Chapter 345: The Teacher Suddenly Becomes a Black Haired Beauty
"Teacher, what is this?" Kenichi looked at Orochimaru in surprise.
His teacher's hair was now completely black, long, and straight. The color suited him very well, but that was not the issue. Normally, when Orochimaru used his former appearance, he would use black hair. Most of the time, however, when he was in a female body, he kept the original golden hair of that body.
This time, though, it had all been dyed black.
"I ran into a few idiots with more courage than brains," Orochimaru said.
He stepped onto the airship, and the instant he landed, the ship below burst into flames.
Kenichi's mouth twitched.
That was very obviously not what he had been asking, but seeing that his teacher clearly did not want to talk about it, he wisely chose not to press further.
As for the ship below, he could already guess what had happened. Some fools had probably seen Orochimaru's current appearance and thought they had found an easy target. Unfortunately for them, they had chosen the wrong person to provoke and gotten themselves killed for it.
That outcome was hardly surprising.
After all, Orochimaru was not some bloodthirsty maniac. Toward ordinary people, he could even be considered fairly restrained. Of course, the people who ended up on his operating table would definitely disagree, but even back in Konoha, before his experiments were exposed, the average villagers had a good first impression of him.
Even after defecting from Konoha, he had never shown any real cruelty toward ordinary civilians.
"Hmm? Amado Akebi? And this little brat is from the Uchiha clan?" The moment he boarded, Orochimaru recognized the two girls at a glance.
That caught Kenichi a little off guard. He had not expected his teacher to recognize Hikari so quickly.
Hikari, meanwhile, looked at Orochimaru curiously. She had never seen him before, but she had heard Kenichi call him "teacher," which made her a little curious about exactly how old this beautiful older sister really was.
"Mr. Amado," Kenichi said, handing the research log to his teacher.
Orochimaru took it and glanced through it. The moment he saw the contents, his interest was completely hooked. He began reading in silence.
Off to the side, Akebi still sat there blankly, her gaze unfocused.
She had been like that for a while now. Kenichi did not disturb her. Akebi clearly needed time to sort through everything that had happened, although Kenichi really wanted to pull her aside and question her about the Pure Land and resurrection.
This just was not the time.
"So, now Mr. Amado..." Orochimaru glanced at Akebi, who was sitting there in a daze, and stopped halfway through his sentence. Clearly, this was not the right moment to continue that topic.
So he pulled Kenichi into the next room and casually put up a simple soundproof barrier.
Before entering, Kenichi left a Shadow Clone behind. The airship still needed to be operated, and it was not advanced enough to run itself yet.
"Brother Kenichi's teacher is so young," Hikari murmured in amazement as she watched.
But after that brief remark, she immediately took something from her pocket and started working on it with great seriousness.
It was for Brother Kenichi.
Brother Kenichi would definitely like it.
"...The One's Own Life Reincarnation. This really is an excellent technique," Orochimaru said after hearing Kenichi's explanation.
He returned the scroll to him.
"This jutsu is very interesting, but its flaw is obvious." Orochimaru licked his lips. "The human heart is too difficult to predict. Even the same person can change drastically in just a few days, or even a single week. Making someone willingly sacrifice their life for another person is simply too difficult."
"Mr. Amado has plenty of ideas. He even wants to research the Pure Land itself. That's a very creative line of inquiry," Kenichi said.
He was not especially focused on the One's Own Life Reincarnation at the moment. There were still areas where it could be improved, and he intended to experiment with it further later.
Besides, this trip back to the Land of Snow was also meant to test whether a ninja under parasite control could use the technique to revive Amado. If that proved possible, Kenichi would gain one more useful bargaining chip.
Of course, from a moral standpoint, such a thing would probably be condemned as toying with the souls of the dead and disrespecting the living.
Kenichi did not care.
He knew very well that there were countless people in this world who would gladly disregard such concerns if it meant bringing back someone they loved.
People always learn to treasure what they had only after losing it.
"The Pure Land is not a good place," Orochimaru said calmly.
His tongue was unnaturally long, the result of his techniques, and at this point it could do all sorts of bizarre things.
At one point, a certain white haired Sannin who preferred not to be named had even hinted in one of his books that Princess Orochi's tongue could drive a person into a delirious daze.
Kenichi strongly suspected Jiraiya had written that specifically to disgust his teacher. Judging from how hard Orochimaru had chased him down afterward, the attempt had clearly succeeded.
Still, what interested Kenichi more was what his teacher had just said.
Could it be that Orochimaru had already done research on the Pure Land?
"Teacher, have you studied the Pure Land before?" Kenichi asked curiously.
Orochimaru calmly took a sip of tea, then nodded.
"I once looked into it," he said. "That place has a corrosive effect on souls. It lulls them into rest. But I always felt there was something wrong with it."
When he performed the Living Corpse Reincarnation, he had personally felt the threat posed by the Pure Land.
In fact, the greatest danger during the transfer was the Pure Land itself. If the soul lacked sufficient willpower, it would be seized by that place and die on the spot.
But even if one's will was strong enough, the moment the soul transferred from one body to another, it still suffered some erosion from the Pure Land. And if the bodies were not highly compatible, that erosion became even worse.
That was why the soul needed time to rest afterward.
"However," Orochimaru said, setting down his cup and looking at Kenichi with interest, "what's the deal with that Uchiha girl?"
His gaze moved across Kenichi's face as if appraising him.
Could it be that his disciple had finally reached that age and wanted to start a family?
Orochimaru himself felt nothing in particular about reproduction. In his eyes, it was nothing more than the result of biological instinct and hormones. A person who truly pursued truth should devote his entire life to that pursuit.
"Uh... Hikari," Kenichi said, scratching his cheek. "She's someone I met by chance. We got along well, so she followed me."
He was unsure how to explain her situation properly. After all, Hikari had existed since the Warring States era.
For Orochimaru, that alone would make her an irresistibly valuable research subject.
And that was exactly the problem.
Kenichi did not want Hikari ending up in a laboratory. Still, looking at Orochimaru, he knew that simply hiding the truth would be pointless.
Besides, if his teacher helped, then the development of the internet and long distance communication could move forward much faster.
"Oh?" Orochimaru raised an eyebrow slightly.
He could already tell his disciple was hiding something.
"But Hikari is a very special case, Teacher." Kenichi took out the stone fragments from Hikari's seal. He had preserved them and even drawn detailed diagrams. These things should interest Orochimaru a great deal.
And, as expected, the moment he saw them, Orochimaru's eyes sharpened.
When Kenichi further explained that Hikari had been sealed away from the Warring States era all the way until the present, Orochimaru's interest only deepened.
"This should involve a space time sealing technique," Orochimaru said almost immediately.
Kenichi thought the same.
A normal sealing jutsu could never have preserved someone alive all the way until now. Otherwise, countless people would have chosen to seal themselves and simply wait for a better era in the future.
More importantly, Hikari had not been provided with any sort of external nutritional support at the time. Kenichi suspected it was something closer to a suspended time seal.
Watching Orochimaru slip into research mode, Kenichi finally relaxed a little. Every time he dealt with his teacher, it felt like a student facing his homeroom teacher right before final exams.
"I really wonder whether Uncle Jiraiya is still alive," Kenichi muttered to himself. "But knowing Teacher's personality, he probably just got the beating of his life."
Once the airship reached the skies above the Land of Snow, Orochimaru was still completely immersed in studying the strange stones. Seeing that, Kenichi did not disturb him.
Instead, after landing, he brought Orochimaru and Hikari down from the airship.
"Lord Kenichi," Shiori said, waiting outside.
She had clearly been there for a while.
Hikari was very close to her, so the moment she saw Shiori, she brightened with obvious delight.
Shiori froze for a moment when she saw Orochimaru, but she quickly recognized him and immediately bowed respectfully.
Orochimaru waved a hand dismissively and walked off without another word.
Kenichi could only shrug and let Shiori lead his teacher toward the laboratory.
He understood Orochimaru's personality far too well. Right now, no room in the world was more attractive to him than a laboratory.
"Master~" Koyuki came over next, smiling happily at Kenichi.
Then her eyes shifted to Akebi standing beside him, and a trace of wariness immediately appeared in her gaze. After all, Akebi had a very good figure.
"Hm. How is progress?" Kenichi asked.
Originally he had wanted to ask Shiori, but since Shiori had just gone off with Orochimaru, he could only ask Koyuki instead.
"It's going very smoothly, Master. The current... progress is good. There haven't been any failures," Koyuki replied, glancing at Hikari and swallowing the word "experiment" before it left her mouth.
"That's good." Kenichi was not surprised.
After all, none of his Shadow Clones had dispelled yet. If they were still active, that meant no major failures had occurred. It seemed the mother Parasite's secretion really could improve the stability of genetic programming.
Kenichi wasted no time after that.
He had Hikari and Akebi follow Koyuki to find a place to stay, then hurried straight to the laboratory.
The moment he entered, a strange smell hit him.
Even with the parasites assisting, the activation process still required emotional stimulation, especially around the amygdala. Because of that, even though cleaners were stationed in the lab full time, some test subjects still occasionally lost control of their bodies.
"You're finally here," one Shadow Clone said darkly, walking over with heavy bags under his eyes and staring at Kenichi with obvious resentment.
Kenichi awkwardly touched his nose.
"You've worked hard," he said, quickly changing the subject. "How's the experiment going? How many have activated the Three Tomoe Sharingan?"
The Shadow Clone rolled his eyes. How could he possibly fail to notice what the main body was doing?
"The ones implanted with Obito's genes, as well as the ones implanted with Shisui's and Itachi's genes, have basically all activated the Three Tomoe Sharingan," the clone said, handing over the experiment log. "But some new problems showed up."
Kenichi took the log and scanned it.
Everything was recorded in detail, including the problems this round had produced.
"...You mean some of the test subjects showed unstable vital signs after awakening the Three Tomoe?" Kenichi asked, narrowing his eyes.
According to the notes, some of the subjects experienced unstable vital signs, elevated heart rates, and accelerated whole body metabolism after activating the Sharingan.
A few even displayed clear signs of accelerated aging, with parts of their bodies visibly showing early senescence, although the Shadow Clone had also noted that the observation period might still be too short for a definite conclusion.
Kenichi fell into thought.
This was interesting.
He still could not determine whether it was a side effect of the transplanted genes or an issue caused by the Sharingan awakening itself. The observation period had simply been too short. Unless he managed to develop some sort of time acceleration based space time jutsu, there was no easy way to speed this part up.
"For now, record it and continue observing," Kenichi said. Then he looked at the remaining subjects. "And these are the last batch?"
He did not sense any more young test subjects lined up outside. These seemed to be the final group still waiting near the laboratory.
"Yes. Everyone else has already awakened the Sharingan," the clone replied with a nod. "This is the final batch. But activating the Mangekyo Sharingan will still take time."
Kenichi was not surprised.
Awakening the Mangekyo was a troublesome process. These subjects also needed time to rest and stabilize before the next attempt. And unlike ordinary Sharingan activation, the Mangekyo required close supervision from Kenichi himself.
"The Mangekyo Sharingan army... high yield crops... nuclear weapons..." Kenichi sighed, rubbing his temple.
Why did it suddenly feel like everything had piled up at once?
.....
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