While Touki was obsessed with Project X for weeks, several things happened in the village that ended up surprising him in multiple ways, starting with a significant change by Konoha's authorities regarding ninja tactics, all focused on the new weapons that have begun to spread throughout the world. The man has to admit, the Hokage acted quickly, imposing new standards for the armament and protection of active ninjas and updating the academy's curriculum.
Ninjas of all ranks have slowly begun to appear with increased personal protection, such as breastplates of all kinds, helmets, armbands, shields, and some even full body armor, all seemingly capable of withstanding grenade shrapnel and hand cannon fire, the cost obviously being a decrease in the wearer's speed, though clearly many prefer the protection much more, especially against surprise attacks.
That's not all, as copies of the hand cannons have begun appearing in the hands of some ninjas, apparently as test prototypes. The academy has also taken part in the change by studying the benefits of firearms and has established several courses for children on how to deal with firearms and how to use them. According to Touki's findings, Konoha's weapon models rely on the use of miniaturized explosive tags to operate.
The man has to be satisfied that his plan to spread firearms has worked, but everything seems to be moving faster than he originally predicted. Agents of the Divine Order in every nation report a dizzying arms race in almost every nation, but those who have taken the issue most seriously are the large villages, which seem determined not to lose their military advantage over civilian nations.
But Touki's eyes went to a much more important topic, as little Naruto did as he suggested and asked Hinata out, a moment he unfortunately couldn't witness. According to Karin, all the children were shocked by the event, especially Hinata, who fainted from the emotional shock, causing poor Naruto to think he had been rejected. But as soon as the girl woke up, she gathered all the strength she could and shouted yes in the boy's face, turning the scene into something extremely comical.
The two children went on a date, and Naruto was apparently smitten by Hinata's kindness, and within a few days they were officially in a relationship. Touki doesn't quite understand the politics between the village clans, as he thought the first one to oppose the relationship would be Hiashi, Hinata's father, but apparently he hasn't said anything so far. He suspects it has to do with the little-hidden secret that Naruto is the village's jinchuriki, who will undoubtedly wield great political power in the future.
Naruto hasn't changed at all, being the same naive and cheerful boy, although he seems to be happier than ever. On the other hand, Neji sometimes appears at the store, quite serious and somewhat angry, and seems like he wants to attack Naruto, but always ends up holding back, because now Hinata usually accompanies her boyfriend every afternoon to apparently defend him from the other girls, who simply don't know how to act in front of the unexpected couple, especially Sakura, who no longer has the attention of her former suitor.
Touki always wanted to intervene in Naruto's life, and Hinata's situation is no exception, as he always knew they were (literally) made for each other. Now all that remains is to wait for their love to be reborn in this reality, a little prematurely, but perhaps more satisfying for the boy, who truly needs the affection of someone like her.
On a different note, Izumi kept her word and organized the intelligence department, then began a thorough cleansing of the regions under the control of the Divine Order, ridding them of corruption and eliminating foreign agents, giving Tomomi and her entourage of ex-Kirigakure ninjas plenty to do.
There were quite a few conflicts and minor battles throughout the major cities under the order's control, apparently due to the presence of quite a few spies from the larger villages, mostly from Iwagakure. But in one of those many attacks on foreign agents, Tomomi's group encountered some rather strange individuals, who once cornered, would unleash extraordinary strength and transform into true monsters, capable of facing opponents clearly stronger than them. Fortunately, Tomomi and her group are really strong by normal standards, so they were able to kill most of them, in addition to capturing two individuals for interrogation, which didn't work out very well, as they died before they could say anything, apparently due to the effect of a control seal capable of killing the bearer if their mind is somehow invaded or if they themselves are about to tell a secret.
Touki quickly pieced together clues to realize that Orochimaru was attempting to infiltrate his territory, so he ordered a much more thorough cleanup of the area where the cursed-marked ninjas were found. For days on end, especially at night, a sort of hunt ensued, where one by one the Serpent's agents began to be eliminated, until, in a stroke of luck, Tomomi personally managed to track down the leader of the infiltrated ninjas, Guren herself, the only known possessor of the crystal manipulation Kekkei Genkai. Apparently, the battle was quite a spectacle, in which Tomomi had to use her entire arsenal of techniques and the maximum capacity of her armor to be able to confront Guren, who also had to use everything at her disposal to try to escape from her relentless pursuer.
The battle lasted for hours, requiring reinforcements from all sides to contain the destruction Guren was wreaking as she tried to escape. In the end, Tomomi, Izumi, and Zabuza were able to exhaust the woman and then, on the orders of the Great Chief, capture her and seal her chakra ability.
Touki is not naive enough to believe he can convince Guren to betray Orochimaru, but like the latter, he has a great interest in the power of her Kekkei Genkai, something that may be useful in the future, in addition, by not killing her, he prevents her from being brought back in the future with the Edo tensei, The woman was locked in a straitjacket in the order's most secure prison, dozens of meters underground, on a small island on the shores of the land of tea, in a room completely isolated from outside energy by fuinjutsu and Touki's runic seals, very similar to a Faraday cage against chakra.
As a result, the presence of external agents almost completely disappeared from the order's territories in a matter of weeks, capturing several ninjas and individuals quite unscrupulous in their actions. Touki, using it as an excuse to punish in an exemplary way one of the worst captured subjects and to prove something that was on his mind since the beginning of Project X, he took the worst individual and took him on a one-way trip to the dead world, where he slowly suffocated to death.
As he watched the man turn blue from the cold and lack of air, Touki's mind filled with ideas and he began to make diabolical plans to use the dead planet as a true weapon, perhaps capable of eliminating quite a few characters that until now he found impossible to defeat...
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