"Homura, don't worry! Wood Release is the inheritance of the Will of Fire. As long as we can recreate Wood Release Ninja, everything we gave up will be returned several times over once we have Wood Release Ninja under our control."
"Sigh! Let's hope so!" Homura Mitokado sighed, stood up, and left Root.
A few days later, Danzo delivered more than a dozen children under the age of 10 to Orochimaru's laboratory. These children had been found by Utatane Koharu, who was deceived by Danzo.
"Orochimaru, I have brought the children as you requested. Can we start now?"
After inspecting the children, Orochimaru nodded in satisfaction and informed Danzo that the experiment would begin immediately.
As soon as Danzo left, Asana asked Orochimaru, "Orochimaru Sensei, are we really going to experiment on these children?"
"Asana, our research on the first hokages cells has made great progress. Even if we can't make all these children awaken Wood Release, keeping them alive shouldn't be a problem.
Moreover, after this procedure, these children will likely benefit from misfortune and go further down the path of a Ninja. This is a good thing for those whose lives were originally without hope."
After hearing Orochimaru's words, Asana glanced at the crying children, a flicker of reluctance in her eyes. She still couldn't bring herself to experiment on children.
Seeing this, Orochimaru didn't insist. He smiled and said, "Since Asana you can't bear to do it, I will conduct this experiment myself. You don't need to participate."
Having said that, Orochimaru was about to leave with the children.
Seeing this, Asana hesitated for a moment and spoke up to stop him: "Wait! Orochimaru Sensei, I have an idea."
"What idea? Tell me!" Orochimaru asked, licking his lips.
Hearing this, Asana quickly told Orochimaru, "Orochimaru Sensei, I don't think all these children need to participate in the experiment. I have a way to determine which children might become Wood Release Ninja and which ones definitely won't."
Orochimaru frowned, slightly suspicious of Asana's words: "Asana, you're not just saying this because you want to save these children, are you?"
Asana shook her head and calmly explained, "Orochimaru Sensei, you know that I once fused with a segment of the gene from Senju Hashirama's cells. My Byakugan has evolved. Now, my eyes can see the hidden life force within these children, and life force is the key to whether they can withstand hashirama senjus cells."
Orochimaru fell silent after hearing Asana's words. After thinking for a long time, Orochimaru temporarily agreed with Asana's suggestion.
Asana breathed a sigh of relief when she heard Orochimaru agree.
Her words just now were half-true, half-false. It was true that she could see some conditions inside the children's bodies using the Byakugan, but the rest was fabricated.
Asana simply believed that individuals with better physical fitness and stronger life force would be more likely to adapt to the first hokages cells compared to others.
This way, she could minimize the casualties among the children.
As a fellow researcher, Asana knew very well that Orochimaru saying the children wouldn't be in danger was just to comfort her; the first hokages cells were not something children of this age could withstand.
Even if they weakened the activity of the first hokages cells, the survival rate for these children would not exceed 30%.
Those who survived, however, would indeed become different, possessing at least an enormous amount of Chakra.
They would be excellent experimental material for Orochimaru, and Asana could not convince herself to accept such a cruel experiment.
That was why she had staged this intervention, hoping to protect as many children as possible.
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