Sasuke Uchiha watched intently too. He had always said he loved fighting.
"Whoa, how come they can summon backup?"
As Sasuke watched the video, everyone was summoning either giant snakes or giant gorillas. How did they all have helpers?
"Can I summon something too?"
Having extra help really improved the odds of winning. Everyone had it except him. Wasn't that putting him at a disadvantage?! So Sasuke wondered whether he could summon something as well.
But every clan treasured its Summoning Techniques. They saved them for their closest relatives or demanded something in exchange. Who would just hand one over otherwise?
"I'll wait a little longer. Kakashi's Summoning Beast seems to be a dog?"
[The video continued.
Looking at Orochimaru, whose appearance had become youthful again, Hiruzen Sarutobi felt the pressure.
"Have you already mastered the Forbidden Technique?"
"These ten years away have been very hard on me."
Orochimaru spoke very calmly.
"You truly are a terrifying aberration!"
"It was that twisted soul of yours that kept me from choosing you as the Fourth Hokage."
Hiruzen Sarutobi's thoughts involuntarily drifted back to the day he had found Orochimaru in that basement.
(Back then, he had entered the basement with the Anbu and caught Orochimaru conducting experiments there.
The basement walls were covered with human test subjects. Some hung on the walls, while others had been stuffed into jars with only their legs sticking out.
It was cruelty at its worst, enough to shatter Hiruzen Sarutobi's understanding of the world.
He had heard that Shimura Danzō and Orochimaru were doing this, but supposedly only to infiltrators sent by other villages. That did not matter; they were enemies anyway. Yet it turned out there was far more to it.
Orochimaru had even spoken of his ambitions.
If he stitched a person with