Chapter 136: Second Deal With Orochimaru
Orochimaru smiled, that smile carrying a hint of cunning.
“Cost? I didn’t expect to hear this word from Shura’s mouth.” Clearly, the previous times Menma had fleeced him still lingered in Orochimaru’s mind.
“But indeed, I provided such precious achievements, so naturally, you need to offer something that interests me.” Orochimaru paced slowly, walking to Menma’s side, his pair of snake pupils staring intently at him, his voice lowering again, carrying a hint of probing and temptation.
“Have you ever heard of… that pair of ‘God’s Eye’ in the Rain Village?” Orochimaru’s gaze became fanatical, deep within those vertical pupils surged a desire for the legendary Sage’s Eye.
“Those eyes are said to be the Sage of Six Paths’ Eyes, capable of seeing through all ninjutsu in the world, mastering the cycle of life and death, possessing the power of creation and destruction… Rinnegan.” Orochimaru pronounced the name word by word, as if savoring some forbidden fruit.
His snake pupils fixed tightly on Shura’s White Three-Eyed Fox Mask, hoping to obtain from Shura the information about the Rinnegan he had long dreamed of.
Perhaps Orochimaru thought that since Shura came from the future, he should know some secrets of the Rinnegan, even his own purpose.
‘So Orochimaru has his eyes on Nagato’s Rinnegan.’ Beneath the White Three-Eyed Fox Mask, Menma’s lips curved into a slight arc.
Given Orochimaru’s current situation, let alone Nagato, even Obito Uchiha might not be able to deal with him.
Menma’s thoughts raced, he was fully aware of Orochimaru’s probing.
He knew Orochimaru must have learned from Danzō about the appearance of a Sage’s Eye in the Land of Rain, though he might not be clear on Nagato’s current situation.
Moreover, according to the plot, Orochimaru did join the Akatsuki, apparently because he was probing for information about the Akatsuki, and was confronted by Pain and Scorpion controlled by Nagato. After Orochimaru tried to gouge out Pain’s Rinnegan and was repelled by Almighty Push, he expressed his desire to join the Akatsuki.
Pain, or rather Nagato, also valued Orochimaru’s strength and was extremely confident in his own power, so he agreed to let Orochimaru join the Akatsuki.
Later, after Itachi Uchiha joined the Akatsuki, Orochimaru coveted Itachi Uchiha’s Sharingan and launched an attack, only to be instantly killed by a single glance from Itachi Uchiha, then he fled the Akatsuki.
After considering the situation, Menma felt that at this moment, the best strategy was not to hide, but to go with the flow, guiding the knowledge-hungry Orochimaru toward the Akatsuki to let him suffer a bit.
“Rinnegan…” Menma murmured softly, his voice carrying a faint sense of distance.
Seeing Shura speak, Orochimaru faintly grew expectant, as if about to hear intelligence from across time and space!
“That is indeed the Sage of Six Paths’ Eyes, and the power it displays far surpasses ordinary people, even exceeding the Sharingan and Byakugan, mastering the mysteries of the cycle of life and death.” He paused, the eye holes of the White Three-Eyed Fox Mask seemingly glancing indistinctly at Orochimaru, carrying a profound meaning.
Orochimaru’s breathing quickened, his snake pupils filled with fanatical light.
Shura’s words undoubtedly confirmed his guesses about the Rinnegan, and it was even more powerful than he knew.
‘Sage of Six Paths’ Eyes!’ Just these few words were enough to ignite Orochimaru’s thirst for knowledge and greed.
“However, such powerful power is not something ordinary people can wield, and the one who possesses it is certainly no ordinary person.” Menma’s tone suddenly became serious.
With a hint of admonition and some sarcasm: “Orochimaru, I advise you, when facing the holder of those eyes, be careful. With your current strength, challenging those eyes will bring you no good.”
Orochimaru’s expression immediately turned somewhat unpleasant.
He recalled his past encounters with Shura, where the opponent only summoned two summoned beasts to protect the Iburi Clan, and single-handedly used the Flying Thunder God Technique and some ninjutsu he had never seen before, similar to the Rasengan developed by Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze, defeating him.
And according to the news from the spies he left in Konoha, a few months ago Shura had gouged out several Byakugan from the Hyuga Main Family Elder, even stopping his teacher Hiruzen Sarutobi’s jonin squad.
This showed his formidable strength.
Hearing such words from Shura’s mouth, Orochimaru indeed felt a trace of wariness toward the holder of those eyes.
Menma, watching Orochimaru’s excited face, continued: “Of course, you can go try it.”
“With your abilities, even if you find the situation unfavorable, you can always retreat unscathed, right?” The hint in Menma’s words was already obvious.
Menma knew Orochimaru’s personality—both greedy and cautious about his life. Even if he tried to stop Orochimaru, the other would definitely go probe personally.
This mix of temptation and warning also supported Orochimaru’s plan.
A extremely complex smile appeared on Orochimaru’s face, both excited at receiving guidance and filled with intense desire for the unknown.
“I heard you attacked the Hyuga Main Family’s clan territory a few months ago and dug out four pairs of Byakugan from the Main Family Elder. Could the Byakugan also have power similar to the Sharingan?” Orochimaru suddenly changed the topic.
This both demonstrated his intelligence network left in Konoha and showed his curiosity about the Byakugan.
When he was in Konoha, he had paid attention to both the Byakugan and Sharingan, but because the Uchiha Clan had produced powerful ninjas like Uchiha Madara in recent decades, and had a clear path of evolution, he paid special attention to the Sharingan.
In contrast, the Byakugan was restricted by the Caged Bird on branch family ninjas, making it much harder to obtain a pair of unbound Byakugan than the Sharingan.
Moreover, the Hyuga Clan had not produced any notable figures.
But Shura had ‘visited’ the Hyuga Clan twice, and the second time dug away four pairs of Byakugan from the Hyuga Main Family. Eyes that could make a ninja from the future like Shura act—Orochimaru was naturally curious.
“I’ve advised you not to get too close to Danzō.” Menma first warned him. Orochimaru knowing precisely that Shura had taken four pairs of Byakugan from the Hyuga Main Family Elder must be information from Danzō; otherwise, with the pawns Orochimaru left in Konoha, even knowing the battle details, it was unlikely he would know the exact number of four pairs.
Then, Menma said: “The four existing dojutsu bloodline limit families are all related to the Sage of Six Paths. If you’re interested, once I clone the Byakugan, you can trade items and technology for it.”
‘Four dojutsu families? All related to the Sage of Six Paths?’ Orochimaru’s vertical pupils narrowed slightly, carefully pondering the information revealed in Shura’s words.
Orochimaru was getting more and more excited; every conversation with Shura was filled with intelligence he didn’t know!
It further highlighted Shura’s understanding of the ninja world and the extent of Orochimaru’s own explorations.
“So, since we’ve talked about trade, I think my sincerity is sufficient.” Menma shifted the topic back to the trade: “I want a sample of Shin Uchiha’s clone cells, that ten pairs of one-tomoe Sharingan, and the related cloning technology are part of the previous trade.”
“Uchiha strong practitioner’s cellular tissue will be sent to you in a while.” Menma didn’t have Uchiha ninja cells on hand now; he’d probably have to go back and get some skin tissue or similar from Uchiha Hikari.
“No problem.” Orochimaru licked his lips and agreed without hesitation.
“By the way, the White Zetsu Cells are almost consumed. I need another adult-sized White Zetsu.” Orochimaru’s gaze became fervent again.
White Zetsu Cells—after a year of research, he had only touched the basics.
That kind of infinitely proliferative, highly adaptive humanoid lifeform was a priceless treasure for his human body experiments.
It was precisely because of the White Zetsu Cells that Orochimaru’s experimental progress had skyrocketed like a rocket.
Next, he planned to transplant White Zetsu Cells onto Shin, but the White Zetsu Cells were almost depleted.
And this was one of the few things he couldn’t clone—note that he had already mastered partial cloning technology for Hashirama Cells!
“Used up so quickly?” Beneath the mask, Menma’s brows furrowed slightly, somewhat surprised.
In less than a year, Orochimaru had consumed one White Zetsu; the speed was a bit fast.
“Heh heh, after all, that stuff is just too perfect for experiments. Whenever there’s even a possibility in a research direction, I can’t help but use some White Zetsu Cells to try.” Orochimaru’s tongue licked his forehead, paired with that woman’s face, it was somewhat eerily creepy.
“Use it sparingly, one per year—this thing isn’t easy to catch.” Menma shook his head somewhat helplessly and tossed a storage scroll to Orochimaru.
The current activated number of White Zetsu should not exceed a hundred. When he cleaned them up initially, he caught four, gave one to Orochimaru, was using one in the Land of Stars laboratory, and there were only two left in the storage scroll.
Although he knew there were 100,000 White Zetsu sleeping in some place in the Land of Iron, at this stage Menma didn’t want to activate them, nor draw too much attention from Black Zetsu.
That old schemer was too good at hiding; if he alerted Black Zetsu and caused it to flee and abandon the current layout, it would be troublesome for Menma to find Black Zetsu.
Most importantly, it would greatly affect the plot.
Menma handing White Zetsu to Orochimaru was mainly to hope his research direction developed along the expected track, to become his future “outsourced research” and “worker.”
After receiving the storage scroll, Orochimaru eagerly opened it and placed one White Zetsu on the experiment bench.
Then, Orochimaru opened his large mouth and retrieved from his throat a storage scroll containing a cloned cell sample of Uchiha Shin and the cloning technology, handing it to Menma.
“Tsk tsk, your habit.” Menma took the slime-covered scroll, shook it off, then put it away.
With this important trade completed, Menma prepared to leave.
“By the way, I’ve recently been researching a very interesting forbidden jutsu… Reanimation Jutsu.” Orochimaru’s snake pupils flickered with unusual light again, his voice full of temptation.
Orochimaru’s voice carried a trace of inexplicable expectation: “It can summon departed souls back to the living world and grant them their former strength. Are you… interested?”
Menma’s heart stirred slightly—Reanimation Jutsu…
He was all too familiar with the power of this forbidden jutsu.
Calculating the time, Kabuto would use Orochimaru’s ‘legacy’ to summon the Reanimation Jutsu army, probably starting from now, with Orochimaru beginning to collect flesh and blood tissue from ninjas of various countries, digging graves across nations.
Images of Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki appeared in Menma’s mind.
When the Limited Tsukuyomi World launched the Fourth Great Ninja War, to prevent his parents and valued friends from participating, he preemptively attacked Konoha, injuring Kushina and Hinata and others.
In that world, his father Minato Namikaze valued family over the village, so when the Fourth War broke out, Minato Namikaze chose to stay in the village to care for Kushina.
Although Menma believed that world was false, those feelings… he could never let go.
In this world, Menma also had some questions he wanted to ask Kushina and Minato Namikaze.
Why did they choose to die without leaving information for Hiruzen Sarutobi and others—was it too late? Or…
Besides the Reanimation Jutsu, Menma knew several other ninjutsu that could revive people.
Like the Rinnegan’s Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique, Sand Village’s Reincarnation Technique, Kusanagi Village’s Dragon Life Reincarnation Technique.
But he wasn’t sure if, after knowing his ambition to unify the ninja world, Minato Namikaze would oppose him, so fully reviving Minato Namikaze wasn’t feasible for now. Reanimation Jutsu could be tried—summon the old man and chat, probe a bit.
‘Eh? Wait, Minato Namikaze’s soul was taken by the Shinigami, right?’ Menma suddenly remembered this important matter.
‘That means I need to find the Shinigami Mask first.’
At this thought, Menma’s expression under the White Three-Eyed Fox Mask grew somewhat melancholy.
Where was the Shinigami Mask again?
He couldn’t recall for now; he’d search slowly later.
Menma turned the White Three-Eyed Fox Mask, looking at Orochimaru, showing no excessive emotion.
“Reanimation Jutsu, huh…”
His tone steady, he said: “If you can perfect it, we can make another trade.”
“Heh heh heh, then I’m very much looking forward to our next trade.” Orochimaru let out an excited raspy laugh.
Menma said no more. He packed up the ten pairs of one-tomoe Sharingan, collected all the obtained items, nodded slightly, and with a turn, instantly left this underground laboratory filled with forbidden aura.
He arrived silently, and left without a trace, as if he had never been there.
Orochimaru stared at the spot where Shura disappeared. The Flying Thunder God Technique left no trace, yet it made Orochimaru’s expression even more excited.
That mysterious ninjutsu resembling the Rasengan, and this masterful Flying Thunder God Technique.
Orochimaru lifted a hand to tuck a strand of long hair behind his ear, his red lips carrying an inscrutable smile.
“Even Shura has someone he wants to revive…” Orochimaru excitedly stuck out his tongue.
Muttering to himself: “Then, who is it?”
Orochimaru felt himself getting closer and closer to the true face beneath Shura’s mask, as if his brain was trembling.
“Really hard to guess… Fourth…”
