Vulnerability

His days in the laboratory did not last as long as Kato Xu had imagined. Less than a week later, he saw Orochimaru for the second time.

Orochimaru, accompanied by Anko, seemed a little gentler than usual. Kato Xu's gaze could not help but fall on Anko.

"Kato, want some dumplings today?"

Anko held three skewers of sticky 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 Xu did not stand on ceremony. He accepted it and held it in his hand, because he saw Orochimaru accept one as well.

"It seems Kato and Anko have a very good relationship..."

Before Kato Xu could speak, Anko had already grinned.

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

Anko finished her dumplings in a few bites, seeming somewhat unsatisfied. Orochimaru handed the dumplings he had been saving back to Anko.

"Lord Orochimaru, your subordinate Wei has finished reading Cell Biology and Systematic Anatomy. I am expected to begin studying the Hemostasis Technique and Healing Technique in one week..."

Kato Xu stood respectfully to the side and returned the dumplings in his hand 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 already close to surpassing you..."

"Huh?" Anko widened her eyes and glanced at Kato Xu. Thinking of the dumplings in her hand, she seemed a little embarrassed. With a soft snort, she turned and stomped out.

Once Anko left, Orochimaru put away what little gentleness he had shown and gazed darkly at Kato Xu.

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

The laboratory lights were bright as Kato Xu 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 low shout from Orochimaru, two fresh corpses appeared on the laboratory beds—a man and a woman.

Their bodies were intact, save for a wound on each of their necks. Blood was still slowly flowing out. By Kato Xu's estimate, they had been dead for no more than two hours.

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

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 the instant of striking with a Kunai. Though he had mentally prepared himself beforehand, facing such a scene for the first time still left him at a loss.

"Kato, you may do as you please. In three days, I will replace them with new specimens."

A faint glimmer seemed to lurk in Orochimaru's pupils. He merely stared at Kato Xu with a slight smile, his gaze as cruel and cold as that of a beast.

Kato Xu felt that Orochimaru's gaze upon him was no warmer than the two people lying on the operating tables.

"Yes, Lord Orochimaru!"

When trapped in a desperate situation, one had to accept what that meant. No matter what he was asked to do, he had no right to refuse.

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes slightly, studying Kato Xu with a hint of scrutiny and surprise. With a soft laugh, as though acting on a whim, he casually took another scroll from his sleeve.

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

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

"Darkness Technique. A-rank difficulty. Developed and perfected by the Second Hokage. It creates a dark environment, induces visual illusions, and steals away all light. Within the dark world descended like black silk, only the caster remains unaffected."

A scroll was held out before Kato Xu. Orochimaru's faintly tempting tone told him that this was his "payment."

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

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

The strength of his spiritual energy had steadily grown during three years of studying the Spirit Transformation Technique. He had also encountered several items bearing traces of others' spiritual will, causing his mental abilities to advance by leaps and bounds as though they had evolved.

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

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

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

"Haha, hahahaha..."

Orochimaru's laughter seemed to contain some other meaning, but Kato Xu did not want to understand it or pay it any heed. He merely remained silent, took the scroll, and clenched it in his hand.

"One of the three methods to remove a Cursed Seal: when the one who applied it dies, the seal on the recipient is automatically removed."

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

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

Yet when he removed the specimen's thoroughly cold heart from his chest and held it in his hand, his gaze locked onto the specimen'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. Perhaps he had pondered the meaning of life just as Kato Osamu had. Perhaps he had struggled desperately to survive, just as Kato Osamu had. But he had failed, and so he became Kato Osamu's specimen.

Yet at that moment, an immense, bone-chilling cold descended upon him, as though a massive glacier were slowly encasing him inch by inch. His entire body seemed shackled, unable to move. His heart began pounding violently, as if the cold heart in his hand had made the heart in his own chest feel the sorrow of its kind.

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

He slowly set down the thing in his hand, now reduced to an unrecognizable mass of blood and pulp. The blood remaining on his hand continued to drip from his fingertips.

"Even with the slightest exertion of force..."

His bloodstained fingers intertwined continuously. His body became completely still, and a phantom emerged from it, drifting 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 specimens.