"Sensei, you're really not going to transplant those Byakugan?"
Kenichi glanced at the pale-eyed Hyūga floating in the tank, then at Orochimaru.
The Byakugan might look unimpressive later in the original story, but in reality it was one of the reasons the Hyūga clan could stand alongside the Uchiha as one of Konoha's two great noble families.
Put a pair of Byakugan on the black market in another village and you could probably buy yourself a small country.
Across all the shinobi nations, the only confirmed outsider with a Byakugan was Ao from Kirigakure. Everyone else had wanted them for years and got nothing.
Between Konoha's protection… and the caged bird curse, it was no wonder.
"It's too conspicuous," Orochimaru replied, shaking his head. "And this man's eyes are defective."
Even if the Byakugan were tempting, they were also glaringly obvious. Right now, Orochimaru still planned to compete for the position of Fourth Hokage. Only an idiot would walk into the village council with stolen Hyūga eyes in his skull.
Besides, these particular eyes were contaminated by those strange overgrown cells. Even if transplanted, they might not function properly. The test subject's vision had already been steadily deteriorating.
"I see…" Kenichi nodded. That matched his own guess.
He looked at his teacher with a complicated expression.
So at this point in time, Orochimaru still honestly believed he had a shot at becoming Fourth Hokage.
Somehow, that made him seem… a little naïve.
But if Kenichi put himself in Orochimaru's shoes, it wasn't unreasonable.
In terms of fame, he was one of the legendary Sannin, feared across the continent.
In terms of military achievements, he'd led countless battles to victory.
On top of that, he had Danzō's backing.
If it were him, Kenichi would probably think, "I've got this in the bag," too.
The only serious rival was Namikaze Minato, the "Yellow Flash". And compared head-to-head, Minato's resume still looked slightly lighter than the Sannin's.
Flying dragon versus rookie golden boy. How do you lose that matchup? Kenichi thought wryly.
"Your insect amber," Orochimaru said suddenly, dragging him back to reality. "I told you to bring it. Did you?"
Kenichi straightened. "Yes, Sensei."
He quickly took the piece of amber from his pouch and handed it over.
Orochimaru held the amber up, comparing the frozen insect inside to an illustration in a book.
After a while, he shook his head and returned it.
Kenichi glanced at the book's cover.
"Miscellaneous Tales of the Sage Era."
Yeah, this absolutely screamed "not quite proper academic literature."
He skimmed the open page.
It described a strange species of insect that had once destroyed several villages. The creepy part was that the insects didn't attack directly—they burrowed into people's bodies, controlled them, and drove them into a crazed, murderous frenzy.
Then the story just… stopped.
The "sage" of that era supposedly noticed the catastrophe, then wiped out everyone who was infected, and that was that.
There was even a rough sketch of the insect, though it did look somewhat different from the one trapped in Kenichi's amber.
"If those bugs were real, that'd be totally busted," Kenichi muttered. "Mind-control parasites? Seriously?"
Got it. So Resident Evil 4 plagiarized you lot, huh?
"It may not be real," Orochimaru said. "In the so-called 'Era of the Sage,' there were many strange cults and 'miraculous' weapons in the stories."
He clearly treated the book as half-legend, half-rumor.
Kenichi thought about it and had to agree.
This was a world with the God Tree, the Ōtsutsuki, and chakra-eating aliens.
Parasites that controlled humans weren't even that high on the weirdness scale.
"If those insects really existed, we could just implant one into everyone," Kenichi said dryly. "Then world peace would be achieved."
As long as Nagato never found out about them, anyway.
Though honestly, even if he did, it wouldn't matter. These were tales from ages ago. No one even knew if they were true, and even if they were, finding such insects now would be nearly impossible.
"Peace isn't so easily obtained," Orochimaru murmured, licking his lips.
He was still mostly "normal" for now—eccentric and creepy, yes, but not yet the fully unhinged extremist he would become later.
Kenichi suspected that missing out on the Fourth Hokage seat would be one of the key things that pushed his teacher off the deep end.
And he had a faint feeling that Orochimaru was even restraining himself a little right now, precisely because he wanted the hat.
"Kenichi, stay in this lab for the next few days," Orochimaru said suddenly, standing up.
His gaze had turned cold again.
"I'll come back for you later."
Kenichi nodded obediently.
This was not the time to ask where his teacher was going. When Orochimaru was in this mood, prying into his plans was a quick way to die.
"Sensei, about that test subject…" Kenichi couldn't help asking, thinking of the Hyūga in the tank. "Can I keep using him?"
Such a perfect sample would be a huge waste if he had to just leave it alone.
"Just don't kill him," Orochimaru replied cleanly, then turned and left.
Kenichi watched him go, then exhaled slowly.
He was very familiar with this pattern. Orochimaru had done the same thing several times before—bring him to a hidden base, drop him off like a tool, and then disappear to do who-knows-what.
He was, quite literally, a lab assistant NPC.
But today, Kenichi didn't mind.
If Orochimaru wasn't around, that meant he could fully focus on studying the Hyūga bastard child and his cancer.
"Let's see what happens when I wrap cancer cells in Yang-nature chakra," he murmured, rubbing his hands together.
He headed for the lab with a cheerful smile.
A short while later, agonized screams echoed through the room as Kenichi scraped another batch of overgrown tissue from the Byakugan.
Then he turned his back on the sound and carried the petri dish to his station.
[Experiment Log – Cancer Cell Research]
Today, after infusing Sample No.1 with a trace amount of Yang-nature chakra, the cells began proliferating rapidly. However, soon after, they started dying off in large numbers. Sample No.1's ability to survive outside the body is extremely poor—likely due to contamination.
–
Afternoon: Scraped off the last bit of growth from the subject's eyeball. This time I infused an amount of Yang chakra equivalent to a Fireball Jutsu. Again, there was a rapid proliferation of cells, but the rate of apoptosis increased as well.
–
Possible problems:
1. Cells removed from the body can't adapt to the external environment.
2. Environmental changes (temperature, humidity, etc.).
3. Interference from external bacteria and viruses.
–
Day 2 after Sensei's departure: No visible growth remains on the subject's eyes. It should now be possible to begin in vivo experiments.
(End of Chapter)