Human Experimentation

In the world of the Hokage, everyone suffered, yet everyone continued to strive. During the Warring States Period, no one saw or cared about the struggles and pain of civilians and civilian ninjas. In peaceful times, those hardships had been magnified many times over. They struggled desperately just to live. If Ruri had not promoted the use of ninjutsu in farming to free up labor, they would still be working day and night merely to survive. Just like that child, giving everything to become a ninja. Now that they lived in Takigakure, the civilians had felt the difference. They believed their struggles held hope, and like Luffy, one day they too would set sail.

The Puppet Theater had been entirely handed over to Jianming. Once they perfected Puppet Technique, Takigakure would have puppet masters with considerable combat strength in a decade or so. They might even emerge before Sunagakure's.

During the month Ruri had been away from the village, Takenaka Masakata had handled government affairs quite well. Ruri simply handed all such matters over to him, only taking time to make decisions on major issues himself.

The Izakaya's new liquor had become a smash hit, while Sukiya's sushi remained as popular as ever. Some Genin, led by Chunin, plowed fields, weeded, and sowed seeds. The number of missions rose by the day, and the village's income grew ever greater. After school, the Ninja Academy students also went in organized groups to clear river channels and tend the fields. Takigakure was thriving. Naturally, Ruri had not idled away his time after setting aside government affairs. He and Seimei had begun a major research project.

Human experimentation.

There was only one way to accelerate the development of medical ninjutsu: human experimentation. It was also the foundation for future biotechnology, Kekkei Genkai transplantation, and all kinds of forbidden techniques.

Ruri had originally intended to wait until things had stabilized for several years before conducting human experiments, but the materials Seimei brought out made him move the experiments forward.

Seimei had been able to create those heaven-defying ninja tools because of materials he had found in some ruins. They covered not only all sorts of ninja tools, but also vitality and human experimentation. He had merely completed the incomplete blueprints based on his own conjectures. The materials contained many more ninja tools and other incomprehensible things that could not be produced due to a lack of materials.

Ruri had been greatly shocked when he saw those materials. They were absolutely the embryonic form of science that had failed to develop in this world!

Not only were the ninja tools in Seimei's hands included, but the railways and trains being developed in the Land of Snow, which Ruri had mentioned at the Six Kage Assembly, were also briefly referenced in those materials!

Ruri understood now. It was not that the Hokage world's technology tree had gone astray. Rather, earlier generations had already achieved scientific results, but with the arrival of the ninja era, chakra and ninjutsu had caused those scientific achievements to be lost!

This also explained why there had never been any science or technology during the Warring States Period, yet development began to accelerate as soon as the peaceful era arrived. Cameras, railways, electric lights, films... these were technologies Ruri had never seen in all these years. They could not possibly have been researched from nothing and achieved in one stroke!

Moreover, only a few years after the Fourth Shinobi World War, the entire Shinobi World had entered the scientific age by the time of Boruto. All kinds of high technology brought tremendous reforms. Even if ninjas had been conducting the research, they could not have skipped countless failures and directly obtained results!

The only possibility was that their predecessors had already researched them. All they had done was fill in the gaps and make improvements!

Science had been cast aside by war. Those scientific creations that had not fully developed were far less useful in wartime than ninjutsu, and so they were gradually forgotten. Only after entering an era of peace were they remembered!

Of course, since very little in the materials involved chakra, even Seimei could only make modified versions through guesswork. Ruri might have had the creativity and ideas of his previous life, but his understanding was superficial as well. Attempting to put it into practice himself was difficulty MAX.

Fortunately, the medical human experimentation described within seemed to have been conducted during the period when chakra emerged, allowing them to continue their research. It was also necessary for treating Kakuzu.

At that moment, a male corpse lay on the experimental table. Calling it a corpse was not entirely accurate. His vital signs had not completely vanished; only some of his organs had failed, and he had lost consciousness.

Naturally, this was Ruri's handiwork. Some spy from who knew which village had actually dared to openly target ordinary Takigakure civilians. Ruri felt no guilt whatsoever about using him as experimental material.

"Lord Takikage, please restore his heart function according to the chakra circulation method I organized." Seimei tossed out a scroll. He had spent the past few days studying these things. How wonderful would a ninjutsu that could bring back the dead be? If he researched it to the utmost, could he give life to ninja tools? Living ninja tools were what he, a self-proclaimed Ninja Craftsman, had pursued his entire life!

Ruri adjusted his chakra and covered the male corpse's heart with his palm, stimulating it with chakra. Ordinary people truly could not do this. Seimei had long had such an idea, but his chakra control was abysmal, leaving him utterly powerless.

According to Seimei's design, once the heart function recovered, the male corpse should also regain some consciousness. Yet things did not go as planned. After a long while, the corpse still showed no reaction.

"That's strange..." Ruri could feel his chakra stimulating the cells inside the corpse. Not only the heart, but even the other failing organs were gradually recovering. But why was there no consciousness at all? At the very least, he should have been able to feel pain.

"Lord Takikage, dissect the corpse." Nothing could be seen from the outside, so they could only observe directly from within.

Ruri nodded and took a knife from the side. It was his first time performing a dissection, but he had come all the way from the Warring States Period and killed plenty of people. His methods of killing were highly practiced, and he clearly knew where he could cut and where he could not.

Watching Ruri's clean, decisive technique, Seimei could not help sighing. High-level ninjas truly were monsters who killed people. Even on their first dissection, they could draw on their abundant experience in killing to find the best place to cut!

Ruri began from the male corpse's abdomen. The muscle tissue was easily sliced open, and at the instant it was completely cut apart, the corpse suddenly "came alive"!

His abdomen abruptly swelled like a balloon. With a bang, bloody foam splattered everywhere, and his internal organs flew out through the incision in his belly!

Quite a bit of blood splashed onto Seimei's face. He was not the least bit afraid. Instead, he crouched down and picked up the heart that had flown out.

The heart's blood vessels were twisted together and fully bulging. At the same time, a vast number of tiny dots protruded from it, with more than a dozen small heart-shaped objects hanging beneath. They looked like split-off growths, yet also like aggregates of blood.

Aside from the heart, all the other internal organs had completely deformed as well. They had not truly died. The organs that had originally been intact had not lost function, and the damaged organs were gradually reviving. However, many had undergone excessive splitting and mutation. For example, that heart covered in countless tiny hearts—such split organs were simply beyond what a human body could bear!

"The chakra stimulation wasn't controlled properly. The cells split too excessively." Seimei looked at the grotesque organs scattered across the floor without the slightest discomfort. He even seemed somewhat crazed. Although they had failed to revive the man, circulating chakra in a certain way really could promote cellular growth!

Ruri did not have as strong a stomach as Seimei. Looking at the unspeakable organs all over the floor made him a little nauseated. It had nothing to do with strength; it was psychological rejection.

"Looks like I need to find Seimei an assistant soon. As Takikage, I deal with countless affairs every day. I can't waste my time on human experimentation, and it wouldn't look good if word got out." Ruri muttered, but Seimei paid him no attention at all, continuing on his own to study the thoroughly dead male corpse.