In Konoha Year 27, ever since Shinichi had devoted himself fully to developing Hydrogen Release, he had rarely left the Uchiha Clan Compound, much less wandered around the village.
He spent almost all his time in the testing grounds deep within the Uchiha's underground chambers, immersed in working out chakra nature transformation and the structure of Hydrogen Release.
In that dim space, only the lightning and flames bursting from converging chakra illuminated his figure, as though even time had stopped.
Orochimaru was practically the only person who kept him company.
Rather than simply keeping him company, Orochimaru was drawn to Shinichi's almost mad innovations and ideas. Fascinated by these unconventional chakra fusion processes, he even volunteered to assist, recording every experimental detail and personally analyzing the causes behind each failure.
As for Tsunade, she dropped by from time to time as well.
At first, she had simply been concerned about Shinichi, worried that spending all day buried in training would throw his meals and sleep schedule into disarray.
Gradually, however, she found herself stunned by the extraordinary talent and understanding he displayed.
Rather than merely coming to visit, she had quietly come to recognize that hard work alone could never carry her past certain barriers of talent.
So she set aside her pride and began asking Shinichi for guidance, even if her words sometimes sounded rather insincere. "Shinichi, you're not doing anything anyway. Come on, teach me."
Shinichi could not be bothered to call her out. A few casual pointers in his spare time were enough to give Tsunade sudden insights into chakra control and taijutsu, benefiting her enormously.
Today, however, was a rare quiet day.
Perhaps one stage of his experiments had concluded, or perhaps the system had temporarily fallen silent without issuing new missions. For once, Shinichi emerged