The Root Base
Cold, damp air filled the corridor.This was the underground base of Root.
On both sides of the stone passageway, torchlight flickered and was quickly devoured by the surrounding darkness, illuminating only a few feet of rough ground.
A slender figure in a hooded cloak moved silently through the shadows. His pale skin looked sickly under the dim light, and his golden, slit pupils gleamed like a serpent's—cold and sharp.
Orochimaru had returned.
He pushed open the heavy stone door at the end of the hall. Inside, Shimura Danzo sat motionless, half-merged with the darkness, like a statue carved from shadow.
"The mission is complete, Lord Danzo," Orochimaru rasped, his voice both hoarse and magnetic—stripped of emotion.
"Good work, Orochimaru."Danzo opened his unbandaged eye, fixing him with an unwavering stare. "Your return is timely. There's been… a development in the village. I want you to handle it."
"Oh?" Orochimaru's thin lips curled faintly as he licked them with his long tongue. "If it requires your personal attention, it must be something interesting."
Danzo began to explain—a brief account of the Kumogakure kidnapping incident, the subsequent academy graduation exam, and most importantly, Hiroki Sawada's performance.
Orochimaru listened quietly, his golden eyes unreadable. He'd seen too many so-called "geniuses." Kato Dan, Nawaki, and countless nameless prodigies—all burned brightly for a moment before being swallowed by death.
He no longer felt anything toward them.After all, death was the only subject he had never been able to master.
So he waited for Danzo to get to the point.
Until he heard it—
"…His bloodline limit seems to allow him to directly read and copy another person's ninjutsu through physical contact."
Danzo paused, then added,
"Based on current intelligence, we suspect that under certain conditions, he might even read thoughts, memories—or ninjutsu—without touch."
For the first time, a faint glimmer flashed in Orochimaru's eyes.Like a snake sensing heat in the dark.
Copy ninjutsu… and read minds?
Uchiha could copy techniques—but only through the Sharingan. Reading thoughts, however, was something limited to the Yamanaka clan. How could such abilities exist together in one bloodline?
He chuckled softly, though his tone was laced with skepticism."Copying jutsu? Sounds like a poor man's Sharingan. What's the difference?"
"The difference," Danzo replied, his voice low and cold, "is that Uchiha are Uchiha… and Konoha is Konoha."
He spoke each word slowly, deliberately. The meaning was clear enough to make Orochimaru's smirk deepen.
"And this child," Danzo continued, "is a blank slate. A perfect vessel we can mold as we wish. No clan ties. No sentiment. No weakness. If used properly, he could replace the Uchiha entirely."
Replace the Uchiha.
So that was the plan.
Orochimaru's expression remained neutral, but his golden eyes shimmered with amusement.
"So," he asked softly, "what do you want me to do? Where is he now?"
Danzo didn't answer. Instead, he tilted his head toward the corner.
A masked Root operative stepped forward and knelt."Reporting, Lord Danzo. Surveillance shows that the target, Sawada Hiroki, has remained home since the exam. He rarely leaves. His most recent activity…" the ninja hesitated, "…was catching two mice behind the mountain. He appears to be raising them."
Silence.
"...Raising mice?" Danzo repeated, dumbfounded.
Even Orochimaru blinked.
What kind of hobby was that?
Weren't they talking about a prodigy who could copy ninjutsu and read minds?How did raising mice fit into that equation?
Orochimaru stared at Danzo.Danzo stared back.Neither spoke.
For a long, awkward moment, the two men simply stared—each waiting for the other to break.
Finally, Orochimaru gave a low laugh. "If you want me to evaluate him, perhaps we should run… an additional test first."
Danzo frowned but didn't argue. He merely glanced again at the Root agent, silently questioning the accuracy of the report.
Hiroki's House
"Squeak… squeak…"
At that very moment, Hiroki was indeed playing with rats.
And not cute little white lab mice—just two large, scruffy mountain rats he had managed to catch behind his house.
He would have preferred proper lab specimens, of course, but beggars couldn't be choosers.
Still, good news and bad news came together.
Good news: the rats' biological files were almost identical in structure to his own. Their system files—the .sys equivalents—were remarkably similar.Bad news: the results were a little… too visible.
Two cages sat on Hiroki's desk. Both contained rats of the same breed and age.But the difference between them was staggering.
The rat in the left cage ran so fast on its wheel that its limbs blurred. It was nearly twice the size of its control counterpart. Beneath its gray fur, thick muscle cords bulged like those of a miniature bodybuilder, veins standing out like wires.
The food bowl and water bottle emptied at a visible rate.
Hiroki flipped open his notebook, the pages filled with neat, scientific handwriting.
Experimental Log —
Day 7
Project: Pointed Rat
Status: Initial verification successful.
He glanced at the hyperactive rat and exhaled.
In one week, it had gained 115 grams, 107 grams of which were pure muscle.
For a 400-gram rat, that was like a 120-pound human putting on over 30 pounds of muscle in seven days—without any training, supplements, or drugs.
Not even the wildest bodybuilding chemistry could achieve that.
"This isn't fitness," Hiroki muttered. "This is sorcery."
He looked at the data again. His formula worked far better than expected.
Normally, it would take four to eight weeks of strict training cycles to see visible hypertrophy in a rat. The body's natural rhythm of damage, repair, supercompensation took at least 48–72 hours per muscle group.
But his growth patch had eliminated that recovery period entirely.It locked the body into a continuous "supercompensation" state—24 hours a day, every day.
A perfect loop of endless muscle growth.
He ran the math again, just to be sure.A 400-gram rat, 45% muscle, 22% protein content—protein intake and synthesis perfectly optimized—Every figure checked out.
It shouldn't be possible.And yet… the result sat right in front of him, breathing hard and looking like it could tear its cage apart.
But just as Hiroki was about to celebrate—
The rat spasmed violently.
Then went still.
A sharp, acrid smell of urine filled the air.