In the courtyard of Itachi's home, his father, Uchiha Fugaku, sat at the edge of the covered walkway. A cup of steaming green tea rested beside him.
"I'm home, Father." Itachi had finished a day of training. He pushed open the gate and walked into the courtyard, where he saw his father.
In front of his son, Fugaku deliberately kept a stern expression, looking serious and old-fashioned to maintain his authority as a father.
"Itachi, have you been practicing properly lately?" Fugaku looked at Itachi as he approached, suppressing his concern and asking in the manner of a strict father.
Itachi stopped, gazing at his father some distance away. Teacher Tobirama's words surfaced in his mind.
Itachi parted his lips. He wanted to ask his father outright whether he had taken him to the battlefield back then just to spur him into awakening his Sharingan.
After hesitating for a few seconds, Itachi suppressed the urge. He merely smiled faintly and said, "I've been training hard, Father."
Fugaku nodded calmly. "Go wash your hands. Dinner will be ready soon."
"Yes!" Itachi replied. Then he lowered his head and silently crossed the courtyard, entering the house.
From behind, where Itachi couldn't see him, Fugaku kept his gaze fixed on his son's retreating figure.
In Fugaku's eyes, Itachi was an intelligent, sensible genius and the pride of his family. He was also the future of the clan, in whom Fugaku had placed great hopes.
Fugaku had never voiced these words of praise and affirmation to Itachi. He had always clung to his rigid, traditional ideas about parenting, maintaining the image of a strict father.
For his son's growth, and for the clan's future, he needed Itachi to grow under the lash of pressure. Only then would the boy's talent not go to waste.
At the outskirts of the village, inside Orochimaru's underground laboratory.
Under the pretense of being one of Danzo's trusted subordinates, Shiraishi had come to this secret laboratory with Orochimaru.
"You're a Root ninja, if I remember correctly. I've seen you before." Orochimaru looked at the slightly youthful Shiraishi, a perverse smile appearing on his face. His eyes swept over Shiraishi like scanners, examining him from head to toe.
"I used to be with Root." In front of Orochimaru, Shiraishi didn't act stiff and uneasy like an ordinary ninja. Instead, he was relaxed and at ease, looking around at the laboratory equipment as if he were at home.
Orochimaru didn't take offense. On the contrary, he found Shiraishi rather interesting. Curious about Danzo's secrets, he was considering turning Shiraishi to his side and using him to pry into them.
"What does Danzo want?" Orochimaru walked to the workbench and asked.
Shiraishi took a small, transparent glass vial from an inner pocket. Inside floated a blood clot about the size of a marble.
The clot looked unremarkable, but the moment Shiraishi took it out, the temperature in the entire laboratory plummeted.
On closer inspection, a thin layer of frost had already formed around the glass vial in Shiraishi's hand.
As a top-tier expert, Orochimaru keenly sensed the change in the laboratory. He looked at the vial in Shiraishi's hand, his eyes filled with curiosity.
"Where did this blood come from?" Orochimaru leaned close to Shiraishi, studying the blood in the vial with curiosity.
This blood was a trace of Shiraishi's essence blood, secretly collected when he self-destructed his Golden Core and his body was blown to pieces. He had kept it nourished inside the Ten Thousand Soul Banner ever since.
This essence blood was what gave Shiraishi the confidence to make a body for himself.
After all, no body could be better than the one he was born with.
Using this essence blood as the source, Orochimaru's cloning Forbidden Jutsu, and the Nine Nether Sect's secret techniques that Shiraishi knew to nourish and strengthen it, Shiraishi was confident he could create a body powerful enough and perfectly suited to him.
"Can this blood be used to clone a new body?" Shiraishi didn't answer Orochimaru's question, instead asking him directly.
Orochimaru looked at Shiraishi, his expression calm but carrying the menace of a predator. He spoke slowly. "In theory, yes, but it's very difficult. We'll need to run tests. Sometimes, tissue that's too powerful makes the experiment even harder."
"You don't need to worry about that. I'll cooperate with you. All you have to do is use it to clone a new body." Shiraishi smiled and handed Orochimaru the vial.
Orochimaru took it. It was ice-cold to the touch. He set it on the workbench beside him, then looked back at Shiraishi. "You seem very confident."
Shiraishi smiled without answering. He looked around the laboratory, then slowly walked up to Orochimaru and said, "I'm guessing the price you paid for doing experiments for Danzo was that he told you the secret of how he and the Third Hokage switched souls."
Orochimaru's pupils narrowed to slits. His snake-like eyes fixed on Shiraishi as he stuck out his tongue and licked his lips.
"So you're no ordinary—"
Before Orochimaru could finish, Shiraishi struck him in the chest with his palm, knocking his soul out through his back.
Orochimaru's consciousness wavered. He floated in the air behind his own body, staring in shock at his half-transparent form before turning to look at Shiraishi, who wore a faint smile.
"How did you do that?" Orochimaru asked urgently.
Shiraishi's right hand swept over the workbench and picked up his vial again. Holding it in front of him, he looked through the glass at Orochimaru's soul some distance away.
"Because I was the one who helped Danzo and the Third Hokage switch souls," Shiraishi said calmly.
Orochimaru swam toward Shiraishi as if he were underwater, looking somewhat comical. "What kind of jutsu is this?"
Shiraishi smiled as he looked at Orochimaru. "Do you want to know?"
"Tell me." Orochimaru's eyes were full of yearning.
Shiraishi put the vial back on the table, then looked at Orochimaru and reached out, pulling him back into his body.
After his soul returned to his flesh, Orochimaru swayed for a moment before adjusting to his body again. Then he looked up at Shiraishi.
Orochimaru suppressed his yearning and urgency, regaining his composure before asking, "What do you want?"
Shiraishi pushed the vial on the workbench over to Orochimaru and smiled. "Use it to clone a body that satisfies me."
"No problem." This time, Orochimaru's voice was filled with certainty.
"Good. This is a promising start, just like my partnership with Danzo." Shiraishi spoke meaningfully.
Orochimaru naturally understood what Shiraishi meant. He smiled too, finding the way things were unfolding increasingly interesting.
Shiraishi looked at Orochimaru and continued, "Orochimaru, I know you're pursuing immortality. It's a grand goal, something countless people have sought but never attained."
"Transferring your soul into another body is a good idea. Since the body grows old, just abandon the decaying one and transfer your soul into a young, new body."
"By transferring yourself again and again, you can extend your life and achieve immortality in a sense."
"It's a very good approach, but unfortunately, you've overlooked one problem: the body isn't the only thing that grows old. Your soul will also decay with the passage of time."
"Each time you transfer your soul, you only accelerate that decay."
At this, Shiraishi stopped. He looked at Orochimaru, whose expression had turned uncertain, and patted his arm before adding:
"In this world, only I can grant you true immortality, because I possess the only method for strengthening the soul."
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