Chapter 37 – Exploring the Laboratory

Sango descended for a rather long time, just when he wondered if he should have instead sent a clone, he arrived at a metallic door. Observing it closely, Sango found what he was looking for, a numeric pin lock, there were nine squares numbered from one to nine, missing zero.

Sango typed the pin as instructed by the scroll and the door unlocked instantly. Without losing any more time, Sango pushed the door open. As it opened, lights turned on, one after the other, revealing a very long corridor with doors on each side.

“Time to explore.” Sango was somewhat excited to explore his new base, expectant to what treasures he may find.

He opened all the doors he came across as he followed the corridor, he found sleeping rooms, bathrooms, prison cells and many other kinds of rooms like storage rooms and a study.

Sango wanted to begin inspecting the study room, but he knew that first he had to see the rest of the rooms.

As he arrived at the end of the corridor, there was only a rather sturdy looking door remaining. Pushing it expectantly, he found what he wished, a large laboratory. Many machines and equipment were laying covered in dust, their functions to be carefully researched later.

There was a table on the side with a thick book on top, what was strange was that the book wasn’t covered in dust, it was obviously something that was placed there recently.

Lifting the boog he saw that there was dust on the table where the book had been, that fact confirmed his guess.

Sango opened the book, inside were instructions and explanations about the machinery and equipment, the explanations were rather basic, more like an introduction than a real guide.

After having memorized the contents of the book, Sango placed it back on the table. There were many more things he wanted to examine but there wasn’t enough time left before the meeting with Kurenai and the others.

Sango began leaving the laboratory in a good mood, he could already think of many changes he would do once he had time, once he was done with it not even Orochimaru would be able to freely enter without his permission. Beside the security, he also wanted to reproduce some of the equipment from his previous world, although that would prove challenging since he wasn’t that familiar with the manufacturing of the more precise and complicate parts, Sango hoped to replace those parts with chakra dependant ones. With such equipment he would be able to research his own body and find a solution to his stagnating strength, he also wasn’t ignoring all the other uses and the help in researching material.

He had to thank Orochimaru next time he saw him again.

Once his new home was built, he thought about creating an additional entrance to the laboratory there, since it was inconvenient having to sneak outside every time he wanted to get there.

Happy about his new place, Sango began moving towards the meeting place, while walking he thought about the fact that since Asuma was dead now, someone else had to be selected as the team leader of team 10. Several candidates passed through Sango’s head but in the end, he wasn’t sure about whom will replace him. Thinking about Asuma, he wondered when and where will his funeral be held. In the anime he saw a huge gathering at the time of his death, but he wondered if that will be the case in this world. Not that it mattered much, whatever was the case he just had to feign some level of sadness in front of other people, as to not be seen as cold hearted towards his fellow ‘brother in arms’. At least for a few more years he believe that keeping such a façade would help him earn the trust of others, he disliked the idea of hiding his true character but a time would come when he will be strong enough to be himself, but there were a few girls he wanted to show his true self to or else they may fall in love with the mask and not the mask wearer, to achieve that he wanted to transition to his true character at a much faster rate in their presence than with other people.

Many things passed through his head as he made his way towards his destination.

Some time later, Sango made his way to the training ground.

“Sango-kun!” Hinata. who was facing the direction where he came from, was the first to spot him.

“Hello.” Was his plain reply, Hinata and Ino turned around after Hinata’s called out to him.

“Got you!” Ino rushed to him and embraced his arm, leaning her head on it.

“Ahh! Not fair!” Came Sakura’s angry voice, she too rushed and took his other arm.

Finding himself entangled, Sango had a wry smile on his face. He didn’t dislike their affection but they were a bit too sticky sometimes.

Not seeing Kurenai anywhere, Sango addressed Hinata. “Is Kurenai big sister late?” Of course, he knew she was late, after last day’s havoc it was to be expected for something like that, he just asked for the sake of conversation.

“I’m not late, I’m just on time.” A voice came from behind them, turning around he saw Kurenai smiling at them.

The girls jumped at the unexpected voice behind them. “Big sister!” They called together, seeing Kurenai they relaxed, over the past years, their relationship became very close as seen by the way they called her.

“Not good, you should pay more attention to your surroundings.” Kurenai admonished with a warm voice.

Looking at the girl’s embarrassed expression, Kurenai was satisfied, she had trained them for some time now, so she was aware of their limits. They wouldn’t be taken unaware by the average shinobi, the only reason they didn’t sense her was because she wasn’t your average