Concentration

After speaking with Yukimura and Isaribi, Mizuki left with a Body Flicker Technique. When he reappeared, he was still in the Land of Waves, but this time, inside a small inn room.

"So it was you, Orochimaru! You really are impossible to get rid of..."

This youth, who looked remarkably similar to Orochimaru, was likely the one who had tempted Yukimura.

The youth froze upon seeing Mizuki, then gave a soft laugh.

"I failed to wait for the person I wanted, yet Senior Mizuki came knocking instead. What a miscalculation!"

"Senior? You've really got some nerve saying that..."

"What's wrong with it?"

Mitsuki rose to his feet and answered calmly.

"Strictly speaking, I was born less than a year ago. Calling you Senior is perfectly appropriate..."

"Orochimaru, do you find this kind of joke amusing? Don't think that just because you put a puppet out front, I won't be able to find your real body!"

"How would I dare underestimate Senior Mizuki's abilities? However..."

Mitsuki answered without the slightest fear.

"I still hope you will call me Mitsuki!"

"Mitsuki?"

Mizuki frowned. This guy was quite different from the Mitsuki he remembered. Even his hair color was clearly different—a head of black hair was worlds apart from the white-haired Mitsuki in Mizuki's memories.

If this was real, then it was truly extraordinary. Mizuki had no choice but to admire Orochimaru's decisiveness.

A man indifferent to human nature was ruthless toward others and just as unsparing toward himself.

"Casting aside your past completely and gaining a new life? What an astonishing move!"

"It's nothing much. Isn't that how life continues? You know about that old Third's so-called Will of Fire, right? The inheritance of will, the cycle of life—those are also natural principles. Otherwise, why would humans bear children and raise descendants?