Gamabunta, Katsuyu, Manda, Enma

At Shiraha's home.

He had converted his parents' room into a small laboratory for making potions.

Matsuno Masato had procured all the various experimental equipment in the room.

Once he had money, many problems stopped being problems.

Though small, the laboratory had everything it needed. All the commonly used equipment was there.

Shiraha actually wanted to conduct some other experiments, but because he was so close to Kushina, he attracted a great deal of attention.

Since he had always shown a strong thirst for knowledge at Konoha Hospital and often came up with wild ideas, using research into new medicinal baths as a pretext made tinkering with medicinal herbs at home seem perfectly normal.

Secretly conducting cell and bloodline experiments, however, would be far too dangerous.

It would be great if I could set up a secret base outside the village, Shiraha thought.

As the saying went, a cunning rabbit had three burrows.

He still could not go too far within the village.

Besides, he had not graduated yet, so he had no chance to leave.

Who knew whether the Third Hokage was aware of the things Shiraha had bought through Kushina? That was another reason he had not conducted any sensitive experiments.

Bang!

Shiraha was slightly distracted, and he added the medicinal liquid to the Beaker one second too late. A puff of black smoke immediately rose from the pale blue liquid inside, and the potion turned black.

Another failure!

"Why is the Deep Blue Potion so difficult to make? It seems this substitute isn't very workable either." Shiraha frowned slightly and expertly poured the ruined potion into a special container at his feet.

The Deep Blue Potion was a potion formula Shiraha had exchanged for at the academy in his previous life. Like the Vitality Potion, it could assist in the cultivation of a Meditation Method.

Its effects also included enhancing cell activity and accelerating the absorption of Energy Particles, thereby increasing the rate at which Mental Power grew.

However, it had one additional effect: it could slightly strengthen one's physique.

The Deep Blue Potion was known as the perfect potion among Level 0 Potions.

Although it required many kinds of raw materials, none were particularly precious, and its production difficulty could only be considered moderately high.

It was said that the Deep Blue Potion's greatest advantage was that no matter how much one consumed, it would never produce drug resistance.

Although a Wizard's Meditation Method could improve one's physique, that was merely a side benefit.

No Wizard would ever complain about being too physically strong.

Sometimes, Mental Power increased too quickly, and one even had to wait for the body to reach a certain level before advancing.

Shiraha had consumed too many Vitality Potions over the past few years. Their supportive cultivation effect had already fallen by nearly half, slowing his progress as well.

Drug resistance was something he had only heard about in his previous life.

After all, how could he possibly have had enough resources in his previous life to cultivate so extravagantly, treating Vitality Potions like water?

Konoha was the strongest ninja village in the Shinobi World, and Shiraha was living off the strongest ninja village's top-tier rich lady. It was on an entirely different level from his previous life.

Shiraha now needed to prepare to make new potions in advance.

In the Wizarding World, if an apprentice could skillfully make even one type of potion, they would basically never have to worry about cultivation resources. Shiraha had been able to advance to Third-Class Apprentice in his previous life not only because of his family's help, but ultimately because he had a decent talent for potion-making.

Unfortunately, several main ingredients for the Deep Blue Potion had been harvested to extinction in the Wizarding World in his previous life.

Even if the ingredients still existed, they were probably monopolized by major factions, available only to the descendants of those with "capital."

That was why Shiraha had only obtained a "useless" formula.

But things were different now. He was the only Wizard in this world.

Just as when making the Vitality Potion, Shiraha had compared the appearances and properties of medicinal herbs and prepared most of the similar and substitute ingredients. Only a few main ingredients remained. He had never seen them in his previous life, so he could only experiment with herbs that roughly matched the descriptions in the formula.

Because he was making a new potion and had to test it, Shiraha's current success rate was zero.

Under normal circumstances, when refining a Level 0 Potion, being one second late on a step would at most greatly weaken the medicine's effects. It would not directly turn into waste liquid. Clearly, there was a problem with the substitute materials he had found.

There was no helping it. If the Vitality Potion had remained effective, he would not have planned to make other potions.

Most importantly, he could not leave Konoha to search on his own. After all, there were places that merchants and ordinary ninja could not enter, and some medicinal herbs did not keep for very long.

"It seems I'll have to make do with the Vitality Potion for now. Refining the Deep Blue Potion will have to be a slow process."

Shiraha sighed, cleaned up the experimental equipment, and let his thoughts drift toward things that could brighten his mood.

During this period, Kushina's relationship with Kurama had made considerable progress.

Whenever Shiraha and Kushina were together, he would often hear Kushina relay Kurama's words.

Although most of them were not pleasant, as long as Kurama was willing to speak, that was progress.

This was also reflected in Kushina's rapidly growing strength and the increasingly powerful energy radiation coming from her body.

Even if Shiraha no longer hid his strength, he still genuinely could not beat Kushina.

He could not withstand a single punch from her—one "fox's" worth of power.

By his estimates, if this continued, Kushina's cells would sooner or later reach the level of a Super Radiation Creature. Even if they did not, perhaps he could obtain something from Kurama afterward.

Chakra could even carry the soul, so Shiraha would not find it strange if it contained cells as well.

Perhaps Kurama's Chakra could meet the requirements for advancing to a First-Level Warlock.

Come to think of it, Kushina truly was his lucky star. Just harvesting cells from her had already brought Shiraha enormous gains.

Perhaps he would be able to touch upon the realm of a First-Level Warlock before becoming an adult at sixteen. That would have been unimaginable in the Wizarding World.

Even Wizard apprentices with exceptional or supreme talent would be considered terrifyingly gifted if they could advance to Formal Wizard before the age of forty, especially since Shiraha cultivated an Advanced Meditation Method.

The restrictions imposed by these advancement requirements did not trouble him in the slightest. Instead, they made him look forward to the future even more.

As for the other two samples of Super Radiation Creature cells, based on Tsunade and Kurama's descriptions, Shiraha felt that the First Hokage's cells should meet the requirements.

As for the final sample, Shiraha currently had no leads.

Regarding the bloodline needed for advancement, he felt that he should choose from Summoning Beasts.

The more outstanding options were naturally the Summoning Beasts of the Three Great Sage Lands: Gamabunta, Katsuyu, and Manda from the first part of the story.

Of the three, Shiraha was not particularly interested in Gamabunta or Katsuyu. Judging by the Three Ninja's battle, Manda clearly possessed the ability to fight two opponents at once.

A giant snake of that size clearly had excellent combat ability, and its overall capabilities were not bad either.

Shiraha's ninja talent affinities were Yang and fire, while his elemental affinities were flame, shadow, plants, and negative energy.

Although Gamabunta could use fire in conjunction with Jiraiya, his racial affinity was water.

As for Katsuyu, Shiraha was not sure, but she was definitely not fire-aligned.

Of course, there was another important reason. Gamabunta was too ugly, while Katsuyu was a little too disgusting and leaned toward support abilities.

With relatively better and more handsome options available, Shiraha naturally preferred snakes.

There was another decent choice: the Third Hokage's Summoning Beast, Enma, the Monkey King.

Enma, the Monkey King, could use his body to withstand Orochimaru's Divine Weapon, the Kusanagi Sword. One could imagine just how absurd his defense was. If his body was strong enough, his attack power could not be weak either.

However, Shiraha still preferred snakes. The Three Great Sage Lands were entire clans, so perhaps he could find fire-aligned snakes there, or even ones aligned with shadow and negative energy.

"If I want to play with snakes, I'll have to find Orochimaru."

When Orochimaru appeared in the story, he had clearly undergone special modifications to his body and was practically no different from a snake.

Based on the Third Hokage's reaction, Orochimaru seemed to have developed an extremely powerful Forbidden Technique that allowed him to change into younger bodies, supposedly granting immortality.

Naturally, Shiraha remained skeptical.

Even Star Wizards would die of old age. The body could be replaced, but the soul could not.

Without advancing, the soul would eventually wither away.

Wizards themselves loved exploring the unknown and pursuing truth. Someone like Orochimaru, who conducted all kinds of strange research in the Naruto World, was quite suited to the path of a Wizard.

Shiraha felt that if he built a good relationship with the current, normal Orochimaru, it would definitely prove useful in the future.

He could even trade the ordinary Meditation Method he had cultivated in his previous life to Orochimaru.

Of course, that would have to wait until Shiraha was strong enough and their interests aligned closely enough.

Furthermore, the Book of the Ancient Warlock contained an Advanced Wizard Meditation Method. As Shiraha advanced, its contents had gradually revealed themselves, so he could make use of it in the future.

Given Orochimaru's personality, there was no way he would not be interested in the unknown profession of Wizard.

After all, did he not seek immortality?

Chakra could carry the spirit, but it was probably difficult for it to allow someone to live for more than two hundred years like a Wizard.

"To get close to Orochimaru, I'll have to rely on Nawaki."

"The Shinobi World is so vast. Perhaps there are even more suitable bloodlines out there."