Cultivation, Oh Cultivation

And just like that, time slipped away, and a month passed in the blink of an eye.

For Orochimaru, who had just stepped onto the path of a ninja, his career was not as thrilling as he had imagined.

It began with the lowest-level D-rank missions: pulling weeds, finding lost cats, babysitting children, repairing walls... these were essentially the trivial tasks he performed.

Orochimaru had no complaints about this, however; these missions usually took place in the vicinity of Konoha, which happened to be convenient for him to observe the village's environment.

His main goal was to see what business opportunities existed nearby, as research, after all, required funding.

Beyond that, he had been focusing his primary energy on something else during this time.

It was an improved design for a Hidden Blade, a weapon commonly used by the master assassins from the memories of the "other" him in another world.

By combining it with the existing mechanical knowledge of this world, he modified the trigger mechanism to be activated by chakra, making it better suited for the stealthy and swift combat style of a ninja.

With the blueprints finished, the next step was to turn them into reality.

He found a blacksmith shop in the village with a decent reputation.

The shop was small, hidden in a slightly remote alley, and the air was filled with the scorching, metallic scent of iron and the choking smell of burning coal.

Orochimaru handed the blueprints to the sweating blacksmith and concisely explained his requirements.

The blacksmith carefully scrutinized the precise structure on the drawings, a flash of surprise in his eyes; it was the first time he had seen such detailed schematics.

"This thing... the structure is very ingenious, and the requirements for materials and craftsmanship are quite high."

"To make it, it will take a lot of effort."

"As for the price... considering you're a Konoha ninja, I'll give it to you for one hundred thousand ryo."

After a long moment, he put down the blueprints, wiped his sweat, and said in a deep voice.

One hundred thousand ryo?

Even though Orochimaru had been mentally prepared, his eyelids couldn't help but twitch when he heard the number.

Based on what he currently understood, the reward for completing a D-rank mission was, on average, about one thousand ryo.

And a steaming bowl of ramen on the street cost about sixty ryo.

One hundred thousand ryo was essentially one hundred D-rank missions.

However, considering that the First Shinobi World War had just ended and everything was waiting to be rebuilt, it was understandable that the prices of military supplies like weapons would be inflated.

Moreover, the design of this Hidden Blade was indeed complex and demanded extremely high craftsmanship.

He took a deep breath and pulled a small pouch from his ninja tool bag.

"This is the deposit; get it done as soon as possible."

He pushed the money bag forward, his tone calm.

Although it stung a bit, it might prove useful at a critical moment.

"No problem, come back in a week to pick it up."

The blacksmith weighed the pouch, his eyes lighting up as he nodded.

Walking out of the blacksmith shop, the afternoon sun was a bit blinding.

Money, it still wasn't enough...

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes slightly, feeling a bit emotional.

If just forging a Hidden Blade was this expensive, who knows how much it would cost to build a fully equipped biological laboratory!

Relying solely on the rewards from missions was definitely not enough, and if he did missions every day, his time for experiments would surely decrease.

It seemed he had to find a more efficient way to accumulate wealth as soon as possible...

As his thoughts drifted, a sneaky figure caught his eye.

That iconic white hair was particularly conspicuous in the crowd; there was no doubt it was Jiraiya.

At this moment, he was standing on his tiptoes, peeking and craning his neck toward the direction of the women's bathhouse.

This guy... he really couldn't change his nature...

The corner of Orochimaru's mouth twitched imperceptibly, and he silently averted his gaze, pretending not to know him, and turned to walk in another direction.

After walking for a while, he returned to his home.

He pushed the door open, and the light inside was slightly dim.

Just as he stepped into the entryway, two figures identical to him appeared silently in the living room, nodding at him in tacit understanding.

"Poof!" "Poof!"

Accompanied by two soft sounds, the Shadow Clones dissipated into white smoke. At the same time, a massive stream of information flooded into Orochimaru's mind like a bursting dam—it was all the experience and insights the two Shadow Clones had gained from practicing chakra nature transformation over the past few hours.

The Shadow Clone Technique was truly one of the most incredible, bug-tier ninjutsu in the world of Naruto.

This technique could create physical clones that possessed all the user's experience, and when the clones were dispelled, all their experience and memories were fed back to the original body.

Whether for cultivation or research, it was top-tier and incredibly useful...

However, this method has its drawbacks: accepting a massive amount of information at once places a heavy mental burden on the user.

Fortunately, thanks to the experience of sharing consciousness and memories with other "selves" in the Gray Mist Space, his mental energy far exceeds that of his peers, and his soul's resilience has been greatly enhanced.

For now, what restricts him is not the mental burden, but his chakra reserves!

After all, he doesn't have a Tailed Beast, the Uzumaki bloodline, or anything of the sort...

He closed his eyes, quietly digesting the newly acquired information in his mind.

During this period, the main focus of his Shadow Clone's training has been the nature transformation of chakra.

So-called nature transformation is the act of imbuing one's own chakra with specific attributes like wind, fire, lightning, water, or earth, or rather, allowing one's chakra to possess the characteristics of these elements.

Ninjas who master nature transformation in this way can unleash much greater power when performing corresponding ninjutsu.

For example, Fire Release infused with fire-attribute chakra will have a higher temperature and greater destructive power; Wind Release infused with wind-attribute chakra will generate wind at a higher speed, and so on.

Depending on an individual's innate physical aptitude, every ninja is naturally more attuned to certain chakra attributes.

For instance, his base attributes are wind and earth, which means he will achieve twice the result with half the effort when training in the nature transformation of these two attributes.

But this does not mean he can only use ninjutsu of these two attributes; through diligent training, one can fully master the nature transformation of other attributes, or even develop "Kekkei Genkai" and "Kekkei Tōta" that fuse multiple attributes.

The information above, as well as the methods for training chakra nature transformation, naturally came from the special tutoring provided by his teacher, the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Thanks to the talent he displayed during the bell-ringing test, the Third Hokage naturally would not refuse his request to learn ninjutsu.

It must be said that the Third Hokage is truly worthy of being called the "Professor of Ninjutsu," as his understanding of techniques is indeed profound.

It is only a pity that it leans more toward application rather than exploring the underlying principles.

Orochimaru nodded with satisfaction; the training efficiency of the Shadow Clone is truly well-deserved of its reputation.

However, he is more concerned about the mechanism behind this information transmission and the creation of physical clones.

Yet, there is a more realistic problem for him.

He walked to the desk in the corner of the room, pulled open the drawer, and took out a passbook recording his income and expenses.

Looking at the balance, Orochimaru sighed; if he pays the final installment for the Hidden Blade, he will likely be eating dirt afterward.

It is time to seriously consider ways to make money...