Material

In the next day, Hiroki woke up early and went to read the reports of the first battles that occurred. He saw that Konoha and Kiri first sent their genin to battle to measure the power of the enemy. Things stayed in a stalemate between the two sides until Kiri started sending chunin. When that happened, over 20% of the genin from Konoha died in battle while many were injured. The battles after that episode, Konoha's camp started sending chunin as well and the balance turned towards Konoha. Kiri started seeing that they were losing and started sending a few Jounin between battles. They expected to get Konoha shinobi by surprise, but they were the ones surprised as Konoha's jounin were already waiting for Kiri to do the same thing. That was when things started escalating and the battles started becoming fiercer.

'Interesting. Things will get heated up now, but I believe Konoha is strong enough to win against Kiri. Specially now that we have an alliance with Suna.' Hiroki thought.

As Hiroki was going out from the tent, he saw Kakashi, Rin and Obito.

"Hey guys. Good to see you. How have things been?" Hiroki asked them.

"It's been hectic a little, but we've been practicing a lot with Minato-sensei." Obito said as he grinned while Kakashi and Rin just nodded.

"That's good to hear. Kakashi, how is your practice with chidori? Are you able to use it without affecting your peripheral vision?" Hiroki asked.

"Yes. I'm finally able to see my surroundings when I use it while running. I also worked on other variations of the technique as you had recommended to me." Kakashi replied.

"That very good Kakashi. Practice hard and those around you will always be by your side when you have enough power to protect them." Hiroki said. He then looked at Rin.

"And you Rin, how's your medic jutsus coming out? I bet you have a lot of opportunities to practice it on Obito." Hiroki said as he chuckled. Rin and Kakashi chuckled as well.

"I have improved a lot. Obito has helped me practice. Kakashi has as well, but not as much as Obito." Rin said as she smiled.

"What? What do you mean by that?" Obito asked while he looked at the others, not understanding them.

"That's good to hear. I'll let you guys do what you were up to. I'm be taking a stroll around." Hiroki said as he went towards the exit of the camp.

As Hiroki left the camp, he felt a strange presence nearby. He spread out his senses and noticed it was not a Kiri shinobi. It actually was not a shinobi at all.

'Heh. Looks like I'll have to make a quick trip to Konoha today.' Hiroki said as he grinned. And after that, a sound of "pop" was heard and Hiroki turned into smoke.

"What? That was a clone. I'm sure that was a real person." The person that was hiding while looking inside Konoha's camp said. He then heard a voice behind him and freaked out.

"I am a real person. I just switched places with a shadow clone." Hiroki said with tranquility as he looked towards the person.

"So, who are you and what were you doing here?" Hiroki asked.

At the moment Hiroki asked his questions, he released a certain amount of killing intent towards that person. When that person felt this amount of killing intent, he fled at his quickest speed, but it was of no use as Hiroki ran after, not giving time nor space in between them.

"You haven't answered me. Do you expect me to just let you leave like that?" Hiroki asked as he sped even more and kicked the person, sending them towards a tree. Hiroki then went towards the area of impact and stayed above looking towards said person.

"I.. I'm just passing by. I stopped once I saw that it was a battle camp." The person said with a strange voice.

"Oh. I see. Just passing by. Sorry, but not good enough." Hiroki said as he flashed and appeared behind the now headless body.

"Even if you weren't doing anything, I would still kill you, but I sure do know what you have been doing, White Zetsu." Hiroki said as he took a sealing scroll out from his kunai pouch.

A few seconds later, Hiroki sealed White Zetsus body inside the scroll and strolled back towards the battle camp.

———

Inside a dark and damp cave

Zetsu trembled and opened his eyes while grunting.

"Zetsu, what happened? Were you able to look more into the young Uchiha?" a heavy and deep voice asked.

"I lost the connection with the other Zetsu. The last thing I saw was a shinobi in black that discovered me. The other Zetsu tried fleeing, but it was of no use." Zetsu said.

"Did you say anything?" The voice asked once again.

"Of course not. I tried fleeing, but he went after the other Zetsu and killed him." Zetsu said.

"There shouldn't be anyone that is able to sense you other than me. You also have a good ability to hide so this shinobi is someone that has a sharp sense that is even better than the Yamanaka's. Either way, we should stop observing the young Uchiha for the time being." The deep voice said once again.

———

In Konoha's battle camp

Hiroki had returned from the small chase and went towards the tent that Minato and Sakumo were.

"Ni-San, Sakumo-San, I have to make a quick trip to Konoha, but I'll be back in a few hours." Hiroki said.

"Alright. Be careful. We are at war and we never know what might happen." Sakumo said.

Minato just nodded his head and didn't say anything to Hiroki, as he was looking towards the mal of the battlefield.

Hiroki then Hiraishined to Konoha.

———

Inside Orochimaru's lab

Orochimaru was writing down in a book the result of his latest experiments about nature chakra when he felt the air in the room waver. He stopped writing and looked at his back.

"Hiroki-kun, I thought you were in Kiri helping with the battle. What brings you here?" Orochimaru asked.

"Orochimaru-san, I was at the battle camp, but I found something that you will like. It'll help you in your future experiments about cloning." Hiroki said. As the words were pressed by Orochimaru, he stood up quickly and faced Hiroki.

"Show me. What is this material you said that would help me creat synthetic clones?" Orochimaru asked, not showing his usual serious face.

Hiroki took out a scroll from his kunai pouch and handed it to Orochimaru.

"Here, open it. You will find most of what you need in here."

Orochimaru then placed the scroll on top of a large table and opened the scroll. He made a hand sign and Zetsu's body was unsealed. Orochimaru was surprised to see a headless body.

"Hiroki-kun, I thought that it would be something else. Another body won't be of much help."

"Hehe. Why don't you analyze the body? I'm sore you'll find a lot of secrets inside it." Hiroki said as he chuckled. Orochimaru then took a piece of flesh from the body and placed it on the microscope. Once he saw the contents inside he took a step back and started to take deep breaths.

"This.. this.. where did you find this person? How?" Orochimaru asked.

"Calm down. I can't say where I found it, but just keep this between us. Imagine as if I was never here and didn't have this conversation with you. I have to go back to the battle camp. Take your time and analyze it thoroughly alright. As I said, you will have almost everything you need to creat a perfect clone for yourself." Hiroki said as he Hiraishined once more.