311 - Naruto: The Tenseigan Ascendant (Patreon)

311 - Seeing Orochimaru Again

After leaving the hospital, Naoki wandered through the streets.

Several neighborhoods needed rebuilding, and Konoha had become a vast construction site again. Carts laden with building materials traveled back and forth.

Fortunately, the Third had declared an emergency that night and evacuated large numbers of villagers. Many buildings had been destroyed, but casualties were limited.

Naoki deserved some credit too. If he had not stopped Shinno in time, evacuation alone would not have saved those people from the tireless, fearless terracotta soldiers.

After walking for a while, he quietly made his way to his secret laboratory.

Hiruko had completed his Kekkei Genkai fusion ritual more than a decade ahead of the original timeline. The upheaval had thrown Naoki's plans into disarray and kept him scrambling ever since.

Worse, as Hiruko's reputation grew, more people would want the Chimera Technique. Its potential was too great to ignore. Anyone with an ounce of foresight could see that it might change the shinobi world.

'I need to get my hands on the Chimera Technique as soon as possible!'

Before now, he had not been in a rush. Through Shinno, he had hoped to have Shinichi pay for the technique and obtain it in a trade.

But Naoki's Fire Release clone had gravely wounded Shinno and stopped him from devouring Shion. Shinno would never forgive that, and he likely hated Shinichi by association. The trading route was closed.

'Orochimaru is my only option.'

After considering the problem from every angle, Naoki could see no other practical choice.

Otherwise, he would have to arrange an ambush and capture either Hiruko or Shinno alive. That would take time and effort, and the risk was immense. One mistake could bring the Akatsuki down on him. He would not attempt it unless he had no alternative.

His mind made up, he left a Shadow Clone in the village and slipped away.

A few days later, he reached a dense forest in the Land of Rice Fields.

Kabuto Yakushi stepped out from behind a tree and bowed. "Lord Orochimaru is waiting for you, Senior. Please follow me."

Naoki nodded and went with him.

Before long, he met Orochimaru in an underground palace. Bandages covered his entire body.

Naoki did not need to activate his Byakugan to sense that something about Orochimaru was off.

Others might not have noticed it, but Naoki knew the feeling well from the work of adapting to his clones. Orochimaru's body and soul were not quite in harmony.

'Did he change bodies again?' Naoki wondered. 'Then Itachi must have hurt him even worse than I expected.'

Orochimaru coughed lightly. "Naoki, surely you didn't come all this way just to visit your old teacher."

Naoki tested the waters. "Your body...?"

Orochimaru smiled. "Heh. That Uchiha boy caught me off guard."

The smile did nothing to make his voice less sinister.

"Itachi Uchiha..." Naoki paused. "He's no ordinary Uchiha."

Something unreadable flickered across Orochimaru's face, then vanished. His expression turned cold again.

"Tell me why you're here," Orochimaru said.

Naoki went straight to the point. "The Chimera Technique."

Orochimaru smiled. "I knew that had to be why you came in such a hurry."

"You have it already, don't you?"

Naoki knew Orochimaru would never pass up new research into bodily modification or Kekkei Genkai. Hiruko's Chimera Technique could fuse several Kekkei Genkai at once. No matter how much Orochimaru disparaged him, he would have pursued the technique.

Orochimaru had even attended Hiruko's fusion ritual in a woman's body. That told Naoki enough.

After weighing his answer, Orochimaru said, "I have Hiruko's original Chimera Technique. But the technique alone isn't what allowed him to succeed."

"He developed another forbidden technique?" Naoki asked.

Orochimaru scoffed. "Creating the Chimera Technique was already the limit of Hiruko's genius! I hear the old man put him down with a single blow this time. Pathetic."

Only after a little more mockery did he explain. "He survived the rejection long enough to finish the fusion ritual because he also had a form of Dark Medical Ninjutsu from the Yomi Cult in the Land of Demons."

'Dark Medical Ninjutsu. That explains why I thought I saw signs of medical ninjutsu in him.'

Naoki's own Kekkei Mora project would absorb clones of his own body, so tissue rejection should be mild. Dark Medical Ninjutsu held less appeal for him.

Still, he thought it over. "What would it cost me to obtain both the Chimera Technique and Dark Medical Ninjutsu?"

At the Akatsuki base in the Land of Rain.

Pain gazed into the distance. "So this operation failed?"

Obito shrugged.

"Stop wasting time on operations like this," Pain said evenly.

To Pain, Obito's scheme had been pointless. His own vision was simple: overwhelm all opposition with absolute power and impose peace on the world through uncompromising rule.

"Shinno is hiding something from us," Obito said. "The plan failed because he acted on his own."

"I'll have Hiruko investigate."

At the mention of Hiruko, Obito said, "He has nowhere near enough combat experience. Give him more missions. The way he lost this time was ridiculous!"

Pain stood atop the tower and slowly raised his hands. "They're only tools. Don't concern yourself with them too much. Once the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path is ready, the shinobi world will be ours."

"Don't forget the God Organization," Obito reminded him. "They're a problem too."