The scene shifted back to the Land of Snow, blanketed in pure white.
Uchiha Yorin toured the research labs here in high spirits and couldn't help sighing,
"Hard to believe our country's tech has already reached this level."
…
After wiping out the Sky Ninja, Yorin's global scavenger hunt for technology could finally take a short breather.
Next step was to consolidate everything and wait for it all to bear fruit.
…
"Hashirama's cells, and the Sharingan."
"Yin–Yang Release, and Sage Chakra… Did I ever mention I've got a kid under me called Jūgo? He's born able to absorb natural energy from the world."
Orochimaru happily rattled off his recent breakthroughs:
"And there's another one—his name is Shin. His talent is incredible: no matter what bloodline or organ you transplant into him, there's zero rejection.
I'm in the middle of dissecting that ability. I believe it won't be long before we unlock the secret of the body.
And even if we can't fully crack it, we can still extract that property, and use it to make our artificial Six Paths project a reality."
…
Uchiha Yorin: "And of course, those two jutsu from the Sky Ninja help too, right?"
"They do—enormously," Orochimaru answered, smiling in spite of himself as he mentioned Body Activation and Body Revival.
"With those, our success rate goes way up. Fufufufu… Exciting, isn't it, Yorin-kun? Or maybe you're scared?"
"Just imagine it—mass-produced Six Paths-level beings. That kind of power could easily conquer the world, right? What exactly do you intend to do with that power?"
…
Yes—besides Akatsuki's main research branches, they'd also been working hard on scientific ninja tools.
Combining Chakra Armor with the Sky Ninja flight rigs, turning them into something like a "chakra Iron Man" battle suit.
Then weaponizing Cloud's chakra cannon tech into all kinds of chakra-based weaponry.
Mass production of chakra cannons.
Miniaturizing chakra cannons for personal use.
Making chakra cannons mobile.
…
Imagine Konoha's future shinobi corps: clad in flying chakra armor, wielding chakra machine guns, operating self-propelled chakra artillery and aerial fortresses, some even carrying chakra lightsabers.
Who would still look at them and think "Naruto" at that point?
Call them Sith warriors under some Dark Lord and a lot of people would believe it.
And crucially, this wasn't just fantasy anymore—it was one step away from reality.
The only things in the way were time, and resources.
On top of that, those fully armed shinobi could also receive bloodline transplants.
Even if they didn't quite reach Six Paths-level, they could at least use the Chimera Technique framework to gain second-tier kekkei genkai. That way, even if the Ōtsutsuki clan really did come back for another invasion, Yorin would have a surprise waiting for them.
…
Uchiha Yorin: "That's pretty much the picture…"
Taking down the Sky Ninja and beating their leader one-on-one had netted him two more free attribute points, plus a portion of Zero-Tails chakra.
"Honestly, Zero-Tails is an amazing energy source.
Its dark chakra comes from the negative emotions in human hearts.
In theory, human negative emotion is inexhaustible.
Which means Zero-Tails chakra is basically the legendary infinite energy source."
Thinking how, in the original timeline, the ninja world had unknowingly blown past an entire energy revolution, Yorin almost smacked his thigh.
This time, that definitely wouldn't be the case.
"Of course, 'absorbing negative emotion and turning it into dark chakra' sounds like the most villain-core thing imaginable."
Yorin had actually sat down with Orochimaru to argue a specific point:
"Can we invert it? Instead of negative emotions to chakra, can we make it positive emotions to chakra?"
Orochimaru: "?"
Yorin: "You know how intense feelings can push the Sharingan to evolve, right?
Some idiots go the route of slaughtering kin and friends, the 'kill-love' path. But there are also those who level up their Sharingan through love and bonds.
I even heard about an Uchiha who awakened his eyes after a very special night at the club."
"There's such a case…?"
Orochimaru was honestly startled. "Genius."
Yorin: "Right? I thought so too. But that's not the point. The point is—can't we flip Zero-Tails? Turn it into 'Minus Zero-Tails'? Switch it from dark monster to radiant magical girl?"
Orochimaru gave him a look so complex it made the earlier club-story sound normal by comparison.
"That Uchiha who awakened after going clubbing—that was you, wasn't it?"
"Ha, impossible. I've got too many girlfriends," Yorin laughed. "Anyway, from a technical standpoint, an 'idol of love and justice' Zero-Tails should be doable, right?"
To tell the truth, Orochimaru thought this was completely unnecessary fluff. But Yorin knew it mattered a lot.
People cling hard to first impressions.
Anyone who looks like they've eaten a hundred elders from the Soul Palace and grins like that is never going to be seen as "good," no matter what they actually do. It'll always cost them extra effort to win trust.
On the other hand, someone who shows up radiating saintly "light" gets treated as virtuous right away, with zero extra work.
So between those two, a "holy" Zero-Tails was clearly the better face.
Orochimaru: "Enemy-ally symmetry or whatever—just hand that part to the Sky Ninja Leader."
With so many projects stacked up, even Orochimaru, as Akatsuki's tech chief, couldn't personally oversee every line of research.
Compared to fun things like mass-producing Six Paths-tier beings, fiddling with "Positive Zero-Tails" didn't interest him at all.
If he had spare time, he'd rather dissect a few more test animals.
Yorin: "…"
They had a fragile alliance, sure—but they were not the same kind of person. Yorin had to admit that.
Not that he really worried about betrayal; at this point he could crush ten thousand Orochimarus with one hand.
He simply wished Orochimaru shared his ideals a little more, instead of being tied to him purely by mutual benefit.
…
"What light chakra? What Minus Zero-Tails? What are you even talking about?!"
Naturally, when Yorin handed the latest project brief to the Sky Ninja Leader, the guy absolutely lost it.
He stared at Yorin like he was looking at a client whose brain had been re-wired by aliens.
What made it worse was, no matter how insane the "client" sounded, he couldn't say no.
Uchiha Yorin: "Do your best. I believe in you~"
With the resolve of a kamikaze pilot, the Sky Ninja Leader turned and trudged back to the lab to continue his research. At the same time, Yorin was swapping in his fourth pair of Sharingan—
One of the spoils of beating the Sky Ninja Chief.
Orochimaru watched Yorin's eyes shift from three tomoe down to a single tomoe, interest flashing in his gaze, but he didn't comment or ask.
Everyone has their secrets. Best not to pry.
It was just the Sharingan.
Even if the perfect full-clone tech wasn't finished yet, Orochimaru had long since mastered cloning eyeballs—a field made even easier with Uchiha funding and certain "inspirations" from Iwagakure.
As it turned out, Iwa had also been secretly experimenting with cloning tech.
The old joke that "the only thing Iwa has is Legkage" really wasn't accurate. Yorin mentally apologized to the "Leg Shadow."
Their cloning research was not only real, it was advanced enough that, in the original timeline, it could've sparked a clone uprising big enough to kill Ōnoki.
Like it or not, Yorin's unification of the shinobi world had driven a huge tech boom.
Before, the Five Great Villages each worked in isolation, hoarding their own research and trump cards as secret weapons.
After Yorin beat them all down and forced everyone's cards on the table, those "trump cards" were out in the open. Everyone cross-pollinated and came away richer.
If the same open-source mindset could ever be applied to clan secret arts—and forbidden ones, too—the ninja world really could see a golden age of open-source techniques.
…
Yorin: "Do your best."
He clapped Orochimaru on the shoulder. "I've set up all the prerequisites for you. From here on out, it's all on your skill."
"Relax." Orochimaru smiled happily. "I won't let you down."
Yorin gave his shoulder another pat, then turned, using Shunshin to vanish.
"You really trust Orochimaru that much?"
The whole time Yorin was talking with Orochimaru, Tsunade had been watching him warily.
Once they'd left together, she finally couldn't help asking.
"It's fine," Yorin said. "Orochimaru's a smart man. He knows what's in his best interest. And more importantly, I've already planted an excellent undercover agent at his side."
"Kabuto…?" Tsunade guessed, thoughtful.
Yorin just laughed.
"If everyone knows about it, it's a brand name, not a 'secret agent.'"
"If Orochimaru really does betray me someday, my response is going to be something he remembers for the rest of his life."
He thought for a beat.
"Hopefully, it won't come to that."