Chapter 50

"Too slow, the sun is almost setting. Where have you been?"

As soon as Hakuseki returned, Ruri frowned and asked.

"Sorry, the herbs I needed were quite rare, and I had to search many places before finding a store that sold them. Here, this is the natto you wanted."

After apologizing, Hakuseki threw the snack bag containing the natto to Ruri.

Ruri's expression eased slightly as she caught the snack bag.

"By the way, if there's nothing else, I'll head back to the lab. There's still a lot of work to do there."

Seeing that Ruri remained seated without moving, Hakuseki left the room.

Having collected Ayame's new body data, the next step could only be handled by himself.

Whether it was the Caged Bird, or the perfect fusion of natural energy and ordinary chakra into Sage Chakra, he had to do it himself.

It had been about a week since he annihilated the Sand Hidden Village's team within the Fire Country's borders and returned to Konoha. The next mission would likely be in the near future, and he would have to leave the village again in no more than half a month.

After all, Konoha still had a tough war to fight, and as one of the top elite jōnin, their Fifth Squad's leader, Sakumo Hatake, naturally couldn't rest in the village for too long.

As for what the next mission would entail, Hakuseki couldn't deduce useful information from the available intelligence, but it would definitely be at least an A-rank mission.

When he returned to the lab, Hakuseki opened one of the hidden doors. Inside was a room about thirty square meters in size, with a bathroom and shower for emergencies, where the five subjects for human experiments usually lived.

The lights were always on, so when Hakuseki opened the door, they could clearly see his face, and their bodies involuntarily trembled.

One of them then stepped out in order, though after such a long rest, their mental state had improved, the terrifying memories that resurfaced probably made them aware of what they would have to do next, and their faces turned pale.

Hakuseki nodded slightly in satisfaction. This was the right attitude.

If they cooperated actively and didn't resist, he could provide them with rich and delicious meals, which was much better than the life of a bandit, always on the run and living on the edge.

After that person left, Hakuseki looked at the remaining four, took out two not very thick books from his ninja tool bag, and threw them in front of the four.

"Read more when you have nothing to do. Books are a great way for humans to progress."

The four prisoners looked at each other, unsure of what Hakuseki was up to.

Hakuseki didn't explain much. He just thought these guys looked too bored, so he gave them some books to read, which would both pass the time and help their mental recovery.

Hakuseki closed the hidden door and turned around to find that the person who had just come out was already lying on the operating table, staring at the lights above.

If you can't resist, then just enjoy it.

After all, there's no worry about food or clothing here, which is much better than the chaos outside.

"Lord Hakuseki, can you give me more anesthetic?"

Seeing Hakuseki approach, he turned his head and asked in a low voice.

"..."

Hakuseki didn't know how to respond.

But he didn't follow the subject's request.

Using too much anesthetic can cause circulatory failure, leading to heart stoppage, so the dosage and method must be cautious.

"Don't worry, I will be responsible for your physical health and safety in this humane human experiment. And compared to last time, my experiment has made significant progress, so it shouldn't be as painful."

Hakuseki explained patiently.

Konoha had not issued any guidelines for human experiments, but Hakuseki always followed the rules from his previous life.

Especially for unethical human experiments, they should not be applied casually.

Maintaining the subject's physical interests, promoting medical development, and adhering to scientific principles, Hakuseki followed all these principles.

If the subject showed signs of mental breakdown, he would stop and switch to another subject.

If the Sage Technique succeeded, it would undoubtedly promote medical development.

The experiment itself was scientific, based on complete theory and a large number of animal cases, making the risk very low.

He did not start with human subjects from the beginning due to the slow progress.

Except for the first principle of informed consent... but in this war era, Hakuseki felt it was acceptable to act more flexibly without being too detailed.

Hakuseki picked up a syringe filled with natural energy and began injecting it into the subject.

To avoid problems, when injecting natural energy, he adjusted it based on the subject's physical condition, including the maximum chakra they could generate, to create complete Sage Chakra within the subject.

After forming the Sage Chakra, he observed the subject's rejection reaction, the longest duration, and whether it would damage various organs, all of which needed to be carefully considered.

When he initially used animals to fuse Sage Chakra, Hakuseki knew that cultivating the Sage Technique was fraught with unknown dangers.

Because of the unknown, he had to be cautious and not take too big a step at once.

The subject was connected to fine wires all over their body, and the wires were connected to a large computer that could promptly reflect the subject's various physical data and record it in the computer's database.

The subject was placed on the operating table, and the computer recorded the data in real-time.

Hakuseki then began another experiment—cracking the Caged Bird.

The question of whether depleting chakra would lead to death had been troubling him.

However, this experiment could not be directly applied to humans, so he started with animals.

Like humans, animals in nature also have chakra.

For this, Hakuseki prepared fifty mice for the "chakra disappearance" experiment.

If this experiment succeeded, it would greatly help in cracking the Caged Bird.

Even if it didn't solve the problem perfectly, it would provide a reasonable approach.

An hour later, the subject in the natural energy and ordinary chakra fusion experiment had finished.

Compared to the last time, there was a bit of progress. At this rate, there was a high probability that he would figure out a suitable human cultivation system for the Sage Technique before leaving Konoha.

He unplugged the wires from the subject and sent them back to the room behind the hidden door.

However, before leaving, the subject took two books from the bookshelf and glanced at Hakuseki to see his reaction.

Hakuseki just turned a blind eye and didn't say anything.

The books on the shelf covered a wide range of topics, including history, geography, chemistry, and biology, but no important research materials were placed there.

Learning is a crucial process for human enlightenment.

Since they had the enthusiasm to learn, Hakuseki was willing to support them.

But when it was time to be a subject, they had to be a subject, which was very important.

Hakuseki looked at the mouse on the operating table that had died from chakra depletion and shook his head.

The experiment failed.

Although he tried to save the mice, the effect was still minimal.

Seeing that it was almost time, Hakuseki was about to leave the lab when a sudden chill touched his throat, making his hair stand on end.

A sharp kunai was pressed against his throat, and with just a slight movement, he could be erased from this world.