"Teacher, can I study this?" Amemiya Kenichi's excitement surged. He desperately wanted to develop his own unique ninjutsu, and stimulating rapid cancer cell growth seemed like a promising idea.
He'd never encountered anything like this at Konoha Hospital, which had been disappointing. He never expected to find it here.
Orochimaru smiled at Amemiya Kenichi, admiring his shared passion for scientific inquiry.
"Of course," Orochimaru replied, pressing a button. The glass jar popped open, releasing an unpleasant odor.
"Teacher, where in his body is this happening?" Amemiya Kenichi asked eagerly. Cancer cells usually lurk deep within the body.
At least, the man didn't appear to have skin cancer.
"The brain. It's affecting his brain and his eyes," Orochimaru said, pointing to the man's Byakugan. Only after careful observation did Amemiya Kenichi notice the subtle abnormalities in the man's eyes.
Strange growths covered his eyeballs, but they hadn't been clearly visible while he was submerged in the nutrient solution.
"Teacher, can I take a biopsy?" Amemiya Kenichi rubbed his hands together. This was a perfect source of cancer cells.
Orochimaru's expression turned peculiar. A faint smile appeared as he gestured for Kenichi to proceed. Kenichi found it odd that his teacher seemed so indifferent, but he didn't dwell on it.
He picked up a scalpel and prepared to scrape off some of the growths from the man's eyeball.
The moment the sharp blade touched the eye, the man began to struggle violently, startling Kenichi.
*He's still alive?*
"He's far more valuable alive," Orochimaru's eerie voice drifted over. Kenichi fell silent.
*Right. Who is my teacher? This is Orochimaru—the absolute villain of early Naruto. I heard he redeemed himself later, but he was definitely evil back then.*
"The Teacher's right," Amemiya Kenichi said calmly, holding the scalpel. He then scraped the growths right off the Hyuga Clan member's eyeballs.
Screams, blood, and desperate struggles filled the air, but Amemiya Kenichi remained expressionless. The unnamed Hyuga member glared hatefully at him, but Amemiya Kenichi was far more interested in the tiny tissues in his petri dish.
Cancer cells die when the body dies. They can only reign supreme within a living host. Put them outside, and any bacterium or virus could easily wipe them out.
The famous HeLa cells from his previous life were notoriously fragile and difficult to culture. So Amemiya Kenichi ignored the Hyuga Clan member's howls and hurried to find a microscope with his petri dish.
Orochimaru watched silently, a faint smile playing on his lips. *Just as I thought,* he mused, *my disciple is quite like me.*
Amemiya Kenichi wasn't thinking about any of that. He was completely focused on the cells before him. He couldn't confirm if they were cancer cells, but he suspected they were close enough.
Amemiya Kenichi had discovered another problem: when he enveloped the cells in chakra, their activity was severely suppressed.
"Cancer cells are still cells, and they need nutrients to divide and grow," Kenichi muttered, watching the cells slowly lose their vitality. "My Lightning-Fire chakra probably won't work."
Then he paused. *Wait a minute...* In Naruto, chakra also had Yin and Yang attributes. Senju Hashirama definitely possessed Yang Chakra.
In fact, most ninjas probably had some Yang Chakra, just in varying amounts. The Senju Clan, however, had an abundance of it.
During his recent training, Kenichi had sensed a unique type of chakra within himself. Since he had inherited the First Hokage's Sage Body Constitution, he should theoretically be similar to the Senju Clan in this regard.
"What are you researching?" Orochimaru asked, having finished returning the Hyuga Clan member to its culture tank. He watched his disciple with keen interest.
"Teacher, all these cells are dead. Can I study that Hyuga Clan member again?" Amemiya Kenichi rubbed his hands together excitedly.
*What would happen if I flooded the cancer cells in his body with a massive dose of life force? How far would they develop?*
"Go ahead, just don't kill him," Orochimaru said, pleased. His disciple was meeting his expectations perfectly.
Kenichi nodded eagerly. This was an incredibly valuable and rare experimental subject—he'd never carelessly kill him.
At least not until he got the answers he needed.
Under Orochimaru's watchful gaze, Kenichi stood before the unconscious Hyuga Clan member once more. This time, he didn't reach for a scalpel to scrape the growths from the man's eyes.
Instead, he stood there studying something, occasionally pressing his hand against the man's face, his purpose unclear.
But Orochimaru, a seasoned ninja, could discern certain clues.
"You've learned the Healing Palm Technique?" Orochimaru observed Amemiya Kenichi's movements, sensed the chakra emanating from his hands, and gave his disciple a curious look.
"Teacher, I haven't learned it. I just wanted to try it out," Amemiya Kenichi said with an awkward smile. The Healing Palm Technique was an A-rank medical ninjutsu, and he hadn't studied it.
Earlier, Amemiya Kenichi had tried to summon his Yang Chakra and inject it into the cancer cells to see if it would have any effect. Unfortunately, he wasn't yet capable of doing that.
Encapsulating cancer cells externally was one thing, but injecting chakra into someone else's body and directing it to specific cells was a completely different level of difficulty.
One was like iron, the other like the strongest king.
This made Amemiya Kenichi realize his idea was a bit naive. Still, the concept itself was sound. If he could truly figure out how to do it, he'd have a unique ninjutsu of his own.
Sadly, he couldn't do it yet.