"You seem to have a fondness for collecting odd things," Orochimaru remarked, sitting in Amemiya Kenichi's home while Kenichi packed for his upcoming trip outside the village.
"Ahaha, Teacher, there isn't much entertainment in the village, so I just started collecting these little things," Kenichi said with an awkward laugh. These items were things he'd gathered to try and study.
Orochimaru nodded noncommittally and glanced around at Kenichi's collection. Some of the items were indeed quite rare, but nothing he hadn't seen before.
However, when his eyes landed on the piece of amber, Orochimaru's interest piqued.
Kenichi didn't notice what his teacher was doing. He quietly continued packing his clothes and other belongings. His luggage was easy to manage, and ninjas didn't need much preparation for missions outside the village.
If Orochimaru hadn't insisted Kenichi change his outfit, he would have grabbed some ninja tools, Soldier Pills, and left immediately.
"Where did you get this amber?" Orochimaru asked as Amemiya Kenichi emerged from the bedroom, having changed his clothes. Orochimaru was examining the insect amber Kenichi owned.
"I bought it at the market," Kenichi replied honestly. "A Sunagakure merchant was selling it. He claimed it was an ancient piece of insect amber discovered in their region."
Orochimaru nodded thoughtfully, his gaze fixed on the amber. He recalled having seen similar insect patterns and records somewhere before, but he couldn't quite place where.
It probably wasn't related to ninjutsu. If it were, Orochimaru felt he would surely remember it.
After quickly packing, Kenichi left the village with Orochimaru. Orochimaru remained mostly silent during their journey. It wasn't until two days after leaving the village that he finally stopped.
"Kenichi, why do you think the Third Hokage happened to run into you today?" Orochimaru was busy with something, and Kenichi didn't bother to look. It seemed this time was no different from the others.
Although they called it a mission, it was really just another trip to the lab.
"I think he might have been testing me, Teacher," Amemiya Kenichi ventured. "Maybe he had some ideas about you and wanted to see if I knew anything."
Of course, it could have been a complete coincidence. The Third Hokage might have genuinely been at the hospital for a check-up and just happened to run into him.
"Impressive. Your thinking is much more satisfactory than Anko's," Orochimaru chuckled. A hole suddenly opened in the floor, and he led Amemiya Kenichi inside.
Amemiya Kenichi dutifully followed Orochimaru. His teacher had truly mastered the art of having multiple hideouts. Amemiya even suspected Orochimaru had secret labs scattered throughout the Land of Fire.
*Where does he get all this money?*
When they arrived at the lab, Amemiya Kenichi was shocked to see a person floating in a glass tank—someone he never expected.
It was a man, but that wasn't the surprising part. The real shocker was the pair of Byakugan eyes staring out from his eye sockets.
"Surprised?" Orochimaru asked, even though Amemiya Kenichi hadn't said a word. He knew exactly how shocked his disciple must be. After all, this was the Hyuga Clan's Byakugan.
"Teacher, I thought the Hyuga Clan had the Caged Bird Cursed Seal?" Amemiya Kenichi couldn't understand. The Byakugan was rarely seen outside the clan, and that was because of the Caged Bird, which could completely destroy the Byakugan and the brain.
It was a cruel system, a way for the Main Family to enslave the Branch Family.
They called it protection, but Amemiya Kenichi saw it for what it was: pure hypocrisy, just like the Third Hokage's talk about the Will of Fire.
What a joke. If the Third Hokage truly revered the Will of Fire, why did the Fourth Hokage die while he lived? Why did Naruto, the Fourth Hokage's own son, suffer such injustice as a child?
"They do have the Caged Bird Cursed Seal, and it's a very special one. I still don't know how to break it," Orochimaru said, stroking the glass jar before him. This was his greatest achievement in recent times.
"Is this a child from the Main Family?" Amemiya Kenichi could only think of this possibility. After all, Ao from Kirigakure also possessed the Byakugan, and only members of the Main Family were exempt from the Caged Bird Seal.
Orochimaru shook his head with a smile.
"He's an illegitimate child, one not recorded by the Hyuga Clan. Naturally, he wouldn't have the Caged Bird Seal." Hearing Orochimaru's words, Amemiya Kenichi finally understood why his teacher had a member of the Hyuga Clan in his possession.
While the Caged Bird Seal was an incredibly powerful curse—once applied, it was said to bind a person for life, escapable only through death—the Hyuga Clan didn't bestow it at birth. Instead, they waited until a certain age before applying the seal.
However, in the case of an illegitimate child, it was indeed possible for them to escape the Caged Bird Seal.
Still, the probability was vanishingly small. The Hyuga Clan took such matters extremely seriously, and the Byakugan's distinctive features made it easy to identify anyone who slipped through the cracks.
"Teacher, you're truly remarkable," Amemiya Kenichi exclaimed sincerely. He wasn't particularly interested in the Byakugan itself. After all, if he ever wanted to acquire one, all he needed was a strand of Hyuga hair or something similar.
Amemiya Kenichi was currently focused on researching the Sharingan and didn't have time to worry about the Byakugan.
He couldn't understand why his teacher hadn't implanted the Byakugan in him. Even if he was competing for the position of Fourth Hokage now, Orochimaru hadn't done it even after he defected.
Even if Kenichi didn't need it himself, he could have given it to one of his subordinates.
But there seemed to be no record of the Byakugan ever surfacing outside the Hyuga clan. Did that mean something had gone wrong?
"This test subject has something quite novel. I sense a similarity to the First Hokage's cells," Orochimaru said, frowning at the subject before him, unfazed by his disciple's flattery.
"The First Hokage's cells?" Kenichi was stunned. The First Hokage's cells were unique to the Ninja World. How could they possibly exist elsewhere?
Wait a minute... Kenichi had just been at the hospital asking about a certain disease.
This suddenly piqued his interest. The First Hokage's cells were known for their terrifyingly aggressive nature, posing a severe threat to surrounding normal cells—much like cancer cells.
Could it be...?