"Orochimaru?"
Qingyu set down the towel he'd been using to wipe off his sweat and turned to look at Tsunade.
"Why did Lord Orochimaru suddenly ask to see me?"
Tsunade's gaze drifted up to the ceiling, then over to the chicken bones left on the tea table, and finally back to Qingyu's face.
"He heard about your reputation as a genius and said he wanted to meet you."
Qingyu stared into Tsunade's eyes.
"Tsunade, tell me the truth."
"I am telling you the truth."
Tsunade looked a little guilty, but still sounded confident.
"If you're lying to me, I'll never bring you any more drinks."
Tsunade's expression stiffened instantly.
Without anything to drink, she might as well be dead.
"Well, the truth is..."
Tsunade shifted in her seat and took her legs off the tea table.
"Orochimaru's short an assistant to do odd jobs for two or three days, so I said... why not let you give it a try?"
Qingyu kept looking at Tsunade.
Under his gaze, Tsunade grew so uncomfortable that she finally gave up trying to hide it.
"Fine, fine! Jiraiya didn't lend me money this time. Orochimaru did."
"So you got a cut and sold me off?"
Qingyu hit the nail on the head.
"That's not quite how I'd put it. You can't call it selling..."
Tsunade's voice grew quieter and quieter, until she finally turned away, unable to meet Qingyu's eyes.
Qingyu took a deep breath.
He'd known it.
In this household, Tsunade was the tyrant, he was the little manservant, and Shizune was the little maid.
When the tyrant was short on cash, she wouldn't even blink before selling off the servants.
"Doesn't Lord Orochimaru have Shadow Clones? Surely he knows how to use them."
Qingyu was curious. Why would Orochimaru be short on help?
"Shadow Clones build up fatigue, too."
Tsunade waved a hand, sounding unusually serious.
"Do you think the Shadow Clone Technique is some kind of all-purpose tool?"
"All the pain and fatigue experienced by a Shadow Clone are transferred back to the original the moment it disappears. If you create too many Shadow Clones, you could even work the original to death."
Tsunade spoke solemnly.
Hearing that, Qingyu didn't argue.
What Tsunade said was true.
The Shadow Clone Technique was essentially a double-edged sword. The fatigue that a Shadow Clone accumulated flooded into the original all at once when it vanished.
That was why many ninja knew the ordinary Shadow Clone Technique, but the Multi-Shadow Clone Technique was forbidden.
The individual clones created by the two techniques were the same; the only difference was the maximum number of clones.
Apart from monsters like Naruto, who had an absurd amount of chakra and the protagonist's halo, no one dared use Shadow Clones like ordinary clones.
"Fine."
Qingyu sighed.
If he couldn't avoid it, he'd just have to go.
Looking at it another way, he might be able to trigger some interesting traits at Orochimaru's place.
After all, Orochimaru was the Shinobi World's greatest scientist. He was full of treasures.
Qingyu was also curious about what traits this man who sought eternal life might drop.
Seeing that Qingyu had agreed, Tsunade visibly relaxed.
She stretched languidly, looking quite comfortable.
She was wearing nothing but a loose nightgown. As she stretched, the thin fabric pulled taut, outlining her curvy figure without hiding a thing.
The hem rode up as well, revealing her slender waist.
Qingyu's gaze was drawn to her before he quickly looked away.
Tsunade didn't notice. She gave a lazy yawn, then got up and swayed toward her bedroom, leaving Qingyu with the sight of her backside rocking from side to side.
Qingyu instinctively took another look.
Hm?
His brow furrowed slightly.
At this angle, there should have been a triangular outline beneath her backside.
Could it be...
Was she going commando?
Qingyu banished the dangerous thought from his mind and headed for the back courtyard.
After resting for a while, he still had medical knowledge to memorize.
That was the best way to organize his time without disrupting his sleep that night.
Qingyu would never carry his fatigue over to the next day.
A few days later.
Qingyu followed Tsunade through the streets of Konoha to a quiet research facility on the outskirts of the village.
The facility looked unremarkable. Ivy covered its gray-white walls, making it look like an ordinary home.
But the moment Qingyu opened the door, he saw shelves filled with jars and bottles. Each contained specimens he couldn't identify.
Orochimaru stood in a laboratory at the end of the corridor, holding a test tube up to the light as he examined the color of the liquid inside.
Hearing their footsteps, he set the test tube down and turned around.
His face was so pale it was almost bloodless, and his golden, vertical-pupiled eyes looked just like a snake's.
When he saw them, Orochimaru gave what could just about be called a smile.
"You're here, Tsunade."
Orochimaru's voice was rather hoarse.
"Yeah. I brought him."
Tsunade folded her arms and nodded toward Qingyu.
Orochimaru's gaze settled on Qingyu.
His golden, vertical-pupiled eyes swept over Qingyu from head to toe, then back again.
Lending Tsunade money had been a casual favor.
A few hundred thousand ryō meant nothing to him.
A single experiment could easily cost several million ryō.
What truly interested him was Qingyu himself.
Recently, he'd been helping Shimura Danzō study how to counter the side effects of the Sharingan.
The Sharingan of the Uchiha Clan was undeniably powerful, but it also consumed a great deal of chakra and placed enormous strain on the body.
If someone from another clan had one implanted, they might not become stronger at all if they weren't strong enough to begin with. Instead, it could wear down their body and become a burden.
What's more, most of the test subjects who'd had a Sharingan implanted had developed rejection reactions.
That had brought Qingyu to mind.
He was the only person in all of Konoha who had naturally inherited both Senju and Uchiha blood.
Orochimaru had noticed the boy long before Qingyu started school.
But Qingyu's sensitive identity, along with Tsunade standing in the way, had kept him from making a move.
Now that Tsunade had brought Qingyu to him of her own accord, he had no reason to turn him away.
"Lord Orochimaru."
Qingyu greeted him first, respectful but composed.
"Just call me Orochimaru."
Orochimaru stepped closer and studied Qingyu.
[Collectible trait detected: Desire for Longevity]
[D-Rank Trait: Desire for Longevity]
[Effect: You yearn for eternal life, increasing the maximum number of times your cells can divide.]
[Collectible trait detected: Regeneration of the White Snake]
[D-Rank Trait: Regeneration of the White Snake]
[Effect: The white snake is said to represent good fortune and regeneration, increasing Yang Release Chakra by 20%.]
Qingyu's whole body trembled.
Two traits.
Just from meeting him, he'd gotten two D-Rank Traits.
And neither trait offered a simple boost to his abilities.
Desire for Longevity directly affected the maximum number of times his cells could divide.
That meant his lifespan limit had been genuinely extended.
Ordinary people's cells could divide only a finite number of times in their lifetime. This trait was like adding several more segments to that limit.
Hashirama Senju had died so young that Qingyu had wondered whether his passive ability, Seal-less Healing, had been burning through his life.
Human cells could divide only a limited number of times, and ninja were no different.
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