Getting Shaken Down

Just imagining Orochimaru sticking out his tongue and licking his face, leaving a layer of saliva behind, made Uchiha Yuu shudder.

"Damn it! I absolutely can't become Teacher Orochimaru's experimental material!"

Of course, once he achieved some initial results, he could ask Orochimaru for a set of equipment. By then, Yuu believed that with his strength, he would be able to reach the level of an elite Jonin.

"What's wrong with you?"

Tsunade, who was examining Yuu, saw goosebumps rise on his skin and thought something had gone wrong during the examination.

"It's nothing, Lady Tsunade. I was just thinking about something that scared me."

"Something that could scare you? That must be quite a big deal."

Not paying much attention to Yuu's condition, Tsunade tidied up her laboratory and gave him a reminder.

"You can borrow the things in the laboratory, but some of the items are dangerous, so be careful."

"Also, handle fragile items carefully. If anything breaks, you'll have to compensate me! It'll come out of your mission earnings, so don't even think about cheating Tsunade out of her money!"

As far as Tsunade knew, Yuu had never conducted experiments before. Many of the instruments in her laboratory were custom-made, and with Konoha's situation unstable, replacing damaged equipment would be troublesome.

"Don't worry, Lady Tsunade."

He had heard those words from his chemistry teacher more times than he could count. Back then, he had been a genius who scored full marks in laboratory work!

Besides experimental equipment, the laboratory also had a batch of usable materials from the village's shinobi, mainly for Tsunade's research into medical ninjutsu.

For now, he could only use little white rabbits for his experiments.

After giving him her instructions, Tsunade left the laboratory.

"Now I can finally conduct some proper research."

He had to do everything he could to grow stronger. Only then could he protect himself. He had already become a talent Danzo wanted to recruit, and Uchiha Yuu did not want to be controlled by anyone. He could only work harder to improve himself!

He took out a set of blood samples from a scroll. They were bloodlines from the Uchiha Clan that he had collected, most of them coaxed from children.

A single lollipop was enough to trick them! It was entirely voluntary!

He dripped his own blood onto a culture dish. Through the magnifying glass, the difference between the two was obvious.

Uchiha Yuu's blood was thicker. The higher red blood cell count meant it could carry more oxygen, resulting in greater explosive power.

That was why his physical strength had increased.

Yuu deliberately increased the radioactive elements and saw ordinary cells begin to blacken under the radiation from the uranium element. Before long, they mutated into a mass of twisted, shattered cells.

His own cells, however, actively absorbed the power of radiation without changing at all.

Their stability ensured that Uchiha Yuu would not mutate.

"Now I understand the greatest difference between my cells and ordinary people's. Their stability and ability to absorb radiation surpass normal humans."

In other words, Uchiha Yuu was abnormal!

He recorded the experimental data and stored it in a ninjutsu scroll. Since it concerned the secrets of his body, he would not tell anyone before he had the ability to protect himself.

"Unfortunately, there are no radiation sources in the Shinobi World."

At this stage, the world of Naruto was still only semi-industrialized. Forget radioactive elements—even the most basic periodic table did not exist.

"I'll just slowly accumulate it through the dumbest method possible: sunbathing."

There was also the effect brought by the Healing Technique. While Tsunade was away, he could experiment as much as he liked.

He took rabbits out of the iron cage one by one and, under their terrified gazes, began a series of utterly inhumane experiments.

Two hours later, there was an additional pile of ashes on the floor. All ten rabbits Tsunade had bought had perished at Uchiha Yuu's hands.

"As expected, it isn't that simple."

Yuu sighed, but he was not discouraged.

If the Healing Technique succeeded, it would be no different from creating an entirely new ninjutsu—one that could enhance shinobi strength on a large scale. Orochimaru's body-modification secret arts had also been developed through countless experiments.

Could he achieve results on the first try? Even if Yuu was confident he could rival Orochimaru, he still needed money and time.

"What a waste."

Just as Yuu was preparing to clean up the scene, Tsunade pushed the door open and entered with a smile on her face.

Before Yuu's eyes, Tsunade's expression changed from a smile to solemnity, then she glared at Uchiha Yuu fiercely and said,

"You bastard! You used up all my experimental rabbits!"

"Lady Tsunade! Let me explain!"

"Bang!"

Well, Yuu ended up taking another Iron Fist of Love.

After thoroughly beating Uchiha Yuu, Tsunade held out her hand and calculated the losses. With a pained expression, she said,

"Ten rabbits come to ten thousand ryo! That's not excessive, right?"

Hearing the price she had just quoted, Uchiha Yuu was stunned on the spot. What was this supposed to mean?

"What?! Ten thousand ryo?"

Little white rabbits on the market cost only a few dozen ryo each. He was not some clueless fool. At this stage, Konoha did not have rabbits specifically bred for experiments; they were all bought from the market.

"Is that not acceptable? I raised these rabbits for a long time. There's feed money and labor costs too."

"The Princess of Konoha raising rabbits means they cost a little more. That's perfectly normal."

Her unfriendly gaze landed on Uchiha Yuu. She pressed a hand onto his head and tried to soften her tone as she said,

"I know you wouldn't dodge the debt, right, Yuu?"

"That's right, Lady Tsunade!"

Money changed hands, and the earnings from one C-rank mission were gone. Seeing the little stars in Tsunade's eyes, Uchiha Yuu knew he had been scammed, but there was nothing he could do.

The stronger party had the advantage. Besides, he would still need Tsunade's laboratory to continue advancing the reforms to the Healing Technique.

Only after counting the money and finding that not a single ryo was missing did Tsunade return to her smiling expression. She patted Uchiha Yuu's head and said,

"Now I have some good news."

"Recently, there have been quite a lot of missions, and they're all fairly dangerous."

"Medical shinobi receive protection while carrying out missions!"

"Sunagakure recently came to Konoha to discuss supplies. They need a medical shinobi to accompany them, so that if they encounter danger on the road, they can provide treatment to Konoha's shinobi."

The medical shinobi were all busy right now. Some had even gone to the front lines with Jonin. The only ones who could be put to use were Tsunade and Yuu.

Tsunade needed to establish a new Medical Corps in the village and did not have the time, so this mission was assigned to Uchiha Yuu.

"That's not good news at all."

Uchiha Yuu sighed. It was clearly at least a B-rank mission. If something unexpected happened, it could rise to A-rank or even S-rank, which would be quite an addition to his shinobi record.

The reward would be paid at the highest rate, and for Uchiha Yuu, who was short on money right now, it was practically delivered straight to him.

"Is it a squad mission?"

"No. Missions like this can't be given to Genin. At minimum, there will be Elite Chunin, along with a group of Jonin from Sunagakure escorting them."

The reason it was such an incredible bargain was that the two villages would be transporting the supplies together.

With a large number of Jonin and Elite Chunin providing protection, there was no way anything unexpected could happen.