Orochimaru Begins to Doubt Hashirama Cells

"Konoha's Special Combat Division? Which division is that?" Kosuke was puzzled. After so many years, this was the first time he had heard this name.

"It's a newly established division. It does not belong to any division at the moment, and it only obeys the Hokage. The purpose is to train a group of Shinobi who is good at swordsmanship." Nagasawa explained.

"I see, but I'm just a Genin. I'm afraid being a Vice Squad Leader is too great of a responsibility." Kosuke politely declined.

Back then, it was his decision-making mistake that caused the death of his two teammates. He was not worthy of leading others.

That was why he refused to be promoted to Chunin and Jonin. After all, Chunin and Jonin tended to be appointed as captains.

He did not want to repeat the same mistake again.

However, just because he was only a Genin, it did not necessarily mean that he did not want to take responsibility.

Even if Konoha gave him a mission where he would die for sure, he would still risk his life to complete it. Dying to protect Konoha was something he had always hoped for.

Without such a belief, people would not go on the mission with him.

The Second Hokage, The Third Hokage, The Fourth Hokage, these three Hokage had once gone on a mission with him. Konoha's White Fang, the legendary Sannin Jiraiya, had also gone on a mission with him.

As expected, Kosuke declined his invitation.

Nagasawa was not discouraged. With Kosuke's experience, it would be strange if Kosuke simply agreed.

"Maruboshi-Senpai, I know that your true strength is nothing like a Genin. I know that you are more than capable of being a Jonin."

Nagasawa first showed he knew Kosuke's true strength and then added,

"The reason I created the Special Combat Division this time is because I created Breathing Styles which can improve Shinobi's swordsmanship. If a capable Shinobi learned Breathing Styles and practiced it to the best of their abilities, their strength would improve significantly. If it is a capable Shinobi like you, who has good swordsmanship, I'm sure you will master it in no time, so I want you to be the Vice Squad Leader.

Nagasawa directly threw Breathing Styles into his persuasion, trying to use this to arouse Kosuke's curiosity.

"Breathing Styles that can improve the strength of a sword wielder... It's not like Konoha doesn't have Jonin, who is good at swordsmanship. Why me?"

A trace of curiosity flashed across Kosuke's face, but he still refused.

He still couldn't forgive himself for what he did back then. He was really afraid that he would become the leader that would lead his companions to death by mistake once again.

He only wanted to be an ordinary Genin and silently contributed to Konoha.

Nagasawa thought for a moment and said, "Since you don't want to be a Vice Squad Leader, then how about just joining as a member?"

Although he knew that Kosuke was at Jonin-level, it couldn't be helped if Kosuke didn't want to be a Vice Squad Leader.

"If it's just an ordinary member, then I don't mind." Kosuke finally agreed.

He felt that this Special Combat Division, which only took orders from Hokage, tried to create a sharp blade for Konoha that would carry out some high-difficulty combat missions.

It might be similar to Anbu but more combat-oriented.

"When the members are confirmed, I will notify you so that you can learn Breathing Styles as soon as possible." After saying that, Nagasawa left.

Since Kosuke still couldn't forgive himself, Nagasawa could not force him to be the Vice Squad Leader.

Nagasawa surely respected someone like Kosuke, who silently did everything in his power for Konoha.

As for why he wanted Kosuke to be the Vice Squad Leader, of course, it was because he was suitable.

As someone who had impressed the Third Hokage and many other skilled Shinobi, there was no need to doubt his strength. Coupled with his superb swordsmanship, no one was more suitable than him to be the Vice Squad Leader.

Only by placing the right person in the right place would he be able to develop Konoha faster and improve its Prosperity.

After leaving Kosuke's residence, Nagasawa went to Orochimaru's lab to see how Orochimaru's experiment progress was going.

Orochimaru's experiment was also the key to raising Prosperity quickly.

As long as they found a suitable candidate to implant the Secondary Hashirama cells and Sharingan into and trained them for a period of time, they could give birth to a new Kage-level Shinobi.

Because the two of them had been using unregistered Root members for experiments, even if they became a Kage-level Shinobi, it wouldn't raise the Prosperity whatsoever because they could only be considered as Danzo's personal tools.

However, on the bright side, Nagasawa would not lose points or Prosperity if they ended up dead during the experiment.

Since Konoha was peaceful during this period of time, Nagasawa wondered if it affected the Prosperity if Konoha either lost or gain a capable Shinobi.

After finding a familiar well, Nagasawa undid the spell and walked into Orochimaru's base.

When he walked to the laboratory area, Nagasawa saw Orochimaru was fully immersed in his experiments.

The two of them were very familiar with each other, so Nagasawa just walked to Orochimaru's side and quietly watched him do his experiments.

Orochimaru was very meticulous in his experiments, and his movements were orderly and smooth, as if everything was under his control.

When it was over, Orochimaru took a breath, and the corners of his mouth curled up into a smile. He said to Nagasawa, "Sorry to keep you waiting, Nagasawa-san."

Nagasawa shook his head and said, "It's fine. I'm just here to oversee the progress."

"After going through ten experiments, I do believe that spiritual energy was indeed the key point of the experiment," Orochimaru said.

"Although in theory, the physical strength that Secondary Hashirama cells grant is not much stronger than the spiritual energy that Sharingan grants. However, when the two combines, they would stimulate each other, but once they did the difference between them would gradually grow bigger. In the end, the experiment subject would be devoured by the secondary Hashirama cells, resulting in death.

If the spiritual energy overpowered the physical strength, it would only cause a slight change in the experiment subject's personality. They would become more irritable and withdrawn, and they would be a little weaker than normal experiment subjects.

Compared to dying from the corrosion of Hashirama's cells, this was clearly much better.

"In terms of spiritual energy, the best candidate for the experiment subject would be a Shinobi who's good at Genjutsu," Nagasawa said after thinking for a while.

Genjutsu belonged to Yin Release, and Genjutsu experts represented powerful spiritual energy.

Orochimaru nodded and then said: "Indeed, it's best to achieve balance, and there won't be any side effects. If the physical strength was higher, it would be too difficult to achieve balance."

He wouldn't know this without doing experiments, and he was shocked when he discovered this fact.

Orochimaru even doubted his own experiments. Was studying Hashirama's cells really useful?

Secondary Hashirama cells could even overwhelm the three-tomoe Sharingan, and Secondary Hashirama cells were not even close to the real Hashirama cells.

In fact, Orochimaru actually wanted to name Secondary Hashirama cells Yamato cells at first because the gap between the two was too big.

But even the Secondary Hashirama cells had such a strong corrosive power. Where could he find something that could balance out Hashirama cells?