Orochimaru's Despair

Hearing Danzo's words, Jiraiya shrugged and said indifferently, "Understood, Councilors."

As his voice fell, he turned and walked away.

Following Jiraiya's departure, Utatane Koharu shot a cold snort at Danzo before leaving with her personal guards.

Mitokado Homura remained behind to oversee the situation, preparing for the upcoming memorial service and the pacification of the affected civilians.

As for those unlucky genin?

Apologies, but since your luck was poor, please try the exam again next time.

As for the fake Danzo, after making his presence felt, he departed with the members of Root.

Outside Konoha, Uchiha Yan had been searching for traces of Orochimaru.

Heaven rewards the diligent; Uchiha Yan finally spotted signs of Orochimaru and his party on a tree branch.

Uchiha Yan followed the trail, and just as he had expected, Orochimaru and his group had not gone far.

He had only been tracking the trail for about half an hour when he saw several of Orochimaru's subordinates supporting him as they moved forward.

Orochimaru seemed to sense something as well.

He suddenly turned his head to look back, catching sight of Uchiha Yan's figure.

Orochimaru chose to stop right there, for anyone capable of finding him and possessing the courage to track him alone must be confident in their ability to take him down; rather than struggle in vain, it was better to grant himself a dignified end.

After all, he still had plenty of trump cards; he could escape whenever he pleased.

Seeing Orochimaru stop voluntarily, his subordinates asked in confusion, "Lord Orochimaru, do you wish to rest? Please, wait until we have left the Land of Fire before resting."

"No." Orochimaru shook his head.

"You go on. I cannot go back."

Only then did the subordinates turn their attention to Uchiha Yan.

Uchiha Yan had appeared on a tree branch at some point.

The Uchiha Gunbai crest on his back was strikingly prominent.

Those scarlet Sharingan eyes emitted an eerie glow, looking down at them from above with a playful expression.

"A brat from the Uchiha clan?!"

The subordinates gritted their teeth, making moves to reach for their weapons.

The chakra on their bodies began to surge violently.

In their eyes, a young jonin from Konoha, even one bearing the Uchiha name, was being far too arrogant.

"Stand down," Orochimaru said in a chilling tone.

The subordinates were puzzled, but they still lowered their weapons.

Uchiha Yan leaned against the tree trunk and said calmly, "A wise choice, Orochimaru."

"In exchange for your cooperation, I can spare your subordinates."

Hearing Uchiha Yan's arrogant words, Orochimaru did not get angry.

He simply said to the subordinates behind him, "Go. If I die here, there will be no one left to prepare the Reincarnation Ritual for me."

The subordinates exchanged glances, but they ultimately followed Orochimaru's order and chose to leave.

Watching their retreating backs, Uchiha Yan couldn't be bothered to pursue them.

Because his target from beginning to end had always been Orochimaru.

He jumped down from the tree and walked slowly to a spot about three meters away from Orochimaru.

"Orochimaru, will you come with me willingly, or must I do it myself?"

Orochimaru hung his hands at his sides and replied, "I will go with you."

Uchiha Yan seemed to have anticipated Orochimaru's response, saying, "At least you know what's good for you."

With that, he pulled out steel wire, preparing to bind Orochimaru.

The moment he drew near, Orochimaru's eyes suddenly turned vicious.

His neck stretched out to an incredible length, lunging straight for Uchiha Yan's throat.

As one of the Konoha Sannin, it was impossible for Orochimaru to surrender without a fight.

He had long coveted the power of the Uchiha Sharingan back when he was still in Konoha.

As he bit into Uchiha Yan's neck and successfully branded him with the Cursed Seal, Orochimaru's eyes were filled with excitement. "Hahaha, success! I shall accept your body as my own."

The arrogant laughter echoed through the silent forest, startling the birds in the treetops into flight.

Orochimaru's face was etched with pure ecstasy.

The Heaven Curse Seal on Uchiha Yan's neck was spreading rapidly.

He felt as though he could already see this perfect vessel—full of vitality and possessing the pure bloodline of the Sharingan—about to become completely his to command.

The Uchiha body... it is finally mine after all... hehehe...

However, Orochimaru's laughter abruptly caught in his throat.

Orochimaru suddenly realized that the scene before him had begun to look extremely unnatural.

The black curse seal patterns that had been spreading across Uchiha Yan's neck were now drifting and dissipating into the air, looking like a swarm of ink-black tadpoles that had lost all control.

Furthermore, his pride and joy, the "Heaven Curse Seal," had not made contact with any solid substance at all.

Even the surrounding environment began to twist and overlap violently, like ripples spreading across the surface of a pond.

"What is this...?!"

Orochimaru's golden snake-like pupils shrank into thin slits.

A sickening sense of powerlessness instantly enveloped his entire body.

"Orochimaru, you laughed too early, and your laughter sounded far too unpleasant."

A mocking voice drifted down from directly above him.

Orochimaru snapped his head upward.

He saw Uchiha Yan still leaning comfortably against the same tree trunk as before, arms crossed, looking down at him. Those scarlet Three-Tomoe Sharingan were staring fixedly at him.

As Orochimaru looked down at his own body, he discovered that he was bound tightly to a wooden stake by countless steel wires, unable to move a muscle.

From the very first moment he had laid eyes on Uchiha Yan—no, to be precise, from the very second he had conceived the thought of resistance—he had already fallen completely into a genjutsu.

When exactly did I fall into this genjutsu?

Orochimaru's face turned deathly pale; he had always considered his mental fortitude to be incredibly strong.

Moreover, he had only looked directly into Uchiha Yan's Sharingan for a single instant.

He never expected to be trapped in a genjutsu so immediately.

What humiliated Orochimaru most of all was how easily he had been subdued.

This genjutsu had been released by Uchiha Yan himself, not broken by his own efforts.

Uchiha Yan had simply watched him like a spectator, voluntarily dispelling the illusion and looking down at him with the gaze one might reserve for an ant.

For the naturally arrogant Orochimaru, this was nothing short of a profound disgrace.

Yet, the look he directed at Uchiha Yan grew increasingly fanatical.

Is this the terror of possessing a Kekkei Genkai?

"Hehehe... Hahahahaha!"

Orochimaru did not beg for mercy; instead, he began to laugh in a low voice.

In those golden snake-like pupils, the fear was fading, replaced by a fanaticism bordering on pilgrimage:

"Kekkei Genkai... so this is a Kekkei Genkai! There is no need to spend decades practicing hand seals like an ordinary ninja, no need to sense the flow of chakra on the edge of life and death. A single glance is enough to hold an ordinary ninja in the palm of one's hand."

"It is truly... so beautiful, and so worthy of envy, Yan-kun."

As Orochimaru looked at the Uchiha Yan before him, he could not help but recall the past.

In the eyes of others, he was a "genius" of Konoha, one of the "Sannin" who had shaken the ninja world.

But only he knew how desperate and powerless he had felt on this path of seeking the truth.

Orochimaru had spent his entire life pursuing the pinnacle of ninjutsu, striving to learn every technique in the world and become a being stronger than anyone else.

Yet, as time passed and his perspective broadened, Orochimaru began to realize his own former naivety.

His teammate, Tsunade, was the granddaughter of the First Hokage.

Although she had not inherited the Wood Release of the First Hokage, her sheer physical strength alone had already made her a ninja of his own caliber.

His other teammate, Jiraiya, was a dead-last student.

Yet, he seemed to be favored by the heavens; while practicing the Summoning Jutsu, he had inexplicably performed a reverse-summon to Mount Myoboku, one of the three great sage regions, and mastered sage arts.

And what of him, Orochimaru? He had nothing. No, that wasn't true—he still possessed the status of a genius, praised by the old man as a talent seen only once in several decades.

The White Snake Sage of Ryuchi Cave looked down on his mortal body, deeming it incapable of bearing perfect sage chakra; the forbidden jutsu he had painstakingly analyzed seemed like a joke in the face of true bloodline power.

He did not envy his teammates; he simply felt a sincere sense of anger and injustice.

Some people were born as the darlings of the heavens, possessing at birth the Kekkei Genkai that ordinary people would spend their entire lives looking up to.

What truly filled Orochimaru with despair was a record he had found in a secret Konoha file.

It contained an account of the battle between Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama.

Orochimaru's thoughts drifted back to the night before he had been granted access to the classified archives of Konoha.

"Yan-kun, you have heard of the Valley of the End, haven't you?"

Orochimaru's voice was hoarse, tinged with a hint of despair: "The world believes it was merely an ordinary duel between two of the ninja world's peak powerhouses."

"But when I was in the archives, flipping through the 'Battle of the Valley of the End Report' personally recorded by the Second Hokage regarding Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara... for the first time, I understood what true, absolute despair felt like."

"What was recorded there wasn't ninjutsu at all; it was a miracle, a catastrophe!"

"Uchiha Madara used some incomprehensible technique to manipulate a chakra giant, draping it over the strongest tailed beast, the Nine-Tails."

"The mere shockwave from the chakra blade in his hand could level an entire mountain range."

"And to counter him, Senju Hashirama pressed his palms together and summoned a Thousand-Hand Giant Buddha that was dozens of times larger than the Nine-Tails!"

"What an absurd display of power..."