Konoha.
Inside the Uchiha clan area, at the old medical room site.
Orochimaru glanced at the steadily recovering heart monitor, breathed a deep sigh, and stopped looking at the Uchiha Chunin who had fallen asleep on the operating table. He took a few steps back, sat in a chair, and slowly closed his eyes.
Fugaku, who was beside him, waited for a while and couldn't help but ask, "Orochimaru-sama, was the surgery a success, or..."
Orochimaru didn't answer immediately. Just as Fugaku's heart was rising, he opened his eyes and said, "Don't worry, it wasn't a failure."
It wasn't just not a failure; compared to the previous partial fusion surgeries, this time, a perfect fusion at the cell level was truly achieved. It couldn't have been more successful.
But perhaps because he used White Zetsu cells, this Uchiha's strength improvement was very small, even less than that of Uchiha Jinsuke, who had undergone partial cell fusion, falling far short of expectations.
"Not a failure?"
Fugaku repeated what Orochimaru said, thinking about its meaning.
Orochimaru didn't keep him in suspense. He explained and sorted out his thoughts, speaking calmly,
"Simply put, his physique has been improved to a certain extent, and he has the potential to awaken the Blood Wheel Eye, but this process requires a long period of development. The difficulty may be similar to that of an ordinary Uchiha awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan."
Fugaku frowned.
He understood Orochimaru's implied meaning. In other words, there was a high probability that he wouldn't be able to achieve a more mature Blood Wheel Eye.
"Then what's the point of this surgery?"
Investing so much money, only to get such a result, was hard for Fugaku to accept.
"You don't understand."
Orochimaru glanced at him and then looked away, saying slowly, "Although the effect is poor, it can guarantee success. In other words, if you want, the entire Uchiha clan can undergo this surgery."
"You mean..."
Fugaku's eyes lit up. As the head of the clan, his vision was naturally not limited to the present.
"Go back and prepare the funds. For the first phase, we can do twenty people for now."
Orochimaru waved his hand, signaling that Fugaku could leave.
"Yes." Fugaku, with a happy expression, picked up the Uchiha Chunin and quickly walked towards the door of the underground laboratory.
Being able to guarantee success meant that surgeries could be performed on a large scale, and it would be easier to hide it from the village.
After Fugaku disappeared at the door, the Genie stretched out his body in the air and laughed, "You're really dishonest now. You're painting too big a picture."
To be fixated on the present leads to narrow-mindedness, but to be immersed in grand narratives and not pay attention to the present is not necessarily a smart thing to do.
Even though the improvement effect was small, Orochimaru casually made up a sentence, and Uchiha Fugaku immediately believed it without even verifying it, seeing it as the dawn of the clan's rise. This clan leader is really somewhat irresponsible.
"I wasn't lying to him. The surgery did achieve perfect fusion at the cell level."
Orochimaru paused, "Although the strength improvement isn't great, it did indeed improve the Uchiha's physique. The possibility of 'losing their minds' in the future will be greatly reduced..."
His voice gradually lowered. Orochimaru himself didn't believe what he was saying.
Ironically, this surgery turned out to be what the Third Hokage wanted most. If things went according to the Uchiha's plan, they might not mind trading some intelligence for power.
"Huff..."
Orochimaru breathed out deeply, his brow furrowed, lost in thought.
Although they had different ideas, he, like the Uchiha, was unwilling to accept this result.
First Hokage cells and White Zetsu cells, although different in power level, should be essentially the same kind of power. And perfect cell fusion should be far superior to partial fusion.
Adding the two together, even if it didn't make this Uchiha Chunin's strength explode, at least there should be a visible increase.
But reality was cruel. Even if he could fool Uchiha Fugaku, he could never deceive himself.
Tap tap tap...
His fingers tapped the table rhythmically, the sound passing through the eardrums, soothing the tension in his nerves. Orochimaru's eyes were deep as he sorted out the previous experimental data, trying to find the reason.
But no matter how he reviewed it, the experimental process and data all pointed to a contradictory result: he successfully completed the surgery, but didn't achieve the desired effect.
"..."
The Genie circled around Orochimaru a few times. He basically couldn't understand what Orochimaru was writing. His level of education in his previous life didn't support him having this ability, and the Genie wasn't interested in learning these things either.
Not because of laziness, but because the worlds are different. The most basic cosmic parameters differ, and this small change, when magnified in science, is almost earth-shattering. It's not very applicable unless he's interested in starting to learn all over again every time he goes to a new world.
In comparison, the Genie's core abilities are higher-level and don't change easily. This is his fundamental reliance.
However, although he can't provide inspiration in terms of knowledge, the Genie's imagination is always good.
The Genie stretched out his neck and put his head in front of Orochimaru, "Is it possible that being weak is actually the normal thing?"
Orochimaru stopped writing, squinting at him, "What are you trying to say?"
The Genie shrugged, "I don't understand your experiments, but how should I put it? I feel that Senju Hashirama and the White Zetsu clones are still somewhat different."
Orochimaru raised his head, looked at the Genie, and said slowly, "You said before that White Zetsu are the products of humans from a thousand years ago who were corrupted by the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path."
"According to this theory, they are even closer to the Ootsuki clan's bloodline than even the First Hokage..."
"I did say that, but I also overlooked one thing at the time." The Genie spread out his hands. "For the past thousand years, the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path hasn't been the previous Ten-Tails. It's been in a state of extreme Chakra depletion."
"A fruit tree from Konoha Village might not bear good fruit, or even survive, if moved to the Land of Wind's desert... The same probably goes for White Zetsu."
Orochimaru was slightly stunned when he heard this.
"Don't forget, Kaguya cultivated White Zetsu to deal with the Ootsuki who were invading from outer space."
The Genie said dismissively, "These wastes who can be wiped out in large numbers with one move in their current state, could they defeat the Ootsuki?"
This was indeed an interesting point. Orochimaru's mind raced,
"Are you saying that the Chakra-depleted environment inside the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path for the past thousand years has turned the former White Zetsu into a new species, a weak and stable state?"
"So its combination with the Uchiha didn't make the other party stronger, and might even have hindered them if it weren't for the fusion of Yin and Yang."
Compared to ordinary White Zetsu clones, that Uchiha Chunin was considered to be of above-average quality among the Uchiha clan, a leader in his group.
What should really be compared to White Zetsu clones are those ordinary people in the Uchiha clan who lack even basic ninja aptitude.
The Genie stared blankly for a moment, "Yes, that's what I was thinking."
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