Not long after, Orochimaru arrived in the meeting room and saw this contemporary artist, the explosion brat, Deidara.
"Huh? You… you're Orochimaru?"
Deidara looked him up and down and recognized him.
Back when he had just started pursuing art, Orochimaru was already famous.
What made it even more legendary was that Orochimaru had once betrayed Konoha, but later returned at the invitation of the Uchiha clan.
After Rengoku drove the Sarutobi faction out of Konoha, Orochimaru naturally became the one who truly held real power in the village.
However, the outside world knew almost nothing about Orochimaru's latest movements.
The reason was not hard to understand. Nowadays, Orochimaru devoted himself entirely to numerous cutting edge and complex research projects.
The fields he was involved in were broad and extensive. For example, the experiment to perfectly revive Senju Hashirama, as well as bloodline fusion experiments;
In addition, creating a body for himself that could be called perfect was also one of his major goals;
Not only that, he was also improving Sage Mode, hoping to dig out its deeper potential;
At the same time, he was pushing forward the in depth development of cloning technology, striving for breakthrough progress;
Research related to the soul had not been neglected either;
He had even included the development of civilian chakra machinery within the scope of his research.
With so many numerous and highly difficult projects, if every required material had to be found by Orochimaru personally, even he would not be able to handle it no matter how much energy he had.
Fortunately, now that he was in Konoha, he had abundant resources and no longer needed to worry about such trivial matters.
Even so, he still could not complete everything alone, so a large number of talented people came to assist him.
Whether it was Kabuto, Nono, Guren, Suigetsu, Jugo, or even the Sound Four he had transferred over from Otogakure, all of them were now in Konoha.
At this moment, they were gathered in Konoha, contributing their strength to Orochimaru's research work.
It was precisely because of their cooperation that Orochimaru could barely arrange his precious time properly and ensure that each project advanced in an orderly way.
As for Otogakure, which had once been one of Orochimaru's important bases, it had now become an obscure small ninja village.
Although there were still some capable fighters left there, it was no longer the core base for Orochimaru's experiments.
The outside world only knew that Orochimaru was in Konoha, but had no idea what he was actually doing there.
The Orochimaru now was using Rengoku's clone, and his body was transformed through the Transformation Technique.
Naturally, his appearance had not changed much from before.
He still had long black hair, golden vertical pupils, purple eyeshadow extending to the sides of his nose, pale skin, and cyan magatama shaped earrings.
His unique face was extremely recognizable, and even in the black market there were detailed records about him.
Over the past half year, when Deidara had gone out on missions with Sasori, he had occasionally caught sight of some commissions investigating Orochimaru.
But none of those missions were taken up by anyone.
Orochimaru had no habit of exchanging pleasantries and spoke directly, "Rengoku is not in Konoha right now. You won't be able to find him."
Deidara felt a little annoyed.
"Where did he go? Don't tell me he's really missing?"
Orochimaru slightly raised his eyes and casually looked Deidara over, thinking to himself, 'This familiar tone, that's something only close friends would use.'
Orochimaru himself was extremely sharp. Almost instantly, he understood that Rengoku and Deidara had a good relationship.
So he slightly slowed his tone and replied, "How could he be missing? He just went somewhere quite far away. He won't be back in the short term."
Deidara let out a disappointed sigh.
In his eyes, there were already very few people in the ninja world who truly understood art.
Now there was one less kindred spirit. For Deidara, who treated art as his life, that was simply too heavy to bear.
More importantly, Rengoku had even helped him meet Brother Sasori in advance.
After spending time together recently, he had truly grown to like Brother Sasori from the bottom of his heart.
Without exaggeration, Rengoku had basically introduced him to a lifelong close friend.
Because of that, Deidara's favor toward Rengoku had shot up dramatically.
This time, coming together with Brother Sasori, he had also wanted to see Rengoku.
So Deidara could not wait to ask Orochimaru, "Then how long will it take before he comes back?"
After thinking for a moment, Orochimaru deliberately tested him and said, "As far as I know, this mission he went on will probably take several years before he returns."
"So you'd better focus first on how to fulfill that agreement between you and him."
After hearing this, Deidara did not doubt the truth of Orochimaru's words at all and responded seriously, "Combining Dust Release with clay bombs isn't something simple. So far, I've only just gotten proficient at it."
Orochimaru was somewhat surprised. After all, Deidara was not even fifteen yet.
After learning about the agreement between Rengoku and Deidara, Orochimaru naturally continued the conversation, "If you can't even handle such a small matter, then the follow up plan Rengoku arranged won't be able to proceed smoothly at all."
Hearing that, Deidara assumed Rengoku had already told Orochimaru everything in detail.
So he scratched his head awkwardly and replied, "Uh… well, the old man is still pretty tough. In my opinion, he can probably sit firmly in the Tsuchikage seat for a few more years."
Then, as if encouraging himself, Deidara added, "But that's fine too. It gives me enough time to carefully study and develop new ninjutsu!"
At those words, a faint glint flashed through Orochimaru's eyes as he thought to himself, 'So Rengoku plans to support Deidara in becoming Tsuchikage?'
Thinking about it carefully, it was not hard to guess why.
Iwagakure was currently in an awkward state where its talents were lacking and the next generation had not fully risen.
Although Kurotsuchi's father, Kitsuchi, had some strength, anyone with insight could see that he was not really suited to be Tsuchikage.
At the very least, Onoki did not favor him. Otherwise, he would have already passed the position to him.
Onoki was already over seventy years old.
It would be strange if he were not anxious to find a suitable successor.
On the other hand, Deidara had mastered Dust Release before even turning fifteen.
In terms of talent alone, who else would be more suitable to become Onoki's best successor?
It was just that Deidara's personality was still too impulsive and needed time to grow.
But personality could be shaped and corrected later.
Talent, however, was something innate and difficult to change.
It seemed that before leaving, Rengoku had planned to help Deidara ascend to the Tsuchikage seat.
As for how much power the Tsuchikage of Iwagakure held, that went without saying.
If this plan succeeded, the benefits it would bring would be immeasurable.
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