Orochimaru: "Anko is young; you must work hard."

Good news.

On his twelfth birthday, Masaichi, already a Konoha Chunin, awakened the memories of his past life.

Bad news.

He... he f***ing picked the wrong side.

Inside a dimly lit underground laboratory.

"Happy birthday, Masaichi-kun." The pale-skinned man was holding a small, six-inch cake.

"Masaichi-bro, don't get the wrong idea. I chipped in for the cake Teacher Orochimaru bought. I really didn't forget your birthday." Speaking was a chubby little girl of around nine years old.

"Yes, yes." Orochimaru looked helplessly as Anko stuck out her tongue playfully at him.

This was the scene Masaichi saw after absorbing his past life's memories.

He felt a painful twitch in his heart as he looked at the man holding the cake.

Orochimaru.

One of the Legendary Sannin, and his teacher in this lifetime.

The Third Shinobi World War was just showing the first signs of starting, yet his teacher Orochimaru had already won a brilliant opening victory for Konoha, and calls for him to succeed the Hokage grew increasingly fierce for a time.

Some even began to think that if Orochimaru took the position of successor for the Fourth and Fifth Hokage, it might just be him, and all kinds of small gifts were sent to his nine-square-meter ninja dormitory.

Yet only he knew that in the competition for the Fourth Hokage, Orochimaru lost.

Not only did he lose, but in the end he was even driven out of the village by Hiruzen Sarutobi because his human experimentation was exposed.

He was left thoroughly discredited.

After Orochimaru defected, his subordinates naturally scattered like trees falling when the monkeys scatter, some being investigated and others interrogated.

His best outcome was to become a Special Jonin like Anko, far away from the center of power.

Yet Anko was probably a model used to appease Orochimaru's old subordinates, coupled with the fact that this little girl had never committed any offenses.

As for him... Masaichi...

Before awakening the memories of his past life, he was a die-hard fan of Orochimaru, and Orochimaru, believing that securing the position of Hokage was in the bag, had also entrusted him with heavy responsibilities.

In private, he frequently ordered him to sneak out and capture subjects for human experimentation.

These subjects were of course...

If the teacher defects in the future, won't I lose a layer of skin even if I don't die?

He was just an ordinary commoner in this life, with no backing from a clan or anything like that.

Being taken in as a disciple by Orochimaru relied entirely on his sharp brain.

Someday a few years from now, Orochimaru's experimental base would be wiped out in one fell swoop by the Third and the ANBU, and the man himself was only let off because the old Third was soft-hearted, so how would he have the spare time to take him along?

Wearing a Chunin flak jacket whose inner lining was utterly out of place with this era, featuring an aesthetic two or thirty years ahead of its time, Masaichi looked like the king of sweating as cool sweat broke out on his forehead. Orochimaru keenly noticed that his student's emotions were not quite right, but he didn't say anything.

He actually quite appreciated Masaichi; this little fellow had an open mind and was very trendy, unlike the stubborn old bones in Konoha.

Perhaps, the only ones willing to change Konoha's current decadent structure were us commoners.

This was also the reason why he took him as a disciple just as Masaichi graduated from the Ninja Academy at age nine.

At this time, Orochimaru still possessed a trace of human warmth.

"Alright, you and Anko continue celebrating." Orochimaru placed the cake on the table, and after saying that, he went back to doing his experiments, as he was very busy too.

"Okay."

Yet after regaining his senses, Masaichi couldn't help but wonder if he were Nawaki, whether Teacher Orochimaru would give up his experiments to accompany him the whole way.

Tsk.

By comparison, his little cake was a bit shabby.

"What are you looking at?" Masaichi looked at Anko, who was swallowing her saliva from time to time.

Of course Anko had a craving, asking, "Can I eat it?"

"Eat? Eat it, you can have all of it."

Masaichi did not eat sweets; taking in a large amount of sugar at once would interfere with the insulin in the body, not only causing weight gain but also triggering inflammation in the body.

He wasn't one of those overpowered cheaters, lacking both the Senju Bloodline and the Sharingan, and in this life he didn't even have a surname.

Therefore, he could only talk science in the ninja world.

He wondered if his daily scientific supplementation of nutrition and physical tempering could reach Kage Level strength.

Anko knew that Masaichi, like their teacher, disliked sweets, so after cutting a piece for her Masaichi-bro just to go through the motions, the rest was bound to go into her belly.

"Eat less sweet things." Masaichi was still fretting over how to help his teacher beat Minato.

You, Minato, a newcomer—did you participate in the Second Shinobi World War? Are your qualifications sufficient?

Yet Hiruzen Sarutobi simply favored this young man, and there was nothing to be done about it.

Seeing Anko stuffing cake into her mouth as if her life depended on it, Masaichi was already feeling melancholy inside, and now he couldn't bear to watch any longer, pulling the plate away directly.

Then... Anko cried.

Orochimaru came over, feeling a bit impatient and somewhat speechless.

Just imagine, he was right in the middle of an experiment, just like a man whose lust had flared up and was about to do the deed, only to be suddenly interrupted—anyone would feel a painful twitch in their heart.

"Masaichi-kun, it's just a piece of cake." Orochimaru said.

"However, cake has a very high glycemic index, and eating it has no benefits for the human body. Teacher, I'm doing this for Anko's own good." Masaichi had principles, although! Just now he pulled it away out of annoyance, but! He really was doing it for Anko's own good.

Anko wiped away her tears, half-believing.

"Glycemic?" Orochimaru caught a piece of terminology, a hint of interest flashing in his gaze. "What is glycemic? Does it really have no benefits for the human body?"

Although he didn't eat sweets.

Yet children always smiled when eating sugar; sugar to us humans! Was as if it were a demand carved into our instincts...

"That's right, eating sugar causes pimples, and it also causes..."

"Get to the point!" Orochimaru was somewhat defeated by this student of his, who loved to talk nonsense.

For those people who loved beauty, this statement had a very high gold content, but to him?

Masaichi was a jack-of-all-trades and master of none; he could indeed whip up a whole bunch of theories for Orochimaru, but if they talked any further into the details, he wouldn't know.

There was no help for it; a person's energy was always limited.

"Thus and so, this and that, so, Teacher Orochimaru, do you understand my painstaking efforts? I did it all for her own good."

"As if! I eat sticky rice dumplings every day and I'm fine."

"Shut up, Anko, you've gotten fatter since you graduated from the ninja academy. I see. So, Masaichi-kun, if it were you, what do you think one should eat every day?"

"Who's fat?!" Anko still wanted to act spoiled to make someone coax her, but when she saw her teacher's gaze—a thirst for life, a craving for life, a gaze not even men in adult books had during their wedding night when things were this intensely emotional—she left.

Hmph, men.

Masaichi was also speaking with great joy; in the Naruto world, a bunch of people paid no heed to science, and he truly felt out of place.

Although Snake-uncle's personality was a bit eccentric, Snake-uncle was a materialist!

"Eggs."

"Why?"

"Because..."

"The point!"

"Yes!"

"..."

"Na-lu-hu-du!" Orochimaru suddenly closed his eyes, his brain spinning at high speed as he seemed to have figured out why this body loved eating eggs.

It turned out that everything was instinct.

If you aren't mad, you won't survive.

Orochimaru opened his eyes once more, his whole body trembling with excitement. He steadied his posture and said, "Masaichi, I am giving you a mission. The mission is difficult, but this is a command from your teacher to you."

"I can't trust anyone else."

"Anko is young and ignorant, and the Fifth Hokage... you must work hard."