"Were you going to be paid for what you did? Did someone force you? Tell me, or Shinichi-sensei gets a anonymous tip about this." Satoru said, his hand pointing to Shinichi in the distance, sitting and talking with Mitsuki-sensei.
"Walk along with me." Kaito whispered, grabbing his hand and taking them away from the crowd, which was now dispersing.
"Why did you bet on Kuroi and not on yourself? Do you not have enough faith in yourself? Did your lack of a finger destroy your self-esteem? You could have won and make that Yamanaka girl proud!" Satoru commented.
"It's not that...the odds were extreme, I wouldn't have gotten the same if I did." Kaito explained, but Satoru could feel it wasn't genuine.
"Oh. High risk high reward, is it? You a fellow gambler?" Satoru asked in a mischievous smile.
"If I had won I wouldn't have gotten the money i required. The next set of match for the following round will be too late. It was urgent." Kaito felt his pride break the more he spoke, he tried to change the topic.
"Tell me Satoru, what is the difference between clan Shinobi and civilian shinobi? What sets them apart?" Kaito had a irritated look on his face, his fists clenched tightly, his nails digging into his skin.
"Oh! So we are going there. Connections, resources, mentors, peers and rivals within your age and skill level and last but not least, support from older shinobi. I know this story...I have lived through it already." Satoru explained in a monotone voice.
"And it doesn't infuriate you? Do you not think it's unfair to a level. They hoard resources, pull the strings from behind to reach positions of power and we suffer
for scraps!" Kaito's vein bulged, he stared daggers into Satoru who remained the same.
"I have heard this exact set of words before, several times even. Well, I'll explain in a easy way. If you had a kid...wouldn't do everything in your power to make your child become successful. If your business strongly depended on your reputation and a distant relative could probably do something which could hurt, wouldn't you do something?" Satoru asked, as they walked, he realized that they were going towards the area to recieve your winning from the bets
"Is that what they are?! Fucking businesses? Killing people for money is a business for them? And there is a fine line between supporting those who are associated to you and outright oppressing others for your gain." Kaito almost shouts, his anger was barely held back by Satoru who slapped him to him get his bearings.
"Your are mistaken. When I said businesses, I meant businesses. You think that the Akimichi, Yamanaka and Nara clans are so rich because of missions and powerful jutsus? No, they are literally business owners and that's where majority of their resources, connections and political power comes from.
And it's not like they became what they overnight. They are in this game for centuries and they will remain for a few more. It's not unfair, they just had a head start." Satoru said making Kaito look at him in disbelief.
"Oh, okay then, so I'm not underprivileged, I'm just a hundred years late! HOW am I supposed to DEAL WITH THAT!!!"
"Well there is a saying, 'the best time to start investing was twenty years ago and the second best time to invest on yourself is today! If you work hard and do everything right, within a few years you will in a position where you won't have to worry about these things anymore." Satoru smiled, his words pushed all of Kaito's buttons.
He couldn't control and smashed his fist straight into Satoru's face, making him fall a few feet away. He rushed and grabbed his collar before punching him again and again.
"Do you not understand? Do you not have any empathy to realize what I'm trying to say?!" Tears began falling from his face, falling on Satoru, who watched blankly. "My best friend DIED because I didn't have enough money for it. But that fucking hospital performed a surgery on a rich guy FOR FREE because he knew the owner of the hospital! You have to the audacity to say investing on myself will solve my problem twenty years from now? WHEN MY FRIEND IS DEAD?!"
"I am sorry I didn't know! I'm sorry."
Kaito stood and simply ran away, not bothering to even listen to his words. Satoru stood watching his shrinking figure in the distance taking the money and leaving in a rush, as if in a race against time.
Satoru created a shadow clone and sent it after him, the clone chased after Kaito to where he was running and Satoru went back home to train.
---
Kaito entered a building which oddly smelled like antiseptics and ran through the hallways, heading towards the last door to the right. He opened the door and saw the person he was looking for.
An old man rested on a bed, he had a tired look as he occasionally coughed and the tissues which were dyed red showed it was serious. His sunken cheeks and bony physique made him look like he was malnourished, maybe he was.
"Gramps! Are you okay? They gave you the medicine, right? There's a lot of red tissues on the table compared to yesterday." Kaito quickly reached to the bedside of the old man and held his handle gently.
The old man recognised the familiar hands hold his and opened his eyes, he smiled, it was bright and hopeful despite the pain he was enduring.
"Boy...you're chunin exams...how did it go? Did you do well?" The old man said slowly, ignoring whatever it was causing so much discomfort, his aging was catching up to him.
Kaito remembered Satoru's words about believing in himself and winning the match himself making Inoko proud. He had said things which greatly upset him, but that...that was something which hurt the most, because it was true.
A deep regret well up in Kaito, he tried to look the old man in the eye and couldn't, he kept his head down in shame. The old man frowned seeing that he didn't reply.
"...Well? What happened?" He asked him to answer again, his voice was a little more gentle this time. He gave him enough time to talk, and he did.
"I...lost. I had to surrender, he was too strong for me, he knew a lot of jutsu which were stronger than mine. I just couldn't defeat him." Kaito said bitterly, lying to this felt all kinds of wrong and couldn't bring himself to tell the truth.
"I see, I'm still proud of you, my boy. Everyone faces ups and downs in their life, it's natural. Just keep working hard and try to do better next time. Life will go wasted if you continue having that guilty face for your mistakes." He closed his eyes and went back to resting, leaving Kaito to think about his actions as tears threatened to fall from his eyes.
Kaito quietly walked away and went to the reception, the lady working there was writing as she glanced and recognised Kaito approaching her. She put down her pen and gave her trademark smile at Kaito.
"Oh! Kaito? Have you come to visit your gramps? He is recovering very well...if only..." she was interrupted by Kaito who dumped a massive bag of cash onto the register, shocking everyone nearby.
"I don't care what you do, I want him well and fine and free from that damn bed and this hospital. I'm sure this will be enough for a few months. I'll provide more if it's needed." Kaito walked away without bothering to hear her answer.
---
"Didn't you go off without your teammates for a mission or something? what are you doing here, interrupting my rest?" Satoru asked from under the tree he usually trained. He was on the ground near Keiko's house, the same ground where he would train with Hiten...if his elder hadn't threatened him to stay away from him.
"They are easy to fool, those two. One might be street smart and other book smart, but neither of them are clever enough. It was pretty easy. As for why I'm here? You can't give me an amazing idea to research and then pretend like nothing happened. You gave me an itch and now you'll scratch it." Orochimaru said, reaching out her hand for Satoru to take.
Satoru sighs before agreeing you come with her, grabbing her and standing up.
They both reach an empty studio apartment, it was located at the edge of the village, away from all the noise and hustle-bustle. It was perfect for someone like her, who enjoyed company of herself and herself alone.
"You know Satoru, the basic requirements for a scientific experiment is that many people can perform and recieve the same result and...?" Orochimaru ended in a question, nudging him Satoru to answer.
"It should be cheap to do...or at least it shouldn't be near impossible for different people to do, as long they have the right stuff for it." Satoru answered, yawning as he looked at the setting sun in the distance.
"Correct. So, you remember our previous sessions together! Good, I dislike dull people." She said, opening the door and entering and closed it after he entered.
"By the way, you asked me to help in your theories, but you didn't really do much back then. You just asked about how I healed him and gave me tips on how to improve the mystic threads jutsu. What was that about, huh?" Satoru asked looking around.
The room was small and minimalistic. It had the bare minimum to convince others that it wasn't vacant, holding no signs of the resident's personality, everything was used for its functional purpose.
Satoru watched her take out a scroll and open it, before muttering something and putting it back as if it was the wrong one. She kept rummaging through the scroll and found one, opening it and bit her finger.
"Reverse summoning jutsu!" Orochimaru said, giving no warning to Satoru as they both found themselves in a lab. It was very disorienting for Satoru, nausea built up in his body as he held back the urge to vomit.
"First I'm going to find out if what happened to your chakra reserves unique to you or if others can do it too. Then, we check if it can be easily or we will have to bring an uzumaki for this." Orochimaru said as several other kids, became visible in the distance.
Everyone sat together as some older people entered the room and began pouring chakra into everyone. Satoru felt his already full reserves being forcefully being made to hold the chakra like pouring water into a bottle while it was already full.
Orochimaru sensed something and frowned motioning everyone to stop. The chakra was not doing anything after a certain point and just leaked away.
"I was using chakra as well, maybe that was a part of it? What do you think?" Satoru commented with a smile.
"Well, go on...I'll be back with some storage scrolls to store your chakra then."
She returned and everyone began pouring their chakra into those scrolls before being replenished and doing the process over again. As the process kept going, she made few more changes.
Out of the people who were giving chakra to Satoru and others, the strongest of them was asked to pour into the child with the weakest chakra. After a while she recorded the levels again.
She frowned again, realizing what the data had meant. The difference in chakra quality caused the highest progress, it was as if the stronger chakra acted as a progressive overload, similar to bodybuilders.
Secondly, the constant usage of chakra and replenishment caused a subconscious response that the current chakra levels werent enough which made the body and mind to adjust the chakra reserves to match the fabricated need.