Chapter 176: Even Subtle Changes in the Soul Can Have a Profound Impact, Right, Teacher?
"So," Orochimaru asked, "why did you suddenly come here to do gene labeling and comparison work?"
He stood behind Kenichi in a white lab coat and indoor shoes, a cup of hot tea in hand. The heat and steam drifted close, brushing the back of Kenichi's neck.
Kenichi's shoulders tensed on reflex. He shifted his chair forward a little, putting a safer distance between them.
"Ahem. I have an idea," Kenichi said with an awkward smile, "but it needs a lot of data to support it."
"What are you dodging for?" Orochimaru leaned in, set the cup down, then gripped the back of Kenichi's chair with both hands, peering at the screen with open curiosity.
A clean scent followed, shampoo and soap, the kind that made the sterile lab air feel almost out of place.
"Teacher, you misunderstood," Kenichi said quickly, keeping his eyes on the monitor. "I'm just trying to stay focused while I compare genetic data."
He did not dare turn his head. Orochimaru was too close, close enough that one careless movement would put them face to face, and Kenichi had no interest in testing how long his nerves could endure that kind of pressure.
Orochimaru did not seem to care about Kenichi's discomfort. "By the way, I sent Anko on a mission. Remember to look after her when you have time."
"What mission?" Kenichi asked, genuinely curious. He had brought Anko back to do errands, but once Orochimaru saw her, he took her away. Kenichi had no idea what Anko had been doing lately.
"Bounty missions," Orochimaru replied casually. "She has nothing better to do. Missions will help her build funds and gain practical experience."
As he spoke, Orochimaru leaned down and tapped the computer screen, pointing out a spot Kenichi had failed to label.
Kenichi corrected it immediately. He really had been careless, though the main reason was painfully obvious. Doing precise work with Orochimaru looming behind him felt like trying to perform surgery while a snake watched your hands.
"Teacher," Kenichi said with a helpless sigh, "if you do not tell me where she is, how am I supposed to help even if I want to?"
There were no phones in the shinobi world. No calls, no messages, no convenient way to check on someone unless you physically went looking.
Orochimaru thought for a moment. "She should be in the Land of Earth right now."
Kenichi raised an eyebrow. The Land of Earth was far.
He had assumed Orochimaru might try to push Anko into the Akatsuki, but that would be suicide at her current level. This arrangement made more sense.
It was just a pity that the unlucky girl seemed to have feelings for Sasori, while Sasori either did not reciprocate or simply did not understand what those feelings meant. The shinobi world had no shortage of people like that, and some pairings were frustrating enough to make you want to bang your head against the lab table.
"Are you studying Uchiha genes?" Orochimaru asked after watching for a while.
Kenichi nodded. He had thrown himself completely into researching the Sharingan.
To identify genetic differences between the Uchiha and ordinary people, he had no choice but to intensify the comparison work. Without computers, he would have needed dozens of shadow clones just to keep the workload from crushing him.
Even with computers, it was still brutal.
His eyes ached from staring too long, and he could not afford to drift for even a moment. One missed detail could be the exact piece of genetic information he needed.
There was an old story in the scientific world, a warning carved into every researcher's nerves. The earliest asphalt drip experiment, meant to prove whether asphalt was a solid or a liquid, had missed its first drop because the scientist was not present. It became a lifelong regret.
That was why long term experiments used recording devices now. Not because people loved machines, but because humans were unreliable at the worst possible times.
"I already studied and analyzed a batch of Uchiha genes before," Orochimaru said. "I saved that data here."
Kenichi froze for a beat, then hurriedly pulled up Orochimaru's file and ran a repeat comparison.
Half the sequences he had been grinding through were the same ones Orochimaru had already processed.
Kenichi did not know whether to laugh or cry. At least it saved him a huge amount of time.
"Teacher," Kenichi asked, shifting to another window, "what have you been researching lately?"
"Nothing special," Orochimaru said, his eyes flicking away for the briefest instant. "Didn't you mention the concept of a telephone before? I've been studying that recently."
Kenichi nodded, understanding immediately.
Orochimaru was dodging. That meant he was working on something he did not plan to share yet, so he tossed Kenichi a harmless answer instead.
Kenichi did not press.
Orochimaru's expression, however, was faintly complicated.
When had it started?
He had discovered that his Reanimation Jutsu had a troublesome flaw, something tied to the soul.
He had sent the original owner's soul to the Pure Land, and his own soul had taken control of the body successfully. The damage to his soul was healing over time, but during that self repair process, something unwanted had mixed in.
He did not notice at first.
Only later, when some of his movements began to change, movements that looked natural on the surface but felt subtly wrong, did he realize something was off.
After investigating, he found the cause.
When he performed the Reanimation Jutsu, his body had hidden injuries from Jiraiya and the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. He had acted in a hurry.
As a result, the soul of the girl named Yuuki had not been completely cleansed. Tiny fragments remained.
During his soul's later self repair, those fragments were absorbed without him realizing it.
That left Orochimaru in an awkward situation.
There had been subtle changes in his soul.
Worse, those fragments carried stubborn traces of bodily memory, strange habits that clung like burrs. Orochimaru was furious when he confirmed it, but after fighting Jiraiya once, he noticed another problem.
This new identity changed how others reacted to him.
Jiraiya, that fool, had been hesitant and awkward in ways he never used to be.
And in battle, a body that looked weaker could make enemy shinobi careless.
Since this body was highly compatible with him, Orochimaru did not care too much. From time to time, it was only natural that faintly feminine traits surfaced.
Still, it was not ideal.
"This change in my soul is causing issues," Orochimaru thought, watching Kenichi's stiff posture. "I need to find a solution."
Then another thought slipped in, uninvited.
"And why did I just feel a strange sense of amusement?"
Teasing his disciple was… oddly entertaining.
No wonder Tsunade enjoyed messing with people's composure.
"With telephones, communication will be much easier in the future," Kenichi said, sounding genuinely excited as he returned to his work.
The invention of the telephone had been revolutionary in any world. It made distance feel smaller.
In the past, once people left their homeland, returning was hard. Contacting family was even harder. That was why people from the same hometown used to tear up when they met. A telephone made staying connected simple.
In the shinobi world, the value would be even greater.
On one side, it created a direct channel of communication between different villages. On the other, it made contact between people faster and more reliable.
Of course, knowing shinobi, it was hard to say they would not invent something ridiculous alongside it. Something like Telephone Eavesdropping Jutsu did not sound impossible.
This was the same world that would eventually produce Sexy Jutsu and even Harem Sexy Jutsu, techniques that somehow mattered during a fight against Kaguya. Reality here had always been flexible when it wanted to be.
"That's true," Orochimaru said, agreeing. "But it's not certain we'll be able to connect a telephone line to a hidden laboratory like this."
"Teacher," Kenichi said, thinking of something else, "Konoha has radios, right? I've seen shinobi using headsets."
"Hm. Yes." Orochimaru looked at him with interest. "Why?"
"Do you think it's possible to study radio waves, find a stable frequency band, and use electromagnetic waves to maintain fixed contact with someone?" Kenichi asked. "And for distance, could we solve it by building relay stations?"
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