At that thought, Orochimaru's gaze flickered. From what he knew of Shimura Danzō, he did not believe the man would dare create Nawaki's clone, much less let him out to participate in the Chunin Ninja Exams.
After all, Konoha's current Hokage was Tsunade. With her explosive temper, if Danzo dared do such a thing, she would tear his Root apart without hesitation.
Orochimaru's gaze darkened at the thought, and he slowly approached Nawaki without drawing attention to himself.
For the moment, Orochimaru had set everything else aside. Nawaki now occupied his thoughts completely.
The reason Orochimaru had vanished from the Shinobi World over the years was that he had secluded himself to research the Immortality Technique.
Once the Hokage's most prized student, and later one of the renowned Sannin, Orochimaru had abandoned his pursuit of the Hokage position because his interest had long since shifted to the Immortality Technique. To obtain the necessary experimental materials and information, he had even collaborated with Shimura Danzō.
That alone showed how fanatical he was about the Immortality Technique.
Nor had those years been fruitless. He had even developed Living Corpse Reincarnation. In theory, as long as Orochimaru continued using this technique, he could keep replacing his body with a younger one and achieve immortality.
However, as the only shinobi who knew the technique, Orochimaru had a nagging sense that the forbidden technique he had invented had some sort of limitation. If he kept using it repeatedly, his soul might become so fragmented that he would eventually die anyway.
Thus, after briefly losing himself at the sight of Nawaki, Orochimaru immediately realized that if Nawaki truly had come back from the dead, his value as a research subject would far surpass that of any other specimen.
If he could uncover the secret behind Nawaki's