In the room filled with the pungent smell of medicinal chemicals, Tayuya, Jirobo, and the recovered Kidomaru knelt on one knee before Orochimaru.
"Orochimaru-sama..."
Tayuya seemed hesitant to speak, a behavior that had occurred many times over the past two days.
"Go ahead, what has Naruto-kun done now?"
Orochimaru was still completely focused on his experiment. This cloned body was already approaching its limits, but fortunately the clone "vessel" he had created using Hidan's immortal body was almost ready.
"He... ate all our stored food."
"Is that so? It's fine, just have someone go buy more."
Orochimaru didn't seem surprised at all by what Naruto could do.
On the first day of arriving on this island, he had released a large batch of prisoners, including even a rare possessor of the Hydrification secret technique.
But Orochimaru had no intention of arguing with him about it.
On one hand, Orochimaru himself felt these people were just expendable materials. Having a few more or less made no difference.
On the other hand, including his clone body, was there really anyone in this base who could stop the opponent?
To put it bluntly, even if Orochimaru's main body were on the island now, Naruto would probably still act however he pleased without restraint. Just eating some food was nothing.
"But... but all the boats on the island were taken by that group of escapees."
Right, that was indeed a problem.
The group of prisoners Naruto had released numbered about a hundred, while the Southern Hideout's vessels were all small mooring boats or even just small craft converted from fishing boats.
Now there wasn't a single one left.
After hearing this, Orochimaru finally stopped what he was doing and turned to face Tayuya expressionlessly.
At this moment, he no longer maintained that smiling appearance he showed in front of Naruto.
The sensation of cold snake scales touching skin instantly appeared on the three people in the room.
After coldly staring at these three for a moment, Orochimaru slowly spoke.
"Someone will come to the island to provide supplies."
After saying this, he turned around again and began the final stages of his experiment.
The three felt greatly relieved, quickly bowing before turning to leave.
Due to Naruto's arbitrary actions yesterday, all experimental progress in the entire Southern Hideout had stopped except for Orochimaru's area.
The vicious prisoners who were originally about to be thrown into mutual slaughter had thus extended their lifespans.
In a sense, this could also be considered one of Naruto's good deeds.
Orochimaru's experimental progress was much faster than expected.
Perhaps he had already formed ideas before Naruto came.
In the room, Orochimaru handed the completely unrecognizable Orochi-Hidan hybrid to Naruto.
It was a new body that looked four or five parts similar to both of them but currently showed no signs of breathing.
Well, treating it as a corpse wouldn't be wrong either.
"So this is your final result?"
Naruto examined this body that Orochimaru had stitched together.
"No, Naruto-kun, there's one final step."
The clone body that no longer looked human made a hoarse sound, then a small white snake crawled out from that body's mouth.
It fell onto the table surface, then quickly crawled into the new body on the table.
The original clone body, after losing its chakra supply, completely turned into a pool of flesh and blood.
The "new Orochimaru" lying on the table soon reopened his eyes and looked at Naruto.
But it seemed he hadn't yet adapted to this new body, so he temporarily couldn't move and could only speak.
"Naruto-kun, according to our transaction..."
"You take this body to that world, and after that, what I do won't need your concern."
"As long as you remember to bring this body back before returning to this world, our transaction will be complete."
"At that time..."
"You'll tell me where the Akatsuki organization's base is? Fine, fine, I understand."
Naruto seemed somewhat impatient, directly taking out a sealing scroll and beginning preparations for sealing.
"Don't you need me to provide any other assistance, Naruto-kun?"
This question received no response as Naruto sealed Orochimaru into the scroll.
The remaining three witnessed the entire process.
"Find me a quiet room. Don't come near."
The three had no objections to Naruto's words.
Even without Orochimaru's prior instructions, these people now wouldn't dare oppose Naruto.
After being led to a room somewhere on the underground level and confirming no one else was around, Naruto took out the scroll containing sealed alcohol and retrieved the stock he had bought in the Land of Hot Water.
Tsk, for the first time, drinking feels so tasteless...
When Naruto regained his vision, the surrounding environment had already changed.
He had just been in an underground chamber but now was back in Shimotsuki Koshiro's house.
Specifically, the guest room.
Feeling his body once again full of strength and his bulging abdomen, Naruto raised an eyebrow.
It seemed that what he had swallowed could indeed be transported.
So Naruto looked around, and seeing no one else, opened his mouth wide toward the floor.
"Bleh..."
The first thing to fall out was a scroll marked "Sword."
Then scrolls fell like raindrops with a pattering sound.
Of course, inevitably falling along with them was alcohol that hadn't been digested in time by Life Return.
It could only be said that the stomach bag aspect...
The last thing to fall out was the scroll sealing Orochimaru's body.
According to the transaction process, Naruto should release him now.
But after collecting all the other scrolls, Naruto didn't open the remaining scroll.
"Ha... finally took the bait."
Chuckling softly, Naruto's face no longer showed the impatient expression he had at the Southern Hideout.
Orochimaru had indeed made comprehensive preparations, even planning to wait until this clone body safely returned to the ninja world before telling Naruto more information.
But he had underestimated Naruto too much and also underestimated this maritime world with its various unreasonable powers.
He thought Naruto was like Jiraiya, a brute who only knew how to charge straight ahead, never imagining that Naruto had never intended to make any so-called transaction with him from the beginning.
Did he really think Naruto had survived all those years at sea through luck alone?
He thought the most peculiar thing about this world was those powerful bodies full of life force, not knowing there were also miraculous things called "Devil Fruits" here.
In the ninja world, to extract information from a ninja's mouth, aside from torture, only hypnosis remained.
Even then, it was very difficult to obtain intelligence from those with strong will.
But in the pirate world, there were plenty of abilities that could read minds and memories.
Not to mention others, Naruto remembered that Big Mom's three-eyed daughter had similar powers.
Since he was in the pirate world, how to deal with this snake was entirely up to him.
As for the Southern Hideout in the ninja world, before Naruto left, he had already sensed many unfamiliar presences approaching.
Although he didn't know if they were enemies or allies, he believed those ninja should give Orochimaru some small surprises.