Chapter 51: Orochimaru with Blond Hair
Of course, it was not Zabuza.
Zabuza was just a rogue ninja, a wandering swordsman. How much money could someone like that really have?
Kenichi had his sights set on someone else entirely.
Gato.
The man who hired Zabuza in the future. At his peak he would be one of the richest men in the world, sitting on an ocean of cash. That kind of walking treasury was a very tempting target.
However, that was a matter for later. Kenichi did not even know if Gato had grown his business to that point yet. When he needed money, he could always go and check.
For now, he slipped away from the Akatsuki base, idly playing with the ring in his hand. Minami had said he would prepare clothes for him later and would even need to take Kenichi's measurements. That level of attention to detail was impressive, if a little fussy.
After Kenichi left, Konan and Nagato returned to the Akatsuki tower.
"Nagato, are you really comfortable letting those two Konoha rogue ninjas join us?" Konan asked quietly as she handed him two rings.
The Akatsuki had always planned to walk the elite path. The number of rings was limited, and now two of them had been given away in one go.
Nagato coughed twice, then shook his head.
"It is fine. Their strength is decent, but they do not make me feel pressured."
In truth, the Akatsuki organization still had only two or three real members. Forget carrying out long term plans; even basic development was difficult.
Only after truly becoming the head of an organization did Nagato understand how hard it was to run one. Many of the plans he envisioned required money, and large amounts of it. Recruiting capable rogue ninjas and sending them out on missions was the only realistic path forward.
"I have heard of a bounty hunter named Kakuzu," Nagato continued, turning to look at Konan.
To grow, Akatsuki needed both time and funding. Kakuzu was the first person Nagato had set his sights on.
Neither of them had expected that before they even went looking, two rogue ninjas from Konoha would take the initiative to come knocking, asking to join. Just like that, they had gained the first external members of the Akatsuki.
"I understand," Konan replied softly.
It seemed the Akatsuki was about to get noisy for a while.
Meanwhile, Kenichi was already on the move.
Aside from the Akatsuki, there was nothing in the Land of Rain that truly interested him, so he decided to head back as soon as possible to report his mission to his teacher.
He did not stop along the way. Kenichi ran at full speed until he reached the border of the Land of Fire. Only then did he slow down, carefully checking the surroundings for any patrols before quietly slipping through.
By this point, about half a month had passed since he had set out on the task Orochimaru gave him.
The ninja world looked much the same on the surface, but Kenichi quickly noticed something off. There seemed to be fewer ninjas patrolling the Land of Fire's border.
That was unusual. Border patrols were extremely important and would not be recalled unless something serious was happening.
"Could it be that the other hidden villages, seeing that the Fourth Hokage is dead and that my teacher and I have defected, are planning to test Konoha's strength?" Kenichi muttered, rubbing his chin.
The possibility felt very real.
It was too rare an opportunity. The Fourth Hokage had died in battle, the village had suffered heavy damage from the Nine Tails attack, and now two powerful assets had turned into rogue ninjas. Konoha was at its weakest. There was no way the other great nations were not tempted.
"I wonder how Yuki is doing now."
Kenichi's figure flashed rapidly through the forest, trees whipping past in a blur. After obtaining the three tomoe Sharingan, his movement speed had increased significantly.
He even felt that he might be qualified to attempt the Flying Thunder God Technique in the future. With his current dynamic vision, he could probably keep up with the demands of the jutsu.
For the moment though, returning to the base came first. After that, he would tell his teacher about the Akatsuki.
As for whether Orochimaru would agree, Kenichi was not worried. As long as he mentioned Pain's eyes, his teacher would definitely be interested. The Rinnegan, the legendary eyes of the sage, were far too tempting for a researcher like Orochimaru to ignore.
On top of that, there were many practical benefits to joining Akatsuki.
Leaving everything else aside, the powerful ninjutsu, the rare bloodlines, and even the bizarre cultist Hidan all made Kenichi's researcher instincts burn with curiosity.
However, he knew he could not bite off more than he could chew. He decided he would study things one by one. Once he returned, he planned to ask his teacher to teach him the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique to speed up his research progress.
In Kenichi's eyes, the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique was nothing short of a divine jutsu.
Having multiple clones who completely shared your goals could save an absurd amount of time. When the clones dispersed, all their experience and memories flowed back into the original body. It was simply unfair.
Put bluntly, if this ninjutsu existed in his previous life and he dressed the part a little, he could have worked dozens of jobs at once and made a fortune.
Of course, how to handle identity issues and exhaustion would still have been a nightmare.
Two or three days later, Kenichi finally reached the familiar concealed entrance to the laboratory.
Following Orochimaru's instructions, he triggered the mechanism, slipped through the door, and quickly shut it behind him.
"Mission complete?"
A crisp voice rang out from the dim hallway. Kenichi froze for a moment. That voice sounded strangely familiar.
He rubbed his chin, and then it clicked. He had heard that voice before, when the experiments first began.
"Teacher?"
A thought flashed through his mind. Had Orochimaru completed the Reanimation Jutsu while he was away, and successfully transferred his soul into that female ninja's body?
"How did the investigation go?"
A petite figure stepped out of the shadows. The person had Yuki's face, but the presence, the feeling she gave off, was painfully familiar to Kenichi.
This was definitely Orochimaru.
It seemed that while Kenichi had been scouting Amegakure, Orochimaru had successfully perfected the Reanimation Jutsu and completed his own rebirth.
"Well, there has been a major development in the Land of Rain. The demigod Hanzo is dead," Kenichi reported, his expression a bit stiff.
Even though he knew the person in front of him was his teacher, the contrast was just too extreme.
In his memory, Orochimaru usually disguised himself with his own original face. Why was he not changing his appearance this time? Why was he walking around using this female ninja's body in its original look?
In the dim light, Kenichi could clearly see Yuki's features. Large eyes, small mouth, fair skin, soft contours. All of it sat awkwardly over the familiar aura of his teacher.
The clash between that cute young face and the cold, serpentine presence behind the eyes made Kenichi's scalp prickle.
He swallowed, forcing down the discomfort in his throat. The body Orochimaru had chosen was a girl with soft blond hair, which made the contrast even sharper and, in Kenichi's mind, even more unnerving.
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