Chapter Nineteen: Calm

  Chapter Nineteen

  Orochimaru wasn't in this base for a long time, I remember that Orochimaru had several bases, he was probably running around these few bases!

  I quietly sit in the infirmary looking at various documents gathered by Daija and wait for injured children to come in for treatment.

  Of course I used transformation magic to turn myself into a young man in his twenties with black hair and eyes, mainly because when Mr. Kawahara was still around, it was fine for me as a child to be by his side.

  But when I was on duty alone, every time a child came in, they would stare at me for a long time. After thinking about it, I realized that no matter how high the medical skills or good the treatment methods were, it was indeed strange for a 4-5 year old kid to be in the infirmary on duty. So afterwards, every time I was on duty alone, I would transform, and having a young body made things more convenient, nobody would stare at me. Later on, I even got lazy and didn't bother to undo the transformation spell when I slept, anyway my body had already fixed some ninjutsu, it wouldn't make a difference with just one transformation spell consuming a little bit of chakra.

  Mr. Kawahara handed over all the treatment tasks to me more than five months ago, and he himself went to focus on dealing with the related matters of the orphans brought back by Orochimaru. Recently, Orochimaru has been bringing back more and more children, and this base already has 56 children, not to mention other bases. Even if someone thinks that Orochimaru only brings them back to utilize them, and they will have to fight to the death for Orochimaru in the future, but without Orochimaru taking them away, the fate of these war orphans is usually a dead end, let alone becoming ninjas. Even if some of them are lucky enough to enter the ninja village, do they have the opportunity to gain power? Just like Konoha's later famous "Twelve Small Strong", more than 90% of people are from families with a strong ninja background, and other civilian children almost never have a chance to stand out. At most, it's just like Iruka, living an ordinary life. The abilities possessed by the children brought back by Orochimaru far surpass the achievements of these war orphans who managed to stay in other ninja villages.

  I knew it was so accurate because I just reorganized all the children's physical examination data yesterday.

  Now, I've not only taken over Mr. Kawahara's work in the infirmary, but also the physical exams of the children, and even their training plans have become my responsibility. It's all because I didn't keep a close eye on the training plan I designed for Shirakawa and Kuma-chan that Mr. Kawahara was able to deceive me. However, just because I look like I'm in my early twenties doesn't mean I should be treated this way - I'm a genuine child laborer, after all! This is way too much work!

  However, with 56 kids, it's really like a nursery school. Mr. Kawahara's hair is gradually decreasing as the number of children increases. Let me offer my condolences to him in advance, considering the expanding range of his shiny bald head, I'll help him out a bit.

  Usually, after I leave the lab in the morning, I spend the entire afternoon in the infirmary fulfilling my duties as a medical ninja, although I'm not actually a medical ninja, but among the uses of the Great Snake Pill, I do have this identity, and being unfaithful to one's words is not my style.

  To get back on track, I have to give credit where credit is due - these materials are quite impressive in both breadth and depth. There are scrolls of various ninjutsu techniques, handwritten notes from ninja from different countries, medical texts related to the body and mind, and even data from experiments with the Daija no Kizuna.

  What astonished me was that Daisuke had thoroughly studied all of these materials.

  I once discussed these materials with Orochimaru, and he had a rather unique perspective on them. His insights were mostly from angles that ordinary people wouldn't think of. Overall, I benefited greatly from our conversation.

  Actually, Orochimaru doesn't give me the feeling of being eerie as long as he doesn't make some weird movements like sticking out his tongue or when he's calm. At those times, I get a strong sense of a scholar from him, it feels quite familiar.

  What surprised me most was that Daijamaru came to the infirmary for the first time just to chat with me!

  I don't know if Orochimaru has shown such surprising tolerance to other children, he not only allowed me to browse all the various materials he collected, including precious scrolls of secret ninja techniques from various countries and forbidden experimental data, but also didn't stop me when I passed some of these ninjutsu on to Haku and Zabuza, Orochimaru had no objections, although I behaved better than a normal child, was it really enough for Orochimaru to treat me so differently?

  In my opinion, Orochimaru is not evil, although his actions are unacceptable to the masses. However, I highly admire and respect his unwavering dedication to Konoha, his passion for ninjutsu, and his yearning for immortality, because right now, I don't have a goal that can make me strive as hard as he does.

  I've heard that a madman is either paranoid or a genius, and Orochimaru is clearly both. For him, ninjutsu was too easy and didn't meet his expectations, so he went on to study forbidden jutsu, and did so with ruthless dedication.

  If Orochimaru were to put all his efforts into building the Sound Village, it's possible that after a hundred years, the Sound Village would become second only to the Five Great Ninja Villages!

  Orochimaru may not be a good person, but his heart is not entirely evil either. Just like his former student, Mitsuki, Orochimaru could have easily manipulated her into joining him with his tactics, but he didn't. Instead, he let her stay in Konoha and even spared her life during the Chunin Exams when they met in the Forest of Death. Moreover, during the "Konoha Crush" plan, when he disguised himself as Fugaku, he could have easily ambushed the Third Hokage, which would have greatly increased the chances of success, but Orochimaru chose to face him head-on with the lowest chance of winning.

  In my feelings, my dislike for Orochimaru only goes as far as his strange behavior. I'm not a person who holds grudges against others, but rather against the actions they take. It's only when it comes to people that I hold grudges against them personally, just like how I feel about the villagers of Konoha - my feelings towards them are only based on my own unhappiness and don't mean I hate them. Of course, asking me to have a deep sense of belonging to Konoha right now is a bit difficult.

  I shook my head, shaking out the strange thoughts in my mind. I still owe Konoha a debt, a promise, and I'm not free yet. And thinking about Uchiha's body going mad with Orochimaru is still quite frightening.

  I don't know where Orochimaru's fear of death comes from, what kind of obsession he has that makes him modify and change his body like this. It can't be without any aftereffects, not to mention the pain during those processes. If it was just because of a fear of death, then in "Akatsuki", there are plenty of immortal monsters, but Orochimaru still left "Akatsuki" for the sake of just one weasel? I don't understand, maybe even Orochimaru himself doesn't understand.

  Perhaps Orochimaru was driven mad by his own endless ambition, unable to see the depths of redemption, and thus chose to destroy his past with a fierce hand, only hoping to find a new direction for himself.

  I couldn't help but sigh and stop thinking about these things anymore.

  Honestly, I never thought that life on the Orochimaru side would be so peaceful and stable. There's food to eat, a place to sleep, books to read, and experiments to conduct. It's only slightly different from my ideal life. If I didn't know that Orochimaru was going crazy thinking about containers, and that I, Haku, and Kimimaro seemed to be pretty good container candidates, I would really have considered staying with Orochimaru.