Ever since the Third Hokage had visited his hospital room, Mizuki had felt that life was just too good. If Orochimaru would only stay put underground and focus on his research, Mizuki would have gladly gone over to help him study immortality. He just wished people like Pain, Obito, and Madara Uchiha would stop trying to take on the thankless job of saving the world. If they wanted to be saviors, fine—but couldn't they just shut themselves away and enjoy themselves? The people of this world hadn't asked to be saved. As long as you didn't bother anyone, nobody would care if you wanted to become an immortal or even a creator god.
How did that saying go? "When poor, cultivate oneself; when prosperous, benefit the world." Mizuki had never heard of any famous philosophers or sages in the Shinobi World, let alone saints like Confucius or Mencius. So why did every ninja in this world get all fired up and rush to "benefit the world" as soon as they gained power? Did they even care whether anyone else wanted their help?
But he was getting sidetracked. Mizuki glanced back.
"Tsubaki, that hot pot belongs to us. Don't forget to take it. Iruka, that chair over there looks nice. Take that too."
"Mizuki, we didn't bring the chair, and the vase you're holding belongs to the hospital too. And..." Tsubaki said awkwardly. "That blanket isn't ours either. Don't you think—"
"You've got it wrong, Tsubaki. It all belongs to me. Don't worry. Iruka, that painting on the wall looks nice too. I've gotten used to seeing it these past few days, so let's pack it up and take it. It should be worth a few bucks."
Under the medical ninja's wary, thief-watching gaze, Mizuki finally finished packing up and left the hospital. There had been little wrong with him for days. Apart from feeling weak all over and needing to use a wheelchair, he'd probably be able to start rehabilitation exercises in a few more days. In less than a month, Mizuki and Tsubaki had turned the hospital room into a large study, bedroom, and kitchen. There was so much to pack up that he'd had to call Iruka over to help, and it had taken them all morning to sort everything out.
"Tsubaki, we should buy a big house sometime soon. This apartment is just too small. How are the two of us supposed to live here? Look at those big families—they've got sprawling mansions with little groves and ponds. How nice would that be?"
"But, Mizuki, we can't afford one. They're too expensive." Tsubaki looked troubled.
"Iruka, you must've saved up quite a bit over the years. You don't have a girlfriend, so you probably won't have many expenses for the next few years. Lend me some money. It's not like you have anything else to spend it on." Mizuki couldn't help setting his sights on Iruka.
"I refuse." Iruka rejected him without hesitation. "Even if I'm alone, I still have expenses. I'm not lending you money for nothing. Who knows if you'll pay me back?"
"How stingy. After all these years as friends, you still value money more than our friendship. This world is rotten to the core."
"The only thing rotten is your brain. You only remember we're friends when you want something? Where were you before?"
Tsubaki hurried to smooth things over. "Mizuki, let it go. The three of us couldn't afford a mansion even if we pooled our money."
"Is that so? Fine, then. Tsubaki, how about we use the Transformation Technique to take out a loan from a loan shark? They won't be able to find us afterward. We can turn into Iruka and put it on his tab. He's got money, anyway."
"Is it really wise to say that right in front of me, Mizuki?" Iruka ground out through clenched teeth, a vein throbbing in his forehead.
"Ah, if only I'd thought to ask the Third Hokage for a house." Without the slightest regard for Iruka, Mizuki abruptly changed the subject. "Tsubaki, how about we start collecting wedding gifts? The wedding's coming up soon, so we can take the money first. It's a sure-fire way to make a profit."
"We can't, Mizuki. We'll have to give gifts in return."
"Tsubaki, you're too honest. Who cares about giving gifts back? Just pretend you don't know. Who'd have the nerve to ask a seriously injured man like me for money? Have they no shame?"
Mizuki was tidying things up while dreaming up schemes to get rich with Tsubaki and Iruka. Just then, they had visitors.
"What are you two doing here?" The visitors were Aoba Yamashiro and Gekko Hayate.
"The Third Hokage asked us to bring you these things. Take a look." They set a huge pile of scrolls on the floor.
"That's a lot. I don't have anywhere to put them. Why don't you help me tidy up the room first?" Two free pairs of hands—might as well put them to work.
After more than a month without anyone living there, the room was finally cleaned and put in order by all five of them before dinner.
"It's so late already. I won't keep you for dinner. Thanks for all your hard work."
"That's it? You're not even going to invite us to stay for dinner?" The three of them looked bewildered.
Mizuki didn't feel embarrassed in the slightest. He was broke. There was an economic crisis on—why worry about saving face?
Only when he saw the three of them heading out the door did Mizuki suddenly call out, "Oh, Aoba, you said you'd buy me breakfast for a month. Just pay me the equivalent of a top-tier set meal at a luxury hotel. I've been too busy lately to go." Then he shut the door, giving Aoba no chance to argue.
"Mizuki, don't you think you're going too far?" Tsubaki asked worriedly.
"Don't worry about them. Let's eat first. We've been busy all day, and I'm starving."
"What do you want to eat?"
"Assorted sushi."
"Sure. You haven't had that in ages. I thought your tastes had changed. It's the dish I'm best at making."
Night fell. Tsubaki had gone home long ago. Mizuki read through the documents the Third Hokage had sent him, then lay down in bed, ready to sleep. But no matter what he did, he couldn't drift off.
With nothing else to do, Mizuki got up and took out the Storage Scroll to check what was inside. Though he was still in poor health, he could manage some Sealing Jutsu that used little chakra.
Staring at the grotesque lumps of flesh floating in the culture fluid, Mizuki's brows furrowed tighter and tighter. He examined the samples carefully, and eventually even took out the monster he had grown from his own hair on a whim.
"I see. So that's what's going on." Mizuki's body trembled. It wasn't because he was weak or exhausted. Surprise, anger, excitement, joy, and fear all swirled within him, impossible to distinguish.
"It seems I made a huge mistake." As the thought crossed his mind, Mizuki took out a vial of green medicine and studied it closely. "I'd only developed it as an intermediate potion to address the dangers to my health. I'd considered it less important than the Anti-Aging Potion and even the Fission Potion. I never imagined it would be something this terrifying. Worse still, it's made me realize there might be something even more terrifying."
The green medicine had been developed around a protease that activated the totipotency of cells. Mizuki had originally intended it as a powerful temporary recovery and healing potion. In a way, it was already an extraordinary creation. He had always considered it a last resort for desperate fights where both sides were badly hurt. As long as he didn't use too much and survived, the supernatural powers of this world would let him recover from relatively minor aftereffects. There were all sorts of ways to replenish his life force, too.
But Mizuki's judgment had been wrong from the start. The name Omnipotence Potion had been no exaggeration: it could activate the dormant potential within cells. As long as the subject was alive, it might have serious flaws in practice, but in theory, it could even make a person regenerate from a drop of blood. Mizuki had overlooked a crucial fact: not all genes were expressed. Many traits could remain hidden beneath dominant ones throughout an organism's entire life. More seriously, countless pieces of genetic information dating back to an organism's earliest ancestors had either degenerated or remained concealed from view. That didn't mean they no longer existed. The Omnipotence Potion couldn't tell dominant traits from recessive ones. If the dose was strong enough, it activated them all.
So, in theory, the risks of using this potion were far greater than he had imagined. Even if someone had only a small wound, applying a little Omnipotence Potion might heal it but also cause local skin to grow rough or sprout hair—atavistic changes like that.
When Mizuki had first tested it on small creatures, widespread atavistic changes had occurred. But he hadn't paid attention. Insects and the like were unpleasant to begin with. Who would patiently observe whether a species had undergone a fundamental shift? They all looked more or less the same, so it was hardly surprising that the changes went unnoticed among a bunch of normal and abnormal bugs. Besides, insects mutated quickly, and the complexity of their genes couldn't compare with the information contained in higher organisms. They had far fewer recessive traits than higher animals. That was why he hadn't spotted the major problem then, and only now was it becoming apparent.
But that raised a paradox. If higher animals were theoretically far more likely to mutate and revert to ancestral forms than lower organisms, why were Aoba Yamashiro and Gekko Hayate fine? And why was Mizuki himself fine after using so much of it? In theory, even if it hadn't killed him by draining his life force, the atavistic mutations should have tormented him to the brink of madness. Yet he'd gone to the hospital, come back, and carried on as usual without a single problem.
The truth was, this was Mizuki's own fault. He'd mocked the short-sightedness of the Shinobi World's natives, but he too had fallen prey to the blind spot right under his nose. The key was chakra. His previous life had had nothing like this miraculous substance. Though he knew how to apply his old knowledge, he had subconsciously ignored it when that knowledge interacted with chakra. Chakra was the product of the body and consciousness combined. That was no mere figure of speech. As the all-purpose medium of this world, it fed back into the body. Lightning chakra stimulated the body, as with Kakashi and Sasuke. Fire chakra generally went with strong desires and an inability to sit still and be patient, as with Mizuki himself, Madara Uchiha, and Jiraiya. Earth chakra was steady and resilient, as with the Hidden Stone. Water chakra made the body supple, agile, and quick, as with Haku and Zabuza. Wind chakra was sharp and fierce, as with Naruto Uzumaki and Asuma Sarutobi. These were all classic examples. In essence, chakra was an unconscious guidance system that contained information about the body. To a great extent, it prevented the body from deviating and effectively suppressed mutations caused by the Omnipotence Potion that didn't suit the body's current state.
"So none of this was an accident. In a sense, coincidences don't exist. Aoba Yamashiro, Gekko Hayate, and I weren't lucky people blessed by the world."
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