...
Boring politics.
Orochimaru ignored the two people in the office and walked out on his own, passing through the long curved corridor with a quiet sigh.
Deliberately placing a cat by the pond, then accusing it of stealing fish.
This excuse, even if it hadn't been pointed out by young Sawara today, would probably have appeared 'perfectly timed' in everyone's view when Sarutobi-sensei needed it, right?
Sarutobi-sensei's grasp on that Danzo Shimura fellow was far beyond what ordinary people could imagine.
The fact that Root had planted numerous spies within the ANBU under the pretext of ANBU training was common knowledge among Konoha's upper echelons.
After all, those who emerged from Root's inhuman training, or rather torture, could hardly be considered normal people by common standards.
Most times, their identity could be spotted at a glance.
Yet, Sarutobi-sensei always acted as if he knew nothing, appearing pitiful and innocent.
As if all power had been stripped from him by others, leaving him helpless.
However, every move Danzo Shimura made within Root would somehow appear in Sarutobi-sensei's hands, without warning yet always at the perfect moment.
No one knew how many pieces Sarutobi-sensei had planted around Danzo.
Yet Danzo Shimura remained completely oblivious to this fact, his laughable competitive spirit and self-importance blinding him.
"When it comes to tactics, Sarutobi-sensei is still the master..."
"However, it's precisely because of this."
"As the weaker party, Danzo needs people of sufficient caliber to stand beside him, lest either side unwittingly become mere puppets in Sarutobi-sensei's hands."
"Stupidity that makes one's head ache."
Orochimaru muttered, stopping by the window to gaze at the Hokage Rock bathed in the dim dawn light.
Nearly forty years had passed since the First Hokage.
Yet how many of the idealist's wishes - the man who single-handedly founded the Konohagakure and was considered invincible in his time - had actually been realized?
Compared to his yearning to explore truth, the political machinations of power games seemed insignificantly trivial.
But Orochimaru was a rational person.
He knew that counting through all of Konoha, there were only three people qualified to inherit the position of Fourth Hokage.
Tsunade, Jiraiya, and himself.
Among these three, in reality, he was the only one with a practical chance of succession.
The reason was simply that he was rational enough.
Why had no one asked if he wanted to be Hokage?
Orochimaru pondered this.
Even the most rational person would occasionally want to be willful.
However, out of a most basic sense of responsibility, he quietly extinguished this slight notion.
What he was about to think might sound somewhat amusing.
At least until now.
This man who had never loved anyone still deeply loved Konoha.
Although he couldn't stand many things happening in the village, he was still willing to give everything for it — including his life, which he valued as treasure.
"Orochimaru-sama?"
Hearing the voice from afar, Orochimaru slowly withdrew his gaze and looked toward the figure standing in the darkness.
Sawara Kiri stood quietly in the gap between the dim light and shadows, his expression gentle.
"Sawara-kun?"
Orochimaru looked at this man who seemed too young, his voice showing no fluctuation "Aren't you going home yet? It's almost dawn."
"Is that so?"
Sawara Kiri's voice remained calm, with a faint smile "I thought Orochimaru-sama wanted me to stay."
"Oh?"
Orochimaru looked at him, his expression peaceful.
Those golden vertical pupils, however, flickered with a dangerous predatory light.
Sawara Kiri seemed completely unaware as he continued
"After all, when you heard the term 'seal-less jutsu' in Minato-kun's narrative."
"Your eyes."
"Were exactly like those of a true snake."
"Tsk."
Orochimaru's elongated tongue, modified through body transformation, unconsciously slid across his lips. He suddenly smiled, releasing his killing intent along with an enormous amount of chakra toward Sawara Kiri without any attempt to hide it.
His entire body's intimidation rose to an almost genjutsu-like level in an instant.
Interesting.
Just a sudden thought.
He wanted to test the true measure of this newly emerging young man.
His left hand formed a seal.
Bang—
However, in almost the blink of an eye.
Sawara Kiri, who had been at least ten meters away the previous moment, suddenly appeared before him with an extremely sharp presence.
If not for the vigorous wind force surrounding his body and the scattered black hair being blown about, which definitively proved this was a real physical phenomenon, Orochimaru might have thought that extreme speed was an unprecedented space-time jutsu.
In the blink of an eye, the space between them had shrunk to less than ten centimeters.
Meanwhile, without notice.
Sawara's hand had firmly gripped his wrist, interrupting his one-handed seal.
However, Orochimaru's smile didn't disappear; instead, his interest grew even stronger, and his gaze toward Sawara Kiri became almost tangible.
"How surprising, Sawara-kun."
His voice remained metallic and hoarse, low "Your performance far exceeds my expectations."
"If not for this, how would I dare to stand before you?"
Sawara Kiri's tone was very sincere "Similarly, only this way could I make you recognize me... and my jutsu's value, right?"
Orochimaru looked at this young man, suddenly curious.
Not curious about his arrogant attitude and unexpected strength.
But curious about his 'certainty'.
It was a kind of 'certainty' that he was absolutely sure Orochimaru was someone who couldn't resist new jutsu.
However, until now.
This characteristic had been deeply hidden by him, so much so that even his sensei Sarutobi Hiruzen hadn't truly noticed it.
Orochimaru's curiosity suddenly began to grow vigorously.
"What do you want?"
Sawara Kiri's expression gradually became serious: "That depends on what you can offer."
"Of course."
"This isn't the place to talk."
"If there's an opportunity, I hope we can discuss this in detail next time."
Orochimaru's smile paused as he calmly said
"That's not for you to decide!"
Suddenly, from Orochimaru's sleeve, which had been maintaining a standoff with Sawara Kiri, several black-scaled poisonous snakes shot out with lightning speed, striking fiercely at the young man before him.
At this extremely close distance, these snakes burst forth at a speed no less than that of shuriken.
However.
Orochimaru's eyes suddenly widened.
The thirteen poisonous snakes that had shot out from his sleeves, collar, and from beneath his pants legs all froze in place at the same moment, suspended in mid-air just a paper's width away from Sawara Kiri.
Unable to advance an inch.
Sawara Kiri's smile remained calm and composed, as if he had anticipated all of this.
"Then, I shall take my leave."
As soon as the words fell, there was a poof sound.
The young man's form suddenly turned into a cloud of smoke and disappeared.
From the beginning, what had been confronting Orochimaru was merely a shadow clone.
Orochimaru watched his vanishing figure.
Instead, he inadvertently revealed a strange smile.
"How amazing."
"Sawara-kun."
Things had become interesting.
...