After leaving the Hokage's office, the four members of Team Eleven went their separate ways and returned home.
This S-rank mission had taken nearly two months from start to finish, and the series of intense battles had left everyone utterly exhausted. As a result, the Third Hokage granted Team Eleven a well-deserved two-week vacation.
Back home, lying on his bed, Hyuga Kagami carefully recalled the Third Hokage's reactions during their debriefing. From the Hokage's demeanor and behavior, he was able to deduce that the mission in the Land of Demons had indeed been a coincidence and not a secret test or ploy.
"Seems I was overthinking it. If the Third Hokage really suspected me of colluding with Orochimaru, he could've detained me outright. There'd be no need for all this subtle maneuvering."
Calming his thoughts, Kagami began reviewing the gains from their mission in the Land of Demons.
He had obtained a significant amount of Purple Clay, and he had also studied and fully understood all the sealing techniques documented in the artificial Tailed Beast research files—without a doubt, his greatest achievements during this mission.
In addition, forging a friendship with the priestess of the Land of Demons was no small matter either.
One should never underestimate the priestess. Her plea for aid had mobilized three of the Five Great Ninja Villages—Konoha, Iwagakure, and Sunagakure—who all dispatched elite units in response. That alone spoke volumes about her influence in the region.
Forming personal connections with someone of such high standing, whose status among the common world rivaled that of a feudal lord, would be highly beneficial for Kagami's future. Not to mention, as a master of sealing techniques, the priestess could provide him with valuable guidance and insight for his artificial Tailed Beast project.
"The next issue is the chakra source for the artificial Tailed Beast."
With that thought, Kagami's mind started to wander.
He vaguely recalled that the artificial Tailed Beast "Zero-Tails" created by Shinno drew chakra from numerous ordinary villagers. This led to its unstable chakra and poor quality.
As a result, when the Zero-Tails attempted to absorb the high-level chakra of Naruto and Sasuke, it was easily overwhelmed, resulting in an uncontrollable rampage.
This served to validate Orochimaru's previous suggestion: the chakra source for an artificial Tailed Beast should be singular.
Gathering chakra from multiple people might create a massive pool of energy, but it was too volatile and easily disrupted, increasing the risk of the artificial beast going berserk.
However, singular and powerful chakra sources were extremely rare in the entire ninja world.
This made Kagami recall the demon Moryo that had been recently sealed away. In terms of chakra quantity alone, Moryo was more than sufficient to act as the core source for an artificial Tailed Beast.
Unfortunately, its chakra was far too malevolent, and it possessed a strong will and consciousness akin to a real Tailed Beast.
Using its chakra would essentially mean transferring its soul into a new body—swapping out its original form for one made of Purple Clay.
In essence, there would be no real change. It would just be Moryo in a different shell, which would do Kagami more harm than good.
What Kagami truly needed was a chakra source that either had no will of its own or possessed only a faint consciousness.
After much thought, he determined that only one such source remained—the Dragon Vein at the ruins of Roran in the Land of Wind.
From his memory, the Dragon Vein's chakra had a gentle nature. Even ordinary people like the Queen of Roran could control it through their bloodline. More importantly, the Dragon Vein seemed to lack a dominant will, making it theoretically usable by non-royal individuals who mastered the proper techniques.
Using the Dragon Vein as a chakra core would greatly increase the stability of his artificial Tailed Beast.
The only problem was that several years ago, the Fourth Hokage had sealed the Dragon Vein. To utilize its power, Kagami would first have to break that seal.
"The Fourth likely used a sealing technique from the Uzumaki clan. But which one, exactly?"
Kagami frowned in thought.
Although he had learned the Uzumaki clan's sealing techniques from the artificial Tailed Beast documents with the priestess' guidance, that didn't mean he had truly mastered them.
In reality, he couldn't yet use any of the Uzumaki sealing techniques, let alone forbidden ones like the Reaper Death Seal.
What he had learned was merely how to replicate the pre-designed sealing formulas as laid out in the research. He had no understanding of the actual chakra control or hand seals required to perform the seals himself. The documents didn't cover those aspects—either they were never included or Orochimaru had deliberately removed them.
"Looks like I'll have to make a trip to Roran."
Only by going in person could he determine exactly what kind of seal the Fourth Hokage had used, and how to go about breaking it.
He also considered that the Queen's bloodline might influence the Dragon Vein's behavior. It might be wise to bring her along in case something unexpected happened during the unsealing process.
After a good night's sleep, Kagami wasted no time the next morning. He grabbed a few tools and headed straight to the Forest of Death.
His battle with Iwamoto had shown him how crucial poison could be.
He regretted not poisoning the Iron Sand he used to control the Third Kazekage puppet. Even if he had severely injured his enemy, they often managed to survive.
Scorpion, by contrast, could kill with even the most minor wounds, thanks to the deadly poisons laced in his attacks.
Kagami was no stranger to poison. His summoned creature, the one-eyed viper, had potent venom. However, after several wars and with experts like Hanzo the Salamander becoming famous, all major villages had invested heavily in poison resistance and development.
As a result, simple snake venom was no longer as effective in battle.
Thus, Kagami went to the Forest of Death to collect poisonous creatures to craft a compound toxin.
Upon entering, memories of the past flooded his mind.
He knew this place well.
Before graduation, the Ninja Academy had often organized field training sessions here for aspiring Genin. While he didn't know every inch of the forest, he was familiar with its general layout.
The forest was teeming with venomous creatures—snakes, scorpions, spiders, centipedes, moths, and rodents were the most common. His mission was to collect their venom sacs and glands.
After about an hour of leaping between treetops, Kagami made his first find.
Near a small pond, a cobra was locked in a standoff with a scruffy wild boar.
Kagami smirked at the boar. "You're lucky today."
With that, he hurled a shuriken and pinned the cobra's head cleanly to the ground.
Landing softly, he swiftly dissected the snake, extracting the larger of its two venom sacs before tossing the body aside.
Just then, the boar that had earlier fled rushed back in, grabbed the snake corpse, and tried to run off with it.
Kagami froze for a moment before shouting, "Hey! That thing's poisonous! Are you really that much of a pig?!"