Yoru leaned back in a large leather chair and dug at his ear with his pinky.
A small chunk of yellow earwax came out from beneath his nail. He flicked it away casually, his fingertip tracing a slight arc through the air.
"A grand gift for our meeting?"
Yoru glanced sideways at Orochimaru and let out an undisguised sneer.
"A four-eyes wearing round glasses stole a few lousy bones from your lab and came to offer them to me as a gift?"
Yoru curled his lip, the collar of his trench coat brushing against his chin and scratching slightly.
"Uncle Snake, your skill at raising disciples is on par with that old monkey Hiruzen Sarutobi. Every student you teach turns out to be an ungrateful traitor."
Orochimaru rolled his eyes at the venomous remark, the muscles in his pale face twitching uncontrollably twice.
He instinctively stuck out his long tongue and licked his cracked lips, coughing twice from his throat like a broken bellows.
"Lord Yoru... that boy Kabuto has a very deep mind. He usually acts like a lapdog, but he has rebellion in his bones."
The formaldehyde stench that constantly clung to Orochimaru grew even stronger as he leaned forward.
"What he stole was not only the ashes of the previous Kage, but also the Second Hokage's manuscript that I had only half finished improving."
"Impure World Reincarnation."
A heavy wariness surfaced in Orochimaru's golden snake eyes, mixed with the fury of being bitten by his own dog.
"He completely mastered this forbidden technique. He even patched the flaws in my control formula."
"Now he held a whole stack of dead cards in his hand, and they were top-tier trump cards that could not die."
Ōnoki sat nearby, holding a chipped enamel tea mug.
The old man frowned