A few days later.
At a secret testing ground outside Konoha Village.
Orochimaru stood in the center of the field, holding a clipboard.
"You're seven minutes later than the agreed time."
"I ran into Teacher Ibuki on the way here. She said Hima placed second in the entire class during the academy's practical test." Shin-chan walked in. "So I waited outside the school gate for a while, hoping some of her good luck would rub off on me."
"Did it?"
"No. Hima said her good luck doesn't transfer to idiots."
Orochimaru laughed softly.
Then a figure hurried out from behind a nearby workbench.
Kazahana Dotō.
Shin-chan instinctively glanced at him.
The former rebel of the Land of Snow was now wearing a white researcher's uniform, his face showing an almost devout obedience.
"Lord Shinnosuke. It has been a long time."
Shin-chan moved closer to Orochimaru and lowered his voice.
"Why did he become like this?"
"We merely had some... in-depth discussions," Orochimaru replied casually. "This is perfect timing. I have something good to show you."
Orochimaru snapped his fingers. A nearby metal cabinet automatically opened, revealing a brand-new suit of chakra armor inside.
Unlike the suits from the Land of Snow, this armor was noticeably smaller and perfectly suited to Shin-chan's build.
"The first-generation Konoha chakra armor," Orochimaru introduced. "It was improved upon Lord Kazahana's original design, with optimized energy transmission efficiency."
Shin-chan took the armor and weighed it in his hands. It was much lighter than the suit he had carried back.
He put it on. The armor plates automatically fitted themselves against his body, and with several quiet clicks, every component connected perfectly.
"So cool." Shin-chan looked down at himself. "Is there a mirror? I want to see—"
Before he could finish speaking, the pale-blue patterns across the armor suddenly lit up. A chakra glow visible to the naked eye appeared around his body, forming a translucent defensive barrier.
"Whoa! It lit up!"
"The defensive barrier activated zero-point-three seconds faster than expected." Orochimaru stepped back several paces and raised his clipboard. "The chakra transmission is functioning normally. Now try some ninjutsu. Use any technique on that target."
A metal target slowly rose at the opposite end of the field.
Shin-chan raised his right hand and casually formed a seal.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough."
A powerful gale roared toward the target.
Its speed, range, and impact were about the same as when he normally used Great Breakthrough.
Orochimaru narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Try another."
Shin-chan changed his hand seal.
"Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Murder."
Electricity shot from his fingertips and spread forward along the ground, but its range and intensity were almost identical to the version he normally used.
"Try Fire Style."
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu."
A fireball roared outward and smashed into the distant wall. Its diameter and destructive power were still at Shin-chan's usual level.
Orochimaru lowered his head and studied the data on the clipboard, his brow furrowing slightly.
The armor was indeed operating, and its defensive barrier had activated normally.
But its ninjutsu amplification effect...
Was practically zero.
"That isn't right." Confusion appeared on Kazahana Dotō's face. "The chakra armor's amplification system has clearly activated. Theoretically, it should increase the power of his ninjutsu by at least fifty percent..."
"Theoretically," Orochimaru repeated.
Kazahana Dotō froze. "Lord Orochimaru?"
Orochimaru ignored him and looked up at Shin-chan in the center of the field.
"I see."
"What do you see?" Shin-chan looked down at the armor on his body. "Is it broken? Should I hit it twice?"
"It isn't broken." Orochimaru lowered the clipboard. "It's simply useless for you."
Kazahana Dotō froze. "Lord Orochimaru, that's impossible. The chakra armor's amplification mechanism—"
"The chakra armor absorbs the portion of energy that escapes when a ninja performs ninjutsu and converts it into additional offensive power," Orochimaru interrupted. "For an ordinary ninja, it is indeed an almost perfect design."
He then looked at Shin-chan.
"But for him, that mechanism is fundamentally ineffective."
Kazahana Dotō frowned, waiting for him to continue.
"His problem is precisely that his chakra reserves are too large."
"Too large?"
"So large that he has no need to care about that small amount of escaped chakra." Orochimaru looked at Shin-chan, who was still examining the armor in the center of the field. "In other words, your armor is indeed recycling the chakra he loses, but adding that recovered energy back is like pouring one extra cup of water into a river."
"That..." Kazahana Dotō said in disbelief. "How is that possible? Even a jōnin couldn't possibly—"
"He has already surpassed common sense," Orochimaru said with a subtle tone.
Kazahana Dotō opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but not a single word came out.
He had spent ten years pouring his heart and soul into developing chakra armor, regarding it as a great invention capable of overturning the entire ninja world.
Yet in front of this seemingly foolish boy, it was actually...
Completely useless?
That felt even worse than being killed.
"So this thing is useless for me?" Shin-chan looked down at the armor on his body.
Orochimaru nodded. "The amplification effect is negligible."
"Oh." Shin-chan jumped in place twice. "But it still looks pretty cool when I wear it."
Kazahana Dotō's face shifted between blue and white.
Shin-chan did not notice his expression at all.
"Can you add two more functions to this armor?"
"What functions?"
"It should automatically play background music when I use a technique," Shin-chan said with a completely serious expression. "And when I make my entrance, it needs lighting effects. You know, those flashing lights that go whoosh, whoosh, whoosh."
The corner of Kazahana Dotō's mouth twitched. "This is combat equipment, not a stage prop."
"But isn't looking cool during battle really important?" Shin-chan tilted his head. "Whenever the main character uses a finishing move, they always have their own special background music."
"There is no background music in reality."
"That's why we need to add it."
Orochimaru was silent for a moment.
Then, unexpectedly, he picked up his pen and wrote something on the clipboard.
Kazahana Dotō couldn't help glancing over. He discovered that Orochimaru had not written "Background Music Plan," but instead:
Correlation Between the User's Psychological State and Combat Effectiveness.
He realized in despair that, in a certain sense, these two people were equally unreasonable.
"B-but there was absolutely no amplification..." Kazahana Dotō tried to find some trace of his own value in this experiment.
Shin-chan turned to look at him. "That's because I'm already super powerful."
Orochimaru let out a soft laugh from beside them.
"Enough idle conversation. Since the amplification is useless to you, we'll approach this from another direction. Try a more advanced ninjutsu. I want to see the armor's maximum tolerance under high-intensity chakra output."
Shin-chan thought about it.
"How advanced?"