People like Jiraiya naturally couldn't understand Orochimaru, but seeing his old friend change like this made him genuinely happy.
"Can you already live forever now? Has your research into life reached that level?"
Orochimaru shook his head. "It isn't research into life, but ninjutsu. I can replace my own body with someone else's."
Jiraiya frowned at that. Wasn't that just murder?
Forcefully occupying someone else's body to resurrect himself.
"You may be overthinking it. I can already produce Artificial Humans on my own. They possess no thoughts and are made specifically for experiments."
So that was how it was. If they possessed no thoughts at all, then they could not be called people.
In that case, there was no harm in Orochimaru doing with them as he pleased.
"When it comes to developing ninjutsu, I really can't compare to you. Maybe only The Old Man could surpass you."
Orochimaru smiled. "Who knows? That old fellow doesn't do anything now either. He just stays home and waters flowers in peace."
"Back then, when he didn't choose me to become Hokage, to be honest, I truly hated him. But now I've let it go."
Jiraiya looked at Orochimaru. "The reason The Old Man didn't choose you was probably because you lacked the most basic requirement to be Hokage."
Orochimaru raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Tell me."
"As Hokage, you have to be able to make the villagers feel close to you, to mingle with them as one of their own."
"Your aura is too gloomy, and your personality is strange and withdrawn. You weren't suited to be Hokage at all."
Orochimaru burst out laughing. "Perhaps. But it doesn't matter anymore. I never had many expectations for being Hokage in the first place. It was just that feeling of not being chosen that really