Orochimaru's golden snake pupils suddenly contracted.
He looked at his dry clothes and the mud beneath his feet, where there was not a trace of standing water. His eyes brimmed with fervor.
"Genjutsu... Hehehe, even the senses, temperature, and even the sensation of rain falling under gravity have been simulated flawlessly. What an eye-opener, Yan-kun. Is this your power?"
Orochimaru murmured his admiration in a voice only the two of them could hear.
He had thought he already held Uchiha Yan in high enough regard, but he had never expected the other man to silently pull him into an absolute space for a private conversation with genjutsu right under the eyes of tens of thousands of people.
Uchiha Yan did not respond. He merely held Orochimaru by the shoulder with one hand and escorted him onto the raised platform.
After several days of imprisonment, Orochimaru looked somewhat disheveled.
His once clean and tidy outer robe was now covered in dust.
The instant Orochimaru's face appeared, the previously silent square erupted!
"Orochimaru!!"
"It was this bastard!! He killed Lord Lord Third!!"
"Skin him alive! Use his blood to honor the dead!!"
Countless civilians and ordinary shinobi who had endured days of humiliation and fear completely lost their minds at that moment.
Mud, eggs, and even shuriken thrown by emotionally unstable genin rained down upon the execution platform.
Yet several meters away from the platform, all those projectiles were precisely intercepted by the Anbu using ninja tools.
"Let him speak! Let's hear what excuses this S-rank rogue ninja still has!!"
"Lord Yan, please uphold justice!!"
The cries rose wave after wave. An ordinary shinobi would likely have been unable to remain standing under such pressure.
But Orochimaru, who had weathered countless storms, showed no fear whatsoever. A pitying smile even curled across