"Regret?" Orochimaru asked with a mocking smile. "Looking at how old and frail you are now, Teacher, I'm incredibly glad I made the choice I did!"
Hiruzen looked at him in pain and demanded, "Konoha is the place where you were born and raised. You turned it into a wasteland for the sake of your ambition. Was it worth it?"
Orochimaru's expression grew calm. "The village, friendship, morality, human decency—those are just shackles that hold us back! Teacher, they only restrain us and make us weaker!"
Hiruzen was momentarily at a loss for words. "You..."
Orochimaru continued, "The First and Second I summoned were certainly among my finest creations. But if you'd wanted to escape, they shouldn't have been able to hurt you, right? You sacrificed the use of your hands for Hand Seals just to deal with two walking corpses. So let me ask you: was it worth it?"
Hiruzen replied in a low voice, "I'm the Hokage!"
Orochimaru's mocking smile returned. "Being Hokage gets people killed!"
Hiruzen shook his head and said nothing more.
Their conversation had made it clear to him that Orochimaru had gone too far. This was no longer just a conflict of interests; it was a complete break in their beliefs.
In other words, Orochimaru had completely turned his back on the Will of Fire.
Both Hiruzen and Danzo had long been accustomed to editing the Will of Fire, adding their own ideas to it. But at least in public, the principle that the Will of Fire passed down by the First was the foundation on which Konoha had been founded remained beyond question.
Now Orochimaru had openly rejected the Will of Fire. As far as Konoha was concerned, that was a crime punishable by death.
At that moment, Hiruzen, who had moved to