章 71: Opportunities
(Land of Valleys) (The Next Day)
In a dark cave, hidden at the bottom of one of the Land of Valley's deepest ravines, was Kidomaru writhing in agony. He still donned his stage three form, though that was mainly due to him not being able to get out of it.
Although the Izanagi had restored his soul to a working state, it didn't provide any help to his current endeavor, integrating four curse marks that were all missing a core component, Orochimaru's soul. What he hadn't realized was that the seal itself was designed around that in mind; it can't function without it.
Unfortunately for him, even if he knew, Izanagi could only do what you know how to do yourself. Even if the jutsu can handwave the process and the specifics, without fully understanding the cursed seal itself, having the jutsu alter it is foolish. He thought he had it all figured out; he was quickly learning though that he really hadn't.
"AAAHHH!!!!" He roared as pain flashed through every part of his transformed body. He was being flooded with the various types of corrupted chakra that were stored in the seals to facilitate the stage three mode. As for his body, it was expanding in a manner similar to Jirobo's, changing to become as malleable as Sakon and Ukon's, developing special cavities to incorporate sound in a manner like Tayuya's, while still retaining his own unique features.
If he still had the central component, this may have gone smoothly, assuming Orochimaru let it happen. Unfortunately, without it, his form was distorting in monstrous ways, making him look the farthest one can look from human possible. He was an abomination, and his transformation was only getting worse. Even if his eyes were open, they were all effectively blinded by the process and would continue to be until he regained control over his body.
'I fucked up! I fucked up! I fucked up!' He thought to himself repeatedly, trying to drown out as much of the pain as possible.
"So, it's as I suspected." A smooth masculine voice rang out from the cave's entrance.
Due to the malformed process he was currently undergoing, he couldn't see who it was; he just knew he'd never met the man before. He wanted to react, to take distance and assume a guarded position; he couldn't though. His body wasn't responding to his commands.
"Oh, don't get up on my account. I'm just here to make an offer." The stranger casually explained, making light of Kidomaru's current condition.
Kidomaru growled out, trying to restrain the agony he was currently experiencing from leaking into his voice; once again, he failed. He did manage to turn his head in the man's direction though. He couldn't see him, but it was as close as he was going to get.
"I have the means to perfect this flawed transformation of yours." Kidomaru's currently blind eyes widened at the bold statement.
'Who the hell is this man? I doubt even Orochimaru could fix me as I am now, yet this man makes these claims as if it were a simple task? What an idiot.' He thought in the time between the painful seconds.
He had spent a long time preparing for the heist he had performed. He studied the human body by participating in some of his master's dissections, studied sealing jutsu with Jirobo, used his newly acquired eyes to understand how the seal interacted with his chakra, and much more. There was no way an outsider would understand the brilliance of the seal; at least, that was the way he saw it.
"If you agree, I will perform the procedure now. It will be quick and extremely painful. That said, once it is finished, you will have transcended the boundaries that separate you from truly mastering the various powers within you. Once I'm finished, you will be able to use every power currently implanted in your body as if it were yours." His words were tempting, extremely so.
That was one of his biggest weaknesses; all these dojutsu were just implants with no hope of mastery and high chakra cost. The potential gains were good, too good to take seriously; in fact, they were far too good to be true. Still though, it wasn't like he had other options. If nothing changed, he would be dead within the hour.
"W-w-what's t-he c-c-a-tch?" He stuttered out through the inferno he felt in his throat, the extreme inflammation making those simple words the hardest he'd ever articulated.
"Your allegiance. All I ask in return is that you join my organization as my subordinate." Seeing the growing rage on Kidomaru's face at being made light of, the stranger chuckled. "I understand your type. You believe yourself to be powerful and refuse to serve under an unworthy master. It's even likely you believe you'd never accept any master ever again, especially after just regaining your freedom after all these years." The man let his words ring out, coloring the silence with the amusement that had long saturated his still echoing voice.
"As such, I will give you a chance. If you agree, I will do my part now and leave. Three months from now, I will find you and you may challenge me. This is time you may use to learn and refine your new powers. If, at that time, you can reach me with your power, you will be free to leave, no strings attached. If you can't, you will serve me." The man calmly proposed. From Kidomaru's view, it sounded like the man genuinely believed he held the world in the palm of his hands.
Still, it was a good deal. It would save his life and whoever the hell this was wouldn't stand a chance in three months, especially with all the new power he'd have.
Kidomaru gritted his teeth and nodded, ignoring the pain at the promise of salvation and even greater power.
He couldn't see it, but he knew the man was smiling amusedly at his pathetic state, at the miserable state the man expected him to be in after their bout, at his 'overconfidence.'
He heard footsteps approaching him and not too long after, he felt a power he'd never felt before tear into his body. At first, it was pleasant, having clearly started with stabilizing his condition. Then came the pain, the overwhelming agony far greater than anything he'd been experiencing in the last few hours.
"AAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" His world was pain.
'I don't know who you are or how weak you think I am, but you're going to regret giving me this power you arrogant prick!'
Sakura's Hospital Room (Sakura's Point of View)
"*Groan*" Sakura was snapped out of her rest by a wave of pain that pulsed through her arm and shoulder. Earlier, she had been in a medically induced slumber, but that had worn off over time.
Slowly opening her eyes, the first thing she saw was a white ceiling, devoid of decorations. A steady beeping sound could be heard from a nearby heart-rate monitor, though the frequency was rising.
'I'm still alive then...' she tiredly thought.
It took her a moment to regain her bearings, but as she looked around, she realized that she was here all alone.
'So, the others are fine? Good.' Since they're in the same team, they'd have been placed in the same room had the others been injured. Since she was the only one here; it seemed like she was the only one severely injured.
Suddenly, her mind was filled with the memories of their encounter, the fear she experienced, and the uselessness of her presence as the full burden of reality crushed her under its weight. She was useless, a burden.
While the others fought like shinobi, albeit junior ones in her teammates' cases, she was a burden. Even when the jaws of death closed in on her, rather than help her sensei keep her safe, she made it far more difficult for him by freezing in place. Not only didn't she contribute like the others, she'd actually put everyone in even greater danger than they would've been had she not been there.
As these crippling facts set in, her body hunched forward and trembled. Her hands moved to cover her eyes as if trying to hide the tears streaming down her face.
"Why…why am I so useless? Why couldn't I do anything?" She mumbled to herself in frustration.
"Well, what did you expect? You're a new kunoichi who came face to face with two of the most renown shinobi on the continent, shinobi who define the strength of the most vicious of the five great nations." A calm, seemingly indifferent voice came from the door.
Without her noticing, Uzume Uzumaki, the hospital's director had walked in. She came to check on the patient she had just finished operating on. She had intended to check on Sakura about an hour or two later, but the girl's heart rate spiked, indicating either the girl woke up and became emotional over her situation or something had gone wrong; fortunately, it was the former.
When she heard the girl's self-depreciating monologue though, her chiding words came out, almost by instinct.
'*Sigh* This is why I hate genin kunoichi; they're all the same.' Uzume thought, annoyed at the whiny girl in front of her.
"W-who are you?" Sakura stuttered out, stunned that her moment of self-loathing was seen by this red-haired lady.
"I run this hospital. Well, that's not all, but that's all that matters to you. Now, what did you expect from your encounter? From what I could see from your build, read in your medical reports, and heard from your sensei, you've never taken this profession seriously. So, I'll ask you again, what did you expect to happen, especially when you decided to continue on a mission that projected jonin-level fighters?" Uzume replied, her tone coming off as rather rude.
Sakura's mind temporarily ripped itself out of its swamp of self-depreciation as her eyes snapped to Uzume's in fury.
"How dare you…? I've tried just as hard as everyone else. Despite not being from a clan, I scored as the top kunoichi in the elite class filled with clan heirs. There was only one exception, but she doesn't count. I WORKED MY ASS OFF!!!" Sakura screamed, ignoring the pangs of pain running through where her injuries were.
'How dare this red-haired bitch say I didn't take this seriously? I may be useless, but I tried damn it!' She thought in fury.
"*Chuckle* Seriously? Do you really believe that?" Uzume challenged with a smirk.
"Hell yeah I do! Just because I didn't come from a clan or inherited some powerful bloodline doesn't mean I didn't take this seriously!" She exclaimed, her vocabulary devolving to her baser thoughts. Normally, she put on a polite façade; at this point, that was thrown out the window.
Uzume's eyes narrowed, making her smirk look even more infuriating.
"Let's run through my findings by the numbers then. First, you decided to live on a diet."
"I had to look good for Sasuke!" Sakura interrupted indignantly.
"You're a kunoichi. Discarding your clear lack of priorities, the number of calories you burn is in a different dimension than a civilian. With the way shinobis' bodies convert physical energy to chakra, it's practically impossible to get fat if you don't want to. The only exceptions are the Akamichi, but their fat is intentionally created to be used to store yang chakra; it's functional. For a person who prides themselves on knowing the academy's course material, you should have known something so basic."
Sakura's teeth gritted; she practically snarled at the red-head's words. It was something she learned recently. Sasuke explained it to her during one of their training sessions. It was probably one of the most embarrassing realizations of her life and for it to be brought up by the boy she liked… it was awful.
Still, most of her friends were civilian born and therefore, she followed their trends for the most part. Due to her brash personality, Ino was her only real Clan friend, but she too had the same friends. As such, both had similar problems. In that respect, Ino was worse since she came from a family that should've corrected her. Shouldn't she have read that material in books? Well, she read the books her parents kept in the house, which were mostly civilian books and magazines. The Academy didn't focus much on diet. They may have brought it up, but only once or twice.
"Second, how many hours have you spent training outside of the mandatory sessions at the academy or with your team?"
Sakura was silent. Both knew this answer; almost nothing. She didn't like training. It was too hard and exhausting. It was also really boring, especially when she could spend time with her civilian friends talking about their crushes.
"And the last I'll bring up. Why did you decide to be a front-line ninja? You could have become a doctor, a merchant, or anything else really. If you didn't care about doing all of these things, why choose this profession?" Any mirth in Uzume's voice had turned to a steady steel; this question was probably the most important to her.
Truthfully, she would normally ignore ignorant burdens like Sakura. Everything the girl did was an insult to the profession. Unfortunately, she was on her nephew's team, so her failing would put the others in danger.
Sakura sat in silence for a solid minute without saying anything. Uzume didn't rush her or even comment to give her ideas.
"At first… I just wanted to be something; someone people looked up to. Our village only really cares about shinobi; every civilian knows that. It's gotten better over the years, but this was my best option. Later on though… I made a lot of friends, and… I don't want to see them die, not after what our team went through on that mission." Sakura's reply started soft and was slowly distorted by the girl's trembling, the previous fury reverting back to the self-loathing she felt before Uzume's arrival.
"But I'm so weak, *sobs* so helpless. I couldn't even move when danger hit us. I'll just get them killed faster *sobs*."
Uzume's serious countenance mellowed to a soft smile.
"Sakura, you were against two shinobi with the potential to assassinate a Kage. The weight of the killing-intent projected through their chakra alone is enough to put the current you into a state of shock; they weren't even taking you seriously. The only reason your teammates fared better was having a few friendly spars against their family, which largely consists of S-Rank shinobi." She paused, letting Sakura process her words. "You'll catch up."
Sakura's eyes slowly widened at Uzume's words. It was surprising to hear actual words of encouragement from this red-head who pretty much acted like a bitch their whole conversation.
"You know what? I'll even help you out a bit. Since it'll be a while before you can fight side-by-side with your teammates, why don't I give you some pointers on medical ninjutsu. It's a discipline they should offer in the academy, but don't due to it being too advanced. With your reportedly high levels of chakra control and hobby of reading, becoming a field medic may just be for you."
"Really? You'd do that?" Sakura asked hopefully.
Even if this woman rubbed her the wrong way, it really was a tempting offer. With the head of the hospital helping her, she would be given an avenue of catching up to her clan classmates. She would get jutsu and a role she could fill even if she wasn't part of the fight. Most of all, she wouldn't have to feel so useless.
"Sure. It's not like it'll take up much of my time. If I'm needed elsewhere, I'll just leave you with a shadow clone; it's not like it makes much of a difference to you. The only condition is that you give it everything you've got." She replied with a warm smile.
'Kushina, Mikoto, you're so buying me dinner for this. This girl better be worth it.' Despite the warm persona she was channeling, her thoughts were different; she was fairly irritated.
"Of course! You won't regret this, I promise!" She exclaimed in joy.
'Cha!, I'll catch up in no time!' She thought with righteous passion, having moved passed her earlier self-loathing at the promise of a positive future.
Moving up her right sleeve, Uzume revealed a sealing band on her wrist. Placing her left hand on it, a massive textbook appeared in her right hand; it was titled 'Introductions to Medical Ninjutsu by Uzume Uzumaki'. She then placed it on the nightstand near Sakura's bed.
"Here. You better have this memorized by the time I discharge you a week later. If you do, I'll talk with Kakashi and the fourth about setting up training sessions between us. Now, get to it; I'm busy."
Without waiting for Sakura to respond, Uzume walked out the room, putting Sakura's whole ordeal out of her mind. Truthfully, she didn't expect Sakura to actually complete her little challenge and if it went as expected, she would pawn the girl off to one of her employees. Then again, the girl may impress her; well, probably not.
Back in the room, Sakura's gaze fixed on the red head until she left the room. Once she was gone, her eyes shifted to the book she left.
'No more. I won't be useless anymore!' She mentally declared.
Her hands reached for the book, reaching for the change she needed.
週次パワーステータス
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