"No. Not yet," Hiroki said, shaking his head.
He turned his gaze from the steady graph on the monitor to the confused researcher beside him. His voice was calm, steady, and precise.
"A single successful run and a stable, reliable program are two entirely different things."
It was like debugging software. A program that runs flawlessly on the developer's computer might still crash on the user's system.After all, you can never predict what strange configurations or conflicting programs might exist on the user's end.
Only software that has been tested repeatedly over time can be considered truly stable.The same principle applies to biological code—especially muscle patches.
"Only when we observe consistent, measurable muscle growth with no adverse reactions during extended activity," Hiroki continued, "can this experiment be provisionally deemed successful. Next, we move to controlled group testing."
He walked toward the remaining prisoners, Orochimaru following closely behind, his golden eyes gleaming with curiosity.
"My plan," Hiroki said, "is to divide the remaining subjects into two groups—four and four."
As he walked, he issued instructions to the researchers with practiced precision. His tone carried the authority of a seasoned project manager.
And in a sense, that's exactly what he was—before traveling through time, Hiroki had been a project manager.The only difference was that back then, he programmed computers.Now, he was rewriting the code that governed the human body itself.
"One group will serve as the experimental group—I'll perform the procedure on them. The other will act as the control group, untouched. Most importantly, this will be a double-blind experiment. After I inject the compound, I won't interact with them again, and I won't tell you who belongs to which group. We need to eliminate any potential bias caused by the placebo effect."
"Placebo effect…?" Orochimaru interrupted, one eyebrow arched.
Hiroki blinked, momentarily surprised.Right. In this world, such scientific concepts weren't exactly common knowledge.
He paused to find the simplest explanation."It's like this: suppose someone's sick and takes medicine. Even if that medicine is fake—just sugar, for example—if they believe it's real, their body can still show improvement."
"Likewise, if someone truly believes they're ill, their body can manifest real symptoms over time. In short…"Hiroki smiled faintly. "The human body is incredible."
But that thought sparked another idea in his mind.If belief alone could trigger real physiological changes… then, theoretically, could he locate and modify the code that controls this 'placebo effect'?Could he patch it?
Orochimaru chuckled lowly, clearly intrigued."So this concept comes from the Second Hokage's research as well?" he mused with interest.
It was only the first day, and already he had learned something new.He couldn't wait to peel open the rest of Hiroki's mind—layer by layer—until he understood everything.
The hunger in his snake-like eyes made Hiroki feel as though he were being dissected under a microscope.
Meanwhile, one of the senior researchers adjusted his glasses, speaking up with sudden realization."So… the double-blind test ensures that neither the subjects nor we, the observers, know who's receiving the actual treatment—thus removing any influence of expectation on the results?"
"Exactly," Hiroki said with a nod. "Can we proceed to the next phase?"
He turned toward Orochimaru, waiting for final approval.
Orochimaru grinned, his voice smooth and amused."Everything is in your hands, Hiroki-kun. This is your experiment."
With that, the plan was set. The team began preparing for the dual-group trials. Hiroki exhaled slowly, then looked back at Orochimaru.
"Next," he said, "I'd like to conduct a chakra attribute test."
The entire lab fell silent.
Chakra attributes were advanced-level material—something only taught after graduation from the Academy.Orochimaru hadn't even introduced it to Hiroki yet.So the mere mention of it confirmed what Orochimaru had already suspected: Hiroki possessed knowledge far beyond his supposed level.
Orochimaru's golden eyes narrowed slightly. He recalled the field report—the boy collapsing from exhaustion after using Lightning Release: Pseudo Darkness. His grin widened.
"Oh? Of course. Proceed."
Hiroki breathed a small sigh of relief.He had to uncover the reason behind that near-fatal incident—why casting a B-rank lightning jutsu had nearly drained his entire "battery."
According to the data he'd copied from a Cloud Ninja, the technique's energy cost shouldn't have been that high.The problem had to be somewhere in the compatibility layer—a mismatch between his body (the hardware) and the ninjutsu's execution code (the software).Maybe even a missing driver.
If he couldn't identify the issue, he couldn't safely use copied ninjutsu again.
Perhaps chakra nature was the "driver" he needed to check.
A researcher brought him a small sheet of white chakra test paper. Hiroki accepted it, took a breath, and slowly channeled chakra into it.
Everyone watched in silence.
After one second, one corner of the paper dampened—Water.After two seconds, the opposite edge tore—Wind.After three, the center ignited and burned to ash—Fire.
Then… nothing. No wrinkles. No static discharge.
No Lightning.
"Water, fire, and wind…" the recording researcher murmured, wide-eyed. "Three natural affinities… That's the aptitude of a jōnin-level ninja. But—where's the lightning?"
Murmurs rippled through the lab.
They were Orochimaru's researchers, not ignorant villagers. They'd all heard the story—how Hiroki had saved Kushina from Cloud Ninja assassins and slain a jōnin using Lightning Release.
But if he didn't have the lightning affinity… how had he done it?
"Could the test be incomplete?""Or is it a bloodline limit that mimics other chakra types?""But that would require enormous energy—several times the normal output!""Still, it would explain why he collapsed afterward. A forced simulation of Lightning chakra… yes, that fits."
Their debate mirrored Hiroki's own thoughts.
It made sense: he had copied the ninjutsu but not the corresponding lightning attribute data. That mismatch had caused the bug—and the crash.
Which meant further analysis of Lightning Release: Pseudo Darkness would be dangerous, perhaps even suicidal.Until he understood his own chakra structure, using that jutsu again was out of the question.
Besides, that particular file was massive—11.0MB, or roughly 230,000 lines of code. Debugging that by hand would take forever.
And testing it on himself?Even riskier.
Unless…
He glanced at Orochimaru, who was already watching him with an all-too-knowing smile.
"I need to learn a ninjutsu that aligns with my chakra attributes," Hiroki said quietly."And… I'll need shadow clones."