— — — — — — —
Over time, Tobirama's impression of Uchiha Kaito had indeed improved significantly.
Whether it was Kaito's personal talent in training or his scientific research skills, Tobirama found himself increasingly acknowledging the young man's abilities.
As for his governance over Konoha—there was no need to even question that.
However, deep down, Tobirama still had some lingering reservations. He found it difficult to fully accept reality just yet.
That said, if things continued as they were, he would eventually meet the contract's conditions sooner or later.
— — —
In the Pirate World – Somewhere in the North Blue
At this moment, a fleet of massive, snail-shaped ships was sailing across the sea.
This was none other than Germa 66's fleet—essentially their entire kingdom in motion.
High above in the sky, the Ninja Dragon soared through the air, closely following the unique fleet.
With a swift "whoosh," Kaito and Orochimaru suddenly appeared on the dragon's back.
Spreading his Observation Haki and mental perception, Kaito instantly locked onto Germa 66's fleet below.
He immediately sent a mental message to the Ninja Dragon: "Great work! You've done an excellent job tracking them."
"This matter is in our hands now. You can continue exploring the world."
The dragon responded without hesitation: "Understood! I'll take my leave then."
"Mm." Kaito nodded, then placed a hand on Orochimaru's shoulder and locked onto a specific location within the Germa 66 fleet using Observation Haki.
In the next instant—"whoosh!"—they teleported away.
Feeling the weight lifted from its back, the Dragon flapped its wings and swiftly disappeared into the distance.
Meanwhile, Kaito and Orochimaru had landed aboard one of the snail ships.
Kaito's mental perception immediately spread out, encompassing the entire Germa 66 fleet.
Within moments, he pinpointed Vinsmoke Judge's exact location.
With another flash, he and Orochimaru teleported straight into a laboratory inside one of the ships.
"Who's there?!"
Judge was sharp—he instantly sensed the intruders and turned around in alarm, his expression changing drastically.
At the same time, his hand discreetly reached for the transformation button on his battle suit.
"Sharingan Genjutsu – Labyrinth Mirage!"
But Kaito was faster. Before Judge could react, Kaito's Sharingan activated, and a powerful illusion engulfed him instantly.
Judge froze in place, completely ensnared.
"Heh, Kaito-kun, your Genjutsu skills keep getting more terrifying," Orochimaru chuckled, licking his lips as he observed the laboratory.
"And this is just with the three-tomoe Sharingan. I can't even imagine how powerful your illusions will be once you awaken the Eternal Mangekyō."
"The Sharingan… it truly is a bloodline to be envious of."
Orochimaru was captivated as he examined the lab's contents. No matter how many times he saw it, he couldn't help but marvel at the Sharingan's immense potential.
After all, it was one of the fastest ways to power.
Kaito laughed, shaking his head. "If you want it so badly, then hurry up and finish developing the Uchiha bloodline serum."
"Once you do, you'll be able to obtain Uchiha blood and awaken the Sharingan yourself."
"In fact, if you can crack the Senju bloodline as well, and inject both into your body…"
"Then in the future, unlocking the Eternal Mangekyō or even the Rinnegan will be much easier."
As he spoke, Kaito approached Judge and placed a hand on his head.
Activating his powerful mental abilities and Genjutsu expertise, he began extracting Judge's memories.
With his immense mental strength, mastery of illusions, and the memory-extraction techniques he had learned from Konoha's Interrogation Department, Kaito easily broke through Judge's mental defenses.
His memory scan had begun.
"Ugh… you're overestimating me," Orochimaru sighed bitterly, shaking his head.
"Bloodline limits aren't that easy to research, especially the Senju and Uchiha bloodlines."
"So far, with you, me, and Tobirama's clone working together, we've spent nearly half a month just making some progress on Magnetic Release."
"There's still a long way to go before we can create a bloodline serum for that, let alone for the Uchiha or Senju clans."
The research on Magnetic Release was only possible thanks to Kaito's resources.
After all, the body of the Third Kazekage had once been in his possession.
Of course, it was no longer with him.
During Konoha's peace negotiations with the Sand Village, one of their conditions was the return of the Third Kazekage's corpse.
If Konoha refused, Sand was prepared to drag the war out indefinitely rather than sign a surrender agreement or pay reparations.
After consulting with Orochimaru and Tobirama, Kaito had agreed.
However, before returning the body, he had already extracted plenty of blood, cells, and chakra samples for research.
And now, those samples were proving invaluable.
If they could successfully create a Magnetic Release bloodline serum, Kaito wouldn't mind using it himself.
After all, he had always been interested in Magnetic Release.
In fact, he believed that through the process of cracking its secrets and creating the serum, he would naturally gain mastery over the ability as well.
So far, the research progress was advancing rapidly.
Although they didn't have Sand Village's official training methods for Magnetic Release, the samples themselves contained all the mysteries of the ability.
As long as they could unravel and reconstruct those mysteries, they could master it.
For most people, this would be impossible.
But for Kaito? It was only a matter of time.
Especially with Orochimaru and Tobirama assisting him.
"See? We're already making progress on Magnetic Release."
"Once we successfully develop the serum for it, we'll have valuable experience."
"After that, researching the Uchiha and Senju bloodline serums will be much easier!"
"Not to mention, we just acquired Germa 66's bloodline factor technology, artificial human technology… and a massive amount of human-related research data and materials!"
"I can already confirm that bloodline factor technology is going to be a huge help in our research on Kekkei Genkai!" Kaito said excitedly.
"Oh?"
Hearing this, Orochimaru lost interest in checking the other materials and instruments in the lab. Instead, he eagerly walked over to Kaito and asked, "You got the bloodline factor technology from his memories?"
"Can you share it with me right now?"
After all, this was the main reason he came here.
As long as he obtained this knowledge and technology, Vinsmoke Judge himself would become much less important.
Of course, if Judge could be completely subdued and made to assist in research, he would still be valuable.
But based on Kaito's previous intel, Vinsmoke Judge was extremely arrogant and proud, making him difficult to tame.
Let alone convincing him to form a contract with Kaito.
And without a contract, he couldn't be trusted with certain secrets, meaning he wouldn't be able to participate in critical research.
That would greatly diminish his value.
Judge was no Vegapunk—his research capabilities were far inferior. If he couldn't be contracted, neither Orochimaru nor Kaito would feel comfortable keeping him around.
"Of course!"
Kaito nodded affirmatively. "Once I finish sorting and copying the useful information from his memories, I'll send it to you."
Orochimaru licked his lips in excitement. "Much appreciated! This is turning out better than expected!"
Vinsmoke Judge was really turning out to be useful.
An hour later, Kaito finally completed the extraction and sorting of Judge's memories.
He deleted all the useless information, keeping only the bloodline factor research, technical knowledge, and extensive experimental data.
Strangely enough, the commotion here hadn't alerted the rest of Germa 66, saving them a lot of trouble.
It seemed Judge frequently spent long hours in the lab, so him being gone for an hour or two wouldn't raise any suspicion.
"Phew! Finally done! That guy had way too much junk in his memories! Sorting and extracting them was exhausting!"
Kaito sighed as he withdrew his hand. Before Orochimaru could even ask, Kaito raised his hand and tapped Orochimaru's forehead.
A stream of light shot into Orochimaru's mind.
In the next moment, waves of information flooded into Orochimaru's brain.
He quickly shut his eyes to process everything.
Seeing that Orochimaru would take a while to digest the data, Kaito began exploring the laboratory.
Using the memories extracted from Judge, he successfully located the lab's hidden vault.
Instead of bothering with passwords, he simply used his spiritual energy to infiltrate the vault and teleport its contents into his storage space—various technological blueprints, rare minerals, and research materials.
However, he didn't touch the large sum of money stored there.
To him, the tens of billions in cash weren't particularly valuable.
Besides, he had other plans for Vinsmoke Judge.
He'd check with Orochimaru first, though.
— — —
Another hour passed.
During this time, Kaito focused on studying the bloodline factor technology and related data, thoroughly absorbing and understanding the information.
His goal was to fully integrate this knowledge as quickly as possible.
Finally, Orochimaru opened his eyes.
His face was full of excitement. "Subarashii! Absolutely subarashii!"
"This bloodline factor technology and the extensive experimental data are invaluable for our research on Kekkei Genkai and enhancement serums!"
"With all this, I'm confident we can crack Magnet Release and develop a Magnet Release bloodline serum within a month."
This was a major find.
"Haha! As long as you're confident!"
Kaito laughed and nodded.
He had the same feeling.
In fact, he suspected they'd finish the Magnet Release research even faster than Orochimaru predicted.
"What do you think we should do with Vinsmoke Judge?"
"This guy isn't easy to subdue, let alone contract."
"He's kind of a liability."
Kaito turned to Orochimaru and asked.
.
.
.