"Come back with me, Orochimaru-sensei."
Kaede smiled at Orochimaru and said, "You can contribute more of your research to Konoha now. There's no need to waste time chasing immortality anymore, because that jutsu… I've already mastered it."
The eyes that govern life and death, the Rinnegan.
Life and death, in essence, stem from yin chakra (the soul) and yang chakra (the physical body). The Rinnegan can control both. They allow one to break through the biological limits of the body, perpetually regenerating cells with no limit to division.
"You've even mastered that kind of jutsu?"
Orochimaru stared at Kaede, his expression even more shaken than when he saw Kaede blast open an entire mountain range with a single punch.
Kaede gave a slight nod and looked Orochimaru directly in the eyes.
Buzz!!
His deep blue eyes surged with power. The light within them rapidly condensed, forming a pale azure, three-pronged windmill pattern.
As the pattern flared in Kaede's pupils, Orochimaru suddenly felt the world before his eyes split into two distinct halves, one black, one white, with himself standing right at the boundary between them.
Then the jutsu activated.
White light surged forward, sweeping away the darkness and flooding his vision. It washed over everything silently… and then faded.
"You should be able to feel it now."
The pattern in Kaede's eyes vanished, returning to their calm blue hue. He gave Orochimaru a gentle smile.
Orochimaru stood still for a moment, lowering his head to look at his hands. Slowly, he raised them before his eyes, sensing his body with practiced awareness.
He had conducted countless experiments on human cell regeneration, but even with all that experience, what he felt now left him stunned.
His cells had changed drastically.
They no longer had a limit to how many times they could divide!
Human cells typically had a cap on how many times they could replicate, this was the biological reason for aging and death.
Orochimaru had developed the Living Corpse Reincarnation technique to evade this limit; by abandoning his body and transferring his soul into a new one, he could stay youthful and escape death.
But now...
That limit was gone.
His cells could divide infinitely, which meant his body would remain exactly as it was, never aging again.
As he sensed the changes within, a strange emotion welled up in Orochimaru. A kind of… aimlessness.
What had he been doing with himself all this time?
After a long pause, he returned to his senses, then his expression turned slightly awkward.
Kaede caught the change. "What is it?" he asked.
"…Nothing."
Orochimaru hesitated for a second, then shook his head.
The truth was, he had recently performed a Living Corpse Reincarnation and was currently inhabiting the body of a female shinobi. That meant this immortal upgrade Kaede had just granted affected this body and soul together, locking him permanently into his current vessel.
But… whatever. Not a big deal.
Pushing the thought aside, Orochimaru turned to Kaede with a more serious expression. "Kaede, you're probably aware of the name 'Otsutsuki,' aren't you?"
"I am. Why?"
Kaede glanced at him. With Orochimaru's current condition and the wounds he had been nursing earlier, Kaede had a faint guess as to where this was going. A glint passed through his eyes.
Orochimaru spoke in a low tone. "I recently encountered a very… unusual individual. Calling him a shinobi wouldn't be quite accurate, because he didn't feel like one. He claimed to come from beyond the heavens and introduced himself as… Otsutsuki Urashiki."
Kaede showed no real surprise. He looked up at the sky and replied calmly, "So… Urashiki has arrived."
Orochimaru's eyes flickered. "You know him?"
"I do," Kaede nodded. "You've probably gathered information on the Sage of Six Paths, right? But you likely haven't found anything beyond that, not about his mother, Otsutsuki Kaguya."
"This Urashiki is Kaguya's enemy… and the enemy of all shinobi."
Hearing this, Orochimaru's expression turned grave. "An enemy like that… that's not going to be easy. Can you handle him?"
"It won't be a problem."
Kaede smiled. "I'll go track him down. If there's an opportunity, I'll try to retrieve part of his body for you to study. For now, you should return to Konoha. I've left a shadow clone there, if anything happens, I'll know immediately."
As he finished speaking, a surge of blue light rippled through Kaede's eyes. Behind him, a pitch-black spatial rift opened up, and his figure slipped into the portal, vanishing from sight.
This Otsutsuki Urashiki had arrived at just the right time. Kaede figured he could make good use of him, for research purposes. Maybe Orochimaru would discover something valuable.
Kaede could almost hear the system notification ringing in his ears:
["Ding! Your Otsutsuki gift pack has arrived. Please check your inventory."]
Orochimaru stared at the spot where Kaede had disappeared. After a long moment of silence, he shook his head with a sigh.
On the other side,
Jiraiya had remained frozen in awkward silence throughout the entire exchange. Only after Kaede was gone did he finally let out a deep breath.
Nearby, Haku and Kimimaro slowly came back to their senses from the shock.
Kimimaro withdrew his gaze from the vast canyon in the distance. After taking a deep breath, he looked at Orochimaru and asked, his voice slightly trembling, "Orochimaru-sama… that man… who is he?"
"He was once my student."
Orochimaru gave him a faint smile. "You've probably heard of him before, he's the Fifth Hokage of Konoha. And now, the God of the Ninja World."
So it was him!
Haku, standing nearby, gasped softly.
That name wasn't unfamiliar to either of them. In fact, it echoed like thunder throughout the world. They simply hadn't known that Kaede had once been Orochimaru's student.
Now, both Haku and Kimimaro looked at Orochimaru with even deeper admiration and reverence.
Orochimaru-sama… was able to teach someone like Kaede…
Silence fell over the area.
"Cough, cough…"
Jiraiya cleared his throat and glanced at the small toad that had stopped treating his injuries. "You can head back now, Gamaboru. Help me find Fukasaku-sama and Shima-sama, tell them to summon me to Mount Myoboku with reverse summoning."
"Got it."
The toad nodded and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Jiraiya leaned on a nearby rock and stood up, turning toward Orochimaru. "So, what are you planning to do next?"
"I've already gotten what I wanted. I'll be returning to Konoha."
Orochimaru met Jiraiya's gaze calmly.
Jiraiya nodded. "Then I'll leave you to it. If I find the time, I'll drop by the village to see you."
Moments later,
With a puff of white smoke, Jiraiya vanished as well.
Orochimaru looked away, glanced at Kimimaro and Haku, and said lightly, "Let's go."
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Completed version available on Patreon.com/Veltoria