Kabuto

After bidding Hatake Kakashi farewell, Sasuke headed toward the Konoha Library. Though it was not the weekend and the Ninja Academy was still in session.

By now, however, he had completely mastered all the knowledge taught at the Ninja Academy. Like Uchiha Itachi, he merely sent a Shadow Clone to attend classes for him each day and go through the motions.

I heard Naruto has become Chen Baojun's student and started training in taijutsu.

Chen Baojun's taijutsu was formidable. Calling him Konoha's strongest taijutsu ninja might have been a slight exaggeration, but not by much.

Setting aside the forbidden technique, the Eight Inner Gates, neither Might Guy nor Might Duy matched Chen Baojun in mastery of the Konoha Strong Fist Style.

In the original timeline, the reanimated Teacher Chen had easily defeated Might Guy in his normal state, along with several elite ninja.

In the end, moved by the determination of Guy and Rock Lee, he broke free from the restraints of the Impure World Reincarnation and ascended to the afterlife. He was one of the few ninja in the Fourth Shinobi World War capable of breaking free from the Impure World Reincarnation on his own.

This showed just how powerful he was, and how unyielding his will could be.

Looks like my investment in him will soon start paying off.

Walking through Konoha's streets, Sasuke pondered this in secret.

Given their relationship and Naruto's personality, once he had learned something from Chen Baojun, Naruto would surely rush over to challenge him.

No matter how their sparring match turned out, Sasuke could easily learn Chen Baojun's taijutsu from Naruto.

That way, Sasuke's own taijutsu would also improve by leaps and bounds.

Konoha Library.

Upon arriving at the library, Sasuke made his way deep inside with practiced ease. This was not his first time here, and he knew the structure and layout of the entire library like the back of his hand.

The books in this world had still helped Sasuke greatly. For instance, when nurturing his inner demon, "Ido," he had drawn upon quite a bit of this world's psychological knowledge. Psychology existed in the ninja world; Sai often carried books on the subject.

Although this world's psychology was not as vast and profound as that of his previous life, it had its own unique insights.

However, he had not come to the library this time to find books on the mind or psychology, but books on human anatomy and medicine.

The Ninja Academy did teach human anatomy, but it was mostly broad, general knowledge, usually focused on teaching students how to identify the human body's vital points.

That allowed them to kill, subdue, or knock out enemies as quickly as possible. For systematic knowledge like this, he still had to learn from specialized books.

Looking over the rows of bookshelves and the neatly arranged books upon them, Sasuke considered for a moment before selecting several volumes.

Human Anatomy and Structure, Human Dissection, Ophthalmology, Fundamentals of Ophthalmic Medicine, and Surgical Medicine.

These were all ordinary medical books. This library did not contain books on medical ninjutsu, and Sasuke currently had neither the means nor the conditions to study medical ninjutsu. He might as well begin with the basic medicine of ordinary people.

After choosing the books he wanted, Sasuke found an empty table and sat down to study in silence.

"This book studies the normal form and structure of the human body. It falls within the field of human biology and is one of the important foundational courses in medicine."

The first book Sasuke opened was Human Anatomy and Structure, and this was written at the very beginning.

He started with the skeletal system. He read quickly, only skimming the general content. But when he reached the sections on the frontal bone, cranial bones, and the anterior view of the skull, he slowed down and began reading carefully.

It had to be said that while some books in this world were still rather crude compared to those from his previous life, with some sections even riddled with flaws.

Strictly speaking, though, this world's technological development was not lacking. With chakra's assistance, biology, physics, and chemistry had all reached the level of his previous world in the 1950s or 1960s.

Some cloning and mechanical technologies could even be called black technology. The only issue was that their development had taken a somewhat distorted path, lacking the flourishing diversity of his previous life.

Time passed second by second. Sasuke read for two straight hours. Just as he was completely absorbed in his book, he sensed a gentle gaze directed at him.

Sasuke did not look up, because the moment the newcomer entered this area, he had already known of his arrival—and who he was.

"Sasuke-kun, what a coincidence."

The owner of that gaze spoke. Sasuke looked in the direction of the voice and saw a silver-haired man with ordinary features and round glasses on his face.

"Kabuto-senpai. It is quite a coincidence."

The newcomer was Yakushi Kabuto, the ninja world's number one tool, master dream-maker, and double agent.

He had originally been Danzo's spy, then Orochimaru had recruited him and assigned him to Sasori of the Red Sands.

Sasori of the Red Sands, however, saw through Orochimaru's scheme and placed a technique on Kabuto, turning Kabuto into his own spy.

Yet Orochimaru had long known Sasori would see through his scheme. He simply played along and continued using Kabuto to gather intelligence on Akatsuki.

In this round, Sasori of the Red Sands was on the second level, while Orochimaru was on the third.

But no matter what level they were on, they could not escape the fact that Yakushi Kabuto was a tool.

"Kabuto-senpai, did you come to look up some information?"

Sasuke set down the book in his hand and asked. This was not their first meeting. Over the past two years, they had met no fewer than ten times, though every encounter had happened through one coincidence or another.

But from the very first time he met Yakushi Kabuto, Sasuke had known that Orochimaru, the man behind Kabuto, had set his sights on him.

And just as Sasuke had expected, after suffering a crushing defeat at Uchiha Itachi's hands two years ago, Orochimaru had developed an immense craving for the Sharingan.

Furthermore, Kimimaro's bloodline illness could not be cured, and Orochimaru had no solution for it. Thus, he had completely shifted his target to Sasuke.

Through a deal with Danzo, he had arranged for Yakushi Kabuto to return to Konoha under the identity of Yakushi Nonō's adopted son. On one hand, this allowed him to observe Sasuke up close; on the other, it let him steal intelligence from Konoha.

It had to be said that Yakushi Kabuto possessed an exceptional talent for espionage.

A gentle, harmless face. Unexpected chance encounters and contact.

If Sasuke had not already known what kind of person Yakushi Kabuto was, he might truly have been fooled by him.

"There haven't been any missions in the village recently, so I came to the library to take a look."

Yakushi Kabuto smiled gently and pushed up the glasses on his nose. Then, as if casually glancing at the books beside Sasuke, he smiled. "Sasuke-kun, are you planning to become a doctor?"

"Not exactly." Sasuke smiled lightly, his tone that of someone speaking to a warm, easygoing, helpful senior.

"I heard that studying medical ninjutsu can improve one's chakra control. As for chakra control, I've reached a bottleneck now. I hope to make some breakthroughs through medical ninjutsu. Besides, mastering medical ninjutsu will be of great help in my future career as a ninja."