Chapter 386: The Three Sannin, Reunited
Following Jiraiya's despairing gaze, Orochimaru, hat still in hand, froze for a moment — a genuinely strange expression flickering across his pale, sickly features.
His face cycled through surprise, bewilderment, thoughtfulness, sudden understanding, and a faint pang of secondhand regret, all in quick succession.
Then his eyes drifted back to Jiraiya, that same tangled cocktail of emotion settling in — pity, a resigned sigh, and no small amount of quiet amusement at his misfortune.
After roughly ten seconds of consideration, Orochimaru spoke up first, unprompted for once. "Hm... you might want to get your emotional reactions under better control."
The direction both of them were staring turned out to be Ichiraku Ramen, not far off.
Inside, two unmistakably familiar figures sat visible through the shop window — figures both Orochimaru and Jiraiya recognized instantly, given the strong impressions each had left on them.
One needed no introduction — a former comrade-in-arms to both of them, and, like them, one of Konoha's three legendary Sannin.
That's right — one of the two people sitting in Ichiraku was Tsunade.
The other, they also recognized, though their history with him was thinner — few encounters, fewer conversations.
Jiraiya, in fact, had once been personally beaten and stuffed into a garbage bin by that very man.
Which explained precisely why the memory of him remained so vivid.
Jiraiya's eyes had gone comically wide, his expression somewhere between disbelief and outright existential crisis. Sure, Ryū and Tsunade weren't doing anything overtly intimate. But there they sat, together, in Ichiraku Ramen — and with the owner and his apprentices all out of sight, it was just the two of them alone in there.
How was that functionally any different from a couple on a date?
Jiraiya felt something like a glass heart shattering somewhere deep inside him — could practically hear the crisp, clean sound of it breaking, his face draining of all color.
Sure, at this point, he'd more or less half given up on pursuing Tsunade — after that many rejections, that many beatings, there was only so much a man could take.
But "half given up" was a far cry from "fully given up," and he'd barely been back in the village five minutes before running straight into this particular scene.
He didn't even register what Orochimaru had just said to him — every other sound around him had simply faded out entirely.
Watching the white-haired man's current state, Orochimaru's face twitched. There he went again.
He genuinely couldn't remember the last time Jiraiya had reacted this way — years ago, probably. He'd long since grown numb to it, one way or another.
With a faintly exasperated shake of his head, Orochimaru gave up on the self-destructing man entirely and made his way toward Ichiraku on his own.
Looking at Ryū and Tsunade through the shop window, Orochimaru rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He didn't see anything overtly intimate happening between the two of them.
Maybe the situation wasn't quite what Jiraiya had immediately, dramatically imagined.
Honestly — Ryū and Tsunade, together? The idea barely made sense on its face. Their styles didn't mesh at all, their temperaments didn't mesh at all. If the two of them actually ended up together, that would be the genuinely strange outcome.
So Orochimaru figured this was simply a chance encounter — much like his own chance run-in with Jiraiya at the village gate earlier today.
Which meant Jiraiya was purely off in his own head, spinning an entire fantasy out of thin air. Reality almost certainly looked nothing like whatever the white-haired fool had already convinced himself of.
Both Orochimaru and Jiraiya had spotted Ryū and Tsunade — and Ryū, with his Observation Haki active as ever, had naturally spotted the two returning Sannin in turn. Add Tsunade, seated right beside him, and all three of Konoha's Legendary Sannin were now, quite by coincidence, gathered in one place.
Though — hadn't Orochimaru defected from the village? And here he was, strolling in openly, Jiraiya trailing behind him no less. What exactly was going on?
Ryū felt a flicker of curiosity, sure, but not enough to actually chase down an answer. His relationship with Orochimaru barely registered compared to, say, his rapport with Minato.
Probably some kind of shady deal struck with Konoha's leadership — that seemed the most likely explanation. Otherwise there was no way the village's higher-ups would let Orochimaru wander freely through the streets after his return.
Tsunade, still working through her own bowl of ramen beside him, seemed to notice something as well, following Ryū's gaze with mild surprise.
The moment she spotted Orochimaru and Jiraiya — two familiar faces — her expression froze for a second.
She swept right past the visibly devastated Jiraiya without a second thought — no idea why he was making that face, and honestly no curiosity to spare on it.
But at the sight of Orochimaru, her expression tightened. She knew he'd defected from the village, knew it was over the human-experimentation scandal.
What genuinely baffled her was why a defector would dare walk right back into Konoha, openly, like this.
Wasn't he worried about being seized by Konoha shinobi and locked away for the rest of his life?
Or did he have some kind of leverage — some reason to feel confident enough to return like this?
And why wasn't Jiraiya making a move against him? Was he holding back out of old loyalty, unwilling to raise a hand against a former comrade?
The thing was, Jiraiya — for all his usual foolishness — had always had a clear enough head about matters of real consequence.
And yet here he was, acting like Orochimaru's presence in Konoha was the most ordinary thing in the world.
Tsunade felt thoroughly lost, with no idea what was actually going on.
Watching Orochimaru approach at an unhurried pace, her brow furrowed slightly. Once the distance between them had closed to three or four meters, she set down her chopsticks and demanded, "Coming back to the village looking like this — are you here to turn yourself in?"
The blunt question didn't catch Orochimaru off guard in the slightest — Jiraiya's earlier reaction had already primed him to expect exactly this kind of interrogation from Tsunade too.
He answered with a light smile. "The Fourth Hokage invited me back personally. Whatever else you might say about the man, he's still Hokage — I couldn't very well turn him down and embarrass him, could I?"
The Fourth Hokage? Minato?
Tsunade's confusion only deepened. Why would Minato invite Orochimaru back to the village?
And why would Orochimaru go along with it this easily, just because he was asked?
That didn't match the Orochimaru she remembered at all.
She pressed further. "The Hokage asked you back? That's impossible... why would he do that? What you did should've locked you away for the rest of your life."
Orochimaru simply stepped into Ichiraku, pulled up a chair at random, and sat down with a dry laugh. "You've heard about those strange corpses that suddenly showed up in the Land of Fire, haven't you? Minato wants me to study them, and he's promised his full cooperation to make it happen."
He paused, then continued with a smile. "So here I am. Simple as that, really — Konoha's research facilities are a good deal better equipped than anything I could put together out there on my own."
Tsunade's expression stiffened. She'd heard rumors of those strange corpses appearing in the Land of Fire — and here was confirmation it was all true.
And Minato genuinely wanted Orochimaru brought back specifically to study them?
Before she could press further, Orochimaru continued with a smile. "I know exactly what you're thinking. Don't worry, my return isn't unconditional. There are restrictions in place."
"I imagine someone will be assigned to watch me around the clock before long — ANBU, maybe ROOT. My presence here does carry a certain amount of risk for the village, after all, however small."
Just as he finished speaking, a figure barreled into Ichiraku Ramen and dropped into the empty seat between Ryū and Tsunade.
The shock of white hair made it obvious — this was the very same Jiraiya who'd looked utterly devastated only moments earlier.
Say what you like about the man, Jiraiya was without question one of the group's more relentlessly optimistic members.
He now looked entirely unbothered, picking his nose, legs crossed with self-satisfied ease, the picture of someone practically begging to be punched.
"Jiraiya, is what Orochimaru just said actually true?" Tsunade asked, turning to him.
Jiraiya blinked, lowering his nose-picking hand, genuinely confused. "True? True about what?"
Tsunade shot him a skeptical look. "You don't know? He didn't tell you? About the corpses — that's why the Fourth invited him back?"
Jiraiya's expression froze, and he glared daggers at Orochimaru, gritting his teeth. "You bastard, why'd you tell Tsunade and not me? Are you trying to get closer to her behind my back? Let me tell you something, I—"
Before he could finish, Tsunade — a vein practically bulging on her forehead — swung a fist straight down on top of his head.
A large lump promptly rising, she snapped at him, "Stop spraying spit everywhere when you talk! You almost got it in someone's ramen, you know. Do you want Ryū over there to beat you senseless?"
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