"Shinji, who were you just talking to?"
Shinji glanced up at Orochimaru. "Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha. They've agreed to remain in the Land of the Living and face the coming Otsutsuki crisis. But if they're going to fight the Otsutsuki, powerful as they are..."
"They could be stronger!"
"..."
Orochimaru fell silent for a moment, his eyes flickering as he considered something.
Shinji shook his head gently. "Orochimaru, have you ever thought about it?"
"...About what?"
Orochimaru came back to himself and looked at Shinji in confusion.
"You were with me from the beginning and helped me accomplish so much. No one was more determined to pursue immortality than you. Yet now you only want to witness it. Have you never thought of attaining it yourself?"
Orochimaru smiled. The man he was now and the "snake man" Shinji had first met might as well have been different creatures...
One was like a snake.
The other was like a courteous researcher with ideals and ambitions.
Those ideals and ambitions, so unlike anything he had held before, even seemed to have eclipsed his desire for eternal life.
"Shinji, do you know when my dream of immortality began? Or rather, when the first seed of it took root..."
Shinji smiled. "I know. You saw the Second's forbidden techniques early on, and you wanted to learn every Ninjutsu, grasp every truth in the world, and become the ultimate being. That would take a very, very long life."
"Hahaha!"
Orochimaru planted his hands on his hips and laughed, a trace of nostalgia in his eyes. "Yes. That was indeed what I sought at first... The old man once told me a shed snakeskin symbolized rebirth and good fortune. Of course, my parents played a part too..."
His laughter gradually faded.
He slowly raised a