Chapter 325: The Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan
Although Kenichi himself was already quite strong, he was not very confident when it came to teaching others, especially Hikari. If it were Naruto or Sasuke, who had only just begun walking the path of a ninja, he would have had a little more confidence.
Then, in a flash, he thought of someone.
His teacher, Orochimaru.
Although Orochimaru's personality was peculiar and sometimes dangerous, at his core, he was undeniably an excellent teacher.
That much could be seen from the quality of his students. Or perhaps all three Sannin were outstanding teachers. Jiraiya had also taught remarkable disciples. Only Tsunade's students were somewhat less impressive compared to those of her two companions.
Of course, Naruto and Sasuke were the darlings of this world to begin with, so it was not strange that Sakura could not compare to them. But compared to ordinary ninja, Sakura was still extremely outstanding.
Among Orochimaru's students, Anko had reached the Jonin level in the original story, while Sasuke, under Orochimaru's dedicated guidance, went on to achieve patricide and betrayal.
In a sense, Orochimaru's teaching ability was genuinely excellent. If he had not preferred research and science so much, the Ninja World might have gained a legendary instructor.
"Then I'll teach you some things first, Hikari. But I still have a lot to deal with, so I can only use a Shadow Clone to teach you," Kenichi said with a chuckle, rubbing Hikari's head.
He really had no other choice.
His teacher was nowhere to be found, and the ninja of the Land of Snow did not have much they could teach Hikari. Shiori had already learned most of what they knew.
So Kenichi could only take the task onto himself. As for Sage Mode, while it was powerful and could greatly enhance a ninja's strength once mastered, it was also extremely dangerous.
Without special tools to draw in natural energy, a person whose training was insufficient could be turned to stone. Kenichi naturally was not going to gamble on Hikari mastering Sage Mode in one go. Even Naruto had taken a long time to learn it.
So Kenichi obviously could not teach Hikari Sage Mode. Fortunately, his teacher had taught him some new things before, so Kenichi felt he could manage Hikari for now.
There should not be much of a problem, right?
"Okay!" Hikari looked delighted.
Seeing her smiling face, Kenichi could not help smiling as well. This little girl really did have an endearing personality.
After creating a Shadow Clone, Kenichi had it take Hikari away to learn some ninja basics, while he himself returned to the laboratory to continue his experiments.
"Now that the gunpowder explosion issue has been solved, making rocket launchers is much simpler. After all, the most important part of a rocket launcher is the explosive itself. What remains now are the smaller refinements," Kenichi murmured, looking at the TNT in his hand.
The production of the launcher itself was not especially difficult. The main points were launch capability, impact speed, and accuracy.
Originally, there were many other things to consider as well, such as anti-interference capability, target tracking, and even infrared or thermal tracking, which were more common in some anti-air rocket launchers.
"However, the Ninja World is still too underdeveloped, so those things are not really necessary. What matters most is speed," Kenichi said as he rubbed his wrist.
The Ninja World had very few ways to counter rocket launchers. Essentially, as long as the launcher fired fast enough, it could achieve short-term saturation bombardment. Later, there might be a need to improve its ability to penetrate barriers, Earth Release walls, and so on.
At this stage, though, there were basically no higher requirements, unless the Ninja World's technology advanced enough to invent a countermeasure specifically for rocket launchers. Kenichi felt that possibility was still very low.
For now, he could confidently say that a weapon similar to a Katyusha rocket launcher would be a revolutionary product for the Ninja World. The very existence of such a weapon would keep ninja thinking for quite some time.
So Kenichi quickly set the research direction down on paper.
Katyusha rocket launcher.
The two main issues were explosive power and firing speed. Once those two were solved, the launcher itself would more or less be complete.
Firing speed was the easy part. Rocket launchers in his previous life had generally relied on chemical propulsion to increase the speed of missiles and rockets, and chemical fuel was one of the most common propellants.
Of course, in the future, propulsion might evolve toward new energy sources, such as nuclear-powered rocket launchers and missiles that directly used reactor energy for thrust. But in the current Ninja World, chemical fuel was already more than enough.
"Propellants... I've never made them before, but I do know a little," Kenichi said, scratching his head. Although he had never worked in the military industry, one of his friends had been a military enthusiast who used to drag him into long discussions about such things.
So Kenichi had a general understanding of it all.
"Generally speaking, the easiest propellants for rocket launchers to produce are chemical fuels and solid fuels. Other options, such as liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, are also good, but the technical difficulty is too high. Reproducing them in the Ninja World would be very difficult."
Kenichi wrote down several propellant combinations he could remember on the paper.
However, those were only names. He did not remember the precise proportions, which meant he would still have to work out the dosages himself.
He was already used to that. The technological level of the Ninja World was such that nearly everything had to be researched from scratch. Expecting someone here to provide help was pure wishful thinking.
"Then I'll start with chemical fuels, since the Ninja World has quite a few of the required components."
After calling Koyuki over, Kenichi handed her the necessary list. Koyuki looked it over and accepted it immediately. The Land of Snow did indeed have those items. The only issue was that some existed only in small quantities.
Still, that was not a major problem. For now, Kenichi only needed enough to formulate a propellant and get the rocket launcher airborne.
"The propellant issue should be manageable. The only concern is how many experimental attempts it will take. So next, I'll start thinking about guidance and launch."
Kenichi crossed out propellant on the paper and circled guidance and launch.
Although weapons like the Katyusha had used relatively traditional methods due to the technological limits of their era, the Katyusha itself had still been an incredibly effective weapon at the time.
"There's no particularly good way to solve the guidance problem right now, unless I can launch a satellite into the sky. But I can at least try to operate it like an old mortar, using the rocket's mass and launch speed to calculate a parabolic trajectory."
Kenichi licked his lips, growing excited.
True precision guidance was basically impossible at the moment. Without satellite guidance, there was no way to manually control a launched missile from far away. In that sense, World War II mortars were a very useful reference.
And because of the propellant, the rocket's travel distance would be greater, which meant its arc could naturally extend much farther and satisfy the requirements for long-range lethality.
There were drawbacks, of course. Its effectiveness against moving targets would not be particularly good.
The ninja of this world were monsters. Even ordinary Genin could move at astonishing speed. If he wanted to inflict serious damage on a ninja formation, he would have to calculate lead and use an observer.
But if the target was a building, then none of that mattered. He could simply estimate the distance and fire directly.
"In the future, I might try to create an automatic chakra tracking device, so that launched rockets and missiles can lock onto the densest chakra signatures and automatically attack them."
Kenichi casually jotted the idea down.
Although the Ninja World would have a hard time developing satellites, a chakra-based tracking method should be easier to solve. He could think of a way to tackle that later.
"Still, the guidance problem can only be worked out after the rocket itself is completed. Launch is easier. I can design a firing mechanism based on the propellant's properties."
Kenichi scratched his head.
At this point, producing a Katyusha-style launcher did not seem especially complicated to him. At the very least, he already knew the theory and some of the principles involved. Back in that era, the scientists who had created the Katyusha and similar weapons had achieved something truly incredible.
While waiting for Koyuki to deliver the raw materials, Kenichi passed the time by checking on the laboratory. The laboratory was still operating as usual, and he picked up a report to examine it.
All experiments had succeeded.
Every ninja had been transplanted with Uchiha clan genes. Kenichi had used genetic material from Obito, Shisui, and Itachi.
As for Sasuke's genome, Kenichi had not touched it.
After all, Sasuke's identity was special. As the son of the Sage of Six Paths, it was hard to say whether using Sasuke's genes on a large scale would draw some kind of attention from the Sage himself.
If the Sage, with nothing better to do, decided to sense the present world and found his son's genes running around everywhere, it might lead to unnecessary complications.
Kenichi had always been somewhat wary of the Sage of Six Paths. After all, that man was in the Pure Land and held tremendous authority over souls. Ninja souls had always existed there, which made Kenichi wonder what the Sage truly intended.
Of course, it was also possible that he was simply overthinking things. The Sage had not appeared much in the original story, and there was no direct proof that he had any hidden agenda.
"These experiments all succeeded. Next, I just need to keep repeating them until the ninja of the Land of Snow awaken the Three Tomoe, or even the Mangekyo Sharingan. Once I have enough experimental data, I can awaken my own Mangekyo Sharingan."
Kenichi stroked his chin.
Next came the review of experimental data, and while doing so, he also found himself thinking about the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
According to the official setting, the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan was still fundamentally just a Mangekyo Sharingan. The real difference was that the permanent form would not go blind from the continued increase in eye power.
An ordinary Mangekyo Sharingan, however, would gradually lose its sight as its dōjutsu was used and its eye power increased.
Across the long history of the Uchiha clan, only two people had ever awakened the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan: Madara and Sasuke.
And the common point between the two was obvious.
Both were reincarnations of Indra, the son of the Sage of Six Paths.
"So the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan is, in essence, a more purified Otsutsuki eye by nature," Kenichi murmured as he pursed his lips.
One of the criticisms of Naruto in his previous life had been the so-called bloodline theory. Although many people argued that it was not purely bloodline theory, and that effort still mattered, as seen in Naruto and Sasuke, the truth was that bloodline clearly played a huge role.
Otherwise, how could one explain the fact that from the Uchiha clan's prosperity during the Warring States Period all the way to its destruction in Konoha's era, only two people had ever managed to awaken the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan?
It should be remembered that Hikari had awakened her Mangekyo Sharingan back during the Warring States Period. Many members of the Uchiha clan from that era had also awakened Mangekyo Sharingan, yet their method of solving blindness had still been to snatch each other's eyes during internal clan struggles.
Kenichi did not believe that the entire Uchiha clan had been made up of fools, or that no one had ever thought of solving the problem in another way. Since Madara had awakened the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, others must have tried to reproduce it. The fact that none of them succeeded showed just how decisive bloodline was in this matter.
In other words, if one was not Indra's reincarnation, one might not even possess the qualification to awaken the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
Only Indra's reincarnation possessed the key.
Of course, whether that key could successfully be inserted into the lock and open the door still depended on the holder's own effort.
.....
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