At the deepest part of the hideout, they reached a hidden chamber.
Teizawa pushed the door open.
A stench mixed with medicine, rot, and the fishy musk of snakes rushed out to meet him.
The chamber was dim.
Only a few candle stands flickered in the corners, casting a cold, ghostly light.
The stone walls were carved with dense, overlapping runes. They looked like some kind of seal, and also like markings for an altar.
In the center of the room stood a stone bed.
Layers of bedding had been piled on top of it.
Orochimaru lay there.
His body had withered until he looked almost skeletal. His skin was pale as paper, his eye sockets sunken, his lips cracked and dry.
Yet those golden snake eyes remained sharp.
In the darkness, they glimmered with a cold light.
Tubes and needles had been inserted all over his body, connected to the strange instruments beside the bed.
Fluid flowed slowly through the transparent tubes.
It was all that kept his collapsing body alive.
Teizawa stood in the doorway. His gaze swept over Orochimaru once, and he clicked his tongue.
"Well, well, well… to think the once-unrivaled Orochimaru-sama would end up like this."
His voice carried undisguised mockery.
He sounded as if he were watching some ridiculous play.
Orochimaru propped himself up, his movements slow and difficult, like a rusted machine.
He leaned against the headboard, those snake eyes fixed on Teizawa.
A trace of cold malice flashed through them.
"Kazekage-sama…"
His voice was hoarse and low, like sandpaper scraping across stone.
"You did not come all this way just to mock me, did you?"
"Of course not."
As Teizawa spoke, he strolled farther into the room.
He stopped in front of the stone wall and studied the runes carved into it.
Then he walked to the instruments and lowered his head to examine the bubbling liquids.
Finally, he sat down in a chair in the corner.
He crossed one leg over the other.
His relaxed posture made it seem as though he were lounging in his own living room.
"I came to make a deal with you."
Orochimaru's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Kazekage-sama…"
His voice was soft, carrying a smile no one could quite read.
"Sunagakure's Fourth Kazekage died by my hand. Again and again, your village's Kazekage falls because of me, and yet you want to make a deal?"
Teizawa shook his head. His tone was so casual it was as if he were commenting on the weather.
"That useless Rasa… if you hadn't killed him, I would've had to do it myself."
He paused, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly.
"I should be thanking you."
Orochimaru narrowed his eyes.
He carefully studied this young man he had never met before.
He had wandered the shinobi world for decades and had seen all kinds of people.
Greedy ones. Cowardly ones. Hypocrites. Sanctimonious frauds.
But someone like the man before him—
Someone who held his own village's former Kazekage in such utter contempt—
This was a first.
It was not an act. It was not posturing.
It was true disdain, straight from the heart.
As if he were talking about some irrelevant stranger.
After a moment of silence, Orochimaru spoke.
"What kind of deal?"
His voice had returned to that hoarse, magnetic tone.
Teizawa leaned back in his chair and folded his hands over his knee.
"I want the Edo Tensei."
His voice was light, but every word was as clear as if it had been carved into stone.
Orochimaru's eyes widened.
Those golden snake pupils suddenly contracted.
It was as if something had pierced him.
His body leaned forward slightly, and his fingers clenched the bedding beneath him.
But only for an instant.
He soon relaxed again and leaned back against the headboard.
A faint smile surfaced on his lips.
"How do you know about the Edo Tensei?"
His voice was very soft.
But the chill beneath it spread through the room in an instant, cold enough to make one's spine crawl.
Teizawa smiled.
"Don't forget. Sunagakure was also involved in the Konoha Crush."
His tone was flat, as though he were stating something obvious. "It isn't strange for me to know a few things."
He paused.
"Especially… the appearance of the First Hokage and the Second Hokage."
Orochimaru fell silent.
His fingers tapped lightly against the bedding.
Slow and steady.
As if he were calculating something.
After a long while, he raised his head.
A complicated glint passed through his snake eyes.
"I heard Kazekage-sama caused quite a commotion in Konoha…"
His voice was unhurried. "Why not make a deal directly with Konoha? The Edo Tensei is, after all, one of Konoha's forbidden techniques."
Teizawa shook his head.
"Leaving aside whether Konoha would even make a deal with me…"
He paused.
"I have no interest in Konoha's outdated version."
He leaned forward slightly, looked straight into Orochimaru's snake eyes, and said each word clearly.
"What I want is your improved version."
Orochimaru's snake pupils shrank sharply.
His fingers stopped tapping.
For a moment, he seemed to have been frozen in place.
He stared at Teizawa.
Shock and wariness churned in those golden eyes.
And there was also a trace of fear that could not be put into words.
Where had this man learned all of this?
The Edo Tensei was a forbidden technique of Konoha.
He had indeed improved it.
But only he and a very small number of trusted subordinates knew that.
Could there be a traitor at his side?
Orochimaru's expression shifted unpredictably.
He leaned against the headboard, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the edge of the bedding.
His pale face flickered in the candlelight.
Like a breathing statue.
The hidden chamber fell so silent that even a falling needle could have been heard.
There was only the faint crackle of the burning candles and the gurgle of fluid moving through the instruments.
"And how would Kazekage-sama know I improved the Edo Tensei?"
Orochimaru's voice was sinister.
Like cold air seeping up from underground.
Those golden snake eyes remained fixed on Teizawa, trying to find even the slightest flaw in that young face.
Teizawa smiled faintly.
"Secret."
His tone was careless, as if it were nothing important.
Then he waved a hand impatiently.
"So? Are you giving it to me or not?"
Orochimaru was silent for a moment. Then he suddenly laughed.
The smile was faint, nothing more than a slight lift at the corners of his mouth.
But something surged beneath his eyes.
"I do have the Edo Tensei."
His voice was hoarse and slow, like a snake slithering across sand.
"But… Kazekage-sama, what will you offer in exchange?"
Teizawa smiled.
This old bastard had finally asked the right question.
He did not answer directly.
Instead, he leaned back in his chair, hands folded over his knee.
His gaze swept over Orochimaru's emaciated body.
"Orochimaru…"
His voice was light, yet every word was as clear as if it had been carved into stone.
"How many bodies have you changed into now?"
"And how are your hands… have they recovered?"
Orochimaru's pupils contracted violently.
Almost by reflex, he looked down at his own hands.
Pale. Gaunt. Long-jointed.
They looked no different from ordinary hands.
But only he knew the truth.
Those hands were ruined.
From the day of the Konoha Crush, from the moment the Third Hokage sealed his hands with the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, they had never been able to form hand seals again.
He had changed bodies, one after another.
But those sealed hands followed him into every new body like a curse.
He could not form hand seals. He could not use ninjutsu.
He possessed a lifetime of knowledge and towering ambition.
Yet he was like a venomous snake whose fangs had been pulled out.
"You…" Orochimaru's voice turned rough. "How do you know that?"
(End of Chapter)
[Get +30 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Zaelum"]
[Every 300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]