Orochimaru squinted his eyes.
"Yashagoro, that's a name I haven't heard in a while."
Kyoto felt that he had built a platform between the two now he just needed to solidify it.
"I know about the Edo Tensei. The heaven seal. All of it. No secret of yours is safe as long as I walk this world."
Orochimaru looked down, a lump in his throat.
"And you say I just have to heal the boy?"
Kyoto nodded sincerely.
"That would be much appreciated."
Orochimaru chuckled darkly.
"I'll heal the boy, but only after you let me erase all memories of me in your mind."
Kyoto cursed bitterly.
"No shot, you could cripple me in 3 seconds."
Orochimaru looked down at Kyoto intensely.
"I see no gain in helping you as of now, rather right now I am extremely tilted to eliminating you as a whole."
Kyoto replied instantly. He had expected a response like this.
"I'll take out one person for you. No strings attached. That should be more than enough."
Getting on Orochimaru's good side wouldn't hurt.
Orochimaru looked at Kyoto deviously.
"The Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze."
Kyoto nodded cautiously.
"It'll be done within a year."
Orochimaru went down and put his hand on the Yuki clan member.
Soon, an aura of green surrounded the body.
Life started rejuvenating in the chakra flame of the Yuki clan member.
Kyoto held in a sigh of relief. Would Orochimaru really trust him that much?
Orochimaru, who was about to exit, left a small gift.
His head bent down.
Kyoto couldn't see what was happening as Orochimaru had set up a small mist.
Soon the mist parted and Orochimaru left without a word. His figure turned a corner and was never seen again.
As Kyoto checked the boy he realized that he was breathing far more audibly.
A bit of color had returned to his face and his hands were twitching.
On his neck, was a curse mark.
Kyoto took 2 steps back.
He had been had.
He hadn't expected Orochimaru to be so outright arrogant as to lay a curse mark down without regard for Kyoto's presence.
Kyoto sent out chakra waves to search for Orochimaru but it seemed that he had already left for somewhere far away.
Kyoto reviewed his fight against Orochimaru and realized that it was rather balanced out.
He hadn't met an opponent who had forced him to play his trump card yet, which was a good sign.
Since there were no open rooms or abandoned beds lying around, Kyoto merely slept on an aged wooden bench. He placed the boy on an opposing bench.
Kyoto summoned the whale before he went to sleep and used it to encase the boy, in order to keep him warm.
Kyoto himself didn't feel very cold so he didn't mind.
And so a rusty night of sleep ensued.
When Kyoto awoke he noticed that the Yuki boy was squirming and struggling.
As he pulled himself up with a yawn, the boy immediately noticed his appearance.
The boy spoke, outraged.
"You. Are you the one who trapped and locked me in here?"
Kyoto noticed that the whale had grown slightly. The boy had probably tried to freeze it over.
Kyoto chuckled.
"No. But I am the one who saved you and helped heal your injuries."
The boy seemed unmindful.
"I don't care. Release me."
Kyoto shrugged his shoulders whistling for the whale to drift away.
The whale did so and vanished behind a few buildings.
The boy immediately got up and sprinted off.
Kyoto felt underwhelmed.
As the boy sprinted he soon fell and tripped.
Noticing how little energy he had in his legs, a frown formed on the boy's face.
His messy black hair was struck to the side as he turned his head.
He looked at a stand of pork kebabs in awe.
His stomach rumbled wildly.
The boy felt devoid of food now that he thought about it.
As Kyoto began walking towards the ninja office of the village, he found someone calling out to him.
"Wait, Uchiha"
The boy put his hands on his knees as he began panting just before Kyoto.
His mouth was irked but his eyes were desperate.
"Can you..."
"Get me something to eat?"
Kyoto felt like laughing himself.
He didn't have any Ryo so how would he buy food for two people?
Unless of course, he used that. (Genjutsu.)
"Sure, but you'll owe me a favor."
The boy followed along in exhaustion. He had disregarded his current state.
Kyoto did his man bun along the way whilst the boy looked around him in confusion.
"Is this... the village hidden in the grass?"
Kyoto nodded solemnly.
"Yup carried your ass all the way from the land of fire."
The boy rolled his shoulders back to release some strain.
"How long has it been?"
Kyoto shrugged.
"No more than a day."
The boy was surprisingly talkative.
"What about that whale? What is it? Why can it absorb jutsu?"
Kyoto looked at the boy peculiarly.
"It's my summon. It's got something strange going on but even I can't grasp what it is."
The boy nodded his head mechanically.
"So... what are we going to eat?"
Kyoto looked at him blankly.
"Whatever you want."
The boy's face lit up.
"Gyoza. I want gyoza."
Kyoto raised his eyebrows.
"Sure, as long as there's a stand."
The boy began practically skipping around.
"I'm Kai. Kai Yuki."
"Kyoto Uchiha."
Kai and Kyoto swiftly found a gyoza stand. As Kai was just going up to order, Kyoto felt something snap inside him.
"Wait."
Kai looked up eager but at the same time patient.
"What's going on?"
Kyoto smirked deviously.
"I've had a change of mind. We're going to earn our food."
Kai looked like someone had just dropped an anvil on his back.
"B-but, I'm hungry."
Kyoto shrugged with two arms.
"That's too bad. We're getting these Ryo somehow."
Kai was forced to follow Kyoto sullenly.
Kyoto who had no idea what to do decided to do the simplest and most straightforward thing in this situation.
Ask.
Kyoto approached numerous locals, followed by Kai, and found himself either ignored or pushed away.
It was only when Kyoto approached a rather shady local that he found out some rather interesting news.
"There's a fight club going on at the moment. There's no chakra, it's just pure hands and occasional weapons. To get in, you just gotta enter through the red-white house."
"Tell'em Daimo got you in. I need to up my monthly quota anyways."
A bald man with a pungent odor spoke to the two with a hushed voice.
Kyoto smiled eagerly upon hearing this.
Finally. Something he was good at.
The two went around and found a half-red and half-white house.
They swiftly trodded up to it and knocked at the door.
A sharp and harsh voice received them through the door.
"What's going on."
Kyoto spoke in a hushed and suspicious tone.
"Daimo sent us."
Kai popped out between the door and Kyoto.
"For the fight club."
The door slowly creaked open. A man with a buzz cut and sunken eyes scanned the two.
"You're in, just walk forwards until you reach the light."
"It goes down but you won't die, just keep moving on."
Kai and Kyoto found themselves in eternal darkness.
Kyoto felt tempted to produce a small flame but he could sense chakra flames in front of him.
Not just 3 or 4. But hundreds.
Through the darkness, Kyoto could make out each blue flickering chakra flame.
A few minutes passed and there was seemingly no end for Kai.
"Hey. You still... there?"
Kyoto breathed out slowly.
"Yeah. I'm here. We should have about a minute of walking left."
"Alright. Cool."
And so a minute of walking ensued.
As the two finally felt the air get warmer, a world of brightness engulfed them.
In one moment, the light invaded their eyes and sound bombarded their ears.
There was a platform in the center, with white tiles.
All around were hundreds of drunk and eager shinobi.
Some seats were higher up with quite wealthy individuals brooding and betting huge sums of ryo.
On the battle platform currently, were two people. One huge bulky mass of tanned muscle and one well-toned beige man.
In just one swing, the well-toned beige man flew off the stage.
He landed and screamed torturously. His back had been broken.
Medical staff ran down as the crowd erupted with cheers. A wave went down as they all saw the result.
A commentator screamed down some sort of chakra-fueled box.
"That's another one-second win for Muerlo! This makes his 233rd win in a row this year."
The crowd began screaming his name.
"Muerlo."
"Muerlo."
"Muerlo."
Whilst all of this was happening, Kyoto was signing up.
"So I just put my name here?"
"...Yes."
The cheers were muffled inside a separate room.
Kyoto handed in his form cleanly.
Kai looked at him strangely.
"Wait. What should I do?"
Kyoto's face lit up.
"Wait. Lady. Please."
The office lady turned around, Kyoto's form still in her hand.
Kyoto began bargaining at once.
"Please let my companion here work as a drink cooler. He's one in a million."
The lady looked disturbed.
Kyoto pleaded even further.
"Watch."
"Cool her tea."
Kai, perturbed, moved his hands and used his clan's kekkei Genkai to cool the lady's tea until it was frozen over.
The lady felt like screaming.
Kyoto jumped up and down enthusiastically.
"So, does he have the job?"
The lady backed away nervously.
"I'll alert a higher-up."
Kyoto sat himself down on a chair.
"Nice."
"I guess we're all set."
Kai felt like tearing up.
"I just wanted to eat."