Half a Year Later, He Finally Met Orochimaru

The two of them returned to the inn feeling somewhat depressed.

"Where's your hat?"

After sitting down, they asked almost in unison...

"..."

Itachi picked up the teapot, instinctively wanting to pour himself a drink, but after thinking it over, he set it back down.

"Forget it. Let's go."

Itachi noticed several furtive figures lurking around the inn and spoke softly.

"Alright."

Juzo nodded lightly in response.

They understood each other perfectly.

The two of them left the inn and departed from the small town.

Neither of them felt much about the mission's failure.

They had even already come up with hundreds of excuses for it.

As long as they had enjoyed the fight, that was enough.

"Do you know what Orochimaru has been doing lately?"

Back at the inn, under the lights of the town, Itachi had not paid much attention to the decline in his eyesight.

But now that they were traveling through pitch-black darkness, his night vision had become appallingly bad, reminding him of Orochimaru.

If he had no chance to meet Orochimaru, then he would create one...

And after hearing Kakashi's words, he had a bad feeling. He was preparing to find time to infiltrate Konoha and take a look.

This had undoubtedly disrupted his original arrangements and plans.

The pace had accelerated as well.

"Why are you asking about Orochimaru? Don't tell me you want him as a teammate? Let me tell you, Orochimaru isn't a good person. You're from Konoha, so you should have heard about it. He casually uses children for experiments, and most of those test subjects are only twelve years old..."

Itachi's sudden question about Orochimaru gave Juzo a bad feeling.

Could it be that Juzo's poor performance this time had made the kid doubt his strength, making him consider abandoning him?

Itachi's sudden question and the mission's failure had already made Juzo imagine an entire dramatic scenario.

So, without any principles whatsoever, he badmouthed Orochimaru behind his back, hoping to dispel Itachi's thoughts.

After all, the two had originally come from the same village. It was not impossible for them to get together...

"Uh, I only want to meet him. There are some things I want to ask him, nothing else."

Itachi looked at Juzo strangely in response to his somewhat nervous words.

He felt a faint sense of emotion in his heart.

This damned charm...

"Oh, then that's good. When we head back this time, I'll help you ask around."

After hearing Itachi's answer, Juzo gave him a serious look. Seeing that he did not seem to be fooling him, he spoke softly.

It was not that he could not bear to part with Itachi. He simply did not want to get to know someone new. It was too troublesome.

And they had only just developed a bit of coordination. If they had to switch partners again, just thinking about it made his head hurt.

Of course, Itachi's strength and temperament were also exceptionally perfect, matching his ideal image of a teammate.

And the jokes Itachi made when drunk had brought a little life to Juzo's originally lifeless world.

"Alright, then I'll trouble you with it."

Hearing Juzo's words, Itachi nodded.

"You rest here for a while. The little rats behind us are too annoying. I'll go deal with them."

Juzo did not continue after hearing Itachi. He merely sensed that the rats behind them were still clinging on and spoke in annoyance.

"Mm."

Itachi had no intention of refusing Juzo's offer. He found them annoying too.

If Juzo had not spoken up, Itachi had planned to wait until his strength and stamina had recovered somewhat before personally swatting those flies to death.

As for whether Juzo could win, Itachi knew the answer.

If Juzo could not win, then he might as well give the Executioner's Blade to someone who needed it and go farm for a living.

Time flew by, and half a year passed in the blink of an eye.

At last, Itachi got his wish and met Orochimaru. Akatsuki's ambitions were enormous. Though it had few members, its reach extended across the entire ninja world. Therefore, it was common for Itachi to return to Akatsuki while Orochimaru was away, making it extremely difficult for them to meet.

"Itachi-kun, did you need something from me?"

The two sat across from each other in a small tavern.

Orochimaru took a light sip of wine and got straight to the point.

But his vertical pupils stared at Itachi's eyes as though examining prey, making Itachi slightly displeased.

Itachi took a displeased sip of wine, then pondered for a moment.

He did not know how to speak to Orochimaru—whether to be direct or test him first.

"Are you interested in my eyes?"

After thinking it over, Itachi spoke softly, opening with a bombshell.

Itachi's words made Orochimaru, who had been smiling pleasantly, freeze as his pupils contracted slightly.

He could not understand the thirteen-year-old boy before him...

The information he had gathered on Itachi had made him feel as though he understood Itachi completely, but this one sentence left him dumbfounded.

Faced with Itachi's blunt question, Orochimaru's mind stalled, and for a moment, he did not know what to say...

The atmosphere fell silent.

"Who wouldn't be interested in the secrets of the Sharingan..."

Orochimaru drank a cup of wine to steady himself before speaking gently, as though addressing an old friend.

The playful attitude of someone who seemed to treat life like a game, while inwardly dismissing everything with contempt, was gone.

His powerful mind allowed him to easily see through the hearts of others, keeping everything firmly under his control.

Thus, everyone before him seemed to have no secrets and be full of weaknesses, which made things rather dull.

Suddenly, he felt that the genius youth before him seemed a little different, making him even more interested.

Itachi was worth taking seriously.

He raised Itachi's status to that of an equal rather than looking him over like a child or prey.

"It seems your knowledge is insufficient to resolve my doubts."

Hearing Orochimaru's words, Itachi spoke with some disappointment. He then picked up his wine cup and took a sip, with no intention of putting it down.

It was as though this conversation had already reached its end.

"???"

Orochimaru's mind buzzed. What did that have to do with anything?

Why had Itachi suddenly started questioning his scholarship...

Seeing the usually sharp vertical pupils look slightly lost, Itachi felt somewhat satisfied.

This conversation was having good results.

He said nothing, merely taking one sip of wine after another.

He waited for Orochimaru to speak.

Just as Itachi's cup of wine was about to run out, Orochimaru had already calmed down.

"Itachi-kun, it seems your confusion runs deep."

Orochimaru studied Itachi, his words carrying hidden meaning.

"Can you make people with no blood relation become biological brothers?"

Seeing that Orochimaru had calmed down, Itachi spoke softly.

"What?"

Itachi's words stunned Orochimaru again.

They had just been talking about eyes, then Itachi questioned his scholarship, and now the topic had suddenly shifted to bloodlines...

"My eyes have already evolved from the Sharingan into the Mangekyo Sharingan. Their research value is greater than you imagine. If you cannot make people with no blood relation become biological brothers, then the conversation between us will end here."

Itachi set down his wine cup and stared calmly at Orochimaru.

Orochimaru was utterly confused by Itachi. He blankly stared into Itachi's deep eyes, completely bewildered.

Without realizing it, he had the direct feeling of being interviewed, while Itachi was the employer...