I would like to announce that I released a new fiction titled My Life In The Multiverse, check it out and tell me what you think.

The cave went silent for a while with everyone lost in their own thoughts until Fugaku's communication device started ringing, and soon after, Tsunade's voice sounded with a hint of shock still there in her tone as she said "I just ended my investigation of cloud village.."

Picking up on her weird tone, Fugaku quickly asked "What did you find out?". With everyone's focus on this conversation, Tsunade went silent for a second before she said "I-I think I found the village hidden in the sky!"

"What!" Fugaku was shocked, and even the rest were also startled so he quickly wanted clarification "please explain further"

At this point, Minato shot Bakorio a look and he noticed a frown on his face, clearly this wasn't in his expectations which made him worried slightly as they heard Tsunade's voice again "Here's what happened…"

Tsunade started talking about her experience in cloud village and its weird architecture so she decided to investigate the ruins it was inspired from, and look and behold she found remains of buildings that didn't look like anything built in the land of fire, and after some more digging and investigation. To her astonishment, she discovered that those few buildings she saw were just the tip of the iceberg, and a whole lot more were buried underground, or to be precise… concealed! And she believed that they were the flying land that was once the village hidden in the sky.

"Do you think it could have been done by one person?" Asked Mukai suddenly startling Tsunade since she didn't know that there were more people here.

"Don't worry, it's only Minato and Bakorio, as well as Mukai" Fugaku explained so that she continues her explanation freely.

'Bakorio and Minato are also there?' Thought Tsunade inwardly before she continued "Yes, I don't think it's possible for him to do it on his own because the scale is simply too big, and to hide such a huge mass before we discover it means that it was done through the effort of of many ninjas"

'Sure enough, there are still many ninjas from the village hidden in the sky lurking arround but why's Bakorio still frowning, is it because of the way Shinno died?' Thought Minato as an uneasy feeling started to grow in his heart when he remembered the eerie presence he felt…

Fugaku's eyes instantly grew cold as he said "There's no way they would hide too far away from their village, there's a high chance that they could be hiding in one of the small islands near the east coast of the land of fire, I will send a team to investigate it as soon as possible!"

Tsunade also replied with a similarly cold voice as she added her opinion "I agree, but those people were always very advanced in their technology, so we should also investigate the sea in itself just in case". Tsunade saw the might of these people with her own eyes during the second ninja war and she knew that given such a long time has passed, it's impossible for them not to have made advancements in their technology.

"Okay, I will send a team to join you and you can continue the investigation with them" said Fugaku and after receiving a positive reply from Tsunade, he shut off the communication.

"You guys should go back to Konoha and let me know if there's any news of importance" said Bakorio as he prepared to leave and hasten his research with Orochimaru… But before he could, Minato suddenly stood in his path and asked with a concerned look on his face "Bakorio-kun, is everything okay?"

This caught the attention of the rest and Bakorio couldn't help but let out a sigh thinking it was hard to hide his emotions with Minato around, but he knew the guy was simply concerned about his well being so he smiled at him to ease his worries before he said "We need to get stronger, I don't think we will find our answers with these people that could only remain hidden and cowering in fear"

Fugaku narrowed his eyes at this as he asked "What do you mean?". Looking at him, Bakorio simply shrugged and said "It's clear as day that they are disposable pawns someone's using, and a similar situation to Shinno's would occur again if wanted to investigate the Zero tail's origin, and even if we find who's behind all of this, I don't think we stand a chance against him since even Hashirama failed. So, for the time being, you guys should focus on getting stronger" 'After all, this guy's soul was directly erased in an instant' thought Bakorio but he left it unsaid...

Once Bakorio was finished with what he said, he turned to Mukai and said " Train the kids for a while, I will call you if I need you" before he directly jumped on the back of Kurama and disappeared leaving the trio sighing.

"This brat is getting more and more annoying" Said Mukai with clear annoyance in his voice, although it wasn't clear what it was directed at before he nodded at the other two and disappeared back to Konoha leaving them to discuss the next plans…

…..

After he got some distance from the trio, Kurama couldn't help but stop and growl at Bakorio as the frown on the latter's face returned and deepened before he activated his Mangekyo Sharingan and started using Jikininki to calm his wild emotions filled with negativity.

This was something triggered after the death of Shinno as he felt the dark orb in his heart acting up and he almost lost control and attacked his friends 'It seems this thing left no choice for Hashirama, this is why he decided to face it directly, but at least I have my Jikininki, although at this rate it won't last for long before I go blind if I don't find a solution for it'

Letting out a long sigh, Bakorio concluded what his next goal would be before he turned to the anxious Kurama that was looking at him worriedly before he patted his head and said "I'm fine now, don't worry" Kurama was the only one that could feel the negative emotions that were raging through Bakorio's heart just moments ago thanks to his innate ability, but after seeing that Bakorio was able to keep them under control, he let out a sigh and said with his deep voice "Kid you scared me for a second there"

Bakorio smiled at him warmly before he stared at the distance and his smile became fiendish as he said "Don't worry, this won't happen again buddy"

"Hmph, who's your buddy" Snorted Kurama before they made their way back to Orochimaru's base and the first thing Bakorio did was to check his status and he noticed that he had a debuff that said

[Seed of darkness (Active state): This seed allows its caster to create and enhance the negative emotions on its host's body, and if it surpasses a certain threshold, the host will become a puppet for the caster. Current effect 10%]

Bakorio looked at this with a frown because he was only able to bring it down to this degree thanks to his Mangekyo Sharingan, so after settling down, he checked the level of his eye powers and how much batterie he had after absorbing nature energy

[Energy 10.58%]

[Eye of insight Level 65]

[Eye of hypnotism Level 67]

[Yomi no Kuni Level 41]

[Jikininki Level 34]

[Susanoo Level 31]

'This should be enough for some leveling' thought Bakorio before he settled on his training room in Orochimaru's base and made a new save point and started to focus all of his attention on leveling his Jikininki by using its full power to destroy the seed of darkness in his heart that grew slightly bigger than the last time he saw it during the war then he would go back in time and keep on doing this over and over again until his system's energy reserves reaches 5%, at which point he would stop and starts refueling them with both his chakra and natures chakra which enhanced his nature's mastery in the process.

This went on for a whole week during which, Konoha's investigations were advancing but unfortunately at a slow rate, because if there's one thing Konoha lacked, it's elite water style users…

However, after one week, Bakorio's effort finally paid off, as his Jikininki finally reached level 100, but just when he thought he was going to be able to level it beyond level 100, something he never experienced happened to him. A quest appeared out of nowhere.

[Skill Advancement quest: Kill and absorb a creature that can manipulate emotions. Reward: Jikininki High Jikininki]

Seeing this, Bakorio's smirked coldly, especially since he knew that his target was waiting for him inside a scroll in Konoha, not to mention that he also got a passive skill from this.

[Reinforced Heart: Grants the user a huge resistance towards emotional attacks]

This passive alone allowed him to deal with the seed of darkness to the point that its effect was reduced all the way to 0%, as for his Jikininki, he could now use it to easily detect and destroy the seed of darkness in his heart, as well as sense if the emotions of someone near him are controlled or affected by something making it a great way to detect manipulated people, as well as free them from its control!