Chapter 18: Becoming Orochimaru's Student
After dinner, inside the Uchiha Clan Council Hall.
The elders were all gathered, giving off the feeling of a grand tribunal.
"That's basically what happened," Kyosuke said, giving a detailed account of his meeting with the Hokage.
Of course, it was the abridged version.
After listening, the elders each pondered for a moment before moving on from the matter. Although the Uchiha clan was currently dissatisfied with the Konoha leadership, they hadn't yet reached the point of open rebellion. So, after a routine inquiry, the matter was closed.
Next, they began to discuss the matter of him becoming Orochimaru's student.
After a brief exchange of ideas, they found that this arrangement had its benefits. The Third Hokage was getting older, and in a few years, the selection for the Fourth Hokage would begin. If Orochimaru could successfully claim the title, Kyosuke's status as his disciple would naturally rise as well.
It wasn't even impossible to imagine Kyosuke becoming the Fifth Hokage years down the line.
And so, the old men began to lecture Kyosuke, telling him he must listen to his master, not be willful, that the outside world wasn't like home, and so on.
Kyosuke felt his head start to ache.
After a long time, the tired elders finally let him go. Kyosuke bowed and fled as if he had been granted amnesty.
"That little rascal, he must be tired of us nagging him, hahaha," the Great Elder laughed, watching Kyosuke's retreating back.
Just as Kyosuke stepped out of the council hall, he saw a small figure leaning against the doorway.
The figure saw him at the same time and was about to greet him, but then seemed to remember something and turned away, leaving him with the back of her head.
Kyosuke chuckled to himself, walked over, and patted her small head. "What's wrong, still angry?"
"Hmph." The figure was none other than Uchiha Nagisa, who had been stewing all day. She had been so angry about her grandfather forcing her to stay home that she hadn't even eaten dinner.
Seeing her silent pout, Kyosuke shook his head with a sigh. He grabbed her by her small ponytail and started walking away.
"Hey! Hey! Kyosuke, what are you doing?" Nagisa yelped, flailing her arms.
"What do you think? Taking you to get something to eat," Kyosuke said, exasperated.
"Hee hee~" Nagisa giggled, then asked curiously, "I heard you beat that brat so badly he couldn't even fight back. Is that true?"
"Hmph, of course."
"Are you going to Lord Orochimaru's place to train tomorrow?"
"Yeah."
"Hey~ do you think Lord Orochimaru..."
The next day, Kyosuke woke up early. After quickly getting ready, he headed to Orochimaru's house. It was his first official visit to his teacher's home, and it would be inappropriate to be late. The identity of Orochimaru's disciple was very important to him right now; he couldn't afford to be careless.
Knock, knock, knock. Kyosuke stood before a rather plain-looking residence. After waiting a moment, he knocked firmly on the door.
Creeeak...
With a groan of old wood, the door slowly opened.
Kyosuke was about to offer a greeting when he realized it wasn't Orochimaru who had opened the door, but... a spotted snake.
He looked down at it, said a word of thanks, and stepped into the courtyard.
He followed the corridor and soon arrived in the main hall of the residence. There, Orochimaru sat in a chair, wearing a white kimono and sipping tea.
"You're here," Orochimaru said.
"Yes," Kyosuke replied.
...
...
...
After staring at each other for a while, Orochimaru finally spoke. "What do you want to learn from me?"
"Everything," Kyosuke answered, looking directly into his eyes.
"Very good." Orochimaru nodded, then stood up and walked toward the inner hall.
Kyosuke quickly followed.
He noticed that Orochimaru didn't stop in the inner hall but continued to a hidden corner of the wall. He clasped his hands together and quickly formed a single hand seal. Then, with a faint ripple of chakra, he passed right through the wall.
A genjutsu, Kyosuke's eyes lit up. He followed him through the wall.
Beyond it was a long flight of stairs leading deep underground.
Kyosuke wasn't surprised by this at all. As a dedicated man of science, he would have been shocked if Orochimaru didn't have a secret laboratory. In fact, Kyosuke was certain that the lab he was being shown was not Orochimaru's most secret one.
Despite this, the scene that greeted him still sent a slight chill down his spine.
In the vast underground cavern, there were dozens of containers of various sizes. And inside these containers were the bodies of various animals and... humans.
"Are you afraid?" Orochimaru, who was walking ahead, suddenly asked.
"No," Kyosuke answered calmly.
"Very good." This was the second time Orochimaru had said that today. He continued to lead the way.
After about ten minutes, they arrived in a stone chamber.
"I heard you enjoy researching ninjutsu. You are free to look through the materials and notes here. If there's anything you don't understand, write it down, and I will answer your questions when I have time," Orochimaru said, pointing to a shelf in the corner.
Kyosuke nodded in understanding.
Then, Orochimaru pointed to another shelf. "This is a cabinet of ninjutsu I've recorded. Some of them are my own original creations, which I'm sure your clan's library does not have."
Kyosuke nodded again.
"Are you afraid of snakes?" Orochimaru asked.
"Since I dared to ask to become your student, how could I be afraid of snakes?" Kyosuke answered with a smile.
"Heh heh." Orochimaru let out a low chuckle. He then tilted his head back and regurgitated a large scroll from his mouth.
"..." Kyosuke fought back the urge to gag and took the scroll.
Upon opening it, he was delighted to find that it was the summoning contract for Ryuchi Cave, one of the three great sage regions.
Seeing Kyosuke's undisguised delight, Orochimaru asked curiously, "You know of Ryuchi Cave?"
"I saw it in my clan's records," Kyosuke replied without looking up, biting his finger and writing his name on the scroll.
"The Uchiha clan's records..." Orochimaru murmured to himself.
Hearing his muttering, Kyosuke astutely said, "In a few days, I will bring you a copy of those records, Master."
Orochimaru nodded, accepting without hesitation. He then looked at Kyosuke, who was happily holding the scroll. "I am often not at home. From now on, you have free access to this laboratory. Use it as you wish. If there's anything you don't understand, wait for my return."
With that, he turned and left with a flourish.
For the next month, aside from his daily patrol missions, Kyosuke spent almost all his time in the laboratory.
Although his basic attributes, except for Spirit, had barely increased, his gains in ninjutsu were substantial. He had mastered the B-Rank Earth Flow River, the C-Rank Earth Style Wall, the C-Rank Striking Shadow Snakes, and the D-Rank Summoning Technique.
He was able to master these jutsu so quickly because he had spent 110 experience points to raise his "Ninjutsu Theory" skill to Level 3.
He chose to upgrade this skill for two reasons.
First, only by demonstrating a talent for "research" would he truly gain access to Orochimaru's core ninjutsu. Otherwise, he would just become a slightly stronger version of Anko.
Second, he was preparing to "level-lock."
He had discovered that if he excessively raised his personal level or ninjutsu levels, the rewards from many dungeons would be significantly reduced. For his Sharingan alone, if he didn't want to resort to the "kill your family, kill your friends, then kill your enemies" method, he would have to rely on scrolls from dungeons to upgrade to the Mangekyo Sharingan and then the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
But the problem was, the number of dungeons that could drop "Sharingan" items was limited. And items of the "Kekkei Genkai" category were clearly high-level, with a low random drop rate.
Therefore, he had to engage in battles where he was the underdog to increase the drop rate.
For this reason, "level-locking" was an essential strategy.