People always talked about the Will of Fire, but it was exactly because the Will of Fire hadn't been fully upheld that Hiruzen's faction couldn't stop bringing it up.
And nowhere was this more apparent than the Corpse Disposal Department, a place so sensitive and so in need of unwavering loyalty.
If even one person here lost their resolve and betrayed the village, the consequences would be immeasurable.
The next day, Arata arrived at the eastern hollow of Training Ground 44 in Konoha.
The area resembled a massive graveyard, one that seemed perpetually shrouded in the scent of ash.
Empty memorial stones stood all around, and wilted flowers lay scattered across the ground.
Arata pushed open the door to the corpse disposal site, startling a few crows. They flapped up into the rafters, kicking up dust that danced in the light.
To put it plainly, Arata's first impression of the place was awful.
A department dedicated to corpse handling should, by all logic, follow strict hygiene standards, akin to a large-scale hospital.
But this place looked more like Root's cremation chamber.
"Figures. They're only dissecting enemy shinobi from other villages… At least I won't have to dissect Konoha ninja, not with my lowly status."
Arata handed over his transfer papers and followed a staff member to meet the department head. As he walked, he studied the layout of this relatively new department.
The village still hadn't figured out how to properly train medical-nin systematically, let alone assign enough skilled ones to dissect and research enemy corpses.
"It's been a while since we've had someone new. And even longer since someone came under Lord Tatsuma's orders."
With a wet slicing sound, an aging middle-aged shinobi used a scalpel to cut open a Suna ninja's chest.
The deep red blood dripped into a porcelain dish, the rhythmic plop plop echoing like a whisper from the shadows.
Arata bowed slightly. "You must be Lord Isuke. From today, I'll be working under you. This department doesn't seem to have many hands."
"Five people is more than enough," Isuke replied coolly. "Any more would be a waste. Either they get sent to the battlefield or reassigned to the hospital."
"Your station is in the Special Cell Imprinting Room. Your first task is to polish the heads delivered yesterday, especially those from the Sand. They love covering their terrible hair with cloth."
Arata's fingers brushed across the cold metal nameplate on a mortuary table. Three corpses lay beneath white sheets, neatly arranged.
One of the toes from the last body peeked out from beneath the cloth, its nail bed still clinging to telltale grains of Land of Wind sand.
"Understood, Lord Isuke. Ever since I began serving the village, I've worked closely with corpses."
This was his element, it felt like coming home.
He gently lifted one of the sheets. The face of the Suna shinobi, a bluish-grey, was frozen forever in a mask of terror.
His right arm bore charred burns from a Fire Release jutsu, perfect material for Arata's development of Zombie Release techniques.
Fully immersed in his work, Arata demonstrated excellent technical skill. As long as no chakra was involved, he could always produce superior results.
There were enough materials here, enough space, this was a stage where he could truly put his talents to use.
From time to time, Arata gave commands to the reanimated corpses, instructing them to perform various movements. His colleagues barely blinked.
Everyone knew Arata was practicing the Dead Soul Technique. In all of Konoha, there were barely a handful of shinobi who could use it.
But then again, anyone working in this department was far from the heroic, righteous type.
What kind of noble idealist would choose to dissect enemy corpses instead of shining on the battlefield?
"Sometimes we get jonin-level material… but I still haven't seen a Kekkei Genkai corpse," Arata murmured as he removed his mask after finishing work on one body, a hint of disappointment in his tone.
Isuke said coldly, "Our people keep close eyes on enemies with Kekkei Genkai. But the enemy does the same. No village will allow a Kekkei Genkai to fall into another's hands.
They'd sooner destroy the body on the spot than let us have it. Have you ever seen an enemy with Sharingan or Byakugan appear on the battlefield?"
Arata shrugged. In the future, Ao would face Konoha shinobi bearing a Byakugan, but that was just a thought he kept to himself.
Isuke suddenly remembered something and muttered, "Last year, during the battle in the Land of Rain, several Uchiha went missing after a bloody fight.
Lord Orochimaru practically tore the battlefield apart looking for them… Maybe Amegakure got their hands on the Sharingan."
"I thought the Sannin ended the war with Amegakure? They must've negotiated to get the eyes back afterward," Arata offered.
But he knew that was impossible.
Whoever got them, it might not have been Hanzo. It might have been Uchiha Madara.
Last year, Jiraiya had stayed behind in the Land of Rain to train Nagato, meaning Nagato would receive the Rinnegan even earlier.
And once Madara lost the Rinnegan, he'd need some Sharingan replacements.
"War… The truth the world believes is never the same as what really happens," Arata muttered.
He often thought about Uchiha Madara, Black Zetsu, Otsutsuki Hagoromo, and the Otsutsuki descendants on the moon, all silently watching the world from the shadows.
It made him reflect on the complexity of this world.
But those figures were far beyond his reach. Right now, he was just a quietly developing genin, focused on one thing, finding a better body.
Time passed, and the members of the Corpse Disposal Department seemed increasingly forgotten. Other than the occasional valuable cadaver, no one paid them much attention.
Only when they submitted their research results, contributing however slightly to the advancement of modern biomedical techniques, did they prove their worth.
Arata still hadn't seen the body of a Kekkei Genkai shinobi. And he kept close watch on every corpse that came in.
'So, there really is a higher-level, more secretive department… one that handles the rarest Kekkei Genkai corpses?'
Arata wasn't surprised.
Ever since Senju Nawaki had died right under Orochimaru's nose, and that trauma pushed Orochimaru onto the path of immortality, Arata had expected this.
Considering all the shady things that had happened in the short period of peace between the Second and Third Ninja Wars, he was almost certain that Orochimaru and Danzo had already begun working together by this time.
'After the Second War ended, the village began a project to experiment with the First Hokage's cells to enhance combat strength for the next ninja war.
They conducted human experiments on both shinobi and villagers, resulting in heavy casualties.'
'If they were already conducting live experiments, that meant the foundational research was complete long ago.'
Everything they did here in the Corpse Disposal Department, the documents they submitted, the samples they cataloged, would all become the building blocks for those massive human experiments a few years down the line.
The First Hokage's cells… Just the thought of them made Arata's eyes gleam with longing.
No one knew better than Arata how agonizing it was to live in a frail body. And no one craved a body bursting with vitality more than he did.
An ordinary person from Konoha had around 130 trillion cells. But what about a shinobi trained in chakra control and physical conditioning? How many cells would they have?
And the Senju and Uzumaki clans, famed for their bodies?
What about… Hashirama Senju himself?
Absolute quantity meant absolute strength. Without enough vitality, everything else was meaningless.