While Konohagakure was plunged into chaos, Uchiha Keizumi and three other Uchiha jōnin had already gone more than a hundred kilometers away from the village.
And just then, Uchiha Keizumi in front came to a halt.
The other three immediately stopped their steps as well.
"It's time to split up." With just this brief line from Uchiha Keizumi, the three instantly understood.
They had followed Uchiha Keizumi out of the village not to hunt Orochimaru together with him.
Because Uchiha Keizumi had given them another test—to hunt the great merchant Gatō!
"Alright!" The three said no more. They knew well that since Uchiha Keizumi intended to hunt Orochimaru with his own strength alone, it meant he had absolute confidence that his power was not inferior to that of the Legendary Sannin.
After the two sides parted, Uchiha Keizumi sped off alone in one direction.
During that time, he did not rest for even a single second.
As if he knew no fatigue.
Until the afternoon.
Only then did Uchiha Keizumi stop once more. At that moment, he stood on the peak of a mountain, before his feet a sheer cliff plunging down several thousand meters. Looking down, he could not even see the scene below, only thick layers of cloud obscuring the view.
Suddenly!
He flicked his right hand to the side, and a shuriken instantly flew out, precisely striking a green viper well-hidden not far away.
At the same time, Uchiha Keizumi turned his back to the sheer cliff, stepped back twice, then with one step into empty air, his whole body instantly plunged downward.
When he had fallen about a hundred meters in free fall, there appeared in the cliff face ahead a very well-hidden cave.
At the same moment...
At one side of the cave, a shinobi without any forehead protector locked his shocked gaze with Uchiha Keizumi's icy eyes.
[Whoosh—]
A kunai tied to thin steel wire pierced his throat in an instant.
With a tug from Uchiha Keizumi, his own body was pulled toward the cave on the cliff, while the shinobi whose throat was pierced by the kunai was yanked off the cliff, the two of them directly exchanging positions.
The moment his feet touched solid ground, Uchiha Keizumi's cold eyes had already become a pair of scarlet Sharingan.
"Orochimaru…"
"Found you."
...
"The Mangekyō Sharingan has dōjutsu that can make a person experience endless pain, and the duration is extremely long… Hehe, why would he know that so clearly?"
At a secret human experimentation research base somewhere in the Land of Fire, Orochimaru was sitting in a chair, one leg crossed over the other, silently pondering.
In a previous "online" meeting of the Akatsuki, he had heard from a masked member of the organization about Uchiha Keizumi's dōjutsu.
Orochimaru didn't know the masked man's exact identity—only that his position in Akatsuki wasn't low.
Vaguely, he seemed to stand on an equal footing with that woman called Konan.
Even though Orochimaru himself was also a member of Akatsuki, quite a few of the organization's members still overflowed with secrets yet to be unraveled in his eyes.
"Heh, either he or that pitcher plant partner of his must have clashed with that self-righteous brat Uchiha Keizumi. Perhaps Uchiha Keizumi once used the Mangekyō's dōjutsu on them."
"This time at the meeting, that pitcher plant wasn't present. Which means, the one struck by the Mangekyō's dōjutsu may very well be that pitcher plant. It's still suffering under the torment of the dōjutsu…"
Orochimaru immediately pieced together some intelligence about the "masked man" and the "pitcher plant."
He also came to a conclusion—the masked man should be a young person, and his scheming wasn't as deep as imagined.
If the other party had truly been an older shinobi with deep, calculating designs, he definitely wouldn't have let slip so much information detrimental to himself in his words.
Moreover, the voice with which he spoke was deliberately straining toward an old man's tone.
That stirred a hint of curiosity in Orochimaru toward the masked man.
"What is he hiding? One after another, all cloaking their heads and concealing their tails—this organization really does have so many similar to me!"
"What a pity…"
"Their vision and ideals are all far too small."
After spitting out this mockery, just as Orochimaru was about to rise to conduct another experiment, a sudden strange tremor beneath his feet froze the mocking smile on his face.
Orochimaru's brows drew together slightly.
His smile also faded.
An earthquake?
No.
This bizarre tremor felt more like…
As soon as the thought flashed through his mind, the piercing alarm of the human experimentation research base was triggered, sharp wails repeatedly stabbing at Orochimaru's eardrums, while the red alarm light above his head flashed wildly.
"Hehe…"
"So someone really did intrude."
Orochimaru narrowed his cold eyes. He didn't rush to personally block the intruders, because in this research base he had raised plenty of subordinates.
Surely, any random "cats and dogs" sneaking in shouldn't require Orochimaru himself to make a move?
Otherwise, what use were all those subordinates of his, who had no qualifications to become his reincarnation vessels?
Charity work?
With unhurried steps Orochimaru entered the monitoring room inside the base, lifted his head toward the crude big-headed monitors before him, and stared at the hazy, snow-flecked images on the screens.
Just then, from one of those displays, Orochimaru spotted a figure that shocked him greatly.
It made even Orochimaru pause in surprise.
At the same time...
The figure on the monitor seemed to sense something. He slowly drew the shinobi blade from a blood-soaked corpse, then slightly raised his head, looking toward the surveillance camera above.
Their gazes met across the screen.
"Uchiha Keizumi…"
Orochimaru's fingers twitched; he couldn't help but lick his dry lips.
He recognized him.
One of the vessels he most anticipated!
…
"Intruder! You've shown a flaw!"
A shinobi without any forehead protector wore a savage grin. His skin was covered in strange black Cursed Seals, his body radiating the same wicked aura as Orochimaru's line.
In an instant he appeared behind Uchiha Keizumi, his arms thicker than ordinary, his skin patterned with the texture of rock.
He leapt up, both fists clenched, smashing down hard at the back of Uchiha Keizumi's head.
That strike seemed capable of shattering solid rock weighing several tons!
Uchiha Keizumi turned expressionlessly, his left arm slightly bent to block.
[Bang!!!]
With a muffled crash, a cloud of dust rose around his feet, yet the left arm that stopped the blow was completely unscathed, not even triggering the elementalization of his Magma Body.
His gaze collided with that of the attacker behind him.
He could see the deep shock written across the man's face.
Without hesitation, Uchiha Keizumi drove his shinobi blade backward.
The sharp blade instantly pierced through the man's chest.
At the same time, several shinobi under the "Cursed Seal" charged forward.
In Uchiha Keizumi's Mangekyō gaze, he clearly saw every shinobi still able to move in this place, each with a crimson box and letters floating above their heads that could not be ignored.
Throughout the entire secret human experimentation research base, apart from those captured as "test subjects"…
Not a single one was innocent.
All of them were red-named villains!
With his empty left hand Keizumi formed a one-handed seal, then slammed his palm heavily on the ground. At once the floor roared and surged, thick trunks bursting up through the tiles.
Under the stunned eyes of the Cursed Seal shinobi, countless trunks wove together, forming a wooden wall that barred their advance.
From the trunks suddenly sprouted bud after bud, which in less than a second bloomed wide.
A massive wave of visible pollen began to spread wildly.
The first Cursed Seal shinobi in front was sprayed directly in the face by the pollen.
He instinctively halted his forward rush—but in the next instant he felt nothing particularly wrong in his body. Curling his lips in a grin, he immediately called back to his comrades: "This guy is just bluffing, this jutsu doesn't—"
Before he could finish the words.
The expression on that shinobi's face twisted hideously.
He let out a cry of agony, clutching both hands to his lungs.
The other Cursed Seal shinobi behind him could see with chilling clarity that something inside his body looked ready to burst out.
[Pfft—]
[Pfft—]
[Pfft—]
The sharp sound of something tearing through flesh rang out. The screaming shinobi's lungs were pierced clean through by wooden spikes that had sprouted from within. Countless thorned vines erupted from different parts of his body all at once, skewering him until he was nothing but a bloody pincushion—at first glance resembling a crimson cactus!
"Not good!"
The faces of the Cursed Seal shinobi in the rear suddenly changed, but it was already too late.
Several more clutched their lungs, wailing in agony as they collapsed to their knees.
[Pfft—]
[Pfft—]
[Pfft—]
One after another, bursts of blood mist exploded through the corridors of the base.
The stench of blood spread rampantly.
"…Wood Release?!"
Seeing the scene in one of the base corridors, like a blood-soaked hellscape, a flicker of surprise passed through Orochimaru's slightly narrowed golden vertical pupils.
"Tsk… you've truly given me yet another new surprise! Uchiha Keizumi, just how many treasures are hidden within your body?"
"Though I don't know why one moment you were still in the Land of Rain, and the next you suddenly appeared here."
"But all I need to know is that you've delivered yourself to my door—that's enough."
Orochimaru could hardly restrain the drool of desire in his heart.
He was someone who, once he wanted something, would spare no cost in trying to seize it.
Unless he had already confirmed he could never obtain it.
Otherwise, Orochimaru would never suppress his greed.
Back then, his attempt to snatch the Rinnegan had also been because of this very nature.
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