Naruto: This Uchiha is too innocent.

Chapter 142 Vibrant Blood, A Way to Break the Stalemate

"A rare guest indeed."

Uchiha Sora leaned against the door frame, a playful smile playing on his lips, his gaze falling on Uchiha Obito, who had glasses strapped to his forehead and looked slightly flustered.

Obito coughed lightly, then pulled out a carefully prepared gift from behind him. His eyes flickered, and he turned his head away, muttering, "Ahem, this is a consolation gift for you, to celebrate your recovery. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have bothered coming here if my grandma hadn't insisted."

Uchiha Sora chuckled lightly, not exposing Obito's hypocrisy. He reached out and took the gift, slowly opened it, squinted his eyes, and it took him a while to see what was inside.

Inside was a pile of snacks, each with its own unique flavor, most of which were his favorites. The excuse that his grandmother wanted him to come was just that—an excuse. No one in the clan knew he liked these things; only his longtime classmates knew what he liked to eat.

"Thank you, I like it very much."

"Right? I knew you liked these. It wasn't for nothing that I spent so much time in the village—" Obito chuckled, but halfway through his sentence, he realized it was embarrassing to admit he'd gone all the way to Konoha to buy these snacks, as if it made him seem like he cared a lot about Uchiha Sora, so he quickly shut up.

"Ahem, whatever you like is fine."

He hesitated for a moment, his gaze falling on Uchiha Sora's slightly vacant eyes: "I heard that your eyesight—is very bad?"

Uchiha Sora chuckled lightly, seemingly unconcerned about his condition: "Hmm, it's quite serious. Right now, you look like you have three heads and ten eyes in my eyes."

"What? Three heads and ten eyes!" Obito spat, his expression turning strange. "How can that be human?" He opened his mouth, wanting to say something to comfort Uchiha Sora.

But this impetuous fellow struggled for a long time without finding the right words, finally managing to stammer, "Put in more eye drops—"

Realizing how absurd his words were, he slapped himself and scratched his head awkwardly, "Uh, I just made a slip of the tongue."

Then, he hesitated and said, "With such a serious eye problem, how will you fight?"

"What? You think I'm no match for you?" Uchiha Sora said with a smile, patting his shoulder. "Don't worry, even if I'm like this, a few more of you wouldn't be a match for me."

Upon hearing this, Obito became furious, immediately forgetting that he was "disabled." "You bastard, you're really looking down on me. Let me tell you, after so much training, I'm no weaker than you anymore."

"A one-on-one duel?"

"One-on-one it is!"

Half an hour later, the dust on the training field gradually settled.

Obito Uchiha lay on the ground, his face bruised and swollen, staring blankly at the clear blue sky, muttering to himself, "This is unscientific—this is just too unscientific—"

Uchiha Sora leaned leisurely against the pillar next to him, and couldn't help but laugh as he looked at Obito's bewildered expression.

Despite his near-complete loss of vision, he was still able to determine Obito's location and techniques during battle by observing subtle changes in chakra flow and air vibrations.

Therefore, his strength wasn't significantly diminished by his impaired eyesight. The only pity was his two-tomoe Sharingan. The basic effect of the Sharingan is to slow down his senses during battle, achieving a level of bullet-time, but now his eyesight is just for show, so it's naturally useless.

"By the way, Obito." Uchiha Sora suddenly stopped smiling. He looked down at Obito, his gray eyes seemingly devoid of any emotion. "There's something I must remind you of."

Obito was taken aback by Uchiha Sora's sudden cold tone. He scrambled to his feet, swallowed hard, and asked nervously, "Wh-what's wrong?"

Uchiha Sora took a deep breath and said slowly, "Remember, be careful of the people of Iwagakure in the future, and protect Rin."

"Huh? Why?"

"Don't ask too many questions, just remember this sentence."

This is a reminder he can give Obito without involving future plot developments.

Although Obito was full of doubts, seeing Uchiha Sora's serious expression, he nodded and replied, "Okay—okay, I'll remember that."

Uchiha Sora nodded slightly, a hint of worry flashing in his eyes. If the tragedy were to still occur—

He lowered his eyes. "Obito, remember, seeing is not always believing."

After Obito left, Uchiha Sora sat alone on the steps, staring blankly at the bustling street.

He had no interest in training; his thoughts were in complete disarray. Time was of the essence, and the final battle was about to begin, but he had no means to escape the system. How could he change the course of events if things continued like this?

The crowd on the street hurried by, each person's brow furrowed with lingering anxiety, and no one paid any attention to Uchiha Sora.

Momonosuke explained the reason for the lingering anxiety among the crowd to Uchiha Sora yesterday: Iwagakure had breached the border defenses of the Land of Grass and launched a fierce and unprecedented offensive against Konoha.

The prolonged stalemate gradually wore down the patience of the Land of Earth. Considering the need for supplies along the long journey, they decided to launch a final assault to break the deadlock in one fell swoop.

Faced with this situation, Konoha reacted decisively, immediately dispatching a large number of troops to the front line to resist the surprise attack from Iwagakure. However, the surprise attack was too unexpected and dangerous. Even though Konoha reacted quickly enough, it still fell into a disadvantageous position.

Don't be fooled by the fact that Uchiha Sora was just chatting and laughing with Obito. It was only because Obito had just returned from a mission, while Sora himself was wounded. Otherwise, the two of them would probably have been sent to the battlefield long ago.

As far as he knew, the Konoha Anbu base was now deserted, with all members out on missions. Almost all of Konoha's Jonin had been dispatched, and those who had not been dispatched were ready to receive orders at any time.

As a result, Konoha's internal strength was unprecedentedly weak, and people's hearts were naturally filled with anxiety, with everyone becoming suspicious.

"Empty." Momonosuke's voice drifted from behind.

Uchiha Sora didn't turn around, but soon sensed Momonosuke sitting down beside him.

"How is the situation?" Uchiha Sora asked.

"Tomorrow, I'm going to the front lines too."

Uchiha Sora was not surprised. In recent days, members of the clan had been sent to the front lines to fight for the country. This was everyone's mission, and no one could escape it.

During this special period, the infighting between families was temporarily put aside, and even Danzo had to focus his energy on external defense.

Unite against external threats!

"Be careful." Uchiha Sora turned to look at Momonosuke and said softly.

"Haha, don't underestimate me. After all, I'm a Jonin-level ninja." Momonosuke waved his hand, and the atmosphere between father and son became somewhat ambiguous. "And you?"

"What?"

"Now that your injuries have healed, you should have reported to the Dark Division a few days ago, as is customary."

"Me? —" A hint of confusion flashed in Uchiha Sora's eyes. He was still at a loss as to how to deal with the system and could not find a way to break it.

Under these circumstances, he naturally neither wanted nor dared to participate in that final battle.

"Sigh, I can buy you a little more time. Think carefully about what you should do." Momonosuke patted his shoulder, then got up and left.

The boy was left alone on the steps, silently gazing at the bustling traffic on the street.

Meow~

After an unknown amount of time, a soft meow broke the silence, and then a black and white cat gracefully jumped to the boy's side and gently licked his palm with its tongue.

"Meow~"

"Are you hungry?" the boy asked.

Meow~

"This is all I have." The boy opened the gift bag and took out a packet of snacks. The cat didn't pick and choose and actually started eating.

After eating and drinking its fill, the cat nestled contentedly in Uchiha Sora's arms, arched its body, curled up into a ball, and leisurely drifted off to sleep.

"I really envy you, living such a leisurely and carefree life," the young man said softly, looking at the sleeping boy.

"6"

To Uchiha Sora's surprise, the opportunity he had been waiting for actually came two days later.

Two days later, as agreed with Orochimaru, he was to give Orochimaru a vial of blood every month for research purposes.

"This is troublesome," Uchiha Sora said to Mitarashi Anko inside the house.

"It's nothing." Mitarashi Anko shook her head, applied iodine, and inserted the syringe into Uchiha Sora's artery.

Soon, the blood sample was collected. Anko Mitarashi held up the vein, looking it over. "This blood doesn't look anything special. Why is the teacher so concerned?"

Uchiha Sora pressed a cotton swab against his wound and casually remarked, "Scientists, well, most of them aren't mentally sound."

"A scientist?" Mitarashi Anko's expression was strange. "Heh, I'm afraid that in the entire Konoha, only you think that the teacher is a scientist. If others knew what the teacher was researching, they would just say that he is crazy or a terrorist."

Uchiha Sora smiled. "I don't understand, but I respect it."

"Fine, fine, you and the teacher are so smart, I'm the idiot." Mitarai rolled his eyes, retracting his vein. "By the way, the teacher asked me to tell you that he discovered something interesting. Are you interested in going to see him?"

"Go to Orochimaru's place?" Uchiha Sora was taken aback. That place was disgusting, filled with the smell of formaldehyde, which he disliked.

But—something Orochimaru found interesting? He even made a special trip for him, so it must be related to his blood.

Anyway, he's feeling annoyed by the system issue right now, and since he's got nothing better to do, there's no harm in going.

After thinking for a moment, he nodded. "Okay, let's go."

Soon, the two arrived at Orochimaru's underground laboratory. Before even entering, Uchiha Sora smelled a pungent formaldehyde odor, much stronger than last time.

Formalin is mostly used to preserve corpses.

Sure enough, as soon as he entered the laboratory, he found that there were many more corpses there, all of which were preserved in formalin solution.

Meanwhile, Orochimaru, wearing a mask, was cutting something with a scalpel.

Sensing the presence of a guest, Orochimaru put down his scalpel, washed his arm, and said with a smile, "This is a bit unexpected."

Uchiha Sora frowned as he looked at the corpses around him. "How many people did you kill?"

"Heh, I'm not as evil as you think. I picked up these corpses from the front lines."

Upon hearing this, Uchiha Sora was slightly taken aback. Retrieving corpses from the front lines for experiments—perhaps only Orochimaru in the entire ninja world could pull that off.

"What have you figured out from my blood?" he asked directly, not wanting to stay there any longer.

"Tsk tsk, if someone else asked me this in that tone, they'd probably be one of my fodder for gossip. But you're my honored guest, after all." Orochimaru showed no impatience whatsoever. In the dim light, his pale face looked even more like a dead man's, strangely eerie.

He took out two blood vessels from the drawer next to him, the ones he had taken from Uchiha Sora earlier.

"Look, what's the difference?" Orochimaru handed the two blood vessels to Uchiha Sora.

Uchiha Sora examined the blood vessels, looked at the dark red blood inside, and frowned slightly. The difference? Aren't these just two normal blood vessels? What's the difference? — No, that's not right.

Because of his vision impairment, his five senses are much more acute than before, and the special features of the test tube are not visible to the naked eye.

Seeing the subtle change in his expression, Orochimaru smiled, a glint of excitement in his eyes. "You felt it, didn't you? One of the blood vessels is still active!"

Blood is active, which is perfectly normal, but!

These two blood vessels were from a month ago!

Without any freezing treatment, the blood's activity was maintained for a whole month. Moreover, Uchiha Sora could feel that the active blood vessel was no less active than the blood flowing in his body. In other words, the activity of this blood did not decrease even after a month away from the body!

"How is this possible—" he murmured. Could it be that his blood is some kind of Tang Monk's flesh? If he ate it and his vitality remained unchanged, wouldn't he be immortal?

"Haha, I love your expression," Orochimaru chuckled sinisterly. "Take a closer look and feel the difference between these two blood vessels."

Uchiha Sora was serious; this was no joke. Knowing Orochimaru's nature, he might actually dissect him on the spot.

He quickly noticed the difference: the active blood vessel contained chakra, while the inactive one did not.

However, chakra is an energy composed of both physical and mental energy. Unless actively condensed by a person, chakra cannot exist in blood alone.

"What happened?" he asked in a deep voice.

Orochimaru was pleased with his expression. "As expected, you don't know the state of your body."

"First of all, let me clarify that the chakra wasn't my fault. It was already in my blood from the beginning. Moreover, the blood vessel that didn't have chakra was because I extracted it. As a result, it lost its activity and became a pool of dead blood."

Do you know what this means?

"What does it mean?" Uchiha Sora asked, vaguely realizing something, and even his breathing became heavier.

Orochimaru chuckled and twirled his fingers, then gently made a cut with a scalpel. He collected a drop of blood the size of a bean in a new test tube and handed it to Uchiha Sora.

Uchiha Sora sensed it; it was a normal drop of blood, possessing the activity of just leaving the body, but the activity quickly died.

Orochimaru condensed a chakra ball at his fingertips, then collected the blood in a new test tube and handed it to Uchiha Sora.

This time, due to Orochimaru's initiative, the blood possessed vitality and also contained chakra.

A minute later, due to the separation from the body, the chakra dissipated, and the activity of the blood also disappeared. The activity of the blood remained while the chakra was present.

Chakra dissipates when it leaves its host, which takes about one to two minutes.

Uchiha Sora's blood, even after being separated from its host for exactly one month, still had no chakra!

Uchiha Sora suddenly realized something, his face turned deathly pale, and he staggered two steps, almost falling over.

Because his chakra is all directly rewarded by the system.

However, Orochimaru was unaware of one crucial point; he was simply filled with excitement. "This means that the ninjutsu you use can exist for an unimaginable amount of time! I can even create life-extending ninjutsu using your chakra!"

But Uchiha Sora could no longer hear Orochimaru's cheers. He only felt a buzzing in his mind, his lips were incredibly dry, and he unconsciously murmured, "So that's how it is."