As the peak of desire passed, Kana lay completely limp on the platform.
Her face was flushed, her gaze dazed as she looked at the young man lost in thought. Accompanied by heavy panting, the pink mist gradually thinned.
"Di-did you... get anything?" Kana asked after resting a bit, catching her breath.
Ryuji paused for a moment before replying, "I guess so. At least I understand the poison's generation process and the tumor's operation..."
As he spoke, he instinctively turned his head back, then froze.
The girl who had just descended from the peak was too enticing.
Climbing the peak had left the girl's attire somewhat disheveled.
And the girl's figure was extremely good, wearing a sexy, highly seductive fishnet, low-cut Shinobi attire. Therefore, although only slightly messy, it dispelled the heavy mist, revealing a half-hidden, half-visible landscape.
Red and moist, flawless skin; a dazed, distant gaze… and the magnetic hormones that had just descended from the peak, permeating the entire room... all of this made Little Ryuji instantly pay his respects.
If the protective suit weren't made of excellent materials, it might have burst.
'Calm, calm, calm...'
Ryuji really wanted to rub his temples to soothe his mood, but wearing the protective suit made it impossible, so he could only turn away and not look.
Kana also noticed the impropriety and hurriedly covered the scenery in front of her chest, her crimson face turning even redder.
Her feelings at this moment were complicated.
There was anger at being taken advantage of by a man, and also secret delight at eliciting such a strong reaction from a man.
After all, this was a man who showed no reaction even when closely watching or even touching a beautiful woman's body.
Couldn't her ability to provoke such a reaction from him prove she possessed unparalleled charm?
She completely forgot about her naturally seductive body.
…
After a moment, Ryuji's mood calmed down.
Although Little Ryuji still held the flag high, his mind was very clear, capable of not being overwhelmed by desire.
He let out a deep sigh and said, "Are your clothes fixed yet?"
"Huh? Right away."
Hearing the man's words, Kana snapped out of her inner turmoil, quickly straightened her clothes, then stuffed the kunai with its handle covered in fluid into her tool pouch.
"Done."
"Mm, let's go outside to talk!"
Ryuji opened the spatial portal and left without looking back.
Kana was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly followed.
The door to the Personal Space opens where it was initially opened, so the two reappeared at the edge of the floating landmass.
Ryuji didn't rush to close the portal, instead letting the poisonous pink mist drift out.
He himself, standing upwind, began taking off the protective suit. As he undressed, he continued the earlier topic: "The cause and principle behind the poison are basically understood. But according to what you said, the tumor not only reacts differently according to the degree of desire but also produces different responses based on different situations…"
At this point, he turned to look at the girl whose face still retained a blush, and continued asking, "Your Kagero Clan has been researching solutions for hundreds of years. There should be records on this, right? Can you show them to me?"
"The records regarding this are all at our clan's secluded homeland. Should I go back and get them?"
"How long would a round trip take?"
"Probably about half a month!"
"Forget it then." Ryuji threw the removed protective suit into his personal space and continued, "That much time is enough for me to experiment and find a solution."
"You can really find a solution?"
Kana couldn't believe it.
'As the root of the problem, the 'tumor' cannot be directly removed, otherwise the host quickly dies. My clan tried every method but couldn't suppress the tumor's operation… for such a difficult problem, this man is confident he can find a solution after just one examination?'
"It's not about if I can find a solution, but that I already have."
"Really?"
"Really." Ryuji nodded. "If it weren't for lacking complete data on the tumor's operation, worrying about accidents during treatment, I could solve your problem right now."
"I, I..."
Kana was so overjoyed she became tongue-tied. Finally, she directly prostrated herself before Ryuji, kowtowing. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. I don't know how to repay you for your great kindness. I can only serve you with the value of my remaining life."
Ryuji gladly accepted.
The reason he helped Kana, aside from simplifying Hawk Eyes research, was to gain the service of the Kagero Clan.
For Sunagakure to grow strong, it must develop comprehensively.
Suitable habitable land, advanced education and medical systems, a broad population, and elite talents.
Ordinary elite Shinobi can be nurtured from civilians, but shinobi with Kekkei Genkai or special abilities can only rely on clans.
The Kagero Clan is just the first; he will seek out more clans later.
Although the Shinobi World long entered the era of Shinobi Villages, many clans still haven't joined villages, existing as independent clans.
The Fuma Clan, the Kohaku Clan, the Chinoike Clan, the Shigure Clan...
As long as Sunagakure can demonstrate sufficient appeal and meet their needs, there's no worry about clans not joining.
Of course, Sunagakure is a village of comrades.
Clan-based structures are not allowed within the village, so any joining clan will have to relinquish their surname and clan emblem.
These conditions... under normal circumstances, no clan would agree.
But with proper handling, they might agree.
Like the current Kagero Clan.
Of course, not just any clan will be accepted. They must at least possess a considerable level of strength.
The current Kagero Clan might not seem qualified, but if things are really as Ryuji speculates, then the Kagero Clan is probably a rather formidable clan that could greatly enhance all of Sunagakure.
…
Time continued to pass.
Ryuji resumed his previous life of research and assembling machine parts.
But from researching Hawk Eyes, he shifted to researching Kana.
The research process was extremely complex, lengthy, and painful.
It couldn't be helped. Kana's naturally seductive body was unimaginably tempting to men.
And to experiment with the tumor's reactions to different situations, she needed to reach the peak in various different ways.
Even without the final step, the variety of methods employed was enough to make a Shinobi's composure falter.
If not for Ryuji having dissected so many corpses, becoming desensitized to such reactions, he probably would have been poisoned to death during the experiments.
November 13th.
The first thruster of the Planetary Engine was manufactured.
To enable a five-thousand-square-kilometer landmass to fly, at least three thousand such thrusters needed to be built, installed one every two square kilometers.
Plus backup units for emergencies, nearly five thousand needed to be made.
However,
With the experience of building the first one, subsequent construction became much faster.
In the following three days, the 14th, 15th, and 16th, three more were built.
As experience accumulated, construction speed increased.
November 17th.
Kana indicated her body was a bit weak and needed a day's rest.
Ryuji had to shift his focus back to Sage Body research.
Regarding the characteristic of White Zetsu's cells turning into a large tree after absorbing too much life force, the Observation Device had provided a preliminary plan.
That was to first fuse ordinary cells with White Zetsu's cells, gradually neutralizing the characteristic of turning into a plant upon absorbing life force.
But specific data hadn't been calculated yet.
While researching Kana's special constitution, Ryuji found inspiration for a solution to this problem.
That was to use poison to inhibit the plant transformation of White Zetsu's cells.
His Seed Cells did exactly that.
However, Seed Cells used poison to inhibit the life force of Sage Cells, thereby preventing White Zetsu's cell growth.
But the strength of a Sage Body lies precisely in its powerful life force. If poison is used to inhibit life force like with Seed Cells, what's the point of creating a Sage Body?
Therefore, this time the poison is to inhibit plant transformation, not life force.
There's no such thing as strong or weak poison.
Differences in effectiveness are entirely due to whether the poisoned person has relevant antibodies.
Different poisons have different effects on different antibodies.
If a poison can be created that only damages plant cells but is harmless or even beneficial to humans, then the White Zetsu's cell plant transformation problem can be solved.
With inspiration, he immediately went to practice.
Otherwise, given time, inspiration would quietly slip away.
Ryuji first experimented with the poison of the Salamander. It's the corpse of Hanzo's summon, which he had obtained before.
The result showed it was a poison targeting only living creatures, not plants, completely opposite to Ryuji's needs.
Next, he asked all the puppeteers in the Mechanical City, but none had poison meeting the requirements.
Finally, he turned his attention back to Kana.
If poison of different properties can be produced based on the degree of the host's desire and the cause of that desire, then surely a poison effective only against plants and harmless to humans can be produced too!
After inquiring and learning that historically, the Kagero Clan had indeed produced poison that instantly withered surrounding forests without harming people at all, Ryuji decided to intensify the experiments.
November 18th.
Kana, after resting for a day, returned to the laboratory to cooperate with Ryuji's experiments.
To ensure comprehensive data, he specifically reviewed his past life's memory backups, dug out all the learning videos from Japanese 'teachers' that had been pushed to a corner, and experimented with them one by one on Kana.
Of course, without performing the final step.
Even though, during the long-term experiments, the girl had completely discarded her shyness towards the boy, wouldn't refuse, and even wanted to take the initiative to have some relations with him, he still couldn't solve the deadly poison problem.
Unless Ryuji was willing to discard this body.
But it was his original body after all… though lacking talent, weak, it was his first body in this world.
November 19th.
The Specific Gravity System was completed.
The Mechanical City gained the ability to adjust the landmass's material density and weight, eliminating worries about being blown away by super-strong winds when hovering. It could even use this system to escape Earth's gravity and fly into space.
Of course, without the Planetary Engine, the Mechanical City couldn't freely choose flight direction or possess space travel capability.
If it really flew into space, it would just float like other cosmic dust.
And everyone living on it would die.