Orochimaru narrowed his eyes and looked at Oguri Hayashi with his small, cold eyes.
Impure World Reincarnation was a forbidden technique. Even the Hokage were not permitted to learn it, because it was a jutsu that desecrated the dead. Even Orochimaru had only obtained Impure World Reincarnation from Danzo.
Theoretically, no one besides Danzo and Orochimaru knew about this. Yet Oguri Hayashi's matter-of-fact tone made Orochimaru assume that, after seeing the technique in the forbidden scroll, he had naturally presumed Orochimaru knew it.
"Lin-kun should know the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu too, right? Why are you asking me to perform it?" Orochimaru did not deny Oguri Hayashi's words, but Tsunade stared at him in shock. She truly had not known that Orochimaru knew this forbidden technique.
As an upright man, Hiruzen Sarutobi would never have given this technique to Orochimaru. Yet Orochimaru had still learned it. The implications were troubling, and Princess Tsunade, who understood Konoha's politics, shuddered at the thought.
On the other hand, it was hardly surprising that Oguri Hayashi, who had stolen the forbidden technique, knew it.
"I have reasons I can't talk about. Otherwise, I would have done this long ago," Oguri Hayashi said with a smile to Orochimaru.
"But if Lord Orochimaru revives him, I guarantee that what you gain will satisfy you." Orochimaru narrowed his eyes and stared at Oguri Hayashi for a moment before finally abandoning the thought. "Very well, since Lin-kun says so."
Orochimaru was no pushover either. If Oguri Hayashi truly dared deceive him, Orochimaru would not mind fighting him.
In his eyes, aside from those strange taijutsu techniques, it would already be an impressive achievement and talent if Oguri Hayashi could catch up to him within three years. But he had the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu.
Oguri Hayashi might also know the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu, but he did not have the cells and genes of those powerful figures! What did Orochimaru have? The First Hokage's cells! The Second Hokage's cells! Although Tsunade was here, those cells were indeed an extremely powerful deterrent when used as a trump card.
Oguri Hayashi should understand that as well.
Shifting his gaze away from Oguri Hayashi, Orochimaru spat a sword from his mouth. Oguri Hayashi's eyes lit up at the sight of it. This was one of the divine artifacts, the Kusanagi Sword, and it was incredibly powerful.
Orochimaru used the sword to cut off Wuying's palm. Although Wuying himself was right here, using the original body for the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu would have been best. But he was not dead yet, and blood still sprayed from the severed wrist. Orochimaru casually used Chakra to heal the wound and stop the bleeding, then placed the palm on a stone as an altar.
As a researcher, he naturally carried corpses with him.
He casually unsealed a corpse from a sealing scroll as the necessary "prop," and Tsunade's expression turned unpleasant.
She suddenly understood why Oguri Hayashi had wanted cremation followed by burial. Before Impure World Reincarnation, even burial was absolutely unsafe.
Orochimaru began forming hand seals, then slapped the ground.
A coffin suddenly rose from the earth. When it opened, a person whose entire body looked like cracked porcelain, yet had not fallen apart, stepped out.
He was limp all over, his arms hanging at his sides like a zombie. Orochimaru brought his hands together, and his eyes suddenly flew open.
He was Wuying, the man whose brain had just been cooked.
"Wasn't I dead?" It was the first time Oguri Hayashi and the others had heard him speak. He had remained silent all along.
"That's right. Your corpse is still over there." Oguri Hayashi gestured with his chin.
Wuying turned to look at his own corpse lying limply on the ground, and a bitter smile appeared on his face. "So I really am dead?"
"Enough reminiscing. Who are you? Which village are you from?" Orochimaru asked.
As the caster, he had absolute control over the target of the technique. Wuying paused for a moment before answering, "I'm not a ninja. I'm a visitor from another world."
His single sentence shocked Orochimaru and Tsunade. Oguri Hayashi remained silent beside them; he had long known where Wuying came from.
"I originally came from a peaceful world, but I was taken by the [Infinite Hall] and made into a chess piece. After being strengthened through two or three worlds, I gained these abilities that can rival a jonin."
"Just three months ago, I was still an ordinary person."
His words greatly shocked Orochimaru and Tsunade. Not everyone was a genius like Kakashi, capable of becoming a jonin at twelve. Even Kakashi, with his family background, had needed twelve years to become a jonin. As for everyone else, there were countless jonin in their thirties and forties.
Yet no matter what, they could not compare to someone who had become a jonin in just three months.
Tsunade and Orochimaru had fought him before, so they naturally knew how formidable and strange he was. He might have retreated the moment he made contact and dared not fight, but that was because he had been facing the Three Sannin, who were already Kage-level.
If he encountered an ordinary jonin, his bizarre tactics could inflict tremendous damage.
The reason three-star Reincarnators were confident they could kill jonin with the same three-star evaluation was because their techniques and mindsets were entirely different from those of the local natives. A single trick could carry them far, and it was perfectly normal for natives to be killed by powers from an entirely different system.
"You..." A mocking smile appeared on Wuying's face. "You are merely a world—no, merely a world created by a manga artist. You, Orochimaru of the Three Sannin, and you, Tsunade of the Three Sannin, your fates have already been decided. You simply cannot escape destiny."
Though he was already dead, and though Orochimaru controlled his existence, it did not stop him from displaying the arrogance and condescension of a "real person."
But unlike the scenario in his mind, where they would be shocked and collapse upon hearing the news, the powerful Orochimaru and Tsunade merely frowned with curiosity on their faces. "How so?"
If the Three Sannin could collapse because of someone else's words, that would be truly laughable.
Filled with a powerful desire for revenge, Wuying proceeded to recount the plot of Naruto in great detail.
"You are not the protagonists. You are merely supporting characters. The true protagonist is the son of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze: Naruto Uzumaki. The story begins after this brat inherits the Nine-Tails."
His words echoed through the small grove, but for some reason, both Orochimaru and Tsunade involuntarily turned their gazes toward Oguri Hayashi, making Wuying, who believed himself to be the protagonist, gradually lower his voice.
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