Orochimaru

Yuzuru's time was limited, so he had to make the most of every minute and second in the dungeon. He was in a hurry, yet he still stopped.

He had something he wanted to confirm.

So, he veered towards a collapsed building, searching for the source of the sound. Then, he arrived before two critically injured ninjas on the verge of death and a child.

"Senior Omori, is that you?"

One of the severely injured individuals appeared to be Yuzuru's real-world teammate, Kairi Omori.

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The person with her should be her husband and child. However, Kairi Omori was her previous name; her name should have changed by now... Seeing the scene before him, Yuzuru remembered the names of these three people.

Ikkaku Umino, Kairi Umino, Iruka Umino.

If there were no variables in reality, then Torifu Akimichi, Kairi Omori, and Hazuki Uchiha would have all survived the Nine-Tails' Rampage. This proved they didn't die in the Land of Rain mission but returned safely.

However, with the addition of Yuzuru as a small variable in reality, could everything still be the same? Was the future shown in the dungeon truly the future that developed from reality?

"Who... are you..."

Kairi Omori weakly opened her eyes, but she didn't seem to recognize Yuzuru, her gaze filled with unfamiliarity.

"Senior Omori, I'm Yuzuru, your former teammate. Don't you remember?"

"...Team...mate?"

It was clear that Kairi Omori's memory held no record of someone like Yuzuru. This confirmed that the so-called dungeon was an isolated space-time, not connected to events in the real time-space.

The dungeon should be unified with the original Naruto world and wouldn't change with the variables added in reality... Yuzuru wondered if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Take..."

However, at this moment, Kairi Omori didn't care who Yuzuru was. She only hoped that Yuzuru could take her child and quickly escape to safety... Although she could no longer speak, she was still pleading for help from Yuzuru.

Fortunately, other rescue ninjas arrived at this moment, relieving Yuzuru of the dilemma of whether or not to change his plan.

A Konoha ninja appeared before them with a Body Flicker. He scooped up Iruka Umino and said to Yuzuru, "Don't stand here blankly, hurry and take shelter!"

Perhaps seeing the child being rescued, Kairi Omori's face completely lost its vitality.

Yuzuru sighed, then stood up and continued moving towards the Hokage's office building... Well, this was also a form of seeking shelter.

At this time, the entire Konoha had fallen into chaos. The Third Hokage had begun leading an elite squad to confront the Nine-Tails... However, amidst such a disaster, two powerful forces in Konoha remained inactive: one was Shimura Danzō's Root, and the other was the Uchiha clan.

Yuzuru gradually approached the Hokage's office building, but the current problem was, even if he knew where Konoha stored its ninjutsu and even forbidden techniques, could he successfully enter?

Even with Konoha in such chaos, it was conceivable that those confidential locations would still have ninjas guarding them.

Yuzuru could only try to see if he could break through with the Body Flicker Technique, or perhaps use the Rasengan to ambush the guards... To improve his combat power, he had no choice. Taking risks in this dungeon was much better than taking risks in the real world.

While the outside was a mess, the Hokage's building was eerily quiet. As Yuzuru infiltrated it, he instantly felt a sense of dissonance.

It was too quiet. Had no one been left to guard the Hokage's office building due to the Nine-Tails' attack?

He felt it was unlikely.

Looking at the empty office building, Yuzuru found it hard to believe he had gotten lucky again.

He proceeded with extreme caution, walking down the corridor towards the interior of the office building. He then discovered stairs leading underground. As he reached the turn of the stairs, he finally found a special situation... There was a corpse of an Anbu ninja at the corner.

There were no bloodstains or the smell of blood. This ninja had died "peacefully." Yuzuru inspected him briefly and found that the man's neck had been broken. The method was extremely clean; someone had killed an Anbu as easily as killing a chicken.

"Could there be a peer?"

As he went deeper underground, Yuzuru found several more Anbu ninja corpses. When he arrived at the entrance of the forbidden technique vault, he found the door ajar.

A strange light emanated from the gap in the door.

Yuzuru paused at the entrance, feeling somewhat conflicted. Entering the forbidden technique vault would likely lead to no good outcome, but having come this far, he was somewhat unwilling to turn back directly.

A place like the forbidden technique vault was too important; it was equivalent to the "Konoha Skill Encyclopedia." Even if Yuzuru didn't come this time, he would have needed to come at some point in the future. Therefore, he had to at least confirm what had happened here.

With that thought, he stepped through the door.

Not far from the entrance, he saw a figure sitting cross-legged on the ground.

A candle was burning beside the person, and various scrolls were spread around. As Yuzuru stepped inside, a pair of snake-like eyes immediately met his.

Well, it wasn't hard to guess the identity of someone who could infiltrate the forbidden technique vault at this time, or perhaps it was as expected.

"Who are you?"

"Uh, please continue. I'm just looking for a few Wind Release ninjutsu scrolls."

Yuzuru glanced at the scrolls spread on the ground by Orochimaru and felt a bit dizzy... Let alone studying them, he couldn't understand these scrolls at all.

"Wind Release is on the third bookshelf inside."

"Thank you."

Yuzuru walked further into the library. Orochimaru's gaze shifted back to the scrolls in front of him, and then... Huh? Was something not quite right?

Orochimaru slowly turned his head, his gaze fixed on Yuzuru's back... What kind of library encounter was this?

Two people who came to steal forbidden techniques were actually coexisting peacefully?

"Never mind, I'll deal with him later."

Orochimaru's time was also precious; he didn't want to waste a single second.

He's just a small ninja, no need to pay him too much mind. I'll just deal with him when he's leaving the library and passes by me later... Orochimaru thought.

Yuzuru felt the cold gaze from behind him, and a cold sweat broke out on his back. Fortunately, the feeling only lasted for a moment, as Orochimaru had already shifted his attention.

Yuzuru didn't even know how he had just communicated with Orochimaru, but since Orochimaru hadn't attacked him immediately, the outcome was acceptable.

Following Orochimaru's kind instructions, he arrived at the designated location and indeed found many Wind Release Ninjutsu scrolls. Some scrolls even bore the mark of the Shimura Clan.

"Wind Release: Vacuum Wave, Vacuum Blade, Wind Blade Technique..."

Yuzuru pulled out a scroll and began memorizing it quickly. He would memorize as many Ninjutsu as he could before the Dungeon time ran out.

Wait...

But as he was memorizing, Yuzuru suddenly got distracted. He suddenly realized something... If Orochimaru was here, didn't that mean he wasn't anywhere else?

He quickly pulled up the Dungeon map and searched carefully for a while before confirming a place deep underground called "Orochimaru's Secret Laboratory."

Orochimaru's laboratory was also a treasure trove.

However, it was too late to go there now. He should focus on memorizing Wind Release Ninjutsu. He could plan his next move regarding Orochimaru's laboratory...

Then, just as Yuzuru had memorized a few Ninjutsu, he suddenly heard the sound of a blade piercing flesh. When he came to his senses, he felt a chill in his chest.

He looked down in disbelief and saw a pale arm piercing through his chest from behind.

A cold voice sounded behind him.

"Young man, were you just thinking about me?"

"..."

He's a damn lunatic.

We're both scholars. You read your books, I read mine. How can you stab someone in the back?