Chapter 29

Indra brought down his tanto on Aiyuri but her body exploded, scattering into multiple blood droplets. Then the blood droplets started flowing back to a central spot before fusing back and forming Aiyuri.

******

"Tch!* I hissed in annoyance as Aiyuri's body bursts into blood.

I wasn't going to let her reorient herself however so the moment she reformed, I appeared in front of her, before bringing the tanto down on her.

"Tch!" I hissed again as the tanto sank into her liquified body.

'So she can liquify every part of her body. Troublesome.'

"It won't be that easy to kill me, honey," she whispered with a smile on her face.

Aiyuri smiled as I realised my arm was stuck inside her liquified body. Before I could react, blood tentacles shoot out of her body and wraps around me. I could shrink myself and escape but I held still as I wanted to see what her jutsu could do. It was arrogant of me to just stay still, but she was weaker than me by a large margin so I was worried.

With a wide smile on her face, Aiyuri pulled me towards herself. She then grabbed my chin and brought my face close to hers. Using her nails, she nicked my cheek.

I started struggling, trying to free myself from the blood tentacle as she placed her tongue on my cheek and licked the blood off it.

"Hmm!!" she moaned. "Delicious," she added, placing her lips on my cheek.

'Is my blood that addictive?!' I wondered as she started sucking out my blood more intensely while letting out periodic moaning sounds.

'Ah! this is pointless,' I muttered.

I moved my face, trying to extricate myself from her intense motion but I couldn't.

'My body is becoming slower," I noticed as it began harder to move.

What's going on?!' I thought, my eyelids slowly closing. I felt a feeling of fatigue slowly creeping alongside an increasing feeling of suffocating.

"That's it, go to sleep," Aiyuri whispered into my eyes. "I'd be here when you wake up," she added.

Aiyuri was slowly depriving me of oxygen by limiting the amount of oxygen my blood carries. It was an incredibly dangerous jutsu that could slowly kill anyone she comes in contact with.

Still struggling for breath, I activated 'SukunaHikona' shrinking myself out of her grasp. The blood tentacles bursts as I disappeared from its hold.

I spent the next few minutes gasping as I ran deeper into the island, with the voice of Aiyuri screaming to her lackeys echoing behind me.

"He went that way!!" She pointed, still tracking me via my blood.

..........

When I could finally breathe properly, I returned to my original size before turning to face my pursuers. When Aiyuri and her lackeys got within 10 metre range, I felt my heart rate increase with my mind getting clouded.

I painfully clutched my head as my Byakugan forcefully activated with blood flowing out of both eyes.

"You should have gone to sleep when I asked you to," Aiyuri stated with a twisted smile on her face.

"You will submit to me, Indra," she growled, lifting me by the scruff of my neck.

"Hahaha," I chuckled, my arms limply falling to my sides.

With blood flowing out of my eyes. "You can control the blood of others by infecting their blood with yours," I said, her eyes widening slightly. "But you can only do so within a 5 metre range, no, a 10 metre range. That's how part of your jutsu works, isn't it?!" I continued.

Aiyuri chuckled before replying. "So what? If you had figured that out sooner, you might have been able to resist, but now....You cant do anything about it."

"When I tasted your blood, I knew I wanted more of it. Don't worry little boy, you wouldn't be dying yet," she said.

"You talk too much," I whispered.

"What? Finally giving up?!" she asked, bringing her ear closer to me.

"I said you talk too much," I reiterated, shrinking myself out of her grasp.

In my shrunken form, I leaped above her, and then I summoned a massive chakra rod, crushing her underneath it.

Returning to my original form, I turned towards the lackeys of Aiyuri. Slowly dropping back to the ground, I summoned countless chakra rods before sending them towards them.

Creating a clone, I ordered it to kill any shinobi that survived the barrage of chakra rods while I went around the island to search for any living Senju clan member.

**********************

.............

The moment Indra's clone dispelled, Hiruzen summoned the Anbu commander, Jonin commander, and the head of the medical department to his office.

"Hanaka, I want the death certificate of every Senju since the First died," he instructed the medical department head.

"I'd arrange that, Sandaime-sama," Hanaka replied.

"Keep it confidential," Hiruzen added, dismissing Hanaka.

"What's going on Sandaime-sama?" the jonin commander, Nara Shikano asked.

Hiruzen cleared his office of his Anbu guards, he then summoned Danzo and explained Indra's suspicions to the trio when they'd gathered.

"Are you certain about this, Hiruzen?" Danzo asked.

"No, I am not," Hiruzen replied. "It's just a suspicion and based on the information Indra provided, it is worth investigating."

Danzo was about to continue speaking but Hanaka came into the office with the documents Hiruzen requested.

"Thank you, Hanaka. That would be all for now," Hiruzen said, dismissing him.

The investigation was a sensitive one, so Hiruzen passed part of the scrolls to the trio for them to check for discrepancies.

They proceeded to spend the next three hours thoroughly going through every death certificate provided by Hanaka, and what they discovered made Indra's suspicion all the more likely.

"Hawk, lockdown the village and round up every medic-nin," Hiruzen ordered the Anbu commander.

"Hai!!" he replied before disappearing.

Based on the information gathered, an unusual amount of non-shinobi Senju clan members were pronounced dead after what seems like a routine medical check-up. And what made it more unusual was that every one of the death certificates was signed by a single doctor, a former Anbu-medic, that now worked in the medical department.

Capturing the rogue medic-nin was relatively easy. When you have the Hokage, Danzo, and various Anbu operatives trying to capture you, there's nothing much you could do. After arresting the traitor, he was brought to the Torture and interrogation department and a Yamanaka was then brought in to get the information needed directly from his head.

"How did it go?" Hiruzen asked.

"It went somewhat well, Hokage-sama," Inokuma, the head of the Yamanaka clan said after checking the memories of the traitor. "I accessed most of his memories, but some of them were erased by a powerful genjutsu."

"Was he controlled by someone else?" Hiruzen asked.

"No, Hokage-sama. He betrayed the village of his own volition. Using the war as a cover he began selling promising Senju members in hopes of recreating the wood release of the First," Inokuma explained.

"Who was he working with?" Danzo asked.

"I couldn't tell, Danzo-sama. Whoever he was working with erased their presence from his mind," Inokuma explained.

"There's something else," Inokuma added. "His memories showed him giving a vial of blood to someone, but like most of his memories concerning who I assume to be his partner, the identity of the person was erased. According to him, the DNA he extracted from the blood was different, and he insisted it was the blood of a god. Although I think it's ridiculous, his mental state isn't for me to analyse."

Hiruzen frowned upon hearing the findings of Inokuma. The man had analysed the blood of thousands of shinobi so it was going to be hard to single out which person's blood was in that vial.

"Were you able to get the name of the person the blood was extracted from?" Hiruzen asked.

"No, I wasn't, Hokage-sama. Whoever he was working it went out of their way to ensure he/she wasn't discovered," Inokuma replied. "Although I think his mental health had deteriorated, in several fragments of his memories, he kept mumbling he knew the identity of the Blood Fox."

Danzo, and Hiruzen froze upon hearing this.

"Are you sure?" Danzo demanded.

"Yes, Danzo-sama."

"Did he ever mention a name?" Hiruzen asked.

"No he didn't, and If he did that fragment of memory was erased. I'm sorry Hokage-sama, that was all I could recover from his memories," Inokuma apologised.

Hiruzen nodded before walking out of the Torture and Interrogation department building alongside Danzo.

"Do you think what Inokuma said about Indra's blood is true?" Danzo asked immediately they were out of the earshot of everyone.

"How can you be sure he was referring to Indra? Besides, is that what concerns you from everything Inokuma explained?" replied Hiruzen.

"Hoshiro was the medic-nin that analysed Indra's blood when he originally came to Konoha although he said there was nothing special to it, it is now obvious why he said so.

If he was right, and Indra's cells contain even greater secrets than we were originally told... Imagine the power Konoha would obtain if Indra's cells and the cells of the First are drafted on shinobi of the village that's completely loyal..." Danzo stated, emphasising the last part.

Hiruzen went silent for a few minutes, ruminating the words of Danzo.

"It would be almost impossible to get a significant amount of blood from Indra," Hiruzen replied, his stance leaning towards the alluring words of Danzo.

"Leave that to me," replied Danzo.