Yet just as Uchiha Gen was quietly taking in Konoha's scenery...
Boom!
An explosion suddenly rang out from deep in the woods behind him.
Immediately afterward, the wreckage of what looked like some technological device landed right beside Uchiha Gen, trailing black smoke.
"..."
Uchiha Gen fell somewhat silent as he looked at the object before him, which did not quite fit the Shinobi World's aesthetic.
Exposed precision gears and circuitry tangled together in disarray, snapped copper-core cables curled outward, and scattered circuit board fragments were embedded in the rock of the Hokage Rock.
Robots had appeared in the Shinobi World before, such as a certain Mecha-Naruto, but... was such an obviously technological creation something that should exist in this era?
Then a white snake suddenly emerged from the side. As Uchiha Gen watched in silence, it swallowed the wreckage before him in one gulp, then slithered into the depths of the forest without looking back.
"Sorry, there was a small problem with the experiment. I didn't frighten you, did I?"
A cold, hoarse voice came from beside him.
Uchiha Gen's hair stood on end. He immediately got up and put several body lengths between himself and the voice.
Someone... had gotten right next to him without him even noticing.
When...
He looked toward the speaker. Long black hair spilled down behind his head, purple pigment marked either side of his nose, his golden eyes were as devoid of emotion as a snake's, and two tomoe pendants hung from his ears.
With an appearance like that, Uchiha Gen recognized him instantly: Orochimaru... except Orochimaru was wearing a white lab coat, and...
This was definitely a hologram!!!
Before him, a translucent blue-green hologram floated in midair. Orochimaru's figure was composed entirely of tiny points of light, with scattered pixel-like glimmers constantly drifting along the edges of his silhouette.
So it was not that he had failed to notice Orochimaru approaching. What had come was simply not a living person at all.
"Lord Orochimaru."
Looking at Orochimaru's current state, Uchiha Gen suppressed his sense of awkwardness and bowed.
Well, Orochimaru already had a scientific side. It was perfectly normal for him to develop advanced technology like this.
An Uchiha child? No wonder he had reflexes like that.
Orochimaru's expression did not change at being recognized. He merely nodded lightly, thinking to himself as he looked at the clan crest on Uchiha Gen's back.
"Mm. If you're all right, carry on with whatever you were doing."
With no intention of conversing with Uchiha Gen, Orochimaru confirmed that he had not been injured by the experiment, then his virtual projection vanished right before Uchiha Gen's eyes.
Looking at the spot where Orochimaru's image had disappeared, Uchiha Gen could not help activating the One-Tomoe Sharingan beneath his colored contacts.
Sure enough... Orochimaru's scientific creations are all over this area. I actually never noticed them before.
Where Orochimaru had vanished lay an extremely tiny object shaped like a pebble. This was what Orochimaru had used to produce the projection.
I just wonder what experiment he's working on now. That thing just now... no matter how I look at it, it seemed like a small component from some large mechanical creation.
After checking his surroundings, Uchiha Gen deactivated his Sharingan and stood up. He took one last look around the area, then turned and left, walking slowly along the nearby mountain path. There were too many "eyes" here; staying any longer would feel uncomfortable.
Unfortunately, Uchiha Gen most likely would not get to enjoy a quiet holiday.
He had only just gotten home.
"Gen, open up. It's Obito."
Uchiha Gen, who had just lain down for an afternoon nap, opened his eyes. With a thoroughly forbidding air, he opened the door and looked at Obito Uchiha, who still had his hand raised to knock.
"You'd better have something very important to tell me. Otherwise... heh."
Uchiha Gen narrowed his eyes dangerously at Obito Uchiha and spoke coldly.
"Hiss... uh, Grandma asked me to invite you over for lunch."
Realizing that Uchiha Gen was in a bad mood, Obito Uchiha could not help lowering his voice a little.
"Oh, I see."
At that, Uchiha Gen's grumpiness at being disturbed immediately subsided. As mentioned before, his house was only a few meters from Obito's; they were practically right next to each other.
Obito Uchiha was different from him. Obito still had a grandmother who had raised him since he was little.
Ever since he had left the Uchiha orphanage to live on his own, Obito Uchiha's grandmother had looked after him quite a bit.
So Uchiha Gen held Obito Uchiha's grandmother in considerable respect. Otherwise, with how Obito Uchiha bothered him every single day, he would have beaten him up long ago.
"Heh-heh, let me tell you, Grandma made your favorite pig's trotter soup this time. Sigh, I wanted pork rib soup instead."
"You're so noisy."
"Hey, hey, hey!! Is that how you treat me after I sacrificed my pork rib soup?!"
"Shut up."
After lunch, escaping the scorching heat and hiding from Obito Uchiha, Uchiha Gen plunged into the Uchiha library.
This was one place Obito Uchiha would never enter.
The wooden shelves were crammed with basic ninjutsu texts, old clan records, and all sorts of strange knowledge. The blazing summer sunlight passed through the window and fell warmly across the pages.
Uchiha Gen sat quietly at a desk, leafing through the Uchiha's records of the secret techniques of Konoha's various ninja clans. This was one of the few things he enjoyed doing.
Learning about the strange changes in these ninja clans and the somewhat different history-this unfamiliar knowledge was highly interesting in a Shinobi World with little in the way of entertainment.
Uchiha Gen often sat there for hours at a time. Because of this, Obito Uchiha frequently thought there was something wrong with his head. Reading books while attending the Ninja Academy was one thing, but he actually kept reading after returning to the clan grounds.
Just as I expected, the Hyuga's Byakugan has undergone some changes too. And those hidebound people actually do more than just use Gentle Fist now.
Extremely skilled at using specially made namisun bows with explosive-tag arrows?? Namisun... aren't those just large bows? Tsk, using the Byakugan for ranged combat? That's downright sneaky. Does this count as a real-life combination of wallhacks and aimbot?
And they use the Byakugan's ocular power to imbue their arrows with an extremely sharp cutting force. The source of this... why does it seem so much like the Tenseigan? Speaking of which, what kind of absurdly overpowered thing would Nagato's Rinnegan in the Land of Rain be now...?
Leafing through the information on the Hyuga Clan, Uchiha Gen could not help rubbing his chin as he silently pondered.
Before you continue