Chapter 433: Next, Please Welcome the Developer of the Ninja World Internet! Orochimaru!
"Konan, you're back... cough, cough... How did it feel after seeing it today?"
Nagato was still the same as before.
Inside the Akatsuki's base in the Land of Rain, he looked tired and physically weak. Even so, when he saw Konan return, he still forced a smile and looked at her gently.
Konan had gone out to inspect the future location of the Akatsuki's base. At the same time, Nagato had also wanted her to interact with Amamiya Kenichi and see what she thought of him.
Although Nagato had already confirmed his cooperation with Kenichi, caution was still necessary.
Furthermore, Nagato had thoughts of his own.
His current physical condition was very poor. He did not know how much longer he could hold on. If he died, what would happen to Konan?
Konan was the only person Nagato could not let go of.
His cherished friend.
"...It was pretty good. That Amamiya Kenichi..." Konan's eyes became a little dazed.
She thought of the Land of Water she had seen earlier.
And those villages.
She had personally chosen the Akatsuki's base location based on the map, so the scenes she saw along the way could not have been arranged temporarily.
Amamiya Kenichi had truly done those things.
Konan told Nagato about her experiences in the Land of Water.
This time, the Akatsuki was relocating its base, and she had gone to see the actual situation with her own eyes. She also needed to decide whether they should truly cooperate with Kenichi.
After all, once Nagato and Konan moved there, the Akatsuki would be marked as part of the Land of Water.
At that point, it would become even more difficult to accept missions throughout the ninja world, and the organization's future development might undergo new changes.
That was the main reason Nagato had to be so cautious.
"Amamiya Kenichi really did that."
Nagato's expression darkened when he heard that the Land of Water's daimyo had created countless pretexts to collect taxes.
But when he heard that Kenichi had canceled most of those taxes, leaving only a few, and that the local common people were very happy, a faint smile appeared on his face.
When Nagato was young, he had heard his parents talk about daily matters. He knew that even in the Land of Rain, taxes had been terrifying.
For ordinary people, being able to save even a little money was already considered good.
Now that Kenichi had taken over the Land of Water, he had truly canceled many of the taxes there.
What if he could take over the entire ninja world?
At that point, the entire ninja world would belong to him. Everyone's taxes would be greatly reduced.
How happy would those people be then?
Children at home would probably be able to eat meat often, instead of needing to ration it carefully.
And without war, ninja would no longer break into homes for no reason and slaughter entire families.
"Then let's move. Move the organization's base over there."
Nagato made up his mind.
The plan to collect the Tailed Beasts was likely a trap. Now that the Three-Tails was dead, they would have to wait for the Three-Tails to revive before they could collect it.
In that case, it would be better to follow Kenichi's plan first.
At least so far, Kenichi was doing quite well.
If this method could be applied to other parts of the ninja world in the future, then Yahiko's dying wish might truly be realized.
I truly hope I can see that world arrive before I die…
—
"Lord Amamiya."
Uchiha Shiori respectfully lowered her head.
Kenichi glanced at her. She was still the same as always.
"Any progress with Rin Nohara?" Kenichi casually put away the experiment log in his hand.
Research on Pandora had slowed down recently.
It had proven that studying a fungus's genetic sequence and finding the gene that could change its transmission method was extremely difficult.
However, research on another front had been very effective.
After attempting to apply Pandora fungus as a toxin to weapons, the results were excellent. Test subjects who were scratched or stabbed were almost all infected with Nano Disease, and the killing effect on ordinary people was very obvious.
Research on ninja was still ongoing, but Kenichi did not intend to use too many research materials.
Otherwise, the attrition rate among ninja would become far too high.
"There has been some progress, Lord Amamiya. At present, Miss Rin Nohara has begun actively investigating matters related to you," Shiori said softly.
Kenichi nodded.
It seemed there had indeed been some progress.
At least Rin had started to show curiosity about him.
The Akatsuki's relocation would still take some time. After all, the organization had many things to move, the most important of which was naturally the Gedō Mazō.
However, if the Gedō Mazō was to be moved to the Land of Water, it would need to be summoned, which was very troublesome.
Nagato's body probably could not withstand the strain of summoning the Gedō Mazō many times.
Previously, Nagato's relocation to Takigakure had been more about attracting the attention of the ninja villages, thereby making it more convenient for Kenichi to attack Kirigakure and the Land of Water.
The Gedō Mazō itself had not changed location.
With this amount of time, there should be no need to rush into controlling Rin's mind.
However, how to guard against that scoundrel Black Zetsu was still a troublesome problem for Kenichi.
Black Zetsu's concealment ability was still extremely strong. Finding him would not be easy.
"Tsk. This kind of undetectable guy is really annoying. If Black Zetsu were brought to my previous life, he could probably become the strongest paparazzo in the world."
Kenichi rubbed his temples in distress.
At present, he had no way to deal with Black Zetsu.
Although his teacher had developed thermal imaging, its current use was still quite limited. It was fine for night detection, but the device itself was very large, inconvenient to wear, and easily damaged.
Speaking of his teacher...
"All right, you may go. Remember to continue guiding Rin Nohara. Inform me when she urgently wants to see me," Kenichi said with a wave of his hand.
Shiori respectfully bowed, then slowly withdrew from the laboratory.
Kenichi scratched his head.
He wondered what his teacher had been doing all this time.
Ever since the rift between him and his teacher over the death of the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Kenichi had not received any information from him.
Thinking of this, Kenichi picked up his phone and pressed the call button.
There was a long silence on the other end.
After a while, his teacher's voice finally came through.
"Kenichi? Is there something you need me for?"
His teacher's voice sounded very calm, as if nothing had happened between them before.
However, Kenichi could not quite grasp his teacher's personality.
Sometimes Orochimaru seemed to be smiling, but in reality, he might have already planned your death in his mind.
"Teacher, I wanted to ask whether you have any projects currently underway," Kenichi said.
He was a little curious.
Orochimaru and Amado Sanshu were currently the two people with the highest scientific research ability among those Kenichi knew.
As for Amado Sanshu, Kenichi did not know what mysterious thing he had been working on recently and did not ask too much.
He had only heard before that Amado seemed to have more ideas for the Ninjutsu reflection device he developed and was currently improving it.
And his teacher was even more mysterious.
"I've been researching the One's Own Life Reincarnation you gave me earlier," his teacher said calmly, without the slightest fluctuation in his tone.
Kenichi felt somewhat helpless.
It seemed his teacher was still uncomfortable inside.
Although Kenichi himself knew about the cliché butterfly effect, he truly had not expected that his teacher would develop a rift with him because he had caused the Third Hokage's death.
In the original work, it seemed his teacher had personally taken action to send off the Third Hokage.
So could this be a case of hatred running so deep that it had to be settled personally?
Because Orochimaru hated the Third Hokage so much, he had to kill him with his own hands to be satisfied?
That was too absurd.
"Cough, cough. Teacher, I have a project here, but it is still in the experimental verification stage. Would you like to take a look?" Kenichi asked tentatively.
He knew his teacher's personality.
It was difficult to make Orochimaru interested in conventional things, especially when he was in a bad mood.
But if it was a brand-new research project, that could instantly catch Orochimaru's attention.
Even if his teacher was unhappy, he would still be interested in knowing what Kenichi intended to do.
Kenichi was very confident about that.
"Oh? What project?" A hint of emotion finally appeared in Orochimaru's tone.
His teacher had indeed been interested.
"Teacher, where are you? I'll come find you and explain it in detail." Kenichi rubbed his hands together.
He planned to use the Internet to draw out his teacher's curiosity.
However, explaining the Internet was too complicated. They needed to meet in person if he wanted to successfully pull his teacher into the project.
His teacher did not refuse and directly agreed.
"So, what is this project you're talking about?"
When Kenichi found Orochimaru, he was sitting on a sofa and playing with a jar.
Kenichi could clearly see that the thing inside the jar was Hidan's head.
Hidan's eyes were empty as his head floated in nutrient fluid.
A long time had passed, but Hidan's head showed no signs of decay. It looked exactly the same as before.
If his eyes had not been so still, Kenichi would have thought Hidan had woken up.
"Teacher, it's like this. When you use a computer, have you ever wondered why information cannot be transmitted between two computers?"
Kenichi chuckled as he rubbed his hands, then could not help glancing at Hidan's head again.
Hidan was truly miserable.
Although Kenichi knew that Hidan's misery was entirely his own fault, it had to be said that his current state could truly be described as tragic.
He was constantly soaked in that jar, never seeing the light of day.
Now, even his brainwave activity had stopped.
Kenichi had learned before that Hidan's brainwaves had already been still for a long time.
In a sense, Hidan was now in a vegetative state.
A vegetative person who could not think at all and only possessed the most basic bodily instincts.
But thinking of Hidan being soaked in a jar day after day, seeing only darkness, unable to tell day from night, unable to sense the passage of time, knowing nothing at all...
It was already good that he had not gone mad.
"...Are you talking about something similar to a mobile phone?" Orochimaru pondered for a moment, then thought of mobile phones.
They were somewhat similar to what Kenichi was describing. Both could transmit information over long distances.
"Something similar, but more special," Kenichi said.
He did not deny it.
At the very beginning, the Internet had used dial-up access. Some people of a certain age probably still remembered those days.
So there was nothing wrong with saying that phones and the Internet were related.
"Teacher, hypothetically, if we embedded a super-large relay station at a certain location, one capable of simultaneously handling calls from every place and every period of time in the ninja world, allowing all of them to communicate independently without interfering with each other..."
"And if, within this relay station, there was a dedicated system space where people could leave messages they had written themselves, and others could immediately see those messages after they were posted..."
Kenichi smiled at his teacher.
"What kind of world would that create?"
The Internet could be called a world-changing weapon.
An intelligent person would naturally be able to see what it contained.
His teacher fell silent, clearly thinking about what would happen if such a thing truly came to exist.
Then Orochimaru realized that if something like that existed, he could exchange Ninjutsu knowledge with people in the Land of Earth even while staying in the Land of Water.
Any novel Ninjutsu could potentially spread through it.
And whoever controlled this relay station would instantly obtain a vast amount of strange knowledge. Some might be useful, some might not, but something valuable could always be found within it.
If that were the case...
"So, you already know how to make this?" Orochimaru looked at Kenichi with interest.
Of course, he knew his student would not say something like this for no reason.
Since Kenichi had brought it up, he must have his own reason.
That meant the greatest possibility was that he already had an idea.
"Yes, Teacher. It's like this. My younger sister, Uchiha Hikari, whom I took care of before, has a rather special ability..."
Kenichi briefly explained that the emergence of the Internet was inseparable from Hikari.
Hikari's ability was very special. If it was researched, it might allow a novel form of Internet to appear in this world.
His teacher listened very carefully, considering in his mind whether this matter was feasible.
However, if what Kenichi said was true, then this really did have a certain possibility of being realized.
"...Teacher, if it succeeds, this world will usher in an era of information explosion. All Ninjutsu, and even intelligence itself, may be revealed on this epoch-making product."
Kenichi looked at Orochimaru seriously.
"I understand."
His teacher revealed a faint, excited smile.
.....
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