Chapter 29: Orochimaru, This Is My Feeling For You
The Akimichi barbecue restaurant was not very crowded at lunchtime, and the atmosphere was unusually quiet.
"Teacher, did everything go smoothly today?" Kenichi Amamiya asked curiously as he casually laid a slice of beef on the hot plate, which immediately began to sizzle.
"It was acceptable," Orochimaru replied with a gentle smile. "My relationship with teacher is still tense, but there has been some progress."
Kenichi nodded thoughtfully. So, whatever his teacher wanted to do had not gone perfectly, but it had at least produced some results.
"The Third Hokage will definitely understand your feelings, teacher," Kenichi said with a deliberately naive expression.
They were out in public. Even though the Third Hokage had abdicated, he still held considerable influence. It was better to speak in a way that would not cause trouble if overheard.
"What a touching sentiment," Orochimaru sighed.
The next moment, master and disciple both smiled in quiet satisfaction.
That sentiment was indeed heavy. They wondered whether the Third Hokage's body could bear it.
Seeing that the beef on the hot plate was already cooked, Kenichi hurriedly picked it up before it burned.
But when he looked at the beef on his chopsticks, he suddenly found he had lost his appetite.
"Teacher, did you not just call out to Anko?"
Kenichi felt a shiver run down his spine. The resentment in that voice was really something.
"I thought I heard you call her, Kenichi." Orochimaru's expression did not change. He seemed completely unconcerned about the figure clinging to the doorframe, only her head poking in.
Kenichi's lips twitched. In the end, he could only turn his head in resignation and call out to Mitarashi Anko, who was hovering pitifully at the entrance.
While he was grilling meat, Kenichi had felt a sharp gaze on him. When he turned toward the source, he had found Anko standing at the door, staring at them.
Come to think of it, Orochimaru usually only invited Anko to eat at Akimichi's barbecue restaurant. She did not actually come here very often.
"Senior Amamiya..."
Anko looked at Kenichi with a pitiful expression, as if silently asking whether she really counted as her teacher's disciple.
They shared the same teacher, but that teacher treated Amamiya senior so gently and treated her so strictly.
"Ahem... I was just about to go to your house to call you," Kenichi coughed twice in embarrassment.
Fortunately, Anko was not that hard to coax. With a few words of comfort from Orochimaru and Kenichi, her mood quickly brightened. Soon, she was happily eating barbecue, her earlier grievance forgotten.
The atmosphere inside the restaurant warmed instantly, turning lively and cozy.
"Teacher, can we take a group photo together?"
Anko looked expectantly at Orochimaru, then turned her pleading gaze on Kenichi.
Kenichi scratched his head. He did not particularly care whether they took a photo or not.
"Of course," Orochimaru replied with a soft smile. He was in a good mood today.
So when Kenichi finally headed home, he had a photograph in his hand.
A group photo of him, his teacher, and Mitarashi Anko.
"Come to think of it, this seems to be a Konoha tradition," Kenichi murmured as he studied the picture of the three of them.
Minato's team had similar photos. He and Orochimaru had one. In the future, Kakashi and Naruto would also have their own squad photo.
Speaking of Kakashi...
Kenichi scratched his head. It had been a while since he had seen Kakashi. He had no idea what mission Kakashi was on now, which meant asking him about Chidori would have to wait.
Passing by a bento shop, Kenichi stepped inside, planning to buy a few boxed meals to take home for dinner.
As soon as he walked in, he ran into two familiar faces.
To be exact, not really acquaintances, but two people he had only met once before.
Two brats from the Uchiha clan.
Shisui and Itachi.
They clearly noticed him as well, and Kenichi could only nod in greeting.
"Hello, and thank you for looking after Itachi last time."
Before Kenichi could even approach them, Shisui walked over and spoke politely.
He was clearly a kind person, but he had been suspicious of Kenichi before. So his gratitude now was sincere.
"It was nothing. I just thought the kid was pretty cute," Kenichi replied with a smile, waving his hand casually.
Even so, he still kept a certain distance from the Uchiha clan.
The Third Hokage had stepped down, but Danzo was still there.
Minato Namikaze was wary of the Uchiha to some extent, but his attitude was at least normal, not like the Third Hokage and Danzo, who always wanted to suppress them.
It was a pity Minato did not live long. Otherwise, the Uchiha clan's fate might have been completely different.
After the Fourth Hokage died in battle and the Third Hokage returned to power, the Uchiha clan's situation became more and more desperate, and their end was sealed.
Watching Shisui leave the shop with Itachi in tow, Kenichi absentmindedly scratched his head.
He wondered whether he should back up their DNA information now, so that he could clone them in the future and study them properly.
Orochimaru's research already included cloning, and Kenichi knew this very well. Current cloning techniques were far from perfect, but that was fine. The failure rate did not matter as long as samples were preserved.
"But it is a bit troublesome with those two," Kenichi muttered. "I cannot exactly walk over and yank out their hair."
Shisui and Itachi were still very cautious.
"If only one of them were a girl, then maybe I could manage it..." Kenichi thought silently.
Back when he was collecting Kushina Uzumaki's DNA information, he had considered whether he should rummage through the Namikaze family's trash.
After all, Kushina was not only a Jinchuriki, she was also a woman, and women of a certain age had regular cycles.
Sanitary napkins were sold openly in Konoha's shops.
Blood made it much easier to extract DNA.
But after thinking it through, Kenichi still felt that was too perverse. Since he had other ways, he had ultimately abandoned the idea.
From that perspective, though, if he really wanted to, he could probably collect the DNA of most of the people in Konoha.
After buying his bentos, Kenichi went home and continued refining his ninjutsu.
Recently, he had been buying a lot of cigarettes, enough to make the shop owner suspicious.
The man had even tried to persuade him more than once, worried that a boy Kenichi's age had already developed a bad smoking habit.
That left Kenichi both amused and exasperated.
On top of that, nicotine had obvious limitations, which forced him to prioritize collecting radioactive materials instead.
Of course, he knew that kind of substance would not be easy to get in the ninja world. He could only move forward step by step.
Fortunately, he still had plenty of time.
Naruto was not even born yet.
<><><><><>
[P@treon Christmas Discount: 20% OFF]
[Check Out My Patreon For +40 Advance Chapters On All My Fanfics!]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03]
[Every 100 Power Stones = +1 Bonus Chapter]
[Join Our Discord Community For Updates & Events]
[https://discord.gg/MntqcdpRZ9]