Kakashi stared at the little man for a moment before shaking his head. "No. Actually I'm checking up on Sakura Haruno. She apparently volunteered to join your division."
Professor Gizumo stroked his goatee, blinking behind the thick glasses as he tried to remember. "Haruno. Haruno. Sakura. Sakura Haruno. The name doesn't ring a bell."
"She filled out a general application for advanced placement, research division was checked, and she was put in Division R under Experimental Subject." Kakashi tried not to wince at the sound of electric drills going in the background.
"An Experimental Subject? Oh, that would be why I don't remember the name," said Gizumo. "All Experimental Subjects we're giving them a number and taking away their name. Best not to have any lingering sentiment and it helps our experimenters maintain some emotional distance."
One of the two boys stirred as he looked around at the brass goggles and masks hanging from pegs. "Uhm. What exactly is it that you DO here anyway?"
"Oh. Well, you know Orochimaru - the rogue among the legendary sannin? He left a lot of notes behind. Rather than simply destroy them, it was decided to try and understand what he had done and how," said Gizumo. He nodded happily. "That way those of his test subjects still living but crippled or in comas or whatever could be helped and possibly cured."
"Orochimaru was big on human experimentation, and he never really asked permission of any of his victims," pointed out Kakashi.
"Right," said Gizumo. "Anyway, it turns out he isn't the only one like that out there. We call them 'Mad Scientists' after a reference found in a work of fiction. But that isn't important. What IS important is that we understand as much as we can of what they did! And since we occasionally find living examples of such experimentation - they can be studied and occasionally cured!"
"Oh, that doesn't sound so bad," said Naruto. "So Haruno-san was volunteering to help out people who were hurt by these guys?"
"That's probably it," said Gizumo. "Some people join for a power boost as we experiment. Whatever the case, if we did it we can usually reverse it. Somewhat."
"'Power boost'?" asked the other genin.
"Yes," said Gizumo. "There are all sorts of bloodlines out there after all. Take the Sharingan eye for example. The organ can be transplanted but without the rest of the physiological adaptations that the Uchiha have - it is never as efficient or quite as powerful."
A weak spike of killing intent leaked out from Sasuke at the idea of someone harvesting Sharingan.
"So... Sakura Haruno?" prompted Kakashi.
"Oh yes!" said Gizumo. "Young genin you said? Pink hair? Green eyes?"
"Yes," said Kakashi.
"She's number 404. Recovery Room Three I believe," said Gizumo.
"'Recovery'?" asked Kakashi, thinking his earlier conclusion of rescue at the last moment might have to be revised.
"Yes! Amazing isn't it?!" said Gizumo. "It looks like she was successful!"
"What exactly happened to her?" asked Kakashi.
"Well," began Gizumo, picking up that the jonin wasn't as happy about this as he was. But really - any success was good!
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(Posted Wed, 24 Dec 2014 17:49)
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