Knowledge is Power

"Quite a lively scene, isn't it?" Mizuki greeted first. "Long time no see, Kakashi."

"If it isn't Mizuki. You look pale—did you get up to something unsavory again? I hear the village atmosphere has been poor lately, with ninjas slacking off in broad daylight."

"How could that be? I am the very model of dedication. I never show up late for no reason, unlike certain lazy ninjas."

The genin standing nearby nodded in sympathy, seemingly quite convinced.

Ignoring Kakashi, Mizuki stepped forward to submit his mission request form.

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

"Hmm." The Third Hokage flipped through it casually. "You may head out now."

"Yes."

Naruto, standing to the side, heard it was a mission and asked eagerly, "What kind of mission is it? Protecting a daimyo? Rescuing a princess? Leave it to us!"

"Oh, Naruto-kun, you're here too? My apologies, I didn't see you. There are so many people, and a little shrimp like you is so inconspicuous—I didn't even notice you were there."

"Little shrimp?" A confused Naruto looked at Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha before realizing Mizuki was talking about him.

"You jerk! You big bad teacher, see if I don't beat you to a pulp!"

Sakura quickly grabbed Naruto to hold him back.

Ignoring the clamoring Naruto, Mizuki said to Kakashi, "Kakashi, when you're free, I'll treat you to Ichiraku Ramen. I heard from Ayame the day before yesterday that she's seen your true face. I'm so curious just how handsome you are to have left her so head-over-heels."

"You really are skilled at spouting nonsense with a straight face," Kakashi replied, meeting the curious gazes of the three genin.

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

Back in the mission hall, Mizuki returned to his state of idleness.

"What should I do? Forget it, I'll just sleep and recharge. I have experiments to run when I get back tonight."

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

He rubbed his eyes in annoyance, stretched, and asked with a yawn, "What is it?"

"You finally woke up, you jerk of a teacher! We're here to register a mission," Naruto's voice rang out.

"Eh? Why do you have to call me? Isn't there someone else over there?" Mizuki pointed to the side.

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

"You're the last one who should be saying that," Naruto said, pointing at the drool on the desk from Mizuki's nap.

"Yeah, yeah. Genin should act like genin; you're being very impolite. Let me see the mission request."

Naruto handed over the form with a look of indignation.

Mizuki took it and looked it over.

"So it really is a mission to the Land of Waves."

"Did Lord Third agree to let you take this mission?" Mizuki asked Kakashi, knowing the answer already. "This mission is quite troublesome; it looks like it will take quite a bit of time."

"The Third agreed," Kakashi replied. "It's good for genin to leave the village and broaden their horizons."

"I see. With you there, I suppose it won't be a problem."

"Hmm."

"Then set off the day after tomorrow," Mizuki said after finishing the registration and exit procedures.

At this moment, Sakura suddenly asked shyly, "Um, Mizuki-sensei, have you ever seen what Kakashi-sensei looks like?"

"No. Almost no one has. I only know Ayame saw him once; I heard he's a super handsome guy."

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

Kakashi interjected, "It's not exactly a state secret. You'll see it eventually when the time is right. Now hurry back and prepare; we leave early the day after tomorrow."

The three genin had no choice but to leave, looking disappointed.

Watching Team Kakashi depart, Mizuki closed his eyes to rest again and soon drifted off to sleep.

Time passed like a white horse galloping past a crack in a wall; leisurely days always go by quickly. By day, Mizuki followed his routine at work. In truth, after a few days of rest, he no longer needed to conserve his energy at all times, but the habit was hard to break. Plus, the work was so incredibly dull that he couldn't help but fall into a deep sleep if he wasn't careful. At night, he continued researching the changes in the kudzu and the Turritopsis dohrnii, hoping to find a way to resolve the hidden dangers in his own body. To be honest, the results were minimal. The two organisms he had pinned his hopes on were miraculous, but their direct utility to him was low, and both shared a fatal flaw: they were inherently too fragile.

While kudzu had the ability to grow into a complete individual from any severed part—in other words, its cells possessed extreme totipotency, the ability to grow from a single cell into a full organism—it was terrifying. For an average adult, the only cells that could even remotely be considered totipotent, aside from those related to reproduction, were bone marrow stem cells, and they weren't even in the same league as the kudzu. Generally speaking, the more advanced the organism, the poorer its cellular totipotency.

As for the Turritopsis dohrnii, its immortality was indeed enviable, and its ability to undergo lossless division was highly practical; if used correctly, it could be a devastating weapon.

However, to put it bluntly, these two organisms only had advantages in specific areas. Countless animals fed on kudzu, and a single fire could reduce it to ash.

As for the Turritopsis dohrnii, not only did it have to live in water, but its fragile body could be crushed into a pancake by a small child. It was simply not up to the task.

After all this time, Mizuki still hadn't found a way to acquire robust vitality. However, it wasn't a total loss. He looked at the bizarre creatures in the glass petri dishes: a three-legged sparrow, a two-headed mouse, an insect with strange compound eyes. Occasionally, however, there were some more normal ones.

Mizuki destroyed all the mutated creatures first. After recording his findings, he divided the remaining, more normal ones into two groups. One was injected with a green serum and then cut into several segments, categorized by dosage. The other was injected with a milky-white serum and kept in separate enclosures.

Having done all this, Mizuki turned his attention back to the kudzu and jellyfish experiments.

Regardless, Mizuki had to marvel at the convenience of chakra in this world. It was no wonder Orochimaru could play the mad scientist and ruin the world all by himself. This convenient power could replace all sorts of high-tech instruments and complex operations. Without chakra, none of this would be possible. Sometimes, Mizuki couldn't help but look down on the Uchiha and Hyuga clans. Although the Sharingan and Byakugan were heaven-defying when evolved to their limits, how many people could actually achieve that? If there were just one or two guys like Orochimaru, with the insight provided by the Byakugan and Sharingan, playing out a "Resident Evil" scenario would be child's play. There would be no need for clan massacres or squabbling over main and branch houses—it was laughable. Just by himself, he could produce a pile of little xenomorphs in two or three months. He truly had to sigh that knowledge is power.

In fact, Mizuki had only done two things over the past few months: mass-produce samples and then destroy specific genetic codes to conduct elimination experiments.

Mizuki knew well that in his previous life, if the world's scientific power were concentrated, completing the genetic encoding of a single species would take years. For him to figure out an organism entirely on his own was both unrealistic and unnecessary. It was enough to destroy specific genetic codes and see which traits the organism failed to express. Once he found the specific point, he could reverse-transcribe the corresponding protein enzyme through that destroyed gene and inject it into other organisms to see if it had an effect. That was how the various xenomorphs in the petri dishes had come to be.

For the time being, Mizuki had managed to extract the effective substance from the green potion—the kudzu—that exhibited cellular totipotency. Various small creatures, when severed into several segments, could be fully resurrected into independent organisms as long as they hadn't died on the spot and were injected with a certain dosage of the green potion. For creatures missing limbs, an appropriate dosage could even achieve limb regeneration. However, if the timing and dosage were not mastered, unnecessary organs would inevitably sprout in inappropriate places, making various deformities unsurprising.

The experiments on plants were the most perfect, with almost no issues arising; of course, plants could hardly be said to have any specific shape. The results were slightly better for various insects, most of which remained relatively normal, while small sparrows and mice showed only mediocre performance, with deformities occurring quite easily. As for larger creatures, there had been no experiments for the time being, as objective conditions did not currently allow for it. Without a larger laboratory, doing this at home was simply unreasonable.

Compared to this, progress on the other project was much smaller; the reverse-growth genetic code had not been found at all, though the non-destructive division project had made some minor headway. That milky-white potion had so far only succeeded in extremely low-level aquatic organisms and a few plants. When injected into insects, most produced mutations, resulting in multi-limbed or even multi-headed monster bugs that even he found extremely disgusting. As for higher-level birds and mammals, every single one injected died, with not a single one surviving for even a day. However, after Mizuki changed his approach and used it in conjunction with the green potion, he did achieve some results; the survival rate increased significantly, and the deformity rate dropped quite a bit, which could be considered an unexpected joy. Still, without sufficient experimentation, its practicality remained unknown.

"The restrictions within Konoha village are still too great; I must find a larger and more secluded place."

A location actually existed; as mentioned in the original work, in order to obtain the power of the Cursed Seal, Mizuki had created an activation potion in one of Orochimaru's secret hideouts. That place was not far from Konoha and was rarely visited by people, so it might just be a good spot.

"I'll go take a look after the Chunin Exams. Having a secret laboratory is quite necessary."

Thinking of this, Mizuki suddenly moved, taking out a sealing scroll. After undoing it, a large water tank appeared, inside which a long-tailed, salamander-like creature was soaking in a large mass of green potion.

"I never expected that pulling out a single hair of my own could grow such a monster. Are creatures like ninjas really monsters? Can they even be considered normal humans?"

After pouring in a large amount of nutrient solution, Mizuki sealed it back up and put it away.

"At last, I have some unique skills I can show off. Although they aren't ready for the big stage yet, I can start making preparations to reap some benefits~"