Shady Dealings

At first light, Takigawa Hyuga turned back toward the Hot Spring he'd just left, but Orochimaru was long gone. He chuckled and headed for the woods outside Konoha, where he soon found him.

The sun was rising. Orochimaru watched Takigawa Hyuga approach with the sun at his back, his golden, slit-pupil eyes narrowing as he stared coldly at him.

Every White Snake Orochimaru released carried a part of his soul. When one died, its memories from before death were passed on to every other Orochimaru, so there was no way he could remain ignorant of what had happened with Kimimaro.

"Don't look at me like that, Orochimaru. You're making me blush." Takigawa Hyuga lowered his head shyly.

Orochimaru grinned, a meaningful smile spreading across his face. "Takigawa, let's work together!"

"Work together?"

Behind his dark sunglasses, Takigawa Hyuga's eyes flickered. "What do you mean?"

"Don't you want to break the Caged Bird Seal?"

Orochimaru spoke in a sinister tone. "I can use Impure World Reincarnation to bring back the ancestors of the Hyuga Clan!"

The last time he and Takigawa Hyuga had worked together, one had provided Impure World Reincarnation, while the other had supplied the remains of the Uzumaki Clan's ancestors. They'd brought them back one by one, but unfortunately, the Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Techniques couldn't break the Caged Bird Seal.

Later, the unfilial descendant Takigawa Hyuga had suggested bringing back his own ancestors, too. But then Pain had assigned a mission, and Orochimaru had his own reasons for not going through with it, so the matter had been dropped.

Now that Orochimaru was bringing it up again, he clearly hoped to rekindle their old partnership and form an alliance with Takigawa Hyuga. At the same time, it was also a test!

He wanted to find out whether anyone