Orochimaru, already accustomed to it all, remained unmoved, only offering Jiraiya a half-smile.
But Takashi was getting fed up.
Jiraiya, shameless as he could be, was truly exhausting. Not only was he exhausting, but he also kept leaning in closer.
This idiot probably took his money to spend on some ladies for a few days, and hadn't even bothered to bathe or change his clothes.
Unable to tolerate it any longer, Takashi finally gave in.
"Stop rubbing against me. I only know how to make certain special puppets. Orochimaru wanted to study them, so we made a deal."
"On the battlefield, enemy corpses can be used to make puppets. It's free material, you get it?"
"Special puppets?" Jiraiya scratched his head, wondering what kind of puppet could be called a "special puppet".
Curious, aren't you?
Well, I'm not telling you. Get lost, leaning won't help. Also, back off!
"Get lost!"
Jiraiya tried to use the same tactic he used on Takashi on Orochimaru, but he was immediately greeted with a cold glare and an even colder dismissal.
"Scram."
"Alrighty!"
Jiraiya wisely backed off, fully aware that Orochimaru wouldn't hesitate to resort to violence if he didn't.
The second wave of support troops wasn't very large—at most five or six hundred people. The situation in the Land of Rain hadn't yet escalated to where Konoha needed to send thousands of ninjas.
The more people there were, the slower the pace of travel. Along with the need to transport various supplies, speed was just not feasible.
Medical supplies could be carried with sealing scrolls, but for basic necessities, using sealing scrolls was too costly. Even with Konoha's resources, it couldn't afford such expenses—so supplies had to be carried by cart or on the backs of ninjas.
As for the medical supplies needed at the frontline camp, they were all contained in a few sealing scrolls, carried by Takashi himself.
In addition to him, the village had dispatched a team of fifteen medical ninjas, all reporting to him.
If the situation worsened, more personnel would be sent.
After being scolded by Orochimaru several times, Jiraiya finally took the opportunity, during a rest stop, to jump into the river, scrub himself clean, and put on fresh clothes.
No longer smelling awful and no longer shooed away, he joined Takashi's side.
Compared to the perpetually cold and foul-mouthed Orochimaru, Jiraiya preferred being around Takashi—he could joke around and relax.
"Takashi, aren't you going to say hi to your clansmen?"
There were members of the Hyuga clan among the support troops heading to the Land of Rain. Jiraiya was puzzled as neither side seemed interested in even acknowledging the other, let alone chatting.
Takashi glanced at his clansmen and smiled faintly.
"Do you know the Hyuga Clan's hierarchy?"
"Main house and branch house?" Jiraiya scratched his head.
"Correct, but not entirely."
Takashi shook a finger, correcting him. "It's the main family, followed by branch family elders, then the branch family, and finally, those with diluted bloodlines. Four tiers."
"Oh, I see."
Jiraiya nodded in realization but quickly raised another question. "Wait a second. That's still only three tiers. Aren't the branch elders part of the branch family?"
If they're part of the branch family, why aren't they grouped together?
"Due to the clan's system, becoming a branch elder requires significant merit. Ordinary branch members have no chance of assuming such a role. Most branch elders are former main family members who lost their inheritance rights and were branded with the Caged Bird Seal. They look down on regular branch members."
"On the surface, they're branch elders, but their hearts align with the main family. That's why they're a separate tier."
"Now do you understand?"
"Damn."
Jiraiya's jaw dropped. "That's so... brutal?"
So when it came to matters involving branch interests, most branch elders wouldn't side with the branch house because their loyalty lay with the main house.
"But aren't they supposed to be branch members forever? If that's the case, why lean toward the main house?"
Jiraiya's confusion only deepened.
Takashi looked up at the sky, making Jiraiya follow his gaze, thinking there might be something there.
But there was nothing.
"They became branch members due to the inheritance system, but their Byakugan purity remains high. If given the chance, their descendants could marry back into the main house."
"Huh?"
Jiraiya looked utterly confused.
Orochimaru also listened with great interest.
No matter how prestigious the main house seemed, there were only so many of them, and not every generation had suitable matches. So, branch members with high Byakugan purity became suitable options.
Besides having few members, there were considerations of blood relations. The main house had a tough time finding appropriate matches over generations.
This is driving me nuts.
Do all major clans have such complicated dynamics?
Suddenly, Jiraiya felt lucky to be a civilian ninja rather than being born into a big clan.
"Don't make that face."
Takashi saw that Jiraiya clearly misunderstood something and decided to clarify: "Not every ninja clan is like this. In all of Konoha—no, in the entire shinobi world—only the Hyuga Clan is like this. The other clans aren't, like the Uchiha, they don't have these weird rules."
"In fact, most clans don't even mind marrying outside the clan, like the Senju Clan."
Recalling the antics of the Senju Clan, Takashi couldn't help but laugh.
"Back in the day, the Senju Clan loved marrying into the Uzumaki Clan, which led to a lot of resentment. The Uzumaki Clan felt annoyed because the Senju always took away their most beautiful and talented girls."
Such antics were indeed… a bit outrageous.
"They could've just married off their own women to the Uzumaki, right?"
After all, mutual alliances through marriage were standard practice.
"Idiot. Why do you think the Uzumaki harbored resentment?"
Orochimaru, unable to stand Jiraiya's naivety, interjected. "Think it through—if both sides played fair, why would the Uzumaki bear a grudge?"
Clearly, the Senju were being opportunistic, always taking advantage while leaving the Uzumaki feeling shortchanged.
Even someone as thick-skinned as him couldn't help but mutter, "That's just too stingy."
"Why else would they be resentful?"
Jiraiya had a knack for lightening the mood and making blunders. Sometimes, after being scolded by Orochimaru, he would ignore it. But if the insults got too harsh, he'd snap back at Orochimaru.
Amusingly, when Jiraiya did push back, Orochimaru would always walk away with a cold expression, as if he didn't want to argue with an idiot, leaving Jiraiya howling in frustration.
Three days later, the team arrived at the border camp. The reinforcements would rest there for one night before heading straight to the construction site in the Land of Rain.
The border camp was too small to accommodate many people, serving only as a supply transit point.
The ceaseless downpour, day and night, made everyone irritable. With so many people around and too few huts, most had to squeeze into tents. Even Takashi had no choice but to forgo resting in the medical tent, which was already overcrowded with wounded sent back from the Land of Rain.
Orochimaru, rather unluckily, was assigned to share a tent with Jiraiya, while Takashi got one all to himself. He gave Orochimaru a sympathetic glance and slipped into his tent.
After several days of traveling, Takashi understood clearly: anyone left alone with Jiraiya would definitely be driven insane. At least this version of Jiraiya was an absolute chatterbox, with an endless stream of words and constant babbling. If that wasn't enough, he also had a tendency to act foolish.
That night, Takashi didn't sleep well. The tent was stuffy, the rain poured heavily, and the water drumming on the tent was loud enough to keep anyone awake who wasn't used to it.
A sleepless night left Takashi yawning non-stop the next day. After replenishing their supplies, the reinforcement team set off at dawn, heading straight to the camp being built in the Land of Rain.
The camp in the Land of Rain was still under construction. There was a wooden fence around the perimeter, but the buildings were still being rushed. Most of the ninja could only make do with tents, which made the sleeping conditions even worse than those at the border camp.
Luckily for Takashi, he no longer needed to squeeze into a tent. As a top-tier medical professional, he had his own room—a privilege that spared him from sharing and from staying in a tent.
The only downside was that as soon as he arrived at the camp, he had to immediately start work. The medical unit was overwhelmed with wounded.
"Clean the wounds, stitch them up."
"Bring me two vials of the Type-2 antidote over here."
"Prepare the herbs on this list. I need to mix some antidotes."
The moment Takashi took over, he was swamped. He had to manage patients and develop antidotes simultaneously, barely finding a moment to catch his breath.
Many of the injured had been poisoned, which meant that developing the right antidotes was essential before any further treatment could proceed. The ninja from Sunagakure were adept at using poisons, constantly improving and updating their toxins. Though Takashi had brought many antidotes from the village, few were effective, requiring him to start from scratch for most of them.
"Prepare my room for work. I need peace and quiet, and I don't want to be disturbed."
To properly develop these antidotes, Takashi needed a quiet space. His role shifted from healing patients to antidote research.
The medical staff quickly got to work, clearing out the largest room for Takashi and moving all the necessary herbs and equipment inside.
"Oh, and go get Orochimaru. I need his help here," Takashi ordered.
"Yes, sir," one of the medical ninja replied, hurrying off to summon Orochimaru.
Soon, Orochimaru arrived.
"You need my help?"
Orochimaru walked into the room, eyeing the poison samples Takashi was working on with curiosity. He looked at them for a while, then shook his head with a smile.
"Sunagakure's still up to the same old tricks, I see. The poisons are as predictable as ever."
Without looking up, Takashi replied, "Orochimaru, I need you to help me analyze these poison samples. Many of them are mixtures of venom from desert snakes, which I believe you are quite familiar with."
People might think that nothing survived in the desert, but in reality, most of the creatures there were venomous—snakes, lizards, scorpions, and so on. The Sunagakure ninja collected venom from these creatures, using it to create poisons.
"No problem. Leave it to me. By the way, if possible, I'd like to assist you further," Orochimaru offered.
He was skilled at this sort of work, but he also had an ulterior motive. Instead of heading to the battlefield, he preferred to stay at the camp and work on things that interested him—like crafting puppets.
The morgue was full of enemy corpses, which Orochimaru found to be valuable research material. Since they were enemies, using their bodies didn't really matter.
But before he could start his experiments, he needed a legitimate reason to stay in the camp, or he'd be sent back to the front lines.
Takashi glanced at Orochimaru while shaking a vial of antidote. Well, if I'm coasting along, then Orochimaru's certainly coasting too.
"Suit yourself," Takashi said.
If Orochimaru wanted to stay, let him. One person wouldn't change the course of the war. Having him around would actually make Takashi's work a lot easier. After all, Orochimaru was remarkably versatile—he could handle anything thrown his way and always delivered results.
With his goal achieved, Orochimaru smiled and put on rubber gloves, starting to analyze the poison samples.
"Desert viper venom, poisonous lizard... oh, there's even water lizard and sea viper venom, and plenty of plant toxins as well."
Orochimaru dove into work, focusing on analyzing the poison samples, while Takashi concentrated on making the antidotes. Sunagakure had gone to great lengths to collect these toxic substances—animals, plants, and various mixtures.
Without the appropriate antidotes, if Konoha's forces encountered Sunagakure ninja, their casualties would skyrocket. For most ninja, killing an enemy was a challenge, but wounding them was much easier. Once wounded, poison took hold, and death followed swiftly.
Single toxins were relatively easy to handle, but mixed poisons were a nightmare. Without antidotes, if the medical ninja had to rely solely on medical jutsu to extract the toxins, even working non-stop wouldn't be enough.
After analyzing the samples, Orochimaru grinned, "Well, Takashi-kun, my part is done."
The guy couldn't wait to get his hands on the enemy corpses.
Takashi sighed, unsure of what to say, but he had to remind Orochimaru:
"Orochimaru, I don't mind if you use the enemy bodies for your puppet work—you'll need to provide your own materials and parts—but remember this: never, ever touch the bodies of our comrades. They are the village's heroes."
Any ninja who died for the village, even a genin, deserved respect, not experimentation after death.
"I will strictly adhere to our agreement," Orochimaru promised before eagerly heading toward the morgue.
Hopefully, he won't step out of line. Better be cautious, Takashi thought.
He carefully stored the antidotes and had them taken away. Then, turning to one of the medics, he instructed, "Send someone to find Nara Shikashin and have him assign more personnel to the morgue. Our comrades' bodies must be secured immediately, sealed in scrolls for safekeeping."
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