Displaying Talent

The laboratory lights cast a cold, pale glow over the neatly arranged test tubes and instruments. The air carried the scent of disinfectant mixed with a faint, indescribable trace of biological tissue. Orochimaru's long hair hung loose over his simple kimono as he focused on adjusting the microscope's focal length. His golden vertical pupils contracted in the light, gleaming with the almost cruel curiosity unique to a researcher.

Kyohaku Uchiha stood quietly beside him, a clipboard supported in his left hand and a pen held in his right, ready to take notes at any moment. The slight limp in his right foot made his stance different from that of ordinary people, with more of his weight resting on his left leg, but it did not affect the steadiness of his movements. A year of "cooperating with research" had long since accustomed him to this atmosphere. Rather than being studied, it was more like a peculiar exchange and collaboration.

"Kyohaku," Orochimaru said without looking back, his voice carrying its characteristic hoarse magnetism, "record this. Sample A-7: after a minute chakra stimulus was injected, ocular power protein activity increased by three percent. The rate of cellular energy metabolism rose abnormally, approaching the instability threshold."

"Yes, Lord Orochimaru." Kyohaku quickly wrote it down, the tip of his pen scratching softly across the paper. His handwriting was neat and clear. Thanks to the immense spiritual energy and memory brought by the fusion of two lifetimes' souls, he could precisely reproduce every instruction and observation Orochimaru made.

His heart was not entirely untroubled. Whenever he saw blood drawn from himself, or even small tissue samples, being dissected beneath instruments, a complicated feeling arose within him. There was unease at having his secrets probed, curiosity about the truth of the Uchiha Bloodline, and the instinct left over from his former life as a forensic examiner—to regard everything before him as something to be deconstructed and analyzed, rather than simply a part of himself.

"Interesting..." Orochimaru straightened and licked the corner of his mouth, turning his gaze toward Kyohaku. "The Sharingan—those eyes that are cursed... or perhaps blessed. The source of their power does not exist solely within the eyes themselves. They are more like a key, activating some kind of... resonance buried deep within the bloodline. Kyohaku, can you feel it? The subtle changes in the chakra pathways throughout your body when you activate the Sharingan."

Kyohaku set down his clipboard and closed his eyes slightly before opening them again. His black eyes instantly turned scarlet, a single tomoe slowly rotating within them. "Yes, Lord Orochimaru. I can feel chakra, especially its Yin-natured portion, naturally gathering toward my eyes. At the same time, my body's neural response speed seems to improve slightly as well." That was the conclusion he had reached by combining his own sensations with experimental data.

"An accurate description." A trace of approval flashed through Orochimaru's golden pupils. "Your powers of observation and perception of your own chakra far surpass those of ordinary shinobi. It seems your time at Konoha Hospital and here has not been wasted."

At that moment, the laboratory door opened. A ninja dressed in Root attire silently delivered a sealed scroll, placed it on the table by the entrance, and swiftly departed. It contained certain "materials" Orochimaru had acquired through cooperation with other departments—most likely Root.

Orochimaru walked over and picked up the scroll, but instead of opening it immediately, he looked at Kyohaku. "Kyohaku, are you interested in doing a little... extra practical work? A corpse has just been delivered here, belonging to an enemy shinobi. I need to know the cause of death, as well as the state of the body before its chakra dispersed."

Kyohaku's heart tightened. He knew what that meant. This was not treatment, but dissection and analysis—a direct confrontation with the cruelty of death and war. Yet he did not hesitate. He nodded. "It would be my honor, Lord Orochimaru." His experience as a forensic examiner in his former life left him without the ordinary person's fear of corpses. Instead, he felt a familiar urge to seek out the truth.

The corpse was placed upon the cold experimental table. Kyohaku put on gloves and stepped forward. He first conducted a rough examination with a medical chakra sensing technique, then picked up a scalpel and steadily, precisely cut through the skin and muscle tissue. His gaze was focused, as though he were not facing a corpse, but reading a complicated book.

"The deceased is male, approximately twenty-five to thirty years old. There are multiple wounds from sharp weapons across the body, but the fatal wound was a penetrating injury to the heart. The weapon was likely a kunai or short sword. Strange..." Kyohaku paused, gently pressing a chakra pathway node on the deceased's chest with his fingers. "The residual chakra here is abnormally stagnant. It does not resemble natural dissipation. It is more as though it was forcibly extracted or disrupted by some external force at the moment of death."

Orochimaru leaned closer with great interest. "Oh? Go on."

As Kyohaku expertly separated the tissues, he analyzed the findings using the medical knowledge and chakra theory he had learned. "Judging from the direction of the chakra pathways and the residual traces, the deceased was most likely using some kind of Earth Release ninjutsu before death. However, the technique was not fully completed. He may have suffered severe interference during activation, causing a chakra backlash. That may explain why he was killed in close combat so easily. In addition, judging by his muscle fibers and bone density, he underwent long-term, high-intensity taijutsu training, but his nutritional intake seems to have been insufficient recently..."

He laid out his discoveries and deductions one by one with clear reasoning. Not only did he identify the direct cause of death, but through subtle clues, he inferred the deceased's condition before death, possible combat habits, and even the state of his logistical supplies.

Orochimaru listened quietly, the appreciation in his eyes growing stronger. When Kyohaku finished, he gave a low laugh. "Hehehe... splendid. Kyohaku, you always manage to surprise me. Relying only on basic medical knowledge and observation, you were able to reach deductions so close to the truth. This insight and logical reasoning are not what one would expect from an ordinary medical intern—or even a ten-year-old child."

Kyohaku's heart tightened slightly, but his expression remained calm as he removed his bloodstained gloves. "I merely combined the experimental methods Lord Orochimaru taught me with the knowledge I learned at school and in the hospital."

Orochimaru walked to his side, his golden vertical pupils staring deeply at him. "There is no need to be modest. A sharp mind is also a precious talent. It seems that allowing you to remain at Konoha Hospital, and even bringing you here, was the right decision. You are more valuable than many so-called 'geniuses.'"

He paused, then said meaningfully, "Perhaps our research into the Uchiha Bloodline can go a step further. Not merely observation, but attempting to... understand and guide it. For example, might your One-Tomoe Sharingan have another possibility for evolution under specific emotional and chakra stimulation?"

Kyohaku raised his head, his scarlet Sharingan meeting those golden snake eyes. The two people in the laboratory—the researcher and the "test subject" who was also his assistant—seemed, in that moment, to forge a stronger tacit understanding based on their shared pursuit of knowledge and power. Kyohaku knew that the value he had displayed was earning him more influence and opportunities to come into deeper contact with secrets, even though the road ahead remained filled with unknown dangers.