Chapter 23
"It's too slow,"
Rui frowned as she spoke to Shiroshi upon his return.
"The sun is almost setting. What were you doing?"
"I apologize,"
Shiroshi replied
"The medicinal materials I needed were relatively rare. I had to search many places before finding a seller. Here, this is the natto you wanted."
He tossed a snack bag containing the natto to Rui.
Rui took the bag and her expression softened.
"By the way, if there's nothing else, I'll be heading back to the laboratory. There's still a lot to do there."
Seeing that Rui was still seated, Shiroshi took his leave and left the room.
After collecting Ayane's new body data, the next task could only be handled by himself.
Whether it was the bird in a cage or the perfect fusion of natural energy and ordinary chakra into a nature chakra, it required his personal attention.
It had been almost a week since they returned to Konoha after annihilating the Sunagakure army in the land of fire.
The next mission was expected to be soon, with them leaving the village again in no more than half a month at the latest.
Konoha still had a hard battle to fight, and as one of Konoha's elite Jōnin and leader of the fifth class, Sakumo Hatake couldn't rest in the village for too long.
As for the details of the next mission, Shiroshi couldn't deduce useful information based on the existing intelligence, but it was certain that the difficulty of the mission would be at least A-level.
When he returned to the laboratory, Shiroshi opened one of the secret doors, revealing a room of 30 square meters in size.
Inside, there were toilets and showers where the five people used for human experiments usually lived.
The lights inside were always on, so when Shiroshi opened the door, they could clearly see his appearance.
Their bodies shook unnaturally, and then one person walked out, consciously in order.
Although their spirits had recovered a lot after a long rest, the horror memory that came to mind after that they probably knew what to expect next from Shiroshi.
Their face looked a little pale.
Shiroshi nodded slightly, satisfied. They were taking the initiative to cooperate and not resisting.
He could also bring them some rich and delicious nutritious meals as a matter of course.
After that person walked out, Shiroshi looked at the remaining four people, took out two not-very-thick books from his ninja bag and threw them in front of the four of them.
"Read more books when you have nothing to do. Books are a good thing for human progress," he said.
The four prisoners inside looked at each other, not knowing what kind of medicine was being sold to them.
Shiroshi didn't explain anything, mainly because these guys usually seemed too bored, so he found two books for them to read, which can not only pass the time but also greatly help their mental recovery.
Shiroshi closed the secret door and when he turned around, he found that the person who had just walked out was already lying on the operating table, staring at the light above with his eyes open.
"If you can't resist, enjoy it," he thought. Anyway, there was no need to worry about food or clothing here, which was indeed much better than the chaos outside.
"Master Shiroshi, can you give me some more anesthetics?" He asked in a low voice as he approached.
"..."
Shiroshi didn't know how to respond.
But it didn't align with the experimental subject's own ideas.
If the anesthetic is used too much, it can cause circulatory failure in the human body and cause the heart to stop, so the dosage and usage need to be cautious.
"Relax, I will be responsible for your health and life safety based on humanitarian human experiments. And compared to last time, my experiment has made great progress, it should not be as painful," Shiroshi explained patiently.
Konoha has not declared relevant human experiment regulations, but Shiroshi has always followed the rules of his previous life. In particular, human experiments, which are unethical, cannot be used in practice at will.
Shiroshi is adhering to the principles of safeguarding the physical interests of the parties, promoting the development of medicine, and conforming to scientific settings.
When the person concerned shows signs of mental breakdown, the experiment is stopped in time and replaced with another person.
If his experiment is successful, it can also drive the development of medicine.
The experiment itself is also in line with science. Based on a complete theory and enough animal cases have been accumulated, it can be said that the risk is very low.
It didn't start from the human body at the beginning because of the slow progress.
In addition to only violating the first principle of informed consent of the parties, however, in this war age, Shiroshi felt that it was possible to act so ruthless and cheaply, and there was no need to divide it so carefully.
Shiroshi picked up a syringe filled with natural energy liquid, and started injecting it into the experimental subject.
In order to avoid problems, when Shiroshi injects natural energy, he bases it on the physical fitness of the experimental subject, including the maximum chakra that can be induced in the body, to carry out a neutralization reaction, and to create a complete nature chakra in the experimental subject.
After forming the nature chakra, it is necessary to carefully consider the subject's rejection reaction to the nature chakra, the longest duration, and whether it will cause damage to various organs of the human body.
Shiroshi already knew that the creation of the sage arts was full of unknown dangers when animals were used to fuse nature chakra.
It is precisely because of the unknown that caution must be exercised and not too many steps taken at once.
The experiment is reflected in the fact that the whole body is connected with fine wires, and the terminal of the wires is a large computer, which can reflect various physical data of the experimental subject in real-time and record them precisely in the computer database.
In this way, the experimental body was placed on the operating table, and the computer was used to record at any time.
Shiroshi started another experiment - Cage Bird Cracking. The question of whether the subject will die after the chakra is exhausted has always troubled Shiroshi in his mind.
However, this kind of experiment cannot be directly applied to the human body, and he will still start with animals first.
Like humans, animals in nature also have chakra in their bodies.
For this reason, Shiroshi prepared fifty white mice that can be used for experiments and conducted the 'Chakra Disappearance' experiment. If this experiment can be successful, it will be of great help in cracking the caged bird.
Even if it cannot be solved perfectly, it will provide a reasonable idea.
An hour later, the experimental subject who was conducting the natural energy and ordinary chakra neutralizing nature chakra experiment was over.
As far as the results of the experiment are concerned, there has been a little improvement compared to the last time.
At this rate, before he leaves Konoha, there is a high probability that he will find out the sage art system suitable for human usage.
He unplugged the wires from the test subject, and let him go back to the room behind the secret door.
But before going back, the subject took two books from the bookshelf beside him, and secretly glanced at Shiroshi to see how he would react.
Shiroshi just turned a blind eye to this and didn't say anything.
There are many kinds of books on the bookshelves, including history, geography, chemistry, and biology, but there are no important research materials on them.
Learning is an important process of enlightening human beings. They have the drive to learn, so Shiroshi is naturally willing to support them.
But it is very important to be a test subject when it should be.
Shiroshi looked at the little white mouse on the experimental table that was directly killed because of the draining of chakra, and shook his head.
The experiment failed.
Although the lives of these mice were saved as much as possible, the effect was still not great.
Seeing that the time was almost up, Shiroshi was about to leave the laboratory when a sudden burst of cold touched his throat, making the hairs all over his body stand on end. The sharp kunai stood in front of Shiroshi's throat like this, and he could disappear from this world with just one swipe.
"What are you doing, Rui? Did something happen?"
Shiroshi asked, noticing Rui standing behind him. He felt that Rui's strength had become much stronger again.
He couldn't help but feel uneasy as Rui's power with the Uchiha bloodline was truly terrifying.
Rui didn't move the Kunai from Shiroshi's throat and said in a voice close to his ear, "You didn't hide anything from me before, did you?"
"Why do you say that?" Shiroshi asked, confused.
"Your behavior today is a bit strange. Usually when you go out to buy things, you just leave without saying anything. But today, you came to say hello to me first. So, I was thinking, are you hiding something from me?" Rui explained.
The expression on Rui's face was careless, but her eyes gave off the impression that nothing could be hidden from them.
"Rui, when did you learn to joke? This was just a sudden whim," Shiroshi said, trying to brush off her suspicions.
"It's the first whim in a few years, and that's really accidental. So I've been wondering if you're meeting someone behind my back," Rui said.
"You have misunderstood me. You should be very clear about our relationship, shouldn't you?" Shiroshi replied, trying to reassure her.
"That's true, but it's because of this that something seems off. I always feel that you smell like someone else, and it still is a woman," Rui said.
Rui deliberately sniffed Shiroshi's shoulder a few times. Shiroshi couldn't complain as he knew Rui's powerful sense of smell was due to her Uchiha bloodline.
Just when he was about to say something again, Rui took the Kunai away from his neck and her tone was not as cold as before.
"But forget it, it doesn't matter who you meet, doesn't it? I'm not someone like you."
Rui's faint smile made Shiroshi even more frightened. Generally speaking, Rui doesn't know how to joke or smile.
"Well, you really think too much," Shiroshi said.
"Is it true that you haven't met anyone secretly?"
Rui asked, despite saying she didn't care, it was clear she did care.
Her eyes became darker, and a murderous aura almost burst out from them.
"Of course, don't you know me? I never tell lies,"
Shiroshi said, looking at Rui with sincere eyes.
"Then how are you going to explain this picture?" Rui took out a photo, which showed Shiroshi and Ayane together, and the place where the photo was taken was in front of the door of Shiroshi's original residence.
They were captured just as they were opening the door to enter.
"..."
Shiroshi found that he couldn't speak clearly, his brain went into a dead state and stopped functioning.
"Really, you were too careless. I caught you so easily. If other people did the same, your secret would have been exposed long ago. It would not be like this at this time, but a special interrogation of the Yamanaka clan," Rui said.
Rui sighed at this moment, a bit hating that iron can't be made into steel.
Huh?
She didn't scold him, didn't beat him up, let alone get angry?
"What, what is this?" Shiroshi asked, confused by Rui's actions.
"While you have a lot to offer, you are naive in many ways," Rui said. "You also didn't realize the importance of the sage art, which is more important than you think. Two or three years ago, when you started to study the sage art, I asked my parents to prepare two hundred wild cats of different breeds for me, and sent them to Konoha through various formal channels to serve as my eyes and ears."
Because they were ordinary cats, not ninja cats, and there were a lot of stray cats and house cats in Konoha, even the Anbu didn't find any problems.
These cats were sent to Konoha in batches of several months through normal channels.
Moreover, the place where these cats wander is not in the core of Konoha.
They were usually the same as ordinary cats, and they didn't need to do anything deliberately. Even if they passed on information, it was in public, and no one even noticed it.
Shiroshi was petrified directly on the spot. Seeing Shiroshi's almost petrified expression, Rui smiled with satisfaction:
"However, in the process, I accidentally discovered some of your little secrets. This is something I didn't expect. Are you still studying the caged bird of the Hyuga clan?"
Rui didn't know exactly what Shiroshi and Ayane exchanged after they met, but some information could be deduced from it.
"Ah, that... how should I put it, my thoughts are a little confused now... that is to say, you already knew?" Shiroshi asked.
"About a year ago, although you were a little careless, you had your own channels and methods for contacting Ayane. If I didn't pay close attention to this aspect, it would be really difficult to notice. Even if you notice, in the eyes of outsiders, it would just look like a short meeting between friends. In the era when wars broke out frequently, the Anbu had limited manpower, so they didn't have the time to pay attention to you," Rui explained.
Anbu can mobilize personnel between sixty and seventy.
A detachment performs secret missions abroad, or collects important intelligence. One detachment stays in the territory of the Fire Nation to prevent the enemy from doing sabotage, and can report in time to get support troops to arrive.
The remaining two teams had to patrol the entire village. They were monitoring dangerous ninjas with obvious dangerous thoughts about Konoha, or spies lurking from the enemy.
However, Shiroshi's performance in actual combat was mediocre, he was excellent in the Will of Fire exam, and he had no dangerous thoughts about Konoha.
They couldn't find a reason and motivation for surveillance. As for having too much contact with the Uchiha clan, the upper class of Konoha would not pay too much attention to Shiroshi.
Although there are not huge amounts of civilian ninjas who have a good relationship with the Uchiha, there are still definitely many. Dozens or hundreds of them can still be found, and many of them are Jonin and Chuunin.
After all, the Uchiha clan is also a member of the village. Some ninjas have no special prejudice against the Uchiha. Instead, they think that the powerful Uchiha is a trustworthy companion on the battlefield, which can effectively enhance the team's mobility. Over time, the relationship will naturally become very good.
Just in case, Rui put two hundred cats into Konoha and let the act as her own eyes and ears, cutting out possible accidents immediately and further ensuring Shiroshi's safety.
It's about Sage mode, Rui can't be as sloppy as Shiroshi.
Although in Shiroshi's opinion, he was hidden enough and safe enough. At this moment, Shiroshi slowly closed his mouth.
At first, he thought that he was hiding well, but now it seems that Rui is responsible for all of this.
Should it be said that she is a genius ninja from a big family? Whether it is the grasp and protection of the main brain of the plan or the effective measures implemented against accidents, they are all watertight.
He can identify some future situations in the ninja world based on what he has learned, as well as from a historical and political perspective, but there will obviously be some deviations in the details.
Being discovered by Rui, Shiroshi breathed a sigh of relief, not knowing why.
Shiroshi smiled wryly and said, "I really can't hide anything from you. You have been so sensitive to things since you were a child."
"It's the life of the past few years that has made you comfortable, and you haven't grown at all. Remember to be careful next time. Alright, now go out for dinner."
Rui put the Kunai into her ninja bag and walked ahead first.
"Rui, were you caring about me just now?" Behind her came Shiroshi's laughter.
Rui stopped in her tracks, turned her head, and looked at Shiroshi with a cold expression on her face, as if she were looking at an idiot.
"Where do you see that I care about you?"
"Huh, isn't it?"
"You idiot, I'm only interested in the sage art, so stop being too sentimental. Power is the only thing that matters. What you do and what you get are all just a matter of thought. You'd better wake up and stop talking nonsense." After finishing speaking, Rui turned around and stepped forward, her black hair slightly raised due to the amount of rotation, her figure was aloof.
"Really? Are you only interested in dominating others... Do you truly think so?" On the road ahead, no one answered his question.
Shiroshi scratched his hair helplessly, what a messy day.
But...it shouldn't be a big problem. That is to say, next time he can bring Ayane here for a health check in a fair manner?
(Chapter End)