Uchiha Shingen leaped up onto the giant snake's head, pressed a hand against it, and forcibly dispelled its summoning, sending it back to Ryūchi Cave.
He landed on the ground and saw the soot-covered ANBU agents.
"Where's Orochimaru?" he asked irritably.
Sending people like this after Orochimaru—were they sure they weren't just feeding him kills?
Luckily, Orochimaru had been in a hurry to leave. Otherwise, if he had casually turned back to strike, these people would already be squatting in the Pure Land, warming themselves by the fire and grilling skewers.
"He headed north after breaking through the wall," an ANBU agent replied.
After speaking, the ANBU agent looked in the direction Uchiha Shingen had come from.
"Lord Shingen, did you come with Lord Jiraiya?"
"The Hokage summoned me," Uchiha Shingen said. Then he looked north and began sensing.
Oh? He sensed him. Jiraiya was there too.
Ignoring the ANBU agents, he departed with the Body Flicker Technique.
There was no need for Flying Thunder God here. He would let Orochimaru and Jiraiya have a proper little reunion first.
The Bond of the Legendary Sannin
As Uchiha Shingen raced through the forest, he recalled everything he knew about the Legendary Sannin.
The bond between the three of them was probably the most complicated and peculiar in the entire Naruto world.
Life and death, principles and techniques, ideals and reality—the three of them had made it all strangely symmetrical.
Orochimaru, who feared death, had gone mad researching ninjutsu in order to avoid it.
Tsunade, who cherished life, regarded it as more important than anything else.
Jiraiya believed that people were vessels for techniques. He had inherited Sarutobi Hiruzen's "principles."
Orochimaru believed that people were merely means to perform techniques. What he pursued was Sarutobi Hiruzen's "techniques." Thus, he felt no guilt