Kabuto seemed ready to talk, so I pulled back on my bed like a psychiatrist, crossed my legs, and then slid over to the edge, leaving him sitting in the empty space. But I could still see some resistance in his eyes.
"Kabuto, I don't have any bad thoughts. I was a pretty smart kid, and from the first day I met Orochimaru, I knew that in his eyes, I was just an Uzumaki, not Eren. A perfect test subject... But I was surprised because the moment I realized he was the one who had taken me over, I expected him to tear me apart and rip me open."
Kabuto finally reacted a little when I spoke of Orochimaru like a monster.
"Orochimaru-sama is only this cruel to criminals sentenced to death. The people you saw there are all real monsters who, with the superiority that comes from being ninja, have slaughtered ordinary people, stolen their possessions, and raped their daughters and wives."
Poor thing, he doesn't even realize that the real reason Orochimaru buys prisoners is so he won't be followed. More importantly, only some of those people are actually death row inmates. I'm absolutely certain that the last girl brought in wasn't a death row inmate.
Besides having healthy skin, from what I can see of her internal organs, I don't think she has any harmful habits. And even if she did, given the current state of the Hidden Mist Village, someone with a bloodline like that girl wouldn't be arrested—she'd be killed outright.
Maybe Orochimaru found the girl as a corpse left behind after a civil war, or maybe he kidnapped her from her family's home and blamed the village authorities to provoke the war. Or maybe he just bought her directly from Obito. Who knows?
"You can't be afraid of me, Kabuto. Ah, ah, I'm just an ordinary villager. I couldn't harm you even if I wanted to. Come sit next to me. I'm really curious about how you met Orochimaru, and more importantly, why you show him so much respect."
Kabuto seemed hurt that I said he was afraid of me. This time, he came over and sat on my bed without thinking too much about it, but he was clearly uncomfortable sitting so close to me and leaned against the iron bars without letting me put my arm around his shoulder.
It's nice that I can manipulate him so easily. I'm lucky that he's not the person he is in most of the anime.
He spent years as one of Danzo's dogs, spying just to help the person he saw as his mother and his friends at the orphanage, and in the end, Danzo betrayed him in the most cruel way.
He's just a young man whose heart, which he tried so hard to protect, has been cruelly shattered.
Well, let's not deny the man his due. I also owe a debt of gratitude to Orochimaru for making him so susceptible to manipulation.
It's as if Orochimaru opened the door to a bank vault, and thanks to him, I feel like I can steal something too.
Before Orochimaru returns to close the door, I need to leave a mark so I can enter that safe later.
"When Orochimaru saved me, I had fallen into a pit."
"I'm listening, and I have plenty of time. Sometimes talking about things can really ease your mind. Did you know there are people in the capital who will listen to things you can't tell anyone else and charge you a ton of money in return?"
Kabuto stared at his feet absentmindedly for a moment, took a deep breath, and began to speak.
"First, you should know that I'm a child who grew up in an orphanage because my family died during the war. I had a caregiver named Nono who loved me just like my mother did. To be honest, I wanted to say she was my mother, but she always preferred me to call her big sister."
As Kabuto said these words, he smiled like someone remembering old, happy memories, but that smile never reappeared as he continued talking.
"Since my mother and father were ninjas, Nono wanted me to take the ninja academy entrance exam. Naturally, I had no objection because I always wanted to be a medical ninja just like her. I was talented and easily passed the exams, enrolling in the ninja academy."
At this point, the nostalgia fading from Kabuto's face was replaced by anger.
"When I graduated from ninja school, an ugly man who looked to be in his forties was waiting in front of my school. You probably know him; he used to talk about you a lot back then."
"How could I not know him? I know him and his root organization better than you think. If Orochimaru was the monster who wanted to experiment on me, Danzo was the monster who wanted to make me his forever. As a child, I used to pray to God that both of them would die."
Kabuto didn't seem offended that I called Orochimaru a monster this time. As soon as I finished speaking, he took over.
"Danzo suddenly entered my life and introduced himself as the Hokage's right-hand man."
"But Danzo is like the Hokage's forbidden love. They constantly fight in front of others, but whenever they're alone..."
When Kabuto heard my comparison, he laughed for the first time since I'd seen him.
"Hahaha. You really know a lot about the Root."
"As the owner of a high-quality and disappearing bloodline, it's not easy to live without being corrupted by Konoha's darkness. Anyway, I already know about the Root, but how did you escape from there?"
When Kabuto heard my question, his expression suddenly changed.
"Danzo gave me one last task to set me free..."
And so Kabuto began to tell me everything.
How Danzo had tricked him. How he had met Orochimaru. How Orochimaru had helped him escape the cursed tongue seal. How he had kidnapped me to gain Orochimaru's trust...
Everything...