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Uzumaki Mito didn't pay much attention to what the future shinobi had said about Orochimaru.
She was staring at the contradiction before her.
Hiruzen's student.
A candidate for Hokage.
Then a rogue shinobi.
Then the leader of an attack against his former village—his own home.
"No one is born carrying all these names."
She spoke quietly. Orochimaru was clearly a man of significance… perhaps even the main villain in Naruto and Sasuke's story. That was what her instincts were telling her.
Nawaki raised his head toward her.
But Mito didn't elaborate.
She was looking at Hiruzen.
Because to her, the question wasn't merely:
Who is Orochimaru?
But also:
When did he begin becoming the man shown on these pages?
…
Nearby, Shikaku placed a finger beneath one of the sentences.
"Strange."
His father, Hiketsu, looked at him.
"What?"
"The information an ordinary Konoha shinobi knows."
Shikaku pointed at the page.
"He was the Third's student. He was a candidate for Fourth Hokage. He wasn't chosen. He fled. And now people believe he holds a grudge."
Hiketsu understood his point.
"A simple story."
"Too simple."
His father smiled slightly.
"And that bothers you."
Shikaku sighed.
"Simple things always become troublesome when Orochimaru is involved."
…
In the Hyūga corner, Masanori remained silent longer than his two sons.
Hiashi read the part concerning Orochimaru's candidacy twice.
"For his name to have been considered for the position of Hokage…"
Hizashi said:
"His standing within the village must have been completely different from what it would later become."
Masanori nodded.
"That is already the case now… Perhaps something will happen in the near future that establishes it even further."
The twins looked at him.
"Don't look only at the man after his fall."
He pointed toward the page.
"Look at how high he once stood."
Silence settled between them.
This time, it wasn't the description of rogue shinobi that made Orochimaru frightening.
It was the fact that he had once stood close enough to Konoha's summit for his name to be considered when choosing the Hokage.
…
Among the Uchiha, Uchiha Hōgaku sat with his back straight as always.
Beside him, Uchiha Fugaku read in silence.
"Father."
"Hmm?"
"Do you think not being chosen was what drove him to leave?"
Hōgaku didn't answer immediately.
Then he said:
"I don't know Orochimaru well enough to say that."
Fugaku looked at him.
"But?"
"But a man who returns years later with an invasion cannot be explained by a single sentence spoken by a shinobi on a rooftop."
Hōgaku returned his gaze to the page.
"Don't confuse what the characters believe… with what the story has proven."
Fugaku remained silent for a moment.
Then he nodded.
His father was clearly suggesting that Orochimaru had goals of his own behind this invasion… especially considering his relentless desire to kill Sarutobi Hiruzen.
…
Elsewhere, young Ibiki's hand had stopped over the page.
It wasn't Orochimaru's Hokage candidacy that remained in his mind.
Nor his desertion.
Not even the giant snakes.
It was just one sentence.
He wasn't human… merely something that had taken human form.
He stared at it for a long time.
His father noticed.
"What is it?"
Ibiki raised his eyes.
"How could a human frighten my future counterpart that much just by looking at him? Could Orochimaru really not be human?"
His father looked at Orochimaru's image.
Then he said:
"Orochimaru is frightening already… No, more accurately, what he will eventually become is what's truly frightening, but…"
Ibiki waited.
"What's even more frightening is the feeling that he might actually succeed in whatever he's trying to accomplish."
Ibiki returned his gaze to the image.
This time, he looked at it differently.
The Orochimaru in the manga didn't feel like some ordinary, conventional villain…
The man had used a Great Shinobi Village—Sunagakure—to carry out his sinister attack on Konoha!
…
Kakashi had also stopped at the same sentence.
But he didn't ask his father another question.
He looked at the eye emerging from the darkness.
Then at Orochimaru sitting inside the Art Store.
There was nothing inhuman before him.
A man.
A shinobi.
Hiruzen's student.
And yet Kakashi understood that the shinobi in the manga hadn't been describing Orochimaru's appearance.
He had been describing the feeling Orochimaru left behind.
And perhaps that was worse.
'Will he still become what he is in the manga?' Kakashi wondered silently.
…
Kushina finally reached the last page.
Giant snakes have appeared near the East Gate.
Nearly a hundred shinobi have infiltrated the village.
Her earlier lightheartedness vanished.
"Oh my God, this is an invasion of the village!…"
Minato nodded slowly.
"It seems so…"
"Why does that bastard Orochimaru want to kill his own teacher?!"
"So the attack began from both inside and outside at the same time."
Minato looked at the wide image of Konoha.
"Yes."
The operation became clearer with every page.
The genjutsu inside the stadium.
The fake Kazekage beside the Hokage.
Forces infiltrating the village.
Giant snakes at the gate.
This was no longer an assassination attempt.
Konoha itself had become the battlefield.
Konoha had become like a pot brought to a boil.
…
Danzō reached the same conclusion.
But he said nothing.
His eye moved between the different points of attack shown on the page.
The stadium.
The platform.
The East Gate.
The infiltrating forces.
'A grudge?'
He almost scoffed.
Whatever Orochimaru felt toward Hiruzen, what lay before him was a military operation.
And the man who had planned it was no longer merely an angry student.
…
Jiraiya closed his eyes for a moment.
Then opened them again upon the image of the snakes.
Of everyone inside the store, perhaps the question in the chapter's title bothered him in a different way.
Who is Orochimaru?
He knew him.
At least, he thought he did.
His teammate.
His rival.
The genius student who had once stood beside him and Tsunade before Hiruzen.
Then the manga came along and gave him a whole string of other names.
A candidate for Hokage.
A rogue.
An enemy of the village.
Leader of the Sound.
Ally of the Sand.
The man who would try to kill his teacher.
Jiraiya continued staring at the page.
'How many more names will you collect before I finally get an answer?'
…
Tsunade didn't look at Orochimaru.
She knew he was there in the store.
That was enough.
The question in the chapter's title seemed simple to the point of being almost absurd.
Who is Orochimaru?
Wasn't he her teammate?
One of the Legendary Sannin?
That was how she saw him now, but almost everyone inside the store had a different answer.
To Hiruzen, a student.
To one shinobi, a monster in human form.
To Konoha, a rogue shinobi.
To the Sound, a leader.
To those who would one day choose the Fourth Hokage…
A candidate.
And to the current readers…
The answer was more unsettling than any of those titles.
Orochimaru was, quite simply—
an enemy of Konoha.
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Upcoming chapter titles (spoilers):
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Chapter 251: I Want to Set the Wheel in Motion!
Chapter 252: You Anticipated Your Last Moments!
Chapter 253: The Beginning of a Battle of Life and Death! (The End of the Volume)
Chapter 254: The Student or the Threat?
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