Meanwhile, in the Village Hidden in the Sound, far away in the Land of Rice Fields.
When word reached this place that Yeyu had become Konoha's Fifth Hokage,
Orochimaru, who was recuperating from his injuries, wore a cold expression.
"It was that guy. Hiruzen really passed the position of Hokage to him. He must have been the Third Hokage's most favored disciple."
"That damned bastard. The Third Hokage really was lucky."
Orochimaru harbored immense resentment toward Yeyu.
He had once hated Yeyu beyond measure, but that hatred was gone now.
Instead, all he felt toward Yeyu was resentment.
Resentment that Yeyu had killed him time and again.
As for why there was no hatred, after being killed twice in a row, he had simply resigned himself to it.
There was no point in hating someone he could never avenge himself against in his lifetime.
It would only trap him in endless mental exhaustion.
Besides, the enmity between him and Yeyu had originally been caused by himself.
So he no longer bore much hatred toward Yeyu.
But his resentment was truly intense.
That bastard had killed him twice in a row, and the last time, he had even done so in such a humiliating manner.
He had erased him with nothing more than a single finger.
To the point that Orochimaru's research direction had changed over the years.
He had realized that Yeyu was extraordinary, so he had been studying him all along.
But Orochimaru's intelligence-gathering abilities could be judged by the fact that, despite having many spies in Konoha, he had not even known Naruto was the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki during the Chunin Exams.
He was only exceptional at learning ninjutsu and researching biotechnology.
In other areas, he was actually rather average.
Thus, with Konoha deliberately sealing off information about Yeyu