Chapter 30: Questionable Experiments

Once Keitaro got over the his initial hesitation, he was able to quickly follow the map of the vents that Renji had given him. He made his way over to the first point on the map, and once he looked through the vents he was able to see that he was above Kazuki's office. 

Inside of the room, Kazuki himself was standing behind his desk while looking over a bunch of scrolls that had been thrown across his table, while Renji stood opposite him.

Neither of them were saying anything to the other, the only sound in the room being the rhythmic tapping of a few metal balls that resembled the pendulum desk decoration that Keitaro had seen in his past life. 

Keitaro turned his focus towards the larger man in the room and took a good look at Kazuki and he was quickly able to noticed a few things that unsettled him greatly. For as long as he had known Kazuki, there wasn't a day that went by where he wasn't looking his absolute best. He was a man who took immense pride in his appearance and made it a point to ensure that he took the time needed to ensure that there wasn't ever even a single a hair out of place when he came into work.

Yet today he looked unkept and haggard. He had a five o'clock shadow on his face and even his shinobi head band -something he usually wore with pride- was hanging loosely around his neck instead of tightly on his forehead like it usually was. His face was sunken in while his red rimmed eyes seemed to gleam ominously. If he didn't know better, Keitaro would have assumed that a touch of derangement seemed to be slowly seeping into them quietly replacing the usual intelligence, as Kazuki kept frantically scanning the papers on his desk. 

This was the worst that Keitaro had even seen him looking and the fact that he didn't seem to care what so ever that he was putting on such a sloppy display only served to unsettle Keitaro further. What ever this experiment was, it must have been serious if it was taking such a toll on one of the top researchers of the clan.

Renji, seemingly oblivious to his fathers' terrible mood and current plight, simply skipped over to his desk and plopped down into one of the chair opposite Kazuki's desk. Renji coughed to get his dad's attention, and once he was sure that he wasn't being ignored he cheekily smiled.

"Hey dad, I'm back from shouting Keitaro. I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long?"

Kazuki simple looked up at Renji and stared at him for a moment. Then he simply waved his hand dismissively as he answered Renji's question.

"At this point, there isn't a need for you to worry about knocking me off schedule to much. I really don't have the time nor the energy to deal with that right now. Instead, I get to waste my time redoing a bunch more of the messed up calculations thanks to those idiotic higher ups! What do they think this is huh? Just because I specialize in genetics doesn't mean I'm some sort of God you know?!" 

Kazuki quickly caught himself mid rant and quickly went back to writing and scribbling on his desk, ignoring the Renji who had who had tensed up at his outburst, without much thought. The outburst had rattled Keitaro, but it seemed the Renji couldn't catch a hint and was hell bent on disturbing his father.

"What do you mean redo calculation? I thought you said that everything was ready and you were just waiting for the others to come in with the test subjects. Its only been a couple hours since then, what happened?"

Without looking up from his desk Kazuki actually snarled in displeasure before explaining.

"Yes, you're right, but those calculation were done before I found out what those idiots had in store for me. This project was supposed to be a long term one that would have been carried out over a period of several years. It was geared towards improving the future ninken of the clan but with the way that things are going now I'm not even sure if I want anything to do with whatever it has become."

Kazuki paused what he was doing to look up at Renji who was giving him his undivided attention. He sighed before waving at him to draw closer and pulled out a stack of papers form his desk and handing them over for Renji to look over. 

"As you already know Renji, years ago my goal when I first started researching genetics was to improve the strength of my ninken at its core. Yet I ended up realizing that my research also served as a way to strengthen the future litters that my hounds would sire as a result of the changes that he'd undergone. From there, with some help from some of my colleagues and a little bit of time, that's exactly what we managed to do. As far as we were concerned we had managed to elevate the strength of the clan as a whole and we were certain that with more time and research we could do it again."

He paused thinking about what he wanted to say next before tentatively continuing

"Unfortunately there is always a price to pay for power. As we kept researching and tweaking our experiments, we realized that there was only so much we could do to enhance the ninken without ruining them. If we fiddled with a hounds genetics too much, then they would become sterile regardless of whether they themselves became stronger not. That was, of course something, that no one wanted to see since it would effectively be cutting off the future potential of the clan. Thankfully with time we realized what we needed to do. We proposed to introduce new genetic material into the gene pool of our ninken to increase their upper limit for gene manipulation."

Kazuki pointed to a particular paper in the pile with several graphs and a few paragraphs of scientific jargon.

From what little he could understand, Keitaro managed to piece together that if the theoretical predicted enhancements to the tolerance of the ninken to genetic manipulation was sound enough, then it truly would have been revolutionary for the clan.

"Originally, we intended to find wild canines species, specifically certain kinds of wolves, with a high level of compatibility with certain ninja hounds in the clan and allow them to reproduce. The resulting offspring would in theory have a higher tolerance for genetic manipulation since they would have a wider gene pool to pull from. By repeating this process over a period of time for each successive generation, the ninken would grow stronger and stronger. Simple selective breeding coupled with gene treatments from time to time and our clan would be unstoppable. The stronger ninken coupled with the clans secret techniques would have elevated the clan to Noble status within sixty to seventy years at the minimum. Or at least, that's what was supposed to happen."

Once more Kazuki's eyes narrowed and his voice was tinged with a sliver of poorly hidden anger.

"But of course that would have been to long of a time to wait for some people in the clan. Instead of taking the slow and steady approach that was recommending by all of us who had spent years researching and working on this project, they apparently had outsourced for another opinion. A few years ago, while he had still been apart of the village, the Elders had approach Orochimaru in hopes of obtaining his help with this project. I don't know what happened or what deal they managed to strike with him, but he had apparently agreed to assist them. Of course that plan had gone down the drain when it came to light that he was a traitorous monster, willingly killing off his fellow shinobi for his own sick experiments."

Keitaro was shocked to be hearing Orochimaru's name mentioned here. As far as he could remember Orochimaru had defected from the village shortly after he wasn't able to secure the Hokage position for himself. In fact by the time he had been reborn, Orochimaru would have already left the village.

Keitaro wasn't sure how he felt about Orochimaru simple because while he was indeed a despicable person when he wanted to be, at the same time it felt like he was forced to become that way by the very people who should have been his biggest supporters. 

Neglected, exploited and cast away by Danzo and Hiruzen, he fully embraced the darkness and focused solely on his goal of immortality. In a way Hiruzen was the biggest contributor for Orochimaru's change as his hypocritical behavior was the final straw that broke the camels back. Especially since his own best man Danzo was the epitome of darkness, but yet he continually gave him chance after chance, time and time again. 

Keitaro pushed aside his distracting thoughts and focused back on to Kazuki.

"When me and my fellow researchers had heard about the deal that was supposedly made, we were all furious since the Elders had practically given away our years of work to an outsider. Our fears of course were confirmed when he defected from the village shortly after, and many of the Elders were fearful and regretful of their choice. Who knew what he would be able to do with that much information about the ninken of our clan? Of course for a while everyone in the know was hushed up since we didn't want to offend Orochimaru in anyway, just in case he chose to sell the information to enemy villages. He alone could have crippled our entire clan and our elders had been the ones who had given him the power to do so. After years and nothing coming of it however, we all thought that we were in the clear and had moved on, but now that the Elders are pushing this project forward again, we found out that Orochimaru had already 'fulfilled' his part of the deal."

As he listened to Kazuki's explanation Keitaro couldn't help but wonder if the real reason why he had looked so unkept was because his research project was effectively high jacked by someone that wasn't even apart of the village anymore.

If he had indeed been working on this project for as long as he said, dedicating years of his life to researching and testing and ensuring that there would be no adverse side effects, simply to be told that one man who hadn't been apart of his team of researchers was suddenly able to find a way to not only improve on his work but he do so in a way that would impact the clan practically in but a fraction of the time that you had predicted...Wouldn't Kazuki feel like a failure of a researcher?

Even if the end result came about because of all the work he had done, even if it was only possible thanks to efforts that he had been putting in over the years ... how exactly was someone supposed to react to that sort of news?

Keitaro suspicions were wholly confirmed as Kazuki listlessly explain. 

"Before he left, Orochimaru handed over a scroll filled with several vials of gene stimulants that he had designed for use in general canine beasts and a detailed plan to carryout the procedures. Unlike our plan he intended to first use the gene stimulants on the wild canines that were compatible with the clans ninken and raise the quality of their genes to the highest extent possible. It wouldn't matter if the wild canines experienced adverse effects since they were expendable in the grad scheme of things. The stimulant would draw out as much potential as it could before the now enhanced canines were breed with the ninken of the clan to produce litters of highly enhanced hounds that would then be used to produce more hounds for the clan. The pregnant Hounds of the clan would also be feed a unique gene therapy solution intended to strengthen and stabilize the pups while in utero. As long as things went well, while it would be much harsher on all the hounds involved in the process, we would be able to see tangible results in less than 30 years."

With a haggard sigh Kazuki finally placed down the pencil he had been using and rubbed his face in agitation. 

"Of course it isn't a perfect plan. In the years that have gone by we've made a lot of breakthroughs and our understandings have increased accordingly, but even then the elders still want us to use Orochimaru's work as the basis of the experiment and proceed with his plan. What I've been doing is calculating how much gene solution is safe and viable for use in each wild canine. Even after all these years I have absolutely no idea what Orochimaru used to produced these stimulants and since we can't recreate them, each one of them is precious. The most concerning thing is that even though most of the wild canine test subjects aren't able to utilize charka, there are most likely a few that can and there is no telling if the gene stimulant wouldn't cause them to awaken chakra as a byproduct. All of that means that there is no guarantee that their chakra won't cause unfortunate mishaps to occur."

Renji who had been uncharacteristically quiet softly asked a question that was also on Keitaro mind. 

"But if you aren't sure about the results why not ask for more time? You said that the vials are practically irreplaceable. It doesn't make sense to use them when there isn't a guarantee of success. I'm sure if you explain that then-"

The sound of Kazuki's laughter cut him off.

"You'd think so right? Anyone with a rational mind would be able to understand that, but clearly the higher ups aren't reasonable. No, this study is going to be carried out regardless of the risk. The only silver lining is that the only ones who are at risk of dying are the wild canines."

Keitaro's heart skipped a beat at how cold Kazuki was towards these 'wild' canines. No matter whether they were wild or not, a clan that pushed the idea of unity with an animal partner to become greater than the sum of their parts being so carless with the lives of animals just didn't sit right with him. Maybe he was still functioning with the morality of his past life but his opinion of the clan dropped several notches. 

Kazuki, who by now had clearly finished his calculations, looked through the glass wall of his office before addressing Renji once more. 

"Regardless, from what I can see the rest of the team looks about ready to get started and with my calculation complete we can at least start the first procedure today. Once the canines have stabilized we'll be able to proceed with the next step of the plan, procreation."

Kazuki quickly collected the paper off his desk along with a few other things and headed for the door. He paused as he eyed Renji, seemingly struggling with what to do but in the end he simply shrugged.

"If you are really sure you want to see and experience what's going to happen here today, then I suggest you prepare yourself. There is a chance that some of the canines could literal explode because of their bodies rejecting the gene stimulant. In all honesty I don't want you to see such a thing, but....I'll leave the decision up to you. The world is a cruel place and as far as I know you intend to become a shinobi in the future. That means that at some point you are going to have to get acquainted with the dark side of reality. So, if you think that this is going to be too much for you to handle, then you can stay here and wait for me to finish with the procedure. If you're certain you can handle yourselves then you can follow me. But know that if you do follow me, that there is no turning away mid way through. Actions have consequences and if you decide to follow me, then you're going to deal with the consequences of that choice."

With that he made his way out of the door.