Master and Disciple Meet Again

Orochimaru, the elite ninja who had defected from Konoha, was now walking through the streets of Kirigakure.

It was already evening. He walked alone down the streets, just as he once had in Konoha.

Loneliness seemed to have accompanied him all his life. It had always been that way.

Orochimaru had not come from any great, powerful, or noble clan. He had been born into a very ordinary ninja family. His parents had merely been two of Konoha's chunin; among the ranks of Konoha's hundred thousand ninja troops, people like them were insignificant.

Such a ninja family could offer its descendants little more help than commoners could. Orochimaru's path as a ninja had been filled with hardship from the start, especially after his parents died. The difficulties a child faced after losing both parents were something no one who had not experienced it firsthand could truly understand.

Orochimaru had been lucky. Sarutobi had taken him as a disciple, changing his life.

But he had also been talented. It was precisely because he had displayed extraordinary talent while attending the Ninja Academy that Sarutobi had taken notice of him.

Yet what had truly changed him was war. Having lived through war after war, beginning with the Second Shinobi World War, his heart had become twisted by it. But a distorted set of values did not mean he had lost everything he once held onto.

For example, even after he began pursuing the path of immortality, he still wanted a true successor—someone who could inherit his ideas regarding ninjutsu.

A ninja's so-called successor had never simply meant someone who learned their teacher's techniques. What they inherited was a philosophy, an understanding of ninjutsu. Generation after generation, ninjas passed their understanding on through successors, who then continued to develop it.

The various schools