Chapter – 484 Kurenai’s Strangeness

While re-reading the scroll of Chimera Jutsu, sometimes Orochimaru would frown in confusion, sometimes he would sneer in disdain, sometimes the corners of his lips will arch in a smile, and other times he would lick his lips in excitement.

With his experience, he was able to easily judge many hidden dangers of Chimera Jutsu developed by Hiruko, in fact, he could even analyze two to three of these hidden dangers and the alternative paths to remove them.

Overall, even if it is Orochimaru, he couldn't deny that Chimera Jutsu really has incredible potential, it is truly a forbidden Jutsu that can change a shinobi's essence.

After all, no matter the identity, background, and past of a person, once five or more Kekkei Genkai are absorbed and integrated into the body; there will be a tremendous increase in strength, surpassing the level of a Kage would be fairly easy.

Hiruko himself is one of the best examples. Before his Kekkei Genkai Absorption Ritual, Hiruko's strength at best reached the level of a high-level Chunin or low-level Jonin. He was such a humble character that Orochimaru never truly bother to look at him seriously and never considered Hiruko on the same level as himself.

But after Hiruko's Kekkei Genkai absorption Ritual was completed, and he acquired 5 Kekkei Genkai, Orochimaru had to pay the price of his arrogance and was easily subdued by Hiruko's newly acquired Sharingan's Genjutsu when fighting against him, it wouldn't even be wrong to say that Orochimaru might have truly died at the hands of Hiruko if not for the fact that Uchiha Tsukihi saved him.

However, the experience of being easily subdued by Hiruko and Uchiha Itachi's Genjutsu made Orochimaru faintly aware of the flaws of his Living Corpse Reincarnation, he now understands that because of having used this forbidden Jutsu several times his spiritual body has started to have defects in it and has weakened quite a lot because quite a lot of his mental energy is consumed in keeping the souls of his victims trapped lest they emerge themselves. Although this Jutsu makes him pseudo-immortal unless he dies, the result of these flaws is that his resistance to Genjutsu has decreased.

This is also the reason why Orochimaru's obsession with Sharingan and acquiring a perfect Uchiha body has started to increase over the years. He wants to get rid of this weakness of his by acquiring the Sharingan which represents Yin.

Of course, Sharingan also has many other good abilities which would ultimately help him in his pursuit of mastering all Jutsu, but Orochimaru has never been able to get his hands on the Sharingan. Whoever Orochimaru chooses as his target tends to surpass his expectations, and even before he is able to make his move on them, they already become people beyond his reach.

Although he is helpless, Orochimaru has never given up on his intentions of acquiring the Sharingan, but after the recent defeat at the hands of Fujin, Orochimaru has started to ponder whether he should follow the same approach as Hiruko and Fujin, and absorb several Kekkei Genkai, of course, Sharingan is a must… and Orochimaru has already selected Uchiha Sasuke has his target for the Sharingan… for other options, Orochimaru has a lot of options to choose from… like Kimimaro's Shikotsumyaku, Haku's Ice Release, Jugo's unique Kekkei Genkai that allows him to absorb Natural Energy, Guren's Crystal Release, Yamato/Tenzo's Wood Release… of course, there are many… many other options he could choose from, but first… "These hidden dangers of Chimera Jutsu must be eliminated…" muttered Orochimaru with a contemplative look.

Just like Fujin warned Shimura Danzo, the Chimera Bud is indeed impeccable when it comes to fusing the flesh and blood of multiple people, however, it is ultimately a double-edged sword. If it is capable of devouring other people's flesh and blood into the user, then it is also capable of swallowing the user itself… so controlling Chimera Buds is a very difficult and burdensome task, perhaps even more difficult and burdensome than maintaining Sharingan is for a non-Uchiha.

Orochimaru, who is proficient in the human body transformation, knows better than anyone that once a Chimera Bud implanted in the body goes out of control, it will not only pollute the body but also cause severe damage to the spirit.

Orochimaru may not care much about his physical body because of his mastery of Living Corpse Reincarnation, and The Technique of Physical Regeneration, but even he dares not ignore the damage to the Soul Body, which is why although he is very greedy to acquire several Kekkei Genkai's similar to Hiruko and Fujin, he still can't make up his mind.

Thinking of how to eliminate the hidden dangers of Chimera Jutsu, a light bulb suddenly lit in Orochimaru's mind, "Since his Root was officially disbanded, Danzo has become almost blinded to seize the position of Hokage from Sarutobi Sensei… with how desperate he has become recently, he won't be able to bear the temptations and would immediately start research on the Chimera Jutsu… Maybe I can use him to collect more data on Chimera Jutsu in order to further improve it."

…

At the Shrine.

The moonlight fell on Futen's face from the holes in the roof.

In the ruins of this ancient Shrine that was once dedicated to the worship of the Nekomata sisters, Futen sat crossed-legged with his eyelids closed…

He was carefully perceiving the condition of this clone body, and after quite a thorough observation, he did find serious inflammation and decay in the muscles around his spinal cord.

Understanding how serious the condition is… Futen sighed in distress.

He never thought that one day he would feel distressed because the result he achieves was too good, but this kind of absurd situation is right in front of him… this Clone body is just too good that is likely to degrade early.

Although he has only experienced one fierce combat while using this clone, Futen can clearly feel that the body and soul synchronization with this Clone is really perfect as he thought earlier, it almost feels as if he is controlling his main body… no, in fact, it feels even better… it's almost as if this Clone body is his main body, and the main body is just a Yin Chakra Nature Clone.

But how can everything go well? This clone is indeed very good, so good, that it is in danger of decay because of its own high quality… it feels absurd and unbelievable… but it is an undeniable truth, and this is also the reason why the outbreak of the so-called disease he is suffering from is also much more violent than he expected.

Even without carrying out a blood test, Futen can judge that at this time the concentration of 'Toxin' in his blood must have far exceeded even Kimimaro's levels.

"In the future, I can not use Shikotsumyaku, absolutely not, else this Clone body would decay before I can carry out Project Godhood." Muttered Futen.

With the current development of medical ninjutsu, it is absolutely impossible to cure the Curse of the Kaguya Clan, so preventing the decay is also absolutely impossible, therefore, he can only choose methods that would decrease the speed of decay, so that Futen at least has the chance to absorb this Clone while carrying out Absorption Ritual.

After making up his mind, Futen sighed and stood up.

This Nekomata dedicated Shrine is very big, although it is ruined and destroyed because of being uncared for the past few centuries, Futen is still amazed just how big this Shrine is.

Of course, he has searched it thoroughly, and nothing except for that secret tomb that is protected by extremely hard unbreakable rocks is worth exploring here.

Perhaps because it was abandoned centuries ago, therefore, not much information can be found here, so Futen is left completely helpless.

And that's still not the biggest issue, the biggest issue is that even after searching and waiting for so long, Futen has found no clue about Itachi and Shisui's situation… their whereabouts are completely unknown which has made Futen strengthen his belief that both of them are more than likely undergoing some kind of trial.

Futen is not much worried about their safety because when they are together, they wouldn't die, Futen still has this confidence in them. Not to mention, Itachi and Shisui's Crow Clone are still present in Konoha… as long as Itachi and Shisui don't die, those Crow Clones will not disappear.

And with nothing left to do here, Futen decided to return back to Konoha.

Because of his ability to fly with the help of Magnet Release, Futen arrived back in the village; within a single day, changed back into his main body and dispelled the Shadow Clone he had left behind to gain all the experience that the Shadow Clone experienced.

Now with him back in the Village; Kuroto instructed Itachi and Shisui's Crow Clone to keep trying to contact their main bodies; while he, himself studied Magnet Release, and Scorch Release and also waited for the return of Kurenai.

It wasn't until a week later that Kurenai returned back to the Village, which made Kuroto frown, 'If her Chakra was sealed then 1 week is acceptable, but she was obviously able to use her Chakra after the treatment I gave her, so what caused her to spend such a long time to return? 2 to 3 days should be more than enough even with her injuries… I guess I will have to listen to her explanation.'

While thinking so, Kuroto proceeded towards the Konoha Hospital.

…

Konoha Hospital.

After Kurenai's injuries were checked and treated under the watch of Anbu; and it was confirmed that her body was not rigged with any kind of self-detonation traps that might pose danger to the village; Kuroto immediately took her to an unoccupied room for carrying out an inquiry.

As an Anbu member of the elite Team-Ro; Kurenai was abducted from the village, and the kidnapper was none other than Orochimaru; an S-Class criminal and defected-nin from Konoha; this is not a trivial matter.

Kuroto can be sure that Sandaime himself will take out some of his time to carry out a one-on-one inquiry within the next 2 days.

As Kurenai's Anbu Captain, Kuroto must first do a personal inquiry too; for various reasons.

Of course, he did not forget to secretly insert the Puppet-Cursing Sphere inside Kurenai's body while the two of them were on their way to the unoccupied room. With the Puppet Cursing Sphere, Kuroto can easily control Kurenai into speaking what he wants her to; at the same time; he can also kill her anytime if he feels the need to, so he was not too worried about his intelligence being leaked.

Kurenai may as well be unaware that her life is in the hands of her Anbu Captain, but she is well aware of just how serious the matter of her kidnapping is; so, she began to reiterate everything to Kuroto in great detail about everything she experienced after returning home on the night she was kidnapped.

How Orochimaru ambushed her? How he poisoned her? How he kidnapped her from her home? Everything was explained in great detail.

Later Orochimaru took her somewhere; even used a Summon Snake to travel to the location, where exactly he was taking her; she doesn't know because Orochimaru had put her to sleep for most of the journey, but when she regained consciousness; they were in the middle of a forest with nothing except trees in sight…

'Only forest? And no Shrine?' Kuroto thought in confusion… he has yet to give Kurenai any instructions; so, everything she has spoken until now is of her own volition… this is why Kuroto is quite a bit puzzled as to why did she not mention the Nekomata Shrine?

'Intriguing…' thought Kuroto and continued listening to Kurenai until she finally stopped.

After Yugao finished writing up here; Kuroto looked at Kurenai and asked with a serious expression, "Then how did you escape from the hands of Orochimaru?"

Kurenai's expression also became extremely serious at this time, and she said slowly, "We encountered a member of Amatsukami… and for some reason, Orochimaru and that member of Amatsukami had a fierce battle and couldn't keep all his attention on me... I took advantage of the small window to escape as fast as I could…"

With that said, Kurenai also gave quite a detailed description of Orochimaru's abilities and the fact that somehow, he was able to summon the dead Shodaime Hokage and Nidaime Hokage to do his bidding.

"Are you sure they were Shodaime Hokage-sama and Nidaime Hokage-sama?" asked Kuroto.

Kurenai nodded, "I am hundred percent certain that that the people he summoned were Shodaime Hokage-sama and Nidaime Hokage-sama… they were able to use Wood Release and Flying Raijin, so, it has to be the two of them!"

Seeing that Kurenai didn't even try to mention anything about 'Fujin/Futen' Kuroto was again surprised; he has still not given her any command, so whatever she has spoken up to now is what she originally wanted to speak.

'Is she trying to intentionally hide information about Fujin/Futen?' thought Kuroto, and decided to ask tentatively, "Which member of Amatsukami did you encounter? Did you manage to see any detail that would help us determine the identity of that member?"

As soon as Kuroto asked this question, Kurenai's heart stopped for a moment, immediately her heart rate increased rapidly, and although she was trying very hard, Kuroto with the help of his Byakugan still noticed some things, so he couldn't help but think 'Is she nervous?'

Kurenai lowered her head and said, "I am sorry captain; because I was poisoned by Orochimaru, therefore, I couldn't do anything against him or Orochimaru and was unable to catch any detail that would help us determine his true identity… but I did see that he was wearing a green-colored Wind patterned mask… and also had the symbol of Wind Chakra Nature on the chest part of his Amatsukami Cloak."

'What the hell?! She literally saw my face! So, why not tell?' Kuroto was so shocked by Kurenai's words that his heart stopped for a moment. but he instantly regained his composure and thought, 'I need to understand what exactly is she planning!'

Immediately Kuroto questioned again, "And what abilities did he use?"

Kurenai's heartbeat increased again, but after quickly calming herself; she said in a low voice, "He was quite proficient in Taijutsu, good enough to match Shodaime Hokage-sama and Nidaime Hokage-sama but as far as I was able to see, he mostly controlled Iron Sand using Magnet Release to combat Shodaime Hokage-sama and Nidaime Hokage-sama."

Kuroto was no longer sure what was going on with Kurenai and sighed tentatively, "Sigh, he is strong enough to match even Shodaime Hokage-sama with his Wood Release, Nidaime Hokage-sama with his Water Release, Flying Raijin, and all those self-created Jutsu, and even Orochimaru with his strange snake Jutsu, all at the same time? And that too with just Taijutsu and Magnet Release? It's really Unbelievable!"

Kurenai nodded, "Yes captain, I was also incredibly shocked. It is inconceivable that someone with just Taijutsu and Magnet Release could match up against Shodaime Hokage-sama, Nidaime Hokage-sama, and Orochimaru, one of the Legendary Sannin."

At the same time, Kurenai thought to herself, 'I am not hiding information from the captain because I want to protect that shameless guy from the Hyuga Clan and the village… no, that's the last thing I would do, in fact, I would much rather die than waste my efforts trying to protect that pervert. I just don't want the Hyuga Clan to have any conflict with the village and affect the stability of the village because of Futen's existence… yes, I am not trying to protect Futen, definitely not!!!'

Although Kurenai thought so, however, the Devil and Angel Version of Chibi Kurenai floating on both sides of her ears clearly didn't believe in her rhetorical thoughts at all.

"Admit it Kurenai-chan, all three of us know the real reason why you lied to the captain!" Devil Kurenai said in a teasing tone.

"That's right, that's right, one must never lie to themselves Kurenai-chan, didn't Oka-san say so?" Angel Kurenai said with a gentle tone.

"You two… one more word and I will be your worst nightmare!" said Kurenai in a very dark tone.

"Eeep!" – Devil & Angel Kurenai were so scared that they dare not come forward again.

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