"Huh?"
Hearing Orochimaru's deadpan explanation of the device's mechanics, Makoto suddenly realized a glaring loophole.
"Orochimaru, this isn't just custom-built for Hanabi, is it? Literally anyone could use it, right?"
"Theoretically, yes," Orochimaru hissed, his yellow eyes gleaming. "But currently, the only functioning, stabilized cultivation tanks we possess are the alien one we just extracted from Momoshiki's Karma, and the ones containing the First Hokage's highly volatile Hashirama cells."
Orochimaru completely ignored Hanabi's personal genetic tank.
After all, Hanabi's tank was purely a biological buffer designed solely for neutralizing and safely guiding the Ōtsutsuki Clan's lethal power into her optic nerves. It lacked any raw, offensive utility of its own.
"If literally anyone can use it, isn't that suspiciously similar to the mass-produced 'Scientific Ninja Tools' Makoto mentioned existing in the future?" Senju Tobirama frowned deeply, crossing his arms.
He recalled Makoto's story about unregulated Scientific Ninja Tools that would appear in the Shinobi World in about twenty years.
Among the most distinctive and revolutionary of these gadgets was a mechanical gauntlet that could temporarily store pre-cast Ninjutsu.
When needed, a special launcher mechanism would instantly activate the sealed Ninjutsu scroll cartridge.
With this crude tool, even an untrained civilian or a weak Genin could instantly "use" high-level Ninjutsu they physically couldn't master themselves, or even steal and deploy Secret Clan Techniques from other bloodlines.
According to Makoto's spoilers, Boruto Uzumaki had famously cheated during the Chūnin Exams by aggressively spamming this exact device to win fights, despite strict, global prohibitions against its use in official tournaments.
In Tobirama's pragmatic, militaristic view, Scientific Ninja Tools were incredibly useful for black ops, but should never be mass-produced or abused by the general public.
The current Shinobi World was relatively, economically stable, having undergone massive structural reforms heavily influenced by Makoto's Economic Mutual Assistance Alliance.
The Five Great Nations and many smaller buffer countries had all successfully implemented these bureaucratic changes.
In the original, unaltered timeline, the unchecked, unregulated commercial use of these powerful tools would have inevitably doomed the Shinobi World to a capitalist arms race, even without the looming threat of the alien Ōtsutsuki Clan returning.
Complete abuse of Scientific Ninja Tools would permanently transform powerful, disciplined ninja into mere corporate weapon manufacturers and battery chargers.
The civilian daimyo, who previously lacked any personal military power but could still financially suppress the Ninja Villages, would gain an unstoppable advantage.
By simply spending the immense tax wealth they extracted from the populace, they could purchase vast, industrialized quantities of Scientific Ninja Tools and lethal Ninjutsu scrolls to arm their own private, non-ninja militias.
Moreover, the cheap commercial existence of pre-packaged Ninjutsu scrolls would completely stifle the ambition and work ethic of most future ninja, causing them to abandon grueling physical progress and the creative development of new techniques.
After all, why waste years of your life training to master the Great Fire Annihilation when you could simply buy a six-pack of Great Fireball Technique scrolls from a vending machine and unleash them all at once?
"Second Hokage, I perfectly understand your concerns, but there is absolutely no need to worry about mass production just yet. This is merely theoretically possible," Orochimaru replied smoothly, dismissing the political crisis.
"Even with the surgical addition of Shin Uchiha's highly adaptable clone cells for genetic harmonization, the First Hokage's cells are simply too violently powerful and cancerous for ordinary humans to withstand without mutating into a tree. Perhaps we would need to manually add the Uchiha Clan's specific Yin power into another cultivation tank just to chemically suppress them."
The glaring biological problem was that the Uchiha Clan's unique power was almost entirely concentrated in their optic nerves and eyes, not evenly distributed in their cellular tissue like the Senju.
This made genetic mass-splicing incredibly difficult, simply transplanting a raw, unmodified eyeball into a random grunt wouldn't automatically grant them Uchiha chakra.
Furthermore, deep, unethical research on the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan genetics hadn't even truly begun in this lab yet.
The relevant cellular data was currently blank.
Orochimaru stated the grim scientific facts plainly, openly admitting what he couldn't do and what he still didn't know.
However, in Orochimaru's twisted view, since his future self had managed to completely modify human genetics to allow his synthetic son Mitsuki to become a perfect Sage Mode host, thoroughly researching the Sharingan's DNA might mean he could eventually transform the Mangekyō Sharingan's tragic, emotionally traumatic activation requirement into a fixed, surgically selectable choice.
"Hmm..."
"Emmm..."
Hanabi, who had been standing awkwardly in the sterile lab watching the adults debate a bunch of heavy jargon she didn't understand, gradually grew drowsy.
Her initial, childish excitement over getting a power-up was rapidly fading into boredom.
"Alright, let's begin the procedure," Orochimaru suddenly announced, picking up the metallic activator device.
"Eh? Begin? Can we start already?!" Hanabi jumped, suddenly clutching the heavy activator to her chest.
"Wait, shouldn't we go to one of the reinforced training grounds outside the village for this?! What if the power goes completely out of control and blows up the lab?!"
"There is zero chance of it going out of control," Orochimaru stated flatly. "This is a synthesized White Karma. It contains only raw power, completely stripped of the soul, ego, or malicious will of the Ōtsutsuki Clan."
"To generate an immense, uncontrollable explosion of energy from such a small isolated amount of power, you would need to fundamentally alter the physics and utilize the exact principles of Baryon Mode." Orochimaru shook his head.
"Even if this were a fully hostile Black Karma, Momoshiki Ōtsutsuki would have to actively choose to burn his own remaining life force to activate Baryon Mode just to harm you. Otherwise, the dormant seal simply wouldn't be able to unleash any significant, volatile power on its own."
"The raw energy contained within the cultivation tank is well within our controllable safety limits, largely because the base amount of alien meat we used is simply too small to trigger a critical mass."
"Moreover, your specific application method drastically differs from the theoretical combat applications. Even if other, random test subjects could somehow withstand the physical mutation of the power, they would only be blindly borrowing its inherent properties. For example, borrowing the First Hokage's power through a tool would only grant them crude, temporary access to Wood Release."
"But you, while borrowing the Ōtsutsuki Clan's pure power, are actively aiming to permanently fuse it with your own highly concentrated Hyuga chakra to mutate your optic nerves and create an entirely new form of ocular energy—the Tenseigan. This biological feedback loop means that as long as you maintain strict mental control over your own chakra pathways, you can safely halt the mutation process at any time."
"...Alright, enough. My head's spinning," Hanabi grimaced, rubbing her temples.
If she had known asking one simple safety question would elicit such a lengthy, exhausting biology lecture from the creepy snake man, she wouldn't have bothered.
"Let's begin. Once the device is firmly pressed against your skin, use your chakra to trigger Resonance," Orochimaru instructed, stepping back.
"Mm."
Hanabi raised the heavy metallic activator in front of her.
'Huh?'
Suddenly, the dramatic motion felt strangely, cinematically familiar.
Her pale eyes lit up with inspiration.
As everyone in the village knows, the Land of Snow's newly established film studios produce a vast, highly lucrative number of blockbuster productions, all based on unhinged, plagiarized scripts written by Makoto.
For example, there was the hit fantasy epic about Black Zetsu dramatically splitting the moon in half to rescue his imprisoned mother, heavily inspired by the ancient folklore legend of the Lotus Lantern.
Or the sci-fi superhero tale of the alien Kaguya arriving on Earth, saving the primitive Shinobi World, and tragically sacrificing her own treacherous family for the greater good—blatantly stealing character arcs from Dragon Ball's Kakarot and Superman's Kal-El.
And then there was the edgy, anti-hero story of Kaguya, heavily modeled after the Tokusatsu shows Ultraman Belial and Ultraman Geed.
"Though my kin are cruel and heartless... though my immense power stems from the evil Ōtsutsuki Clan and the dark, corrupting Ten-Tails God Tree... I will forcefully transform this cursed power into gentle arms to protect the light and peace of this world!"
For easily impressionable children, these flashy, choreographed transformation sequences were truly dazzling!
"Ahem."
Hanabi dramatically inserted the two glowing genetic canisters into the slots on the activator and struck a highly exaggerated, heroic starting pose in the middle of the sterile lab.
"You Go! (Fusion!)"
"I Go!"
"Here We Go!"
(this is a catchphrase of Ultraman Geed)
Don't ask why the isolated Shinobi World suddenly uses English catchphrases.
The Japanese language already heavily incorporates a plethora of random English loanwords to sound cool, even giving rise to the iconic "Nice Guy" Guy sensei, and earning Sakura the official databook nickname of "Nice-Type Fighter."
Hanabi shouted her plagiarized Tokusatsu catchphrases with great enthusiasm, her physical movements broad, sharp, and highly dramatic.
But after finishing her final, heroic pose... she stood completely frozen in the quiet lab.
Her expression gradually turned incredibly awkward as absolutely nothing happened.
"Uh... where exactly is the 'ON' button on this transformation device?" Hanabi asked Orochimaru, holding up the silent hunk of metal with a deeply sheepish, flushed look.
"What button? Weren't you explicitly told to use Chakra Resonance to trigger the reaction?" Orochimaru replied, his tone utterly deadpan and puzzled by her dancing.
"Ah? Is that how it works?"
Hanabi felt her face burn with enough embarrassment that she could dig a three-bedroom apartment into the floorboards with her toes.
She quickly shut her eyes and violently channeled her Hyuga chakra into the metal.
A massive, blinding surge of raw chakra erupted from Hanabi's small body.
It instantly manifested as a thick, flowing, cloak-like aura—strikingly similar to Naruto's Tailed Beast Cloak, but burning in a vibrant, ethereal green hue.
"Wow, so cool... Uh, wait, why does something feel off?"
Hanabi glanced at her glowing reflection in a polished metal cabinet, exclaiming in delight before her expression suddenly froze.
She felt a deep, exhausting drain on her stamina.
She turned to Orochimaru in panic. "Don't tell me this super form only lasts three minutes like in the movies?!"
"No," Orochimaru shook his head. "With your current, pathetic Genin-level chakra reserves, you can only safely maintain the mutation for exactly one minute before you pass out."
"...Can't we just increase the dosage in the tanks?!"
"We could easily increase the flow," Orochimaru hissed smoothly. "But flooding your system with that much raw power would severely interfere with your physical cellular growth, aggressively stunt your skeletal structure, and permanently halt the natural maturation of your internal organ systems..."
"What does all that science jargon mean?" Hanabi asked, blinking in pure confusion.
"Simply put, the radiation would permanently stunt your physical development. You would be flat as a board forever," Makoto translated bluntly from across the room.
"THEN FORGET IT! THIS ONE MINUTE IS COMPLETELY FINE AS IS!" Hanabi shrieked, recoiling in absolute alarm and waving her hands frantically to abort the idea.