Orochimaru's New Technology: Creatine

The thing Zhengyi did most on the front lines was physical training.

At the very least, he had to ensure he wouldn't end up like Kakashi—physically drained and lacking stamina; that was his bottom line.

Today was another day without any killing.

"Master Duy, could you please check if my trapezius is engaging properly?"

"Oh! Zhengyi, youth is all about constantly pushing yourself to the limit! It's your own body's muscle, so what does it matter where you train?"

Zhengyi was still in the middle of his workout when Orochimaru arrived, bringing with him truckload after truckload of food and protein powder—supplies meant for the ninjas on the front lines.

"Teacher."

Zhengyi wiped away his sweat to go greet him. Might Duy looked a bit regretful; if only Zhengyi would wear his green spandex suit, imagine how many people even someone like Zhengyi could attract.

Because Zhengyi loved to train, he had sparked a fitness craze among the civilian ninjas of Konoha.

Facing the man who had led them in carving a path through the Land of Lightning, they admired him from the bottom of their hearts. Moreover, like Orochimaru, they all came from humble, impoverished backgrounds.

The ninja clans naturally wouldn't associate with them. The clans had their own secret techniques passed down through generations, and they only practiced those. They even looked down on those who lacked any secret techniques or bloodlines and only knew how to endlessly refine their bodies.

It was hereditary bullying.

"Brother Zhengyi, look what the teacher and I brought for you!"

The trucks were loaded not only with crates of protein powder, but the lead vehicle also carried various bottles and jars that weren't labeled. Just looking at the glass containers, Zhengyi couldn't tell what they were.

"Teacher, don't say it, let me!"

"This is creatine." Anko Mitarashi handed Zhengyi a small bottle filled with a powder that smelled like drywall.

"Holy shit." Zhengyi looked at Orochimaru in disbelief.

Was it the thing he thought it was?

The essential creatine for fitness enthusiasts in his past life.

As Anko finished her proud introduction, Zhengyi felt like he should kneel before Orochimaru and kowtow a few times.

"This was also inspired by you, Zhengyi. I discovered a substance in the human body that I am willing to call ATP."

According to Orochimaru's explanation.

ATP could be viewed as the human body's backup battery; when you exert explosive power, you consume this battery.

And the way to recharge this battery was to ensure the body had sufficient creatine reserves.

It was extremely difficult for a person to consume enough daily creatine through food alone—almost impossible, even harder than getting enough protein.

Therefore, one needed to apply science: take the creatine he had researched to supplement the body's reserves and bring them to a saturated state.

Suppose you could originally lift a 100kg stone block; once your creatine levels were saturated, you could lift an extra 5kg to 15kg.

That was the function of creatine.

It didn't matter if you didn't understand it; the fact that Orochimaru himself took it was enough to prove its value.

Taking this stuff could even sharpen one's mental reaction speed.

This was the sanctity of science!

Zhengyi downed a large scoop of creatine, feeling as though he could punch Hashirama to death—though, of course, that was just a psychological effect.

This large scoop was just the beginning; it would take at least half a month of consistent intake to see results.

After Orochimaru became even smarter, he realized something else. At that moment, he told Zhengyi to take off his shirt and sunbathe. "The sun also contains substances our bodies need, though the teacher hasn't yet researched the specific mechanisms of this."

Zhengyi could only explain the general effects of the substance to accelerate Orochimaru's research progress. After all, Orochimaru was a mad scientist who insisted on researching the specific principles of everything in great detail.

For instance, Zhengyi had once mentioned that like poles of magnets repel and opposite poles attract, but what Orochimaru cared about was why two magnets behaved that way.

"Vitamin D3, is it?"

"We'll know once the teacher runs a few more sets of comparative tests."

Orochimaru still held a bit of favoritism toward Zhengyi.

After all, who wouldn't appreciate a student who could provide emotional value and handle matters with such propriety?

There was plenty of protein powder, but because of limited production capacity, the other supplements similar to creatine were prepared only for Zhengyi.

The others were lucky enough to get yeast protein powder.

Yeast protein powder was another of Orochimaru's inventions. By fermenting yeast, it could be rapidly propagated and extracted, making it hundreds of times easier to obtain than the whey protein powder Zhengyi was drinking. The downsides were that its absorption rate and utilization weren't as strong as what Zhengyi was drinking, and it tasted terrible—like drinking bean dregs.

"You've done well recently." Orochimaru rarely praised anyone.

Everyone was shocked. If their previous belief that Orochimaru had tacitly allowed Zhengyi to kill Sarutobi Hayate was just speculation, this was now ironclad proof.

So Lord Orochimaru cherished his student this much?

According to Konoha law, only the Hokage had the authority to dispose of Special Jonin and Jonin, and even if a Genin committed a crime, the village had to deliberate before giving a response.

Zhengyi had completely overstepped his bounds. The Hokage was not a puppet, and this was a major taboo.

After delivering the supplies, Orochimaru took Anko and left. Well, he trusted his student implicitly now; there was no need to question anything.

Looking at the pile of supplies belonging to Zhengyi, the civilian ninjas of Konoha could only feel envy.

Inside, there was a supplement called zinc, which Lord Orochimaru claimed could replenish something in a man's body called testosterone.

Only with high testosterone could one grow muscle and increase chakra.

High testosterone also meant that, in that regard...

As a man's age decreased, testosterone secretion would drop year by year, and what followed was that performance would also get worse year by year.

Ahem, what I meant was the endurance of one's chakra.

In any case, there wasn't a man among them who didn't covet it.

"What are you looking at? I'm not giving you any." However, Zhengyi was actually quite generous; he would never keep this glory all to himself.

After keeping a month's supply for himself, he distributed the rest of the supplements, excluding the zinc tablets, equally among the ninjas present.

Spies from Kumogakure had recently made a discovery from far away.

The Konoha ninjas had started working out in their camp.

Every day, they were either carrying wooden logs while running or carrying wooden logs while running; one could smell the stench of sweat from a great distance.

The ninjas of the Inuzuka Clan had long ago requested to be transferred to the most dangerous battlefield against Iwagakure.

They would rather face the even more formidable two jinchuriki of Iwagakure.

"The people of Konoha are truly hardworking." Darui, who had just graduated from the ninja academy, lay lazily in a tree, from where he could just barely see what was happening in the Konoha camp.

Recently, Kumogakure and Konoha had entered a brief period of peace.

The Fourth Raikage A and the Third Tsuchikage Ōnoki shared the blood feud of their fathers.

The tragedy of the Raikage in Kumogakure had directed all the village's power and conflict toward Iwagakure.

However, A did not reduce his guard against Konoha in the slightest; he had even sent out the children who had just graduated from the ninja academy.

Mainly, A figured that if Konoha had so many young geniuses, such as Zhengyi or Kakashi, his Kumogakure definitely had them too, only he hadn't discovered them yet, so he wanted to give these geniuses a chance to step onto the stage.

"Hm? Where did that cow come from?" Samui, who was already showing signs of her future potential, stood in a tree. The cow was dyed entirely black, and she felt it looked somewhat familiar.

It looked very much like the black cattle found only in their Land of Lightning.

"Maybe Konoha bought it from the Land of Lightning." Darui yawned. Previously, when the town fell, Zhengyi had distributed everything to the villagers and kept nothing for himself, so the possibility that this cow was stolen or looted could be ruled out.

"Perhaps." Samui still felt that wasn't the case.

She was also quite impressed.

The Land of Lightning had recently been plagued by worker and peasant uprisings, demanding higher wages and better treatment.

The country was in chaos.

Lord A had to seek revenge, guard against Konoha, and suppress domestic rebellions all at once.

If you can't clench all five fingers into a fist, how can you expect to strike with any power?