I founded the "Bragging Cult" in Naruto.

Chapter 657 The way to comfort adults is actually very simple; nine times out of ten, money can solve the problem.

"Ah~ Teacher, can I go back and rest now?"

Hongdou let out a long yawn, her eyes were already a little blurry, and there were still tears of sleepiness hanging in the corners of her eyes.

She's still a child. What kind of child stays up this late? And doesn't the teacher know that staying up late is very damaging to a girl's skin?

It takes at least half a month of beauty and skincare to recover from just one all-nighter. The meager stipend from the lab isn't enough for her to go to the beauty salon twice!

What a miser! He won't pay me, yet he demands overtime. He'll betray his master sooner or later!

Orochimaru ignored the resentful Anko and said, "Do another test. Take samples of cells from both sides of the test subject's body for testing."

"Then it will be dawn!"

Hongdou sat in the chair, then slumped onto the worktable and said, "I'm not going, I want to sleep!"

"Sleep?! What sleep?! Do you know how many things only happen and are only noticed at night?! Go now, you'll have time to sleep the day after tomorrow."

Orochimaru said with dissatisfaction, while Anko's eyes widened as she demanded, "The day after tomorrow?! Where did my tomorrow go?!"

"Research reports, journal writing—isn't this what you'd like to do more research work?"

"I'll be dead!"

"You're only a teenager, you won't have any problem not going a day or two without sleep."

"I'm not going. You can handle it yourself using Shadow Clone Jutsu."

"Chakra will interfere with the experimental results. I've emphasized this to you since your first day in the lab."

The two argued, but Anko refused to go to work. Orochimaru rubbed his temples, feeling an unprecedented headache.

If he had such good conditions back then, sleeping? That would be impossible. How could he possibly sleep at that age?! He'd be wasting his life if he wasn't constantly in the lab!

"Alright, don't make things difficult for the child. Red Bean, go to sleep."

Suddenly, another person appeared in the laboratory. Upon seeing the newcomer, Anko's eyes immediately welled with tears of grievance. She said, "Fourth Hokage, please find me a different teacher. I really can't take it anymore. You wouldn't want the village's underage ninjas to die suddenly, would you?"

"No, the village has the best medical facilities."

Chenma said with a smile, and Hongdou instantly fell into despair. Yes, the village's medical conditions are so good, it's impossible for her to die suddenly.

The thought of her "future"—dying suddenly, being revived, and then being dragged back to work in Orochimaru's lab—makes Anko feel like it must be hell.

"Go and get some rest before your teacher objects."

Tatsuma patted Anko's forehead, and Anko stormed out of the lab, pouting. "What kind of people are the higher-ups in Konoha? They only know how to exploit us low-level ninjas!"

Orochimaru didn't say anything to stop it. Since Tatsuma was here, some procedures were unnecessary; he could just ask Tatsuma directly.

After Anko left, Orochimaru asked, "How many Hashirama cells were transplanted? I checked the lab records three times today, and there is no possibility of Hashirama cells leaking out!"

Or are you saying you stole from your own post?

When Orochimaru first obtained that sample, he sensed something was wrong. Only the two of them had ever come into contact with Hashirama's cells in the lab. At other times, whether it was Root borrowing the Wood Release lab or the research team at Konoha Hospital borrowing them, they had no authority to use Hashirama's cells.

Even if we expand the scope to the entire village, only three people have come into contact with Hashirama's cells: Tsunade, who obtained Hashirama's cells, and Orochimaru and Tatsuma, who conducted Hashirama's cell examinations and various experiments.

Therefore, all experiments or contacts involving Hashirama cells could only be conducted around these three individuals. Orochimaru knew what he had done and it couldn't have been him.

Tsunade's initial request for Hashirama cells to be collected from the village caused a stalemate among the higher-ups. Given her strong resistance to Hashirama cell experiments, how could Tsunade possibly leak Hashirama cells to outsiders?

So there's only one person left, and despite all the prohibitions and regulations he talks about, he's always the first one to break them!

Seeing Orochimaru's scrutinizing gaze, Tatsuma gave a speechless smirk and said, "It's not me. Even if I wanted to, where would I find the time? Where would I find the money?"

Upon hearing this, Orochimaru slightly withdrew his scrutiny. After all, he knew that Tatsuma was poor, or rather, both of them were poor, saving money little by little to subsidize their experiments. If they had money, they wouldn't have had to endure such a long period of hardship.

Orochimaru didn't completely look away, after all, Obito's background hadn't been explained yet.

Tatsuma knew Orochimaru wouldn't be so easily steered away from the topic, so he explained, "I have indeed seen quite a few transplanted or experimental subjects of Hashirama's cells from the ninja world, but as for humans, there are only two: one is Obito."

"So, another graft can suppress Hashirama cells?"

After Orochimaru finished asking, Tatsuma shook his head and said, "No, but that person's identity is very interesting. Moreover, he is considered a pioneer of Hashirama's cell experiments, possibly even earlier than us or the Second Hokage."

Upon hearing this, Orochimaru's eyes turned strange. He suspected that Tatsuma was talking nonsense. In Tobirama Senju's era, the level of technology was limited, and it was impossible to conduct scientific analysis experiments on Hashirama's cells.

Even the two of them spent a lot of time and energy promoting the development of various cutting-edge technologies before they were able to research the hardware and software of interstitial cells.

How could someone who predates them, even Tobirama Senju, possibly have researched anything? Besides, in that era, what kind of researchers were studying ninjas?

And

"If the other transplant isn't capable of suppressing Hashirama cells, where did you get that sample from? Don't tell me it wasn't a human test subject; I've checked, and it is human."

"I didn't say you weren't human."

Tatsuma shrugged, and Orochimaru pressed, "Then who is that person?"

"The time isn't right yet. I'll let you know later."

Tatsuma shook his head and continued, "The other transplant recipient I mentioned earlier is more interesting. It was from him that I snatched Obito back. Are you sure you don't want to guess his identity?"

"Back then, let alone experiments, very few people even had access to Hashirama cells. Moreover, the Second Hokage's experiments can be traced back to the First Hokage's lifetime. Before that, who had access to Hashirama cells?"

"No, there is one. Uchiha Madara."

Upon hearing this name, Orochimaru fell silent for a while before saying, "So the Second Hokage's guess back then was true. Madara Uchiha may not have died in battle, but he's still alive and able to fight you. Isn't that a bit too far-fetched?"

Wait, wait, what was his purpose in choosing Obito as the test subject? Could it be that the Uchiha bloodline is more compatible with Hashirama's cells?

Or is it that he has a conspiracy? Regarding the Uchiha attack in the Land of Rivers two years ago, you've always known who the culprit was, but you refused to say, so it was Uchiha Madara?

"That's probably it. He has a conspiracy that he needs someone to carry out, and Obito is one of the people he chose."

Tatsuma nodded. Orochimaru was deep in thought, and Tatsuma didn't disturb him. After a while, Orochimaru said, "Uchiha Madara... how exactly did he develop such a sophisticated transplant technique?"

Did you bring back his experimental equipment and logbook?

".No."

"You just brought back a test subject? What use are you as Hokage?!"

Orochimaru suddenly became agitated, and Tatsuma opened his mouth, speechless for a moment. He hadn't expected that Madara Uchiha would use his last breath to reverse the summoning of the Gedo Mazo and move it away.

"What about Uchiha Madara? Bringing him back would be fine too. I have quite a few interrogation ideas, and I should be able to extract some useful information from him."

After venting his anger, Orochimaru asked, and Tatsuma, with a smirk, replied, "...I killed him."

Orochimaru took a deep breath and gritted his teeth, saying, "Do you really think I'm bored? You have mature technology and technicians, but instead you brought back a test subject for me to reverse engineer?"

"Lord Orochimaru, that's not right. I never said Obito was for you to bring back. I rescued the Konoha ninja who was stranded outside the village out of compassion."

"fart!"

After Orochimaru finished speaking, he suddenly remembered that Tatsuma had never said that Obito was brought back for his experiments, nor had he even informed him. It was only after Tatsuma discovered him that Obito was forcibly brought to the Wood Release laboratory.

Seeing that he finally realized what was happening, Tatsuma shrugged and said, "So, once you're done taking your samples, you should return Obito. There are a lot of people waiting outside."

"Take him away now. As for the other experiments, I can have him come and assist me when I have time."

Orochimaru looked at the data he had collected. This data, along with the samples that hadn't been used up, was enough for him to study for a while. Once he made progress or ran out of materials, he could have Obito come back to help with the sampling.

Tatsuma nodded and said nothing more, after all, Orochimaru actually needed comfort at this moment.

After working so hard for so long, he found that his achievements were not as good as those of an old man who had been abandoned by the times. But Tatsuma was not good at comforting Orochimaru, and words could not comfort him either.

They need either more funding or to bring back the equipment and logs used in Madara Uchiha's experiments; otherwise, Orochimaru won't be in a good mood for a while.

But Tatsuma couldn't do the latter, and he didn't want to do the former. After all, he had already increased Orochimaru's experimental funding as much as possible. Any more... unless the daimyo was willing to allocate additional funds, the village wouldn't have any surplus food.

Leaving the laboratory, following his senses, Tatsuma arrived at another laboratory where Obito was. Tatsuma and Orochimaru had almost equal access to the laboratory, and Tatsuma even had higher access at the lower levels than Orochimaru, so he could enter anywhere.

Orochimaru needed an application to enter the storage room where Hashirama's cells were sealed, but Tatsuma could enter directly, let alone a laboratory with a lower level of security.

"Yondaime-sama?!"

When Obito saw Tatsuma again, he was a little reserved. After all, so much had happened that day, and there were too many things to deal with at once.

He only learned in the afternoon that Tatsuma firmly believed he was still alive and didn't want him to be on the memorial tablet. The Fourth Hokage really trusted him!

Furthermore, Obito had just learned that his gift of the Sharingan to Kakashi had caused so much trouble for Kakashi, his teacher, his cousin, and his clan.

As expected, I'm not suited to making decisions on the spot.

Chenma looked at his body and limbs, which had grown into well-proportioned forms, without any one being longer or shorter than the other, and nodded, saying, "Let's go, your teacher, teammates, and your brother Tianfeng are all waiting outside."

"May I leave now?"

Orochimaru told him that he would not be allowed to leave until all the secrets of his body were completely exposed.

"Yes, go and embrace your new life."

(End of this chapter)