Orochimaru: "Anko is young. You must work hard."

Good news.

On his twelfth birthday, Zhengyi, already a Chunin of Konoha, awakened the memories of his previous life.

Bad news.

He... had fucking picked the wrong side.

In a dimly lit underground laboratory.

"Happy birthday, Zhengyi," said the pale man, holding a modest six-inch cake.

"Zhengyi, don't get the wrong idea. I helped pay for the cake Orochimaru-sensei brought. I really didn't forget your birthday," said a little girl of about nine, her cheeks still round with baby fat.

"Yes, yes," Orochimaru said helplessly, watching Anko stick her tongue out at him playfully.

The scene before him was what Zhengyi saw after absorbing the memories of his previous life.

He watched the man holding the cake, feeling a pang of dread.

Orochimaru.

One of the legendary Sannin, and his teacher in this life.

The Third Shinobi World War had only just begun to show signs of brewing, but Orochimaru had already won Konoha an early victory. Calls for him to take over as Hokage were growing louder by the day.

Some had even started to believe Orochimaru would become the Fourth Hokage, and that Zhengyi might end up as his successor. All kinds of little gifts had been sent to his nine-square-meter ninja dorm.

But only he knew the truth: Orochimaru had lost the contest for Fourth Hokage.

Not only had he lost, but he'd ultimately been driven from the village by Hiruzen Sarutobi after his human experiments were exposed.

His reputation had been ruined.

After Orochimaru defected, his subordinates were naturally scattered like monkeys fleeing a fallen tree. Some were investigated, others interrogated.

The best Zhengyi could hope for was to become a Special Jōnin like Anko and stay far from the center of power.

But Anko was probably being held up as a model to appease Orochimaru's former subordinates, and besides, the girl had never done anything wrong.

But he... Zhengyi...

Before awakening the memories of his previous life, he'd been an ardent Orochimaru fan. Orochimaru had thought becoming Hokage was a sure thing, and had entrusted him with important duties.

He'd often ordered Zhengyi to sneak out and capture subjects for human experiments.

And those subjects, of course, were...

"If my teacher defects in the future, I'll be lucky if I don't get skinned alive."

In this life, he was just an ordinary civilian, with no clan behind him to support him.

He'd become Orochimaru's student solely because he had a good head on his shoulders.

A few years from now, the Third Hokage and the Anbu would raid Orochimaru's laboratory and take it apart completely. The only reason Orochimaru himself would be spared was because the old Third Hokage took pity on him. He'd hardly have time to bring Zhengyi along.

Wearing a Chunin vest whose inner lining clashed with the fashion of the era, Zhengyi looked like a man sweating buckets. His aesthetic sense was twenty or thirty years ahead of its time, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead. Orochimaru keenly sensed that his student was uneasy, but said nothing.

He quite liked Zhengyi. The boy was open-minded and modern, unlike Konoha's stubborn old fossils.

Maybe only we civilians are willing to change Konoha's rotten status quo.

That was why he'd taken Zhengyi as his student as soon as the boy graduated from the Ninja Academy at nine.

At this point, Orochimaru still had a sliver of humanity in him.

"All right, you and Anko keep celebrating," Orochimaru said, setting the cake on the table before returning to his experiments. He was busy, too.

"Okay."

But once Zhengyi came to his senses, he couldn't help wondering: if he were Nawaki, would Orochimaru-sensei put his experiments aside and stay with him the whole time?

Tsk.

Compared to that, his little cake seemed rather pathetic.

"What are you looking at?" Zhengyi asked, watching Anko swallow repeatedly.

Anko was obviously drooling over the cake. "Can I have some?"

"Some? Go ahead. You can have it all."

Zhengyi didn't eat sweets. Taking in a lot of sugar at once could disrupt the body's insulin levels, cause weight gain, and trigger inflammation.

He wasn't one of those overpowered protagonists. He had neither Senju blood nor the Sharingan, and in this life he didn't even have a surname.

So all he could do was bring science to the ninja world.

He wondered if scientifically supplementing his nutrition and training his body every day could get him to Kage Level.

Anko knew Zhengyi, like their teacher, didn't care for sweets. So she cut Zhengyi a slice just to be polite, then planned to eat the rest herself.

"Don't eat too many sweets," Zhengyi said, still fretting over how to help his teacher beat Minato.

You're just some newcomer, Minato. Did you take part in the Second Shinobi World War? Do you have enough experience?

But Hiruzen Sarutobi liked the young man. There was nothing anyone could do about it.

Seeing Anko shovel the cake into her mouth like there was no tomorrow, Zhengyi was already feeling gloomy, and he couldn't stand watching any longer. He snatched the plate away.

Then... Anko burst into tears.

Orochimaru came over, looking a little impatient and a little exasperated.

He was in the middle of an experiment. It was like a man being interrupted just as he was about to give in to his desire and do the deed. Anyone would be frustrated.

"Zhengyi, it's only a piece of cake," Orochimaru said.

"But cake has a high glycemic index. It's not good for the body, Sensei. I'm doing this for Anko's sake." Zhengyi had principles. Even though he'd taken the plate away because he was upset, he really was doing it for Anko's sake.

Anko wiped her tears, looking doubtful.

"Glycemic?" Orochimaru seized on the word, a glimmer of interest in his eyes. "What does that mean? It's not good for the body?"

He didn't eat sweets himself.

But children always smiled when they ate candy. Sugar seemed to be something humans instinctively craved...

"That's right. Eating sugar gives you pimples, and it can also make you..."

"Get to the point!" Orochimaru was a little fed up with his student. He loved to ramble.

For people who cared about their looks, that was important information. But to him?

Zhengyi was a jack of all trades and a master of none. He could tell Orochimaru all kinds of things, but if the conversation got more technical, he didn't know enough.

There was no helping it. One person only had so much time and energy.

"Here's the gist of it, and so on and so forth. So, Orochimaru-sensei, do you understand my good intentions now? I'm only doing this for her sake."

"As if! I eat sticky rice dumplings every day, and I'm fine."

"Be quiet, Anko. You've gotten fatter since you graduated from the Ninja Academy. I see. Zhengyi, if it were up to you, what should people eat every day?"

"Where am I fat?" Anko tried to act cute so someone would comfort her, but then she saw the teacher's gaze—the look of someone desperate to understand life, yearning for life itself. The men in those adult books didn't even look that excited on their wedding night.

She left.

Hah. Men.

Zhengyi was enjoying himself, too. Everyone in the Naruto world ignored science, so he really didn't fit in.

Snake-sensei might have an odd personality, but Snake-sensei was a materialist!

"Eggs."

"Why?"

"Because..."

"Get to the point!"

"Yes!"

"..."

"Naruhudu!" Orochimaru suddenly closed his eyes, his mind racing. He seemed to have realized why this body loved eating eggs.

So it had all been instinct.

You had to be crazy to survive.

Orochimaru opened his eyes again, his whole body trembling with excitement. Steadying himself, he said, "Zhengyi, I have a mission for you. It'll be difficult, but this is an order from your teacher."

"I can't trust anyone else."

"Anko is young and naive. The Fifth Hokage... You must work hard."