Chapter 4

Entering the room that Orochimaru had been waiting for him in he couldn't help but notice the body covered by a sheet on a medical table before his attention shifted due to hearing Orochimaru chuckling "What's so funny"


"My my you took your time should I be expecting little red-haired Sharingan babies crawling around soon?" said Orochimaru with a grin


"No, I just came from telling Karin why I don't think red-haired Sharingan babies are a good idea after the pain I caused her over the years" with a little remorse slipping into his voice


Hearing this still caught Orochimaru by surprise but he does understand Sasuke's reasoning behind now pursuing something with Karin " I understand she may not be disappointed for long if Suigetsu makes his feelings known and she accepts them although I'd be disappointed in you if you rejected Karin just to go produce Pink-haired Sharingan babies with Tsunade-hime's apprentice" trying to see Sasuke reaction to such.


"Hn I have no interest in a relationship with Sakura either considering I've tried to kill her also and she did come here after her last failed attempt to join me on my journey to confront and stake her claim over me to Karin" Remembering the other part of Karin's letter she sent a while back "Wait did you say Suigetsu has feelings for Karin" Seeing Orochimaru smile and nod he continued" That would make so much sense now I understand why he picks fights with her it's for her attention, what a Child's way to go about it"


"Kukuku indeed now how about I show you what exactly we are dealing with here" Orochimaru uncovers the body that he had been examining revealing a male corpse who's been dissected to perform an autopsy "Middle age male cause of death chakra exhaustion"


"Chakra exhaustion I thought this a victim of the white Zetsu?" Wondering why Orochimaru was showing him a random corpse


"This is a victim of a white Zetsu" walking over to a jar on the table picking it up and handing it to Sasuke "Look closely what do you see in that Jar"


Taking the jar and examining it he sees some type of fungi or similar plant "Is this a spore?"


"Excellent I see your time away from this place hasn't dulled the scientific knowledge I taught you but yes it would seem this man was attacked by a white Zetsu but allowed to escape due to him being infected with this spore" Taking back the jar before handing Sasuke some reports he'd received from Konoha "As you can see Tsunade-hime has performed her Autopsy on a corpse recovered by Konoha forces but hers lacked spores and died by a slash wound to his abdomen only traced to a Zestu due to the residual chakra left in the wound"


"I see so Zetsu's are not only attacking people just to kill but some are infecting people with spores" Looking through the reports taken note that this body was found by Suigetsu and Juugo near the border of Takigakure while Konoha found their body near the fire temple 'so it's not a contained incident seeing the distance between both locations' thought Sasuke


"Yes the spores I believe are the reason more Zetsu are popping up whether someone was infected with it during the war and it went unnoticed are the person simply had a death wish and let what he thought was a sickness take him over time"


"Hn either if those are possible due to the depression people felt after waking from the so-called perfect dream" Sasuke remembered how some people who recognized him in the early parts of his travels would beg to be returned to the dream world


"While we could only hypothesize what caused this I do believe I figured out how it's spreading I believe these are a type of Myxozoan spores that release amoeboid infectious germs into their hosts for parasitic infection but also reproduce within the hosts through chakra instead of the way they regularly reproduce in nature and once they reach maturity inside their host transform the host into a tree or plant that grow Zetsu"


"what about the people who've been consuming Zetsu due to the rumour and are people actively going out to hunt to eat one or sell the bodies for profit?"


Orochimaru rolled his eyes" If you had finished reading the report in your hand instead of just looking at the first page you'd see that Kakashi has sent out some teams to look into who started the rumours of gaining hashirama level strength from eating a Zetsu and who's behind the hunting and sale if it's not the same person or organization but one thing we do know is the corpse Konoha found had consumed a piece of Zetsu and being cut open from the inside was the cause of his death"


Sasuke's Eyes widened "Cut open from the inside but that would mean a piece of Zestu was able to regrow itself from the chakra of the person who consumed it"


Orochimaru nods "You can see why this is considered a crisis due to the Zetsu being able to spread in such manners and why they need to be dealt with before they become too large of an issue"


"I suppose to should head to Konoha after I'm done here to talk to Kakashi about the situation"


"It would be wise if you resided in Konoha for a while it'll be easier to pass information and conduct missions from there than receiving reports and such on the roads"
"I was planning on staying there a while originally to figure out what I want to do in the future but I guess that can wait" Said Sasuke remembering his talk about the future of the clan with Indra


"That's all I have on the matter for now if you wish you could take your leave I have a project I've been working on that I'd like to get back to but I advise you to say goodbye to Karin if you plan on heading to Konoha now I don't need her saying I chased you away before you said bye to her"


Hearing that Orochimaru had nothing left to say on the matter Sasuke decided to take his way to the exit " I'll make sure to do that" With that said he left the room making his way back to say his goodbyes to Karin before he went to the impending headache that is Konoha


Entering the room he last left Karin he sees her sitting at her desk reading reports "Karin" he calls her name causing her to stand up and approach him


"So you're leaving now huh?" already knowing that he would be heading to Konoha based on the reports Orochimaru had received


"It'll be easier for me to receive information and complete mission assignments if I'm in the village"


Karin nods hearing his reasoning "Makes sense Orochimaru could just send his snakes to you instead of Anko who still isn't that fond of him"


"You should come to visit sometime you do have family residing in the leaf"


"You mean Naruto and Tsunade? I don't exactly know them but I guess they do possess Uzumaki blood" thinking of if she should try to connect with them more before putting it aside for now "So I guess you heading back to Konoha for a bit means you're gonna give pinky a shot huh"


Hearing Karin refer to Sakura as pinky causes Sasuke to chuckle before saying "I'm not interested in her my focus on heading back to Konoha is to help get control of the situation before it gets more out of hand than it already is"


"Well don't let me hold you up then it was nice seeing you again, too bad Juugo and Suigetsu couldn't be here for this reunion" hugging Sasuke goodbye


"Yeah I was looking forward to seeing the others but I guess it can't be helped, tell them I stopped by and said hey and I'll try to come to visit again when they are here"


" Will do"


Wondering if she asks Karin what she thinks of Suigetsu before ultimately deciding it's not his place to interfere he bids Karin farewell before opening a Portal to Konoha