They traveled through time at the same time, but the villainous scientist

Chapter 6 Cultivation, Oh Cultivation

And so, time flew by, and a month passed quietly.

For Orochimaru, who had just embarked on the path of a ninja, his ninja career was not as thrilling as he had imagined.

Instead, you start with the lowest-level D-rank tasks: pulling weeds, finding cats, taking care of children, repairing walls... basically just these kinds of mundane tasks.

Orochimaru didn't complain about this. These missions were usually carried out around Konoha Village, which made it convenient for him to observe the environment of Konoha.

The main purpose was to see what business opportunities were available nearby, since research requires funding.

Besides that, he focused his main energy on another matter during this period.

It was a modified design drawing of the hidden blade, a weapon commonly used by master assassins in another world, based on his memories of that world.

By combining existing knowledge of mechanical arts in this world, the trigger mechanism was modified to be chakra-triggered, making it more suitable for the stealthy and swift combat style of ninjas.

With the blueprints complete, the next step is to bring them to life.

He found a blacksmith shop in the village with a decent reputation.

The shop was small, hidden in a somewhat secluded alley, the air thick with the scorching smell of iron and the acrid odor of burning coal.

Orochimaru handed the design to the sweating blacksmith and briefly explained the requirements.

The blacksmith carefully examined the intricate structure on the blueprint, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes. This was the first time he had ever seen blueprints with such detailed markings.

"This thing... has a very ingenious structure, and the requirements for materials and craftsmanship are not low."

It will take a lot of effort to make it.

As for the price... considering you're a Konoha ninja, 100,000 ryo will do.

After a long pause, he put down the blueprints, wiped his sweat, and said in a deep voice.

One hundred thousand taels?
Even though Orochimaru was mentally prepared, his eyelids still twitched involuntarily when he heard the number.

Based on what he knows so far, the average reward for completing a D-level mission is around one thousand taels of silver.

A steaming bowl of ramen on the street costs around sixty taels.

One hundred thousand taels of silver is basically enough for 100 D-level missions.

However, considering that the First Shinobi World War had just ended and everything was in ruins, it is not entirely incomprehensible that military supplies such as weapons were priced at a premium.

Moreover, the design of this hidden blade is indeed complex and requires extremely high craftsmanship.

He took a deep breath and took a small bag out of his ninja tool pouch.

"This is the deposit. Please get it done as soon as possible."

He pushed the money bag over, his tone calm.

Although it hurts a bit, it might come in handy at a crucial moment.

"No problem, come back in a week to pick it up."

The blacksmith weighed the money bag in his hand, his eyes lit up, and he nodded.

Stepping out of the blacksmith's shop, the afternoon sun was a bit too bright.

The money is still not enough...

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes slightly, a hint of emotion in his expression.

If crafting a hidden blade is this expensive, who knows how much it would cost to build a fully equipped biological laboratory!
The rewards from completing tasks alone are definitely not enough, and if you do tasks every day, the time available for experiments will definitely be reduced.

It seems we must find a more efficient way to make money as soon as possible...

As his thoughts raced, a furtive figure entered his field of vision. That distinctive white hair stood out starkly in the crowd; it was undoubtedly Jiraiya.

At that moment, he was standing on tiptoe, peering curiously towards the women's bathhouse.

This guy... he really is hard to change his nature...

Orochimaru's lips twitched almost imperceptibly. He silently looked away, pretending not to recognize her, and turned to walk in another direction.

After walking for a while, I returned to my home.
Pushing open the door, the room was slightly dimly lit.

As soon as he stepped into the entryway, two figures that looked exactly like him appeared silently in the living room and nodded at him in unison.

"Bang!" "Bang!"

With two soft sounds, the shadow clones vanished into white smoke. At the same time, a massive flow of information flooded into Orochimaru's mind like a burst dam—it contained all the experiences and insights gained from the two shadow clones' chakra nature transformation training over the past few hours.

The Shadow Clone Technique is arguably one of the most incredible, bug-level ninjutsu in the Naruto world.

This technique can create a physical clone that possesses all the experiences of the original body. When the clone is dispelled, its experiences and memories are completely fed back to the original body.

Whether for cultivation or research, it's incredibly useful...

However, this method also has drawbacks, namely, receiving a large amount of information at once can bring a lot of mental burden.

Fortunately, thanks to his experience of sharing consciousness and memories with other "selves" in the gray fog space, his spiritual energy far exceeds that of his peers, and his soul resilience is greatly enhanced.

Currently, what's limiting him isn't his mental burden, but rather his chakra reserves!

After all, he didn't have any tailed beasts or Uzumaki bloodlines...

He closed his eyes and quietly processed the new information in his mind.

During this period, the main focus of Shadow Clone training was on the nature transformation of chakra.

The so-called nature transformation is to endow one's chakra with specific attributes such as wind, fire, lightning, water, and earth, or to give one's chakra the characteristics of these things.

Ninjas who master nature transformation can unleash even greater power when using corresponding ninjutsu.

For example, Fire Release, which incorporates Fire Release chakra, will have a higher temperature and greater destructive power; Wind Release, which incorporates Wind Release chakra, will generate wind at a faster speed, and so on.

Depending on their innate physical attributes, each ninja is naturally more compatible with certain types of chakra.

For example, his basic attributes are wind and earth, which means that he will achieve twice the result with half the effort when cultivating the nature changes of these two attributes.

However, this does not mean that he can only use ninjutsu of these two attributes. Through diligent training, he can master the nature transformation of other attributes and even develop "bloodline limit" and "bloodline elimination" that combine multiple attributes.

The information above, along with the method for cultivating chakra nature transformation, naturally came from the private lessons given to him by his teacher, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Thanks to the talent he displayed when he snatched the bell, the Third Hokage naturally wouldn't refuse his request to learn ninjutsu.

It must be said that the Third Hokage truly deserves his title as the "Professor of Ninjutsu," as his understanding of techniques is indeed profound.

It's a pity that it focuses more on application than on exploring its principles.

Orochimaru nodded in satisfaction; the Shadow Clone Technique's training efficiency was indeed well-deserved.

However, he is more concerned about the mechanism of information transmission and the creation of physical clones.

However, there is an even more practical problem for him.

He walked to the desk in the corner of the room, opened the drawer, and took out a savings book that recorded income and expenses.

Looking at the balance, Orochimaru sighed. If he paid the remaining balance for the hidden blade, he would probably be eating dirt afterward.

It's time to seriously consider ways to make money...

(End of this chapter)