Time slipped by, day after day.
Amamiya Kenichi kept up his "good friend" routine with Kakashi, and before long he'd fully mastered Chidori.
With someone deliberately trying to get close to him every day, even Kakashi's gloomy aura faded a little.
Everything was lining up nicely.
Now it was just a matter of waiting for Obito to make his move, unleash the Nine-Tails, and drag the entire village's attention into chaos.
Kenichi was busy quietly preparing for that coming disaster when Orochimaru suddenly grabbed him and dragged him down into the lab.
"Sensei, can I have these test subjects?"
Kenichi had originally wanted to ask what today's project was—but the moment he stepped into the lab, his eyes lit up.
Four Konoha ninja.
One jōnin, and three subordinates.
A full squad.
This was a rare sight. Up until now, Orochimaru's "materials" had mostly been civilians, genin from neighboring villages, a few Konoha genin and chūnin—
but a full jōnin-led unit? This was premium stock.
"No," Orochimaru rejected bluntly. "These are very valuable specimens."
He didn't even pause to consider it.
Given how tight security in the village had gotten recently, managing to snatch a jōnin team at this timing had taken effort. There was no way he was just handing them over for Kenichi to "play" with.
Kenichi clicked his tongue in disappointment, but he knew better than to push his luck.
"Then what did you need me for, Sensei?"
"You kept saying you wanted to see Edo Tensei in action." Orochimaru's golden eyes slid over to him with a faint smile. "I've decided to run a test."
Kenichi's spine straightened instantly.
Edo Tensei.
Finally, the official promotion to necromancer.
"Don't get too excited. You're here to observe."
Orochimaru's tone was calm, almost cold.
Kenichi immediately pulled out his notebook and pen, ready to record every detail.
[Sensei just dragged in a civilian. Not a ninja. But… Edo Tensei still succeeded.
He actually summoned a ninja.]
".…Wasn't I in the Pure Land? What is—"
The man looked down at his own hands in disbelief, already sensing something wrong with his body.
Kenichi blinked.
Oh. He knew that face.
Before the man could even finish his sentence, a kunai slid neatly into the back of his head.
The revived man went silent, all movement cut off.
"Record it. Edo Tensei target: Kato Dan. Success." Orochimaru said it like he was reading off a lab label.
He, at least, didn't look surprised.
Only wary.
Guarding against the Spirit Transformation Technique, huh? Kenichi thought.
But without his original body, Kato Dan probably couldn't use it anyway.
Kenichi quickly jotted down the result.
He really hadn't expected Orochimaru to have kept Kato Dan's biological samples all this time.
"Use Spirit Transformation to kill that restrained shinobi."
Orochimaru issued the command.
But Kato Dan didn't move.
The bound genin on the table just stared in horror, eyes wide.
[Conclusion: A civilian body can't draw out a shinobi's full strength, even when revived by Edo Tensei.]
Kenichi recorded the finding before Orochimaru could speak.
The experiment continued.
Walking, squatting, dancing—
All those physical commands were carried out without problems.
So it wasn't a control issue. It was a vessel issue.
Orochimaru dispelled the jutsu without hesitation, then repeated the process using a bound genin as the sacrifice.
This time, the revived shinobi managed to perform some basic ninjutsu.
On the operating table, the immobilized jōnin was struggling like a madman, veins bulging as he glared murder at Orochimaru.
If looks could kill, Orochimaru would have been torn to shreds a hundred times over.
When the jutsu testing was over, the genin sacrifice was also dead. Orochimaru dispelled Edo Tensei again and sat down, flipping through Kenichi's hastily written report with a thoughtful expression.
Kenichi didn't disturb him.
He turned his attention instead to the jōnin and the rest of the captured squad.
Four-man team.
One already dead.
Three still alive.
Among them, a kunoichi curled up in the corner of her restraints, shaking uncontrollably.
Kenichi's nose wrinkled.
Her pants were wet.
The smell left no room for doubt.
"Shinobi these days… really do have smaller and smaller guts."
Orochimaru's voice carried an edge of irritation, but he didn't lash out the way he usually might when interrupted mid-thought.
That, more than anything, surprised Kenichi.
Normally, when Orochimaru got into his "pondering mode," Kenichi wouldn't even breathe too loudly to avoid being snapped at. Yet this girl had practically soiled herself in the middle of his reflection… and Orochimaru had let it slide.
Kenichi's eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at her more carefully.
She was young. Her looks were delicate, features soft, the kind that would grow into a real beauty in a few years.
And suddenly, a memory surfaced.
"I remember Sensei's Living Corpse Reincarnation vessel later on… was a very pretty woman, wasn't she?"
A dangerous thought flashed through his mind.
The age matched.
The timing matched.
If Orochimaru was already planning ahead… it wasn't impossible that this terrified kunoichi was being considered as a future body.
Kenichi glanced at her again.
Tear-stained face.
Pale lips.
Eyes full of helplessness and fear.
And then, for some reason, his mind supplied the image of Orochimaru's soul sitting inside that same body, with that same face—
"…Yikes."
He clicked his tongue quietly.
Living Corpse Reincarnation, as far as he recalled, only transferred the soul. The physical body itself didn't change.
Which meant that once Orochimaru moved in, he'd become a perfect woman on the outside.
Slim waist.
Long legs.
Good-looking face.
Just… the soul inside was still Orochimaru.
Kenichi's expression grew strange.
"…I wonder if Sensei, after the transfer, would… you know… still have to deal with periods?"
Now that was a scientific question no one had asked before.