Chapter 64 – Exchange

Looking at the place where Orochimaru was just a few moments ago, Sango thought about his words. It was not hard to guess what Orochimaru’s intentions were after taking into account what happen in the anime, but that was no longer a trusted source of information.

The question now was how much he should help Orochimaru. If he wanted Sasuke, then he did not mind helping him, but he didn’t want to risk being exposed working with Orochimaru, nor did he want to endanger his relationship with the girls. For an optimal outcome he had to make all necessary preparations, nothing could be left to chance while dealing with Orochimaru.

On the long term, Orochimaru would be more useful than Sasuke, that was clear. His knowledge would come in handy but there were also downsides as he couldn’t be trusted in any way, instead Sango had to take precautions against him.

Sango looked at the scroll he got from Orochimaru, it wasn’t a technique, it was pure knowledge regarding the body and chakra. He needed only seconds to memorize and absorb all the knowledge inside, then he burned the scroll, leaving no trace of its existence.

The knowledge was useful, and the information was proved and explained in detail, clearly it was written by Orochimaru himself. It wasn’t anything too outstanding, but the information could be considered as a promise of something much better. At that moment he felt the need to experiment with the new knowledge obtained, but he had no one to experiment onto, that had to be remediated but it was not something urgent. His focus until the Chuunin exam should be on his string technique and on the bracelets and of less urgency was to capture one or two criminals to use for his own ends.

Returning home, he got straight to work in his room, despite having much better places to work at, he still preferred his own room as he had no need for any machinery to help him at the moment, a small, cosy place was ideal.

The door opened as Sango was drawing a blueprint and Kurenai came in with a tray she then placed on his desk.

“You need to eat something.” She gave him a quick kiss and left him alone, she did not inquire on what he worked, and he did not try to hide his designs.

Like that, a week passed by. Sango and Kurenai became aware of the changes in their bodies, changes that could not be ignored.

First of all, Kurenai’s appearance had gone through changes, she was even more beautiful, her skin purer, her eyes clearer and the biggest change was that she looked younger, a change that was hard to ignore so she had to use her skills to make herself look just a bit older so that no questions would be asked of them. But an even more important change was her strength, be it physical strength or chakra, she improved drastically in all fields.

“Really now, although I am happy with those changes, if the news of this spreads, you may become the most wanted man on the continent.” Kurenai sighed as they sat at the table.

There was no danger of anyone eavesdropping, not form Orochimaru, nor from the Hokage, Sango had placed enough barriers and seals for that to be so.

“I know, but no one will know apart from us.” Sango replied.

“Even so we have to do something about ‘that’!” She angrily looked at him.

‘That’ was referring to his libido, be it night or day, inside the house or outside, he couldn’t be contented. Kurenai had to bear his unrelenting assault at every occasion, and while she had to admit that she does not dislike it, she simply cannot match his needs.

Sango embarrassedly scratched his head, he had to admit that he had overdone it, but it couldn’t be helped. Since his body awakened, his libido had increased so much that it sometimes was a problem.

On Kurenai’s right wrist was a silver bracelet, it looked like a thin silver ribbon tied around her wrist, people wouldn’t give it a second look. But despite its plain appearance, it was something that many would pay a king’s ransom to have it.

She had the first prototype, Sango knew he had much more improvements to make but even so, it was still a success.

It worked as lifesaving object, once it detects an abnormal state like unconsciousness or mind control to mention a few, it would teleport the user to a predetermined safe place and it would notify the other bracelet wearers. That would happen even when the wearer’s life was in grave danger, for example when the wearer received an extremely dangerous wound.

Sango left another safety measure; he left his mark on the bracelet so that he could teleport to it at any time. The only reason he made them was to protect the people he cared about, so even if he had to dedicate much time to the project, he did not mind. There were still many improvements and additional features he wanted to implement, but for now the bracelet was not bad.

While giving it to Kurenai, he did not tell her its features but only mentioned that it would be useful to her and never take it off. The main reason for that was  because if she knew she had something that would save her life in a moment of extreme danger, she would become reckless and she would face even more danger than necessary, he wanted to avoid that as the bracelet wasn’t flawless.

He still needed to make three more for Hinata, Ino and Sakura, luckily since the first was done the next would be much faster to make, and just in time for the Chuunin exam.