"Excellent combat skills, seizing every opening. However, I didn't expect you wouldn't kill a single person."
Aside from the few that Orochimaru had just fed to his snakes, Amane truly hadn't killed anyone in this battle. The most heavily injured were likely those who had attempted the underground sneak attack; their eardrums had been ruptured.
This action also put the minds of those who hadn't joined the fray at ease. Looking at their next opponent, Kimimaro, they couldn't help but feel a sense of relief.
He was just a child, after all; his killing intent wouldn't be that strong.
"Do you want me to harvest them?" Amane smiled, looking as if she would do it the moment Orochimaru gave the command.
"Heh heh heh... Never mind. Tell me your thoughts on them."
Orochimaru brushed aside the matter of killing, waiting for Amane's response with an expectant tone.
"While their coordination was decent, they lacked essential Ninja type distributions. Otherwise, my Sage Art: Hiding in Mist Technique wouldn't have been so effective."
The reason Amane hadn't used the Sage Art: Hiding in Mist Technique from the start was that she planned to rely on her massive Chakra reserves to thin their numbers with large-scale skills first.
Next, she would prioritize finding whether there was a Sensing Ninja among them.
In fact, Amane's initial use of Kagura Minds Eye was for this very purpose.
But it turned out there were none.
No matter how well they coordinated, such a weakness was fatal. They couldn't blame her for slaughtering them with a Ninjutsu that stripped away their senses.
"I see. It seems you're the type who likes to find weaknesses and strike at the vitals. Now then, next one—I look forward to your performance."
Amane suddenly felt a chill run down her spine.
Before her eyes, Uncle Snake leaned down very gently and patted Kimimaro's head as he spoke.
Kimimaro's reaction was to blush slightly. After nodding solemnly, he jogged over to the position Amane had just occupied, preparing to face the remaining twenty experimental Ninjas.
"Is there something on my face?" Orochimaru asked without turning his head after opening the remaining cell doors, sensing Amane staring at him with a strange expression.
"Are you... into men?"
The muscles on his pale face twitched involuntarily.
"...You should read fewer strange books."
In the end, Orochimaru only said that much before ignoring Amane and focusing intently on Kimimaro's battle.
Compared to Amane's proactive strikes and rapid identification of enemy weaknesses, Kimimaro's combat style was much more simple and crude.
It was also much bloodier.
At the start of the battle, Kimimaro directly activated his Bloodline Limit. The bones in his hands sliced right through sturdy Ninja tools like Kunai, splitting them along with the person holding them into two halves.
Amane couldn't help but recall the battlefield she had first visited with Ding in the Land of Water. At that time, there was absolutely no one capable of snapping a Ninja tool like that.
[The hardest bones in the clan? From the looks of it, Kimimaro likely had low status in the Kaguya Clan, or perhaps his parents committed some crime for him to be treated this way.]
Otherwise, it was hard to explain the treatment Kimimaro had received. In the Ninja World, strength was respected; someone with such extraordinary talent should naturally be entitled to power and resources.
Amane also set aside her thoughts of teasing Orochimaru and began to observe seriously.
From Amane's perspective as a bystander, whenever an opponent was just an inch away from severely wounding Kimimaro, he would always react in an instant and deliver a fatal blow.
This was a combat instinct that transcended common sense.
[Incredible! Judging by his movements, he definitely hasn't systematically practiced Taijutsu. His actions are all based on instinctive reactions in the blink of an eye between life and death.]
Amane estimated that if she were to fight Kimimaro, once he got close, she would have no way to avoid being injured other than using the Adamantine Sealing Chains.
And that was the most troublesome part; in terms of physical explosiveness, Amane was far inferior to Kimimaro.
Even though she had been transplanted with Hashirama cells, Amane could not, at least for now, twist her body to dodge large-scale Ninjutsu like Kimimaro could.
She guessed this might be due to gender.
Muscle and bone density, as well as adrenaline—Hashirama cells indeed provided a massive boost. But the essence of this thing was to enhance physical strength, and physical growth was heavily related to growth hormones.
As a female, Amane received a lower bonus in this regard.
If they truly fought, Amane would have to frequently use large-scale or extremely fast Ninjutsu to even stand a chance of threatening Kimimaro. But she hadn't mastered many such Ninjutsu yet.
Therefore, Amane had to bring out her true trump card.
[I would need to manifest at least three Adamantine Sealing Chains to reliably hit Kimimaro. Otherwise, it would likely turn into a war of attrition, or I might even end up losing unexpectedly.]
By the time her analysis reached this point, the battle was over.
Not a single one of the twenty people was left alive, while Kimimaro had only sustained a few superficial wounds.
Orochimaru clapped his hands, offering a few words of verbal recognition and praise. This clearly meant a lot to Kimimaro; his normally expressionless, cold face flushed with happiness.
[What an easy guy to handle. If it were me, I'd at least demand some practical benefits.]
While she was thinking this, Orochimaru's arrangement for Kimimaro was to have dozens of test subjects sent to him daily for practice, followed by a personal training session with Orochimaru after a short rest.
Then, Orochimaru looked at the people who had survived their encounter with Amane and said, "Well then, from today onwards, you shall move to my laboratory."
Suddenly, the breathing on the field became heavy. Quite a few Ninjas immediately intended to take out their tools to commit suicide, but they were all stopped by Orochimaru. Even more people looked at Amane with eyes full of hatred.
Orochimaru turned back to look at Amane, that inscrutable smile reappearing on his face, making her skin crawl.
"Do you regret it?"
"I have already made my choice, and the one who chose to kill them is you. Furthermore, I don't know any of them, so why would I regret it?"
Amane retorted without hesitation.
Amane's choice was not to kill indiscriminately, while Orochimaru's choice was to make the most of them to create value. Just because they were about to face a miserable fate, they blamed their misfortune on the person who hadn't killed them quickly earlier—Amane wasn't going to take the blame for that.
"How unexpected. I didn't think your perspective would be so unique." Orochimaru was truly surprised. He thought Amane would at least feel a bit of regret or pity in her heart, but he never expected her to think this way.
Following her heart's choice and not regretting it due to the accusations of others... such a personality was indeed quite interesting.
"This is yours. If you encounter anything you don't understand, ask me. If you want to practice, go find Kabuto or just come here."
As he spoke, Orochimaru spat a scroll out of his mouth. The sight of the thick mucus made Amane feel a wave of discomfort; she didn't even want to reach out and take it.
Enduring the nausea, Amane checked the contents of the scroll.
The moment she opened it, her disgust vanished. Inside were all sorts of advanced Sealing Jutsu that she had never encountered before.
Things like the Four Symbols, Five Elements, and Eight Trigrams—no wonder Orochimaru had asked her earlier which ones she had mastered.
Then, at the very end of the scroll, there was an Uzumaki symbol.
"Lord Orochimaru, you really do know how to win people over."
Amane had to admit she was very tempted. This was clearly a complete system of Sealing Jutsu, far more comprehensive than what Danzo had given her back then.
"Thank you for the compliment. Master these first. That way, as your understanding of Sealing Jutsu reaches the next level, the consumption of your Adamantine Sealing Chains will become more controllable, and its power will increase."
"While your talent for Ninjutsu is also high, those will ultimately exist only as support for your Sealing Jutsu. Do not forget this."
Why didn't Amane use the Adamantine Sealing Chains as her main offensive method? It was precisely because the consumption was a burden for her current self.
Orochimaru had seen everything in the battle just now, including the look in Amane's eyes when she was observing Kimimaro's fight.
[Besides that, she probably also wants to hide some tricks from me. Uzumaki Tian Yin, you interest me even more than Kimimaro. I wonder if you can assist me in completing that technique?]
Orochimaru smiled, his eyes full of anticipation.
Full collection Avilable at low subscription patreon (Obito_uchiha)