Recruitment!

Training with Neji helped me with my own gentle fist. The boy was indeed a prodigy… maybe a little too good of a prodigy that he didn't train in any other style. His attacks were precise but if he was up against an opponent who could just reopen the closed points by rushing chakra through them, like a jinchuriki, he would drop dead very fast. Except for cutting off chakra, his attacks had no stopping power, I needed him to survive if he was to be of any use so I was teaching Neji just what we were up against.

"Keep up Neji, don't just use the gentle fist." – I said as I threw a punch towards his chest.

Once he saw he couldn't just stop my attack due to my overwhelming strength, he immediately tried to redirect them. He moved left and use the gentle fist redirected my punch to the right, this time aiming for more than just tenketsu. Indeed he was a genius, a genius delivered to my doorstep. If mine was a normal human body, before we started training he would only disable my flow of chakra in that arm… now he aimed for blood vessels, nerves as well as dislocating or breaking of my bones.

He was turning into a killing machine… I was turning him into one.

My decision to 'recruit' someone wasn't as spontaneous as simply picking him because he was there. In a way what I said to Orochimaru was also meant for me. As small as the possibility of me dying was getting it was still there, it was always going to be there… so I have to make contingencies.

I have no idea if I have a soul, I am a creature that lives by consuming organic components and converting them into biomass. That being said all of what I am is registered in my DNA, containing every trait and ability I have gained. As long as even one strand of my DNA remains and is allowed to feed, I will be able to come back… and what way to do that better than to have someone willing and able to bring me back. Worse come to worse, Neji will ingest me and I will come back after consuming him from inside out.

"Adapt, your taijutsu depends on your footing." -As I said that I slammed my leg down, the earth cracked and fractured as Neji immediately lost his form, making me rush forward and deliver a straight punch which he grabbed and used as an anchor to swing his leg towards my neck, aiming directly at my tenketsu point… but faltering at the last moment.

Talented, but also too young.

"Don't hesitate. Your enemies won't play to your strengths so always assume you are at a disadvantage, survive this and we'll talk about the next stage of your training. You're a genius with almost perfect chakra control, so with a little stimulation, you should have this down. From what I know we tend to grasp things much faster when our lives depend on it. Gather your chakra and release it at one point to soften the impact."

"Soften?" – He looked at me quizzically.

Grabbing his leg, I pulled, spun around, and threw him off into the air using my strength, making him go well past what I could call safe height for a normal Jonin.

"Sayonara!" - I waved as he didn't even scream.

I wasn't crazy enough to actually kill him on the first exercise I gave him. I had a clone waiting in that direction to make sure he landed safely…-ish… Though if he didn't get it on the first try the clone would continue to take more… drastic measures to force the talent out of him.

The last thing I needed was an excuse for the Hyuga's to be on my ass. Grabbing the kunai that littered our makeshift training ground I made my way to meet with Orochimaru while my clone took care of the luggage.

---------------------

Using my speed it took me about a day to reach Orochimaru in the sound village. I could have made it faster but I wasn't in any real hurry and needed to make some contingencies in case we had any fallout.

Making my way to our meeting point, I saw Kabuto waiting for me.

"Ah, Uchiha-sama. If you would follow me."

Kabuto was a hard guy to get angry at, always respectful as well as diligent and loyal. He was also a great medic to boot, not that I needed one but he could always come in handy. Sadly his loyalty is completely fixed on Orochimaru… though nothing a little Kotoamatsukami couldn't reshape. He was also the one who nearly perfected the Impure World Resurrection. With my physiology, I could recreate the DNA of anyone I have consumed, using Impure World Resurrection I could bring them to fight as my army and if need be I could revive any dead person whose DNA I collected as long as I gained the Rinnegan.

Right now I couldn't afford to spend Kotoamatsukami on him though. His master was first, Sasuke would spend the next 2 years with the snake and I doubt he wouldn't take the opportunity to learn more about the Sharingan. With Orochimaru on my side, I could steer him towards me even more, could gain access to the DNA of at least 3 Hokage. I had Hashirama's cells so I could summon him and learn Wood Style, Tobirama to learn Forbidden Techniques… and absolutely no more reason to become Hokage.

Unless I developed a crush on paperwork I couldn't see any possible benefit to becoming Hokage, at least not right now.

After about 1 hour of traveling, I and Kabuto arrived in Orochimaru's lair. It was the same lair from the anime, though once I made my way through it seemed rather easy to get out… though I think that was just me. I doubted most would think of punching the ceiling as their first option.

As we made our way further in, we found Orochimaru working on his experiments… which I would assume to be normal. Kabuto moved to my left and stayed silent while I moved closer to Orochimaru.

"Kei-Kun, as far as I know, our next meeting should be after Sasuke has agreed to my offer. What kind of proposition do you have this time? From what Kabuto explained to me it seems to be something that I would definitely want to have. Though I fail to see the reason to be this careful as to not even tell us what it is beforehand."

As he spoke I slowly drew closer.

"Well, do not worry. It is something that will make your day… though I would appreciate it if it stayed only between the two of us. " – I said as Orochimaru turned to look at me gesturing toward Kabuto with my eyes.

"Kukuku,m you are rather guarded Kei-Kun. Very well, if it is really as precious as you say then I'll have to take your word for it… at least for now. Kabuto, leave us."

Kabuto didn't even question the order as he left the room.

"So? What is this elusive item you have brought?"

"Something that you fear… but also want just as much. A Sharingan."

"Hoo… a Sharingan… am I to assume it is not a normal one?"

"You would be correct, it is one that has evolved to the next phase, just like Itachi's. Sadly I couldn't get the pair."

As I finished saying that, Orochimaru's head turned towards me, my eyes meeting his with only one problem… On my right eyes, where once Izumi's Mangekyou was located, now stood Shisui's, slowly rotating as soon as Orochimaru made contact. I didn't know what plans Orochimaru had made to negate Itachi's Tsukuyomi… but this was one Genjutsu that was broken on so many levels. It didn't require eye contact so I had already started using it when I entered the laboratory but it seemed that eye contact didn't make the process any faster. It seemed that Orochimaru didn't even notice that he was being manipulated, nor did the process seem to go faster with eye contact. It took a minute for the process to finish, as I implanted loyalty into Orochimaru that would make Kabuto look like a backstabber.

I would have to obtain the second eye to see whether the process was faster with it and if it would shorten the time needed for the Kotoamatsukami to recharge. Moving towards Orochimaru I kept my guard up, The Snake was nothing if not tenacious in his survival.

"Well then, should we get started on reviving the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero?"

"Kukuku, indeed… I have prepared a sealed room and the five necessary sacrifices to continue with the resurrection. Though I still believe it to be a waste of resources. Not to mention the massive amount of chakra we would have to use, it would still only give her 5 days of life at most."

"I only need a few seconds." – I said with a small smile on my lips.