Even with Orochimaru's notes in hand, Kenichi Amemiya quickly realized something depressing:
Even Sensei doesn't really understand the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
The logbook wasn't long, but the information density was high.
Orochimaru had already confirmed a few key things:
The Demonic Statue wasn't just a statue – it was a living organism.
It had an extremely high affinity with chakra.
Its internal structure and reaction to chakra were… weird. Very weird.
But even so, the research was still at the "poke it with a stick and see what happens" stage.
Kenichi, on the other hand, already knew what this "statue" really was.
The husk of the Ten-Tails.
The withered shell of the Divine Tree.
The core of the Ōtsutsuki clan's "plant a god tree, harvest a planet" business model.
If it were up to him, he'd chain the whole thing down in a giant lab, strap it full of sensors, and run cruel experiments on it three days and three nights in a row.
Unfortunately, that would probably get him killed. So, for now, he could only fantasize.
"Forget it, focus," he muttered, closing the journal.
God trees could wait.
Right now, he still had his little "quail egg" to test—the refined sphere made from that alien meteorite.
He headed back to the same secluded valley as before.
Standing in front of the cratered ground, Kenichi took a deep breath, flipped into Sage Mode, and began injecting wind-natured Sage Chakra into the small metal sphere.
At first, it felt normal—just that comfortable resistance of chakra being absorbed.
Then, suddenly, he felt it.
Lighter.
The bead in his palm became faintly weightless, the same way a kunai feels just before you throw it.
"Coming," Kenichi's eyes narrowed.
He thumbed his stopwatch, then immediately used Body Flicker to retreat far up along the valley wall.
A heartbeat later—
A pure chakra shockwave exploded outward from the tiny sphere.
No flames. No smoke. Just raw force.
Trees were ripped out of the ground and launched out of the valley like some deranged nature-themed artillery barrage. Rocks skittered and bounced along the slopes, and for a moment the entire gorge howled with wild wind.
If there'd been villagers nearby, someone肯定会说一句:
"这下是真·山下也能在山顶种樱桃树了."
The surge ended quickly.
The violence vanished as abruptly as it had arrived.
Kenichi jumped back down into the valley and picked through the debris until he found the bead again.
It was still intact.
But it was… dead.
The metal no longer absorbed chakra. No resonance, no reaction—it felt like a normal, albeit very tough, lump of alloy.
"One-time use, huh…" Kenichi clicked his tongue.
Good news:
It could successfully store Sage Chakra and detonate with pure chakra output.
Bad news:
It lost that ability entirely afterward.
Which meant each bead was a disposable luxury item.
And that made the original meteorite terrifyingly valuable.
"I'll have to analyze exactly what elements are in this thing," he muttered, jotting down notes. "Figure out what structure makes it able to hold Sage Chakra in the first place."
From that single meteorite chunk, after refining, he'd only managed to make three quail-egg-sized cores.
He'd just used one.
One remaining bead = about 3.33 million ryō.
And based on his manufacturing plans, one thermobaric bomb would need at least three such cores.
Which meant a single chakra-enhanced thermobaric bomb would cost roughly:
3.33 million × 3 ≈ 10 million ryō
And that was just for the meteorite part.
If he added the cost of the thermobaric explosive itself, the casing, deployment method…
One bomb = the payout of roughly a dozen S-rank missions.
"…Feels a bit like throwing gold bars from the sky," Kenichi sighed.
Still, if the result was strong enough, the price was… acceptable.
He ran another test.
This time he placed a fresh quail-egg bead into a compact thermobaric charge he'd prepared earlier and infused it with fire-natured Sage Chakra.
As soon as the bead started heating up in his hand, Kenichi didn't hesitate—he vaulted out of the valley and perched high on the ridge.
Seven seconds later—
A flash of white swallowed the gorge.
A fireball erupted skyward like a miniature sun, followed by a compressed, violent shockwave and a distinctly mushroom-shaped cloud climbing into the sky.
The wall of heat slammed into Kenichi a moment later, tugging at his hair and clothes, and he narrowed his eyes against the glare.
Below, a brand-new crater smoked at the center of the blast site.
"Power definitely went up… and so did the temperature," he noted.
He had no instruments to precisely measure the temperature at ground zero, but even from up here, the heat was brutal.
From a pure result perspective, this was a complete success:
The alien metal bead could safely store Sage Chakra.
Combined with thermobaric explosives, it created a terrifying hybrid blast.
The concept of a "chakra thermobaric bomb" was now proven.
Even if the method was a bit… hacked together.
"In my ideal version, the chakra would be fused directly into the explosive mass," Kenichi muttered, scribbling again in his log. "This roundabout storage method is more like using a patch."
The scientist in him wasn't fully satisfied.
In his mind, a "perfect" chakra thermobaric weapon should be:
Chakra and explosive fully integrated at the molecular level.
Stable in storage.
Only unstable and detonating on command.
What he had now was more like:
Thermobaric Bomb – Youth Edition
(Powered by externally stored chakra packs)
A good start, but clearly not the final "Luxury Plus" version.
Still, he now had something usable.
"Next time I take a war commission, I'll build one full-size and test it properly," he decided. "For now… I should go buy up the rest of that meteorite while I still can."
Even if it hurt his heart, leaving such material in someone else's hands hurt even more.
He stored away the remaining beads and sample notes, then headed back toward Orochimaru's base.
When he stepped through the entrance corridor, the first thing he saw…
Was a hand hooked over the threshold.
That wasn't unusual by itself.
What was unusual was the eye on the back of that hand.
A Sharingan.
Two tomoe.
"So it doesn't seem to have functional vision…" Orochimaru murmured, pen in hand, calmly recording data.
He stepped out right after, with Shin following behind him.
Kenichi stared.
He'd only been gone a short while, but Shin looked like he'd lost a fight with a Uchiha armory.
On his right arm alone, there were now three Sharingan:
One embedded on the back of his hand.
One set into his forearm.
One staring out from his shoulder.
All of them partially open, all of them faintly blood-red.
It was… a look.
"Oh, Kenichi. You're back," Orochimaru said casually, glancing at him once before turning back to Shin.
"Sensei… what exactly are you doing?" Kenichi asked, unable to hold back his curiosity.
Shin just gave him a complex look.
Which was understandable. Having three eyeballs on one arm would make anyone feel complicated.
"This is part of our cooperation with Root," Orochimaru answered, tone as light as if he were explaining a grocery list. "You'll come out with me later—we have a job to do."
"A… mission?" Kenichi blinked.
For a second he'd thought it was Pain sending orders, but then he remembered he'd explicitly requested research time from Pain.
So this wasn't an Akatsuki job.
This was Orochimaru's side project.
Which meant: Root. Danzo. Uchiha. Trouble.
"…Got it," Kenichi nodded.
He looked once more at Shin's arm, at those staring, unblinking tomoe, then mentally closed his notebook on "thermobaric bombs" and opened a fresh one labeled:
Side Quest: Root, Sharingan Arms, and Whatever Teacher Is Planning Now
Life as Orochimaru's disciple, he thought, was never boring.
Just very, very expensive.
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