Matching Birth Charts

After the ceremony ended, the Third Hokage stepped forward to comfort Tsunade, but she seemed unable to hear him and remained unmoved.

The Third Hokage then looked up at Orochimaru, his eyes carrying a plea for help.

"Sensei, go attend to your work. Leave this to me."

Orochimaru thoughtfully stepped up to bail him out. Although the Third Hokage noticed that Orochimaru seemed somewhat different from usual, he did not dwell on exactly what had changed.

After more than a decade as master and disciples, he could be said to know his three students inside and out. The feeling merely flashed through his mind.

"Mm! Sigh..."

The Third Hokage patted Orochimaru on the shoulder. Without saying anything further, he left with a sigh, carrying his smoking pipe.

Once the others saw their leader leave, they also said their farewells. Orochimaru followed Dan Katō's relatives and saw everyone out of the cemetery.

"You should take the child home first. It wouldn't be good if she caught a chill."

Orochimaru had the woman holding Shizune leave first, then turned back and returned.

At that moment, Tsunade was the only one left in the vast cemetery, sobbing before the grave.

With no outsiders around, she no longer cared about keeping up appearances. She dropped to her knees before the grave and buried her face in her hands, weeping bitterly.

Most of Orochimaru's impression of Tsunade came from how she had appeared in the Original Work.

Bold and uninhibited, she drank like her life depended on it. When she drank too much, trouble was bound to follow; once the primordial power in her body got out of control, someone would be in for a bad time.

She loved gambling and never won. Whenever she did win a bet in her life, something terrible inevitably happened—the Third Hokage's death, Jiraiya's death, and so on.

Since childhood, her dream had been to gamble her way across the Ninja World. She did accomplish it later, though she became a walking cash dispenser—a fat pig in the eyes of every casino.

The only bet she had ever gotten right was placing her hopes for the future on Naruto.

"Perhaps her disappointment in Konoha began at this moment."

Returning to Tsunade's side, Orochimaru could only stand with her in the rain and share in the malice this world had shown her.

Who knew how much time passed before the dark clouds overhead gradually dispersed, and Tsunade's sobs became intermittent.

Orochimaru was truly afraid she might accidentally stop breathing. He had also experienced the pain of losing loved ones. Whether in this life or his previous one, such memories were painful for anyone.

At barely over twenty, she was at the golden age of youthful ambition and maidenly longing. With her entire family reduced to her alone, she must have felt terribly lonely.

"Rain pours down upon the world; hide your weakness well. All things struggle merely to survive, and no one will bear more for you. Do not resent the rough road ahead; life has always been full of twists and turns."

Orochimaru sighed unconsciously, and his eyes grew weathered. Though he had only lived into his thirties in his previous life, he had clawed his way up from the countryside through hardship and struggle, tasting all the bitterness and hardship of life at the bottom.

Perhaps she had heard Orochimaru's murmur, or perhaps she was simply exhausted from crying.

Tsunade raised her eyes and glanced at Orochimaru, who was sitting nearby, just in time to catch the tenderness in his gaze.

That look was rarely seen on Orochimaru. Ever since they had gone to war, Tsunade had never seen him reveal such an expression again.

During one mission, she, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya had been trapped in a cave, surrounded outside by Iwagakure ninja.

With the heavily wounded Jiraiya in tow, their situation had become even more precarious.

At the time, Orochimaru had suggested abandoning Jiraiya or killing him, so that he and Tsunade would have a better chance of breaking out.

Naturally, Tsunade would not allow such a thing to happen. She had stopped Orochimaru without hesitation. If Konoha's reinforcements had not arrived in time afterward, the two of them would probably have started fighting each other before the enemy even broke in.

Now, seeing the gentle look Orochimaru showed her, Tsunade felt a warmth rise in her heart for some reason.

"You... why haven't you left yet?"

Seeing Tsunade's face streaked with tears and her red, swollen eyes, Orochimaru's heart ached a little. His tone softened without him realizing it.

"I had nothing to do anyway, so I thought I'd keep you company. I was afraid you might do something foolish."

Orochimaru was not good at saying pretty things. Especially at a time like this, when someone had lost a loved one, actions were the quietest form of support.

Tsunade was not surprised by Orochimaru's somewhat perfunctory words. For Orochimaru, who had always been cold and harsh, speaking in such a tone was already exceedingly rare.

Seeing that Tsunade made no unusual move, Orochimaru continued.

"Nawaki was my student, and Dan Katō was my comrade. Their deaths grieve me as well. There aren't many people left whom I care about."

Orochimaru was not saying that on purpose. During his years in Konoha, many people he knew, whether close or merely familiar, had died on the battlefield.

His only remaining bonds were Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Other than those few, where did Orochimaru have any companions? He was constantly training subordinates, and the subordinates he trained were merely tools for him to command.

Tsunade had never expected Orochimaru to say such things. When Nawaki had died before, Orochimaru had seemed no more than dutiful and responsible.

Even his words back then had been stiff and blunt. How could he have spoken his true thoughts like this now?

What she did not know was that on the day Nawaki died, Orochimaru had shed tears of guilt. The coldness he showed before others had been nothing more than a disguise.

Orochimaru took in the surprise in Tsunade's eyes, and he also knew what Orochimaru had been like before he transmigrated—solitary in his ways, uninterested in many things, even indifferent to them.

"I'm fine. You don't need to worry about me..."

Suppressing her surprise, Tsunade spoke in a low voice. Then she opened her palm, revealing an icy blue Crystal Pendant resting within it.

Orochimaru saw the pendant as well. He remembered that when Nawaki died, he had personally returned it to Tsunade.

Who would have thought that Tsunade would turn around and give the pendant to Dan Katō? What happened afterward was well known.

The necklace had been left to Tsunade by the First Hokage. She had passed it on to the two people she cared about most, yet both had died not long afterward.

It could be said that this was a cursed necklace. Anyone without an exceptionally strong fate could not wear it. As for when Tsunade later gave it to the protagonist Naruto, Naruto had not managed to keep it either; it was destroyed during his battle with Pain.

Just as Orochimaru saw the necklace, the system prompt sounded in his mind once more:

A plane storyline has been triggered. The host may make the following choices:

① Kiss Tsunade and take the necklace. You are the man with the strongest fate in this world, and you will receive Hawk Eye's dynamic vision.

① Turn a blind eye, become a dead snake, and live an ordinary life. (Note: The system will cease activation and reclaim the Newbie Gift Package.)

So this was how the system was meant to be used. I was wondering how rewards could possibly come so easily. So this was what it had been waiting for.