Orochimaru looked up. The sky had already darkened; even blanketed by dark clouds, judging by the time, it was dusk.
Danzō had sent people to find him several times, and he had met with Danzō as well. Naturally, their conversations had revolved around the Fourth Hokage election.
Danzō's intentions were clear: he supported Orochimaru, but he also hoped that once Orochimaru became Hokage, he would hand the Anbu over to him completely.
Orochimaru had given no response to that. He did not care much about the Anbu, and even regarding the Hokage position, though he had some thoughts about it, he would not mind if he truly failed to be elected.
Compared to handling the village's tedious affairs, he preferred the feeling of researching the true essence of ninjutsu. Seeing the principles behind one ninjutsu after another dissected by his own hand, then using them to derive entirely new ninjutsu that had never existed before, filled him with delight.
However, his recent research had hit a bottleneck and had made no progress for a long time, which troubled him greatly. To that end, he had secretly captured more test subjects, but they did not seem particularly useful.
He also knew that conducting such forbidden experiments in a place like Konoha would bring severe consequences if discovered.
In fact, Danzō knew more or less about these experiments. In certain areas, Orochimaru had even cooperated with Danzō's Root, and some of the techniques had been obtained from Root. He had heard they had been left behind from the era of the Second Hokage.
But knowing was one thing. Orochimaru also understood that if this matter were truly exposed, Danzō certainly would not step forward to protect him. He might even be the first to kick him while he was down.
That was