Chapter 44: Kakashi: This Knife Isn't Going To Stop, Is It?
Trading injury for injury looked reckless on the surface.
But Kenichi Amamiya had his own reasons for confidence.
The Sage Body of Hashirama Senju had not only given him talent, it had also given him a terrifyingly resilient physique. He had tested it before. Minor wounds could knit themselves back together in a short time.
No wonder, he thought, Kishimoto never wrote the exact cause of the First Hokage's death.
With a body like that, any detailed explanation would just raise more questions. It was easier to say that the First Hokage had "sacrificed himself for the village" and leave it at that.
Watching the Root ninja stagger back, Kenichi did not hesitate.
He gathered a massive amount of lightning chakra in his hand and charged again, the shrill cry of a thousand birds echoing through the trees.
"I can't see clearly."
Kenichi narrowed his eyes.
Chidori was simply too fast. His own vision could not keep up with the opponent's movement.
Only with the Sharingan could someone truly bring out the full potential of this jutsu.
He caught a vague glimpse of the Root ninja lifting something, and his body twisted on instinct.
A heartbeat later, a sharp blade punched through his shoulder. Pain flared.
Even so, Kenichi did not feel that he had lost out.
This time, his Chidori had landed cleanly.
As the Root jonin was blown backward, Kenichi yanked the sword from his own shoulder, turned, and immediately took off.
Time was not on his side.
The exchange just now had cost him precious seconds, and there was always the risk of reinforcements arriving from Root.
He was confident he could finish off this opponent if he stayed.
But if he got pinned down by more Root ninja, that would be a terrible trade.
So, once he confirmed that his enemy could not continue pursuit in the short term, Kenichi chose without hesitation to run.
In just a brief span, the wound on his hand had already begun to close, and the gash on his shoulder was also knitting together at a visible rate.
Give it a little longer and he probably would not even need to visit a hospital.
If he actually went, the doctor would probably say, "Good thing you came quickly—another few minutes and your wound would have healed on its own."
After shaking off that Root ninja, Kenichi's escape went much more smoothly. Danzo did not dispatch a second operative to intercept him.
They had likely assumed that a mere chunin would be easily dealt with by a jonin.
That miscalculation made Kenichi's life a lot easier.
After running for most of the day, Kenichi finally found a spot where he could fake signs of an escape route, leaving misleading traces behind before quickly circling away in a different direction.
"I don't know exactly where teacher is, but there's only one most likely place."
Kenichi scratched his head, then leapt up and began moving swiftly from trunk to trunk.
This departure from the village had been abrupt. Orochimaru had not even had time to tell him where they would regroup.
But once you got far enough away from Konoha, there was only one lab that both of them knew about.
The same hidden site where the Hyuga clan's illegitimate child had been imprisoned.
That was the most probable location.
As Kenichi drew near, he grew more cautious.
Even if this was a place known only to him and Orochimaru, it would be troublesome if anything had gone wrong.
What if Jiraiya had tracked Orochimaru here?
Better to be careful than regretful.
"I heard you defeated a jonin from Root. Very good."
A familiar voice sounded from behind him.
Kenichi spun around, relief surging through him when he saw his teacher standing there, looking exactly the same as always.
"Teacher, are you all right?"
Kenichi quickly looked him over. Orochimaru's breathing was steady, his expression calm. He did not seem injured at all.
"Jiraiya alone is nothing to me."
Orochimaru smiled faintly, then turned and opened the door to the underground lab.
Kenichi hurried after him.
He had now completely defected from Konoha.
He just did not know what rank they would assign him on paper.
Teacher would definitely be S rank.
"List Orochimaru and Kenichi Amamiya as rogue ninja of the Hidden Leaf. Orochimaru will be recorded as an S rank rogue ninja, and Kenichi Amamiya as a B rank rogue ninja."
At that same moment, in the Hokage building, Hiruzen Sarutobi pressed his fingers to his brow, annoyance flickering across his face.
The incident had caused a massive shock.
The battle between the Sannin had been visible to half the village. It was obvious to everyone that Orochimaru and his disciple, Kenichi, had defected.
All he could do now was process it formally.
Kakashi stood with his head bowed, saying nothing.
He was a little dazed.
In the span of a few days, his teacher and his teacher's wife had died, and the friend he had acknowledged had become a rogue ninja.
It felt like having a knife driven into his heart, and just as the wound was about to scab over, someone twisted the blade again.
"B rank? That brat is not B rank. He defeated a jonin from Root!"
Danzo slammed his fist on the table, his anger obvious.
He had thought that dealing with a mere chunin would be effortless, that using Kenichi's corpse as a scapegoat might even create some unexpected leverage afterward.
Instead, Kenichi had escaped and left one of his own Root jonin severely injured.
According to Tanuki's report, during the battle he had suddenly experienced sharp pain in his chest, followed by difficulty breathing, blurred vision, and a wave of weakness through his entire body.
Even though he tried to retreat quickly to ease the symptoms, he had still been struck by Kenichi's Chidori.
If Root reinforcements had not arrived in time, Tanuki would likely have died on the spot.
"Jonin? You are saying Kenichi Amamiya defeated a jonin?"
The Third Hokage took a long drag on his cigarette, genuine surprise in his eyes.
He had met Kenichi before.
At that time, the boy had only just made chunin. His talent had seemed very average. To reach chunin at that age, when Kakashi had already become jonin, had not impressed Hiruzen much.
He had always assumed that Kenichi was only an assistant researcher in the lab, never imagining that he could defeat a jonin.
"Yes. And he did it using that brat's Chidori," Danzo said with a sarcastic snort.
Kakashi's eyes darkened.
So that was why he had been summoned here.
"The Hatake clan has already rendered great service to the village. Kakashi did not know about any of this at the time. There is no need to drag him into it again."
The Third Hokage gave Danzo a long, deep look.
This old friend of his was becoming more and more unscrupulous.
Kakashi was the only surviving son of the Hatake clan, and Danzo still had his eyes on him.
That old man was going too far.
"Hmph."
Danzo gave a cold snort but fell silent.
"Then Kenichi Amamiya should be listed as an A rank rogue ninja," the Third Hokage concluded.
He pressed the Hokage seal down, formally deciding the classification of the case.
However, the top brass of Konoha did not immediately announce the wanted notices.
The fact that Orochimaru, one of the legendary Sannin, had become a rogue ninja would have a huge impact on the village's reputation.
It would also expose Konoha's current weakness far too easily.
So they chose to conceal it for as long as they could.
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