"Go on, go on."
The old bachelor Jiraiya waved them off, watching the boy and girl leave the street corner before glancing at the Senju Old House and scratching his head in frustration.
On a street some distance from the Senju Old House.
Because a sealing ritual was being conducted to transfer the Nine-Tails, the crowds on the nearby streets had already been evacuated by the Anbu. The Konoha Military Police Force had also been notified afterward and sealed off every intersection.
Even though the ritual had now been completed and the alert lifted, no one had come through here yet.
"Were the things you said just now all true?"
Orochimaru walked ahead, his back turned to Uchiha Gen as he spoke.
"Teacher Orochimaru, Mito has the ability to sense people's hearts. I couldn't possibly lie in front of her."
Uchiha Gen reminded Orochimaru.
"Although the Third Hokage told me to take you under my wing, I've always felt that your personality resembles mine. You aren't an idealist."
Because I saw it with my own eyes in my previous life, not because it was empty fantasy.
"That is not my ideal. It is simply what I truly believe.
"Besides, Teacher Orochimaru, I think the kind of idealist you mean should be called a fantasist. Those who stand upon reality, keep their feet on the ground, and advance step by step toward their ideals regardless of whether they can be realized—those are idealists. They are people whose vision is farther-reaching, whose will is stronger, and whose wisdom is greater, all built upon realism."
Uchiha Gen spoke to Orochimaru again.
"I imagine that a remarkable person like you, Teacher Orochimaru, must also possess an ideal unlike that of ordinary people, right?"
Orochimaru turned around and looked at Uchiha Gen, seeming