Chapter 280: I'm Really Just Here to Learn, Let Me In!
"I'm Amemiya Kenichi. My teacher is Orochimaru." Kenichi answered Hiruko's question plainly.
It was normal that neither Hiruko nor the woman called Pakura could recognize him clearly through the barrier. Kenichi could not make out their faces either. The view was distorted, as if he were looking through frosted glass.
If he had been standing closer and taken a hit, they might have recognized him. After all, wanted posters for rogue ninja circulated across the ninja world, and he did have a bounty.
It just was not high. Compared to his other identity, the "Heavenly Demon," his official bounty was laughably small, roughly on the level of Asuma.
The defensive barrier Hiruko used looked a little like the Four Violet Flames Formation, but it was not. It only had three corners, and it was red. Even the air around it felt strange.
"Orochimaru?" Hiruko paused, staring at the figure outside with surprise.
Pakura, meanwhile, closed her eyes in despair.
Of course she knew who Kenichi was. A rogue ninja of Konoha. Once an A rank target, and after the incident in Konoha, reclassified as an S rank. In most villages, S rank meant someone at least comparable to a jōnin.
Pakura had already lost hope.
One was a pervert. The other was a rogue ninja from an enemy village. There was no reason for her to believe she would survive.
Hiruko's emotions were complicated.
In the past, he had been close to Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya. The four of them ate together, trained together, sparred together.
Then reality crushed him.
No matter how hard he worked, he could not keep up. The harder he tried, the more desperate he became. That was the day he truly understood the gap between geniuses and ordinary people.
His friends never mocked him. They never even mentioned it.
But Hiruko's sensitive pride could not accept it.
He grew silent. He withdrew. He began to avoid the Sannin, who later became famous across the ninja world.
Some people, after long silence, come to terms with it. Some give up.
Hiruko went mad.
He turned to forbidden research, was discovered by the Third Hokage, and finally defected from Konoha.
"Orochimaru, huh…" Hiruko muttered. Then he knocked Pakura unconscious with a casual palm strike, dragged her aside, pulled a scroll from his chest, and spoke as if he were just chatting. "Did your teacher ever mention me?"
Even as he spoke, he watched Kenichi with open wariness.
If Kenichi attacked the barrier, Hiruko would counter immediately.
Former friend's student or not, he would not let his guard down. When he defected, it was those same "friends" who hunted him down.
"Yes," Kenichi said. "He mentioned you. Teacher said you were talented and insightful, and that some of his ideas were inspired by you."
Kenichi understood Hiruko's caution.
But he was not in a hurry.
He had seen this type of defensive barrier in the comprehensive barrier manual Orochimaru gave him. Breaking it would not be difficult.
What interested him more was something else.
How did Hiruko absorb multiple Bloodline Limits?
Hiruko had clearly mastered a method of fusing Bloodline Limits. Kenichi wanted that method.
What would happen if he fused every rare Bloodline Limit in the world?
"Heh." Hiruko sneered. "Orochimaru has always been arrogant. How could he say something like that?"
Especially about a worthless person like me, he added silently.
Kenichi shrugged. "Believe it or not, that's up to you."
Then he leaned forward, eyes bright with genuine curiosity.
"But Uncle Hiruko, may I ask how you fuse Bloodline Limits?"
Kenichi remembered that someone like Hiruko did not appear in the main story, which meant Hiruko was likely a "movie" character.
Some movie storylines clearly operated on their own logic.
The Land of Snow had chakra armor and convenient technology, yet it never appeared in the main timeline. The Sky Ninja Village had its underground fortress and absurd military research, yet it never truly affected the larger world.
If those things were part of the same world, the Five Great Villages would have fought over them like starving wolves.
Flying tools would make Iwagakure's mountain defenses a joke. Chakra armor could raise the baseline of genin, chūnin, and jōnin alike. Even a small improvement was still an improvement.
Yet Konoha never moved, as if it could not see the value.
Kenichi had long suspected that the movie plots were independent. No matter how messy they got, they would not change the main thread.
"Chimera." When Hiruko spoke that name, pride overtook his face. "A ninjutsu I developed. It will make me the ultimate ninja."
He had created Chimera himself.
Orochimaru, Tsunade, Jiraiya… no one had researched a technique with the same effect as his. Not even the Second Hokage.
In that field, Hiruko believed he stood above them all.
And he already had three Bloodline Limits.
If he absorbed Pakura, he would have four.
One more after that, and he would become the ultimate ninja.
"Chimera…" Kenichi repeated under his breath.
He had heard the name before, in some compilation video, associated with a high ranked forbidden technique. He did not remember every detail, but he understood enough now.
Chimera was the key to fusing Bloodline Limits.
He had to obtain it.
At the same time, Kenichi saw Hiruko shifting the unconscious woman onto the scroll within the barrier. Was Hiruko about to demonstrate the Chimera Technique on the spot?
Kenichi tapped the barrier.
"Um, Uncle Hiruko?"
The moment his fingers touched it, electricity snapped through his arm. He was zapped hard enough that most people would have cried out.
Kenichi did not even flinch.
Hiruko's eyes narrowed.
This kid took that and stayed standing?
"What do you want?" Hiruko's tone turned hostile. "If you interrupt me, I will not be polite."
He had run enough in the past.
This time, he would not run.
He would climb to the peak of the ninja world step by step and become the strongest.
"I'm not trying to stop you," Kenichi said quickly, half amused, half sincere. "I was just wondering if you could let me observe from the side."
Not only observe, he thought. Record the whole process.
Hiruko stared at him as if he were looking at a lunatic.
Was this kid a pervert too?
Before Hiruko could refuse, Kenichi drew a sword shimmering with Lightning Release.
With a single clean thrust, the blade pierced the barrier as if it were tofu.
A gap opened.
Kenichi stepped inside.
The instant he entered, a fireball shot straight at his face.
At the same time, a sharp whistling sound came from behind him.
Kenichi's expression twitched.
Seriously?
Why did no one believe the truth anymore? He really was here to learn.
He used Body Flicker to dodge the fireball, but before he could say another word, he felt something off.
Thunder… in the desert?
He turned his head.
Pakura was gone from where she had been.
On a distant sand dune stood a small figure, hands flying through seals.
Above them, the clear sky had already darkened. In the span of moments, a thundercloud had formed, heavy and unnatural.
"It really is a cumulonimbus cloud…" Kenichi stared upward, then glanced at Hiruko's shadow clone harassing him. "Wouldn't it be better if you used this ability to benefit the world?"
This was a desert. A place with harsh climate and scarce rain.
Yet Hiruko had conjured a thunderstorm here.
In Kenichi's previous life, someone who could do this could become rich overnight. He could sell rain, control droughts, become a living weather weapon.
"Let me show you the power of Storm Release." Hiruko's voice carried triumph.
He finished the last hand seal.
From the thundercloud, countless tiny lightning spears formed and rained down.
They pierced toward Kenichi in a continuous barrage.
Kenichi dodged rapidly. Each spear struck the sand and left a small glassy crater behind.
"This is interesting," he muttered while moving. "Is it really this convenient to control lightning?"
Lightning Release was strong. Everyone knew that.
Its destructive power was among the best of all elemental techniques. There were even records of Madara using lightning so potent it could break Yin Yang Release black rods.
But Lightning Release had a problem.
Control.
That was why Kakashi's Chidori required the Sharingan, otherwise it was too dangerous to use properly.
Storm Release, however, was different.
These spears were being guided. Their landing points were too precise for "random lightning."
Kenichi could manipulate rough trajectories with Lightning Release, but he could not control it this cleanly.
Storm Release could.
"If this keeps going, we won't be discussing anything anymore," Kenichi said, dodging another spear that grazed his cheek and slammed into the sand behind him.
He exhaled once.
And entered Sage Mode.
He looked up at the thundercloud, then at Hiruko.
"Even if this cloud is created by your technique, how much of that energy can you actually control?"
Kenichi stomped, launched himself forward, and closed the distance.
He had briefly considered countering with Sage Art Lightning Release, using higher voltage to distort the path of the strikes. Normally, current flowed from low potential to high potential. If his own discharge was strong enough, he might deflect the bolts.
But Hiruko possessed Storm Release.
If it backfired, it would be beyond embarrassing.
So Kenichi abandoned that option.
Instead, he stared at the cloud.
"Your lightning still comes from a thundercloud," he murmured. "So the cloud is the real problem."
An ordinary ninja did not have endless chakra to waste. Hiruko was not an Uzumaki, and he did not have a Tailed Beast inside him.
This barrage could not be sustained forever by personal reserves alone. Natural conditions mattered.
And if he wanted the lightning to stop, he needed the thundercloud to disperse.
Thunderclouds dissipated when temperature rose and humidity fell. Or they could be torn apart by powerful wind.
A large enough explosion could break them too.
Kenichi had not studied Wind Release deeply, so he chose the simple answer.
Fire.
Raise the temperature. Evaporate the water vapor. Break the cloud's stability.
A towering wall of flame burst from Kenichi's mouth and surged toward Hiruko.
Before the fire reached him, Hiruko felt his hair curl.
His eyes widened in horror.
How did this kid have that much chakra? And what kind of Fire Release was this? The heat was wrong. It was too high.
Hiruko regretted it instantly.
If he had known this student of Orochimaru was this troublesome, he should have used his masterpiece right away.
Storm Demon Dragon.
If only he had used that technique, this kid would already be dead.
But now, all he could do was face the sky swallowing wall of fire charging straight at him.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 10–50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03]
[One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Soul Land, NBA, and more — all in one place.]