"Orochimaru-sama, what did you need me for at this hour?"
Hyuga Mirai's expression was rather unpleasant, though not from fatigue. He had been interrupted while designing the electromagnetic sensor circuitry for the Bio-Mechanical Assistant, which had put him in a bad mood.
"Hehehe, Mirai-kun, were you working on some new research?"
Orochimaru chuckled in his hoarse voice. He was all too familiar with Hyuga Mirai's expression. Some time ago, when his Hashirama Cells research had made little progress, that idiot Danzo had practically come by every other day to ask about it.
Orochimaru had worn that same expression then—perhaps an even worse one.
Still, Orochimaru found Hyuga Mirai's expression quite amusing. Hmm... Could it be that Danzo had kept coming every other day precisely because he liked seeing that look on his face?
"I suddenly had an idea, so... Orochimaru-sama, you already knew about it?"
Hyuga Mirai suddenly realized that, aside from this matter, Orochimaru probably had nothing else to discuss by calling him out in the middle of the night.
War tactics had nothing to do with a Chunin like him, and the only common ground between them was research and experiments.
Orochimaru said, "You remembered to take Sunagakure's puppets even while carrying out your mission. If not for your treatment of the wounded and your excellent completion of the mission, the Interrogation Department would probably be knocking on your door by now."
Hyuga Mirai's mouth twitched. "People can complain over something this trivial? Isn't recovering Ninja tools during a mission perfectly natural?"
"But you specifically targeted Puppet Masters. Still, those are minor issues. No matter how much they complain, I'll be the one handling this matter in the end."
Orochimaru smiled. That afternoon, while Hyuga Mirai was still treating the wounded, someone had reported his "frantic" collection of