Fragility

Kato Osamu's time in the laboratory was not as long as he had imagined. In less than a week, he saw Orochimaru for the second time.

With Anko beside him, Orochimaru seemed a little gentler than usual, and Kato Osamu's gaze could not help falling on her.

"Kato, want some dumplings today?"

Anko held three skewers of rice dumplings. After thinking for a moment, she took one from her hand and offered it to him, then handed another to Orochimaru.

"Thank you."

Kato Osamu did not stand on ceremony. He accepted it and held it in his hand, because he saw that Orochimaru had accepted one as well.

"Kato and Anko seem to get along very well..."

Before Kato Osamu could speak, Anko had already grinned.

"Of course. Kato is the most obedient kid I've ever seen. He's much better than those crybabies at the academy."

Anko finished her dumplings in a few bites, seemingly still wanting more. Orochimaru handed the skewer he had been holding back to her.

"Lord Orochimaru, I have finished reading Cell Biology and Systematic Anatomy. I expect to begin studying the Hemostasis Technique and Healing Technique in a week..."

Kato Osamu stood respectfully to one side and handed the dumplings in his hand back to Anko as well.

"Kato is truly impressive."

Orochimaru turned and smiled as he stroked Anko's head.

"Anko, go practice the ninjutsu I taught you. Kato is about to surpass you..."

"Hm?" Anko widened her eyes and glanced at Kato Osamu. Thinking of the dumplings in her hands, she seemed a little embarrassed. With a soft snort, she stomped out of the room.

Once Anko left, Orochimaru also put away the little gentleness he had shown and stared at Kato Osamu with dark, distant eyes.

"Kato, I have a gift that you may like."

The laboratory lights were exceptionally bright as Kato Osamu watched Orochimaru take a scroll from his sleeve.

"They're very fresh. They should be enough for you, shouldn't they, Kato?"

"Release!"

With a quiet shout from Orochimaru, two fresh corpses appeared on the laboratory beds, one male and one female.

Their bodies were intact, aside from wounds on their necks. Blood still flowed slowly from them. Kato Osamu estimated that they had been dead for no more than two hours.

"Lord Orochimaru..." Kato Osamu froze for a moment as he looked at the two corpses on the operating tables, his mind blank.

Though it was not his first time seeing corpses, nor was it the first time he had killed someone in battle.

But he understood Orochimaru's meaning—these two people were his dissection subjects.

The terror of dissecting a person far surpassed that of striking with a Kunai in an instant. Although he had prepared himself mentally before this, facing such a scene for the first time still left him at a loss.

"Kato, you may do as you wish. In three days, I will replace them with new test subjects."

A faint, eerie glimmer seemed to shine in Orochimaru's eyes. He merely watched Kato Osamu and gave a slight smile, his gaze as cruel and cold as that of a beast.

Kato Osamu felt that the warmth in Orochimaru's gaze toward him was not much greater than what the two people on the operating tables received.

"Yes, Lord Orochimaru!"

When trapped in a difficult situation, one had to accept the awareness that came with it. Whatever he was asked to do, he had no right to refuse.

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes slightly, watching Kato Osamu with what seemed to be scrutiny and surprise. He smiled softly, then, as though on a whim, casually took another scroll from his sleeve.

"Kato, you are very different from ordinary children..."

Kato Osamu lowered his head and did not look into Orochimaru's eyes. He did not quite understand what Orochimaru meant.

"Bringer-of-Darkness Technique. A-rank in difficulty. Developed and perfected by the Second Hokage. It creates an environment of darkness, causes visual illusions, and strips away all light. Within the dark world descended like black silk, only the caster remains unaffected."

Orochimaru held a scroll out before Kato Osamu. The faintly tempting tone in his voice made Kato Osamu understand that this was his payment.

"Kato, although it is A-rank in difficulty, I imagine it should not be much of a problem for you."

Those assured, certain words stirred Kato Osamu's heart. He abruptly raised his head and looked at Orochimaru as though he could scarcely believe it.

The strength of his spiritual energy had steadily grown over the past three years of studying the Spirit Transformation Technique. He had also encountered several objects carrying remnants of others' spiritual wills, causing his spiritual ability to advance by leaps and bounds as though it had evolved.

Yet he had thought he concealed it well. Even no one in Root had discovered it, but Orochimaru, whom he had met only twice, had seen through him.

Kato Osamu did not know what Orochimaru's relationship with Danzo was like, but it seemed different from what he had imagined. Orochimaru did not appear to be completely controlled by Danzo. Though he was in Root, he possessed authority of his own.

"Lord Orochimaru, Kato Osamu will complete the dissection task as soon as possible!"

"Ha ha, hahahaha..."

Orochimaru's laughter seemed to carry some other meaning, but Kato Osamu did not wish to understand it or pay it any mind. He merely accepted the scroll in silence and clenched it in his hand.

"One of the three ways to remove a Cursed Seal: when the one who placed the Cursed Seal dies, the seal on its bearer is automatically removed."

Orochimaru's final words took all warmth from the laboratory. Kato Osamu silently stared at the tightly sealed laboratory door, his fists clenched until they turned white.

The dissection work did not go very smoothly. He was merely turning the images from the books into reality.

Yet when he removed the test subject's completely cold heart from his chest and held it in his hand, his gaze locked onto the man's face without moving.

This was a middle-aged man, roughly in his thirties, in the prime of his life.

He did not know what the man had done while alive. Perhaps he had been a ninja too. Perhaps, like himself, he had pondered the meaning of life. Perhaps, like himself, he had struggled desperately to survive. But he had failed, and so he had become Kato Osamu's test subject.

But at that moment, an immense, bone-deep chill descended upon him. It was as if a vast glacier was wrapping around him inch by inch. His entire body seemed imprisoned, unable to move. His heart began pounding violently, as though the cold heart in his hand had made the heart in his own chest feel the sorrow of its kind.

"Human life is confined within the flesh. It is so fragile..."

He slowly lowered the thing in his hand, which had become an unrecognizable mass of blood and tissue. The blood remaining on his hand continued to drip from his fingertips.

"Even with only a little force..."

His bloodstained fingers intertwined continuously. His body became completely motionless, while a phantom emerged from it and drifted above the laboratory.

"Spirit Transformation Technique!"

His consciousness seemed to empty completely as he allowed his soul to drift.

His soulless body lay on a nearby bed. In his eyes, it was no different from the lifeless test subjects.