The academy corridors were quiet—too quiet. Hiruko walked alone, hands behind his back, reviewing notes on cellular adaptability and multi-elemental compression. His body still hummed with unstable chakra from the previous night's experiment. Yet his face was calm, almost eerily so for a child.
"With the Chimera Principle… I could weave bloodlines. I could synthesize affinity."
He turned a corner—and stopped.
A pale face and golden eyes stared at him from the far end of the corridor. Orochimaru leaned against the wall, arms crossed, smiling faintly.
"You've been busy, Hiruko-kun."
Hiruko raised an eyebrow but didn't reply.
"I felt something unnatural last night. Not just chakra, but intention," Orochimaru continued. "Something ancient responded. A summon, perhaps? Or… a technique you shouldn't know at your age?"
Hiruko offered a mild shrug. "We all pursue strength, Orochimaru-san. Some of us use scrolls. Others… build them."
Orochimaru's grin widened, just slightly. He stepped closer.
"You fascinate me," he said. "You're not driven by ego. Not greed. Just… progress. It's like looking into a mirror that hasn't broken yet."
Hiruko stiffened at the word. Mirror.
"You're the only one in this school who understands what knowledge costs," Orochimaru added. "Most of these children think power is a birthright. But you… you're a creator."
For a moment, silence.
Then a crash erupted from the adjacent courtyard.
"YAAAAH! Take that—Ow! Stupid log!"
A loud, boisterous voice echoed through the open windows. Hiruko winced.
"…And there's the reason I built a soundproof meditation room," he muttered.
Orochimaru smirked. "Your shadow approaches."
Training Grounds – Konoha Academy
Jiraiya was sprawled on the ground, rubbing the back of his head after a failed Shadow Clone experiment. When he looked up, he saw Orochimaru approaching—and behind him, a quiet, sharp-eyed boy he didn't recognize.
"Oh-ho! Who's this? A new rival?" he laughed, standing up and wiping dirt from his face.
"Hiruko," Orochimaru said plainly. "Top two of the year."
"Top two? Against you?" Jiraiya pointed. "That can't be right."
Hiruko offered a thin, polite smile. "Some of us read more than jutsu manuals, Jiraiya-san."
Jiraiya blinked, then squinted at him. "You look like the kind of guy who talks to test tubes."
"Better than talking to your reflection after failing another transformation jutsu."
Orochimaru chuckled under his breath. Tsunade, watching from a distance, smirked.
And thus, a rivalry was born.
Later That Week – Hiruko's Lab Within Shiromari
Alone within the chameleonic castle-fortress, Hiruko sat under violet light. His chakra convergence had stabilized. But his ambitions had grown.
He drew a new diagram on the stone floor: a tri-pointed seal, with three arrows feeding into a central core.
Project 02: Chimera Principle
Hypothesis: With enough biological data, chakra signature, and elemental encoding, bloodline limits can be copied, stored, and merged.
Goal: A chakra-engineered body capable of absorbing and adapting any technique or affinity.
He flipped the scroll. The next page was black—literally. A mix of ink and chakra that shimmered unnaturally. Written in fine silver:
Dark Release – Theoretical Affinity
Not a natural element.
Result of combining Yin, Yang, and amplified elemental chakra.
Function: Absorb, convert, reproject chakra of others.
Hiruko pressed his hand to the page. His own chakra was still too unstable to handle this safely.
But he had time. And most importantly—he had ideas.
Next Morning – Academy Grounds
As the sun rose, Hiruko quietly observed Orochimaru training with snakes. Jiraiya was off in the trees, trying to perfect his clone technique again. Neither of them noticed the small spark flicker in Hiruko's palm—an unnatural chakra signature that was neither wind nor lightning.
It was... something else. Something darker. Something synthetic.
He whispered to himself, "Let's see what the world does when the laws of chakra become suggestions."