Chapter 37

A month passed, Duy graduated, Kushina returned, Kakashi got his new team, and five clones plus myself were spending just about all day studying, reading, and practicing some of our newly learned techniques.

Things were going well.

Or they were until the Hokage requested a meeting.

I hadn't done anything, so I wasn't overly worried, but it was still an annoyance.

Now the question was, do I go myself? Or do I send a clone and risk shenanigans?

...

I gave a firm knock on the door.

Knock* Knock* Knock*

"Enter!"

I opened the door and made my way inside.

After a deep bow towards the Hokage, I stood in the center of the room and waited.

"Take a seat, we're still waiting on someone."

He pointed behind me.

I turned and saw a pair of chairs that weren't there a moment ago.

I eyed the chairs and shrugged.

I took a seat and looked at the Hokage, he had started on some paperwork, leaving me to sit by myself.

Alrighty...

I crossed my arms, leaned back, and closed my eyes.

...

I heard the door open.

I turned my head towards the door and opened my eyes.

Orochimaru was making his way inside and looking rather annoyed.

Looking at him I understood why people would fear him, he looked evil.

But I guess it was hard not to look evil with snake-like eyes.

"I'm here sensei."

I stayed quiet and watched the exchange. Orochimaru looked annoyed and the Third had a warm smile on his face.

"Orochi it's good to see you, take a seat." The Third gestured to a chair.

I thankfully didn't smirk at his nickname.

"What was so important, that it required me to waste my precious time?"

Orochimaru talked was a slow drawl and his face was impassive, he in no way wanted to be here.

"I wanted to ask you if you would spend a few hours a week teaching young Shiro here." The Hokage pointed at me as he finished his sentence.

Orochimaru turned his attention to me for the first time since he arrived.

I sent him a little wave and he ignored me.

"I don't have time for an apprentice."

The third shook his head.

"You just need to pass on some of your knowledge on body modification and DNA manipulation, which is Shiro's current interest."

That sentence made me incredibly nervous, I didn't know how much they knew about what I was doing. Even if all my notes were in French and English there was no guarantee that they weren't decoded.

Orochimaru sent me a look of mild-interest but remained quiet.

"Shiro, why don't you tell Orochimaru what you've been working on."

The question served two purposes, he wanted me to impress Orochimaru but he also wanted to know about anybody modifications that he wasn't aware of yet.

I was pretty sure they didn't know too much of what I got up to, the Hokage was fishing for information and trying to foster talent, or so I thought.

I took a deep breath and prepared myself.

"I've enhanced my nerves and improved my Byakugan's range."

Orochimaru didn't look impressed and neither did the Hokage.

"I'm currently working on ways to expand someone's chakra network." That didn't have any visible effect on Orochimaru nor the Hokage.

"I've also recently been able to regrow limbs though at a huge chakra cost."

The Hokage looked mildly interested but I didn't think I'd sold Orochimaru on the idea of a student so I decided to throw out some bait.

"I've also been looking into immortality or ways to become immortal as well."

The Hokage hummed and Orochimaru shifted slightly though his face hadn't changed.

"Hmmm... Any discoveries?"

I shook my head.

"No, I've just got a lot of theories."

The Hokage nodded.

"You're not confident in your theories?"

I nodded.

"The more I learn, the harder it seems it is to achieve true immortality."

The Hokage nodded and I leaned back, hopefully giving the appearance of being comfortable.

"Would you share some of your theories with us?"

I nodded and smiled.

"Yes, as long as you can dismiss your Anbu."

The Hokage nodded and waved his hand, I flickered my Byakugan and watched the Anbu leave for a moment.

"Well..."

I deactivated my Byakugan, even though they won't know what we talked about one of them will probably report to Danzo.

Meaning I've probably gained his attention if I didn't already have it.

"The first one I had thought of was something I call Cancer Immortality."

This was easy to give up, I didn't think it was possible and it had large risks to oneself.

"Cancer is immortal, meaning cancer cells can duplicate indefinitely. So, I thought if I made every cell in my body cancerous could I become immortal?"

Orochimaru shook his head.

"If all your cells were cancerous your body would keep producing cells eventually failing when the cancer impedes critical bodily functions."

I nodded

"But If you had a Seal that kept your body in your desired shape, you could overcome that."

Orochimaru nodded.

"Though even then it's imperfect, your physical energy would become sickly and weak because of the cancer."

I nodded even though I didn't know that.

"The second one I had thought of is called Tailed Beast Immortality."

I looked at the Hokage and Orochimaru, both seemed interested, which was what I wanted hopefully I wouldn't have to show too much of my hand.

"The idea was to turn oneself into a chakra construct via Fuinjutsu."

I had thought that if Sasori could seal his consciousness into a core and operate a puppet body why couldn't I do the same and make myself a chakra construct.

"You seal your consciousness into a core from which you pilot your body using an artificial network."

I blew a breath from my nose.

"I realized that wouldn't work, so I pondered the possibility of having a seal replicate your every cell with chakra and hold that form."

I rolled my eyes.

"It would be almost impossibly hard to do, you would need the seal to record everything about your body and then replace your cells with chakra cells, but even if you got that far then you would need a way to generate physical energy or you wouldn't have a way to generate chakra."

I paused for a moment and Orochimaru chimed in.

"Nature chakra."

I nodded and sent him a thumbs up.

"Yes, I had the same thought, the problem is that a chakra body wouldn't be able to adapt."

This time Orochimaru nodded.

"You would lose the ability to grow."

I nodded and looked to see if the Hokage was paying attention.

"And even if it somehow worked, you would just become another Tailed Beast, someone would eventually seal you and use your power."

The thought of Tailed Beasts made me think of the Zero Tails, was it worth capturing? It had no relevance to Zetsu's plans so I wouldn't have to worry about anyone plotting against me if I stole it.

Now do I continue or do I cut the conversation off here...?

"Do you want me to continue? The Hokage looks to be losing interest."

The Hokage had been looking out the window seemingly having lost interest, though I don't know why he wouldn't be interested in immortality.

"You two can talk later, Shiro why do you seek Immortality?"

The Hokage didn't look even mildly interested in my answer but I could see Orochimaru paying attention from the corner of my eye.

I wanted to live long enough to learn world travel, the Ōtsutsuki could do it so it wasn't out of reach.

Though I couldn't say that to the Hokage.

"I want to live long enough to see the village advance."

The Hokage blinked at me and Orochimaru didn't look too enthused with my answer.

"When the First Hokage created the village, he wouldn't have been able to imagine how much it would change and grow, I hope to experience the village's growth over the years."

The Hokage hummed and Orochimaru stayed silent, I leaned back into my chair and folded my arms.

Everyone was silent for a while and I wasn't keen to break the silence, I wanted some time to think.

Hopefully, that answer was satisfactory, I barely pulled that out of my ass...

I implied I wanted to be the village's immortal guardian, watching it grow and prosper.

Hopefully, the Hokage loved that...

...

Eventually, Orochimaru broke the silence.

"I don't have the time to teach you, but I'll allow you to be my assistant and teach you as I go."

Allow me?

What an asshole.

"I'd be happy to."

Hopefully, I'd learn stuff, if he shafted me and didn't teach me shit, I'll seal him and toss him into the ocean.

I reached over to Orochimaru and offered my hand.

He reached over and took it.

We shook hands, and I wondered if I was making a huge mistake.

Was faster progress worth having to worry about my Byakugan or body being stolen?

"Alright Shiro you're dismissed, Orochi you stay we have more to discuss."

I nodded stood up and bowed towards both the Hokage and Orochimaru.

Orochimaru wasn't sealing bodies until after Naruto was born, so hopefully, it wouldn't be a problem for a while.

I made my way out of the room and dismissed myself in a burst of smoke.

...

I stood staring blankly at Emergency Rations.

Clones didn't suffer any consequences from their actions, it made them make risky or silly decisions.

I was both horrified and glad.

Horrified for my future and glad the clone made no mention of my plan to become a Stem Cell Vampire.

I was pretty close to making it work, DNA Overwrite was the final piece of the puzzle.

Cell rejection was caused when the immune system rejected 'foreign' cells, if the DNA was changed and the cell was manipulated a little, it was no longer foreign.

I was pretty sure Orochimaru could come to the same conclusion himself.

Though hopefully, I didn't give him any ideas.

Sigh...

Two possible paths to immortality.

Stem Cell Vampire and Biological Immortality...

I just needed to get the seals down and I was done with Stem Cell Vampire.

And I also needed to get the rate of cancer down...

I almost forgot about that...

...

The chakra control needed to touch DNA without destroying it was insane, I couldn't imagine what sort of madman made this technique.

I understood why you had to use a seal to do the rest of this.

I couldn't do it yet but I'd keep trying.

Though perhaps I should focus on other things...

Would it be better to put DNA shenanigans off?

I didn't know...

...

The next day I was pondering expanding my chakra network and feeding Emergency Rations when I was disturbed.

"Ah-hem."

I turned and saw Orochimaru standing in the middle of my lab and sending me a bored stare.

"Hello." I sent him a nod and tried to hide how disturbed I was with having my home invaded.

He took a glance at my crappy lab and gave it a look of disdain.

"Your mother let me in."

I nodded, though it didn't make me feel better about having my lab invaded once again.

"Alright."

Orochimaru walked over and placed his hand on one of my rabbits.

He hummed but didn't say anything, and I remained quiet as well.

Eventually, I got bored of watching and went to start feeding my other rabbits.

"Have you been using these as practice for DNA analysis?"

I nodded

With animals, you would look for physical differences between sub-species, like rabbits with different colored furs, ear sizes, or hearing sensitivity. All those things.

Once you have enough rabbit species with different traits you can easily find out which mutations are most prevalent in which species and inside that species which rabbit has different combinations of mutations.

You can use that data to find out which rabbits will have the biggest ears or longest fur.

At least if you are right that's the case.

"Don't bother, I've already done this myself with many different animals."

I sighed, I wasted a few weeks on this if that was the case.

"Alright."

I just nodded, If Orochimaru already had this done, all I needed to do was memorize his work.

"So, what brings you here Sensei."

Orochimaru seemed to have enjoyed my use of Sensei, it was the right move.

"I came to collect you, it occurred to me that I didn't arrange anything before you were dismissed."

I nodded.

"So, what's the plan?"

Orochimaru started making his way towards the door.

"I'll show you where I do some of my research and I'll key you into the seals, from there we will decide on a schedule that works for you."

I nodded and followed after him.

"Sure thing, Sensei!"

I figured it would take me around five years to make any progress in DNA manipulation.

By studying under Orochimaru I could cut that time down.

I just needed to identify what part of the DNA corresponded to the Shikotsumyaku.

Which was easier said than done.

I might still need to wait until Kimimaro was born...

Sigh...

...

Hidden under a Dongo shop in the middle of Konoha is where Orochimaru brought me.

Orochimaru's lab looked less advanced then I had imagined it to be.

There were a lot of different organs, animals, and other body parts floating in glass containers.

I spun and took a better look at the lab, shelves were lining the walls, each was filled with different specimens.

"So?"

I looked at my new teacher wondering what he had planned.

Orochimaru brought out many different scrolls, books, notes, and stacks of paper and set them on a table in the corner of the room.

"You will be studying, when you've memorized everything there, I'll decide what to do with you."

I nodded and made my way over to the table and grabbed the notes first.

"Those don't leave the lab."

I nodded again.

I briefly looked over to the pile of stuff Orochimaru gave me.

Some of it was medical stuff I had already memorized, but there was other chakra related stuff that I hadn't seen before.

'Spiritual Energy and It's effects on Chakra.'

Neat.

'Chakra Capacity and Lifespan.'

Hmm...

'Chakra and DNA.'

The whole pile contained lots of good stuff, I hadn't seen any of this in the archive or the library's. So, this was likely Orochimaru's work.

Either that or it was heavily restricted.

More restricted than the already restricted stuff in the archive...

I took a breath and activated my Byakugan.

I admired the flowing script covering just about every inch of the room, I saw Orochimaru eyeing me and I sent him a wave.

I turned my focus onto the books and activated Kokoro no kyōka.

It would only take me a day to memorize all of this, it would likely take me longer to understand it though...

...

A lot of Orochimaru's notes were about directly fucking with the DNA and seeing what happened.

It was ugly business.

But it was extremely efficient.

Orochimaru had made great progress in analyzing human DNA.

According to his notes, humans have between 20,000 and 25,000 genes.

Genes were just strands of DNA.

Every person has two copies of each gene, one inherited from each parent.

Most genes are the same in all people, but a small number of are slightly different between people.

These small differences contribute to each person's unique physical features.

Lots of interesting stuff...

But nothing related to Kekkei Genkai...

So, he was holding back...

Not unexpected, but it was annoying.

I'd already made massive gains, so I'd stay my path and continue as I was.

Hopefully, I could gain his trust and start working on some of his projects...

I'll see what the future holds...

...