[Hokage] Terukawa

"Say, what exactly is it?"

Orochimaru's breath slapped my face little by little, and my hair was bristling long before he touched me, but I couldn't move my footsteps no matter what.

Thousands of thoughts crossed my mind at this moment, his purpose, my turning point, his unfinished intentions, my secrets...

I tugged at the corner of my mouth.

"Obviously it's what you say it is, so why bother to ask me?"

——I chewed the syllables of the word "you" extremely meticulously, which can almost be called gnashing of teeth, compared with that, the complete sentence spit out of my mouth can be called aggressive.

I grinned and raised my head, almost touching the tip of Orochimaru's nose.

yes!Orochimaru guessed that the red cell clumps were my blood, and my long-standing negligence and ignorance finally ended with an epiphany last moment, but——but so what?

It must have been a while since Orochimaru found out about this, why didn't he report it?Why not let Konoha focus on my bloodline?Why not find an excuse to ask for more blood samples from the unconscious me? ...It's not necessarily some kind of bloody mercy, right?

Choosing such a time to ask me such a question can only explain one thing - Konoha is either ignorant of the "red cell clump" so far, or Orochimaru used other random things It was prevaricated.As I said, with Orochimaru's authoritative position in the Konoha Research Institute, "what you say is what you say"...it's not just words.

In any case, no matter whether Konoha didn't know or was prevaricated, it can only point to one situation.

At an extremely close distance, I have no intention or power to hide the desperate calculations in my eyes. Correspondingly, any change in Orochimaru's expression can't escape my eyes——

I noticed that although his smile didn't change, his pupils shrank quietly.

- It is indeed so.

He has a different purpose for my blood.

And it's still a kind of other purpose that can't be known to ordinary people. To put it bluntly, it is ulterior motives.I silently drew conclusions in my heart.

See, here's why.

I am safe.

Although I have never participated in the experimental projects of the Konoha Research Institute, I have always done related sample collection tasks, and I have done a lot.Most of those researchers are arrogant, asking them to move their feet will be called "wasting precious time" in return, so we occasionally have to do things like running errands to Konoha Research Institute to deliver samples by ourselves.Just running back and forth like this is familiar, and some things are naturally poured into one ear, so I know...the blood cells that have been isolated for such a long time still maintain that level of activity, which should be very amazing.

Three generations explicitly banned technical experiments related to the human body, but both his students and colleagues scoffed at his ban, so... Orochimaru would never report this discovery to Konoha.

This is what I rely on at this time, and it is also my only one at this time.

The price is that I'm afraid I have to make an exchange with him, performing a full-scale and profound performance of seeking skin from a tiger.

"Obviously it's what you say it is, so why bother to ask me?"

——Your majesty and status enable you to fend off inquiries from the upper layer of Konoha, or Konoha may not be aware of this at all. This situation seems calm, but in fact it is in danger——As long as the big snake Maru slightly loosens the hand that covers the truth, and all these illusions of balance will be destroyed.

...So, if I want to live a good life, I must not let Konoha know that my blood is special, and all of this is in the hands of Orochimaru, and I have no right to choose at all.

He had already made a choice for me from the very beginning, so why would he use the experimental report to intimidate me?

——Is it because of that damn bad taste?

After the pupils shrank, Orochimaru's reaction subsided instead.The insincere smile on his face faded a lot, but those golden eyes began to roll up and down, left and right to look at me, as if they knew me for the first time.

I finished talking, I put away my sickly smile that I don’t need to look at, lifted my chin to break away from his hand, stepped back half a step and stood a little farther away, and said in a respectful tone: “Master Orochimaru, I apply to join Your experimental research team."

Orochimaru, who was empty in his hand, didn't feel embarrassed at all. He took advantage of the situation and touched his chin: "Hehe, Captain Yasaka is much more refreshing than I imagined."

"The season is just as the sky is cold and freezing, so I can't allow me to show off my bloody courage for a while."

Nonsense, it's not because I can't beat you, otherwise you wouldn't have the chance to continue talking here.

Orochimaru suddenly laughed: "Are you so unafraid of death?"

"I'm afraid, but it's just a gamble." My tone was extremely calm. "As far as I know, scientists are obsessed with the supply of their experimental materials. After all, no one can bear the ridiculous situation of running out of materials for their great research." discontinued for any reason."

Orochimaru smiled, and I read a little bit of joy from his laughter and smiles. I can see that he is in a good mood at the moment, and I don't know which of my flattery just hit the right place.

There is no one in the world who doesn't like to be praised, especially someone like Orochimaru who is arrogant and even arrogant.

"You are very smart, Captain Yasaka, you will never be an unknown person in the future," Orochimaru took the experiment report out of my hand, "You have such an extraordinary bloodline, but you are willing to be ordinary at this time, can I understand it as Something happened to the 'disappeared Yasaka family'?"

family?I have never heard the righteous man mention any family, and the accident has actually happened, but I can be [-]% sure that what Orochimaru thinks is completely different from what I think.In this way, it seems that he does not know my real experience before coming to Konoha, but it is reasonable to speculate that something happened to the Yasaka clan based on my current situation.

"My parents never mentioned the family. I may not know as much about the Yasaka clan as you do." I spoke cautiously.

"Hehe... that can only mean that Yasaka's accident happened earlier, maybe you still have many clan members you have never met."

"Oh, it has nothing to do with me," I didn't care about it, "Why are you so sure that something happened to the Yasaka clan?"

"People who know a little about the Yasaka clan say, 'That's a family like ants', but this is not to say that you are weak and weak like ants, but to praise the strength and unity of this family. Hehe, Captain Yasaka, as a ninja, you must know that if you can have such a colleague in battle, then even if it is a small battlefield, it will not be a problem."

Orochimaru said.

"Your father Yasaka Yoshito... Hmph, I haven't contacted him, so naturally I can't confirm whether he is an eye sent out by the ant colony, or an outlier who was expelled."

The righteous... Orochimaru knows the righteous.

So can I get information about the righteous from him?

"So that's how it is," I said in a calm voice, "so my appearance provided evidence for your conjecture?"

Orochimaru turned his head, looked at me meaningfully, and said: "No ninja will allow the blood of the family to flow out, and it is even more impossible for a family like Yasaka. They are a family that uses blood to fight. Such a family is against blood. Inheritance of control will only be stricter and more cost-effective."

"Because no member of the Yasaka family has ever come to me, so you judge that something is wrong with the Yasaka family. This is completely logical."

I said coldly.

"May I know the reason why you didn't contact my father before?"

"I can't beat him, and I can't get a bargaining chip."

Orochimaru's answer was unexpectedly simple, and unexpectedly straightforward. I was a little speechless by this neat sentence, but Orochimaru's next sentence came quite timely.

"But that's not the main reason... Huh," said Orochimaru, turning his back, I watched him open the locker under the laboratory bench, and began to rummage inside, "Your father Yasaka Righteous person...he has never shown the power of Yasaka Ketsutsu, and for me, contacting him rashly may not be worth the gain, not to mention that he is still very powerful."

"Inherited from generation to generation?" I stood there without moving. Since Orochimaru dared to turn around in front of me openly, then he must have someone who can drag me to death here.

The gap in strength between me and him is too big, and it cannot be made up for by prudence or luck at 01:30—not to mention that I have reached a preliminary consensus with him. To do the work of death.

"Who can know? After all, I only recently observed the early features of Yasaka Xuetsui's awakening from you. Those features are much more low-key than I imagined."

There seemed to be a bit of regret in Dashewan's tone.

He said this without beginning and end, but I understood very keenly what he really meant-that regret was not fake.Perhaps the righteous man was in this low-key awakening state at that time, but Orochimaru missed it.

If you don't miss it, you can't beat it.

I sneered in my heart, but rolled up my sleeves very simply.On the other side, Orochimaru has dug out a brand new set of blood collection equipment and its supporting equipment from the locker.

"How much?" I asked.

"Four hundred, it's enough for me to do experiments and observations," Orochimaru was very satisfied with my simply, "Blood is my observation target, and so are you."

……

01:30am.

I jumped out of the exit embedded in the ground, the arm that was partly drained of blood felt a little heavy in the senses, but it was far from enough to affect my skill.

Everything is much faster than I imagined, but it is also much more dangerous.The biggest surprise among them was that Orochimaru discovered my Yasaka Blood Tsui and used it as a threat—I thought I could keep this secret until I left, but now it seems that I really took it for granted.

I handed Orochimaru to me at the very end, and with a half-smile, asked me to go back to my residence to open the portfolio and stuff it into my arms, feeling a little apprehensive.

...Although there are a lot of troubles, it is not completely without gains.I comforted myself like this, and at the same time, I lowered my head and touched the file bag in my arms, and then looked around, making sure that I had avoided all the patrolling Anbu accurately, and at the same time set foot on the way back to my residence.

Probably as a hush money or a manifestation of sincerity, Orochimaru gave me this portfolio, and told me a lot of... things.

Many things may be useful, but you need to judge by yourself.

-

"Konoha is very unstable now... No, that's not an appropriate description. It's better to say that Konoha is in chaos now. Factions, party disputes, families, civilians, high-level people, and their chess pieces... Hehe, everyone has their own thoughts, and it's a mess .”

When Orochimaru said this, he was fiddling with a slender glass vessel in his hand, and he looked in a good mood. It seemed that he was more interested in the blood in his hand than the Konoha in his mouth.The blood in it came from me. It looked viscous and dark red, no different from ordinary people's blood.

"Captain Yasaka, I hope you can understand that there are not no such stable existences as Namikaze Minato, but they are really a minority among the few, and the reason why he can be stable is precisely because he is Namikaze Minato—"Golden Flash', he is powerful and destined to be the backbone of Konoha in the future. He is unique and irreplaceable. No one in Konoha dares to touch him, and no one can touch him."

"So?" I looked up into his golden eyes.

"So he will become the Fourth Hokage, and you will become the direct descendant Anbu of the Fourth Hokage. This is a normal development, and you are also my teacher. The third Hokage is in the plan..."

"Master Orochimaru, isn't your ambition also to become Hokage?"

Suddenly, I asked in a calm tone.

"Before today's talk, you also said the same thing. You said that there are rumors about you and the Fourth Hokage 'not just rumors'."

Orochimaru closed his mouth and started to look at me with weird eyes, but after a while, he opened his mouth and showed a weird smile: "So you don't know yet?"

"What don't I know? What should I know?"

I frowned.

He laughed hehehe: "The third hokage is investigating the Mutun cell matter recently, you followed up the whole process, so you must be able to guess Danzo's head, right? Captain Yasaka, you first Don't rush to deny it... After all, we all know what Danzo is, and now there are no outsiders, your respectful and harmless disguise is meaningless."

"But it's kind of interesting," he said.

"……so?"

"Is Danzo like a researcher?"

Orochimaru smiled casually, reached out and put my blood on the utensil shelf aside.

"It's me, and I'm the one who cooperated with Danzang to study Mutun cells."

I shrunk my pupils—it’s not that I haven’t thought about this possibility, after all, there are only a few top researchers in Konoha, but the answer shouldn’t be revealed to me right now—or in other words, it was revealed by Orochimaru himself. in front of me.

But now that all this has happened, I can see what he means.

"You will be... no, you will not allow yourself to be imprisoned, you..."

"I will leave Konoha as a traitor."

"..." I froze for a moment, raised my eyes and looked at him silently, while he looked at me with great interest, as if expecting my reaction.

In the end, I considered my words and said slowly: "This is really... an unusual path."

"Continue." Orochimaru said.

"If you defect, then you will lose your basic disk in Konoha, and it also means that I will be useless to you except for Xueji, and it will no longer be convenient to get blood-this does not meet your needs , and you clearly have more... more efficient options."

I spoke word by word, and my thoughts and tone were more cautious, but I was no longer cautious.

I can't see through Orochimaru--but I've never been confident enough to feel that I can see through him, so since he pointed out the blood that I was trying to hide in the most terrifying way, my mood swings are very limited.

Orochimaru laughed happily "hehe" a few times, he didn't comment on my speculation, but raised his finger to me as if very interested: "Okay, interesting... then Captain Yasaka, if you are the one who is about to defect to me , which 'more efficient' method would you choose?"

"Knock out and take away."

My tone was extremely straightforward, and I couldn't tell at all that the person being simulated and calculated was myself.

"But now you have other considerations for not expressing this meaning, I don't think you will do it-even if I don't understand the original motivation behind this choice."

Orochimaru looked at me with an unchanged expression - it must be admitted that a character like him just needs to sit there and smile to put pressure on the air.

...In fact, generally speaking, the behavior of trying to figure out the mind of the boss or the strong will not be very good.Such subordinates may be very smart, but in the end they are still too sharp and irritating. However, the relationship between me and Orochimaru is not a simple subordinate-subordinate relationship. If I want to maintain the point that I am in his cognition, it is pitiful Chips always have to show their value-whether it is physical ability or mind.

Bathed in Orochimaru's scorching gaze, my attitude was calm and serene, and my expression was calm and indifferent.

In any case, Orochimaru has the full advantage here, and life and death are arranged at will. This was the case before the defection, and it may not change much after the defection.Orochimaru is Orochimaru after all, even if he leaves, there will definitely be someone in Konoha who will become his shadow-I firmly believe in this.

So I don't have any plans to go all the way, it's not suitable for me to pretend to be stupid, not to mention that I have already been pierced by Orochimaru on the first layer, and I don't have the confidence to pretend to be the second layer yet.

"It makes sense," Orochimaru said suddenly with a persistent smile on his face, "Are you curious about my other considerations?"

"..."

--not at all.

——Is there something wrong with my expression or something wrong with your brain?From which word and syllable did you decipher that I was curious?Please don't add drama to yourself, okay?

I looked at Dashemaru expressionlessly, and the desire to complain that had been silent for a long time suddenly emerged in my heart, but seeing the desire to perform on Dashemaru's face, I firmly shut my mouth.

If you have a slot, you have to have your life to spit it out.

...Damn it, I have really been slack in improving my strength recently, not to mention anything else, just to be able to complain freely in the future, I also want to improve my strength as soon as possible.

——Please start your performance.

I conveyed this meaning clearly with my eyes.

I don’t know if Orochimaru fully comprehended it, but he let out a short laugh, and looked at me with a slightly more playful look: "To tell you the truth, Captain Yasaka, you are me" Additional considerations'."

——!

A certain sensitive nerve was touched for the second time within one day, and my mind was agitated immediately, and my eyes suddenly opened wide.

"Hehehe... Captain Yasaka, I don't mind if I tell you all of my current plans and calculations here today, because I have enough confidence... I'm sure that even if you know my arrangement, you will still I will go down that path without hesitation.”

With a gentle smile and stretched brows and eyes - Orochimaru's expression is calm and composed, but the real snake is still hissing and spitting out letters in the dark, leisurely drying its fangs.

I pursed my lips, trying to calm down the shock and doubt in my heart: "...please tell me."

"Namikaze Minato and my teacher, they hid the past files very well, but I still got what I wanted from elsewhere. Now, I give these to you as a gift."

He abruptly threw over a file bag.

"Hehe, Captain Yasaka, although I really want to know what kind of expression you will have when you see what's inside, but considering the overall situation, I don't think it would be a good idea for you to open it here and now... idea."

I stopped my hand, which was winding the seal, in a daze, and asked, "Then what do you mean?"

"It's very simple. Take it back to your residence to have a look, then weigh it carefully and give me an answer."

I don't know if it's my illusion - I always feel that the smile on Orochimaru's face seems to be a little wider, it's not real, but I can vaguely read some hidden interest.

"Captain Yasaka, please submit the application for joining my research project tomorrow—remember to think carefully before making a choice, Captain Yasaka, I only give you one day."

-

Familiar with the way back and forth, my footsteps quickened, and it only took me a few minutes to go from the hidden alley to my residence.

I stepped across the courtyard wall from a tree branch, and stepped on the overgrown weeds because I didn’t have time to take care of them. When I entered the house, there was still some frost on the corners of the clothes, but I didn’t pay much attention to it. He didn't care, but directly started to remove the line seal of the file bag under the faint moonlight.

Orochimaru's gift?

Ghosts believe.

It should be something that can force me to give him a free job.

However... I think that I have been cautious in my words and deeds during the past few years in Konoha, and I have not left many clues that can be proved. The so-called things that can threaten me should not exist at all in theory. ...I want to see what he thinks can threaten me.

The thread seal was unwrapped, and the heavy file bag was opened in front of my eyes. I reached out and turned it upside down, only to hear a soft "swipe" sound—the only few white papers scattered lightly, and the rest were Thick, carefully organized into piles of photos.

"...What, what is Orochimaru doing? Who are these people..."

I couldn't help frowning, and temporarily put away the white paper filled with densely packed small characters, and stretched out my hands to sort out the photos full of strangers' faces.

"Why do you give these to me? I don't recognize it at all..."

The unfinished voice stopped abruptly.

I saw a pair of eyes, a pair of eyes that I have never looked at carefully, but are very familiar.

This person... this person...! !

I squeezed the photo into my hand, so fast that the hand movement even had an afterimage—how did I do it?I can clearly see that my whole hand is shaking... Is my hand so fast when I seal the mudra?

My pupils shrunk to pinpoints, and the exhaustion that had gradually risen with the room temperature was completely swept away at this moment. This change was like being poured with a bucket of ice water when I was full and warm——

Awesome! !

it's him!it's him! !

In countless cold nightmares dreamed back at midnight, I met these eyes through a cracked fog mask, and on another cold winter night like today, I met these eyes Their gazes were only separated by a thin layer of photo paper.

--kill him! !

The frenzied and icy killing intent was like wildfire spreading across the mountains, sweeping through the green wasteland in my heart within a few breaths, I felt so excited that I almost burst out laughing!aha!Laozi's long-cherished wish of heart disease for many years-you are fucking ready to die! !

I controlled the trembling of my hands, and pulled out a piece of white paper that was put aside, which was handwritten by Orochimaru.I ignored the small black characters on the first half of the sheet, which were full of useless content, and fixed my eyes firmly on the last two lines of small characters——

"All the dark parts of the fog known to Konoha are here."

"Hold the fate of you and your enemies."