"Orochimaru… is dead?", The sudden scene made Anko, who had still been enduring pain, freeze in expression, even temporarily forgetting the pain.
She just dumbly stared at the headless corpse.
Right after, her entire body suddenly went limp.
As if all her strength had drained away.
Seeing that Anko was about to collapse forward, Aoba quickly reached out to catch her.
"Anko-nee, are you okay?"
Leaning against Aoba, looking at the Flying Thunder God kunai in his hand, Anko weakly half-jokingly said, "Never thought I'd actually get rescued like a damsel in distress by Aoba-chan."
"That's all thanks to Anko-nee's cooperation."
Aoba replied with a smile.
But he didn't get a reply, because Anko had already fainted.
Probably the cursed seal had drained too much energy, and she didn't take a pill to replenish in time.
But at this moment, Anko appeared far more delicate than her usual loud and brash self.
Just like a little girl who could easily be hurt and bullied.
Aoba gently laid Anko down on a flat patch of ground.
And then, the headless corpse of Orochimaru lying on the ground suddenly began to squirm silently.
At the neck still spurting fresh blood, a crack split open, and a brand-new Orochimaru quietly crawled out.
It was the Orochi-Style Body Replacement Technique.
The pale white neck stretched in an eerie and horrifying way, aiming to bite the back of Aoba's neck.
At this moment, a strange pattern also appeared in Aoba's red pupils, starting to spin.
"Seal: Absolute!"
A transparent square space suddenly expanded outward from Aoba as the center.
In just an instant, it passed over Orochimaru's body, covering the surrounding area.
All was silent.
Orochimaru, who had been about to bite Aoba's nape, froze in motion.
He remained in his original pose, completely still, his golden eyes becoming hollow and lifeless.
He looked like a strange puppet suspended in the air.
Only, this puppet's neck was slightly long, as if it had walked out of a Junji Ito manga.
Aoba stood up and turned to look at Orochimaru.
This space was fully under his control.
Whether it was time or space, even human thought as well.
Therefore, with such a power, Aoba began to toy with Orochimaru's mind.
———
"Urgh!"
Orochimaru's first action after regaining movement was to dry-heave uncontrollably.
The sensation just now gave him an indescribably bizarre feeling.
Like those first few seconds when someone wakes up from anesthesia.
Clearly unable to move, but feeling like any minor motion would be amplified tenfold. A mere head shake felt like it flung his whole body.
It was as if he had entered another dimension. Time seemed both eternal and just a second long.
He felt as if a finger was stirring around inside his brain.
Constantly wandering between life and death.
That feeling of being infinitely close to death terrified him beyond words.
"Cough, cough...", Panting heavily, Orochimaru felt like he was about to vomit up his intestines, unable to resist that twisted pain from earlier.
"Truly surprising... just what kind of power was that?", After barely composing himself, Orochimaru began observing his surroundings.
It clearly looked no different from the original setting, but it was filled with an unspeakable sense of strangeness.
As if the entire space had been paused.
Everything had stopped moving.
Falling leaves were frozen midair, birds were stuck mid-flap.
Orochimaru's gaze finally landed on Aoba.
That earlier experience made him now feel little desire to attempt a sneak attack.
"Looks like I have no way to escape."
He could sense that all his connections to the outside world had been severed.
Even reverse summoning was impossible.
This had to be some kind of space-time ninjutsu. Although the environment around him looked unchanged, he was now likely inside a completely independent space.
He couldn't be sure whether his trump cards would allow him to escape this place.
"You can think of it that way," Aoba revealed a light smile.
"You don't seem to have killing intent."
Orochimaru realized he couldn't quite read this white-haired young man before him. Aoba didn't seem to want to fight.
But then why torture him like that earlier?
Still, that torment was not something he ever wanted to experience again.
"Orochimaru, are you interested in returning to Konoha?", Aoba asked with a smile.
Orochimaru's expression froze for a moment, "You'd let me conduct human experiments?"
"There are quite a few death row inmates in prison, but I wouldn't recommend doing that," Aoba answered with a mild smile.
"Then forget it. If I can't freely research the things I love, I'd rather die here."
Orochimaru revealed a cold smile, or perhaps, death here was the best outcome.
Many people in the Sound Village carried his cursed seals. He could still be revived.
"That's really a pity. I was quite interested in you."
"Interested in me?", Orochimaru was briefly dumbfounded. He suddenly recalled that earlier conversation between Aoba and Anko, 'Could it be...'
'Indeed, my current body is that of a very beautiful and fair-skinned girl...'
Orochimaru couldn't help but gulp, 'This is truly terrifying.'
Although he didn't particularly care about gender anymore, he was still a famous figure, one of Konoha's former Legendary Three, an S-class rogue ninja.
He still couldn't bring himself to do something so depraved and disgraceful.
"If you happen to like... talented kunoichi, there are plenty of gifted ones in Sound Village too."
"Cough!", Aoba couldn't help but cough at that.
He had originally planned to maintain a lofty persona, but Orochimaru's one sentence completely ruined that.
This guy couldn't possibly think he had those kinds of intentions toward him, right?
"That's not what I meant!"
Aoba quickly adjusted his expression.
"I'm interested in your research on immortality."
"Hmm?", Orochimaru looked a little surprised.
"Didn't expect you, Aoba-kun, to pursue immortality at such a young age?"
"Because I've discovered that human power has its limits," Aoba answered with a smile.
"In this short life, I've learned that the stronger a person becomes, the more they realize their own shortcomings, unless they transcend humanity."
"Transcend humanity... are you saying...", Orochimaru was a bit confused.
"This world is not without immortality. It's just not something that belongs to humans."
"What is it?", Orochimaru eagerly asked.
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