Itsuki arrived at the Hyuga clan compound and showed his orders to the guards. After a few deliberations, he was ushered in the compound, along with a branch family member to keep an eye on him. Itsuki inwardly rolled his eyes at the power play but played along.
The branch family member accompanied him to a small dojo and instructed him to remove his sandals. Itsuki did that, while also removing senbons hidden in the soles. The guard did not even bat an eye at that.
Stepping inside, he swept his eyes over the entire room, taking in and profiling every threat and cataloging all escape routes. The entire room was bare, empty of any furniture which together with wooden floor and stark white walls gave the entire dojo a spartan feel.
In the middle of the room, two figures clashed in graceful combat, surrounded by Hyuga elders and clan members standing near the walls. Itsuki took one look around the room before settling his focus on the figures sparring in the middle. One was shorter than the other, with long hair wrapped in braids, Itsuki recognized her as Hanabi, while the taller figure looked about ten years old, with a curse mark on his forehead on full display, Neji Hyuga, the genius of the Hyuga clan.
Even to his inexperienced eye, it was clear Neji was winning. Just when Neji was about to land a decisive hit on Hanabi, a shout froze him right in his tracks.
"Enough. Spar ends." Hiashi Hyuga, the clan leader commanded.
Itsuki frowned at that. Neji's response to Hiashi's command was near-instantaneous, so fast that his brain likely had not even processed the command before stopping on pure reflex. This kind of behavior was not something that could be taught or learned, but need to be programmed using extreme stimuli.
Itsuki gaze flickered towards the curse mark visible on Neji's forehead, making out poison green curse mark on his forehead, barely readable even to him, a sealing master specializing in curse marks. Itsuki had no doubt that what stimuli were used, such mental conditioning cannot be done without spine-chilling pain.
The quiet room broke into a subdued chatter, elders evaluating the performance, clan members praising or criticizing. Amidst this, the guard accompanying Itsuki led him to Hiashi Hyuga.
After respectfully handing the orders to Clan's head, he withdraws back. Hiashi read the orders and looked over Itsuki.
"So you are one guarding my daughter," Hiashi spoke, his tone even. Itsuki did not detect any change in emotion, no disappointment at a reserve genin guarding his daughter. Only contempt.
Giving a very shallow bow, Itsuki replied with an equally even voice, "Yes Hiashi-sama." Internally smiling when Hiashi's contempt mudded with discontent at his tone.
Hiashi took the arm of a small figure behind him and brought her to the side. Itsuki watched as Hinata hastily balanced herself after being manhandled by her father. Hiashi continued as if nothing happened, speaking in the same even tone, "This is your charge, do your mission." Then he turned around and left, not giving them a second glance.
"Huh, isn't he peppy?" Itsuki spoke under his breath.
"You should not speak... rude about father," Hinata spoke, her shy tone filled with slight indignation. Itsuki turned to face her, and her indignant expression immediately evaporated and was replaced with fear. Through her emotions he detected regret, shame, and fear, she was regretting speaking out to him.
"You must be my charge," Itsuki spoke with a slight smile.
Then he bowed. He bowed to her much lower than he bowed to Hiashi. Some people standing around stopped, even Hinata started panicking a little. He did not outright undermine the authority of the Hyuga clan head but he came very close. This will not win him any brownie points with the Hyuga clan but he did not care.
"So shall we leave gozaru." Itsuki spoke to Hinata like a samurai to his liege, politely extending his left hand towards the door. Hinata looked positively red with embarrassment. Even more, people around stopped to look at the show, their contempt was palpable but Itsuki did not care. His focus was only on Hinata.
Since Itsuki came to the compound, he kept his sensing on a full drive, sensing every chakra signature. Every chakra signature he sensed was stiff and cold, and their emotions are barely hidden contempt and indifference. When he entered the dojo, the contempt he was sensing rose to a whole another level but amidst that, he sensed a weak chakra signature but the chakra he felt from it was warm, a stark contrast to cold Hyuga. But the emotions he sensed from it was sadness and loathing. When Hiashi pulled forward Hinata, he recognized her as the weak chakra signature.
No child should be depressed for the fault of others. Bowing her head, Hinata followed out but Itsuki did not miss the slight smile on her face and called it mission success.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Konoha General, Senior Medic Asa Shizuki's room
Asa Shizuki, alter ego of Tsunade sat in her office and looked at the results of the scan performed on the severed hand Itsuki gave her. And he was right, the scans show the material of hand was more plant-like than flesh she was expecting. The cells in the hand looked like plant cells, every test she performed showed them as animal cells. She came across many ninjas who changed the composition of their bodies, even Orochimaru did that but she never came across anything like this. But nothing astonished her more than the chakra they had, and the cells had a lot of it. Wild, barely distinguishable from background nature chakra but a lot of it. Even her grandfather did not have so much chakra unless he was in sage mode.
Leaning back in the chair, she put down the report, thinking what these all revelations could mean. Just then a knock on her door brought her out of her thoughts. Mogusa entered soon after, his normally affable face rigid. Coming in front of her desk, he placed a clipboard containing an inventory of every resource of the Medic Corps in front of Tsunade.
"Lady Tsunade, we have a problem," Mogusa said, turning the clipboard and pointing at the on same in particular. In his agitation, he did not even use her alias.
"Compound Nx-244, almost our entire stock is missing." Tsunade frowned. That was a big problem.
During the Second great ninja war, at the battlefield of Suna and Konoha, a large number of Konoha ninjas fell to Suna poisons. Although ultimately Tsunade developed an antidote to most of the poisons, the fear the poison users inspired remained. And Konoha high command decided to use this fear by creating their own poisons and funding a program to create even more fearsome poisons. Nx-244 was a product of it.
A truly fearsome poison, capable of being delivered through any vectors, air, water, weapons; and capable of killing in dosage of micrograms and it decomposed after some time in the open environment, making it impossible to detect.
It would have been a perfect poison if not for the fact that, unlike regular poisons, it acted slowly. In direct combat even if a ninja was able to inject poison into an enemy's bloodstream, the enemy will still be combat-capable for an hour. Moreover, it was extremely dangerous to handle. The death caused by Nx-244 was slow and painful, and even if you survived it, Nx-244 was extremely carcinogenic, meaning you would die in few months anyways.
Tsunade rubbed her forehead. She learned of this poison when it was brought in front of the village council. After listening to its effects, she put her foot down, claiming it to be too dangerous for even poison masters using it and its carcinogenic nature made it impossible to get immune against. At her directive entire project was scrapped and all Nx-244 ever made was extracted and stored in containment. And it should have stayed that way.
"Since when?" Tsunade asked.
"We have no idea. It could have been a day, a year, or two decades. Someone was forging the records of inventory. If I did not check the entire inventory myself due to the coming war, we would have never noticed it was missing." Mogusa replied.
"Then check in hospital records, bring me any case similar to Nx-244 poisoning," Tsunade ordered.
"Already done mam." Mogusa unsealed a stack of documents and placed them in front of her. This is why she liked Mogusa, he was a very reliable subordinate.
"Perhaps if you read their names, you will start noticing a pattern," Mogusa advised.
"Aito Uchiha, age 6..."
"Chiko Uchiha..."
"Hiroto Nakamura..."
"Kenji Uchiha..."
"Fuji Uchiha..."
Tsunade read more and more files and the pattern became clear. Almost everyone with symptoms similar to NX poisoning was Uchiha and below the age of 16. The more she read, the more her heart sank.
"Itachi Uchiha, age 9, symptom- cancerous tumor in the left lung..." Tsunade raised her eyebrows at that. But it was the last name that shook her the hardest.
"Ichika, no surname, age 3, symptoms- leukemia, excessive cell nuclear damage, epidermal cellular damage..."