Lure the Snake from Its Hole

That evening, an invitation was delivered to Makoto's home.

Fugaku had sent it, inviting Makoto to visit the Uchiha Clan the next day.

Makoto was again discussing clan affairs with some of the elders in the living room. Many issues could not be handled simply by his direct decision; he still needed the clan members' assistance.

Near the end, a clan member suddenly hinted that Makoto should start considering his marriage.

Hizashi and Ayari's engagement had been inexplicably called off, while Makoto and Ayari had previously been quite close. It was hard not to read into it.

If what they suspected had truly happened, word getting out would sound absolutely disgraceful.

Makoto had previously said that they need not concern themselves with his marriage, so they could not raise it openly. Instead, they hinted that the Hyuga Clan was now sparsely populated and that the clan head's branch needed to take the lead.

Besides marriage, some clan members also asked when he intended to replace his eyes.

Replacing his eyes meant receiving new Byakugan. The clan members felt it was strange for Makoto, as the Hyuga clan head, to lack the Byakugan.

Makoto had previously tried every possible way to prevent this because of the Caged Bird Seal. Now that concern was gone, it was only natural for him to receive the Byakugan again. After all, ordinary eyes could not compare to the Byakugan, and it truly could bring Makoto countless conveniences.

Although those Byakugan were all with Orochimaru, he certainly would not refuse if Makoto wanted a pair.

But Makoto was in no hurry. Whether he replaced his Byakugan had little effect on him at present, so he told the clan members there was no rush.

Orochimaru's research into the Byakugan was still at a dead end. He had also privately asked Makoto about it. When Makoto had first met Orochimaru, he had promised to help him research the Byakugan.

Makoto had not told him about the Tenseigan. Leaving aside the extremely low, perhaps even impossible, chance of succeeding in such research, information about the Byakugan was Makoto's greatest trump card. Before handing it over, he had to rapidly strengthen himself.

Or rather, he had to make both his power and influence expand explosively in the shortest possible time.

Early the next morning, Makoto received a summons from Orochimaru's Anbu. But he was not being called to the Hokage's Office, nor to Orochimaru's home, but to his newly built temporary laboratory.

Orochimaru had moved his secret base outside the village into the village. The research institute he had asked the daimyo to fund had only just begun construction, so much of the materials and equipment were kept in this temporary laboratory.

Usually, not even Orochimaru's personal Anbu were allowed inside. They could only stand guard outside.

Besides Orochimaru, only two people could enter: Makoto and Anko.

When Makoto arrived, he ran into Anko delivering breakfast to Orochimaru. Seeing the suppressed excitement on Orochimaru's face, Makoto guessed he might not have slept all night.

"Makoto, you really brought me something wonderful."

Orochimaru paced back and forth around White Zetsu's corpse on the dissection table, his gaze as though he were looking upon some precious treasure.

Makoto deliberately asked, "Did the Hokage make some discovery?"

Orochimaru immediately perked up. "This corpse does not belong to an ordinary human. I suspect it is a life-form created through some method."

"Its cells possess vitality far beyond that of ordinary people, granting it terrifying regenerative abilities. It also has extremely strong adaptability and can be transplanted onto any creature or human body."

Makoto was somewhat surprised. Orochimaru had achieved this much in only two days?

Orochimaru said almost to himself, "If I can mass-produce this kind of life-form, I'll have perfect test subjects for any experiment or research in the future."

More than that, in his view, the corpse's cells were far more advanced than the cells of the human body itself. Perhaps he could create a perfect human body.

It would be just right for complementing the forbidden technique he had developed from the inspiration he gained through the Spirit Transformation Technique.

Makoto offered a practical application. "Could it be used for the village's medical techniques? To regrow limbs for those who lost their arms or legs in war?"

Orochimaru was slightly surprised. After considering it, he nodded. "It could."

He had not considered that at all. All he had thought about was his future research. As for the villagers, they were utterly irrelevant to him.

Seeing that the two were discussing things she could not understand, Anko found it rather boring and sat to the side, eating Orochimaru's breakfast.

"Hokage."

Makoto's gaze shifted slightly as he suddenly said, "The day before yesterday, when I found that monster, I heard a particular name from its mouth."

Orochimaru's eyes remained fixed on White Zetsu's corpse as he casually asked, "What?"

"Uchiha Madara."

"..."

Orochimaru froze at the name, then finally glanced over. "Uchiha... Madara?"

A man who had been dead for decades?

He looked back at White Zetsu's corpse, his eyes flickering repeatedly.

"You didn't hear wrong?" Orochimaru asked.

"That monster seemed to think it could kill me easily. When I questioned it about Lord Madara, it directly said he was Uchiha Madara, the man who had founded Konoha alongside the First Hokage." Makoto spoke slowly. He had fabricated all of this, but aside from Rin, there had been no other witnesses at the time.

Rin was Minato's student. Would Orochimaru really seek her out to confront her over this?

"What else did it say?" Orochimaru pressed.

"Nothing else. It seemed to have targeted Nohara Rin for a purpose."

Orochimaru fell silent in thought. At first glance, this was utterly absurd. If Uchiha Madara were still alive, he would be at least seventy or eighty years old by now. What could a decrepit old man do, no matter how powerful he had once been? Could he withstand the passage of time?

But White Zetsu's corpse lay right before him, as did an entirely new and unexplored path of human experimentation.

He thought of another possibility, one he had been pursuing all along!

"Where is Nohara Rin?" Orochimaru suddenly asked.

"She went to the front lines."

Orochimaru instantly frowned. Since the other party had come for Nohara Rin, you actually...

Seeing Makoto's calm expression, he immediately calmed down again. Could Makoto have failed to think of what he himself had thought of?

Anko watched the two stare at each other with wide eyes, even more confused about how Rin had gotten involved.

Orochimaru pondered for a long time. His interest in Uchiha Madara came from the possibility that Madara possessed something like White Zetsu, which meant he must have mastered profound human-body techniques.

Orochimaru's research into the human body was only at its earliest exploratory stage. The reason he had begun studying it was because the Spirit Transformation Technique had given him the idea of attaining immortality by replacing the vessel of one's soul.

In other words, the future Living Corpse Reincarnation.

Orochimaru asked, "What do you have in mind? Lure the snake from its hole?"

Makoto said, "If the other party truly is Uchiha Madara, then an old monster who has lived for so many years must be far more calculating than we imagine. What we lure out may not be a snake, but it will ultimately be a clue. There is no fighting on the front lines, and Minato will act."

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