Chapter 601: Konoha Revival Plan
Just as Kushina had said, the Third Hokage of the Engraved Tsukuyomi world hadn't used the Reaper Death Seal at the cost of his soul.
Instead, he had used his body as the price to seal Orochimaru.
Sarutobi Hiruzen had lured Orochimaru into developing a teacher-student forbidden romance, only to plant a trap at the crucial point and set up a Reverse Four Symbols Sealing, sealing both of Orochimaru's arms along with his soul.
Orochimaru was furious.
He never expected that when his teacher said they were going to explore a black hole, there would actually be a black hole.
If Enma hadn't betrayed Sarutobi Hiruzen and promptly picked up the Kusanagi Sword from the ground to cut off his arms, Orochimaru himself probably would've been sucked inside.
To get revenge on his teacher, and for the goals he still hadn't accomplished, Orochimaru decided to launch the Konoha Revival Plan once again.
Through his archaeological research, Orochimaru discovered that the shinobi world had once been a place where humans and all living things coexisted harmoniously.
That was why many surnames and names in the shinobi world contained the names of animals.
In ancient times, this was essentially humanity's way of publicly declaring which kind of furry they belonged to.
The Sarutobi Clan naturally favored apes.
But just as Inuzuka Kiba had abandoned dogs in favor of cats, Sarutobi Hiruzen had also betrayed his promise to the Enma Clan and fallen in love with humans.
That was why Enma, as Sarutobi Hiruzen's summoning beast, secretly held a grudge against him.
At the critical moment of his battle with Orochimaru, Enma suddenly stabbed him in the back and saved Orochimaru.
Enma wanted Sarutobi Hiruzen to carry his regrets forever and remain trapped in the world of the dead.
The era when humans and all living things coexisted harmoniously came to an end with the founding of the ninja villages.
Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara brought the Age of Furries to an end and ushered in the Age of Bond-Type Ninjas.
In order to make the influence of furries disappear from the world, Senju Hashirama had even gone so far as to capture the Nine Tailed Beasts and seal them inside human bodies.
That way, even people who had originally been attracted to furries would become confused.
They could no longer tell whether they were attracted to the Tailed Beast itself or to the person who served as its jinchūriki.
And so, they were subtly influenced.
For the sake of his plan, Orochimaru had coerced and bribed the group of people who had remained at Kakashi's house back then, getting them to cooperate with him in putting on an act for Kushina.
He gave them information that was only half true.
The recording began.
On the screen appeared the people desperately fighting Orochimaru.
Even with both hands sealed, Orochimaru's strength was still far beyond what the others could match.
In the real shinobi world, Guy might not be able to kill Orochimaru, but he could at least force him to retreat.
But the Guy of this world practiced the Five-Day Breathing Technique, spent his days slacking off, and even insisted on having two days off a week.
His strength was terrible.
When Guy saw Orochimaru, his furry-loving heart reignited his fighting spirit.
But simply having fighting spirit was useless.
The gap in strength was right there.
"From this day forward, I am Konoha's Blue Beast!"
Might Guy charged at Orochimaru while shouting with burning passion.
Everyone watching from outside was astonished.
They never expected that Might Guy, in the Engraved Tsukuyomi world, would somehow arrive at the same destination by a completely different path and become the Blue Beast once again.
Wait.
Something seemed wrong.
Hadn't Might Guy just shouted something like the "Beast of People Have Something to Control" from The Destiny of Rotten Chesswood(The Fate of Lanke's Chess)?
The Orochimaru in the video had no hands, so he continuously used various combinations of techniques such as "I Spit Snake," "Snake Spits Sword," "I Spit Sword," and "Snake Spits Me."
Kakashi truly lived up to his reputation as Konoha's Number One Massage Technician, displaying extraordinary skill in the field of silver business.
Even though he wasn't Orochimaru's match, he quickly discovered Orochimaru's weakness.
The problem was that exploiting this weakness required extremely precise prediction.
Otherwise, it was incredibly dangerous.
None of them had enough combat experience to predict what Orochimaru would do next.
Therefore, if they wanted to defeat Orochimaru, they had no choice but to gamble.
Kakashi's method was simple.
After Orochimaru used the "I, Snake, Sword" combination technique once, someone had to immediately rush forward and block Orochimaru's mouth.
That way, Orochimaru's technique would effectively be temporarily sealed.
However, there was one enormous risk.
To keep up with Orochimaru's speed, the attacker had to launch their attack in advance.
In other words, whoever launched the attack had no way of predicting whether the next thing Orochimaru spat out would be Orochimaru himself, a sword, or a snake.
If it wasn't Orochimaru himself and turned out to be one of the other two, it would be very easy to miss the opportunity.
Moreover, this technique wasn't hidden inside Orochimaru's body, so even the Byakugan couldn't predict it through X-ray vision.
Finally, Neji stepped forward.
In order to regain the Hokage's trust, and also to prove himself, Neji chose to shoulder everything.
Neji forced a smile.
"When I was little, the Main Family had already removed my testicles. I'm already a cripple. So even if I lose something else, what's the difference?"
Don't ask why he didn't use his hands or feet.
Blocking Orochimaru's technique was only the first step.
After that, he still had to firmly hold onto Orochimaru and prevent him from breaking free, allowing everyone else to launch their attacks.
Neji's luck could be described as both good and bad.
Orochimaru's next attack was "Snake Spits Me + Sword."
Neji suddenly remembered a saying: "Truth exists only upon the edge of the sword!"
He gritted his teeth and faced the sword's edge head-on, successfully sealing Orochimaru's technique.
The others swarmed forward and defeated Orochimaru.
Orochimaru shed his skin, hurriedly transformed into a small white snake, and escaped.
The video ended.
"Neji, and all of you... so that's what really happened?"
Kushina scrutinized the group.
The people involved looked somewhat guilty, but they still nodded and admitted it.
"In that case, let me tell you a story. It's about the previous Nine-Tails Jinchūriki, Grandma Mito."
"Grandma Mito was actually also a Perfect Nine-Tails Jinchūriki."
"And a Perfect Nine-Tails Jinchūriki awakens a special ability."
"Detecting good and evil?"
Naruto's eyes lit up as he raised his hand to answer.
He knew this one well.
In the real shinobi world, he had already mastered it.
"More or less, but not exactly. It's the ability to sense goodwill and check someone's favorability."
Kushina glanced at Naruto and rejected his answer.
"Naruto, you're not a jinchūriki. You're the fox itself, so you can't awaken this ability."
"But Grandma Mito was different. She was a pure human being—a jinchūriki."
"After gaining this ability, she unconsciously used it on the First Hokage, only to receive a cruel answer."
"Grandma Mito didn't want to destroy her family, so she deliberately pretended that she hadn't mastered the Nine-Tails and hadn't gained this ability. She kept it hidden for her entire life and only told me."
"..."
"I'm sorry, Hokage-sama! I really wanted to improve too much! I just wanted so badly to serve the village!"
"Hokage-sama, please spare us!"
"Orochimaru forced us to do it!"
After several seconds of silence, Neji was the first to kneel down.
The others quickly followed, admitting everything and begging for mercy.
If the Hokage-sama could see their favorability toward her, then that meant they had already exposed themselves the moment they entered the room.
No wonder Hokage-sama was always able to accurately identify, capture, and interrogate those within the village who were dissatisfied with her.
It turned out she possessed such an absurdly overpowered ability.
(End of this chapter)