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"Idiot!" Danzō, stationed at the border of the Land of Rain, was furious upon receiving the report from his Root operatives. While others might be ignorant, he certainly knew what that location signified.
Ever since the Third Hokage had granted Danzō full authority to conduct Wood Release experiments, Danzō had immediately begun studying the First Hokage's remains.
Driven to reproduce Wood Release as swiftly as possible, he had also initiated a series of human experiments.
However, the primary cells proved excessively corrosive, leading to the failure of those experiments and the inevitable deaths of the test subjects.
According to the original timeline, Orochimaru had already begun collaborating with Danzō due to funding issues, and Orochimaru would have properly disposed of these failed experimental subjects.
However, in this altered reality, Orochimaru had not been coerced into assisting with live experiments using the First Hokage's cells due to financial constraints.
Consequently, Danzō had instructed his own men to handle the bodies of those who perished after the experiments failed.
The Root ninja, lacking specific instructions, had simply found a nearby location to bury the bodies, treating it much like clearing a battlefield.
It was these buried corpses, all having died from injections of the First Hokage's cells, that possessed certain characteristics of those cells: abundant life force and extreme Earth and Water Release affinities.
As a result, the soil in that area had begun to transform, becoming saturated with vitality and a significant amount of chakra with both Water and Earth attributes.
Humans might not perceive these subtle changes, but earthworms, which fed on microorganisms within the soil, were highly sensitive to such alterations.
Upon discovering that this particular patch of soil was teeming with microorganisms beneficial to their growth, they had begun to congregate there in large numbers.
Over several years of accelerated metamorphosis and reproduction, they had all undergone mutation.
This time, it was the Third Hokage's observation of the unproductive Wood Release experiments, which had only resulted in the deaths of numerous test subjects, that had led him to halt the research.
Following the Third Hokage's decree, Danzō no longer dared to conduct human experiments openly. Consequently, the number of deceased test subjects had drastically decreased, leading the mutant earthworms to exhaust their primary food source and triggering their unusual emergence.
But now, he needed to distance himself from the matter. Danzō set down the report in his hand.
"Dispatch someone to deal with those imbeciles who handled the bodies immediately."
"Yes!"
…
Leaving aside Danzō's current actions, Yuta found himself unable to fully relax after returning home.
Shortly after the Third Hokage addressed the mutant earthworms that had surfaced, his ninja had excavated the affected area deep into the ground, eliminating all the mutant earthworms they could find.
Finally, a thorough search had uncovered the recently buried remains. The Third Hokage had immediately grasped the situation, feeling a surge of annoyance towards his old comrade.
In the end, he was left to clean up Danzō's mess.
After observing his subordinates finish dealing with the mutant earthworms, the Third Hokage, fearing that any delay might arouse suspicion, announced to the onlookers that the village had successfully dealt with all the mutant earthworms, assuring them that they no longer needed to worry about being attacked.
Once the onlookers had dispersed, the Third Hokage directly performed a large-scale Earth Release: Earth Burial, turning the ground in the area completely upside down and thoroughly concealing any remaining traces.
However, Yuta sensed the presence of several abnormally large mutant earthworms surviving deep underground, approximately three kilometers away from the incident site.
They had swiftly moved away before sensing the immediate danger.
Having witnessed Hanzō's salamander, Yuta had been considering finding a summoning beast for himself, but he hadn't anticipated these earthworms practically arriving at his doorstep.
However, now was not the opportune moment to subdue these creatures. Before attempting to tame them, he needed to discuss it with his family.
What if they disliked earthworms? Additionally, Yuta had another concern: earthworms lacked eyes. How could they effectively assist him in combat in the future?
When Kiko finished treating Hanzō and returned home, she saw Yuta holding Kyoko in his arms, playing with her happily. Shingo sat on the ground by himself, absentmindedly sucking his fingers while watching his father interact with his sister.
Kiko went forward and picked up her neglected younger son from the floor. Observing her husband's blatant favoritism towards their daughter, she said with mock displeasure, "Just keep spoiling her! Be careful she ends up unwed in the future."
"Whoever has the honor of marrying my daughter in the future will be incredibly fortunate. How dare you suggest anyone would despise my daughter? You are practically committing treason against her future suitor." Yuta playfully glared at Kiko and continued to tease his daughter in his arms.
…
The silver moonlight bathed all of Konohagakure. Most of the village had fallen asleep, but due to the outbreak of war, a few areas still glowed with bright lights, resembling scattered stars against the night sky.
Yuta lay in bed and recounted the day's events to Kiko, including his encounter with the mutated earthworms and his subsequent thoughts and concerns.
When Kiko heard that her husband was worried about her potential aversion to earthworms and was thus hesitant about taming them as summoning beasts, she felt both touched and amused.
She was touched by her husband's consideration for her feelings. What she found amusing was that, as a medical ninja, she had witnessed all manner of gruesome sights, so why would she be afraid of an earthworm?
Tsunade's summoning beast was a slug, yet Tsunade and Katsuyu had a harmonious relationship. And according to Yuta's description, the earthworms' ability to burrow underground could provide excellent protection for their family.
Seeing that Kiko had no objections, Yuta sat up and retrieved a scroll from the cabinet, intending to subdue those earthworms immediately.
"Are you going now? Why the sudden rush?"
"Well! There's no telling where those earthworms might burrow off to after a while, so the sooner I act, the better." Yuta put on his clothes and opened the door to leave.
When Yuta reached the riverbank, he used his chakra to sense his surroundings and found that the earthworms had indeed returned to the depths of the riverbed, once again living there undisturbed.
It seemed that while these earthworms had mutated physically, their intelligence remained rudimentary, driven primarily by instinct.
However, Yuta was not overly concerned by this. His initial plan had been to subdue these earthworms and relocate them to live beneath his own house.
In this way, with regular exposure to the beads and occasional moments of enlightenment, the strength of these earthworms would increase rapidly, and they would be able to play a significant role in a few years.
"Earth Release Technique!"
Yuta utilized his chakra to scan the vicinity, and upon confirming that no one was present, he dove directly underground, swiftly descending to the bottom of the riverbed.
The riverbed floor was exceedingly damp and dark. Fortunately, Yuta's enhanced sensory abilities allowed him to clearly "see" the surrounding environment; otherwise, navigating such distances underground would have been exceedingly difficult.
"Wow! So big!" Although he knew the remaining earthworms were enormous, the sensation of observing them up close was vastly different from viewing them from a distance.
Yuta discovered that the five remaining earthworms were all approximately thirty meters in length, with the largest one nearing forty meters.