yet?"

"He's on a mission in Sunagakure. It'll take time," Terumi Mei said.

Just then, Yuka burst through the door, panting anxiously.

"Dad, Mom—Shinichi… Shinichi was badly hurt!"

"What?!"

Kiyosuke and Mei were stunned. With Shinichi's strength, how could he be seriously injured? Who did this?

The couple rushed to the hospital, where their son lay in the emergency room. Karin and Sakura were treating him. Rin stepped out and said,

"Kiyosuke, Shinichi is out of danger, but his injuries are severe. He'll be bedridden for weeks."

Kiyosuke let out a relieved breath.

Kakei Sumire limped over.

"Kiyosuke-sama, Mei-sama… Shinichi was protecting us…"

At this point, she couldn't speak anymore. The Nue on her shoulder wiped her tears with its tail.

"Calm down. Weren't you on a retrieval mission?"

It had been a simple retrieval mission, jointly carried out with Sunagakure. Shinichi, a Chūnin, was the team leader; their supervising teacher hadn't even needed to go. It was a straightforward C-rank task. No one expected something like this.

Sumire said,

"The enemy was a man. He attacked using massive iron cubes. His speed and strength were overwhelming. Even Araya's Iron Sand shield couldn't protect us. Shinichi drew him away so we could escape. When we found him, he was unconscious and heavily wounded. We rushed him back."

"Draw that man. I want to see."

"Yes!"

Sumire hurriedly sketched the attacker: tall and thin, wearing flashy, nontraditional clothing, center-parted hair, an emotionless face, and strange markings under both eyes.

"This guy? Heh."

Kiyosuke's voice trembled with suppressed fury.

"If I run into you… you're dead."

Beat up his son and think you can run?

Not a chance.

"You're injured too. Rest. I'll handle this. Mei, Yuka—take care of Shinichi. I have things to do."

He went to the Hokage's office, handed the sketch to Naruto, and explained everything.Shikamaru pulled out another sketch from a report—nearly identical.

"This was submitted by Konohamaru. Looks like they encountered the same man. After leaving the Land of Silence, he rushed straight to Sunagakure. He clearly has a plan."

"Seems connected to that research institute in the Land of Valleys. Naruto, I'm going."

"Kiyosuke-sama, that's a major company in the Land of Valleys. If this isn't handled carefully, it'll blow up," Shikamaru warned.

"I don't care!" Kiyosuke snapped. "If they have a problem, let them come! I'm settling this!"

He hadn't been this angry in years. Seeing his son in such a condition tore at him.

"But—" Shikamaru began, but Naruto stopped him.

"Kiyosuke-san, go. But I hope you gather evidence before acting. Of course… if you find that man, you can deal with him immediately."

It wasn't just Shinichi—Boruto had been nearly killed by that same man.

Naruto had his own anger burning.