Orochimaru's wish

"Gua, you must have a solution, right?"

Orochimaru had a mysterious degree of faith in Gua.

Gua: ...

Like hell I do.

"How about getting a refrigerator?"

Orochimaru froze. "A refrigerator? What's that?"

Gua said, "Why not build a refrigeration unit? Then you could conduct your experiments at low temperatures, couldn't you?"

Gua felt he was really letting his imagination run wild.

What the hell did a high school student like him know about experiments?

Orochimaru's eyes, however, lit up.

"I see! I see!"

Orochimaru saw Gua out with exceptional eagerness.

Gua even suspected that if Orochimaru had a car, he would have driven an "expert" like him right to his doorstep.

Orochimaru really did respect science!

After stepping outside, Gua still remembered to carry his eggs with him.

He glanced at the sky. It was almost dark.

Gua hurried toward home.

By the time he arrived, night had just fallen.

His mother, Nai, asked where he had been.

Gua answered honestly, "I went to listen to Orochimaru give a science lecture."

As he spoke, he put the eggs in the kitchen.

Nai: ...

She really had never noticed that her son loved science.

Nai had no fondness for Orochimaru, and by extension, none for the science he talked about. She opened her mouth, intending to warn Gua not to put blind faith in that science nonsense.

In the end, however, she said nothing.

Oh well. It's normal for my son to have some interests of his own.

As long as he doesn't go overboard.

Nai suppressed her urge to control him and called Gua to dinner.

After dinner,

Gua returned to his room to set up his idle training.

[Taijutsu (10× boost active)]

[Eyesight (10× boost active)]

[Substitution Technique (10× boost active)]

Yes, over the past couple of days, Gua had learned the Substitution Technique and Clone Technique at school.

Now all three parts of the Three Body Technique were available for idle training in his system space.

However, Gua had only set the Substitution Technique to train. He couldn't bear to remove Taijutsu or eyesight.

Mostly, the boosts to his Taijutsu and eyesight were just too addictive.

His last one-on-one fight with Itachi had made the improvement in his Taijutsu obvious.

As for his eyesight, the boost had become downright astonishing after he awakened his one-tomoe Sharingan that day with Shisui.

He could feel it. After awakening one tomoe, his entire world had changed!

Previously, training his eyesight had merely made the world clearer, and when he stared at certain spots, movement there had seemed slower.

Now, after activating his Sharingan,

he could even clearly predict other people's movements within his field of vision.

Not just people, either. Animals, and even nonliving things!!

For instance, right now, the falling leaf outside his window would drift north!

Sure enough!

A moment later,

the leaf spun in midair and was blown north by the wind.

Awesome!

Gua had known the Sharingan was amazing, but he hadn't expected it to be this amazing.

Then wouldn't Itachi's two-tomoe Sharingan make him terrifyingly strong?

Come to think of it, Itachi didn't even use his Sharingan when we fought. If he had, there's no telling which of us would have been stronger...

Itachi's talent was truly terrifying.

Itachi had no idea what Gua was thinking. If he had, he would definitely have stared at him in bewilderment. Holy shit! What do you mean your Sharingan can predict things that aren't even people??

The Sharingan's predictive ability came from gathering more information, allowing its user to anticipate an enemy's actions on the battlefield.

This depended on the Sharingan's ability to gather information. The more it could perceive, the more its user could naturally predict.

Generally speaking, predicting the movements of an enemy directly in front of the user on the battlefield was already the Sharingan's limit.

Gua's version,

was... cheating!

Gua simply assumed this was the power of an ordinary Sharingan!

No wonder the Uchiha are always going on about their glory and won't even give anyone outside the clan a proper look!

You should've told me sooner that the Sharingan was this awesome!

I'd have trouble treating everyone else as people, too!

I'm clearly a superhuman, okay? How could ordinary people like you sit at the same table as me?

Still, Gua only entertained the thought.

He deactivated his Sharingan and prepared to rest.

Having it active for just a short while had tired him out. He was better off using it sparingly.

Gua lay in bed.

For once, he actually had trouble sleeping that night.

He couldn't sleep!

He couldn't sleep at all!

Holy shit!

I should've asked Orochimaru for something earlier today. Judging by his attitude, he probably wouldn't have been stingy.

What a loss!

Gua felt a little cheated.

It was like losing two million. He just couldn't feel at ease.

Forget it. I should sleep. I'll bring it up another day.

If I go ask Orochimaru for something now, he won't give me anything.

That night.

The Hokage Office.

Kakashi stood opposite the Third Generation, his expression serious. "Lord Third, Gua seems to understand science!"

The Third Generation, who had been smoking, choked and coughed several times.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

"What did you say?"

"I said Gua might be a scientist," Kakashi repeated.

For the past few days, he had been secretly following Gua. The task the Third Generation had assigned him was to change Gua's way of thinking and inspire him with the Will of Fire.

However, his one attempt to approach Gua hadn't gone very well. He had only managed to leave his name.

He wasn't much of a people person to begin with, and from what he had observed, Gua was even worse.

There was simply no chance of the two becoming friends.

But the Third Generation had given his orders, and Kakashi had to carry them out. So he had started following Gua day and night, observing his habits.

And today, he had seen Gua go to Orochimaru's research facility with him.

Then, when Orochimaru came out, his solicitous expression had made Kakashi wonder whether his eyes were playing tricks on him. Was that really one of the Sannin?

"What makes you say that?"

The Third Generation looked at Kakashi curiously.

He knew Kakashi wouldn't make baseless claims. If Kakashi said it, he must have a reason.

So Kakashi recounted what he had seen that day.

After hearing him out, the Third Generation frowned deeply.

He took two puffs of smoke in succession.

"Orochimaru still hasn't given up on his wicked ambitions! He actually dared to abduct another Uchiha!"

The Third Generation's attention was entirely focused on Orochimaru abducting Gua.

Kakashi opened his mouth to explain, but the Third Generation waved him off. "Kakashi, you can go now."

"Yes, sir."

Kakashi left.

The Third Generation went straight to Orochimaru's research facility.

"Orochimaru, you owe me an explanation! What did you promise me? I gave you a laboratory so you could focus on your experiments!!"

"Teacher, I don't understand what has upset you."

"You have the nerve to ask!? Did you abduct Uchiha Gua again? Why do you keep grabbing him!?"

The Third Generation was practically steaming with anger.

Luckily, this was Orochimaru, his favorite student. Had it been someone else-Jiraiya, for instance-the Third Generation would have already embedded his pipe in his head.

"I was only discussing science with Gua!"

Orochimaru had been so unfairly accused!