Apprenticing Orochimaru

After dinner, inside the Uchiha Council Hall.

Many elders gathered together, giving off quite the feeling of a joint tribunal.

"That's about it." Kyosuke described the process of his meeting with the Hokage in detail.

Of course, it was definitely an abridged version.

After the many elders listened, each fell into their own contemplation for a moment, then they glossed over the matter.

After all, while the Uchiha Clan at this time held some dissatisfaction with Konoha's higher-ups, it hadn't yet reached the point of launching a rebellion, so they merely asked as a formality and then moved past it.

Then, they began discussing the matter of taking Orochimaru as a teacher again.

After a brief exchange of thoughts, they realized this affair still had its benefits.

After all, the Third Hokage was now gradually advancing in age; within a few years, the election for the Fourth Hokage would likely begin.

If Orochimaru could successfully ascend to the top, then Kyosuke, as his disciple, would naturally see his status rise accordingly.

In fact, it wasn't impossible that, years later, Kyosuke could become the Fifth Hokage.

So, these old fellows started lecturing Kyosuke earnestly—things like he must listen to his teacher, must not act willfully, that the outside world wasn't like home, and so on.

For a moment, Kyosuke felt his head spinning.

After a long while longer, the elders, now somewhat weary, finally let him go. Kyosuke bowed, then fled as if granted a pardon.

"That little rascal, he must think we're annoying, hahaha." The Great Elder, watching Kyosuke's retreating back, couldn't help but burst into laughter.

Just as he stepped out of the council hall, Kyosuke noticed a petite figure leaning against the doorway.

That figure noticed him at the same time, just about to greet him when, as if remembering something, she turned around, leaving him with only the back of her head.

Kyosuke chuckled inwardly, slowly walked over, patted her little head, and said, "What, still mad?"

"Hmph." That figure was Uchiha Nagisa, who had been sulking all day. Because her grandfather had forcibly kept her at home, she was so angry she hadn't even eaten dinner.

Seeing her silent, Kyosuke shook his head helplessly, then grabbed her little ponytail and started walking outside.

"Hey~ hey~ Kyosuke, what are you doing?" Nagisa shouted, flailing.

"What else? Taking you to eat." Kyosuke said with exasperation.

"Heehee~" Nagisa giggled, then asked curiously, "I heard you beat that brat so badly he couldn't fight back today, is that true?"

"Hmph, of course."

"You're going to train under Lord Orochimaru tomorrow?"

"Yeah."

"Hey~ what do you think of Lord Orochimaru..."

The next day, Kyosuke woke up early, packed simply, and headed to Orochimaru's home.

After all, this was his first time visiting his teacher's house; being late would be too disgraceful.

The identity of Orochimaru's disciple was quite important to him at this point, something he couldn't afford to take lightly.

"Knock knock knock." Kyosuke looked at the somewhat modest residence before him, waited a moment, then knocked firmly on the door.

"Creeeak~" With an old, grating sound, the door slowly opened.

Just as Kyosuke was about to offer a greeting, he found that the one opening the door wasn't Orochimaru, but a spotted snake.

Kyosuke looked down at it, offered a word of thanks, then stepped into the courtyard.

Soon, he followed the corridor to the main hall of this residence, where Orochimaru, dressed in a white kimono, sat in a chair sipping tea.

"You're here." Orochimaru said.

"Yeah." Kyosuke replied.

They stared at each other for a while, until Orochimaru suddenly spoke: "What do you want to learn from me?"

"Everything." Kyosuke answered, looking him straight in the 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 until he reached a hidden corner of the wall. There, he pressed his palms together and quickly formed a hand seal.

Then, with a faint fluctuation of Chakra, he passed straight through the wall.

"Genjutsu." Kyosuke's eyes lit up, and he followed him through the wall as well.

After that came a long staircase, leading deep underground.

Kyosuke wasn't surprised at all by this development.

After all, with Orochimaru being a research fanatic, he'd sooner die than believe the man didn't have a secret laboratory.

In fact, Kyosuke was certain that what he was being shown now definitely wasn't Orochimaru's most hidden lab.

Even as he thought this, the scene that unfolded before him still gave him a bit of an eerie feeling.

In this vast underground cavern, dozens of containers of various sizes were arranged.

Inside these containers were the corpses of various animals and humans.

"Scared?" Orochimaru, walking ahead, suddenly asked.

"No." Kyosuke replied flatly.

"Good." This was the second time today Orochimaru had said that word, and he continued leading the way.

After about ten minutes, the two arrived at a stone chamber.

"I hear you enjoy studying ninjutsu. You can browse the materials and notes here freely. If there's something you don't understand, write it down, and I'll answer when I have time." Orochimaru pointed at the shelves against the wall, speaking to Kyosuke.

Kyosuke nodded to show he understood.

Then Orochimaru pointed at another shelf and said, "This is my ninjutsu archive. Some of these are original techniques I created. I'm sure your clan's Ninjutsu Pavilion doesn't have them."

Kyosuke nodded again.

"Afraid of snakes?" Orochimaru asked once more.

"Since I dared to become your disciple, how could I be afraid of snakes?" Kyosuke replied with a smile.

"Heh." Orochimaru let out a low chuckle, then tilted his head back and spat out a massive scroll from his mouth.

"..." Kyosuke suppressed his nausea and reached out to take the scroll.

When he opened it, he was delighted to discover that this scroll was the summoning contract for one of the three great sacred lands, Ryūchi Cave.

Orochimaru watched Kyosuke's undisguised excitement and asked curiously, "You know about Ryūchi Cave?"

Kyosuke bit his finger and wrote his name on the scroll without looking up, answering, "I saw it in the clan's records."

"Records of the Uchiha Clan, huh." Orochimaru murmured to himself.

Hearing this, Kyosuke tactfully said, "In a few days, I'll copy those records and bring them to you, Master."

Orochimaru nodded and accepted without hesitation. Then, watching Kyosuke beam while clutching the scroll, he said, "I'm often away from home. From now on, you can freely enter and use the lab here. If there's anything you don't understand, wait until I return."

With that, he turned and left with an air of nonchalance.

Over the next month, aside from his routine patrol duties, Kyosuke spent almost all his time in this lab.

Although his basic attributes—except for Spirit—had barely increased, his gains in ninjutsu were substantial.

He had already mastered B-rank Earth Flow River, C-rank Earth Flow Wall, C-rank Hidden Shadow Snake Hands, and D-rank Summoning Technique.

The reason he could learn these techniques so quickly was that he had spent 110 experience points to raise his Ninjutsu Theory skill to level 3.

Kyosuke had chosen to upgrade this skill for two reasons.

First, only by demonstrating talent in "research" could he truly gain access to Orochimaru's core ninjutsu. Otherwise, he would easily end up as a stronger version of Anko.

Second, he was planning to "suppress his level."

He had realized that if he raised his personal level or ninjutsu levels excessively, the rewards from many Instance Dungeons would shrink significantly.

For one thing, take his Sharingan. If he didn't want to end up in a scenario of "kill kin, kill friend, then kill enemy," both the Mangekyō Sharingan and the higher Eternal Mangekyō would have to be upgraded using scrolls dropped from Instance Dungeons.

But the problem was that the number of dungeons that could drop "Sharingan" items was very limited, and such Kekkei Genkai items were clearly high-tier, with a low random drop rate.

Therefore, only by fighting above his weight class could he increase the drop rate.

For this reason, "suppressing his level" was an unavoidable move.