"Kō-chan, don't worry. It's fine." Leaping down from the tree trunk, Shin'un walked toward Shiina Kō.
"It's fine? Are you sure?" Shiina Kō found it a little hard to believe, but she still trusted Shin'un's words and slowly lowered the kunai in her hand.
"Thank you." Shin'un looked at Shiina Kō with a complicated gaze. After discovering that Orochimaru was attacking him, she had drawn her kunai to face Orochimaru without much thought. That gesture had touched him somewhat.
Once that feeling passed, Shin'un turned toward Orochimaru, who was still standing a short distance away, and smiled.
"So? How was my speed?" After a brief moment of thought, Shin'un concluded that Orochimaru, who had yet to become obsessed with human experimentation, would not go so far as to attack a ninja from his own village. In that case, his attack could only be explained as an impromptu test.
Besides, although Orochimaru's attack had lasted only an instant, Shin'un's exceptionally keen powers of observation had still allowed him to notice that he had held back.
Orochimaru seemed to have been thinking about something, but Shin'un's undisguised stare snapped him out of it. Meeting Shin'un's gaze, Orochimaru explained with a smile.
"Sorry. I was just thinking about the assessment of you in the report. Now that I've seen it, your reaction speed really does demonstrate the exceptional talent the report emphasized."
After speaking, Orochimaru glanced with interest at Shiina Kō, who had pointed her kunai at him without hesitation earlier, and showed the faintest hint of a smile.
"If I've caused you any trouble, I'm willing to apologize." Orochimaru composed his expression and looked earnestly and solemnly at Shin'un and the others before him, as though expressing his sincerity.
Seeing Orochimaru like this, Shin'un found it a little hard to adjust.
Was Orochimaru's early characterization that of a kindhearted, emotionless type who couldn't express his feelings well?
"It's all right, sensei. Tests like that are perfectly normal. But when do we start the official test for the whole team?" Of course, Shin'un could not actually let his future teacher apologize. Besides, countless tests and probes involving real weapons took place in the Shinobi World. They were practically customary.
"All right. In that case, let's begin."
As he spoke, Orochimaru approached the two of them, looked them over, and took two scrolls from the ninja tool pouch behind him, tossing one each to Shin'un and Shiina Kō.
"Not long ago, I received a letter from my teacher. He said that the talents of the ninja on your team were exceptionally evident and outstanding even among the Ninja Academy's elite class."
"So we'll keep our test simple. I'll give each of you a C-rank ninjutsu scroll. Within three hours, you must successfully perform it, and it must be effective in actual combat."
"If you can do that, you can become my students. If you can't... consider this C-rank ninjutsu a parting gift from me as I send you back to Konoha."
Raising his head, Orochimaru looked toward the sun that had just risen on the horizon.
"It's around eight in the morning now. We can finish just after eleven. Begin."
With that, Orochimaru immediately turned around, preparing to find somewhere shady to rest.
"S-sensei? What about me?" Standing off to the side, Uchiha Yūichi, who had been ignored the entire time, hurriedly spoke up when he saw that Orochimaru seemed about to find a place to rest. "Where's my ninjutsu scroll?"
"Hmm? Oh, you're here too." As though he had only just noticed Yūichi, Orochimaru widened his eyes slightly in surprise, then tossed him another scroll. "Sorry. I completely forgot you were here."
Yūichi's eye twitched at those words. For a moment, he was speechless, but he still hurriedly reached out to catch the scroll Orochimaru had thrown.
"Don't disturb me for three hours unless you've finished training and are reporting to me. I'll keep track of the time!" With that, Orochimaru found a shady spot beneath a tree where the sunlight did not reach and sat down. He took out the thick tome he had brought from his tent and had yet to finish, began reading, and quickly became absorbed in it.
His movements were extremely practiced. Shin'un suspected that he had planned this all along.
He thinks we're a nuisance, doesn't he? With a test like this, we won't interfere with his reading, and we can't disturb him for three hours.
The more Shin'un thought about it, the more speechless he became. Turning to look at Yūichi, who stood on the other side feeling dejected over being ignored, he suddenly had a peculiar thought.
Could Uchiha Yūichi have some connection to the Aburame Clan?
After briefly letting his imagination run wild, Shin'un decided against asking Yūichi. After all, that really would be asking for a beating.
For now, he had better study the ninjutsu scroll in his hands as soon as possible.
On a slightly cleaner patch of grass in the dense forest, Shin'un sat leaning against a thick tree, examining the ninjutsu scroll in his hands.
Breaking the seal, Shin'un unrolled the scroll and let out a sigh of relief after a cursory look.
"Lightning Release: Lightning Wall!" Although it was an unfamiliar ninjutsu name he had never heard before, at least it was lightning release ninjutsu, something Shin'un excelled at and specialized in.
But immediately afterward, once he examined the scroll in detail, Shin'un frowned.
"A defensive lightning release ninjutsu? Can lightning release be used for defense too?"
The ninjutsu Orochimaru had chosen was certainly obscure enough. Shin'un had indeed never practiced anything like it.
"Still..." After discovering that he had a lightning-nature ninjutsu in his hands, Shin'un immediately relaxed.
Over the years, no matter which lightning release technique he practiced, he had never taken more than half an hour to go from first encountering it to proficiency.
Shin'un's hard work deserved much of the credit, but he also had the skill [Lightning Release Mastery] to thank for its assistance.
Calming his mind, Shin'un began rapidly reading and comprehending the ninjutsu scroll in his hands, while also beginning to mold chakra within his body.
Following his understanding of the scroll, Shin'un began directing the flow of chakra within his body, naturally transforming its nature as it traveled through his chakra pathways.
"Bzz... bzz..."
As the chakra within his body transformed, faint clusters of electric current began spontaneously forming around Shin'un, flickering as they wound around him.
Although these tiny currents appearing here and there served no practical purpose, they made Shin'un look like a thunder god incarnate.
There was no helping it. The skill [Lightning Release Mastery] had been working all along, improving his talent for lightning release.
By now, Shin'un's talent for lightning release had reached a truly frightening level.
That much was clear from how merely circulating chakra through the pathways inside his body produced faint, visible sparks on his skin.
It's still fairly simple. It shouldn't take half an hour, Shin'un thought after reading through the scroll once.
With that thought, Shin'un rolled up the scroll, put it away, and stood to begin his preparations.
Raising both hands, Shin'un began forming hand seals in coordination with the flow of chakra within his body.
Although the lightning release technique Orochimaru had found was obscure enough, and Shin'un had never practiced a defensive lightning release technique before,
his tremendous talent, combined with his past training experience, was enough to make learning it come easily to him.