"…That idea of yours is certainly… interesting."
Orochimaru's eye twitched.
Cutting off a piece of the Nine-Tails for research? If someone didn't know better, they'd think his dear little student was already an undisputed Kage-level monster who could knead Kurama like clay.
Kenichi Amamiya scratched his cheek with a sheepish grin.
He really was curious, though. Tailed Beast Bombs were terrifying in the early stage. And the sheer volume of chakra a bijū could provide… it made a researcher's heart race.
"Anyway," Orochimaru went on, his tone turning colder, "the village will treat this very seriously. Be careful how you act over the next while."
He glanced sideways at Kenichi.
"You're on good terms with the Fourth and his wife. That alone is risky. A pregnant jinchūriki involves too many factions. If you get caught in the middle, it will be… troublesome. For you—and for me."
Kenichi nodded immediately.
"Got it, sensei. I'll be careful."
Of course, he knew the end result wouldn't change.
Even if he did absolutely nothing, Obito would still return and unleash the Nine-Tails. Minato and Kushina were still destined to die that night.
And when you really thought about it… it was hard not to feel cold.
While the Fourth fights for his life… what is the Third doing?
What is Danzō doing?
What is Orochimaru doing?
Forget about the clan heads of Ino–Shika–Chō. Forget Hyūga and Uchiha. Even if it was just the Third going all-out, Danzō going all-out, and Orochimaru helping from the shadows, there's no way the Fourth had to die.
But the Fourth died.
The Third returned to the Hokage's seat, alive and well, in full control.
Hard not to question his motives.
And then there was Naruto's childhood—which was simply… ridiculous.
It wasn't that such treatment couldn't happen. Humans could be awful, that was normal. But a kid goes through that much and still inherits the "Will of Fire" and dreams of becoming Hokage?
And doesn't go insane?
That's what's hard to believe.
Kenichi sighed inwardly.
If I went through Naruto's childhood, I'd probably be flattening this village by now, not protecting it.
He vaguely remembered seeing something online in his previous life—someone saying Naruto was originally supposed to be a short manga, not a long-running epic. If that was true, then a lot of the character setups made more sense at first… and then slowly collapsed under the weight of extra volumes.
He spun the chunk of insect amber in his fingers and smiled faintly.
If he had to pick his biggest gain recently, it actually wasn't the cancer jutsu progress, or the money he'd bled out of Orochimaru.
It was this.
The bug in the amber.
Some time ago, Orochimaru had walked up to him holding an old, weather-beaten book and asked to see the amber. After comparing the preserved insect with an illustration in the text again and again, he'd finally confirmed it:
This was a species of ancient parasite.
One that the Sage of Six Paths had supposedly wiped out himself.
Legend said the parasite infested humans, took over their bodies, and turned them into "madmen" who ravaged entire villages. The Sage had eradicated both the hosts and the worms.
Supposedly.
Yet here lay a perfectly preserved specimen, fossilized in amber.
At first Orochimaru hadn't been sure—the records in that old book were sparse and vague. Only after carefully checking the body shape and the few notes did he dare draw a conclusion.
Unfortunately, the worm itself was very dead.
Resurrecting the species was impossible. Much to Orochimaru's regret. A parasite that could hijack another's body? The tactical value of that kind of control was… obvious.
Kenichi clicked his tongue.
"A parasite that lets you control people, huh… wonder what I'd get for researching you."
If a bug like that could be made to control ninjas, its practical value would be insane.
But reality was rarely that kind.
Most parasites that could control their host's behavior tended to kill that host in the end.
The examples from his past life came easily:
Hairworms making grasshoppers jump into water and drown so the worms could slither free.
Or that bizarre species of flatworm larva that burrowed into a snail's eyestalks, pulsed like candy to attract birds, and then got swallowed along with the host.
The pattern was clear:
If a parasite can puppeteer you, it's not your friend.
If this ancient worm worked the same way, its usefulness dropped fast—unless Kenichi was willing to spend years breeding "better" variants, slowly selecting for ones with controllable effects.
A parasite breeding program.
The idea made even him feel a little uneasy.
Still holding the amber, he suddenly remembered something.
"By the way, sensei… there's been rumors in the village lately. People going missing?"
Kenichi slipped the bug back into his pocket and turned to Orochimaru. The question was simple, but the meaning underneath was clear:
It might be time to get ready to run.
Orochimaru's strength was one thing.
Kenichi was just a chunin.
And sitting in Konoha doing nothing all day was getting… boring.
No lab access. No bold experiments. Just watching people gossip and pretending to be normal. If he stayed too long, he'd eventually snap and drag some poor idiot off the street into a basement.
"Mm," Orochimaru said. "For the time being, you only come to the lab when you're with me. The rest of the time, do as you like."
He didn't sound worried at all. He already intended to defect—but the timing wasn't quite right yet.
Kenichi sighed.
So we're still in the "pretend everything is fine" phase, huh…
Fine. If he couldn't leave yet, he'd just plan ahead.
He'd already completed one of his elective side quests: separating Uzumaki Kushina's unique genetic chain.
Once isolated, though, he had no way of using it yet. The technology wasn't there. So he'd frozen the extracted segment for long-term storage and left it at that.
The real reward had come from the system.
A blueprint.
A very dangerous blueprint.
[Side Quest Complete: Isolate Uzumaki Lineage]
Reward: Thermobaric Bomb (Fuel-Air) Design Blueprint
"The design diagram for a fuel–air bomb…" Kenichi rubbed the bridge of his nose. "And it even lists the required materials… Is my system trying to make me the Deidara of Konoha?"
He knew exactly what a thermobaric bomb was.
Crushes bunkers. Vaporizes enclosed spaces. Sucks the air and life out of everything nearby. It was terrifying on a battlefield, even without chakra in the equation.
The problem?
A blueprint alone didn't make a bomb.
He had the design, yes—but gathering suitable materials, building prototypes, testing pressure waves, calibrating ignition timing… that was a huge project.
"…Still," Kenichi murmured, eyes narrowing thoughtfully, "if you think about it… Deidara is a demolition prodigy, isn't he?"
In his memories of the future, that self-proclaimed "artist" of Iwagakure was practically a walking manifesto of explosions.
If they ever crossed paths…
Chakra-based explosives, clay detonators, thermobaric tech from another world…
The possibilities made Kenichi's fingers itch.
But those were thoughts for later.
For now, he tucked the blueprint away in his mental drawer labeled "Insanely Dangerous, Very Fun, Do Not Touch Until Ready", and went back to doing what he did best.
Planning the next experiment.
And waiting for the night when everything in Konoha would change.