Knowledge Is Power

"Quite the crowd, huh?" Mizuki greeted them first. "Long time no see, Kakashi."

"Isn't that Mizuki? You look terrible. Been up to something bad again? I hear the village has been going downhill lately. Ninjas are slacking off in broad daylight!"

"How could that be? I'm a model employee, dedicated to my job. I'm never late without a good reason, unlike certain lazy ninjas."

The Genin nearby nodded in agreement, looking as if they knew exactly what he meant.

Ignoring Kakashi, Mizuki stepped forward and handed in the mission request form.

"Lord Third, here's the mission request form you wanted."

"Mm." The Third Hokage flipped through it casually. "You may go."

"Yes."

Hearing that it was a mission, Naruto hurriedly asked, "What kind of mission? Protecting a daimyo or rescuing a princess? Let us do it!"

"Oh, Naruto-kun, you're here too. Sorry, I didn't see you. There are so many people, and a little shorty is easy to miss. I didn't even notice you~"

"Shorty?" Naruto looked blankly at Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha beside him, then realized Mizuki meant him.

"You bastard! You evil teacher! I'll beat you to a pulp!"

Sakura quickly grabbed Naruto and held him back.

Ignoring Naruto's shouting, Mizuki said to Kakashi, "Kakashi, I'll treat you to Ichiraku Ramen sometime. The other day, Ayame told me she'd seen your real face. I'm curious how handsome you must be to have Ayame so head over heels for you."

"You really are good at talking nonsense with a straight face," Kakashi replied, aware of the three Genin's curious stares.

"Well, it's hard to say whether it's nonsense or not." With that, Mizuki pushed open the door and left the Hokage Office.

Back at the Mission Hall, Mizuki returned to doing nothing.

"What should I do? Never mind. I'll get some sleep and save my energy, so I can do experiments when I get home tonight."

"Why is it so noisy?" Half-asleep, Mizuki vaguely heard someone calling him.

Irritably rubbing his eyes and stretching, Mizuki yawned and asked, "What is it?"

"You finally woke up, you lousy teacher. We're here to register for a mission," Naruto's voice came from nearby.

"Hey, why call me? Isn't there someone right next to you?" Mizuki pointed beside him.

"Huh? Why is everyone gone? Where did all the responsible ninjas go? The village's future really is uncertain!"

"You're the last person who should be saying that." Naruto pointed at the drool Mizuki had left on the desk.

"Sure, sure. Genin should act like Genin. You're terribly rude. Let me see the mission request."

Naruto handed it over with an indignant look.

Mizuki took the form and looked it over.

"Just as I thought. It's a Land of Waves mission."

"Did the Third Hokage agree to let you take this mission?" Mizuki asked Kakashi, though he already knew the answer. "It sounds like a lot of trouble. Seems like it'll take quite a while."

"The Third Hokage approved it," Kakashi replied. "It'll be good for the Genin to get some experience outside the village."

"I see. With you there, I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Mm."

"Then you'll set out the day after tomorrow," Mizuki said after completing the registration and the paperwork to leave the village.

Just then, Sakura suddenly asked shyly, "Um, Teacher Mizuki, have you ever seen what Kakashi-sensei looks like?"

"No. Almost no one has. I only know that Ayame saw him once. I hear he's incredibly handsome."

"Really? I'd love to see him."

Kakashi interjected, "It's not a secret, anyway. I'll let you see someday. For now, hurry home and get ready. We leave early the day after tomorrow."

The three Genin could only leave in disappointment.

Watching Team Kakashi depart, Mizuki closed his eyes to rest again and soon fell asleep.

Time flew by, and leisurely days always passed quickly. During the day, Mizuki went to work as usual. After a few days of rest, he no longer needed to conserve his energy every moment, but old habits were hard to break. Besides, work was so quiet that he couldn't help dozing off if he wasn't careful. At night, he continued studying the changes in Kudzu and the jellyfish, hoping to find a way to completely resolve his physical condition. Honestly, though, he had made little progress. The two organisms he'd once pinned his hopes on were amazing, but they didn't help him much directly, and both had a flaw that was difficult to overcome: they were simply too fragile.

Kudzu could grow into a complete organism even when any part of it was separated. In other words, its cells had an extremely high degree of totipotency—the ability of a single cell to grow into an entire organism. In an average adult, the only cells that came close to being totipotent were those related to reproduction and bone marrow stem cells, but they were nowhere near Kudzu's level. Generally speaking, the more advanced the organism, the lower the totipotency of its cells.

As for Turritopsis dohrnii, its longevity was certainly enviable, and its ability to divide without suffering any damage was extremely useful. If put to good use, it could be a powerful weapon.

But in the end, both organisms only had advantages in certain areas. Countless animals fed on Kudzu, and a single fire could reduce it to ashes.

And Turritopsis dohrnii could only live in water, for one thing. Its fragile body could be crushed flat by a child's foot. It was practically useless.

Even after all this time, Mizuki still hadn't found a way to obtain powerful vitality. That said, he hadn't come away empty-handed. He glanced at the bizarre creatures in the glass dishes: three-legged sparrows, two-headed mice, insects with strange compound eyes. But every so often, there were some that looked relatively normal.

Mizuki destroyed all the mutated creatures first. After recording his observations, he divided the more normal ones into two groups. He injected one group with the green solution, then cut them into several pieces and sorted them by dosage. He injected the other group with a milky-white solution and kept each creature in a separate enclosure.

Having finished all that, Mizuki turned his attention back to his experiments with Kudzu and the jellyfish.

In any case, Mizuki couldn't help marveling at how convenient chakra was in this world. No wonder Orochimaru could work as a mad scientist all by himself and turn the world upside down. This convenient power could replace all kinds of high-tech equipment for observation and procedures. Without chakra, none of it would be possible. Sometimes Mizuki couldn't help looking down on the Uchiha and the Hyuga Clan. The Byakugan and Sharingan were both godlike when taken to their limits, but how many people could actually do that? Yet all it would take was one or two people like Orochimaru. With the Byakugan and Sharingan's powers of observation, creating a biological disaster would be child's play. There'd be no need for massacres or foolish Main Family and branch family divisions. The whole thing was laughable. In just two or three months, he'd managed to create a whole batch of little monsters. It really was true that knowledge was power.

In fact, Mizuki had spent the past few months doing only two things: breeding large numbers of samples and damaging specific genetic sequences to conduct elimination experiments.

Mizuki knew that even with the combined scientific resources of the entire world in his previous life, decoding the genes of a single species took at least years. It wasn't realistic—or necessary—for him to fully understand an organism by himself. He only needed to damage specific genetic sequences and see which traits disappeared as a result. Once he found the relevant sequence, he could reverse-transcribe it to produce the corresponding protein enzyme, inject that into other organisms, and see whether it had any effect. That was how he'd produced all the bizarre creatures in the dishes.

So far, Mizuki had roughly extracted the effective substance from the green solution—the substance that gave Kudzu its cellular totipotency. As long as the small creatures he'd cut into pieces didn't die immediately, injecting them with a certain dose of the green solution could bring them back whole as separate organisms. Creatures missing limbs could also regrow them if given an appropriate dose. But if he got the timing or dosage wrong, unnecessary organs would grow in the wrong places. The mutations were no surprise.

His experiments with plants had gone the best, with almost no problems. Of course, plants didn't really have any particular shape to speak of. Insects had done somewhat better; most remained fairly normal. Small sparrows and mice, however, had only middling results and were prone to deformities. He hadn't yet tested on larger organisms, since the circumstances didn't allow it. It would be absurd to conduct such experiments at home without a proper laboratory.

His progress on the other project had been much slower. He still hadn't found the genetic sequence responsible for reverse growth. The project on damage-free division, however, had made a little progress. That was the milky-white solution, which had only worked so far on extremely primitive aquatic organisms and a few plants. Most insects developed mutations after being injected with it, growing extra arms, legs, or even heads. The grotesque bugs disgusted him. As for more advanced birds and mammals, every single one died after injection. Not one survived for even a day. Later, though, Mizuki changed his approach and used it alongside the green solution. The survival rate increased considerably, and the rate of deformities fell as well—a pleasant surprise. But without thorough testing, its practical use remained unknown.

"Working within Konoha is too restrictive. I need to find somewhere larger and more secluded."

There was one possible place. In the original story, Mizuki had created the activation drug in one of Orochimaru's hideouts in order to obtain the power of the Cursed Seal. The place wasn't far from Konoha and was rarely visited. It might be ideal.

"I'll take a look after the Chunin Ninja Exams. Having a hidden laboratory is essential."

At that thought, Mizuki suddenly moved. He took out a Sealing Scroll and unsealed it. Inside was a large water tank, with a long-tailed, salamander-like creature floating in a mass of green solution.

"I can't believe that plucking out a random hair back then could grow into this kind of monster. Are ninjas really human? They're monsters!"

After pouring in a large amount of Nutrient Solution, Mizuki sealed it away again.

"At last, I've got some unique techniques worth showing off. They're not exactly impressive yet, but I can start making preparations to reap the rewards~"