A full ten hours passed…
Finally, Hizashi's vital signs stabilized completely. Both the instruments and their sensory abilities told Orochimaru and the others the same thing…
The surgery had succeeded!
Hizashi's breathing became steady and deep as the two powers gradually fused together within him!
Orochimaru and the others all let out long sighs of relief.
Even if Hizashi had died, Hiruzen probably would not have blamed them…
But the moment they imagined seeing disappointment on Hokage-sama's face, every one of them felt an involuntary ache in their hearts. They truly did not want to see Hiruzen reveal such an expression.
"Let's wait a little longer. Wait until Hizashi wakes up…" Orochimaru stood in the corner of the operating room and glanced at the instruments.
The amount of experimental data gathered this time was incredibly comprehensive…
More than enough for him to research for quite a long while!
"He really is a lucky one. I never thought the experiment would fail, but I didn't expect things to suddenly become this smooth…" Hiruko pondered aloud.
"You all noticed it too, didn't you? That rampaging power suddenly calmed down, almost as if some invisible hand had smoothed everything out."
"What kind of mechanism was that?"
What Hiruko referred to was Hizashi's reaction after seeing Hiruzen within his subconscious.
"Hard to say. We'll need to carefully analyze the data afterward, and then ask Hizashi about it…" Orochimaru muttered thoughtfully. The situation truly was strange.
Tsunade was also deep in thought.
Kushina blinked.
"Maybe Hokage-sama was blessing Hizashi-nii-san!"
Ordinarily, that would have just been a casual joke to lighten the mood…
But Orochimaru glanced at Kushina and answered in a surprisingly serious tone: "You know… that actually might be possible! With Hizashi's personality, if he subconsciously thought of Sensei, it's entirely possible for his willpower to influence his body."
Chakra was a mixture of spiritual energy and physical energy.
And within the shinobi world, pure spiritual power alone, if sufficiently strong, could still influence physical reality.
"I once read in old records that when the Second Hokage used the Impure World Reincarnation to control enemies, there were shinobi with such powerful wills that they managed to break free on their own…"
"And they even…" Orochimaru swallowed the rest of the sentence.
What he had wanted to say was that after breaking free from the Impure World Reincarnation, those enemies had even cursed Tobirama's entire family line while ascending to the Pura Land.
Tsunade shook her head speechlessly.
She could more or less guess what he had intended to say, but even as his granddaughter, some things were difficult to voice aloud…
Her Granduncle's reputation outside the village was, in a certain sense, universally acknowledged as complicated.
In some ways, he suited the title "Darkness of the Shinobi" even more than Shimura Danzō did…
"Tch, tch…" Tsunade lightly spat twice, forcibly driving those strange thoughts out of her head.
How could she think about Granduncle like that?
That was way too disrespectful!
"It's all in the past now. Don't bring it up again! Granduncle is definitely living well in the Pure Land now…" Tsunade glared fiercely at Orochimaru.
Orochimaru merely spread his hands and smiled without speaking.
Would the Second Hokage—who had repeatedly dragged the dead back from the Pure Land with the Impure World Reincarnation—really be living peacefully there?
Then again… perhaps he really would.
He might even be throwing his weight around there too!
In Orochimaru's eyes, the Second Hokage, his idol, would undoubtedly have left some kind of countermeasure against the Impure World Reincarnation. Even if someone attempted to summon him, it would never succeed.
It could only be said that everyone viewed their idols through a certain kind of filter.
If Orochimaru ever learned that Tobirama had not sealed off the loophole in the Impure World Reincarnation at all, he would probably feel deeply disappointed.
"Looks like the physical examination results we got were very accurate after all… Hizashi truly did possess the aptitude for this!"
Hiruko wiped the sweat from his forehead and lightly bumped Orochimaru's shoulder, smiling as he spoke: "It really feels like we succeeded… My Chimera Technique worked!"
For a research shinobi, the happiest thing in the world was naturally seeing a researched jutsu finally function successfully!
"Yeah, congratulations, Hiruko!" Orochimaru smiled as well. Naturally, he wanted to see Hiruko continue doing better and better.
Not only was Hiruko his close friend, he was also someone who would support him in the future when he ascended to the position of Hokage.
"But we still need to keep working hard… I've read the conceptual framework behind your Chimera Technique. It's capable of fusing more than a single Kekkei Genkai." Orochimaru spoke seriously.
"Not one, not two, not three…" Hiruko said while shaking his head smugly.
"According to my theory, if someone gathers five Kekkei Genkai formed from different chakra natures, then combines them according to the principle of the Five Elements generating one another, together with special celestial phenomena and the unique energy of the earth's veins…"
"Then the body can achieve an extraordinary evolutionary leap!"
"It would practically become an immortal body—the body of a 'perfect shinobi'!"
That was the core concept behind the Chimera Technique.
First, one needed at least five chakra-based Kekkei Genkai, and they also had to be carefully arranged according to the cycle of the Five Elements generating one another. Thus, five was merely the minimum requirement.
After that came the three elements of "Heaven, Earth, and Humanity."
"Humanity" referred to possessing enough Kekkei Genkai.
"Earth" referred to special terrain—mountains or locations containing unique energy, such as places like Mount Sumeru.
"Heaven" referred to high-energy celestial phenomena, such as an annular solar eclipse.
Only by combining all three together could one achieve the ultimate form of the Chimera Technique.
Using intense external energies to stimulate multiple Kekkei Genkai into undergoing qualitative transformation, thereby causing the body itself to evolve to a completely new level!
Hiruko's line of thought could not exactly be called impossible…
Whether organic or chakra-based, every Kekkei Genkai subtly strengthened a shinobi's physique over time, though the effect was normally difficult to notice.
But once someone possessed multiple Kekkei Genkai, and the cumulative enhancement reached a sufficient threshold through the principle of the Five Elements generating one another, then used special environmental energy to push that quantitative accumulation into qualitative transformation…
Orochimaru merely smiled noncommittally.
Although both he and Hiruko walked the path of scientific research, their styles were fundamentally different.
The old Orochimaru had once considered stuffing every useful ability imaginable into his own body as well.
But after witnessing Hiruzen's constant and steady growth, he had set that idea aside.
The original body possessed inherent advantages. The compatibility between body and soul was naturally perfect from birth.
Orochimaru did not reject the idea of decorating himself with the strengths of others, but in his eyes, the ultimate version of the Chimera Technique—which fused everything together all at once—was simply too crude…
This was a body, not some giant stew!
And those three elements of "Heaven, Earth, and Humanity" sounded mystical enough already…
More like something from a charlatan than rigorous scientific research.
Though Orochimaru could understand Hiruko's underlying idea. At its core, it was simply using external energy to temper the body.
"It's better to proceed step by step. Leaving aside how to utilize special terrain, just the celestial phenomena you mentioned alone could take who knows how many years to wait for. At the very least, probably over a decade."
"The top priority right now is stabilizing the method for fusing a single Kekkei Genkai. Nobody becomes fat in one bite."
Orochimaru delivered his blunt assessment.
And more than five Kekkei Genkai at that…
Did he really think Kekkei Genkai grew on trees?
"I know…" Hiruko nodded.
"But people always need dreams! Hizashi's experiment inspired me. Since Storm Release and the cursed seal can be fused simultaneously, then combining two Kekkei Genkai must absolutely be possible!"
"It's just that once you reach the third one, the entire structure changes, and the difficulty increases exponentially…"
Hiruko sighed.
"Still, two should already be enough. Across the entire shinobi world, shinobi with dual Kekkei Genkai are already incredibly rare. As for triple Kekkei Genkai… nobody's even heard of that before…"
Orochimaru's expression suddenly stiffened.
Right now, sure, nobody had heard of it…
But who knew about the future?
"Hiruko… why do I feel like the completed version of your technique was practically designed specifically for Sensei?" Orochimaru muttered.
"The greatest difficulty of this technique lies in gathering multiple Kekkei Genkai and fusing them into one's body. Every additional Kekkei Genkai increases the difficulty exponentially…"
"But Sensei doesn't need to absorb anyone else's bloodlines. He can synthesize them himself!"
Hiruko's pupils trembled.
That's right!
Hokage-sama trained them himself. There was no such thing as rejection reactions for him at all…
Kakuzu's expression slowly became confused.
He had originally believed that as the wielder of Earth Grudge Fear, he already counted as an incomprehensible monster by shinobi world standards…
After all, he could seize the hearts of others in order to steal their chakra natures!
What a terrifying ability!
But inside Konoha, even Earth Grudge Fear no longer seemed all that strange…
This village could even steal Kekkei Genkai, and some people could apparently synthesize them through training afterward! Just considering physical abnormalities alone, Orochimaru's bizarre serpentine body structure wasn't any more normal than Earth Grudge Fear's black tendrils…
An odd sense of belonging quietly grew within Kakuzu's heart.
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