Mixing Toxins

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After grunting around Naoki for a while, the mottled little wild boar that had swallowed the venom sac staggered into the grass. In the blink of an eye, it had vanished.

'Has this thing's body developed resistance to poison?'

Once that thought arose, Naoki suddenly came up with a new experimental plan.

For the past two days, one problem had been bothering him: the lack of a qualified living subject for poison testing.

Using white mice as live poison-test subjects was clearly inadequate. Their constitution was too poor. Even ordinary toxins could fatally harm them, making it difficult to test a toxin's true strength.

The sudden appearance of this little wild boar solved that problem at once.

After making up his mind, Naoki did not linger in the Forest of Death. He quickly returned home.

Naoki's designed compound toxins mainly came in two types.

The first compound toxin was a paralytic toxin.

Its primary ingredients were the toxic powder from the wing membranes of a spotted venom moth and the venom from the stinger of a red-tailed scorpion. The supporting ingredient was the saliva of a giant-jawed ant.

The spotted venom moth's powder had a powerful paralytic effect, while the red-tailed scorpion's venom, aside from being toxic, also accelerated blood circulation. Together, they would allow the paralytic toxin to spread rapidly through the target's bloodstream and make the victim lose mobility within only a few breaths.

As for the giant-jawed ant's saliva, after it solidified, it formed a rare protective film. Mixing it into a compound toxin could extend the toxin's active period by four or five times.

The second compound toxin was lethal.

Its primary ingredients were the venom of the one-eyed horned snake, two species of venomous spiders, and one species of venomous centipede. Its supporting ingredient was also giant-jawed ant saliva.

The one-eyed horned snake that had followed Naoki for a long time was already extremely venomous on its own. If its venom was mixed with other poisons into a compound toxin, and if the toxicity did not weaken, the standard antidotes issued by the major shinobi villages should be unable to deal with it.

Of course, all of this was still only a plan and a hypothesis.

To turn it fully into reality, Naoki would need constant testing.

After working through the afternoon, Naoki mixed ten bottles of toxin in total. Five were paralytic toxins, and five were lethal toxins.

He had made so many bottles in order to test the optimal ratio among the various venomous ingredients. Even with the exact same ingredients, different proportions could produce toxins with wildly different potency.

Seeing that it was getting late, Naoki put away all the toxins and decided to return to the Forest of Death tomorrow to test them on the mottled little wild boar.

As for the evening, he had other arrangements.

In the Uchiha compound.

After school, Itachi saw clan members gathering in small groups around the compound, apparently discussing something. He stopped and listened quietly.

"Shinichi actually lost?"

"Yes. I heard he lost badly. Shisui was the one who carried him back."

"Useless. Why would the clan send trash like that to challenge him? Is that not just smearing the Uchiha name?"

"In theory, Shinichi is not weak. He has been a special jonin for two years, right? How did he lose that badly? Is that Hyuga kid really so strong?"

"Hmph. A few months ago, that Hyuga kid was still a chunin. How strong could he possibly be?"

"You can say Shisui was not serious, but Shinichi truly lost. If we lose again next time..."

"We absolutely cannot let that happen!"

"Next time, we need to send someone strong!"

After listening for a while, Itachi showed a helpless expression and thought, 'As expected...'

The "as expected" in Itachi's mind had two meanings. The first was that his clansmen really had been unable to resist challenging Naoki. The second was that they really had lost.

With thoughts weighing on him, Itachi slowly returned home.

As he passed through the corridor, he saw his father sitting by the engawa in the courtyard, apparently thinking about something. To avoid disturbing him, Itachi instinctively lightened his footsteps.

At that moment, Fugaku Uchiha suddenly said, "Is that you, Itachi?"

Itachi quickly straightened. "Father, I am home."

Fugaku did not turn around. He continued staring at the courtyard in front of him and said in a flat tone, "You heard the rumors outside, I assume."

"Yes. I just heard them."

Fugaku asked, "What do you think of this matter?"

Itachi's talent was visible to everyone, so from very early on, Fugaku had already begun raising him as the next head of the Uchiha clan.

Because of that, Fugaku would occasionally ask Itachi's opinion on various matters, training his ability to handle clan affairs.

After thinking for a moment, Itachi answered, "For us Uchiha, perhaps this is a good thing."

Fugaku gave no comment either way. He waved a hand. "Go."

Itachi bowed to his father, then quietly left the courtyard.

That night.

After confirming that no one was spying on him, Naoki closed the doors and windows.

He planned to use the evening to practice the various formulas in the artificial Tailed Beast data.

Creating an artificial Tailed Beast required not only large numbers of sealing formulas, but also shaping formulas and ninjutsu formulas.

During the process of creating the artificial Tailed Beast's vessel, not a single formula could contain the slightest error. Once a mistake was made, there would not even be a chance to correct it. The entire plan would fail.

Because of that, before starting the artificial Tailed Beast project, Naoki had to master every formula until he could lay them out with perfect accuracy.

And to do that, there was no shortcut beyond hard practice. So while he had the long leave granted by the Third Hokage, he decided to use his nights to train properly.

As the saying went, practice makes perfect. With enough repetition, even one hundred percent accuracy was not impossible.

On the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Hot Water.

A Kumogakure jonin crushed the throat of the Konoha shinobi in his hand, then said to Yugito Nii, the Two-Tails jinchuriki beside him, "Looks like Konoha still has not noticed."

Half crouched, Yugito looked at the map spread out on the ground and said, "Our squad seems a little slow."

The Kumogakure jonin moved closer, looked at the map as well, and frowned. "The Intelligence Division's information is full of mistakes. Our current speed already counts as fast."

"It may not be the Intelligence Division's problem. Konoha probably adjusted the border defenses in this area recently." After a pause, Yugito continued, "Forget it. Keep advancing. We must link up with Killer B within two days."

At Yugito's order, the more than twenty Kumogakure shinobi behind her advanced one after another toward the interior of the Land of Fire.

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