The Ascension to Immortality

Konoha.

Yuhara had returned to being homeless—or perhaps he had never had a home to begin with... After Jian Dong's unexpected death, he naturally could no longer stay in her house.

Tigo was currently helping sort through Jian Dong's belongings there.

The process of burying Jian Dong was not complicated. In fact, after years of war, such a burial could be called simple... The dead were dead. Everything else was merely a way for the living to entrust their feelings.

Yuhara was now staying at a small inn in Konoha. He did not have to worry about food, clothing, housing, or transportation, but no one could truly regard an inn as home.

Because of the way Jian Dong had died, Yuhara had developed many negative impressions of Konoha. He probably would not feel much identification with the village anymore, but that did not mean he wanted to become a "terrorist." A normal adult's views could not be reduced to a simple either-or, nor could his thoughts become too extreme.

Join the "Akatsuki"? That was a joke. Leaving aside everything else, would they even value someone with Yuhara's strength? In Konoha, he was cannon fodder. Would he not be cannon fodder after joining the "Akatsuki"? If he was going to be cannon fodder either way, why would he go all the way to the Land of Rain?

And the crucial question was, who had Jian Dong died at the hands of?

Besides, the "Akatsuki's" ideals were even worse than Konoha's. Konoha's ideals were beautiful; its problem was that it was rotten from within, leaving its noble vision unrealized. The "Akatsuki's" ideals were dreamlike, but their methods were terrifying, and their actions were even more extreme.

Konoha was a disabled but otherwise normal person, while the "Akatsuki" was a psychotic lunatic... This was not difficult to understand.

As for what he should do next, honestly, Yuhara had not figured it out. Overall, he was still drifting with the current.

The third day after returning to Konoha.

In the morning, Yuhara went as usual to check in at one of Konoha's organizational departments... Since he had completely lost his squad structure and could not cut off contact with Konoha, as long as he remained in the village, he had to check in every day... In the morning, he wandered around Konoha a few times, seemingly familiarizing himself with the village. At noon, he ate something casually, then returned to the inn for a nap.

In the afternoon, he stayed at the inn and began refining Chakra.

It was not until evening, when activity in Konoha was at its peak, that Yuhara left the inn again. He seemed to be wandering through the village's small night market, but anyone who observed him carefully would realize that his actions were far from aimless.

The farther Yuhara walked, the fewer people there were around him. Eventually, he arrived at an unnoticed corner of Konoha. He was very familiar with this place, because this was where he had emerged from and seen the light of day again.

Before long, Yuhara found the entrance leading underground. After repeatedly confirming that no one was nearby, he pulled open the heavy barrier and stepped inside.

Yuhara was not familiar with the underground environment. To be honest, when he had been taken away from here, he had only been able to make hurried observations along the way, and they had been quite limited. Fortunately, he had a rough map.

The underground space beneath Konoha extended in all directions, with various pipes connecting to various facilities. This section was a sewer, but if one kept walking, one might eventually reach the underground base of the "Root."

Fortunately, the path Yuhara took was not too complicated. About twenty minutes later, he found Orochimaru's underground facility again.

Naturally, it had been abandoned. Orochimaru's various experimental facilities, research materials, and research results had probably all been removed by Konoha... Except for the most essential parts that Orochimaru himself had destroyed or taken away.

There were no longer any prisoners in the dungeon either.

Yuhara carried an oil lamp through this place, which resembled a realm of ghosts. Perhaps because he was used to seeing corpses, he did not find it frightening. Ghosts, vengeful spirits, and the like certainly could not scare a materialist like him.

In fact, he would rather encounter a ghost here than see someone suddenly leap out from some obscure corner. The latter would be truly terrifying.

Fortunately, the only sound Yuhara heard from beginning to end was the sound of his own footsteps.

Following the directions on the map, Yuhara entered a cell. He walked up to a wall and tried tapping on it from one spot to the next.

After knocking all over, Yuhara was somewhat baffled, because he discovered that the entire wall was solid.

Could the map's markings be wrong? That was impossible. Thinking about it from the opposite angle, if this were merely an ordinary hidden room, it would certainly have been discovered, and the things inside should have been taken away long ago.

So...

Yuhara began scraping at the wall.

The unfortunate part was that although Yuhara possessed Earth Release Chakra, no one had ever taught him Earth Release. Fortunately, as a Magnet Release Ninja, he had a certain degree of efficiency when it came to renovation work.

Using a blade that vibrated at high frequency like a chainsaw, Yuhara slowly carved into the wall. Then he discovered a wooden box, roughly one meter square, sealed inside it... These were the things the kunoichi Hotaru had left behind.

The box had apparently been completely sealed into the wall with Earth Release. It was hidden extremely well.

However, Yuhara did not immediately move the box. To guard against any traps Hotaru might have set, he first backed away more than ten meters. Then he used a black iron rod extending from his palm to gently shake the box. Only after confirming that nothing had exploded did he suddenly flip open the box's lid.

As it turned out, he had been overly cautious. There was no trap.

Yuhara walked over to the box and found it stuffed full of all kinds of scrolls and books.

"Unbelievable... You were far too efficient as a spy, weren't you?"

Looking at the huge pile of items, Yuhara could not help voicing this exclamation.

In an extremely dangerous environment, a spy who managed to leave behind a single sheet of paper could already be considered a good spy. Yet Hotaru had actually left behind an entire box?

However, things were not quite that exaggerated. After a brief inspection, Yuhara discovered that most of the scrolls and books were blank, with only a small portion containing written records.

Yuhara had originally intended to skim through everything first and pick out the valuable items. However, after opening the first scroll, his attention was instantly drawn in.

The scroll did not record any extravagant Forbidden Techniques. Instead, it gave a general description of what Orochimaru was experimenting with and what exactly he intended to do.

"A Wood Release body fused with Hashirama Cells..."

"Creating a Cursed Seal to absorb natural energy..."

"Investigating the Three Great Dojutsu..."

"And... Living Corpse Reincarnation..."

"All I can say is, as expected of Orochimaru..."

Based solely on the explanation in his hands, Yuhara did not know how deeply Orochimaru had investigated certain secrets of the ninja world. But one thing was certain: he had already gathered the main elements... Sage Body + Sage Power + Sage Eye + Living Corpse Reincarnation. Perhaps Orochimaru still did not know exactly what he wanted to do, but to Yuhara, Orochimaru's intentions were perfectly clear.

If Living Corpse Reincarnation was merely a technique that transferred the caster's mind into a new body to extend his lifespan, it would easily give people the impression that Orochimaru was "nothing special." Clearly, that did not fit Orochimaru's character of pursuing knowledge, tracing matters back to their origins, and disregarding all costs. But what if it were merely a "half-finished product"?

But that was not right.

If Orochimaru had a complete plan, then why, in the original story, had he merely moved repeatedly from one body to another?

Where did the difference lie? Was there something that was not the same?

After thinking it over and over, Yuhara seemed to understand where the problem lay...

It lay in the time when the "Wood Release Test Subject" succeeded.