Three days later, in the Hokage's office.
Sarutobi Hiruzen carefully read through the file in his hand, narrowing his eyes slightly.
Even though the Third Hokage already had an idea of Orochimaru's strength, he didn't expect this. To think he could fight the strongest dōjutsu clan in Konoha all by himself.
Sarutobi Hiruzen removed the pipe from his mouth and let out a long breath. He handed the report to Jiraiya beside him and asked, "Jiraiya, could you pull this off?"
Jiraiya, holding a child in one arm, took the file with the other hand, skimmed through it, and said with a smile, "I'm confident I could fight Orochimaru to a draw, but to crush an entire clan like this? No way."
"His ninjutsu and fighting style are much better suited for large-scale battles than mine."
When it came to killing power against large numbers of ninjas, Jiraiya glanced at the little Naruto in his arms and couldn't help but sigh. "Actually, Minato was the real master of group battles. His efficiency in killing enemies was even higher than Orochimaru's."
Mentioning the Fourth, who had just died in battle, made Sarutobi Hiruzen fall silent as well.
The reason Minato could become Hokage had a lot to do with how he fought in the Third Great Ninja War.
"The Yellow Flash" was a title of honor in Konoha, but for their enemies, it was a nightmare made real.
With extreme speed, sharp dynamic vision, and reflexes, a mid-level ninja stood no chance against Minato—not even for a single exchange.
Unlike Orochimaru, who crushed opponents with sheer power, Minato fought as if dancing on the tip of a blade—a completely different style.
As a ninja himself, the Third Hokage actually admired Minato's way of fighting more. But he also knew that the First Hokage, called the "God of Shinobi," and his rival Uchiha Madara had both fought with overwhelming, all-out styles.
Now Orochimaru was showing signs that he had the potential to move in that direction as well.
With a small sigh, the Third Hokage brought the topic back to Orochimaru. "Orochimaru has helped the Uchiha improve their barrier techniques. I'm afraid he's doing this to deal with the Jinchuriki from Kumogakure."
"That should be it. Orochimaru really put effort into this time and didn't hold anything back."
Thinking about the battles to come, Jiraiya asked, "What about the intel from the front? Is Kumogakure really going to start a war? They also took heavy losses during the Third War."
The Third Hokage shook his head. "Even though Iwagakure's ninjas managed to kill the Third Raikage, the new Raikage and both Jinchuriki have already grown strong. The top fighters in Kumogakure can't be underestimated."
"Of course, there are voices in Kumogakure against going to war. But the one pushing for it is the Fourth Raikage, and with two Jinchuriki backing him, unlike us in Konoha, the Raikage's power is highly centralized. It won't take him long to silence any opposition."
Among the Five Great Ninja Villages, Konoha was the strongest, but precisely because of that, it was also the most divided. The Hokage and his Anbu were only the largest of many factions.
The Uchiha clan and Root went without saying. The Hyuga, the Ino-Shika-Cho clans… each had their own power struggles.
Especially the Hyuga clan. Because of the "Caged Bird" seal, they were probably the most "united" clan in Konoha.
Luckily for the Hokage, the main Hyuga branch had been corrupted by the power that came with the seal, and for several generations, no real talents had emerged. Otherwise, the village's power struggles would have been much worse.
"No matter what, we have to prepare for Kumogakure's war early."
Sarutobi Hiruzen called for his Hokage assistant. "Spread these reports at the right time."
The assistant skimmed the documents, froze for a moment, then quickly bowed. "Yes!"
Watching the assistant leave, the Third Hokage thought to himself, "With this news, the villagers' fear of the Uchiha will probably go down quite a bit. But… Orochimaru's reputation will rise as well."
Not knowing Orochimaru's true intentions left the Third Hokage with a faint sense of unease.
"I can only hope that, as Orochimaru said, he really holds no ill will toward the village."
…
In the underground lab, the chandelier was turned up to its brightest, pushing back some of the chill in the air.
Orochimaru took a petri dish from a cabinet, placed it under a microscope, and carefully observed the changes in the cells inside.
This dish held a mix of the First Hokage's cells, Uchiha Jinsuke's cells, and Yamato's cells as a stabilizer—perfect for testing the Uchiha clan's resistance to the First's cells.
"So far, things are stable. With Yamato's cells acting as a barrier, the First's cells remain dormant."
Orochimaru licked his lips. Uchiha Jinsuke was an elite jonin, one of the best even within the police force.
Adding his cells into a mix of Yamato's and the First Hokage's cells could still keep things balanced. That gave Orochimaru high hopes for today's experiment.
Maybe today he could finally create a better gene serum.
After jotting down notes, Orochimaru calmly pushed the experiment forward step by step.
But when it came time to supply nutrients, the First's cells once again showed their terrifying aggression. Not only did they assimilate Yamato's cells, but Uchiha Jinsuke's cells also collapsed without resistance, just like an ordinary person's.
As always, the experiment failed at the same step.
"Where is the problem?"
After discarding the failed dish, Orochimaru fell into deep thought.
The results before him were completely different from what Genie had told him. The Uchiha cells showed none of the expected resistance.
Was Genie wrong? Or was his method flawed?
"Was it Genie who said the Uchiha cells suppress the First's cells?"
"What makes them different from normal people?"
Orochimaru's eyes widened slightly. "The Sharingan!"
Thinking of this possibility, he frowned slightly. "But the Sharingan is, in the end, just a type of eye jutsu Kekkei Genkai."
"Kekkei Genkai is tied to cells, to genes. It doesn't make sense that the chakra in their cells would be different from their eyes."
"No, wait… maybe it really is different…"
Orochimaru recalled how the Uchiha used their Sharingan.
They would perform the action of 'opening the eyes,' changing from normal black pupils to red ones. But this state couldn't last forever, and after some time, it would return to normal.
"So, the Sharingan is really just an unstable Kekkei Genkai?"
Orochimaru himself had no eye-based bloodline powers, so he could only make guesses based on logic and his research into Kekkei Genkai.
At least in all his records, no other bloodline ninja needed to enter some kind of burst state to use their Kekkei Genkai jutsu.
"Then what counts as the stable state of the Sharingan Kekkei Genkai? The Mangekyou Sharingan?"
Orochimaru shook his head. Even though he had never actually seen Shisui's eyes, judging from his reputation, the Mangekyou Sharingan still wasn't the final form of the Uchiha's Kekkei Genkai.
A true eye-based Kekkei Genkai should, once awakened, never revert back.
"Looks like if I want to test the Uchiha's resistance to the First Hokage's cells, I'll have to experiment directly on them."
Orochimaru licked his lips. For now, this still seemed a bit difficult.
Bang…
Suddenly, a burst of white smoke exploded.
Turning his gaze, he saw a viper, reverse-summoned, slithering in front of him, spitting out a scroll from its mouth.
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