"What kind of research are you running this time, Orochimaru-sama?" Taiichi asked as he stepped behind the Sannin. He stared at the dissected snake corpses scattered across the operating table and felt his skin crawl.
He had killed plenty of people, but something about the snakes—opened up and laid out in pieces—still made his stomach turn.
Orochimaru didn't look up. He kept working, carefully stripping the bones from another snake and arranging them neatly on a tray. "Haven't you ever thought the human body is just… too fragile?"
He answered his own question before Taiichi could speak. "The longest bone in a human is the femur. An adult male's is only about forty to fifty centimeters long. One solid hit and it snaps. Now look at these snakes. Even the longest ones have bones half that size, yet their bodies can take twice the punishment a human can."
Orochimaru finally turned, eyes gleaming. "What if we could give a human the same kind of resilience? Make the body bend instead of break?"
Taiichi felt a cold ripple down his spine. He recognized the direction immediately. This was the seed of Orochimaru's later body-modification experiments—the same path that would lead to all those snake-based techniques.
"I still prefer training the body I was born with," Taiichi said. "Snakes have their advantages, sure. But I'd rather get stronger the old-fashioned way than turn myself into something that doesn't look human anymore."
Orochimaru studied him with that unsettling, almost artistic intensity. Taiichi shifted under the stare.
"You're strong for your age, Taiichi. You don't understand how hard it is for ordinary people to climb even one rank. Most never make it past chunin. Even someone like me… I can feel the wall. Without a breakthrough, I'm not going much further."
Taiichi was surprised. He knew Orochimaru's future power was still far ahead of him. The man was already planning to research his way past his natural limits.
"I'm not telling you to stop," Taiichi said. "Everyone walks their own road. As long as you keep moving forward, that's what matters."
Orochimaru gave a small, genuine smile. For a moment the two of them understood each other—different paths, same stubborn refusal to stay weak.
Taiichi cleared his throat. "That said… can we at least be a little more careful with the human trials? Every test subject is hard to replace. War won't last forever. If we get in the habit of burning through them now, it's going to be a problem later."
Orochimaru chuckled. "So you do feel sorry for them."
"Not sorry. Practical. When the war ends, where are you going to find fresh bodies? Bad habits are hard to break once you get used to them."
Orochimaru waved a hand. "I'll keep it in mind." He turned back to the table. "Now come here. The human trial part is next, and I need you to keep the subject alive."
Taiichi sighed and stepped forward, green medical chakra already glowing in his palms.
---
A month slipped by.
Taiichi had poured most of his energy into one project: developing his own version of the Adamantine Sealing Chains. Tonight he was finally finishing it.
He sat cross-legged on a large rock beside a quiet river far from camp. A single pale-gold chain rose from his back, coiling and whipping through the air like a living thing. It slammed into the ground, sank out of sight, then reappeared to wrap around a thick tree and shear it cleanly in half.
This wasn't the final form yet.
Taiichi focused. Yin Release chakra—now at Level 11—flowed around him. The chain grew more solid in his hands as he wove sealing runes directly into the links. Each rune made the chain heavier, more real.
The panel lit up.
[Through dedicated research, Adamantine Sealing Chains experience +1]
[Adamantine Sealing Chains Lv1 (0/100)]
A flood of knowledge poured into his mind—how the chains worked, how to control them, how to push the sealing power higher with every additional wrap. At the same time his body changed on a fundamental level, like a kekkei genkai awakening.
The Yin Seal on his forehead released on its own. Massive stored chakra flooded his system to fuel the transformation.
When it was over, the single chain in his hands looked completely solid. No one would guess it had once been chakra.
Taiichi tested it. He could control four chains at once—his current limit. Kushina had used five when she showed him, and he suspected that wasn't even her maximum.
He kept one chain active and wrapped it slowly around his right arm. Chakra flow slowed with every loop. The more wraps, the stronger the seal became—exponentially stronger. His version started gentler than Kushina's but could scale far higher on a single chain.
He let it keep going until it covered his torso. The suppression grew brutal. Even after he cut the chakra supply and the chain faded, the sealing force stayed inside him for more than five minutes before he finally broke free.
Taiichi laughed out loud, the sound echoing across the water.
Five months of work. He had done it. He kept the name Adamantine Sealing Chains out of respect for the original inspiration. He was terrible at naming things anyway.
Now he wanted a real test subject.
He used Flying Thunder God to return to camp and went straight to the command tent.
Orochimaru looked up from a stack of documents. "You look like you just won the lottery. What happened?"
"I finally finished a new technique," Taiichi said, grinning. "I want to test it on Killer B. Any recent intel on him?"
Orochimaru flipped through a report and shook his head. "Nothing in the last couple of days. He was recalled to the village."
Taiichi's shoulders slumped for a second, then Orochimaru added, "If you really want to find him, just go to their forward camp in the Land of the Moon and knock on the door. With your Flying Thunder God you can leave whenever you want."
Taiichi's eyes lit up. "That's perfect."
He gave Orochimaru a thumbs-up and vanished before the Sannin could say another word.
Orochimaru stared at the empty space. Whatever technique Taiichi had just created, it had him acting completely out of character. The kid never used Flying Thunder God inside the command tent.
High above the Land of the Moon, Taiichi flew on golden chakra wings, wind chakra boosting his speed. What would have been a three-hour run on the ground took him barely ten minutes.
He hovered over the Cloud camp, formed seals, and dropped a massive golden Fire Dragon Flame Bullet straight onto their barrier. The impact sent visible ripples across the defensive field.
Just a greeting. He wanted them to know exactly who had arrived.
"Killer B!" Taiichi's voice boomed across the entire camp, amplified by chakra. "You tentacle monster, get your ass out here!"
Inside the Cloud command tent, A stepped outside with five elite jonin. He glared up at the sky, jaw tight.
"Damn brat," he muttered. "Using space-time ninjutsu and flight to act like he owns the place."
Killer B had been pulled back to the village days ago. A would have loved to team up with his brother and teach Taiichi a painful lesson, but that wasn't an option right now.
Taiichi scanned the group that came out and frowned when he didn't see the familiar dark-skinned jinchuriki.
He raised his voice again, mocking and loud. "Hey, A! Where's Killer B? Did he hide because he's scared of me?"
The taunt carried clearly across the camp. Every Cloud ninja on the ground looked up, faces dark with anger.
A's eyes narrowed. This kid really had no sense of self-preservation.