Chapter 639: The Birth of Kashin Koji

By now, Orochimaru's laboratory possessed an extremely comprehensive collection of equipment and technology.

Kabuto Yakushi regarded Jiraiya's operation as a test personally assigned to him by Orochimaru, so he devoted his full attention to it, pursuing both speed and precision.

First, he cultivated the replacement organ Jiraiya needed as quickly as possible.

Then came the anesthesia, surgery, and administration of drugs to accelerate recovery. Every step flowed seamlessly into the next, without the slightest wasted movement.

The entire process was so fast that Jiraiya almost felt as though he'd imagined it.

It was like taking an afternoon nap and having a particularly strange dream.

But once he confirmed that everything had genuinely happened, Jiraiya suddenly developed an inexplicable fear of Orochimaru.

Kabuto was merely Orochimaru's assistant, yet he was already this skilled.

If Orochimaru himself performed the operation, just how terrifyingly efficient would he be?

Thank goodness Orochimaru had turned over a new leaf.

This time, he'd helped Jiraiya with a replacement and enhancement procedure.

But what if next time he decided to perform a different kind of transformation?

Would Jiraiya wake up from a nap one day and discover that he'd become a woman?!

And there was something even more terrifying to consider.

Orochimaru himself had already become biologically female after using the Living Corpse Reincarnation technique.

What if Orochimaru suddenly decided that, since they'd been such good brothers in the past, they ought to become good sisters in the future?

What if he actually performed that operation on Jiraiya?

Orochimaru might not have thought of it yet.

But what about later?

What if the idea suddenly occurred to him one day?

At that point, all three Legendary Sannin would end up being women!

The mere thought sent a shiver down Jiraiya's spine.

Unfortunately, Kabuto happened to notice.

"What's wrong? Are you experiencing any postoperative discomfort?"

Kabuto immediately approached him with an expression of concern.

Of course, what concerned Kabuto wasn't Jiraiya himself.

This operation was effectively an examination of Kabuto's abilities, and he absolutely couldn't afford to leave any flaws in his work.

Even if something had gone wrong, he needed to document Jiraiya's case, identify the cause, and correct it immediately so the same problem wouldn't occur during future procedures.

That was the fundamental scientific attitude required of everyone entering their research institute.

"Uh… N-no, it's nothing."

Jiraiya awkwardly waved his hand.

"A little discomfort after surgery is perfectly normal, isn't it? Don't worry about it. I'll be fine after resting for a few days."

There was no way he dared explain what he'd actually been thinking.

Admittedly, he desperately wanted to ask Kabuto whether Orochimaru knew how to perform those kinds of transformation surgeries independently of Living Corpse Reincarnation.

At least then he'd know whether he was safe.

But Kabuto worked for Orochimaru.

If Jiraiya voiced his concerns and Kabuto reported them to his master, wouldn't that be equivalent to giving Orochimaru the idea himself?

Absolutely not!

So Jiraiya could only offer a few casual excuses.

Unfortunately, those excuses immediately set off alarm bells in Kabuto's mind.

"What?! You're actually experiencing discomfort?"

Kabuto hurriedly reached toward him.

"Please sit down! I need to examine you again!"

He adjusted his glasses, his hands trembling slightly.

"That shouldn't be possible. According to my calculations, you should have made a complete recovery by now!"

"Uh…"

Jiraiya suddenly realized his mistake.

He couldn't judge the capabilities of Orochimaru's laboratory using ordinary medical common sense.

Now that he paid closer attention to his body, there really wasn't anything wrong.

If he absolutely had to identify some discomfort, his neck felt a little stiff from lying down for so long.

A few twists would probably fix that.

Jiraiya reacted immediately.

"No, no! There's nothing wrong! I was just speaking casually!"

He hurried toward the door.

"I'm actually planning to start my rehabilitation training right away, so I won't keep you any longer!"

Before Kabuto could respond, Jiraiya disappeared.

Kabuto was left completely bewildered.

Unable to make sense of his patient's strange behavior, he could only report the incident to Orochimaru.

"Rehabilitation training, huh?"

Orochimaru was speechless.

After undergoing that particular operation, what sort of "rehabilitation training" could Jiraiya possibly be talking about?

Did that even need explaining?

...

Jiraiya wanted to reach the pleasure district as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, the Flying Raijin Formation's transportation points were established within the Five Great Shinobi Villages, leaving a considerable distance between them and his preferred destination.

So Jiraiya chose a different route.

He used the Reverse Summoning Jutsu to return to Mount Myōboku, intending to use it as a transit point before heading to the pleasure district.

"Little Jiraiya, you really should stop visiting those places so often."

Fukasaku sighed when he learned that Jiraiya had just undergone replacement surgery and was already preparing to visit the pleasure district again.

"Are you planning to wear out your new one too? And you're not getting any younger. Shouldn't you start saving some money?"

"Absolutely not!"

Jiraiya shook his head with unwavering conviction.

"Every bit of money I earn comes from writing novels. And where do you think I get the inspiration for those novels?"

"From those lovely young ladies, of course!"

"So when I visit their establishments and support their work, I'm simply giving back to the people what I earned from them in the first place!"

"This is what it means to be a decent human being!"

Jiraiya thumped his chest proudly.

"Never forget your roots! Never forget where everything you have came from!"

His determination was unshakable.

Fukasaku could only stare at him.

...

Meanwhile, back at the laboratory, Orochimaru learned that Jiraiya had immediately returned to the pleasure district instead of taking the opportunity to train seriously.

He sighed.

Truthfully, he hadn't wanted things to come to this.

But there was no helping it.

At least Naruto still had a dream.

He wanted to become Hokage.

Jiraiya, on the other hand, no longer possessed any meaningful goal whatsoever.

And people with personalities like theirs tended to fall into laziness and complacency whenever their lives became too comfortable.

Orochimaru had once said that he'd originally wanted to become the wind that turned the windmill.

Eventually, however, he'd learned to appreciate the pleasure of waiting for the wind instead.

That wind had originally referred to Sasuke.

But Sasuke was no longer especially important to Orochimaru.

These days, he regarded Sasuke as little more than a potential source of Rinnegan material.

Even Jiraiya mattered more to him now.

And so, for Jiraiya's sake, Orochimaru had gone to considerable lengths to arrange something special.

"Well, I suppose there's no other choice."

Orochimaru waved a hand.

"Kabuto. Activate it."

Activate?

Activate what?

And no, this wasn't some ridiculous call to launch Genshin Impact.

In fact, Orochimaru had given Kabuto a hidden instruction when assigning him Jiraiya's surgery.

With Orochimaru's technology, independently cultivating replacement organs was something he'd mastered long ago.

Cloning an entire human body, on the other hand, was a capability his laboratory had developed considerably later.

Yet when Jiraiya needed his operation, Orochimaru had specifically instructed Kabuto to clone an entire body first, then remove the required organ from that clone and transplant it into Jiraiya.

The process resembled the premise of the movie The Island, where human clones were cultivated as living reservoirs of replacement organs.

There was one important difference, however.

Orochimaru possessed the technology to avoid that approach entirely.

He had chosen it deliberately.

And as far as Orochimaru was concerned, what he'd done didn't even present an ethical problem.

After all, the clone had never been given consciousness.

From beginning to end, it had remained an inactive biological construct.

Rather than a living person, the thing inside the cultivation tank was essentially a collection of perfectly assembled organs arranged into a human-shaped mass of living tissue.

If Jiraiya had emerged from surgery and genuinely decided to follow Naruto's example by throwing himself into serious training, Orochimaru would simply have deactivated and disposed of the remaining clone.

But since Jiraiya had chosen to continue lazing around—

there was no other choice.

The Jiraiya clone, which had already been given the name Kashin Koji, was activated!

And that wasn't all.

Amado, who had been assisting Kabuto, had implanted a set of memories into Kashin Koji.

According to those memories, the original Jiraiya had stolen Kashin's most vital part, leaving him an incomplete human being!

Kashin Koji was therefore born with a single obsession:

Reclaim what Jiraiya had stolen from him and become a complete human!

And with that—

something truly terrifying was about to happen.