Chapter 284: Kurenai Yūhi Captured
"Do I know that Jonin?" Kenichi could not help asking as he looked at his smiling teacher.
In his experience, there was only one reason Orochimaru would smile at him like that. It meant the Jonin in question was someone he knew. Otherwise, his teacher would not normally wear that expression.
But when Kenichi thought of Jonin he actually knew, only Kakashi came to mind. He did not have any particularly close connection with most of the others.
"You could say you know her, or you could say you do not." Orochimaru did not keep him guessing and simply handed him a file.
Beside them, Hiruko watched in silence.
He did not have any particular fondness for Kenichi. After all, this brat had captured him and dragged him here. Still, he could tell that his old friend seemed unusually fond of this disciple.
That made Hiruko a little curious.
Orochimaru had rarely taken in disciples after the death of the previous one. And when Hiruko looked at him now, he could not help but think of the bestselling deluxe edition of [The Story of Me and Princess Orochimaru], which had become wildly popular on the market.
He had bought it too.
In fact, he was a loyal reader.
Yes, Hiruko had read that novel as well, and from the moment he started reading it, he had more or less guessed who the original author was. After all, no one understood the Legendary Sannin better than Jiraiya.
But that was not the point.
The point was that Hiruko had discovered something shocking from that book.
Orochimaru was actually a woman, and had even disguised himself as a man?!
That revelation had greatly interested Hiruko. He had even started recalling some of Orochimaru's habits from back when they knew each other, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt it might actually be true.
After all, once a person started looking at someone through a suspicious lens, they could always find "evidence" that supported their idea.
That was only natural.
So at that moment, Hiruko looked at his old friend with a rather subtle expression.
He was very curious.
Was his old friend really a beautiful woman in private?
A cold beauty, at that?
If so, then Orochimaru truly was frighteningly good at hiding himself.
Orochimaru noticed Hiruko's gaze, but did not care.
Instead, he smiled at Kenichi and quietly observed the changes in his expression.
Kenichi, of course, had no idea what Hiruko was thinking.
At that moment, he was flipping through the folder Orochimaru had handed him. Inside was information on several ninja: three Genin and one Jonin. A very standard four man squad.
What caught Kenichi's attention, however, was the Jonin's name.
Kurenai Yūhi.
Naturally, Kenichi knew Kurenai. She was a female Jonin of Konoha, and in the future she would lead the team made up of Hinata, Kiba, and Shino. She specialized in genjutsu, and her strength was solid. Otherwise, she would never have become a Jonin.
Kenichi had met Kurenai before.
Back when he had been getting close to Kakashi at Minato and Kushina's request, he had crossed paths with Kurenai several times as well. Back then, she would occasionally come to report to the Fourth Hokage, and her eyes had always been full of admiration.
That was perfectly normal. Minato Namikaze had been extremely popular in Konoha, and with his looks and personality, female ninja naturally liked him.
Perhaps because of that, Kurenai had always been quite kind to Kenichi. She had even treated him and Kakashi to barbecue several times.
And now, Orochimaru had clearly noticed that.
That was probably why he had shown him that smile.
Still, what Kenichi could not understand was why Kurenai had been captured here.
As far as he remembered, Kurenai had no known record of being taken by Orochimaru. In the future, she was supposed to become Asuma Sarutobi's wife and give birth to Mirai Sarutobi.
She could almost be considered part of the Third Hokage's bloodline by marriage. After all, Asuma died at Hidan's hands before he could have a second child, and Mirai became his only daughter.
Yet now, Kurenai really had been captured.
Kenichi could only attribute it to the butterfly effect brought about by his own existence.
At this point, the plot of the ninja world had already been thoroughly mangled anyway. If Obito got blown to pieces one day, Kenichi would not even be surprised.
"I have met Senior Kurenai Yūhi a few times," Kenichi said with a nod.
It was the truth. He had met her before and even shared meals with her, so there was no point hiding it.
"What do you think? I'll leave her to you." Orochimaru spoke casually, then glanced at Hiruko across from him.
Orochimaru truly did not care much about Hiruko's attitude. Though Hiruko had once been an old friend, only a trace of that sentiment remained now.
If Hiruko had refused to hand over the Chimera Technique, Orochimaru certainly would not have shown him any courtesy.
But after obtaining Chimera, Orochimaru had quickly discovered its flaws.
Because of that, his interest in the Ninjutsu had already cooled somewhat.
Now, however, he had another idea in mind for his disciple.
"My current experiment is still in the validation stage. Ordinary people and Genin are enough," Kenichi said.
He did not particularly want to kill Kurenai.
After all, this female Jonin had known him in the past. More importantly, when he had watched the anime in his previous life, he had always felt Kurenai's fate was rather tragic.
She had married Asuma, only for her husband to die before their daughter was even born.
That was one of the strange advantages of anime. It left a lasting emotional impression of certain characters on people.
And once that kind of impression existed, Kenichi found it difficult to kill them casually.
Perhaps that was what people meant by sentiment.
More importantly, Kenichi himself was not some lunatic who felt the need to slaughter every famous character in the ninja world.
He only chose whether someone lived or died based on his needs.
Take Obito, for example.
Even if Obito had not already stood against him, Kenichi still would not have been so determined to get rid of him.
"You do not want Kurenai Yūhi? She's a female Jonin with an excellent figure. You can do whatever you like," Orochimaru said meaningfully, making Kenichi's mouth twitch.
To be honest, female ninja in the ninja world had it rough.
The moment they stepped onto the battlefield, they had to be prepared for one thing above all else: they could die there.
They absolutely could not be captured.
Because once they were, nothing good usually followed.
This was often the very first lesson a squad leader taught new female ninja. Always carry poison or some other final measure. Otherwise, the consequences could be far too tragic.
Unless the female ninja held some particularly valuable status and the enemy village thought they could exchange her for greater benefit, the endings awaiting captured female ninja were usually miserable.
That was why most female ninja made preparations in advance, just in case they ever fell into enemy hands.
There were no conventions in the ninja world. No protections for prisoners of war. No humane rules.
Of course, as for exactly what would happen to them after capture, that was not the sort of thing people openly discussed.
"Teacher, I'm not some kind of pervert. Even Uncle Jiraiya probably wouldn't do that, right?" Kenichi said helplessly.
In the end, how captured female ninja were treated depended entirely on the character of whoever took them prisoner.
Even Jiraiya, whom many considered the biggest pervert in the ninja world, actually had a firm bottom line.
Although he...
Well, although Jiraiya certainly had done many outrageous things and got beaten every day by furious women bursting out of bathhouses, he had never actually forced himself on any female ninja who fell into his hands.
In that sense, he could still be considered a very gentlemanly ninja.
Just a somewhat unusual gentleman.
"Jiraiya definitely wouldn't. He'd rather peep," Hiruko said with a nod.
He agreed with Kenichi on that point.
After all, Jiraiya had once dragged him to Konoha's women's hot springs too...
Cough.
Hiruko awkwardly turned his head.
He admitted that, in that respect, he had once been Jiraiya's accomplice. Of course, after going once, he had immediately declared it improper and refused to go again.
After that, he had merely started sneaking off alone.
Kenichi was not surprised that Hiruko knew these things. Hiruko had once been close friends with Orochimaru and Jiraiya, after all. It would be strange if he did not know some of their past habits.
"Then take those three Genin. As for ordinary people, just take whoever you want," Orochimaru said with a smile, waving his hand.
He did not force Kenichi to use Kurenai as an experimental subject.
That was exactly why he respected Orochimaru so much.
As long as Orochimaru was not planning to use him as an experiment, or scheme for his body through Living Corpse Reincarnation, Kenichi would not do anything that betrayed his teacher.
"Alright, Teacher. Is there anything else? If not, I'll go pick up the subjects for the experiment," Kenichi said, rubbing his hands together.
He was already a little impatient.
The success rate of the mouse experiments had been incredibly high, practically without failure.
So now he urgently needed to move into human trials and determine whether his idea truly worked.
"No. Just remember to contact Pain later. He seems to have something for you," Orochimaru said after taking a sip of tea.
Then he recalled something and casually reminded Kenichi.
Orochimaru had indeed received some messages from Pain, including information regarding missions.
While listening, he had also heard Kakuzu complain halfway through, loudly questioning why Kenichi never went on missions while he himself worked like a slave.
Pain had apparently said he would consider assigning tasks to Jade.
"Pain? Understood. I'll contact him later," Kenichi said, scratching his head.
He had nearly forgotten about that.
Then again, it was not entirely his fault.
Crop improvement had hit a bottleneck lately. Very few improved crops were producing satisfactory results, and Kenichi had been constantly occupied with breeding work, so he had not gone looking for Pain.
Pain, on the other hand, had not contacted him either.
So Kenichi had assumed Pain probably preferred it that way.
"Speaking of which, I wonder how Sasori and Deidara's research is going now..." Kenichi muttered as he walked into the dark tunnel where Orochimaru kept his experimental subjects.
The treatment here was poor.
The captives were given just enough food to keep them alive.
And it was here that Kenichi saw the four Konoha ninja Orochimaru had captured.
The three Genin were restrained in ordinary ways.
Kurenai, however, was being held in a specially designed cell.
Her hands were shackled with restraints that interfered with chakra circulation, a device co developed by Orochimaru and Amado to effectively control Jonin.
Of course, the premise was that a Jonin had to be captured first. If not, such tools were useless.
Moreover, the equipment was extremely bulky and required a full supporting system. It was powered by the Zero Tails.
In a way, the Zero Tails had truly been unlucky.
It had not even fully matured yet, and it had already been dragged out to work. Koji Tadokoro, who had originally been studying it, had in turn been dragged off by Amado to help research the flying technology of the Sky Ninja Village.
"Amamiya Kenichi, what are you doing here?" Kurenai asked warily as she looked at him.
Though imprisoned, she could still lift her head and speak.
But she could not gather chakra, nor could she use any Ninjutsu.
Her body was also weak, leaving her unable to even bite her tongue and kill herself.
"I'm here to take away experimental subjects, Senior Kurenai Yūhi. Rest assured. Teacher probably has no intention of killing you," Kenichi said as he glanced at her.
He understood Orochimaru fairly well.
If Orochimaru had truly wanted to use Kurenai as an experimental subject, she would already be dead by now.
And Kenichi also knew what Orochimaru had been busy with recently.
His teacher had been completely absorbed in the telephone project Kenichi had mentioned before. Kenichi himself was interested in it as well, but he had decided to complete his own Gene Programming Ninjutsu first. Besides, Orochimaru's communication research did not require human experimentation.
That was why Kurenai remained relatively safe for the moment.
"Amamiya, could you please let my three students go?" Kurenai asked, looking at him with a pleading expression.
She would rather be taken to the operating table herself than see her students die.
Kenichi scratched his head.
For some reason, a certain phrase suddenly flashed through his mind:
Madam, you wouldn't want your husband to find out about this, would you?
"My experiment needs them," Kenichi said, shaking his head.
He did not know those three Genin, and going outside to catch fresh subjects would be troublesome.
He had no intention of waiting.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 10–50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03]
[One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Soul Land, NBA, and more — all in one place.]