Chapter 30: Taking Over Orochimaru’s Secret Base
Celestial Maiden used the ribbon to roll up the scroll, shook it lightly in the air to fling off the disgusting mucus, then handed it to Menma.
Taking the scroll, Menma infused it with chakra to sense it, and indeed within the storage scroll was sealed a vast life force surging like tides.
Although Orochimaru was truly deranged in conducting human experiments, as long as it was someone of comparable strength to him or with potential for cooperation, Orochimaru’s credibility was still there.
Menma watched Orochimaru disappear into the forest before leaving the place with Third Shinigami and Celestial Maiden.
If it really came to a fight, Third Shinigami’s scythe could not only absorb chakra but also damage souls.
Against Orochimaru with his incomplete soul, it was simply a perfect counter.
When Menma landed, a White Tiger wearing a mask leaped out from the forest and stopped in front of Menma, lowering its body.
It crouched down to let Menma mount it, then galloped through the forest.
Around Konoha, there were actually many of Orochimaru’s secret bases, and even quite a few secret bases that Lord Danzō didn’t know about.
After Orochimaru escaped this time, these secret bases would all be abandoned.
Menma had no intention of letting this opportunity slip.
Soon, the White Tiger stopped at a hidden entrance located on a cliff.
Standing on the cliffside platform outside the entrance, one could still overlook the Naka River and the Naka Shrine ten kilometers away in the distance.
That was the Uchiha clan’s clan territory, also a secret gathering place for the Uchiha Clan. The basement within the shrine housed a stone tablet said to have been left by the Sage of Six Paths, which was later altered by Zetsu.
“This secret base has nice scenery.” Menma withdrew his gaze and walked down the deep corridor.
Celestial Maiden and Third Shinigami floated ahead, clearing the traps and mechanisms in the corridor for Menma.
Though this secret base was small in scale, it was fully equipped. Culture dishes still held unformed experimental subjects floating within, and the independent power system hummed.
White Tiger, Celestial Maiden, and Shinigami—the three summoned beasts began clearing Orochimaru’s mechanisms and snakes left in this secret base.
Menma went to a break room and found some experiment logs inside.
It seemed this was not Orochimaru’s main experimental site; the experiment logs were only scribbled for a few pages, but they still gave Menma some understanding of this laboratory.
White Tiger possessed strong sensory abilities and had already successively discovered three of Orochimaru’s secret bases; these would all become Menma’s property.
Suddenly, a burning pain like scorching came from the seal array at Menma’s waist.
“It’s here?” Menma set down the experiment log in his hand and quickly formed hand seals with both hands.
He pressed his palm heavily against his lower back.
“Caged Seal!”
A light-colored curse pattern flickered on the skin’s surface for an instant before sinking into silence.
In the forest outside Konoha Village.
Wearing Akatsuki’s red cloud black robe, Obito Uchiha with the spiral-patterned mask stood on a big tree, slightly frowning.
“Obito, something seems to have happened in Konoha. The lurking White Zetsu reported that Konoha is on high alert, dispatching many sensor ninja to scout around.” Zetsu of the Pitcher Plant seeped half his body out from the tree trunk, his white side face speaking.
“Outside, call me ‘Lord Madara’!” Obito said coldly.
“Got it, Lord Obito.” White Zetsu still had that incessant chattering face.
Obito was used to this bickering. Ever since being rescued by Uchiha Madara, he’d been under soft confinement underground, with only White Zetsu to talk to usually, so even if White Zetsu said stupid things sometimes, Obito at most just ignored the topic.
“Has the White Zetsu you placed in the orphanage sent back any information?” Obito’s Sharingan under the mask glanced at Zetsu.
“Come to think of it, the White Zetsu there really hasn’t sent information for a long time.” Zetsu’s body fully emerged from the big tree and stood beside Obito, tilting his head with a grin.
“Looks like something we don’t know happened inside Konoha Village.” Obito used Kamui again to sense the mark he’d left.
But he couldn’t sense the mark he’d set on Teacher Minato’s child back then.
This made the eyebrows under Obito’s mask furrow deeply.
He couldn’t help recalling the battle three years ago, where Teacher Minato had fought him only once, yet learned his ability’s intel, then heavily wounded him with Flying Thunder God Technique Second Step and cut off his control of the Nine-Tails with a contract seal.
‘Is there a sealing jutsu that can seal space-time ninjutsu marks?’ Obito thought of the renowned Uzumaki Clan for sealing jutsu.
But the Uzumaki Clan had been utterly destroyed, and the ninja in Konoha Village skilled in sealing jutsu shouldn’t be able to reach that level.
‘Damn… what the hell happened to that kid!’ Obito grew anxious; that little guy was an important part of his revenge plan!
He still wanted to see Teacher Minato’s two sons kill each other ten years later!
“Hey hey! Obito, are you really going to Konoha?!” Zetsu watched Obito’s body gradually phasing and couldn’t help advising.
“Don’t worry, the Fourth is already dead.” A low and confident voice came from under Obito’s spiral-patterned mask: “No one can threaten me.”
——————
Deep in Konoha, Root Base, inside Lord Danzō’s room.
A Root Ninja landed outside the shoji door, his silhouette cast in the dim light.
“Lord Danzō! Orochimaru has defected!”
Lord Danzō, who had been lying on the tatami covered with a quilt sleeping, suddenly opened his left eye.
“Call ‘A’ over.” Lord Danzō commanded.
“Yes!” The Root Ninja acknowledged and vanished swiftly.
Lord Danzō threw off the bedding and slowly rose.
‘Orochimaru, you’ve finally taken this step?’ Lord Danzō had supported many of Orochimaru’s experiments, but he also knew using Konoha Ninja for live experiments would cross Hiruzen Sarutobi’s bottom line.
Thus, after the number of prisoner ninja in the prison wasn’t enough to squander, Lord Danzō had his subordinates kidnap ordinary Konoha Ninja to supply Orochimaru’s research.
Of course, on the surface, he was unaware; it was all done by his subordinates.
“Lord Danzō!” Soon, the boy codenamed ‘A’, wearing a Tanuki Mask and only thirteen years old, arrived before Lord Danzō.
Lord Danzō took out a scroll and handed it to A: “Go to this location, deliver the scroll to the person there, then wait there for Orochimaru and assist Orochimaru in escaping.”
Though A had mastered Wood Release bloodline limit, his strength was only at jonin level, still far below a long-famous elite jonin like Orochimaru, so Lord Danzō naturally didn’t think A could deal with Orochimaru.
But Orochimaru absolutely could not be captured back by Hiruzen Sarutobi, or if he ratted him out, it would be trouble.
Since he couldn’t let Orochimaru return, nor did he have the ability to kill Orochimaru, and Lord Danzō also needed Orochimaru’s technology, the only choice was to assist Orochimaru’s defection.
“Yes!” A took the scroll and body flickered away.
Just as A left, a group of Anbu Ninja led by Yuruma Aburame arrived at the Root Base.
“Lord Danzō! Hokage-sama summons you!”
“Got it.” Lord Danzō put on his outer robe, deeply concealing the secret of his arm.
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