Naruto: Orochimaru's Disciple

Chapter 368: Chapter 368: Anko Mitarashi’s Betrayal?

Chapter 368: Anko Mitarashi’s Betrayal?

Amamiya Kenichi rested his chin on one hand as he looked out over the valley before him.

After casting Tranquil Rain, he had decisively dispelled all of his Shadow Clones. The entire process had been extremely fast, so fast that even after creating that many clones, he barely felt any fatigue at all.

As long as I dispel them quickly enough, the fatigue can’t catch up.

This was something Kenichi had learned from Naruto. Naruto often used a large number of Shadow Clones and still needed to maintain a certain level of combat ability, yet he rarely showed obvious exhaustion after dispelling them. Kenichi guessed the reason was simple. Naruto got rid of them fast enough.

”But the main issue right now is still the ninjutsu itself,” Kenichi muttered as he looked at the valley.

He had just cast Tranquil Rain for the second time. Although he had done his best to remove most of the weeds and other plants beforehand, some stubborn new weeds had still sprouted from the soil after the technique was used.

The weeds themselves were not a big problem. Plants were resilient by nature. Kenichi had even seen grass crack through concrete in his previous life, so a situation like this was well within expectations. No matter how thoroughly he weeded, there would always be a few lucky survivors.

What truly gave him a headache was the real focus of his research.

Under the effects of Tranquil Rain, the wheat was growing beautifully. It had indeed developed significantly, but even after the second casting, it still had not started heading.

”Is it because the chakra was spread too thin, so there still isn’t enough energy to support the wheat properly? Or is this simply the limit of what Wood Release can achieve?” Kenichi stroked his chin, deep in thought.

Wood Release was, after all, an unusually rare ninjutsu. There were probably no detailed records in Konoha about the First Hokage conducting experiments with it, though Kenichi felt that was understandable. Senju Hashirama had not lived very long after founding the village and fighting Uchiha Madara.

Even his cause of death had never been clearly stated.

That likely meant either the First Hokage had never had time to test whether Wood Release could accelerate crop growth, or he had tested it once, found it useless, and immediately lost interest.

”Should I try increasing the chakra output?” Kenichi muttered, feeling a little tempted.

But after looking at the thriving wheat in front of him, he dismissed the idea and chose to experiment with a different batch of seeds instead.

This plot needed to be preserved for later observation. He had to see whether the wheat would begin heading normally over time. That meant it still needed proper weeding, pest control, and fertilizing. So Kenichi split off a few Shadow Clones and assigned them to continue the maintenance work.

Once all that was settled, he moved to another empty plot.

This time, he planted only half as many wheat seeds as before.

He still used Shadow Clones, but he reduced the range of Tranquil Rain by half as well. That meant the chakra energy falling over the same space would be roughly twice as concentrated as before.

The wheat still grew extremely quickly, but the result was basically the same as Experimental Field Number One. It still did not head.

Kenichi scratched his head.

So that didn’t work either.

”Forget it. I’ll just test what happens if I output Tranquil Rain at full power.”

He took a deep breath.

This time, he did not use Shadow Clones at all. Instead, he directly performed the adapted ninjutsu himself.

Chakra surged through Kenichi’s body, then flowed through his hand seals and transformed into the form he intended. Thick dark clouds slowly gathered in the sky, and a heavy rain came pouring down.

Under the effects of the storm, all vegetation began to grow wildly.

In almost an instant, weeds completely swallowed the wheat, and then giant trees burst up from the ground, quickly forming a vast forest before Kenichi’s eyes. All kinds of plants appeared, though most of them were cold resistant conifers common to high altitude regions.

They were also among the most common plants in the Land of Snow.

As the rain gradually weakened, the growth of the plants slowed as well. And by the time the rain fully stopped, Kenichi could no longer see his wheat at all.

All that remained before him was a forest, a dense forest that looked no different from the others scattered throughout the Land of Snow.

”What I have here is definitely a forest, but where did my wheat go?” Kenichi scratched his head.

At this rate, he could probably go work for the environmental restoration department of the ninja world. Ninja battles destroyed huge amounts of vegetation all the time, and after the fighting ended, special ninja were often sent to clean up the aftermath. Otherwise, with the scale of ninja warfare, there probably would not be a single intact forest left anywhere in the world after a few years.

But Kenichi had not come here to work some miserable job restoring forests across the ninja world.

So he stepped into the woods to look for the wheat he had planted earlier, and it did not take him long to find it.

The wheat was growing very well.

This time, he could already see clear signs that it had started heading.

Still, it surprised him that after such an overwhelming Tranquil Rain, one that had directly created an entire forest, the wheat had only just begun to head.

”But this really does seem to be related to the nature of the ninjutsu itself...” Kenichi murmured as he looked around.

Once inside the forest, he noticed that none of the plants showed any signs of fruiting. It did not matter what species they were. Even the pine trees lacked pine cones. If there had been squirrels here, they would have starved.

If the wheat alone had shown this phenomenon, Kenichi would have suspected a problem with his own control during the process. But if every plant in the forest was like this, then the issue was clearly not one of technique. It was a flaw within the ninjutsu itself.

”This Tranquil Rain can accelerate growth, but it seems to do so in a very crude way. It can only force plants to grow quickly. It cannot directly push them to fruit. I’ll need to observe them for a while longer and see whether they can still fruit normally afterward. If they can, then the problem is mostly solved.” Kenichi stroked his chin again.

Although Tranquil Rain could not directly push wheat to full maturity, at least it could make the wheat reach the heading stage. That alone was already good news. One step like that had already saved a massive amount of time in cultivation.

What remained now was to observe whether plants that had been accelerated by Tranquil Rain would later develop any other abnormalities.

To support that research, Kenichi took samples of several plants back with him. He intended to compare them against plants that had grown naturally and see if there were any deeper differences between the two.

By the time Kenichi returned to the capital of the Land of Snow, he found his teacher standing beside an airship with a dark expression, working on it.

One glance was enough for him to understand.

Orochimaru was in a terrible mood.

But why? What had happened?

”Teacher, are you heading out?” Kenichi asked as he walked over curiously.

It had to be said that although Orochimaru was frighteningly powerful, he did not vent his anger on other people just because he was in a bad mood. From that perspective alone, he was already better than many others.

At the very least, he could control his emotions.

And in some respects, that alone was enough to put him above most people.

”Mm.”

Orochimaru nodded coldly. The chill in his eyes was enough to make anyone uneasy.

Then he stopped and glanced at Kenichi.

Kenichi was momentarily confused by that look and had just been about to ask what had happened when Orochimaru finally spoke.

”Kenichi, do you still remember your junior?”

Kenichi paused, then nodded.

To be honest, he had almost forgotten about Anko. Ever since the last conflict between Orochimaru and Anko in the Land of Rice Fields, he had not seen her at all.

But from the sound of it, Orochimaru’s foul mood was somehow related to Anko?

Back then, Anko had insisted that she wanted to return to Konoha. Kenichi had tried to persuade her, but she had been extremely resolute. Since then, he had not seen her again, and he had assumed his teacher had already handled the matter.

”That idiot still went and did something stupid.” Orochimaru’s tone was icy. ”You may not have a junior sister anymore.”

Kenichi scratched his head.

What exactly had happened while he was out testing Wood Release? Why did it feel like so many things had exploded all at once?

”Teacher, did Anko do something?” he asked.

”She went back to Konoha.” Orochimaru glanced at Kenichi, his expression unreadable.

Anko had not merely slipped away. She had first manipulated the ninja Orochimaru had assigned to monitor and protect her, then directly fled. On the surface, that was not the worst part. The real problem was that Anko knew the locations of several experimental bases, including the one in the Land of Rice Fields.

And with how fast transportation had become in the ninja world now, if Anko made it back to Konoha and exposed that information, then by the time anyone arrived, it would already be too late.

There was too much valuable experimental data stored in those bases.

And Hidan, that immortal nuisance, was still soaking in nutrient solution as well.

Kenichi fell silent for a moment, then understood what his teacher meant.

After Anko had left Konoha, Orochimaru had assigned her various tasks. As a result, she had indeed gained knowledge of some laboratory locations, including Kenichi’s own.

Although Kenichi still did not understand why Anko was so determined to go back to Konoha, it was clear that Orochimaru now intended to silence her permanently.

Kenichi’s mouth twitched.

He truly could not understand what Anko was thinking. Could it really be that the Will of Fire had brainwashed her that badly?

”Teacher, should I...” Kenichi began.

He had intended to say that he would go himself. After all, Anko was still his junior, and it was only reasonable for him to be the one to find her and ask what she was trying to do. Besides, he had been the one who took her out of Konoha in the first place.

”No need.”

Orochimaru cut him off.

Then he boarded the airship, activated it, and left without another word.

Kenichi’s mouth twitched again.

Was his teacher worried that he would go easy on Anko?

”Forget it. If Teacher is going personally, then so be it. I can keep working on my experiments. But before that, I still need to make some preparations...” Kenichi sighed.

If he went, Anko might still survive.

If Orochimaru went, then his junior might truly die.

Although Kenichi did not think Anko was the type to run straight to Konoha and expose everything, he still preferred not to gamble with his lab.

So, to avoid suffering catastrophic losses, he called Uchiha Shiori over and had her move the majority of the equipment out of the laboratory. Only when the place was nearly empty did she finally stop.

”Thanks for the help,” Kenichi said as he looked at Shiori.

Blood was already leaking from Shiori’s eyes.

That was what happened when Mangekyo dojutsu was used at high intensity over a short period of time. The consumption of ocular power was simply too great. Still, Kenichi had not had much choice. These instruments had cost an absurd amount of money, and he had already used them for so long that he had gotten used to them. Replacing them would have been inconvenient.

”It is no hardship to serve Lord Amamiya,” Shiori replied, as calm and composed as ever.

She had always been very clear about her place. Her eyes had been awakened to this level because of Kenichi. Without him, she would still have been nothing more than a useless person whose eyes had never opened.

Kenichi looked at Shiori for a moment, then silently activated his own ability.

He wanted to analyze Shiori’s Mangekyo and see just what he could understand from it.

”Pigment cells. Protein. Water. Obscure chakra.”

A long list of information rose into his mind.

Kenichi only glanced through the first few entries before moving on. Those were the standard components of a human eyeball.

Although the Mangekyo Sharingan surpassed ordinary eyes, it was still fundamentally an eye. Naturally, it would still contain the normal structure of one. That part did not interest him.

What he focused on instead was something else.

Chakra.

Not a vast amount, but chakra that was astonishingly dense.

This chakra was unlike ordinary chakra. It seemed to exist independently within the eyeball, forming a separate system of circulation.

Kenichi could even see that chakra moving in an extremely strange pattern.

The speed of that cycle was very fast, and as it circulated, it seemed to gradually thicken.

Kenichi’s gaze sharpened.

Was this thickening of chakra related to the use of Mangekyo dojutsu?

He glanced at Shiori again, then stopped.

There was no need to keep looking.

On one hand, he had already seen the part that interested him.

On the other hand, his eyes had already started to ache.

Analyzing the Mangekyo was not quite as exhausting as analyzing the Rinnegan, but it was not far off either.

”It seems I’ll have to wait until Shiori recovers, then continue this research later.”

Kenichi licked his lips excitedly.

At that moment, a bold idea had already formed in his mind.

He felt as though he had finally found the true essence of the Mangekyo Sharingan.

.....

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