Naruto: Senmei Asahi

A person walked out of the camp and came to sit next to a small river. Looking at the flowing river and the gently blowing wind, his heart gradually calmed down.

Asahi was scared by Keita's death, and Shinohara's injury. He doesn't even know how weak he is, or what his way forward should be. But it was undeniable that he definitely doesn't want his end to be like Keita or Shinohara. 

Even though his remaining teammate was healed today, he didn't know whether he was did a right thing or a wrong thing.

If he was incapable to continue to be a ninja, Shinohara's dream would have been shattered. However, he would still have his medical-ninjutsu, and he could still help people get treated at Konoha Hospital. He wouldn't have to be a combat-ninja anymore. 

But could Shinohara withstand such a blow? Could he accept such fate?

Just like Asahi, if he had failed his secret mission this time, he would have been questioned by the village high-level and most probably abandoned by Orochimaru. Once that happened, he would no longer have a chance to get on the road to become a real powerhouse. He absolutely couldn't accept that. 

Because being weak meant being unable to take control of his own destiny. He had no background. For the higher-ups he was just like everyone else, a commoner ninja, and just like them he was destined to be abandoned by the village. Maybe he would die one day during a mission in obscurity. 

So he must continue to show off his talents, let the village value him and cultivate him until he could become an elite.

Does he hate the village? 

Asahi doesn't hate Konoha at all. There is politics, darkness, and conflicts everywhere. This is unavoidable, because it's human nature. Even in his previous-life, he understood this basic truth. 

Asahi must accept these darkness and even take advantage of it. 

In fact, he's grateful to the village for raising him till this age, and help him become a ninja. 

Although the purpose of village was to make Asahi strong, so that they could use him better, but he also needed to get resources from the village, and little by little become powerful. 

This is a two-way deal, and it's a bit too hypocritical or rather naive to comment on these kind of matters in black and white. If you have to explain it, it depends on who has the better means, and the winner will naturally be the king.

Keita's death was because he was still too weak. He could be saved if he was a shinobi as strong as Orochimaru. Strength determines many things, just like in the original, even when Orochimaru became a missing-nin, Konoha didn't dare to target him easily without a solid plan. Even when he betrayed Akatsuki, they still later chose to continue to cooperate with Orochimaru and use him.

(T.L Note: This cooperation of Akatsuki refers to Sasori who used Kabuto to get Orochimaru's research results, unaware of the fact that Kabuto was already Orochimaru's subordinate in a true sense)

"Did you hide here to grieve the death of your teammate?" Orochimaru appeared silently behind him, with his usual annoying and hoarse voice. 

"Orochimaru-sama!" Asahi called respectfully.

"I didn't expect that in addition to your high-talent and wisdom, you would have such a high level of medical knowledge." Orochimaru said in admiration. 

Asahi came there alone, in addition to wanting to be in a quiet place, he was also waiting for the Orochimaru's appearance.

This time while healing Shinohara, Asahi showed his medical-ninjutsu's mastery. In the current time, Tsunade has changed thanks to her homophobia, so right now, Asahi's medical knowledge and medical-ninjutsu accomplishment was definitely among the highest throughout Konoha. So he believed that Orochimaru must be more interested in him now.

After all, those forbidden jutsu that Orochimaru was studying also required the cooperation of medical-ninjutsu.

But its just Orochimaru appeared a little too early, he had not yet come out of his own disarrayed state of mind before Orochimaru appeared. Although this made him particularly uncomfortable, it also showed that he had begun to garner more attention, and maybe there was also a bit of eagerness in the other party. 

This time was the first time Asahi had unintentionally revealed his talents, but the result seemed to be amazingly good. 

"After all, I studied at Konoha Hospital for a couple of years. If I didn't have any achievements, wouldn't it be disappointing?" Asahi said with a faint smile, converging all his sharp edges, trying to make Orochimaru feel his respect as much as possible, just like Kabuto did in the future. 

"This time you saved that teammate called Shinohara, but can you save him a second time?" Orochimaru said glumly. 

'Damn it, is this a threat?' He thought but couldn't voice out any complaints 

"Orochimaru-sama! What do you mean?" Asahi eagerly cried out in surprise, he showed great concern for Shinohara, and at the same time he acted even more respectful.

Just at that split second, Asahi thought a lot, but in the end he decided that instead of not showing his care for Shinohara in front of Orochimaru, it was better that Orochimaru felt that he was very concerned about the life and death of his teammate. 

If this happens then, Orochimaru would think that as long as he had control over the life and death of Shinohara, he could control Asahi. 

Though planning it this way, Asahi still had a heart full with regrets. If he knew that he would have to follow Orochimaru like this, he would have cut off his bonds with others earlier, that way he could avoid his teammate getting into Orochimaru's control.

Asahi was not sure if Orochimaru would believe him or not, but he could always give it a try. 

"Life is so fragile." Orochimaru sighed, as if recalling some bad memories, and then seriously looked at him saying in a seductive tone, "Asahi-kun, have you ever thought about reaching immortality?" 

At this moment, Asahi suddenly felt an idea appearing in his heart to follow Orochimaru's thoughts and act to accompany him to find the way of immortality. He could even tell him his previous life's knowledge about cell regeneration, 'Maybe that could help his research.' 

But then, Asahi's mind got a little vigilant, this was by no means his goals. 

'Wait, it's a genjutsu!'

"Release!" 

He bit the tip of his tongue while making a seal with both hands to control his chakra and release the genjutsu. 

He restored his state to sobriety and calmness, but he didn't dare to show even a trace of anger, but still expressed his emotions with a little dissatisfaction: "Orochimaru-sama, using genjutsu on someone who has always been loyal to the village. Don't you think this could affect the Sannin's reputation?"

"Hehehe…" Orochimaru grinned, and said hoarsely, "Asahi-kun, I am more and more interested in you." 

"Does Orochimaru-sama think that people can reach immortality?" Asahi asked, with a little bit of "longing". 

"Everything is possible. Maybe not now, but that doesn't mean that there will be no way in the future." Orochimaru said confidently. 

If this was another person, telling him so confidently about immortality, Asahi would definitely had scoffed in his heart. But since the person who said this was Orochimaru, he still had a little admiration in her heart. 

After all, in the future Orochimaru did achieve immortality, although his method left his soul incomplete.

In the current timeline, Orochimaru's courage and confidence to pursue and research the subject was enough to be admired. Of course, some of his actions in pursuit of his dream were definitely lacking in morals. 

"Orochimaru-sama, if you need me for anything, I'm always happy to help," Asahi said respectfully.

*****

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