Orochimaru Defects from the Village Again!

"Are you Orochimaru?"

Code frowned as he looked Orochimaru up and down. Snake Aunt's skin was so fair and smooth, so tender, she looked like an eighteen-year-old girl.

It was hard to imagine this guy was already seventy!

If the other really hadn't been a human ninja, Code might have wondered if he was some kind of long-lived cosmic monster who had taken human form.

As Code sized up Orochimaru, Snake Aunt was observing him too. She quickly noticed the white Kāma mark on Code's palm and questioned him without hesitation:

"Hokage-sama, what's that diamond-shaped mark on your hand?"

"Do you know what this is?"

"From what I can tell, this mark is very similar to the Kāma of the Otsutsuki Clan. How did it end up on your hand?"

Though Snake Aunt had always focused on research, she wasn't working in a vacuum. She had heard some basic information about the Otsutsuki.

Code flinched slightly.

He inwardly sighed that these research-obsessed types were troublesome. Orochimaru really was as shrewd and cunning as Amado.

But to preserve his hard-won position as Hokage, Code didn't let the mask slip. Instead, he explained:

"That's right. This is a Kāma from the Otsutsuki, but it's a defective one."

"It only grants me a portion of an Otsutsuki's power. It can't serve as a reincarnation vessel."

"It was this power that allowed me to drive off Sasuke Otsutsuki and the others."

"As for how I obtained it, you don't need to know that for now."

Code's answer was both plausible and vague.

In theory, only the power of the Otsutsuki could have helped Code defeat Sasuke Otsutsuki and the others. But in practice, his explanation clearly had plenty of holes in it, and Snake Aunt couldn't fully believe him.

"I see. Then I could