Chapter 25: What? My Teacher Is a Chain Smoker? That Is Fantastic!
While flooding a target with Yang attribute chakra could induce respiratory alkalosis, the effect was too obvious, the success rate too low, and it was anything but subtle.
Now, after a series of improvements, Kenichi had taken a different path.
He could disperse his Yang attribute chakra into the air around him, letting every breath an enemy took quietly worsen any cancer already lurking in their body.
In theory, this technique had the potential to evolve into a wide area killing ninjutsu.
But for the moment, he was not chasing that extreme. Right now, he simply wanted to see how cancer would affect a Chunin level ninja.
"Teacher, look here. This test subject's lungs are already showing the early signs of lung cancer."
Kenichi's voice carried unconcealed excitement as he reported to Orochimaru. Just as he expected, even a Chunin was still only human.
As long as you were human, as long as you needed lungs to breathe, you could not escape the grip of lung cancer.
Early stage illness might not impact a ninja's combat ability too much. But late stage?
Terminal stage?
Kenichi had once visited relatives in the oncology ward in his previous life. Late stage and terminal cancer patients were truly miserable. Their bodies could barely support movement, yet even lying down was a kind of torture. They were constantly gnawed at by severe, unrelenting pain.
If his experiment succeeded, then an enemy's physical condition would steadily deteriorate in the middle of battle. The longer they stayed near him, the worse their state would become.
"I read your experiment report. The Delicate Illness Extraction Technique has no effect on this condition, correct?"
Orochimaru's gaze moved to the Chunin's lungs. There were no obvious external injuries, but subtle changes had already taken hold. He spoke with clear curiosity.
"Yes, teacher. After all, cancer cells are essentially the body's own cells that have gone out of control. They cannot be identified as harmful foreign substances," Kenichi replied with a nod.
He had previously instructed the medical teams to try their best to cure the cancer patients, but none of them had succeeded so far.
Only early stage cancers had any real chance of being cured. Mid stage cases depended heavily on the patient's physical condition.
In the late stage, there had been no successful cures at all, let alone at the terminal stage.
Of course, this was also because the ninja world's research on cancer was still in its infancy.
"Continue. I want to see exactly what you call late stage," Orochimaru urged, a hint of impatience in his tone.
The way these cells behaved was indeed very similar to Hashirama's cells.
Kenichi nodded. Once it entered the late stage, this Chunin would almost certainly die, with no way to save him.
Soon, as Kenichi continued channeling Yang attribute chakra into the lung cancer cells, abnormal patterns gradually appeared on the man's lungs.
Eventually, a white, irregularly shaped pit formed on the surface of the tissue.
This was the mass effect of lung cancer cells, something clearly visible to the naked eye. It proved just how large the cancerous growth had become.
"It takes too long, Kenichi. You need to improve that," Orochimaru said, first shaking his head, then giving a small nod of acknowledgment.
He was right. It required a long, continuous infusion of Yang attribute chakra to achieve this level of damage.
How could anyone have that kind of time on an actual battlefield, standing there and steadily pumping chakra into an enemy's lungs?
As it stood, the technique had obvious limitations.
But as an assassination tool? It was terrifyingly suitable.
For example, his teacher Hiruzen Sarutobi, who loved smoking more than anyone.
"I know, teacher." Kenichi scratched his head. This ninjutsu was hard to refine right now, but once he broke through its current limits, its future potential would be enormous.
Nicotine made lung cancer cells much easier to stimulate. But what about cancer cells in other organs?
You could not hunt them down one by one. That would be far too troublesome.
Kenichi already had a rough direction in mind.
In his previous life, when radiation was first discovered, people treated it like a miracle substance. There were even cosmetics that contained radium.
Of course, later, people realized that radiation could cause cancer, and it became something everyone tried to avoid.
So Kenichi's idea was simple: locate the radioactive elements from his previous world in this ninja world. If he could manage to create a controlled source of nuclear radiation...
After confirming the current stage of Kenichi's experiment, Orochimaru left. Before departing, he told Kenichi to carefully record how long this Chunin could survive and what symptoms appeared along the way.
Kenichi did not mind. Even if Orochimaru had not mentioned it, he intended to record everything. Chunin level subjects were rare resources; he was not about to waste the chance.
Once he wrapped up his work for the day, Kenichi headed out to eat ramen.
This time, he chose Ichiraku.
Ichiraku Ramen had been in Konoha for many years and had quietly watched countless ninja grow up. Back when Rin was still alive, she used to come here to eat with Obito and the others.
Kenichi occasionally came too, simply because the ramen really was delicious, even if it was a little more expensive than his usual shop.
He even suspected that the reason the other ramen place was cheaper was because it simply did not taste as good as Ichiraku.
As soon as he sat down, Kenichi noticed a ninja two seats away. That unmistakable silver hair gave away his identity at a glance.
Kakashi.
Kenichi took a quick look at him. Kakashi did not seem much different from before, except now he appeared and vanished more quietly than ever.
Kenichi figured he had probably joined the Anbu.
The Fourth Hokage, Minato, hoped that the constant missions and pressure of Anbu work would help Kakashi climb out of his grief. Judging from the current state of things, it seemed to have at least some effect.
"Kamui, huh."
Kenichi clicked his tongue.
The more he thought about it, the more that eye technique felt tailor made for someone like him. Unfortunately, Kamui currently belonged to exactly two people.
Kakashi was relatively easy to approach. Obito, on the other hand, was not.
And only when the pair of eyes were together was Kamui in its complete form, sharing a single connected space.
Thinking about it, Obito had probably been hit by Kakashi's explosive tags and kunai inside that very dimension more than once.
Looked at that way, Obito was actually rather pitiful. His attachment to Kakashi as a comrade ran so deep that he never even took back the eye he had given him.
Kakashi's expression remained unreadable, as usual. Kenichi, not wanting to start a conversation and get stonewalled, simply ate his noodles in silence.
By the time he finished, Kakashi had already left.
Kenichi did not dwell on it. He leisurely cleaned his teeth with a toothpick, then started walking back home.
"Senior Amamiya!"
He had barely taken a few steps when he heard a voice that made his head start to ache.
Mitarashi Anko was back again.
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