"Asana, who is this 'Lord' you're talking about?" Uchiha En asked.
Hyuga Asana hesitated before replying, "It's Lord Orochimaru, one of the Sannin."
"Orochimaru! Why him?"
"En, isn't it disrespectful to call Lord Orochimaru by his name like that?" Hyuga Asana said, frowning.
Uchiha En was stunned by her words. He hadn't expected Hyuga Asana to correct him merely because of how he referred to Orochimaru.
Just from this, it was clear that Hyuga Asana held Orochimaru in extremely high regard.
Truly worthy of being called the great brainwasher of the Hokage world!
Fortunately, Uchiha En could sense that, compared to Orochimaru, his standing in Hyuga Asana's heart was slightly higher.
Because if Hyuga Asana's reverence for Orochimaru had reached the point of obsession, she definitely wouldn't have revealed that Orochimaru had contacted her.
When she corrected him just now, her tone wouldn't have been consultative; it would have been a sharp reprimand.
Thinking this, Uchiha En pretended to ask casually, "Asana, when did you meet Lord Orochimaru?"
"It was about two years ago! That day was an exam, and my score was much better than Hyuga Chiwa's. She was very unhappy about it and kept finding all sorts of excuses to scold me on the way.
I didn't dare resist her at the time, so I just walked back to the Hyuga Clan compound with my head down, and then I accidentally bumped into Lord Orochimaru.
Lord Orochimaru wasn't angry about it; instead, he helped me up from the ground and asked with a smile if I was hurt. That was the first time I felt kindness from a stranger."
Uchiha En's mouth twitched upon hearing this. Could one of the great Sannin really be bumped into by a little girl? That was too ridiculous. Orochimaru must have targeted Hyuga Asana for some reason and deliberately orchestrated this encounter.
"What happened later? You must have met Lord Orochimaru again, right?"
Hyuga Asana nodded and continued, "I did meet Orochimaru several times later. The idea I told you about—learning Medical Ninjutsu to ensure survival in the war—was told to me by Lord Orochimaru."
I also learned my Healing Technique and Body Flicker Technique from Orochimaru.
Hearing this, Uchiha En understood. Orochimaru was clearly grooming Hyuga Asana to be a future tool!
This Ninja World War was likely Orochimaru's trial for Hyuga Asana. If Hyuga Asana survived the Ninja World War, Orochimaru would completely pull her over to his side.
The Byakugan must be very helpful for some of Orochimaru's research.
Given Hyuga Asana's current favorable impression of Orochimaru, the success rate of recruiting her was close to 100%.
Orochimaru only offered a few words of concern and taught Hyuga Asana two basic Ninjutsu, yet he managed to recruit a highly talented Ninja from the Hyuga Branch Family. This deal was too cost-effective.
Uchiha En hadn't known about this before, but now that he did, he certainly wouldn't allow Hyuga Asana to be brainwashed by Orochimaru.
So, Uchiha En pretended to be somewhat envious and said, "Asana, your luck is really good! To actually bump into Lord Orochimaru."
"I guess Lord Orochimaru must have been preoccupied with something at the time, otherwise, there's no way you could have bumped into him."
"After all, Lord Orochimaru is one of the legendary Sannin. With his strength, let alone a child, even a regular Jonin would have a hard time bumping into him, right?"
Hyuga Asana was startled by Uchiha En's words, and immediately a thought popped into her head: That's right! Why did she bump into Lord Orochimaru back then?
Two years ago, she was only 8 years old and pitifully weak. How could she possibly have bumped into Lord Orochimaru?
Never mind Lord Orochimaru; even her current self wouldn't be bumped into by a small child while walking.
Hyuga Asana wasn't stupid. She hadn't thought about it before, but hearing Uchiha En say this now, she harbored some suspicion.
However, she didn't show her doubts and instead focused on teaching Uchiha En the Body Flicker Technique.
The difficulty of the Body Flicker Technique lies in neural reaction speed and Chakra control.
When Hyuga Asana learned the Body Flicker Technique, she had already mastered the Healing Technique. Medical Ninjutsu itself requires a high level of Chakra control, so she learned it very quickly.
Uchiha En's Chakra control, however, was relatively poor. To learn the Body Flicker Technique, he first needed to improve his Chakra control.
Hyuga Asana told Uchiha En the methods Orochimaru had taught her to improve Chakra control.
These methods were simple: mainly the traditional Tree Climbing and Water Walking, plus controlling the amount of Chakra released when performing Ninjutsu.
In the following days, Uchiha En prioritized Chakra control in his training.
Uchiha En didn't know that the Third Hokage had actually been secretly observing him several times during these days.
The Uchiha Clan naturally produces many geniuses, and activating the Sharingan at age 10 certainly shows talent, but it wasn't enough to warrant this level of attention from the Third Hokage.
The fundamental reason the Third Hokage was interested in Uchiha En was the report submitted by the Ninja Academy teacher.
This report documented Uchiha En's usual behavior, and his friendship with Hyuga Asana and Yamanaka Kagetsu naturally didn't escape the teacher's notice.
Most members of the Uchiha Clan were arrogant, and few of them befriended children from other clans, let alone clans like the Hyuga or Yamanaka, which belonged to the Hokage Faction.
A talented member of the Uchiha Clan wasn't worth much attention from the Third Hokage, but if this Uchiha member had good relations with members of the Hokage Faction clans, it meant there was an opportunity to pull this genius into his own camp.
This was the real reason the Third Hokage was paying attention to Uchiha En.
However, through observation over the past few days, the Third Hokage found that Uchiha En's talent wasn't as great as he had imagined, particularly his talent for Chakra control, which was quite ordinary.
Nevertheless, the perseverance of a child his age diligently training for two or three hours after school every day was certainly commendable.
"If only Asuma had this kind of perseverance," the Third Hokage sighed.
Returning the focus to Uchiha En, he finished his training for the day and gained another opportunity to spin the wheel.
Over the previous five days, Uchiha En had such bad luck on two days that he died immediately upon entering the Text Game World, only receiving the minimum 1 Attribute Point.
On the remaining three days, he managed to survive for a while in the Text Game World, earning 2 Attribute Points.
Uchiha En discovered that now that he had reached Level 10, he was no longer a weakling in the Text Game World.
Previously, in the One Piece World, five Marine Branch Soldiers could wipe out his "Pirate Crew," but now, at least branch officers would be needed to take action. That was progress.