Chapter 239: Amado
Kenichi lowered his gaze to his abdomen.
Three needles were already embedded there, and he could clearly see liquid being pushed in.
It was colorless, an unknown substance with no smell, no obvious reaction. But even if it were just water, injecting it directly into the body could be lethal. Tap water alone carried countless bacteria. Put that straight into the bloodstream and sepsis wasn't a far-fetched outcome.
So the old man hadn't been defenseless after all.
Kenichi didn't hesitate. The kunai flashed and cut across the man's throat.
And then the body dissolved.
Smoke. Dispersing chakra. Nothing left.
"A Shadow Clone?" Kenichi's eyes narrowed.
So everything that man had said earlier had been nonsense from the start, bait meant to make Kenichi commit.
Kenichi staggered and dropped to one knee in the snow, looking weak, breath uneven.
"Stop acting." The old man's voice rang out from within the lingering fog. "That isn't your real body. I can detect active Lightning Release chakra on the surface of your skin."
The old man stepped out of the mist, cigarette still between his fingers.
Kenichi glanced at him. Great, another one with the same hobby as the Third Hokage. He could probably trigger cancer in this guy's body if he felt like it, but he had no idea what kind of countermeasures the man might have. Someone with this many tricks rarely came unprepared.
Kenichi also emerged from the fog, posture steady again, his expression guarded.
"How did you figure it out?" he asked.
This opponent was troublesome. Worse, Kenichi had noticed it earlier, the way the man seemed able to deflect ninjutsu. Deflecting techniques wasn't impossible, but it was absurdly difficult.
Uchiha Madara's gunbai could do something similar, but this man wasn't holding anything like that.
Kenichi's thoughts flicked briefly to the gunbai. If he remembered right, after Madara died, that weapon should still be somewhere in the Uchiha's hidden territory. He didn't know why Obito hadn't brought it out yet.
Did Obito not know what it could do? Had Madara never told him? Or did Obito think it wasn't time to reveal a weapon that distinctive?
Either way, Obito leaving it unused was convenient for Kenichi.
The annoying part was that if Kenichi wanted it, he'd have to find Madara's base, take the gunbai, and then study exactly how it deflected ninjutsu.
"I saw it," the old man said simply.
As he spoke, Kenichi noticed something else. Under certain angles, when the light hit just right, the man's eyes carried a faint metallic sheen.
A prosthetic?
That was Kenichi's first thought. In his previous life, artificial eyes existed, and they were easy to spot because they rarely moved like real ones.
But when Kenichi looked again, the man's eyes seemed completely normal. They rotated naturally. His pupils tightened and expanded with the light. No stiffness. No delay.
"Great Fireball Jutsu!" Kakashi struck from the side, timing it the moment he spotted an opening.
Kenichi watched closely.
A tuning fork-like tool snapped out from the old man's sleeve. That ear-splitting noise returned, scraping at the nerves. And with a single motion, the man used the fork to deflect Kakashi's Great Fireball right back at him.
Kakashi's eyes widened. He dodged on instinct, landing hard in the snow, staring at the old man with obvious shock and uncertainty.
Kenichi's gaze sharpened.
A name surfaced in his mind, suddenly fitting too well.
"Are you Amado?" Kenichi asked.
The chief scientist wanted by Doto. The man said to have built countless unbelievable things in the Land of Snow. The creator of the chakra-absorbing metal.
Even if this man hadn't produced that metal in front of them yet, the tool he used to deflect ninjutsu didn't look like something an ordinary person could obtain. Kenichi had never seen combat methods or ninja tools like this before.
That alone suggested uniqueness.
And uniqueness suggested a creator.
"Oh?" The old man raised an eyebrow, then shrugged casually. "You know me? Did that usurping daimyo put a bounty on my head?"
He admitted it without hesitation.
Kenichi's interest rose immediately. Amado clearly wasn't just clever. Between this strange weapon and the chakra-absorbing metal he'd supposedly made, this man's scientific ability was no joke.
"You're a scientist," Kenichi said, measuring him. "Are you really?"
Amado tilted his head, expression amused.
Kenichi waved a hand and dispelled the thick mist around them. Then he pulled out a sealing scroll, unrolled it, and released a table and several chairs directly onto the snow.
He gestured politely. An invitation.
To Kakashi's disbelief, Amado actually walked over, pulled out a chair, and sat down like this was the most natural thing in the world.
Then he calmly produced a small heating device and began brewing coffee.
Coffee.
Kakashi stood off to the side feeling like he'd missed an entire era of shinobi development. A moment ago they were trading killing moves. Now they were having a conversation, like two merchants negotiating price, except one of them had just tried to poison the other.
"I'm a scientist," Amado said, sounding pleased with himself. His eyes held interest as they rested on Kenichi. "It sounds like you are too?"
"Yes." Kenichi nodded. "I'm Kenichi. A shinobi, and also someone walking the path of pursuing truth."
He truly hadn't expected this outcome. Coming out with Kakashi, he hadn't just run into Princess Koyuki. He'd met Amado as well, and this scientist's strength was even more troublesome than Kenichi had assumed.
So Kenichi began talking with Amado.
And within a few exchanges, the conversation flew straight past Kakashi's comprehension.
Amado poured a cup and handed it toward Kakashi mid-discussion. "Have some coffee."
Kakashi accepted it blankly.
It was hot.
.....
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