Call Me Dad!

After all, no matter how tenacious a life was, over the endless passage of time, there would eventually come a day when it completely vanished due to accident or otherwise.

Moreover, Orochimaru's reincarnation was not perfect. There were weaknesses in the soul, and each reincarnation made it a little more fragile.

As a transmigrator, Hiruko had his own unique understanding of longevity—things Orochimaru might never have touched upon.

The soul would ultimately wither away. That was what the so-called Five Declines of Heaven and Man meant.

What Hiruko sought was not the kind of longevity in which the soul would eventually decay.

In this world, where chakra and extraordinary powers existed, with high-quality materials, it was not impossible to achieve a certain degree of immortality or greatly enhance one's vitality.

If he told Orochimaru about biological traits similar to those of the Immortal Jellyfish, then with Orochimaru's abilities, he would surely be able to develop an even more powerful reincarnation technique.

But if the problem of soul aging was not solved, Orochimaru would die sooner or later as well.

Over the past few days of careful cultivation, Hiruko had formed a summoning contract with an Immortal Jellyfish.

Although the Immortal Jellyfish possessed extremely low intelligence and could not follow any commands, its body itself was of no practical use either.

Yet throughout the experiments in which the Immortal Jellyfish transformed, divided, and regressed into a polyp, the summoning contract had remained intact.

This fully proved that the individual bound by the summoning contract had not disappeared. The phenomenon of reverse growth absolutely existed.

In Hiruko's view, the biological technology of the shinobi world was severely distorted.

Due to the existence of chakra, combined with the extraordinary vitality of living beings, this world could even directly perform organ transplantation and cloning under crude conditions.

With such technology, understanding fundamental theories such as the genetic code should have been effortless, and gene fusion could have been adopted in practice.

Yet the shinobi world mostly just did things directly. There were no technologies resembling gene editing or anything similar.

Perhaps they simply had no need for them.

As long as enough samples were subjected to brutal fusion experiments, they would eventually obtain the result they wanted.

Orochimaru was an expert in this field, and every experiment he conducted was exceptionally crude.

Thus, during the original Wood Release experiments, Orochimaru had been the fundamental reason the Senju Clan withered away.

In the shinobi world, those subtle factors that formed the foundation of technological development were always ignored by most people.

Perhaps chakra was simply too convenient, causing people to overlook the most crucial basic sciences.

Hiruko walked to the windowsill and activated the sealing array around the plant-growing area and the fish tank embedded within it.

As chakra slowly flowed in, the sealing array's originally dim glow gradually began circulating once more.

These sealing arrays were among Hiruko's past research results. They were merely sealing techniques that could simply gather natural energy and create an environment rich in natural energy.

Still, given his current circumstances, they could barely suffice.

Without a clan inheritance, it was undoubtedly as difficult as ascending to heaven for Hiruko to acquire those profound and advanced sealing techniques.

If he wanted truly top-tier sealing techniques, he would probably have to find a way through the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.

As for the jinchuriki, Uzumaki Kushina, Hiruko honestly had no way of getting close to her.

Ever since Kushina had received the Nine-Tails' inheritance, there had been no further news of her.

If he wanted to obtain the Uzumaki Clan's sealing techniques from her, he was afraid he had no chance.

Hiruko now had an idea: to travel to other worlds and accelerate the fusion of his template.

But in the end, he was unwilling to rashly attempt transmigration.

After all, the safety of the transmigration function was truly impossible to guarantee. No one knew what kind of world they might be sent to.

One had to know that fictional worlds were fraught with danger, with hazardous events emerging one after another.

Hiruko planned to wait until he truly possessed Six Paths-level strength before fusing more templates and transmigrating.

He was somewhat worried that the moment his template fusion was completed, he might be teleported away instantly. That would be far too regrettable.

For Hiruko, the Naruto world was undoubtedly an excellent place to increase his strength.

Before gaining power strong enough to look down upon all others, Hiruko temporarily abandoned the idea of transmigration.

Besides, even if he truly intended to transmigrate, he would need to make thorough preparations in advance.

His foremost task right now was to complete the Chimera Technique while also finding a way to obtain an immortal, undying life.

He also intended to steal the Otsutsuki Clan's genes, study the structure of the God Tree, and delve deeply into the local systems of sage techniques and sealing techniques.

Only after reaching Six Paths-level strength would he explore other unknown worlds.

At six in the morning, the first ray of sunlight spilled across the earth.

Rin Nohara stretched out her soft little hands and gently shook Hiruko's body, calling softly, "Lord Hiruko, Lord Hiruko, wake up quickly."

Still asleep, Hiruko felt a pair of warm, soft little hands constantly pushing at him and slowly woke up.

Another new day.

"Good morning, Rin." He rubbed Rin's head before getting up to wash.

He did not notice that Rin's little face had already flushed bright red.

Hiruko was a man in his thirties living in Konoha as an ordinary shinobi, and his daily routine was usually extremely regular.

If it was ever disrupted, Rin would wake him up as well.

After washing up, he enjoyed the breakfast Rin had carefully prepared.

Today, Hiruko did not want to work in the laboratory. He intended to give himself a day off and relax.

He strolled through Konoha's streets, warm sunlight falling over him as he walked forward contentedly.

At this time, Konoha was permeated from top to bottom with an atmosphere of grief, as though shrouded beneath a layer of gloom.

The Third Shinobi World War had still caused immeasurable casualties, even with Hiruko assisting from the sidelines.

As far as the eye could see, countless people dressed in black mourning clothes stood amid the mountains and forests, silently grieving for their departed loved ones.

Only four years old, Itachi Uchiha had personally experienced that earth-shaking war.

The cruel reality was like a heavy hammer, striking his once-innocent heart until it had nearly matured.

At this moment, he stood quietly before a gravestone, his brow tightly furrowed as he pondered the meaning of life.

What is the meaning of life, exactly? The young Itachi Uchiha asked this sincere question deep in his heart.

By a quiet stream in the Forest of Death, Hiruko sat alone, his gaze profound as no one knew what he was contemplating.

At that moment, a small figure slowly approached him.

"Uncle, are you here alone because you miss your teammates?" Little Itachi Uchiha suddenly asked such a somewhat strange question.

Seeing the confused little fellow before him, Hiruko thought of the turbulent and controversial deeds he would commit in the future.

Hiruko reached out and lightly flicked his forehead. With a smack, Itachi Uchiha was caught off guard and fell to the ground.

"Uncle, what are you doing?" Itachi Uchiha winced in pain, gently rubbing his forehead as he tilted his head and asked with a face full of confusion.

"Call me Dad!" Hiruko immediately revealed a teasing expression.