"Well now, quite a lively atmosphere." Mizuki greeted first. "Long time no see, Kakashi."
"Oh? Isn't that Mizuki? You don't look so good. Been up to your usual shady business again? I heard the village's morale has gone downhill lately—ninja slacking off in broad daylight?"
"Come on! I'm a model of dedication and professionalism. I never show up late without reason, unlike certain lazy ninja."
A nearby genin nodded in agreement, looking surprisingly sincere.
Ignoring Kakashi, Mizuki stepped forward and submitted his mission request form.
"Lord Third, here's the mission request form you wanted."
"Hmm." The Third Hokage flipped through it casually. "You're dismissed."
"Yes sir."
Hearing about the mission, Naruto blurted out: "What kind of mission is it? Is it protecting a Daimyo or rescuing a princess? Let us do it!"
"Oh? Naruto-kun is here too? Sorry I didn't notice you earlier. There are so many people around, and well...a short little mushroom like you tends to get lost in the crowd~"
"A short little mushroom?" A confused Naruto glanced at Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha beside him before realizing whom Mizuki was talking about.
"You bastard! You rotten teacher! Just wait until I get my hands on you~"
Sakura quickly held Naruto back.
Unfazed by Naruto's yelling, Mizuki turned to Kakashi. "Kakashi, I'll treat you to Ichiraku Ramen sometime. The other day Ayame told me she actually saw what you look like under that mask! I'm really curious how handsome you must be to make Ayame completely smitten."
"You really do have a talent for sounding serious while talking nonsense," Kakashi replied, under the gaze of three curious genin.
"Well whether that's nonsense or not remains to be seen." With that, Mizuki pushed the door and left the Hokage's office.
Back in the mission hall, Mizuki resumed his usual lazy routine.
"What should I do now? Oh well, might as well take a nap to save energy. Need to be fresh for tonight's experiments."
"What's all the noise?" Still half-asleep, Mizuki faintly heard someone shouting his name.
Irritated, he rubbed his eyes, stretched lazily, and yawned as he asked, "What is it?"
"Finally awake, you bastard teacher! We're here to register a mission!" Naruto's voice came through.
"Eh? Why specifically me? Aren't there others right here?" Mizuki pointed sideways.
"Huh? Where'd everybody go? Where are all the so-called responsible ninja? This village has no future at this rate!"
"You're the last person qualified to say that!" Naruto shouted, pointing at the drool Mizuki had left on the table while sleeping.
"Yeah, yeah, act like a real genin for once—you've got zero respect. Let me see the mission request?"
Grumbling, Naruto handed over the form.
Mizuki took it and glanced through the form.
"As expected—it's the Land of Waves mission."
"Did Lord Third approve this mission for them?" Mizuki deliberately asked Kakashi. "This mission sounds like a hassle. It'll probably take a while, won't it?"
"The Third approved," Kakashi replied. "Good for genin to gain experience outside the village."
"I see. Since you're with them, there shouldn't be any problem, right?"
"Right."
"Then let's depart the day after tomorrow," Mizuki said, after finishing the registration and leaving the village.
Suddenly Sakura shyly asked, "Umm, Mizuki-sensei, have you ever seen what Kakashi-sensei really looks like?"
"Nope. Almost no one has seen him. I only know that Ayame saw him once, and apparently he's quite the hunk."
"Really? I'd love to meet him too!"
Kakashi interjected from nearby, "It's not like it's some big secret. You'll get the chance someday. For now, hurry back and prepare. We're leaving bright and early the day after tomorrow."
The three Genin could only leave in disappointment.
Watching Kakashi's team off, Mizuki closed his eyes again to meditate, soon drifting into sleep.
Time passed swiftly, like a white horse darting past a gap—indeed, peaceful days always flew by. During the daytime, Mizuki went about his work in an orderly manner. Actually, after several days of rest, Mizuki no longer needed to conserve energy constantly. However, old habits die hard, and with work so laid-back, he often nodded off unintentionally. At night, Mizuki kept researching the changes in Kuzu and jellyfish, hoping they might finally resolve his physical weakness completely. To be honest though, progress had been scarce. Although both creatures were indeed extraordinary, their direct usefulness to Mizuki remained minimal, and each possessed an unavoidable drawback—both were far too fragile.
Kuzu possessed the ability to regenerate entire organisms from any fragmented part, which meant its cellular [Omnipotence] was terrifyingly strong—essentially the capability of single cells to grow into full individuals. In adult humans, aside from reproductive cells, only bone marrow stem cells barely qualify for such "omnipotent" classification, but still pale in comparison to Kuzu's level. Generally speaking, the more complex an organism, the weaker its cellular [Omnipotence] becomes.
As for the Tower Immortal Jellyfish, its agelessness is truly enviable, and its ability to divide without damage makes it potentially powerful—if used skillfully, it could even become a game-changing weapon.
But in truth, these species only held advantages in certain aspects. Kuzu gets eaten by countless animals in nature, and one good fire would reduce it to ashes.
As for the Tower Immortal Jellyfish, not only does it require an aquatic environment to survive, but its soft body can be crushed underfoot by even a small child. It's practically useless for serious applications.
After all this time, Mizuki still hadn't found a way to acquire powerful vitality. That said, it wasn't entirely fruitless. Looking at the oddly-shaped creatures inside glass petri dishes—a three-legged Suzume, two-headed mice, insects with strange compound eyes—occasionally there were also some looking relatively normal.
Mizuki first destroyed all the mutated organisms, recorded them properly, then divided the relatively normal ones into two groups. One batch received green-colored injections, then got cut into segments categorized precisely according to dosage amounts. The other group received milky-white injections and were separately caged for observation.
With all this done, Mizuki redirected his focus back onto further experiments involving Kuzu and Tower Immortal Jellyfish.
Regardless, Mizuki couldn't help but marvel at how convenient chakra was in this world—it's no wonder Orochimaru alone could act as a mad scientist capable of throwing the entire world into chaos.
This chakra-based power could replace all sorts of high-tech instruments for observation and various operations. Without chakra, none of this would be possible. Sometimes Mizuki couldn't help but look down on the Uchiha and Hyuga clans. Although both Byakugan and Sharingan were divine-level abilities when fully evolved, how many people actually achieved that level? Yet even with someone like Orochimaru involved, using the observational powers of the Byakugan and Sharingan, conducting biological warfare experiments was as easy as child's play. There'd be no need to wipe out entire clans or mess around with main houses and branch houses—it was laughable. Just by himself, within two or three months, he could already create a bunch of little mutants. He really had to admit—knowledge is power.
In fact, during these past few months, Mizuki had focused on only two tasks: mass-producing samples and destroying specific genetic codes for elimination experiments.
Mizuki knew well that in his previous life, even with the combined efforts of the world's leading scientists, completing gene coding for a single species still took years. It was neither realistic nor necessary for a single person to fully comprehend an entire organism. All he needed to do was destroy certain sections of the genetic code, observe which parts, once damaged, caused the corresponding traits to disappear, locate those key points, use the damaged genes to reverse-engineer the corresponding protein enzymes, inject them into other organisms, and see whether they worked. That was precisely how all those mutant creatures in the petri dishes had come about.
At present, Mizuki had roughly extracted the Green Agent—the effective substance within Kuzu that displayed cellular Omnipotence. If divided into multiple tiny organisms, so long as they didn't die immediately, injecting an appropriate dose of the Green Agent could fully revive each into independent living beings. For creatures missing limbs, proper dosages could achieve limb regeneration as well. However, if timing or dosage wasn't properly controlled, unnecessary organs would often grow in inappropriate places—explaining why those mutants appeared so bizarre.
Among his experiments, plants had been the most successful, with nearly no complications. Of course, plants didn't really have what one might call distinct forms anyway. The results with insects had also been relatively good—most remained fairly normal. Small birds and mice performed just so-so, easily becoming deformed. As for larger organisms, conditions currently didn't permit testing yet. After all, running a proper lab at home simply wasn't feasible.
Compared to that, progress on another project was much slower—he hadn't found the [Reverse Aging Genetic Code] at all. However, the [Non-Destructive Splitting Technique] had shown promising results. This referred to that milky white agent. So far, it had only worked successfully on extremely primitive aquatic organisms and a few plant species. Most insects injected with it underwent mutations—extra limbs, even extra heads; the sight of those grotesque bugs disgusted him terribly. When tested on more advanced birds and mammals, every single test subject died—one didn't survive even a single day. Later, after changing approaches and combining the injection with Green Agent, he finally achieved some success—greatly increased survival rates and significantly reduced deformities—an unexpected pleasant surprise. But without sufficient experimentation, its practicality remained unknown.
"It's way too restricted here inside Konoha village. I must find a bigger and more secluded place soon."
"There is actually a location," Mizuki murmured. "According to what was recorded, I prepared the activating agent for the cursed seal at one of Orochimaru's hidden bases. It's not far from Konoha and seldom visited. It could be a good base of operations."
"We should check it out after the Chunin Exams. Having a clandestine lab would certainly come in handy."
As this thought crossed his mind, Mizuki suddenly moved, pulling out a sealing scroll. After unsealing it, a large ceramic vat appeared. Inside floated a salamander-like creature with a long tail, suspended within a large quantity of the green agent.
"I never imagined such a creature could grow from just a single strand of my hair. Ninjas truly are aberrations. Can they even be classified as normal human beings anymore?"
After adding more of the green agent to the vat, Mizuki resealed it and stored it away.
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