Chapter 323: RPG!
"Leader, if it is just a private dispute between members, I assume you will not interfere?" Orochimaru asked calmly.
Nagato glanced at him, then fell silent for a moment.
"I will not interfere, but it must not affect the organization's development."
The moment those words fell, nearly everyone in the Akatsuki organization turned to look at Orochimaru, then at Uchiha Shin, who stood there with a pair of Sharingan.
None of the Uchiha present were fools. They naturally understood exactly who Orochimaru was referring to.
Still, the Akatsuki organization was never a united group to begin with. Every member gathered here for their own reasons and their own ambitions. On top of that, neither Obito nor Orochimaru was especially popular within the group, so no one stepped forward to speak for either side.
Instead, Kakuzu and Kisame looked like they were enjoying the show.
Kenichi scratched his head.
He understood what his teacher meant as well. He did not know how Shin had escaped from Orochimaru in the first place, but since Orochimaru clearly intended to settle the score with him, Kenichi naturally had no intention of standing by and watching.
"But how did this Uchiha Shin get involved with Obito?" Kenichi thought as he glanced curiously at Obito and Black Zetsu beside him.
Among everyone present, only Kenichi knew Obito's true identity and Black Zetsu's real purpose. Even Nagato, who believed himself to be in control, was nothing more than a piece on their board.
"That is fine." Orochimaru gave a cold smile, then crossed his arms and said nothing more.
Obito and Uchiha Shin ignored him from beginning to end, but Kenichi noticed that Obito occasionally cast him a glance.
"Then I hope everyone will quickly accept war commissions and contribute to the organization's development," Nagato said, clearly unwilling to waste more time on the matter.
As far as he was concerned, as long as Akatsuki's plans were not disrupted, he had no interest in meddling in conflicts between members.
Akatsuki was not some place where people gathered to play house. If you were too weak and got killed, then you got killed. There was nothing worth regretting about it.
"Leader, if someone completes the most missions and earns the most money, will there be any reward?" Kenichi asked again, raising a hand.
Hearing that, the members who had been preparing to leave all stopped and turned back to look at Nagato with renewed interest.
Kakuzu's gaze in particular became extremely intense.
He was obviously the most concerned about that question.
Nagato took a deep breath.
Konan, standing beside him, looked at him with some concern. She was genuinely worried that Kenichi might aggravate Nagato's condition at this rate.
"First place may exchange for certain items, or obtain one chance for my personal assistance," Nagato said coldly, glaring at Kenichi.
He had always disliked talking to this man. If this gathering had not been important, he would not have wanted Kenichi here at all.
"No cash prize?" Kenichi pouted.
Those rewards sounded far too vague. Exchanging for items and receiving personal assistance could be interpreted in countless ways. If Nagato decided to act shamelessly, the actual cost to him could be next to nothing.
That kind of behavior would be called freeloading.
Just then, a loud bang sounded from deep inside Akatsuki's base.
Nagato's thought projection closed his eyes, as if listening to something in the outside world. After a long silence, he finally opened them again.
"If you insist on exchanging for money, then it is not impossible," Nagato said at last.
In the end, he simply could not be bothered to argue with Kenichi. In his view, talking more with him would bring no results and would only make him want to kill him even more.
Contact with Kenichi was unavoidable, but Nagato could at least try to reduce it as much as possible. Otherwise, he felt his body would not last much longer.
"See you next time."
With those impatient final words, Nagato directly kicked Kenichi out of the thought wave world.
Kenichi clicked his tongue, feeling very much like he had just been thrown out of a chat group by the group owner.
"Still, that meeting was quite interesting. Uchiha Shin was once my teacher's experimental subject, and now he has actually defected to Obito's side." Kenichi stroked his chin, then poured himself a cup of tea and took a sip.
He was absolutely certain that this development did not exist in the original story. Its appearance now proved only one thing.
Obito had arranged it.
Actually, Kenichi already had a rough guess about what Obito was trying to do. Back when he accepted Hidden Mist's commission, he had already probed around and confirmed that Obito had been pulling strings behind the scenes.
The only reason Obito had not become an immediate problem afterward was because Kenichi had nearly crippled him. If that fool had not somehow managed to transplant another Sharingan and barely escape death, Kenichi could have exposed everything by now.
"So this Uchiha Shin is the scapegoat Obito pushed forward? No, more likely he's a piece specifically prepared to deal with me." Kenichi sighed.
This was exactly why people said that if you could not kill the tiger, the tiger would come back to bite you.
If he had just killed Obito back then, there would be none of these complications now.
But now Obito was clearly targeting him.
Kenichi had been wondering why Obito had remained so quiet lately. Now he understood. The bastard had somehow brought in Uchiha Shin and even helped him awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan.
What puzzled him more was something else.
Where had Obito even found the Mangekyo Sharingan for Shin?
The Uchiha clan in the present era was either dead or scattered. Shin was not even a true Uchiha to begin with, which meant those eyes had definitely been transplanted.
"Shisui?" Kenichi frowned.
It was a possibility, though he could not completely rule out Madara either. That old monster had left too many hidden contingencies behind.
"Akatsuki's development is clearly speeding up. I don't know what Nagato is thinking, but it looks like I need to find a way to keep pushing him. If he still refuses to listen, then I will have to use another method."
Kenichi lay back on the bed and stretched.
Everything that had happened today was enough to give him a headache. Akatsuki had already been troublesome enough, and now the level of trouble had climbed even higher.
In the end, though, he decided to stick to his own schedule first and continue transforming all the ninja in the Land of Snow.
Once he had enough strength on his side, the enemy's schemes would not matter.
Madara was a problem, yes, but as long as Kenichi awakened his own Mangekyo Sharingan, then Madara without the Rinnegan would still be manageable even in his Edo Tensei state.
At least that was how Kenichi saw it.
"Forget it. I'll just continue my research."
He shook his head, went out to eat with Hikari, then sent her back to continue studying under Shiori.
As for himself, he returned to the laboratory and focused once again on researching rocket launchers and rocket vehicles.
When it came to rocket launchers, the first word that popped into Kenichi's head was naturally RPG.
He had no choice. In his previous life, he had seen them constantly in games, videos, and media, and had even used them in plenty of virtual settings. In reality, though, there were many different kinds of rocket launchers.
For example, there had once been an Eastern power that developed a launcher so simple and rugged it was famous for being easy to produce, easy to use, cheap to carry, durable enough to fire while moving, and reliable even after getting soaked in water.
Some rocket launchers also came with heat seeking and targeting capabilities.
In other words, the technological ceiling for rocket launchers varied wildly. Some were highly advanced. Others were crude but effective.
The kind Kenichi planned to make now belonged to the latter type.
"Even if the technical level is low, once they are finished, as long as the range is good enough, mounting them together should create the crudest form of a rocket vehicle, right? Something like a Katyusha?" Kenichi rubbed his hands together.
Of course, a real Katyusha still had decent technical content. For its time, it had been one of the most cost effective choices available. Kenichi did not expect himself to produce a perfect one to one replica in the Ninja World.
One step at a time was enough.
"So the design philosophy will be simple manufacturing, simple operation, and high durability."
Kenichi pulled over a sheet of paper and began sketching.
Although he had not been a military professional in his previous life, he had been very interested in the subject, so drawing out a basic design that could fool non experts was not difficult for him.
Besides, the overall shape of a rocket launcher was not especially mysterious. A cylindrical launcher body, proper structural support, and a way to solve material strength and internal threading issues. That part was manageable.
The truly difficult part was the rocket projectile itself.
How could he give the projectile enough destructive power?
What kind of firing mechanism should connect the launcher and the rocket?
Those were the real problems.
Fortunately, Kenichi had already made thermobaric bombs before, so he at least had a direction in mind.
"An ordinary rocket projectile will not have enough lethality against ninja. Something like Earth Release: Earth Style Wall could block it outright. So the interior should probably use a thermobaric explosive structure."
"Still, that would make the cost relatively high. And if the thermobaric yield is not sufficient, then I would need a large number of rockets to achieve proper area saturation. That drives the cost even higher. At that point, I might as well just use thermobaric bombs directly."
Which meant the problem looped back to the start.
He still needed a reliable explosive formula.
Kenichi frowned slightly as he looked at the draft paper in front of him. Whenever he thought through a complicated technical problem, he had a habit of writing every step down so he could revisit it later and reorganize his thoughts.
"The explosive ratio itself is the problem. Back in my previous life, there were already predecessors for this sort of thing. Here in the Ninja World, explosives research just is not developed enough."
That was one of the most annoying things about this world.
So many things had to be started from scratch.
In his previous life, there had already been all kinds of explosive formulas for rockets, armor piercing munitions, and aerial ordnance. If he wanted to improve them, he could simply work off what already existed.
Here, he had almost nothing to reference.
"But there is one advantage. Even if I do not have enough explosive formulas to work from, I do have chakra. Chakra itself can amplify the power of an explosive, and the increase might be enormous."
That thought immediately improved his mood.
The difference between an ordinary thermobaric bomb and one infused with fire nature chakra was obvious. The same should also apply to rocket projectiles. A rocket with chakra enhancement would naturally not be the same as a normal one.
And when it came to common explosives, Kenichi actually did know a little about TNT.
Trinitrotoluene was famous enough that he had heard about it constantly in his previous life. It showed up in countless films, books, and military discussions.
"Still, producing TNT also requires some sugar. No wonder sugar became a strategic material in my previous life."
Kenichi licked his lips, then quickly began listing the materials he would need if he wanted to produce trinitrotoluene.
"Let me think. To produce trinitrotoluene, I need..."
He wrote down the raw materials from memory, then called Koyuki over.
"Koyuki, go check whether these materials can be acquired in the Land of Snow."
He handed the list to her directly. There was no point being secretive with these ingredients. Besides, with the mother parasite inside her, there was no need to question her loyalty.
"Understood, Master. I'll check right away."
Koyuki took the list and examined it carefully, muttering to herself as she read over each item.
Kenichi did not rush her. Instead, he went back to sketching the launcher's design.
For the launcher itself, the biggest issues were still material quality and manufacturing precision.
If the launcher body had flaws, and heat escaped from structural gaps during firing, then the projectile's power would drop. So the launcher still needed a decent degree of precision in construction.
In practice, that mostly meant ensuring the body had no gaps, no structural weakness, and no internal air pockets that could destabilize performance.
Annoying, but solvable.
"Master, I checked. All of these can be acquired in the Land of Snow, but this particular material is in short supply."
Koyuki pointed to one line on the list as she spoke.
"I see. Then move as much of each material as possible to me first. For the one that is low, find a way to purchase more or mine more if needed."
Kenichi waved a hand dismissively.
Low supply was not a real problem.
As long as it existed at all, that was enough.
.....
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