Orochimaru's Bad Luck

Orochimaru stood before Manda, looking into Manda's bewildered eyes.

"Congratulations, the surgery was a success. You're a girl now! Happy?"

Manda: ...

Something seemed off? Had Manda not woken up yet?

Orochimaru held up two fingers in a V sign.

"How many is this?"

Manda tilted her head: ...

Could Manda's brain really be broken? Was it that serious? It shouldn't have been?

"What's your name?"

Still unwilling to give up, Orochimaru continued asking.

At last, Manda slowly spoke.

"I'm not a girl..."

"That's not what I asked. That was the question before last. Let's try again—what's your name?"

Orochimaru was getting exasperated. Manda's brain couldn't be fine and she was just messing with him, could it?

Manda: (￣_￣), ...

She still did not speak, her expression as confused as ever.

"Are you stupid, Manda? You're not doing this on purpose, are you?"

"It's two..."

Right. This kid was beyond saving.

Orochimaru guessed that after the modifications, Manda's brain had been unable to adapt. Her information-processing speed had slowed, resulting in this kind of delayed response.

"Forget it. I won't ask you any more questions."

At that moment, Manda finally squeezed out her next sentence. "I'm not stupid!"

Her voice was loud and spirited!

"Come out! Let's test your new abilities!"

Orochimaru walked out of the nest. If they tested them inside, they would probably wreck all the experimental equipment.

Upon hearing him, Manda did not respond slowly. Instead, she left the cave at a normal speed.

It seemed there was a problem with the language-processing module of her brain. After all, she could react as soon as she heard something, which meant her hearing was fine and she had no problems controlling her body either.

Outside the cave, the Three Snake Sisters were waiting.

"Manda, are your modifications complete?"

Ichikishimahime asked. Manda did not answer.

Ichikishimahime was just about to lose her temper when Tagitsuhime stopped her. She could tell something was off about Manda, but she merely assumed Manda had not yet recovered from her poison.

"Breathe fire!"

"Spray poison!"

"Telescopic vision! See what Garaga is doing!"

Orochimaru commanded Manda, and Manda obediently carried out every instruction.

Once Orochimaru had confirmed that all the functions he had modified into Manda could be used, he left Ryūchi Cave.

He had stayed here long enough. Now, he wanted to go back and relax properly before planning and preparing his next experimental project.

"Manda, how do you feel now?"

Tagorihime asked. The abilities Manda had displayed just now were impressive, and she was curious.

Manda stared blankly at her before saying, "Garaga... is mating with Mother Snake..."

Tagorihime: (╬￣皿￣)!

Tagitsuhime, Ichikishimahime: =_=|||...

Deep within Ryūchi Cave, the White Snake Sage also had a dark expression. Then she shifted into another reclining position and looked in another direction.

That was Garaga's cave. In all of Ryūchi Cave, the White Snake Sage could look wherever she wished.

In Konoha, Orochimaru rested for a while before preparing something to eat. He had spent several days in Ryūchi Cave and, because of Manda's modifications, had completely forgotten to eat. Now that he was done, hunger began to set in. He intended to make himself a fine meal to reward himself for his hard work these past few days.

The dishes had just been placed on the table. After wiping his hands with a cloth, Orochimaru sat down and picked up his chopsticks, ready to dig in.

Bang bang bang!

Knocking came from outside the door. Orochimaru paused, but still decided to ignore it. He planned to take a couple bites first.

Thud thud thud!

The knocking outside grew louder and more urgent, even a little irritable. Maybe someone had something urgent to see him about? No rush. He would finish this bite first before opening the door.

Orochimaru blissfully took a bite of food, only for the knocking to abruptly stop the next moment.

They left? Apparently, it was nothing important. Now he could properly enjoy himself.

Bang.

Orochimaru's front door was smashed open—or rather, Tsunade kicked it open. Behind her followed a little girl carrying a pet piglet.

Tsunade wore an angry expression, but the instant she saw the table full of food, her face immediately broke into a smile. She had lost rather heavily gambling lately and had not had a good meal in quite some time.

"Orochimaru! How did you know I was coming? You even made a whole table of delicious food to treat me! I'm so embarrassed."

Tsunade said this while picking her teeth with a toothpick and rubbing her stomach, sprawled comfortably in her chair.

Orochimaru stared dumbfoundedly at the spotlessly clean plates covering the table. His gaze gradually turned dangerous as it shifted toward the pet pig in the little girl's arms.

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about. Didn't you bring an ingredient with you too?"

The little girl jumped at Orochimaru's gaze and hugged the pink piglet tighter.

Sensing danger, the piglet began squealing and grunting.

"L-Lord Orochimaru, this isn't an ingredient. Th-this is Lady Tsunade's pet! Tonton can't be eaten!"

The little girl, Shizune Katō, said weakly.

"It's fine. I've wanted pork for a long time!

"Cold sliced pig head, salted pig tongue, chili oil pig ears, stir-fried pig skin, braised pork, stewed pig trotters and pork elbows, stewed ribs, stir-fried pig liver, stir-fried lung slices—I can make all of those.

"This pig is a little small, but it can barely make a full pork feast."

Orochimaru's words frightened Shizune until her face turned pale.

As for Tonton, the pet pig had already fainted halfway through Orochimaru's list of dishes.

"Alright, Orochimaru. You just ate a little of your food. Was there really any need to scare them like that?"

Tsunade tried to dissuade him. Though she was also craving the dishes Orochimaru had mentioned, she was already full, so she did not intend to let him make a full pork feast. Next time, she would bring him a bigger pig to cook.

With no other choice, Orochimaru said irritably to Tsunade, "You wash the dishes!"

In the end, Tsunade shamelessly slipped away from the dishwashing duty. Orochimaru could hardly make a pig and a little girl wash them.

He could only plan to go out to eat at a restaurant.

This time, Tsunade had come to bid Orochimaru farewell.

Konohagakure's medical ninja had more or less completed their training. After all this time, she had taught them everything that could be taught. The more advanced techniques were things even Orochimaru could not currently learn, as they required a certain level of mastery over Yang Release Chakra.

Though Shizune was only a little girl, under Tsunade's tutelage, she had already reached the level of a newly graduated genin.

Do not look down on genin just because they were only genin. Genin were still ninja, alright!

Not only could genin potentially reach Six Paths-level, but in the Shinobi World, as long as one was a ninja, even a genin held considerable status.

When facing a ninja, even if it was only a genin, ordinary people had no ability to fight back.

As for those above genin, Princess Tsunade was currently renowned throughout the Shinobi World. Other than reckless fools, no experienced ninja who saw her would provoke her.

Jiraiya was in the Land of Rain, and Hiruzen Sarutobi was busy with his Hokage duties. In the end, aside from Orochimaru, only Minato and Kushina came to see Tsunade off.

It was not that the others did not want to see her off; they simply were not close enough to her for that, and Tsunade had not notified them.

Otherwise, at the very least, those whom Tsunade had treated with Medical Ninjutsu and the medical ninja currently receiving her training would definitely have come.

It was worth mentioning that, after learning Orochimaru had not eaten yet, Kushina warmly invited him to visit their place. Orochimaru declined on the grounds that he had already booked a restaurant.

Even if he, Orochimaru, starved to death and jumped off the Hokage Building, he would never eat Kushina's cooking!

Orochimaru did not end up eating Kushina's cooking after all, because Kushina could not be bothered to cook and chose to bring Minato along to mooch off him instead.

At first, Orochimaru did not notice anything wrong and ate at a leisurely pace.

But when he heard the servers delivering dishes outside the private room chatting about how it was their first time seeing someone who could eat even more than a member of the Akimichi Clan, and how the entire kitchen could not cook as fast as that person could eat, he realized something was wrong.

Orochimaru knew Naruto could eat a lot. His wife could eat even more.

In Konohagakure's big eater competition, Naruto had eaten thirty bowls of Ichiraku Ramen in thirty minutes, while Hinata had eaten forty-six bowls.

He had never expected Kushina, Naruto's mother, to have such an outrageous appetite as well...

Orochimaru looked at the dozen or so stacked plates beside him. They were not Kushina's. If Kushina had only eaten that much, it would have been no big deal. Those were Orochimaru's own plates.

Ever since increasing his taijutsu training, his appetite had greatly increased. This time, he had also gone hungry for several days, but...

Every bit of space on Kushina's table was already filled. The stacks of plates had reached the restaurant's ceiling...

Kushina was diligently stuffing herself, Minato scratched his head with an awkward smile, and Orochimaru was considering whether he should sneak away...

Just as Orochimaru made up his mind and was about to use a ninja technique to escape, Kushina finally stopped. She wiped her mouth with lingering regret and said:

"Senior Orochimaru, sorry for making you spend so much. This time, I only ate until I was half full. It wouldn't be good to eat too much for dinner."

"You're only half full? How did Minato ever manage to feed you?"

In truth, Mito Uzumaki had left behind a considerable inheritance. Kushina had rented out dozens of properties in the village center...

That was right, Kushina was absurdly rich.

Q's Barbecue was far more expensive than places like Ichiraku Ramen, catering mainly to high-income customers such as ninja and nobles. Kushina's meal had cost him nearly half the price of one piece of equipment.

Orochimaru's equipment was all extremely expensive, routinely costing over a million ryo. Even the cheapest exceeded five hundred thousand ryo.

Orochimaru realized he had been rather unlucky today.

First, Manda had turned into a complete idiot. Then Tsunade and Kushina had both mooched off him in succession. Who knew what else might happen next, so he decided to head back and get some sleep first.

He had spent the past few days modifying Manda and had not closed his eyes in a long time. Besides, now that he was full and satisfied, he really was getting sleepy.