What Is the Reward for a Side Mission?

"Orochimaru's mouth twitched. "That's quite an interesting idea." His disciple was good in every way, except that he occasionally came up with some truly bizarre thoughts.

Cut off part of the Nine-Tails for research? Anyone who didn't know better would think his disciple had already become a Kage-level powerhouse, capable of kneading the Nine-Tails however he pleased.

Kenichi Amamiya smiled sheepishly. But he was genuinely interested in the Nine-Tails. After all, the Tailed Beast Bomb was still extremely intimidating in the early stages, and the Nine-Tails could provide an enormous amount of Chakra.

"The village will definitely take this matter very seriously. Watch your behavior for a while," Orochimaru reminded Kenichi Amamiya. He knew that his disciple had a fairly good relationship with the Fourth Hokage Couple.

But a Jinchuriki's pregnancy involved far too many things. If his disciple carelessly got mixed up in it, it would become very troublesome. When the time came, even Orochimaru himself would be dragged into it.

After all, Kenichi Amamiya was only a Chunin, but Orochimaru was his teacher. In many cases, whatever his disciple did would be pinned on him.

"Understood, sensei. I'll be careful." Kenichi Amamiya nodded. But even if he stayed completely out of it, Obito, consumed by darkness, would eventually return and release the Nine-Tails. Unless something unexpected happened, the Fourth Hokage Couple would still die.

And when he thought about it carefully, the whole matter was rather chilling. While the Fourth fought soaked in blood, what was the Third doing? What was Danzo doing? What was Orochimaru doing?

Not to mention the Clan Heads of the Ino-Shika-Cho Clan, or the Hyuga Clan and Uchiha Clan—even if the Third had gone all out, Danzo had gone all out, and Orochimaru had merely lent a hand, the Fourth would not have had to die in battle.

After the Fourth died, the Third returned and once again became the highest authority in power. He was still alive and well. It was hard not to wonder what exactly the Third's intentions had been.

What was more, Naruto's childhood treatment was downright absurd. It was not that such things were impossible, but that a child who suffered such treatment still inherited the Will of Fire and wanted to become Hokage.

The fact that he hadn't turned dark was already ridiculous enough.

"But I remember hearing that Naruto was originally supposed to be a short manga, not very long, so the character settings were just like that. But then it kept getting longer and longer, so naturally quite a few characters fell apart." Kenichi Amamiya played with the Insect Amber in his hand, lost in thought.

He seemed to recall seeing similar claims before, though he did not know whether Kishimoto had actually said that. Still, viewed that way, it did make sense.

Looking at the Insect Amber in his hand, Kenichi Amamiya smiled faintly.

If he had to speak of his greatest gain during this period, it was neither the development of a cancer-producing ninjutsu nor the money he had swindled from Orochimaru. It was this piece of Insect Amber.

Earlier, Orochimaru had suddenly come to Kenichi Amamiya with a book. He had taken the Insect Amber and examined it closely. After looking it over many times, Orochimaru had finally confirmed that it was an ancient parasite.

According to legend, it had been wiped out by the Sage of Six Paths in passing. Who would have thought that a piece of amber had remained behind, preserving the Bug's body intact?

The reason they had not been sure before was that there were very few records about this Bug to begin with. Only after Orochimaru had acquired an ancient text from elsewhere had he been able to confirm the Bug's identity from the information recorded within.

Unfortunately, the Bug was already dead, and it was impossible to revive such a creature. Orochimaru found that deeply regrettable. Otherwise, an ability that could control other people would be quite useful at times.

"A parasite that can control other people? I wonder what researching this can get me." Kenichi Amamiya smacked his lips.

If this thing really could control ninja, then its practical value would be incredibly high. But overall, it would still depend on what limitations it had.

After all, most parasites capable of exerting control would ultimately kill their hosts.

For example, Horsehair Worms made parasitized insects jump into water. As the insects drowned, the worms crawled out of their bodies.

And the larvae of a particularly unique Schistosoma would even burrow into a snail's eyes, then control it to crawl up high and keep wriggling, attracting birds to come and eat the snail.

This showed that most parasites capable of controlling other creatures' consciousness were no good. The parasites in the fictional work Resident Evil 4 were much the same.

So if this parasite worked in a similar way, its practical value would not be very high, unless Kenichi Amamiya was willing to spend time cultivating and selectively breeding it.

That way, he could select superior parasites.

"By the way, sensei, there have been rumors in the village lately that people are frequently disappearing." Kenichi Amamiya thought of something. He put away the Insect Amber, then mentioned it to his teacher.

What he meant was very simple: Kenichi Amamiya wanted to remind his teacher that it was about time to prepare to flee.

Though his teacher was quite powerful, Kenichi Amamiya himself was only a lowly Chunin. And there was nothing interesting to do while staying in the village!

It was too boring. Every day, he could only sustain himself by watching gossip unfold.

And he had to carefully restrain his urges, afraid that one day he would lose control and drag someone into the laboratory.

"Mm. For the time being, when you come to the laboratory, you must travel with me. At other times, you may act freely." Orochimaru did not care much. Though he planned to defect, it was not yet time.

Kenichi Amamiya felt somewhat helpless. It seemed he could only behave himself for now.

Still, Kenichi Amamiya could make some preparations in advance.

Earlier, Kenichi Amamiya had completed the separation of Kushina Uzumaki's special Gene Chain. Once it had been separated, he had no way to preserve it, and he had not intended to use it for experiments, so he simply froze it for storage.

But the mission reward had given him something rather unusual.

A blueprint.

"The Thermobaric Bomb Blueprint even lists some of the required materials. Is this telling me to learn from Deidara?" Kenichi Amamiya rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Thinking about that blueprint gave him a headache. He knew about Thermobaric Bombs—they were extremely destructive and effective against underground and concealed structures.

But he only had a blueprint. It would probably still be a long road before he could fully manufacture a Thermobaric Bomb.

"Wait, isn't Deidara an explosive Genius?" Kenichi Amamiya grew interested. At this point, Deidara probably had not yet been taken away by the Akatsuki, right?

Giving me blueprints seems pretty reasonable.