Chapter 100: Hiruko
"Save some for later."
Kei was not surprised. He directly took out a red soldier pill and fed it to the Nine Tails in front of him.
After swallowing it, the Nine Tails spoke with obvious surprise.
"This soldier pill tastes pretty good."
"What did you use to make it? There's a familiar aura inside it. This old man recognizes it."
"It would be strange if it didn't feel familiar."
Kei smiled.
"This was specially made by combining your flesh and blood with Hashirama sama's cells."
"What?"
The Nine Tails' body instantly stiffened.
"Made from this old man's flesh and blood and Senju Hashirama's..."
No wonder it had felt a familiar aura just now.
So this thing had actually been made using its own flesh and blood.
It was eating itself. Of course it would feel familiar.
Although the Nine Tails did not possess human ethics or morality, the thought of eating itself still made it feel somewhat disgusted.
The soldier pill that had seemed delicious just a moment ago suddenly lost much of its appeal.
"There's no need to reject it so quickly."
Kei shook his head at its reaction.
"Leaving aside the psychological factor, this is actually very beneficial to you."
To others, the Nine Tails' flesh and blood was highly toxic. Forget eating it, just touching a little could be fatal.
But to the Nine Tails itself, it was simply its own power.
Now, through the form of a soldier pill, it could slowly absorb that flesh and blood, turning it into new strength and allowing this newly cultivated Nine Tails body to grow at an accelerated rate.
And judging from the results, the effect was clearly excellent.
"Even if we ignore this old man's flesh and blood, is it really fine to use Senju Hashirama's cells to make soldier pills?"
The Nine Tails glanced at Kei.
"If this old man remembers correctly, he was your First Hokage."
"In the end, things like that do not really matter."
Kei smiled.
"The dead must eventually make way for the living."
"If the First Hokage's cells can be used to make medicine and save many people in the future, then if Hashirama sama knew of it, he would probably feel gratified."
In Kei's eyes, as long as one was not obsessed with transplanting Hashirama cells into one's own body and turning them into part of oneself, they actually had many advantages.
The first was their powerful vitality, which made them easy to maintain and cultivate on a large scale.
The second was the pure and gentle Yang Release power contained within them. If used properly, the effects could be outstanding.
Because of this, while Kei had previously been conducting human experiments, he had also begun trying to apply them in other directions.
Now, a healing medicine created from Hashirama cells had already appeared in preliminary form. After drug testing, the results had been good. Not only was the production cost very low, but it also had many other advantages.
Even a severely wounded person on the verge of death could be pulled back with this medicine.
If the problem of bodily rejection could be solved to a sufficient degree, then Hashirama cells might even be used in the future to create replacement limbs for crippled shinobi.
Just like Obito and Danzo later on.
Of course, achieving that would not be easy, and would likely require the development of all kinds of techniques.
But Kei did not care about that.
After all, he was Konoha's Hokage, and beneath him he had a large group of excellent workhorses who could help with research.
For example, Orochimaru, who was still immature at the moment, was a top tier workhorse in Kei's eyes. As long as he was used properly, he would be able to keep producing results.
As time passed, everything proceeded smoothly.
In the blink of an eye, the day of the graduation examination arrived.
Because of the changes to the Ninja Academy, a great number of shinobi from the major clans had entered this graduation exam, resulting in an unprecedented number of nearly a thousand participants.
Having so many students take the test at once naturally created a mountain of problems.
Many people were thrown into frantic confusion because of it.
Fortunately, Kei had prepared for this long ago, so in the end, no major disorder broke out.
Soon, the results of the examinations came out.
The vast majority of students passed, with the success rate reaching a full ninety percent.
These people would then officially obtain the title of Genin.
No one was surprised by that figure.
After all, the requirements for the Genin exam were not especially high to begin with. As long as one had mastered the basic Clone Technique and Body Flicker Technique and possessed a decent taijutsu foundation, that was generally enough to qualify.
No matter how untalented a person might be as a shinobi, after enough training, becoming a Genin was ultimately not a particularly difficult matter.
What truly drew attention was the promotion examination.
According to Kei's rules, the number of people who could be promoted into the Intermediate Academy was limited. Only those ranked within the top one hundred would qualify.
In other words, the ratio was only one in ten.
With so many clan shinobi participating, that ratio appeared especially cruel.
Many students who had once been considered excellent in the Ninja Academy were mercilessly eliminated.
On the day the results were posted, Kei personally went to the Academy to inspect the list.
"As expected, it's still those two."
Looking at the rankings, understanding appeared on Kei's face.
The first name on the promotion list was Tsunade.
That was no surprise.
In this graduation examination, both theory and practical combat carried great weight.
Tsunade had studied under Kei for many years, and her grasp of all kinds of theoretical knowledge was incredibly solid, far beyond the others.
As for practical combat, there was even less to say.
At this current stage, even Orochimaru would not dare claim he could defeat Tsunade.
In Kei's view, her taking first place was only natural.
Right behind Tsunade was Orochimaru, who had claimed second place.
As for the names after third, that was essentially the territory of the major clan students.
It was not until the end of the list that Kei saw another familiar name.
"That guy Jiraiya really is a lifelong dead last."
Looking at Jiraiya's name on the list, Kei could not help but smile helplessly.
To accommodate people like Jiraiya, who had terrible theory but were exceptionally strong in taijutsu and practical combat, he had deliberately raised the proportion of the practical combat score. He had thought that under those conditions, Jiraiya's results should at least look decent.
Unexpectedly, he was still at the bottom. Judging from the situation, he had nearly been eliminated.
Still, that was fine.
Even though he was at the bottom, he had still made the list in the end.
Kei had originally thought that if Jiraiya truly failed the promotion, he might find some way to help him out.
After all, he would one day become one of the famous Sannin. He deserved at least that much respect.
And even putting aside the title of Sannin, the fact that he would become Namikaze Minato's future teacher was already enough to make Kei pay attention to him.
After Jiraiya, Kei continued scanning downward, and at the very end of the list, he spotted another somewhat familiar name.
"Hiruko."
.....
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