Chương 169: Knocked Out.

Haruto looked at the person who entered the room with a confused expression on his face.

"Who…" Haruto started but Inoichi was quick to introduce the woman entering the room.

"She is Orochimaru's student, Anko Mitarashi."

"Anko Mitarashi…" Haruto mumbled under his breath, looking at the woman wearing a trench coat with her violet hair tied up into a spikey pony tail.

"Yo! I heard you were performing an interesting little research project." Anko said softly while looking at Inoichi. Inoichi nodded politely before explaining the situation to Anko in a little more depth.

"Anko-san, your research partner will be Haruto-kun, he is the one that proposed the project that I gave you the paper regarding. Of course, we will be funding the project to the best of our abilities so you can hire more people from the R&D department as and when needed."

"Oh? Him?" Anko asked, her brows lifted slightly.

"What? You think I'm too short or something?" Haruto asked with his nose tilted high up into the air. Anko deadpanned, "Well at least I know what you'll be doing."

"What'll I be doing?" Haruto asked, slightly curious as to what Anko was getting at.

"Well when I need things from the floor, you'll be able to pick them up faster because you're so small…" Haruto's brows twitched. He'd practically walked into that one. And it stung quite a bit.

"Well I know what you'll be doing!" Haruto said with some indignation.

"Yeah? And what's that?" Anko asked with her arms folded.

"When I need something from the shelves high up, you'll be the one to fetch things for me since you're so tall… oh wait… I guess you can't even do that since you're so short for your age." The veins on Anko's forehead twitched. Now she'd walked into that one herself so she had no one to blame. Before things could get any worse, Inoichi stepped in to smooth things over properly.

"Now, now, you two… you're both disciples of the Sannin, have some respect for each other."

"This brat's a disciple of Jiraiya-sama?!" Anko asked with surprise.

"Not Jiraiya-sama Anko, but Tsunade-sama." Anko's eyes changed instantly. She looked at Haruto like a walking gold mine all of a sudden.

"Yo… forget about all that I said just now alright… why don't we start off again? Let's be friends!" Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Hmpf." Haruto huffed before looking at Inoichi, "So? Where're we going to be experimenting?"

"Right this way." Inoichi said softly as he stepped past Anko and Haruto before leading them towards a secluded region in the Yamanaka clan compounds. As they walked Anko began speaking with Haruto, "Ne, ne, how's Tsunade-sama? Is she super strict? Or is she lenient?"

"She's strict I guess… but also pretty lenient…"

"Woah… just she's just like the rumors in the hospital… but that's nice… that means she doesn't have a second face…"

"..." Haruto really wanted to reveal Tsunade's second face that she reserved only for gambling to Anko, but then thought better of it. Such things couldn't be told casually lest he incur the wrath of a demon. So Haruto diverted the conversation, "... if I might ask… how do you know Inoichi-san so closely?" Anko smiled and spoke quickly, "Inoichi-san was the one who vouched for me when that bastard Orochimaru-sensei betrayed the village. And I've been in his debt ever since… This is just my attempt at repaying him."

"I see…" Haruto nodded.

"Then I really hope you're able to do your best."

"Why, thank you! You're not so bad after all you brat!"

"Well you're not as bad yourself… chun-chun-maru."

"The heck…" Anko suddenly felt like Haruto had used a strange word not in her vocabulary to perfectly describe her. Haruto however cared not for the emotional damage that Anko was going through, instead he had just received an alert message from two of his tenants.

'There's someone watching you with ill intentions Haruto-kun.' Unohana said calmly. And just as Haruto was about to begin looking around he received a reminder from Korosensei.

'Remember our lessons Haruto… it's not about panic… panicking will only give away your information to your enemy. It's about taking the reins of the situation calmly and setting up a trap for your enemy to fall into. That's how a professional assassin would respond. Not through brute force… but through clever positioning.' Haruto sighed and nodded to himself, 'Thank you for the warning Korosensei.' Then Haruto began thinking.

'If someone's watching… it has to be someone skilled… since they got into the Yamanaka clan compound and got past all their security…'

'But to get past the sensors they must've suppressed their chakra… so they're bound to be weak in direct combat.'

'Unless… it's White Zetsu and he's targeting me? He can blend into the yamanaka compound by disguising himself as anyone in the clan right?'

'No… I don't have any beef with White Zetsu for now… or wait… does Black Zetsu already know that I was the one that stopped the meteorite?'

'But would he send a single White Zetsu to deal with me then?'

'... unlikely.'

'So who exactly is watching me with ill intentions?'

'Anko?' Haruto spared her a quick glance and she appeared to still be deflated about being called chun-chun-maru.

'It can't be her.'

'... wait a second… Orochimaru resurrected Madara! Knowing Orochimaru he would've wanted to control a person as powerful as Madara, so how did Madara walk away free from the summoning!?'

'Did Madara kill Orochimaru?'

'And is one of Orochimaru's subordinates currently aiming to capture me!?'

'But why me in that case?'

'Oh! Could it be they aren't really targeting me, but they want to get rid of me to take away Anko!?'

'So that they can resurrect Orochimaru by using the Evil Releasing Method on Anko's cursed seal!?' That was when Inoichi spoke calmly, "We're here… everything you might want has been arranged inside. The personnel who know the specialised clone jutsu are inside as well waiting for you. They'll obey your orders and be sure to make full use of them." Lucifer and Anko nodded.

Inoichi was about to enter the building by opening the doors but before he could Haruto spoke to him gently, "Inoichi-san, you don't need to introduce us to them, we can handle the introductions fine ourselves. You must be quite busy." Inoichi was about to say it was no trouble, but then something rather strange happened, he felt like he suddenly remembered an important task-'I forgot to play with Ino today!' And so Inoichi spoke softly, "Yes, I just remembered something I had to do right now!

I'm sorry, I won't be able to introduce everyone to you. Anko, you should know some of them, please handle the introductions for me."

"That's alright." Anko nodded, not finding anything strange about it at all, after all she'd come half an hour late than their appointed time, which meant that Inoichi's other commitments must be taking up his time. Haruto on the other hand smiled.

"That's alright, Inoichi-san. Please don't worry about us." Inoichi nodded and quickly left the scene. Then, just as Anko was about to step up the stairs to the building and open the door, Haruto quickly asked her a question, "Anko-san, do you know anything about electronics?"

"Huh? I don't know if you'll believe me, I don't know much but I do know the basics! That bastard Orochimaru-sensei taught me all about them since sometimes we have to invent our own instruments when working with experiments in the lab."

"I see… then this should be relatively easy to comple-" Before Haruto could finish his words, a shadow flashed by him and Anko before knocking them both out in mere moments!