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“Congratulations… you survived.” Said Fujin with a calm tone as he observed Kurenai’s state.
“Y… yes, cough-cough I… I survived.” – face pale, breathing haggard and entire body aching. If she were to describe the past 10 minutes of experience in one word, even the term ‘Hell’ wouldn’t suffice, but without caring about her current state, Kurenai asked, “Are the snakes dead?”
Fujin observed with his Byakugan, then said, “Well, the snakes are indeed dead, but…”
Kurenai questioned immediately, “But what?”
“Their dead bodies are still present in your body… moreover, a lot of your cells also died because of the ‘poison’ and all that needs to be cleansed too. You don’t have to worry too much, your normal excretory functions will play their role here and cleanse everything.” Said Fujin while reassuring her.
“So, what’s the problem?” asked Kurenai with a confused tone.
Fujin said, “There’s no major problem… it’s just that urination would be somewhat painful as urine would be acidic for the next few days, at the same time, your menstrual cycle might also be affected by a week or two … so be prepared for that.”
Kurenai just nodded, but when it came to her menstrual cycle, she immediately asked with a suspicious tone, “I won’t be getting pregnant, right?”
“Cough-cough!” Fujin suddenly coughed because of Kurenai’s question that came out of the blue, and said with an embarrassed expression, “Why are you asking this question from me?”
Kurenai looked at Fujin with a suspicious gaze and seeing his embarrassed expression, she said with a stutter, “N-nothing, I just asked it on a spur, it seems I am still dizzy because of the poison.”
Listening to her words, Fujin didn’t care anymore either and just said lightly, “Now your life is no longer in danger, and you should be able to use Chakra too. You just need to wait some time for natural recovery to kick in and you will be fine… therefore, you should leave this place as soon as possible and return to your village.”
Kurenai was hesitant, ‘Just like this, he will allow me to go?’
Seeing Kurenai’s hesitation, Fujin thought that she was worried about her clothes, so he said, “There is a small village at 10 o’clock in the southeast, you can get clothes from there.”
Kurenai didn’t know what to feel about the other party’s words and decided to follow with a sigh… She silently adjusted the Kimono to cover all her private body parts, but not being able to bear the silence, she asked in a low voice, “Why?”
“Huh? What ‘why?’?” asked Fujin with a confused look.
“Why…? Why do you care about whether I live or die?” these words took all out of her… she really wanted to know the reason why he went so far just to save her.
“Care about you?” with a Chuckle, Fujin said in disdain, “Don’t get me wrong, I only intended to stop Orochimaru, you just happened to be present around and got saved… I don’t really care about you at all.”
The main purpose of Fujin in fighting against Orochimaru was to prevent him from finding clues to the Sword of Totsuka.
As for saving Kurenai? In addition to the fact that Kurenai is Hyuga Kuroto’s subordinate in the Anbu, Fujin just intended to use ‘Rescuing Kurenai’ as a believable reason to have a battle against Orochimaru in order to hide the fact that Amatsukami too is searching for Sword of Totsuka.
Finally, Fujin also wanted to test the combat capability of this clone body so he fought Orochimaru, it’s not like he cares about her or anything.
Kurenai stared at Fujin for a while, then said, “You can’t fool me!”
“Huh?” – Fujin looked at Kurenai with a confused expression, “What do you mean by can’t fool you?”
Kurenai lowered her head and muttered, “Although I don’t know how he did it, Orochimaru actually Summoned Shodaime Hokage-sama and Nidaime Hokage-sama… I saw them with my own eyes! Shodaime Hokage-sama’s Wood Release, and Nidaime Hokage-sama’s Water Release, along with Flying Raijin… couldn’t be faked. If you just wanted to stop Orochimaru, then there was no need to be distracted and risk your life to protect me while facing such strong enemies all at the same time.
Moreover, you went and even blocked Nidaime Hokage-sama’s ‘Water Severing Wave’ with your own body to protect me which almost killed you and even exposed your identity.
And that’s not all, you even treated my injuries and bone fractures, as well as killed Orochimaru’s snakes from my body… You did all that just to stop Orochimaru, and not save me?”
The more she said, the more she realized just how much Fujin had done for her… and from the very beginning he didn’t ask anything in return as compensation, even allowed her to go back to Konoha as is, without worry that she might report his intelligence.
Although this bastard did saw her naked for which Kurenai would never forgive him, however, Kurenai is willing to ignore that matter because he didn’t take advantage of her when he clearly had the opportunity.
So with all said and done, Kurenai would never believe that he doesn’t care about her unless he is a saint, which he clearly isn’t!
Fujin said with a helpless expression, “Uh look here, girl… I think you are misunderstanding a whole of things here.”
If it is up to him, he would definitely kill her, after all, the girl knows too much information about him. However, if Kurenai were to die, or go missing before safely reaching back to Konoha, Orochimaru would be suspicious about Fujin’s previous intentions, which is not something Fujin wants… so had no choice but to save her and also let her go.
And the reason why he blocked the ‘Water Severing Wave’ of Nidaime Hokage is that he had confidence in his body to be able to resist it without getting seriously injured.
As for her life? Her life is only important until she returns to Konoha, after that, he could care less whether she lives or die, in fact, he has started to consider how to secretly dispose of her.
Kurenai glanced at Fujin from the corner of her eyes, her gaze wandering on his white hair and Byakugan, and decided to ask something else, “Are you from the Hyuga Clan? Why do you have so many Kekkei Genkai?”
Fujin said with a smirk, “it’s a secret.”
The mask was broken during the battle so his appearance, and eyes were revealed to both Orochimaru and Kurenai. This is indeed an accident. Since Orochimaru also knows this information, so Fujin decided to not erase Kurenai’s memories related to his identity. When Kurenai goes back to Konoha, she would definitely report the intelligence in the Anbu. Although Fujin has a headache on how to deal with this issue he can’t care too much about it for now.
Kurenai whispered lightly, “A friend of mine is from the Hyuga Clan and looks a little bit like you, maybe you know him, are you from the Hyuga Clan?”
Fujin didn’t answer… he just turned his head to the side and pondered on how to deal with this matter, the only good thing is that Kurenai didn’t suspect him to be Hyuga Kuroto, as that would have been quite troublesome… Fujin would be left with no choice but to either imprison Kurenai at Ancor Vantian or secretly assassinate her.
Kurenai obviously misunderstood Fujin’s silence, she thought that Fujin doesn’t seem to want to talk about the affairs of the Hyuga Clan, so she can’t help but wonder, ‘Is there any contradiction between him and the Hyuga Clan? Otherwise, why else would he leave the clan and join Amatsukami, and that too at such a young age?’
Puff…
Fujin who was busy thinking about how to deal with the information leakage suddenly felt a paralyzing sensation in his whole body, coughed heavily, and a mouthful of blood was spewed out without any warning.
Cough-cough… puff…
Kurenai was taken aback, she hurriedly stepped forward and supported Fujin who was about to fall to the ground, “Are you… are you all right? Is it because of the previous injury?”
Fujin just waved his hand and said, “It’s all right… don’t worry too much.”
Although Fujin expected the effects of the Curse of the Kaguya Clan to be very severe, he still underestimated it… in just half a day he has vomited out a mouthful of blood a dozen times already. But Fujin is not too worried because this is just a natural thing for the genes of the Kaguya Clan.
But Kurenai didn’t know this, she thought that Fujin vomited out blood because he was injured by Nidaime Hokage’s Water Severing Wave while trying to save her, so she subconsciously wanted to check his injury and try to help him.
Fujin stopped Kurenai’s hand that was already touching his chest, and said, “Cough, although, I do like women who take the initiative, now is neither the right time nor the right place… maybe if you invite me some other night, I would definitely accept… right now you should go, this place is not safe for you, and who knows if Orochimaru will show up again.”
“Stupid!” Kurenai almost had the urge to slap him, but looking at his painful face, she couldn’t bring herself to… and she also got the sign that he doesn’t want her to explore too deeply about him so she consciously withdrew her hand and turned to leave…
But just before she did, she asked him with a nervous expression, “Can you… can you tell me, what’s your name?”
“Hmm? Don’t you already know? It’s Fujin.” Questioned Fujin with a confused expression and tone.
Kurenai shook her head, and said, “No, Fujin is your code name in Amatsukami, right? Just like Yama, Homusubi, and Suijin. I am asking your real name…”
‘Real Name? What does she want to do with my real name? Is she suspicious that I am indeed Hyuga Kuroto? If that is the case then I can’t let her go… maybe I should just imprison her at Ancor Vantian and later think about what to do with her!’ thought Fujin silently and started preparing to knock her down.
Noting Fujin’s silence, Kurenai looked downward and said, “It’s… it’s all right if you can’t tell me… Organizations such as Amatsukami must have a lot of their rules, I just wanted to know something about you on a personal level… after all, I owe you my life… I would at least like to know the name of my savior….”
After a long silence and consideration, Fujin said, “If you desire so much, then I shall allow you to call me ‘Futen’.”
Futen is the other name of Fujin, the Shinto God of Wind. He would obviously not give Kurenai his real name.
“Futen.” After chanting ‘Futen’ several times, Kurenai took one last look at him, then went out of the Shrine, she didn’t ask for his family name, because she understood that if he wanted her to know, he would have already told her, in fact, she wasn’t even sure whether ‘Futen’ was his real name or not, but since he said that he would allow her to call him ‘Futen’ so she decided to accept it.
Looking at Kurenai’s leaving figure, Fujin… no Futen (while not wearing the Fujin disguise), rubbed his chin and muttered thoughtfully, “I am Kurenai’s Anbu Captain, so she will definitely report the cause of her disappearance and intelligence about ‘Fujin/Futen’ to me when she returns to Konoha, right? Let’s see if I can temper with some parts of her memory to make sure that my identity as Hyuga Kuroto is not implicated for having any kind of connection with Amatsukami.”
…
At a hidden underground laboratory in Otogakure.
Seeing Orochimaru’s return, Kabuto who was staying behind eagerly greeted him, but upon noticing the untidy and torn clothes along with the presence of blood on his clothing, Kabuto asked, “Orochimaru-sama… did something happen?”
Orochimaru said with a sullen expression, “I encountered a difficult opponent!”
Kabuto was surprised, to be considered ‘Difficult’ by Orochimaru alone speaks a lot, even if the entire shinobi world is considered, there wouldn’t be too many who could be considered ‘Difficult’ by Orochimaru, so Kabuto asked curiously, “Was it from the Akatsuki Organization?”
Orochimaru shook his head and without delving deeply into the matter, he just instructed, “Don’t worry too much about it, just bring me a sample of Kimimaro, Haku, Guren, Jugo, and Yamato’s fresh blood, I wish to check up a few things…”
Kabuto immediately nodded, “Yes, Orochimaru-sama!” and then, he went in the direction of the secret hideout that Kimimaro is in charge of.
With Kabuto gone, Orochimaru walked deeper into his laboratory, and after unsealing the entrance to the hidden grid, he took out a scroll from it and sat on a nearby stool.
The scroll currently in Orochimaru’s hand is the scroll of Chimera Jutsu.
Orochimaru has also personally witnessed Hiruko’s Ritual of absorbing 5 Kekkei Genkai and understands just how greatly Hiruko’s strength has increased since then. If Orochimaru were to say that he wasn’t jealous at all, he would obviously be lying.
But after repeatedly analyzing and studying the Chimera Jutsu, Orochimaru was very clear about the drawbacks and hidden dangers of this Forbidden Jutsu, therefore, even if he thought of using it for once, he soon lost his interest in it because of the danger it posed to his life.
However, today he was defeated and almost killed at the hands of Fujin who has also absorbed several Kekkei Genkai using Chimera Jutsu, Orochimaru was so annoyed that he started to doubt whether his previous judgment of Chimera Jutsu was too arbitrary.
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