Speaking of which, Orochimaru, who was currently being talked about by everyone, was in an underground base somewhere in the Land of Rice Fields.
On the eve of his competition for the position of Fourth Hokage, Orochimaru was reported by an unknown Konoha citizen, Shimura-san, to the point where he was cornered by his own teacher, who was ready to give him a severe beating.
Fortunately, the Old Monkey cherished their past bond and still held onto the hope that Orochimaru would repent. He spared his life and let him escape.
After Orochimaru fled, he wandered through the Five Great Nations and several small countries, remaining in a state of relative confusion.
Actually, the reason Orochimaru became this way stemmed from two transformations during his youth and young adulthood.
The first occurred during his youth when his parents passed away, leaving Orochimaru an orphan.
From that moment on, the seeds of life's fragility and brevity were planted deep within his heart.
The second transformation lasted a long time, spanning almost the entire Second Great Ninja War.
During those days of constant warfare, countless comrades died on the battlefield.
Orochimaru watched helplessly as life after life vanished amidst cold weapons and complex, chaotic Ninjutsu.
The deaths of Kato Dan and Nawaki...
Both became the straws that broke the back of Orochimaru's positive personality.
They also drove him onto the path of seeking eternal life and immortality.
However, being half a step ahead makes one a genius; being a full step ahead makes one a madman.
Orochimaru's ideas could not be accepted by the world. Once his actions were exposed to the light of day, he would face immediate suppression.
While we are still playing in the mud, you go and tinker with science—if you aren't a heretic, what are you?
Orochimaru could only develop his scientific spirit bit by bit in dark corners.
Eventually, his activities were discovered, and he fled the Village.
It has been over a year since then.
At this time, Orochimaru had not yet fully integrated his entire ideology, so he was unable to form the philosophy that would later be powerful enough to manipulate people's hearts.
This also meant he lacked that eerie personal charisma he would possess later.
During his travels through the Ninja World, he might have encountered some decent prospects.
But for one, Orochimaru was like a stray dog, with Jiraiya biting hard at his heels, leaving him little time.
Secondly, the current Orochimaru couldn't yet make people follow him obediently just by uttering a few words.
Think about it: when he defected, he couldn't even take away Anko Mitarashi, the disciple he had personally trained.
Consequently, Orochimaru only had a few low-lifes around him, barely capable of acting as assistants.
He hadn't been in the Land of Rice Fields for long and hadn't yet conceived the idea of establishing a Hidden Ninja Village; for now, he was just laying low and developing.
He had built quite a few laboratories. Compared to his secretive days in the Village, Orochimaru certainly didn't lack materials in the Land of Rice Fields.
Inside and outside the cities, there were plenty of displaced people and beggars who couldn't afford to eat. If he took away a hundred or so, the Daimyo might even be happy that there were a hundred fewer mouths to feed.
If he wanted Ninjas as experimental subjects, there were fugitive rogue Ninjas all over the mountains, easily caught by the handful.
So, Orochimaru's life was quite comfortable.
If only the progress of his Ninjutsu research could also advance.
"Tsk, another failure~."
In the clean operating room, pale white surgical lamps hung from the ceiling.
Orochimaru wore surgical scrubs that were easy to change and wash, but the white fabric was already stained with blood.
The subject on the operating table had been tortured beyond recognition, eyes rolled back, hovering between life and death.
Orochimaru naturally wouldn't use anesthesia on his subjects for human experiments, so every experiment resulted in a casualty.
"Why did I have a brief moment of heart palpitations just now?"
Halfway through the surgery, Orochimaru suddenly felt a pang of anxiety. His steady hand faltered for a second, immediately severing the subject's main artery and spraying blood all over him.
"Tsk tsk tsk, it seems something big is about to happen."
Suddenly, a neurotic smile appeared on Orochimaru's face as his slippery tongue extended to lick the blood splattered on his cheek.
But unlike his expression, Orochimaru's snake-like vertical pupils were filled with the cold-blooded killing intent of a predator.
"Someone, come in!"
Orochimaru called out, and almost immediately, there was a knock at the door.
"Lord Orochimaru, what are your orders?"
The person who entered was an ordinary Genin whom Orochimaru had spared when he wiped out a group of mountain bandits.
He had a cowardly but clever personality, so Orochimaru kept him around to run errands.
Incidentally, the person lying on the operating table was his former bandit comrade.
"Has any intelligence been sent over?"
Orochimaru asked nonchalantly while slowly taking off his surgical scrubs and gloves.
"Reporting to my Lord, no intelligence has been received for the time being."
The man stole a glance at the operating table. Seeing his half-dead former comrade, his heart filled with panic. He immediately lowered his head and tried his best to answer calmly.
The so-called intelligence came from the dozen or so information posts Orochimaru had set up within the Land of Rice Fields.
Some were run by Ninjas, while others were run by ordinary people.
They were used to gather the latest news from the Land of Rice Fields and the entire Ninja World.
And Jiraiya, who was always sticking to Orochimaru like a piece of unwanted plaster, was naturally the top priority of their intelligence gathering.
"Is that so?"
Upon hearing this, Orochimaru turned his head to stare at his subordinate, a bizarre smile appearing on his pale face.
"Yamashita-kun, are you afraid?"
With Orochimaru's sharp senses, no matter how calm this fellow tried to pretend to be...
...his heartbeat, breathing, and even the speed of his blood flow would betray his state.
The person before him was in a state of extreme terror.
"No, I wouldn't dare!"
Yamashita-kun was nearly scared out of his wits. His former comrade was lying on the operating table with his stomach sliced open, his heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys all visible to the naked eye.
The bloody, greasy internal organs and fat were exposed without any cover.
He could even smell a slightly strange, sweet scent in the air.
With all of this, how could someone as cowardly as Yamashita-kun not be afraid?
But facing Orochimaru, did he dare say he was afraid?
"Hehe."
Just as Yamashita-kun's heart was about to stop from fear, he suddenly heard Orochimaru chuckle softly.
"Alright, you may leave."
That human-shaped demon simply turned around and walked toward the changing room, waving his hand to dismiss him.
"Yes, yes!"
"Thank you, Lord Orochimaru!"
Yamashita-kun's tears and snot flowed together as he knelt on the ground in a Dogeza position, weeping with gratitude and banging his head against the floor.
He had finally escaped death!
Having turned around, Orochimaru's face returned to a cold expression.
A tiny ant that he could crush at will was normally something Orochimaru wouldn't even spare a glance for.
The intelligence posts were operating normally, and it was quite standard for no new information to arrive for ten days or half a month.
Usually, he wouldn't be interested in scaring a subordinate.
But at this moment, his serpentine acute perception gave Orochimaru an inexplicable sense of unease.
This feeling was like swallows flying low before a heavy rain, or snakes, insects, and rats fleeing before an earthquake.
It was the animalistic detection of an omen of danger.
"Who could it be? What could it be?"
Standing before the mirror in the changing room, Orochimaru stared at his reflection and grinned:
"I'm really looking forward to it!"
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