Feel the Pain

"Lord Orochimaru, the person known as the 'Wandering Miko' disappeared three years ago. Please call me by my current name, Yakushi Nonō."

The golden-haired, blue-eyed beauty narrowed her eyes with a smile, giving off a sunny, gentle air. Even Guo Wang and Orochimaru, who knew her true nature, couldn't detect any falseness in her smile. They couldn't help feeling a chill in their hearts.

If they couldn't keep this woman under their control, it would be better to get rid of her.

In that instant, the two men had remarkably similar thoughts.

"So, Elder Danzo, what is it you wanted to tell me? I don't believe this woman can reveal the mysteries at the root of the world."

Guo Wang glanced at Orochimaru beside him and tightened his grip. The long, narrow box he'd taken from Kagami Uchiha's gravestone shattered in his hand, revealing what was inside.

It was a block of ice, with a black flower frozen inside. At its very center was a Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

"Have you ever heard the name Uchiha Madara?"

"Are you joking, Elder Danzo? He was one of Konoha's two founders, the strongest Uchiha and the only one who could fight the First, Hashirama Senju. How could I not know who he was?"

Yakushi Nonō took the frozen Sharingan from Guo Wang and placed it in a bowl of prepared solution to dissolve. Meanwhile, Danzo took an old booklet from a hidden compartment in the secret room and tossed it to Orochimaru.

"These are the Second's research notes on Uchiha Madara's corpse. I'll need to be anesthetized for a while, so you can take a look."

Madara's... corpse!?

The moment Orochimaru heard those words, his interest surged. He was close to completing a forbidden technique from the Scroll of Seals. If he could get his hands on the corpse of the strongest Uchiha, his collection of Ninjutsu would become even more extensive.

With Yakushi Nonō's support, Guo Wang lay down on a white bed prepared in the secret room. The bandages around his right eye and half his body were unwound, revealing a scarred body and a Sharingan that had remained in its Three-Tomoe state.

"Oh, you're adapting quite well, Elder Danzo."

Orochimaru sent a Shadow Clone to read the booklet, while his real body stood by the wall and watched Yakushi Nonō inject Guo Wang with a special, dark-green serum. His golden, slit-pupiled eyes were full of curiosity.

He had implanted that Sharingan himself, but he wasn't sure it had been a good idea.

He'd collected a few Three-Tomoe Sharingan on the battlefield, but even the original Uchiha Elite Jonin didn't impress him, let alone an eye left behind after its owner's death.

"Sarutobi Hiruzen must have told you about the Sharingan's ultimate secrets."

"Yeah. You mean the Mangekyō, right? It's the most powerful Kekkei Genkai, the one Uchiha Madara used to control the Nine-Tails and fight the First at the Valley of the End."

Guo Wang recalled everything Danzo knew about the Sharingan. Under the effects of the special serum, the Three-Tomoe in his right eye began to spin wildly, transforming into the mysterious pattern of the Mangekyō.

"I wouldn't call it the strongest. The First's Wood Release was the most powerful Kekkei Genkai. But compared to Wood Release, which only a god could master, the Mangekyō was much easier to obtain."

"Only a god can master it? That might not be true. What about you, Elder Danzo?"

Orochimaru's words were laced with amusement. Guo Wang furrowed his brow, his gaze growing colder.

"Kinoe belongs to me now. He's not your prey. You'll have to learn to keep your eyes off him."

The atmosphere in the secret room suddenly turned icy. Yakushi Nonō felt the smiling Orochimaru transform in an instant into a man-eating serpent. An invisible, oppressive presence seemed to descend upon her like a gaping maw. Her Ninjutsu wasn't very strong, and her legs gave way beneath her. She nearly collapsed.

"Looks like it's time I showed you the power of the Mangekyō."

Danzo knew Orochimaru's personality, so the scene came as no surprise. Perhaps he had even orchestrated it himself. He'd already planned to use this opportunity to deal with the increasingly cold-blooded serpent.

"Then let an ignorant man like me witness the power of Uchiha Madara, as the stories tell it!"

Orochimaru's eyes flew wide open. His expression was both smiling and ferocious as he opened his mouth and spat out a cool, watery sword. It flashed forward at blinding speed, aimed at Guo Wang, whose right eye had transformed from a Three-Tomoe Sharingan into the Mangekyō.

"Feel the power of a deity!"

With the needle still in his arm, Guo Wang casually raised his left hand. An invisible repulsive force slammed forward with the weight of a million-ton mountain. It deflected the Kusanagi Sword, crushed the Shadow Clone reading the book, smashed through the earthen wall Orochimaru had summoned with Ninjutsu, and finally blasted his real body into the steel wall of the secret room.

When Yakushi Nonō came to her senses, she saw a human-shaped crater extending through several steel walls. At the far end of her view, she finally spotted Orochimaru's "corpse," crushed so badly he was nearly pulverized.

"Lord Danzo, Lord Orochimaru is a hero of Konoha, and the Third's student. To execute him like this..."

"Execute him!?"

Guo Wang looked at the golden-haired, blue-eyed woman with doubt, then reluctantly lowered his left hand.

"Though I'd like to get rid of him, unfortunately, he has a serpent's vitality. He can keep shedding his skin and resurrecting himself."

"Heh heh heh. I'm deeply flattered by your praise, Elder Danzo. I'm rather interested in what you said just now."

Orochimaru crawled out of the mouth of his own corpse using the Substitution Technique. The fervor in his golden eyes made Yakushi Nonō retreat two steps and hide behind Guo Wang.

"Remember this lesson through the pain in your body. From now on, you'll show respect to me—and to the Mangekyō Sharingan."

Seeing that his full-power Shinra Sei hadn't managed to kill the young man outright while Orochimaru was caught off guard, Guo Wang let go of his murderous intent. He turned his head aside, pretending he'd only been testing the technique.

"So this is the power of the Mangekyō. It seems I've underestimated the Sharingan all along."

Although Sarutobi Hiruzen had told him that there was a higher level of Sharingan beyond the Three-Tomoe, Orochimaru had always assumed it only offered fancier copying and observation abilities. He hadn't expected a terrifying Dojutsu like Shinra Sei, something he'd never even heard of before.

"Even if I'd used Summoning: Rashomon just now, I'm not sure it could have stopped that. This power deserves to become a part of my ideas."

The more Orochimaru savored the taste of death from that moment, the more he coveted the Mangekyō in Danzo's right eye.

"Would you like me to replace your left eye, Elder Danzo?"

"No. Just sit quietly over there. Nonō has another identity: she's the Medical Corps Captain. Have you forgotten? But don't worry, I still need your help to fully awaken the power of Mirror Flower, Water Moon."