Chapter 236: Has Orochimaru Defected?
The Elite Class was not strictly confined to the academy classrooms day in and day out. Those handpicked for this specialized curriculum were either perfectly balanced prodigies with flawless statistics or absolute monsters in one specific field.
Once the overall combat proficiency of the students reached a certain threshold, the academy would occasionally arrange minor D-rank missions for them. Grouped into standard three-man cells, this allowed the students to experience the daily grind of a true Genin well in advance.
This shift in curriculum was practically unavoidable. The moment the geniuses in the Elite Class mastered the Shadow Clone technique, they immediately started using it to skip their regular lectures.
It happened every single year. Rather than letting the students feign compliance while secretly slacking off and ruining their foundational skills, the administration decided it was far more efficient to combine practical field tasks with their academic learning.
The only real difference was that actual Genin rarely returned to the academy halls, whereas these elite students still had to report back to their desks to continue their advanced studies the moment their missions concluded.
The instructors brought in for the Elite Class were incredibly prestigious, each one possessing a heavier reputation than the last. As long as the students showed a genuine willingness to learn, the absolute highest-ranking figures of the Hidden Leaf Village would step in to give lectures.
For instance, Elder Danzo, a master of Wind Release, was notoriously impatient when it came to dealing with academy children. Yet, whenever he stepped up to the podium, he would carefully and seriously break down the complex theories of Wind Release chakra nature transformation.
Even the Yamanaka Clan Head from the Intelligence Division would take time out of his schedule to explain the complex arts of information gathering, psychological interrogation, and data analysis.
With such an overwhelming barrage of high-level knowledge being forcefully instilled into their brains, it was impossible for anyone in this class to remain ordinary.
One crisp morning, after Uchiha Kaito had personally tested and evaluated everyone's current capabilities, he stood before the class and announced a piece of highly anticipated news.
Starting today, the students would have the opportunity to take on official D-rank missions twice a week.
Exactly as Stelle had predicted, when the class was officially divided into operational cells, she found herself placed right alongside Kakashi and Obito.
The very first task assigned to their newly formed team was to clear out accumulated garbage from the base of the massive waterfall over in the Second District.
The three of them immediately dispersed to pack their ninja pouches and gather their equipment before setting off.
Leaving the central hub of Konoha for an official task for the very first time had a visible effect on the boys. It was not just Obito practically vibrating out of his skin; even Kakashi seemed faintly excited, his footsteps noticeably lighter and brisker than usual.
Of course, Kakashi maintained a completely blank expression on his masked face. Aside from his dark eyes being slightly wider and brighter than their usual deadpan droop, he remained an absolute master of emotional stability.
Because it was located so close to the heart of Konoha, the Second District was a bustling, prosperous area. Before heading straight to the waterfall, Obito eagerly suggested they hit the commercial streets. The three of them ended up buying a pile of street food and snacks, making the whole excursion feel less like a ninja mission and more like a leisurely autumn field trip.
Upon finally reaching the rocky precipice at the top of the roaring waterfall, Obito strapped a large woven collection basket to his back. Unable to contain his boundless energy, he eagerly prepared to jump straight into the river below.
Stelle casually crossed her arms and reminded him, "Be careful down there. The current is extremely swift today."
"I'm already totally prepared!"
Obito leaped off the edge with a massive splash. Unfortunately for him, he completely underestimated just how violent the churning water actually was. His feet slipped against the slick rocks beneath the surface, and he immediately pitched forward into the freezing rapids. Stelle sighed, quickly stepping forward to grab the collar of his jacket.
She had already molded chakra to the soles of her sandals. She stood perfectly balanced on top of the rushing white water, not a single drop soaking into her clothes.
Coughing up river water, Obito turned his head to look for his other teammate. He found Kakashi standing casually on the water's surface a few feet away, completely dry and spotless. Obito blinked, as if he had only just realized that walking on water was an option for a trash-collecting mission.
"Ah! Why didn't you guys say so earlier?" Obito complained loudly, wringing out his soaked jacket. "My pant legs are completely drenched!"
Stelle looked down at him helplessly. "I didn't exactly expect you to just hurl yourself into a raging river without thinking."
"Idiot. This task is clearly a disguised exercise for training our chakra control," Kakashi drawled. He calmly picked up a pair of long metal tongs, clamped onto a soggy piece of cardboard floating by, and tossed it into his own basket, effortlessly mocking his companion in the process.
Obito narrowed his eyes, glaring daggers at Kakashi's turned back. The moment Stelle saw that specific twitch in Obito's brow, she knew he was up to no good.
"Wait, Obito, don't—"
Before she could even finish her warning, Obito lunged forward, tackling Kakashi right around the waist.
Kakashi clearly had not expected Obito to initiate a physical brawl while standing on top of a highly volatile current. His concentration broke, his chakra slipped, and he was instantly knocked beneath the surface.
The two boys crashed into the freezing water, still fiercely clutching each other's collars, completely unable to react to the shifting tides. The rapid current instantly caught them, sweeping them both toward the sheer drop of the waterfall.
Knowing this exact scenario was bound to happen, Stelle immediately rushed forward to save the day.
Standing on the water's surface was no longer a viable option to catch them. She dove straight into the rapids, forcefully suctioning the soles of her feet to the heavy boulders at the riverbed. Pushing her physical speed to the absolute limit, she lunged through the churning water and grabbed them both by the scruff of their necks, hauling them out of the river a mere second before they plummeted over the edge of the falls.
Now, she was completely soaked from head to toe as well.
Dragging them back upstream to a shallow bank where the current was steady and calm, Kakashi immediately glared at Obito, and the two instantly started throwing punches.
These two idiots had a minor argument every three days and a full-blown fistfight every five. It was perfectly normal behavior at this point.
Stelle squatted calmly on the grassy bank, wringing out her wet hair while humming a cheerful little tune. She watched their passionate, rolling brawl in the mud with great interest.
'The shipping vibe is totally back,'she thought, deeply amused.'They really are just too shippable.'
Obito was truly a fascinating existence; he radiated a bizarre, infectious aura. No matter who spent time with him, they inevitably found themselves acting completely childish. Kakashi was a prime victim of this phenomenon, and honestly, so was she.
As the boys continued to grapple, their fistfight rapidly devolved into a vicious splashing war. In a brief moment of distraction, Obito grabbed Stelle's ankle and dragged her right back into the shallow water.
"A-Mu, quick! Help me deal with Kakashi!" Obito yelled, splashing a wave of water into his rival's face. "Today we team up and beat him into the dirt for once!"
Driven by a sudden whim, Stelle dropped her mature facade and threw herself into the childish game, kicking a massive spray of water directly at Kakashi's head.
Thus, the two-man brawl escalated into a chaotic three-person water fight.
After messing around and exhausting their energy, the three drowned rats finally dragged themselves back to work, carefully picking up the garbage scattered along the banks.
Right at that moment, Stelle's senses spiked. She detected violent, highly concentrated chakra fluctuations erupting in the distance.
Someone was fighting nearby, and their chakra signatures were incredibly strong.
'Could it be an enemy spy who sneaked into the Second District and got cornered by the Anbu?' she wondered, her eyes narrowing toward the tree line.
Just as she assumed the battle was far enough away that it wouldn't affect their genin-level mission, a massive, oppressive wave of chakra rapidly surged in their direction. In the blink of an eye, a figure burst out from the forest and sprinted onto the surface of the river right in front of the waterfall.
The rogue Jonin, racing frantically across the water, noticed the three academy students blocking his escape route. He did not even bother to change his trajectory. His hands blurred through a complex series of hand seals without breaking his stride.
A colossal Water Dragon Bullet erupted from the river, roaring through the air as it crashed directly toward Kakashi and Obito's position.
Everything happened in a fraction of a second. With Kakashi and Obito's current level of strength, their bodies simply could not react in time to dodge a high-level ninjutsu of that scale.
'Holy crap, am I actually cursed?' Stelle thought, her heart hammering against her ribs.
She rushed forward into the water. There were massive gaps in power even among Jonin, and the sheer density of this attacker's chakra placed him in the exact same league as the Elite Jonin of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. If that water dragon actually hit the boys, they would be instantly crushed to a bloody pulp.
"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"
With a deafening whoosh, two masked Anbu operatives flickered into existence on the river's surface. The moment their sandals touched the water, one of them slammed his hands together, summoning a towering, high-pressure wall of water that violently collided with the incoming Water Dragon Bullet, neutralizing the lethal impact.
The second Anbu landed squarely in front of Kakashi and Obito, shielding them with his body. These were the two elite operatives secretly assigned to monitor and protect Stelle from the shadows.
"Go! Return to the village at top speed!" the Anbu commander ordered the three students, his voice harsh and urgent. "If you can't make it to the main gates, head straight to the Security Department in the First District and request immediate backup!"
The two Anbu drew their short swords, their expressions grim beneath their porcelain masks as they confronted the rogue ninja.
Kakashi and Obito scrambled back to the shore, their faces pale. The three students rapidly retreated into the dense forest, putting as much distance between themselves and the battlefield as possible. Before they had even gone a hundred yards, the explosive sounds of high-level ninjutsu clashing echoed violently through the trees behind them.
"What the hell is going on? Why would a ninja from our own village attack us?" Obito demanded, his voice tight with confusion and panic as he leaped from branch to branch.
"It's probably an enemy spy using a disguise," Stelle replied smoothly, keeping her tone perfectly even.
Internally, however, her mind was racing. She had recognized that rogue Jonin's identity the moment he broke through the tree line. The distinct uniform he wore, bearing the specific cloud emblem on the shoulder, was the official attire of the Konoha Research Department.
The fact that a high-ranking researcher from that specific facility was violently defecting and fighting off Anbu was incredibly intriguing.
'There's no way Orochimaru went too far with his human experiments, got busted by the higher-ups, and decided to run away with his entire lab already, right?'Stelle pondered, leaping over a massive tree root.'The Third Great Ninja War hasn't even officially started yet. Besides, at this point in the timeline, Orochimaru seems way more interested in building weird mechas and robots than doing his creepy snake stuff.'
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