The Secret of Immortality

In the courtyard of the Uchiha estate, Fugaku Uchiha sat on the edge of the veranda, a cup of steaming green tea resting beside him.

"I am home, Father." Having finished his day of training, Itachi pushed open the gate, walked into the courtyard, and saw his father.

Facing his child, Fugaku deliberately stiffened his expression, appearing stern and rigid to maintain the dignity of a father.

"Itachi, have you been practicing diligently lately?" Fugaku watched Itachi approach, suppressing the concern in his heart to ask with the posture of a strict father.

Itachi stopped in his tracks, looking at his father not far away, the words of his teacher Tobirama surfacing in his mind.

Itachi opened his mouth, longing to ask his father directly if taking him to the battlefield back then was truly just to stimulate him into awakening the Sharingan.

After hesitating for a few seconds, Itachi suppressed the impulse in his heart and simply smiled faintly, saying, "I have been training diligently, Father."

Fugaku nodded calmly. "Go wash your hands; we will eat soon."

"Yes!" After replying, Itachi lowered his head and silently walked across the courtyard and into the house.

Behind his back, where Itachi could not see, Fugaku's gaze remained fixed on his son's retreating figure.

In Fugaku's eyes, Itachi was a clever and sensible genius, his pride, and the future of the clan in whom he placed high hopes.

Fugaku had never expressed this affirmation or praise to Itachi; he had always adhered to a rigid and traditional educational philosophy, maintaining his image as a strict father.

For the sake of his child's growth and the future of the clan, he needed Itachi to grow under the lash of pressure; only in this way would the child's talent not be wasted.

On the outskirts of the village, in Orochimaru's underground laboratory.

Under the guise of being a confidant of Danzo, Shiraishi arrived at this secret laboratory under the guidance of Orochimaru.

"You are a ninja from Root; I remember seeing you before." Orochimaru looked at the slightly youthful Shiraishi before him, a perverted smile appearing on his face as his eyes scanned Shiraishi up and down like a scanner.

"I was in Root before." In front of Orochimaru, Shiraishi did not act as reserved as an ordinary ninja; instead, he was natural and poised, looking around at the laboratory instruments as if he had arrived at his own home.

Orochimaru did not feel offended; on the contrary, he found Shiraishi quite interesting. Now, being extremely curious about Danzo's secrets, he harbored thoughts of turning Shiraishi against him to probe for Danzo's secrets through him.

"What is Danzo's request?" Orochimaru walked to the console and asked aloud.

Shiraishi pulled a small, transparent glass bottle from the inner pocket of his clothes, inside which floated a ball of blood the size of a marble.

The blood ball looked unremarkable, but the moment Shiraishi took it out, the temperature of the entire laboratory plummeted.

If one looked closely, one could see a faint layer of frost forming on the exterior of the glass bottle in Shiraishi's hand.

As a top-tier powerhouse, Orochimaru keenly sensed the change in the laboratory's environment. He looked at the glass bottle in Shiraishi's hand, his eyes filled with a desire for knowledge.

"Where did this mass of blood come from?" Orochimaru leaned in close to Shiraishi, curiously observing the blood in the glass bottle.

This mass of blood was a wisp of essence blood Shiraishi had secretly collected when he detonated his Golden Core and his body was blown to pieces, which he had kept nourished in the Ten Thousand Soul Banner ever since.

This wisp of essence blood was the foundation upon which Shiraishi intended to forge his body.

After all, no body could compare to his original one.

Using this essence blood as the source, combined with Orochimaru's forbidden cloning techniques and supplemented by the Nine Nether Sect secret arts Shiraishi had mastered for nourishment and strengthening, Shiraishi was confident he could create a body that was sufficiently powerful and perfectly compatible with himself.

"Using this blood, can you clone a new body?" Shiraishi did not answer Orochimaru's question, but asked directly instead.

Orochimaru looked at Shiraishi, his expression calm yet carrying the predatory air of a hunter, and said slowly, "Theoretically, yes, but the difficulty is immense. It requires testing; sometimes, overly powerful body tissues can actually increase the difficulty of the experiment."

"You don't need to worry about that; I will cooperate with you. All you need to do is clone a new body through it." Shiraishi said with a smile, handing the glass bottle in his hand to Orochimaru.

Orochimaru took the glass bottle, feeling a biting cold upon contact. He placed the bottle on the experimental table beside him and looked back at Shiraishi. "It seems you are very confident?"

Shiraishi smiled without a word. He looked around the laboratory, walked slowly to the front of Orochimaru, and then spoke: "I guess the condition for you conducting experiments for Danzo was that he told you the secret of him and the Third Hokage swapping souls, right!"

Orochimaru's pupils narrowed into vertical slits. His snake-like eyes stared at Shiraishi, and his tongue flicked out from his mouth to lick the corner of his lips.

"You are indeed not an ordinary..."

Before Orochimaru could finish his sentence, Shiraishi slapped his chest with one palm, knocking his soul out from his back.

Orochimaru's consciousness blurred for a moment. He floated in the air, behind his own body, looking in astonishment at his translucent form before finally looking at the smiling Shiraishi.

"How did you do that?" Orochimaru asked urgently.

Shiraishi's right hand swept across the experimental table, picking up his glass bottle again. He held it directly in front of him, his gaze passing through the glass bottle to look at the soul of Orochimaru not far away.

"Because it was I who helped Danzo and the Third Hokage swap souls," Shiraishi said in a flat tone.

Orochimaru moved toward Shiraishi in a slightly comical fashion, as if swimming through water. "What kind of ninjutsu is this?"

Shiraishi smiled. He looked at Orochimaru and said, "Do you want to know?"

"Tell me." Orochimaru's eyes were full of longing.

Shiraishi placed the glass bottle back on the table, then looked at Orochimaru and reached out, pulling him back into his body.

With his soul returned to his physical form, Orochimaru swayed for a moment before re-adapting to his body, then looked up at Shiraishi.

Orochimaru suppressed the longing and urgency in his heart, regained his composure, and asked, "What do you want?"

Shiraishi pushed the glass bottle on the experimental table toward Orochimaru and said with a smile, "Clone a body that satisfies me using it."

"No problem." This time, Orochimaru's tone was full of certainty.

"Very good. This is a good start, just like my cooperation with Danzo," Shiraishi said with profound meaning.

Orochimaru naturally caught the implication in Shiraishi's words, and he began to laugh, finding the way things were developing increasingly interesting.

Shiraishi looked at Orochimaru and continued, "Orochimaru, I know you are pursuing immortality; it is a grand goal, something countless people seek but never attain."

"Soul transfer is a decent idea. Since the body will age, one simply discards the decaying vessel and transfers into a new, youthful one."

"By transferring time and again, you extend your life, achieving a form of immortality in a certain sense."

"It is a very sound line of reasoning, but unfortunately, you have overlooked one problem: it is not just the body that ages. Your soul will likewise decay under the erosion of time."

"Every single transfer only accelerates the rate at which your soul withers."

Having said this, Shiraishi paused, looked at the flickering expression on Orochimaru's face, reached out to pat his arm, and finally added.

"In this world, only I can grant you true immortality, because I possess the only method to strengthen the soul."