The next day, during the early morning exercise, Kuroto heard the whispers about an attack on the Patriarch, which also confirmed that the blood and tissue sample that Orochimaru sent him yesterday were indeed obtained from Hyuga Hiashi.
Although Kuroto had his speculations regarding this, but the mere thought that Orochimaru can casually hurt the strongest ninja of the Hyuga clan, even if through a sneak attack, still made Kuroto quite disappointed in the Hyuga's.
Based on this information alone Kuroto can conclude that it is not easy for a member of the Hyuga Clan to reach the strength level of a Sanin even through rigorous practice and countless effort. Although not impossible but the difficulty of the said objective is too high unless of course, the talent is too damn high.
What's more, when it comes to talent, Kuroto knows that he belongs to the mediocre category, which can easily be understood based on the number of activated gene sequence groups in his DNA.
In the case of most of the Hyuga clansmen, about 20 of the 33 special gene sequences are generally active. And for strong individuals like the current Patriarch Hyuga Hiashi; as much as 28 groups out of 33 have reached activated state, while there are also individuals like him with less than 20 groups in the activated state. Therefore, it is not very hard to understand that his talent falls in the below-average category among the clansmen.
If he follows the general training program then no matter how much effort he put, no matter how much training he goes through, no matter how much experienced he becomes by doing tasks, at most he can reach the rank of a special Jonin.
After that, his growth in strength will stop, and he can't afford to let that happen if he wants to survive in this war trodden world.
Regarding the specific details about the attack on Patriarch the Hyuga clan didn't release the information publicly, they probably decided to keep it a secret.
Kuroto can also understand the purpose of doing so. Most probably the patriarch Hyuga Hiashi is aware that the attacker is Orochimaru, and Orochimaru's identity is not so easy to go against. Apart from being the most talented disciple of the 3rd generation Hokage, he is also a Sanin with Kage level strength and a massive influence; truly a troublesome opponent to go against, not someone Hyuga Clan would want to deal with if given other options. Therefore, the elder council of the clan must have concluded choosing silence in this matter.
'Orochimaru dared to take the initiative to attack not just any ninja but the Patriarch of one of the major clan of Konoha Village indicates that he is not afraid to reveal his identity. This must mean that he has most probably completed all the necessary preparations required for leaving Konoha; so his defection plan could be launched any time.' This conclusion made Kuroto sure that Orochimaru was about to defect.
Orochimaru's defection has both pros and cons for the current Kuroto, the advantage is naturally that he wouldn't be under such heavy pressure working under some like Orochimaru but it also leads to a disadvantage which is that he has now lost a solid backing that provided him protection which he will lose. Moreover once Orochimaru leaves the village Kuroto will also be under heavy surveillance as one of the students of the said Sannin.
'People who knew about my involvement in Human Experimentation is only Orochimaru, at least the ones that are still alive after the 3rd Ninja War. So al long as he does not reveal my involvement nobody should come to target me for that and knowing Orochimaru, I doubt he would reveal it. Therefore, as long as there are no major accidents, the village should not have any direct proof of my involvement, apart from some possible doubts or speculations.'
Among many researchers in Orochimaru's team, not many have survived the 3rd war, and because of the special nature of Byakugan his field of research was completely separate, therefore he didn't have much interaction with other researchers because of generally isolating himself in an independent laboratory. So, apart from him and Orochimaru no one was aware of the experimental project he was in charge of.
After again and again analyzing all the possible scenarios in his mind Kuroto continued his daily morning exercise calmly as if the upcoming storm to be brought by Orochimaru's defection has nothing to with him
For the next few days, the were no major changes in the village; Konoha was calm as it should be; until finally on the night of the third day an Anbu in fox mask suddenly appeared at Kuroto's home and took him to a temporary Anbu base.
The base was located at the north-west corner of the village, with a large area and very heavy security, there are about seven to eight elite Anbu teams on constant high alert, and these are the only ones that Kuroto can discover.
After being brought to the Anbu base he was escorted to a small single room with no furnishings, the room has a solid iron fence installed outside with an Anbu standing guard.
These arrangements are more than just a temporary base or a temporary prison. Undoubtedly if the Anbu under 4th Hokage are being so watchful, it can only mean that Orochimaru has officially defected either today or maybe tonight
Bith his Byakugan eyes Kuroto observed everything in the temporary prison.
He was able to conclude that he was neither in the first group of shinobis brought here nor among the last group because there were people already here before his arrival and they were still being brought here one after another, therefore his identity is neither most attention nor the least attention; which is just the perfect for him right now.
The imprisoned ninjas all Orochimaru's subordinates without exception. There are hundreds of people already here and more and more ninjas are still coming continuously. Among these hundreds of famous people, there are several famous elites of the village; many Jonins and Special Jonins. And there's nothing wrong with this; after all, Orochimaru was the Commander of two great ninja Wars; he had thousands of ninja following his orders.
It is not surprising that there are hundreds of loyal subordinates over the years. After all, the village under war mobilization has tens of thousands of ninjas. If there are not even hundreds of loyal subordinates then how come Orochimaru could compete against Namikaze Minato for the position of fourth-Hokage.
Due to the presence of hundreds of shinobi's prison-house was quite noisy.
Not everyone like Kuroto knows or could guess the reason for being brought here. Kuroto could bet that even among Orochimaru's loyal followers many would be unaware of Orochimaru's defection; therefore they expressed great dissatisfaction for being kept under detention with even any reasonable explanation for doing so.
It wasn't until the third generation personally made his appearance that the noise subsided.
Although fourth generation Hokage Namikaze Minato has come to power, the third generation is still responsible for the management of many large and small affairs in the village, and even in the eyes of many senior shinobi's third generations still holds equal or maybe higher power than the fourth generation.
In the presence of the third generation, the screening work soon began.
The first to be screened and cleared were undoubtedly the elite shinobi's with high strength, the chunin that were promoted during the war period like Kuroto were not of the top priority therefore ignored for a while.
Although Kuroto was more than aware that shinobi's like him that were, under special promoted to Chunin in wartime do not have actual strength to that of a senior chunin; but he is still depressed over the fact that he was ignored for such a long duration.
Three days passed in a flash.
After being detained for three full days; still, no one took him to the attention brought great dissatisfaction to Kuroto.
Undoubtedly, the screening work is not progressing smoothly. Many of the shinobi under detention did not believe that Orochimaru, one of the legendary three Sanins would defect; therefore they did not cooperate with the investigation and review.
As for the idea of using torture of the detainees, the village elder's opinion contradicts.
After all; it's a simple interrogation so it is difficult to investigate who participated in the experimentations with Orochimaru; and who are the spies left by Orochimaru in the village. It must also be known that shinobi receive strict counter-interrogation training and have just gone through the baptism of a bloody war; nobody here is a fledgling rookie who would start spitting information under little torture. So the idea of using torture is probably pointless.
And still, if the torture is used, the implications are far too great. Here not just one, two, or three but hundreds of people are detained, and executing several hundred ninjas who played many heroic roles for the village following Orochimaru's defection wouldn't be a wise choice.
On the fifth day of detention Village Elder Shimura Danzo finally made his appearance at the temporary prison.
Danzo personally visited many of the detainees one-by-one, nobody knew what sort of conversation was he having with the detainees, but he took most of the detainees with him.
'It's not hard to guess that they are now going to be joining Root!' There was no need to think about it, Kuroto can easily deduce this result based on the information he has on Shimura Danzo from his last life.
If all the shinobi here can not be investigated properly, in that case letting Danzo recruit most of them is a much safer option for the village than allowing such a big instability factor to roam freely.
These ninjas in custody here have also understood their current situation in the village. Being loyal to Orochimany for a very long time they would not be accepted by the fourth generation Hokage in the elite units. Adding to the fact that Minato-sama is still very young means that he would stay in power for about 2 to 3 decades. Therefore he would be building his team of loyal subordinates. So, the root remains the only best option available for most people here right now.
In the next few days, Kuroto received multiple chances and invitations to join Root but he politely declined this opportunity. In his opinion, defection is a better option than joining the roots, that specializes in dirty work and precarious actions under Shimura Danzo's whims.
Fortunately, the people of the Root were also not very interested in recruiting Hyuga Kuroto; and left happily after being rejected.
The village did allow Shimura Danzo to solicit quite a few ninjas under his custody does not mean he can extend his hands onto everyone. Therefore, Kuroto dared to refuse the offer as it wouldn't bring him much trouble currently.
