Inside the medical room, the Uchiha present exchanged looks, but no one spoke.
In truth, none of them wanted to hand Shisui's Mangekyou Sharingan to Orochimaru—but they're already blind, aren't they?
And how to make a pair of eyes see again… that's something outside their knowledge. All they could do was trust the 'expert' in this field.
Medicine, human modification… in these things, the Uchiha had a fair amount of trust in Orochimaru.
As for how to take the eyes back after they're restored—that's a problem for later. For now, even if they hold onto them, they're just a pair of blind eyes.
"Good. Looks like I don't need to waste more words."
Orochimaru licked his lips, scanned the room, then left the medical room without hesitation, ignoring the two advisors the whole time.
They were never invited—they were uninvited guests from the start.
"Orochimaru, you…"
Utatane Koharu frowned, her face full of anger, but just as she chased after him, someone stopped her.
Mitokado Homura shook his head. "Why embarrass yourself? It's about time we accept the fact that there's nothing we can do about Orochimaru."
"But giving those Mangekyou eyes to Orochimaru will bring disaster sooner or later."
Utatane Koharu's eyes were sharp. Her tone, once harsh toward the Uchiha, now sounded almost like she was defending Orochimaru.
"So what? Are you going to make Orochimaru destroy Shisui's eyes right now?"
Mitokado Homura looked at the medical room, then at the direction Orochimaru had gone, and let out a small sigh.
"Shisui earned great merit. If we take away his chance to regain strength for some made-up reason, not only the Uchiha—even the village ninjas won't accept it."
Up to now, everything Orochimaru has done has been open and fair. Compared to that, their thoughts look a lot darker.
And Orochimaru, who craves immortality and desires Kekkei Genkai, now has such a perfect chance to openly study the Uchiha's Mangekyou. There's no way he'll give it up easily.
At least with their strength, they can't stop Orochimaru at all.
Mitokado Homura stroked his beard and spoke slowly. "Those eyes are blind anyway. Even with Orochimaru's skill, he can't make progress right away. And once we're back in the village…"
Utatane Koharu's eyes lit up—she understood what he meant.
This kind of trouble should be left to Hiruzen. Orochimaru is his student after all, and only he can control him.
But then she thought of something else. "This time it's too serious. We can't let Hiruzen keep turning a blind eye to his student."
Mitokado Homura nodded at her words.
…
After dealing with Shisui's eyes, the Konoha ninja army began their return journey. In a flash, four days passed.
They moved slowly on the way back, taking breaks. Compared to when they came, not only was the pace slower, but the mood was much more relaxed.
The war with Kumogakure ended extremely fast. Orochimaru led the ninja army for a round trip, and in total, it had been just over ten days.
In such a short time, the village hadn't changed much. In fact, it looked even more peaceful than before. The damage caused by the Nine-Tails had been repaired a lot—you could hardly see the destruction from back then.
With the Uchiha Police Force as the main strength, the Konoha ninja army walked down the long street. On their way to hand in their mission at the mission center, they received warm greetings and cheers from the villagers.
In a world where wars broke out often, people were practical. They didn't care, nor could they tell, whether you belonged to the Hokage's faction or the Uchiha clan. Even if you were from Root, as long as you could keep the enemy outside the village, the villagers were never stingy with praise.
Words cost nothing, and if saying them could help secure rare peace, only a fool wouldn't say them.
Walking along the street, Uchiha Fugaku kept his usual stern face, but inside he enjoyed the villagers' compliments.
For a long time, as head of the Uchiha clan and commander of the Konoha Police Force, he only ever received such respect within the clan grounds.
In the past, whenever villagers saw the Uchiha fan crest, they would turn their heads away in fear. How could there have been this kind of warmth and approval?
Taking in their sincere expressions, Fugaku's steps unknowingly slowed down.
Behind him, the former members of the police force also lifted their heads high, forcing on cold looks. But the slight curl at the corners of their mouths easily gave away their real feelings.
Of course, Orochimaru was not among them. After leaving the army's chores to Fugaku, he had gone back to his own house in Konoha.
Unlike the Uchiha, who said they didn't care about the villagers but secretly did, Orochimaru truly didn't care.
The only ones Orochimaru cared about were the few people with value to him, and the land of Konoha itself that could produce such people.
As Genie would put it, they were "chives," and Konoha was the "chive field."
When Konoha rotted so badly that no new "chives" could grow, Orochimaru wouldn't mind clearing away the trash and using their blood and flesh to fertilize the exhausted soil.
"Swish…"
With a sound of wind being cut, Orochimaru leapt into the courtyard. Hearing movement from inside the house, he gave a small sound of surprise.
At this time, according to his plan, Yamato should have been training.
"Just left Root not long ago, and already forgotten what should and shouldn't be done?"
A dangerous smile appeared on Orochimaru's face as he stepped inside, but the person who came out to greet him caught him off guard.
"Anko… why are you here?"
"Orochimaru-sensei, you're back."
Mitarashi Anko's face lit up with joy. "You came just in time, I'm almost done making lunch."
Saying this, she quickly hurried back toward the kitchen.
Orochimaru paused at the doorway for a moment before entering the house. He found a chair and sat down, his eyes wandering around.
The house was very clean. But unlike the kind of cleaning Yamato did before, this was a much more detailed kind of clean.
It seemed Anko had already been here for a few days.
Rubbing his chin, Orochimaru's eyes showed both thought and memory.
Just like Shizune to Tsunade, Anko was also the daughter of an old acquaintance to Orochimaru, entrusted to him. After taking her as a disciple, he had carefully taught her for quite some time.
But now, Orochimaru felt that taking Anko as a student back then might not have been a good idea.
Without the filter of emotions, her talent was average, and her nature didn't match his. But perhaps out of respect for him, Anko had always tried to imitate him. The gap between them, however, made that imitation look poor.
"Using the removal of Anko's curse mark as a chance, it's time to change her a bit."
Having made that decision, Orochimaru turned his thoughts back to other matters.
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