Home was only a hundred paces away, yet those hundred paces felt impossibly difficult for Orochimaru to walk.
His legs had grown incredibly heavy.
Torifu cast a Clarity Jutsu on him, and that eased things considerably.
"Why not be a little bolder? Perhaps what I'm planning to show you is exactly what you've been hoping for."
At that, Orochimaru turned to look at Torifu. "You mean...?"
Torifu smiled without answering and pointed in a certain direction.
Orochimaru followed his finger. The familiar courtyard was his home.
A moment later, his pupils suddenly contracted.
An elderly woman in her fifties or sixties came out of the house and stood in the courtyard, looking around.
The moment he saw her, Orochimaru began to tremble uncontrollably.
Though he hadn't seen her in decades, he recognized the woman at once.
"Mo... Mother..."
He turned to Torifu, his eyes full of disbelief. "My mother is still alive?"
Torifu looked a little baffled. "Who said she was dead? Didn't I ask you to guess? I thought you'd figure it out easily. After all, you don't have any friends."
It sounded as if Torifu had just insulted him, but Orochimaru didn't mind.
"Then that means my father is also..."
Torifu nodded. "Of course. Konoha had never experienced war in the first place, so naturally they're both fine."
"Come on. Shall we go see them together? I know them pretty well."
Orochimaru didn't know what to say. Somehow, he'd become the one who didn't know them.
Decades had passed, and he'd kept his feelings for his parents buried deep inside. They might have faded a little over time.
But he would never forget that his parents had given him life.
He'd once had a happy, carefree childhood.
Then his parents died in battle, and all of it vanished.