Bloodline Sickness Friends' Home

"Magnet Release?"

After the test-like battle ended, Yuhara was shoved back into his cell, and afterward, he received a bit of explanation about himself.

Based on his knowledge of the "original story," what they called Magnet Release was a Kekkei Genkai used by the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Kazekage, manifesting as large-scale control over specific metals—in short, think of it as "a mini, youthful version of Magneto."

But was he really a Magnet Release ninja? Sure, at the last moment of the fight, he'd somehow managed to control that kunai, but if that was Magnet Release, it felt oddly off, like there was some indescribable difference between this and the Magnet Release he remembered.

So was this just a subjective discomfort, or was there an objective difference? Yuhara didn't know, so he decided to test it.

"This should be it... and it's actually here."

Yuhara opened the Ninja Tool Bag behind him, rummaged around, and pulled out some special paper. These were actually used by ninja to draw certain techniques—standard tools—and they were sensitive to chakra nature reactions.

He used it as Chakra Paper, pulling out a sheet and pinching it between two fingers.

"...This is how you do it, right?"

As chakra surged from his fingertips, the thin paper first wrinkled, then got slashed with cuts, and finally the surface crumbled into powder... This reaction indicated he had three chakra natures.

Though Yuhara couldn't remember exactly which chakra nature produced which reaction, the narrow set of chakra natures was just the five—Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Lightning—so a simple logical inference based on common sense could match the natures to the physical changes: wrinkling was Lightning, cuts were Wind, crumbling was Earth. That meant Yuhara's three chakra natures were Lightning, Wind, and Earth.

As an ordinary reader, his knowledge of the original story couldn't be that detailed, so he didn't know which two nature combinations made up Magnet Release. But if Magnet Release was a Kekkei Genkai, it would only combine two chakra nature transformations. What if three natures were combined instead?

He didn't know, but theoretically, that wouldn't be Magnet Release. Combining three chakra natures produced something called Kekkei Tōta, and as far as the ninja world knew, there was only one Kekkei Tōta: Dust Release.

Could it be...

That the so-called "Art of the Holding Magnet" was actually Kekkei Tōta?

Well, compared to the monsters that came later, any Release was small-time. After thinking for a while and still not figuring out what was going on with himself, Yuhara decided to give up.

Whether it was Kekkei Genkai or Kekkei Tōta, neither could help him escape this place right now. Their future growth curves and power levels were what they were, so... don't overthink it, just leave it for now.

Stepping back, even if he had the ability and potential, reality wouldn't give Yuhara the time or opportunity to develop. He didn't know what Orochimaru was planning, but without a doubt, all of Orochimaru's experiments were extremely dangerous. Right now, Yuhara had no idea what was coming next, let alone how to break free from his current situation.

It was a deadlock.

Having just been reborn, the first "boss" he faced was far too powerful.

One day after the fight ended, the female ninja Hotaru came to Yuhara's cell again.

"The experiment is about to begin. Please follow me."

"Experiment?"

As before, Yuhara didn't want to resist, but what could a fish on a chopping board do? He could only lie flat and wait. When the female ninja opened the cell door, he silently followed behind her again.

After walking in silence for a while, Yuhara spoke up. "The person I fought yesterday..."

"You should have just killed him," the female ninja said in an eerily calm voice.

Yuhara was stunned for a moment, then pressed on. "What do you mean... why say that?"

The female ninja glanced back at him, then kept her gaze forward. "Lord Orochimaru treasures his experimental materials. To him, high-value materials have one use, low-value materials have another... and corpses have yet another."

"...I get it."

Her answer left Yuhara completely silent.

The way of thinking from his past life didn't fit this world. The goodwill of his previous life wasn't necessarily goodwill in this one. "Killing you is for your own good"—that twisted logic actually made sense in the ninja world.

They kept moving up along the ascending passage, eventually reaching a shallower layer. After passing through several tightly sealed doors, they appeared before Orochimaru.

Compared to the cells below, this place looked more like a laboratory... no, not like a laboratory—it clearly was one.

A terrifying, bio-chemical laboratory.

Yuhara could see bodies hanging on one wall, but he had no time to feel shock or sympathy, because... soon enough, he might become one of them, a slab of jerky waiting to dry out.

When Orochimaru saw Yuhara, he seemed somewhat pleased. He waved his hand to dismiss the female ninja first, then spoke to Yuhara. "In order, let's draw a lot first."

With that, Orochimaru handed Yuhara a lot tube.

Yuhara raised his hand and casually pulled out a paper slip. As he unfolded it, he tentatively asked, "Lord Orochimaru... this 'experiment'... what do I need to do?"

Orochimaru took back the lot tube, maintaining an expression that resembled "approachability." "You don't need to do anything. You're mainly playing a supporting role.

Don't worry. As long as the theory is correct and the method is feasible, the rest is just a matter of dosage. So as long as we keep repeating it, we'll succeed eventually, whether after a thousand times or ten thousand times... That's what scientific experimentation is all about."

"Brute force..." Yuhara muttered the word.

And in Orochimaru's context, that word was drenched in blood.

"What's the number?" Orochimaru asked.

By then, Yuhara had opened the paper slip, so he showed the number to the other man. "97."

"97. In a sense, you're lucky, but to a greater extent... you're really unlucky."

What did that mean? Had Yuhara drawn something especially rare, and rare things weren't necessarily good? That was exactly the case. Different numbers represented different dosages, and 97 was clearly a large dose—basically a lethal dose.

Orochimaru picked up a large syringe. Yuhara had only ever seen something like this when he'd experienced rural life and watched a vet treat some cute, plump mammal from the order Artiodactyla. The syringe was filled with a tube of pale purple liquid... It looked utterly unsettling.

Yuhara instinctively wanted to flee, but under Orochimaru's gaze, he found he couldn't move at all. He could only watch helplessly as Orochimaru pushed that syringe full of dangerous liquid into his body.

Until Orochimaru finished the injection, Yuhara still maintained his arm-raised posture, his eyes fixed on the needle hole, his entire being growing unusually tense.

Yuhara even began to breathe cautiously, and after a short while, everything seemed normal. Huh, it didn't seem to have any particular reaction...

No sooner had he entertained this optimistic thought than, the next moment, an indescribable, excruciating pain surged from every cell in his body.

Tearing, swelling, stabbing, heavy blows...

Under the assault of intense and complex agony, Yuhara collapsed to the ground. The fierce pain made him want to scream, but his face muscles tightened nearly to stone, his jaw clenched so hard it forced the sound back into his throat, leaving only a dull, continuous whimper.

A person could try to endure pain from the outside, but this kind of pain, rooted in the deepest parts of his own body, was utterly impossible to resist. After just two minutes, Yuhara completely lost consciousness.

Just like that time he had experienced before, a pitch-black and endless night seemed to descend once more...

Well, actually, it didn't descend. When Yuhara woke up again, the intense pain on his body had vanished, leaving only a heavy sense of soreness and fatigue.

Yuhara tried to lift his head, only to find even this simple movement difficult.

"Clang!"

As he gently shifted his body, crisp clattering sounds rang out. Yuhara felt a bit strange; he observed for a moment and then realized he was lying inside a human-shaped "iron shell."

"Incredible, you actually survived... Congratulations, the experiment seems to have succeeded."

A voice came from not far away.

Yuhara struggled to move his body, slowly pushing himself backward until he leaned against the wall behind him. With support, he managed to sit up halfway. Then he noticed a huge square iron cage across from him, inside which was a chair, and on that chair sat a person.

It was this person who had just spoken.

Judging by the figure, it seemed to be a child. He was "wearing" something like a straitjacket from a mental hospital, tightly bound to the chair, even his eyes covered with a blindfold painted with some unknown technique. On the ground around the chair, a larger array of circles was drawn.

This wasn't the laboratory where Yuhara had been with Orochimaru before; it was another, larger cell.

"How long has it been..."

As he spoke, Yuhara noticed his voice was unusually hoarse and rough.

"You've been struggling here for about seven days," the other said.

His voice carried a hint of cheerfulness, as if he hadn't spoken to anyone in a long time.

"You... can you see?"

"Of course I can."

"So... what exactly happened to me?"

"What happened? Let me think... Like the previous test subjects, your body kept twisting and swelling until you turned into a monster five or six meters tall, then—"poof"—you exploded. Yeah, that's the normal process, but obviously, you survived."

The child said with interest, "Magnet Release Ninja, your ability saved your life. When you couldn't suppress the violent changes in your body anymore, you instinctively activated your power—wrapping yourself entirely in layers of iron. The situation back then was really interesting."

Prompted by the other's reminder, Yuhara realized that where he had been, there should have been a large iron cage like that one, just like the child, he too had been locked in the same kind of cage.

But now, most of this cage had disappeared.

Looking at the human-shaped iron shell left on the ground, he could imagine what had happened... He hadn't lain down into the iron shell; instead, while unconscious, he had controlled the iron cage to transform into a shell, wrapping himself up.

Like coating fish for frying... a crude analogy, but regardless, he was still alive—that was the best news.

"One last question, kid... Who are you?"

"Me? I don't have a name. If I had to say my identity...

Same as you, just one of Orochimaru's test subjects."

"A test subject, huh. Then we're in the same boat."

"Same boat? No, actually, I'm the one who got dragged into this. I was about to be taken away from here, but because you were stuffed in, my matter got delayed, and then... for some reason, I'll probably never be able to leave this place."

"?"

At this moment, Yuhara still didn't understand what the child was talking about.