Chapter 46: The First Lord's Echo, A Serpent's Gambit, and a Thief in the Night
The Second Shinobi World War, now a festering wound across the Elemental Nations, had entered a phase of grim, bloody desperation. Konoha, though its will remained unbent, was scarred and weary. It was in this crucible of unending conflict that an internal, silent hunt began for Kenji Senju – a hunt for the very essence of Konoha's founding legend: the cells of Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage, progenitor of the mythical Wood Release.
Kenji knew this was the ultimate prize. More than any elemental mastery, more than any Kekkei Genkai he had so far assimilated, Hashirama's cells promised unparalleled vitality, regenerative capabilities, and the potential, however remote and dangerous, to unlock Mokuton itself. He also knew he wasn't the only one obsessed with this sacred, heavily guarded genetic legacy. Orochimaru, with his insatiable hunger for forbidden knowledge and physical perfection, would undoubtedly be making his own serpentine moves towards this very same goal.
His marriage to Tsunade, while granting him unfettered access to the Senju archives, had yielded invaluable theoretical knowledge but no direct samples of Hashirama's physical matter. Such relics, Kenji surmised, would be held under the tightest possible security, likely within the Hokage's private vaults, restricted sections of Konoha's research facilities, or even shadowed repositories controlled by Danzo Shimura. His plan had to be flawless, his infiltration utterly invisible.
He began by leveraging his unique position. As "Kenji Senju," husband to the First's granddaughter, he could make "discreet inquiries" about historical Senju medical practices or "archival preservation techniques" without raising immediate, overt suspicion, subtly mapping the layers of bureaucracy and security surrounding Konoha's most guarded secrets. His Uzumaki fuinjutsu mastery allowed him to analyze and understand the complex protective seals employed throughout the village from a distance, identifying potential vulnerabilities or bypass methods.
Meanwhile, Orochimaru was indeed making his own moves. Kenji's enhanced senses, now a symphony of stolen acuities, detected faint, almost untraceable traces of Orochimaru's distinct, cold chakra near a heavily guarded Konoha medical research facility late one night. Orochimaru wasn't attempting a direct assault; his methods were more insidious – likely trying to corrupt a low-level researcher, place a hidden summoning seal for later access, or subtly alter data logs. Kenji, hidden in the deeper shadows, observed. He didn't intervene directly to stop Orochimaru; the serpent's activities could provide a useful distraction, a scapegoat even, should Kenji's own far more audacious attempt leave any ripples. He simply noted Orochimaru's target and methods, filing them away.
Tsunade, in her secluded research within the Senju compound, unknowingly aided Kenji's quest. Guided by his subtle suggestions towards understanding "the fundamental nature of Senju vitality and its interaction with elemental chakra," she had recently made a significant theoretical breakthrough. Her work, meticulously detailed in her private journals (which Kenji, as her "devoted husband," had discreet, unrestricted access to), outlined a complex hypothesis on how specific chakra signatures could stimulate or suppress cellular regeneration and even influence genetic expression if precise resonant frequencies were applied. While purely theoretical for her, Kenji immediately recognized its profound implications for safely integrating something as potent and potentially volatile as Hashirama's cells. Tsunade, in her misguided love and trust, was inadvertently handing him the keys to unlock his next great evolution.
Jiraiya, fresh from an extended period of intense Sage training on Mount Myoboku, returned to Konoha a changed man. His power was immense, radiating a natural energy that was both formidable and strangely calming. But his spirit was heavy. He witnessed Orochimaru's increasingly blatant use of Edo Tensei on a recent mission – reanimated shinobi wearing the faces of fallen comrades and enemies alike, a grotesque mockery of life and death – and the experience had solidified his resolve. He openly confronted Orochimaru in the Jonin Standby Station, their argument escalating into a brief, furious clash of jutsus that only Hiruzen Sarutobi's personal intervention managed to quell. Jiraiya then directly appealed to the Hokage and the council, demanding Orochimaru be sanctioned, his research into forbidden jutsu halted. His pleas, however, were met with uncomfortable silence from some and outright opposition from Danzo's faction, who still valued Orochimaru's "wartime contributions." The rift between the Sannin-to-be was now a gaping wound, and Jiraiya's path was set firmly against his former friend.
Kenji chose his moment during the chaotic aftermath of a major enemy offensive on Konoha's eastern front – a feint, he suspected, designed to draw resources while the true threat lay elsewhere. With the village's primary defenses and elite sensory units focused outwards, and key personnel like Hiruzen and Danzo preoccupied with the war council, internal security, while still high, would be stretched.
His target was a small, almost forgotten subterranean vault beneath the oldest section of the Hokage Tower, a place rumored in fragmented Senju lore to hold "sacred relics of the First." Its existence was barely a whisper, protected by layers of ancient, complex Uzumaki sealing arrays and an honor guard of Anbu whose patrol routes Kenji had meticulously mapped.
His infiltration was a testament to his accumulated power and intellect. He moved through the Hokage Tower like a disembodied thought, his Denki Myaku pushing his senses and reaction times to their peak. He used his refined Crystal Release to create minute, almost invisible prisms that bent light and sound around him, rendering him virtually undetectable. The ancient Uzumaki seals on the vault door, designed to repel or destroy intruders, were painstakingly analyzed with his own deep understanding of fuinjutsu. He didn't break them; he convinced them. Over several tense hours, he wove his own chakra into their matrix, creating a resonant bypass that allowed the massive stone door to slide open silently, for him alone.
Inside, the air was cold, still, and thrummed with a faint, almost imperceptible aura of immense life force. There were several artifacts, but his target was a small, unassuming scroll case, sealed with the personal insignia of Tobirama Senju, the Second Hokage, renowned for his pragmatism and his own scientific acumen. Kenji knew Tobirama would have understood the necessity of preserving his elder brother's unique genetic material, not for sentiment, but for future strategic value.
The scroll case contained exactly what he sought: several preserved tissue samples of Hashirama Senju, meticulously labeled, their chakra signature, even in this dormant state, a vibrant echo of unparalleled vitality.
Kenji took only a fraction – a few carefully selected samples, enough for his purposes, but not so much that their absence, if ever discovered by an equally perceptive individual, would be immediately obvious. He replaced the scroll case, resealed the vault with its original integrity restored, and exfiltrated as silently as he had entered, leaving no trace.
Back in his deepest, most shielded sanctuary, Kenji looked at the small, precious samples. He possessed it. The genetic key to the God of Shinobi. The raw material for Wood Release, for boundless vitality, for power beyond imagining. He thought of Tsunade's research, her theories on cellular activation and resonant frequencies – she had unknowingly provided him with the theoretical framework to attempt what even Orochimaru, with all his grotesque experiments, might still be struggling with: a safe, controlled integration.
The risk he had taken was monumental. Stealing directly from the Hokage's most sacred trust was an act of ultimate treason. But the potential reward was godhood. The war raged on, Orochimaru plotted, Jiraiya despaired, and Tsunade loved a phantom. Kenji, however, held the future in his hands, a future he would cultivate with the cells of a legend, in the fertile, blood-soaked soil of a dying world. His journey to becoming a true monster, a silent god among men, had just taken its most significant, and most dangerous, leap.