Ever since the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, had been officially sworn in, the mountain behind the village echoed with the sound of chisels and hammers.
The Fourth's face was being carved onto the Hokage Rock.
Standing where the whole stone cliff could be seen, Orochimaru watched the slowly forming silhouette in silence. The wind tugged at his long black hair, his yellow eyes half-lidded, unreadable.
Kenichi Amamiya stood a few steps behind him, quietly observing.
After a while, Orochimaru turned away without a word and started walking back, his white cloak trailing behind him. He did not look back even once.
Kenichi watched his teacher's back and sighed inwardly.
Sensei says he doesn't care… but inside, he probably cares more than anyone.
For a moment, a strange thought flashed through his head.
If he didn't know for a fact that Orochimaru was biologically male and hadn't swapped bodies yet, Kenichi might've suspected his teacher was actually a tsundere heroine.
If we just dyed his hair blonde, tied it into a high ponytail… or twin tails… he'd be the perfect "arrogant loser in love with the protagonist" archetype.
He almost laughed out loud at his own mental image.
"Sensei," Kenichi suddenly asked as they walked along the familiar path, "does Elder Shimura Danzō smoke?"
"Hm?" Orochimaru glanced at him, clearly not expecting the question. "That man? I've never seen him smoke."
Kenichi's shoulders slumped a little.
So he doesn't smoke… that complicates things.
He had been quietly planning to "cultivate" a patch of cancer in Danzō's lungs someday, just for peace of mind. Unfortunately, without a convenient nicotine habit to exploit—and with his technique still incomplete—that plan had to be shelved.
They soon arrived at one of Root's underground laboratories. Danzō himself wasn't present; only his masked subordinates guarded the place. That didn't stop the experiments from proceeding.
But with the Fourth Hokage now officially in place, it also meant one thing:
The war was truly over.
And without war, Root's supply of "disposable test subjects" would inevitably start drying up. Maybe not immediately, but in time, it would be harder and harder to get bodies to play with.
"Sensei, what's today's research focus?" Kenichi asked, feeling his excitement automatically rise the moment he stepped through the lab doors.
The smell of disinfectant, metal, and blood—familiar, calming.
"Nothing new," Orochimaru replied casually. "We continue our attempts to make subjects better adapt to the First Hokage's cells."
That was Danzō's requirement.
Kenichi's enthusiasm dropped a notch.
Hashirama's cells were powerful, sure, but also annoyingly restrictive. Just surviving the graft was a trial by fire. How many people had died in these labs already, just so Konoha could get one viable candidate like Yamato?
"Sensei, can I… do my own research today?" Kenichi asked.
He was tired of watching people explode into wooden tumors.
Orochimaru studied him for a moment, then nodded.
"That's fine. Continue as you like."
That was all Kenichi needed.
The moment he got permission, he trotted off to his own workbench, already thinking ahead. Since this lab was directly tied to Root, he decided not to work on his "induced cancer technique" here. Too sensitive.
Instead, he chose a different project.
Chakra Armor—or, more precisely, an extension of something Orochimaru had once toyed with.
A special metal that absorbed chakra.
Orochimaru had created it during an earlier research project. The material could siphon chakra out of a shinobi's body, but since the snake Sannin had too many other toys, this particular one had been shoved onto a dusty shelf.
Kenichi, however, saw potential.
Serious potential.
"If I can modify it so it absorbs chakra from jutsu instead of from the wearer…" he muttered, rolling a small ingot between his fingers, "and then add some conversion array to store or redirect the stolen chakra back into the user… wouldn't that be a battlefield perpetual-motion machine?"
It was hard not to get excited.
An armor that eats enemy ninjutsu and refuels its wearer. A walking, chakra-powered tank.
A chakra Gundam.
Imagine Uchiha Madara unleashing a sea of ninjutsu, and I step out wearing full chakra armor that just drinks it all. What are you gonna do then, old man? Throw rocks?
Of course, that was all still a dream.
Right now, Kenichi hadn't even figured out how to improve the metal's absorption capacity, much less design the storage and redirection system. All he could do was experiment, fail, record, repeat.
Science 101.
"No wonder Sensei is cooperating with Root," Kenichi grumbled to himself after he burned through another batch of materials. "Research really is a money furnace…"
No matter the world, one thing never changed:
Science was expensive.
It was no wonder most shinobi chose to develop jutsu instead. Techniques cost chakra and time, not metal, reagents, and specialized tools.
Poor people mutate, rich people use tech, Kenichi thought wryly.
It fit a bit too well.
"You seem quite interested in the alloy," a familiar voice said behind him.
Kenichi flinched internally.
He didn't need to turn around to know who it was. Orochimaru had once again appeared silently at his back like some sort of reptilian Batman.
"Yes, Sensei," Kenichi answered honestly, putting down his tools. "I think this metal has a lot of potential. If we can improve its performance, it might become something truly… strategic."
If his idea worked, this wouldn't just be a tool. It could become the chakra equivalent of nuclear deterrence—something that could fundamentally change how wars were fought.
"The alloy's capacity to absorb chakra is currently very limited," Orochimaru remarked. "Still… I do have some faith in you. Science has always begun in the realm of nothing—from nothing to something."
He smiled faintly.
"In this village, there isn't much I feel compelled to take with me," he added quietly. "But you… you might be the one exception."
Kenichi blinked.
Then he smiled, a little embarrassed but also strangely pleased.
"Yes, Sensei. Science is exactly that—turning nothing into something," he said softly.
Back in his old world, people hadn't been able to even picture a "computer" before it existed. The idea of the internet, smartphones, satellites—these were once as fantastical as ninjutsu.
And yet, one by one, they had been invented.
From zero to one.
From impossible to mundane.
In the far future of this world—Boruto's era—Kenichi remembered seeing even more things that the current shinobi couldn't begin to imagine.
If they could bring those things into being…
Then so could he.
"Come," Orochimaru said at last. "That's enough for today."
He turned and walked toward the stairway leading up. Kenichi removed his gloves, wiped his hands, and followed. Behind them, the lab continued to echo with distant screams and hoarse shouts.
Step by step, they climbed from underground darkness toward the sunlight above.
"Sensei," Kenichi asked suddenly, "do you think the Third Hokage knows what we're doing down here?"
Root might be secret, but ANBU wasn't blind.
Of course they had some idea.
"Of course he knows," Orochimaru replied, without a shred of hesitation. "He has chosen to turn a blind eye."
Kenichi's expression twitched.
Somehow, he wasn't surprised.
For the "Will of Fire," for the village's future, for peace, for stability—
The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, would allow almost anything.
As long as it stayed in the shadows.