"One of the choices… interesting."
Ren narrowed his eyes at the mysterious scroll, instantly sorting through every person who could possibly have sent it.
The number of summoning scrolls he'd handed out—meant for contacting him in emergencies—was tiny.
Kurenai—no, Terumi Mei wouldn't need this inside the village.
That left only the three "tools" he'd placed expectations on.
Nagato's trio.
But the handwriting didn't match any of them.
And if it wasn't them…
Then the only person in this world who could have the ability to reach him like this—
There was only one.
"Heh… heh heh heh…"
Ren's laughter came without warning.
Shisui jumped, startled, staring at him with an unmistakably hesitant expression—like a man wanting to ask why the Chancellor was laughing, but not daring to speak.
Ren calmly rolled the scroll up and slipped it into his sleeve, then asked, as if he didn't already know the answer:
"Curious, Shisui?"
"You think I wouldn't be?" Shisui set down the dango he could barely swallow anymore and sighed. "What is it this time?"
"Don't tell me Kirigakure's spy in Konoha stole the Scroll of Seals full of forbidden techniques."
"The first half is wrong," Ren said with a smile. "The second half, though… is pretty close to the truth."
He drained his tea, eyes half-lidded.
"If this goes smoothly, your nightly workload might actually decrease a bit, Shisui."
A massive question mark practically appeared over Shisui's head.
How does that have anything to do with me?!
Ren didn't explain. He simply finished eating faster than before, sent Shisui back to his residence, then returned alone to the Mizukage's office—his mood bright as he began writing a reply to the sender.
…
"Orochimaru-sama… what have you been doing lately…?"
Mitarashi Anko lay listlessly over the table, so depressed she couldn't even bring herself to enjoy the sweet red bean soup placed right in front of her.
Seeing that, Yuhi Kurenai—who'd come to eat sweets with her—reached out and touched Anko's forehead in surprise.
"Anko, are you okay? I've never seen you this gloomy. Did you accidentally make Orochimaru-sama angry?"
"If that were the case, I wouldn't be sulking here," Anko muttered, stirring her soup with a spoon, voice full of grievance.
"If Orochimaru-sama were angry at me, that would at least mean he still expects something of me. Even if I got punished hard, I'd know what I did wrong, and I could avoid it next time…"
"But right now… he's just leaving me aside. Like I don't exist. I don't even know what I did wrong."
"Well… Orochimaru-sama is an important figure in the village." Kurenai gently stroked Anko's hair, comforting her. "There are confidential things he can't bring you along for."
"Besides, you're his disciple. If you're sure you didn't make a mistake, then have a little more confidence, okay?"
"I still feel uneasy…"
"It's just your imagination. As long as you keep your routine, keep training and studying… even a genius like Orochimaru-sama can't just abandon you."
Anko looked at Kurenai, who was already about to feed her, and finally opened her mouth obediently.
Please… let last night's dream really just be a dream.
The dream where she was locked in a pitch-black room with no light, no hope, and no way to escape.
Outside the shop, several members of the Uchiha and Hyuga were gathered for some reason, locked in a furious argument.
Anko watched them and felt a faint chill settle in her chest.
…
"Failed again…"
Orochimaru stared at the massive cultivation tank before him. Inside floated a grotesquely malformed lump of flesh.
His last remaining experimental material had been used up.
He sighed and pressed the button to drain the nutrient solution.
As the specially prepared fluid emptied out, the writhing mass grew even more violently, its growth chaotic and unrestrained.
Swollen flesh with wood-like grain patterns burst through the tank's shell, lunging for the only living thing in the lab that contained powerful chakra.
At the same time, pale bone spears fired from the core—aiming to pin Orochimaru in place and turn him into nourishment.
"Four Violet Flames Formation."
Three shadow clones erupted from the ground. Together with Orochimaru, they formed the powerful barrier, trapping the mutated mass inside.
The wood-like flesh began burning violently the instant it touched the barrier—yet it continued to regenerate as it burned, a sickening spectacle.
The bone spears were frighteningly tough, resisting the flames and nearly piercing through the barrier to impale Orochimaru—
"Wind Release: Breakthrough."
Orochimaru released wind within the formation, intensifying the blaze. A thick stench of burning rot flooded the underground facility.
The violent purple flames twisted into a huge fire tornado under the wind's pressure. At last, the flesh's growth slowed.
It spasmed, shrank, and finally turned to ash.
"No life left."
Orochimaru's golden slit pupils reflected the scorched black on the floor.
"Fascinating… Your cells, after being combined with the First Hokage's cells… turn into something this ugly. This ravenous."
"Even after adding life-suppressing toxins to the nutrient solution, I could only barely force the product of your combined cells to grow in a way that resembles natural life…"
"Ren-kun…"
"What happened to you—and to the First Hokage—"
"What made your cells become so… abnormal?"
He inhaled, gathered the last of his notes, and walked out of the underground lab—this one secretly funded through ROOT's budget.
Then he activated the jutsu that would bury the place forever.
"Earth Release: Earth Burial Flow."
The ground moved like a living thing. It opened its mouth, swallowed the underground laboratory, and crushed it.
Equipment worth millions disappeared without a sound.
Everything Orochimaru had done here was buried in the deepest layers of earth, never to see daylight again.
From a distance, he looked toward the cliff where the Fourth Hokage's face was being carved into the mountain.
Orochimaru stroked the head of the venomous snake at his side, his smile dark.
"Minato…"
"You're not like Sensei. You won't support my research. You won't tolerate it."
"In that case… before we rip the relationship apart completely, it's better that we go our separate ways."
"I'd love to see it."
"After I leave… how will you treat the subordinates who followed me?"
"Exile? Demotion?"
"Or sweep them all into the old man's ROOT… and let them rot with him in Konoha's darkness?"
He chuckled softly, then frowned as if the thought wasn't entirely pleasant.
"Ah. Thinking like that, I almost feel… reluctant."
"Should I give them a little more time? Let them prepare themselves?"
He raised his head under the moonlight and looked east—toward the sea.
That direction held one of his many escape routes.
The most dangerous.
And also the one most likely to let him complete his research into immortality, break the shackle called lifespan and aging, and march toward the ultimate goal of knowing all knowledge.
"Now then…"
"Show me your measure, Ren-kun."
"Show me what you're looking at."
"And what you're chasing."
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