A pity was a pity, but Amado and his daughter still received the full VIP treatment.
Akebi Sanzu was immediately wheeled over to Yakushi Nono for a comprehensive full-body scan.
After all, it was still classified as a terminal illness, so they ran her through the exact same protocol they used for Kimimaro and Ameyuri.
First, they had to isolate exactly where the root problem lay. If an organ was failing, they'd swap it out. If the issue was genetic, they'd crack the code and modify it.
If her raw life force was drained, they'd just pump her full of fresh vitality.
That three-step approach could easily solve ninety-nine percent of medical problems.
Judging from the fact that Delta—who was cloned in the Boruto era—never showed a single sign of the same illness, either the terminal disease wasn't actually genetic, or it was genetic, but Amado had already developed the tech to patch that specific defect by the time he cloned her.
That would explain why Delta never exhibited the symptoms.
Either possibility proved that curing this illness really shouldn't be that hard.
And so, Akebi was officially checked into the treatment protocol, while Amado was drafted straight into Orochimaru's R&D division and handed the keys to his own independent, fully-funded laboratory.
Honestly, Amado's daughter had a pretty bizarre name.
Akebi.
Hearing it always made Makoto's brain instantly pivot to a certain green-skinned, tight-suit-wearing maniac.
Surely it wasn't because Guy had suddenly gained a "bi" and turned into a girl, right? (I dont understand this joke too.)
"What are you thinking about? Is there still another variable in play?"
Orochimaru stepped into the lounge and caught Makoto sitting there with a pen, jotting notes down, pausing, and staring off into space.
"I prepped a stack of research materials for him to grind through first. The current Amado is still miles away from reaching the god-tier level you described. However, I actually like the way his brain works. He approaches problems very similarly to me and the Second Hokage."
"Amado showing up early actually reminded me of something," Makoto muttered, rubbing his chin.
"Ōtsutsuki Isshiki only managed to recruit Amado because Amado's specific tech could help him engineer the perfect Karma vessel and lock in a successful reincarnation. As for the genes of the Ōtsutsuki God and the other cyborgs? Those were just side projects. They weren't the core objective for Isshiki.
In the original timeline, exactly at that point in history, Amado was the only guy alive who met all the conditions. You and Yakushi Kabuto were both under heavy, 24/7 surveillance by Konoha. Even if Isshiki desperately wanted to recruit you, he literally couldn't have pulled it off.
Isshiki operates exactly like Black Zetsu. He would much rather do absolutely nothing for a century than risk making a single fatal mistake.
So now that we've swiped Amado off the board too, who the hell is Isshiki going to look for next? Will fate just magically generate another genius with the exact same talent pool for him, or will he finally run out of patience and decide to approach us directly?"
Makoto laid out his thoughts.
"True talent isn't entirely innate. It's heavily tied to the environment. Only a highly industrialized place like Amegakure could coincidentally birth someone with that exact skill set," Orochimaru reasoned.
"Other places? Kumogakure, perhaps? But if Kumogakure housed a guy with that kind of tech talent, the Raikage would have aggressively absorbed him into their official military system ages ago. So I don't think that's realistic."
"As for the second possibility... I firmly believe he will just continue hiding."
Orochimaru delivered his analysis based purely on cold logic.
Ōtsutsuki Isshiki had been parasitizing Jigen's brain for over a thousand years.
As long as he avoided getting into a fight, he could easily keep coasting for another millennium.
Think of him like a smartphone with a busted battery but an insanely long standby time.
As long as you didn't open any heavy apps or boot up battery-draining games, and just left the thing sitting on a desk, its standby time would stretch beyond belief.
It was the exact same survival logic as Black Zetsu.
He could wait, but he absolutely could not afford to screw up.
If Black Zetsu made a mistake, it meant Kaguya would never see the light of day again.
If Isshiki made a mistake, it meant he might actually die for real.
So according to normal logic, Orochimaru was definitely right.
Isshiki wouldn't risk exposing himself to contact them.
In the Boruto era, Isshiki only stepped onto the board because his hand was forced, and he desperately needed to reclaim Kawaki, the perfect vessel for him.
And right now, Kawaki wasn't even born yet. Without a viable vessel, Isshiki wouldn't dare make a reckless move.
After waiting a thousand years for the perfect shot, what was another thousand?
That was how normal logic operated.
But from Makoto's meta-perspective, the core reason Isshiki spent the previous thousand years just twiddling his thumbs was simply because he literally hadn't existed yet in the real-world writing process.
His character background hadn't even been drafted back then, so naturally, he couldn't influence the true "past" or leave behind any tangible foreshadowing.
Unless, of course, the plot treated him like Danzo—the undisputed King of Taking the Blame—and forcibly pinned random crap like Shigaraki Tanuki's backstory onto his head.
Because of that wild card, Makoto remained highly cautious.
In any case, Jigen's mugshot had already been logged into the database.
If the surveillance grid around Amegakure ever flagged someone matching his face, the alarms would trigger instantly.
"Actually, I still have another major question," Makoto spoke up again.
"In the original timeline, after the Fourth Shinobi World War wrapped up, Amado never sought help from Konoha. That makes sense since, as a native of the Land of Rain, he probably saw Konoha's true, hypocritical face and had no goodwill toward them.
But what about later on? In the end, he still defected and joined the protagonist's faction. So why the hell didn't he ever try to dig out Sasuke's Rinnegan to revive his daughter?
Surely it wasn't because he wanted to graciously handle the Ōtsutsuki threat first, just in case his daughter got murdered again immediately after coming back to life, right?"
Makoto's question cut right to the core of the plot hole.
During the Boruto era, Sasuke spent most of his screen time nerfed, exhausted, or totally out of chakra.
Later on, he literally got his Rinnegan stabbed out by a Momoshiki-possessed Boruto wielding a basic kunai.
On paper, snatching Sasuke's Rinnegan back then should have been infinitely easier than the masked man and Madara trying to steal it right now.
"That is indeed a glaring inconsistency. The Rinnegan can revive the dead, and in the original timeline, after Nagato resurrected all those people in Konoha, that specific ability shouldn't have been a secret anymore.
Why didn't Amado scheme to acquire the Rinnegan, and instead dump all his time into researching cloning tech? Even my past self understood that cloning could never truly replace a resurrection. The core soul fundamentally wouldn't be the same."
Orochimaru also found the whole setup highly suspicious.
After hashing it out for a bit, the two of them reached a solid conclusion.
Amado's betrayal of Isshiki in the original timeline probably wasn't just because he realized Isshiki planned to obliterate the planet after successfully reincarnating.
He might have also discovered that Isshiki had actively misled and fed him garbage intel on certain core concepts.
For example, members of the Ōtsutsuki clan physically couldn't be revived via Edo Tensei or Rinne Tensei.
Either they successfully reincarnated through a Karma mark, or if they died, they stayed dead.
It was highly likely that Amado's original database of knowledge had been deliberately restricted by Isshiki to hide that exact fact.
...
Meanwhile, in Iwagakure.
After speedrunning his tour across the major hidden villages, Senju Hashirama finally arrived in the Land of Earth.
His route had taken him through Kirigakure, then Kumogakure, and finally Iwagakure.
By now, he had successfully gauged exactly how those three villages treated their respective jinchūriki.
Killer B, Kumogakure's Eight-Tails jinchūriki, had definitely been "bullied" as a kid.
However, it genuinely seemed like the guy brought it on himself.
The villagers would bust their asses working all day, finally drag themselves home to rest, only to find Killer B blasting terrible rap music and disturbing the peace.
Compared to him, Yugito Nii—who actually acted like a normal person—had never suffered a single ounce of bullying.
As for Iwagakure, Hashirama had already scoped out their current situation too.
Honestly, the village was just lucky the two jinchūriki stationed there didn't flip the script and bully the villagers instead.
Rōshi would aggressively argue with Ōnoki, and the second he finished yelling, he'd literally just run away, not even giving Ōnoki a chance to talk back.
As for Kirigakure, that place barely even needed an explanation.
Bullying? Cold violence? Back in the day, the culture over there wasn't nearly harmonious enough for high school drama.
They skipped the bullying and went straight to playing with knives!
And now?
Killer B's top-tier status in Kumogakure was public knowledge.
Kirigakure had also undergone massive, earth-shaking reforms under the iron rule of the Fifth Mizukage.
Even though Kirigakure's original culture had been infinitely more toxic than Konoha's, that actually played out in their favor.
When it came time to excise the tumors, the Mizukage didn't hesitate.
Those who needed to be killed were simply killed.
Because of that brutal purge, their current social environment was actually leagues better than Konoha's.
After soaking in all this heavy realization, Hashirama grew incredibly dispirited.
Then, right as he was walking down the road, he bumped straight into Ōnoki, who had officially stepped down from his position as Tsuchikage.
"Hm? You are... Lord Hashirama?" Ōnoki stared, looking deeply surprised.
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