A Conversation with Snake Lady

The world spun around him as the ninja captain used the power of the Sharingan to "invade" Menma's mental space.

"Hmph! This is the Sharingan bestowed by Lord Orochimaru! Take a good look!"

The ninja captain grinned viciously, already imagining how he would torture this arrogant brat to death.

Suddenly!

A heavy stench of blood mixed with the pungent smell of gunpowder rushed at him, slamming into his head and choking him into staggering backward.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself standing in the middle of a horrific battlefield!

It was a massive crater spanning more than ten kilometers, littered with severed limbs and ninja corpses. Forehead protectors from every village glinted coldly amid pools of blood.

There were more than ten thousand corpses!

The mountain-of-corpses, sea-of-blood scene made the ninja captain's hair stand on end, and his entire body trembled!

He abruptly looked up and saw, at the center of the crater beneath a scarlet crimson moon, a dark-red fox lying atop a mountain of corpses formed from countless ninja bodies.

Nine tails drifted beneath the moonlight.

The reclining fox was like a throne, while the piled corpses were like steps.

Upon that throne, a spiky-haired youth slowly raised his eyes. His Three-Tomoe Sharingan turned with a cold indifference that looked down upon all living things.

"Get lost." The single quiet word exploded in the ninja captain's mind like thunder.

Pfft—

Back in reality, that reprimand made blood burst from the ninja captain's seven orifices. His chest convulsed violently, as though his lungs were about to explode.

He struggled to raise his head, only to discover that his two subordinates were already dead. The masked mystery man stood before him, looking down at him.

"I'll be taking Orochimaru's gift." Before the words had faded, two fingers sank into the ninja captain's right eye and tore out the Two-Tomoe Sharingan alive.

"Ahhh—" His scream did not last long.

Menma examined the bloody eyeball in his hand. A red-haired little girl wearing a black hat emerged trembling from the shadows.

"M-my lord... Lord Orochimaru has invited you." The girl appeared to be only four or five years old. The pale green liquid in the glass container she held trembled slightly.

"Orochimaru was quite thorough in his considerations." Menma took the glass container and placed the Sharingan inside.

"Let's go. Lead the way." Menma then looked at the little girl before him.

Judging by her hair color and age, if he was not mistaken, she should be Tayuya, one of the future Sound Four.

For now, though, she was merely a little girl who had not even refined chakra yet.

"Yes, my lord." Tayuya respectfully bowed, then walked ahead to guide Menma.

The entrance to Orochimaru's base was inside a stone house in the center of the village. This place seemed to be the future Otogakure.

For now, however, it was merely one of Orochimaru's strongholds. Orochimaru likely did not formally establish Otogakure until after he defected from the Akatsuki.

The two walked one behind the other down the passage within the stone house. Before long, they reached a second-floor corridor overlooking a huge underground plaza.

At the center of the plaza, several test subjects were fighting in gladiatorial combat. The rooms around them resembled prison cells and held all kinds of other test subjects. Some had already suffered severe deformities in their limbs, while others had lost their minds and repeatedly rammed themselves against the cell bars.

On the second-floor corridor, a long-haired woman stared at the test subjects slaughtering one another in the arena.

Upon hearing movement behind her, she slowly turned her head. Her pale face looked especially eerie beneath the dim indoor lighting.

"Orochimaru, since when did you become the director of an orphanage?" Menma's flippant voice came from beneath his mask.

"As expected, I couldn't hide it from you." The woman smiled faintly and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"You may go down first," Orochimaru told Tayuya.

"Yes."

After Tayuya left, Menma walked over to Orochimaru's side and watched the two "test subjects" fighting in the plaza below with him—or rather, her.

"It took me a long time to find a ninja compatible with the Sharingan. Unfortunately, he was too weak, and his talent was poor as well." Orochimaru's voice had also become somewhat softer and more delicate.

"It is normal for ordinary people to struggle to endure such a Kekkei Genkai." Menma knew that when Orochimaru had used ninjas for live experiments in Konoha, he had most likely already discovered the importance of bloodlines.

"This batch of test subjects is quite flawed as well." Orochimaru's snake-like eyes watched the test subjects below fight to the death in an attempt to please him, his gaze as cold as if he were looking at garbage.

Then Orochimaru said blandly, "I heard there is a village in the Land of Water where the villagers have been infected by something unknown. They possess strength far beyond ordinary people, but they are also prone to losing control and going berserk. I plan to take a look."

"You actually want to visit Kirigakure, don't you?" Menma directly exposed Orochimaru's lie.

Menma had already guessed that village was probably Jugo's clan. The natural energy there was too dense, causing the villagers to mutate and granting them abilities beyond ordinary people, but also making them lose control and go berserk at the slightest provocation.

Jugo, in particular, was born able to absorb natural energy, so he often went berserk and killed people.

An uncertain village alone was not enough to make Orochimaru personally set out just after undergoing Living Corpse Reincarnation.

Therefore, Orochimaru's true purpose was likely to stroll through Kirigakure, which had already become the "Bloody Mist Village," and see whether he could abduct a few children with Kekkei Genkai.

"As expected, I couldn't hide it from you." Orochimaru stuck out his tongue and licked his lips. He had never expected to deceive this Asura "from the future."

"Bloodline power is certainly important, but I suggest putting some effort into cloning technology." Menma took out the glass container he had put away earlier. Inside, a Two-Tomoe Sharingan soaked in pale green liquid.

"Cloning technology?" Orochimaru looked at the Sharingan and began to ponder.

Orochimaru valued every word exchanged with this Asura "from the future." Perhaps hidden within them was "information from the future."

Such as the cloning technology Asura had just mentioned.

"I once tried to clone Sharingan as well, but those clones... could not awaken the Sharingan." Orochimaru could not help recalling his past experiments.

This precious Two-Tomoe Sharingan had been obtained from Danzo.

Ever since establishing Root, Danzo had been collecting Uchiha corpses. During the Third Shinobi World War, Danzo had obtained quite a few Sharingan.

However, his greatest harvest had come on the Night of the Massacre. Danzo had sent Root ninjas to collect at least two-thirds of the Sharingan, including quite a few Three-Tomoe Sharingan—enough for Danzo to freely squander while using "Izanami."

"The Sharingan is the ultimate outward manifestation of Yin Release and spiritual energy. Whether one awakens it is related to Yin Release." In consideration of that Sharingan, Menma revealed some secrets.

"You mean... Three-Tomoe Sharingan can be cloned?" Orochimaru became interested. If even Three-Tomoe Sharingan could be cloned, that would mean he could mass-produce ninjas with the strength of Special Jonin!

Moreover, he himself was deeply interested in the Sharingan, the Kekkei Genkai reputed to be the strongest in the Shinobi World. Ordinary Sharingan could no longer satisfy him.

At the very least, it had to be a Three-Tomoe Sharingan before he felt any desire to research it.

Menma did not tell Orochimaru about the evolution beyond the Three-Tomoe Sharingan. His gaze beneath the mask swept across the test subjects in the hall.

The chakra within them was at most at the Genin level. Many of them even had bodily functions that had already failed, and they would not live much longer.

"So, tell me. What deal did you come to make with me this time?" Perhaps because she was using a woman's body, Orochimaru's tone had become seductive as well.

It made Menma feel a brief wave of nauseating physical disgust.