The Secret of the Ōtsutsuki

"Ask whatever you want. It's just the two of us here." Xuanye slouched back in his chair.

Orochimaru took the sealing scroll as though it were a priceless treasure.

This was an alien's corpse! He had to study it thoroughly!

So there was a far vaster world beyond the sky, with even a race that could cross the void on the strength of their bodies alone!

Orochimaru could practically feel his researcher's DNA stirring. He wanted to extract a vial of Otsutsuki Cells and inject them into himself right away.

"I do have one question. Lord Hokage, you seem very familiar with the Ōtsutsuki Clan?"

And that wasn't all. Orochimaru had also noticed that Xuanye knew quite a bit about Sasuke.

Back when Sasuke from the future appeared, Xuanye hadn't even seemed particularly surprised.

Xuanye tapped his index finger rhythmically against the table, then shared what he could with Orochimaru.

"Have you heard the legends of the Sage of Six Paths and Ninshu?"

Those events had happened nearly a thousand years ago. After the chaos of the Warring States Period, many records had been destroyed.

All that remained were scattered fragments, little more than strange legends.

But Orochimaru had always been interested in them and had searched far and wide for clues to those legends.

The strongest ninja clans of the Warring States Period—including the Senju, Uchiha, Uzumaki, and Hyuga—had left the most records. Yet many were vague, and some even contradicted one another.

If Orochimaru wanted to uncover the ultimate secrets of ninjutsu, he first had to learn where it had begun.

Even where chakra itself had come from.

But time was merciless. It could erase every trace that something had ever existed.

The fact that Orochimaru had managed to deduce that the Sage of Six Paths and Ninshu