I suppose it was my willingness to share knowledge that prompted Orochimaru to make the offer. Considering that some of my acquaintances don't even teach their own loved ones and children all their personal techniques, what is there to talk about?
Actually, almost fanatical devotion of Asani and Hoshi to me is also based not only on the fact of care and quality training, but also because I taught both of them my personal techniques, even if only a small part, but in the world of shinobi it is a very serious thing, directly demonstrating my attitude to the students imposed by the village.
There are plenty of examples when a mentor teaches only the minimum necessary to keep them from dying on their first independent missions, and then forgets about them without even keeping in touch with them.
- Sharing knowledge is the foundation stone of development and growth, - I hummed, - even if you have to sacrifice some exclusive developments and after that they become less exclusive.
The funny thing was, I really did mean it, even if I sometimes had to resort to less than pure methods of obtaining that knowledge, and the experienced jonin who had been listening carefully to my words picked up on that.
- Ryo," Orochimaru smiled slightly with a much more normal smile, confirming my assumption that he was well aware of the effect his usual smile had on people and was making good use of it, "information may be highly valued in the shinobi world, but too many smart and talented people are willing to take their secrets to their graves rather than teach a part of it.
- When knowledge is the key to survival, it's the natural reaction of the overwhelming number of shinobi," I sighed, picking up the teapot and pouring myself some more tea, "but only by overcoming that kind of boneheadedness can you seriously increase those odds, and that's what you're doing, isn't it, Orochimaru-san?
- You seem to understand me even better than your own teammates," the shinobi said gracefully and a little mockingly, a light of interest in the depths of his eyes.
It's not hard to do that when you have an example of a world where the exchange of information happens more freely and on a truly gigantic scale than it does here. But I did not say that, deciding to move on from polite curtsies and mutual probing.
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