In less than half a day, Shinichi and Shisui arrived at the location Orochimaru had chosen.
It turned out to be an abandoned mountain village, with not a soul anywhere in sight. It was practically the middle of nowhere.
Tap, tap.
Those familiar footsteps sounded again. Growing bored with waiting, Shinichi suddenly looked up, and there he was.
Orochimaru had finally arrived.
"Shinichi, I didn't expect you to be so eager to see me."
Delight flickered in Orochimaru's eyes.
"Oh, give it a rest."
Shinichi rolled his eyes at Orochimaru. "If you didn't want to see me, why would you specifically pick this place? You've been waiting for me to come find you all along!"
If his guess was right, Orochimaru had headed straight to the Land of Fire after they parted and stayed in this desolate place, waiting for him to return to Konoha.
"I knew I hadn't misjudged you. You're very clever, Shinichi."
Orochimaru smiled. "But I'm no fool, either. You must have had an important reason for sparing me last time. Let me guess-you want me to help you with something unusual, don't you? Something those fools in Konoha mustn't find out about..."
Orochimaru really was Orochimaru.
After just one meeting, he had already figured out almost exactly what Shinichi was thinking.
"So, Shinichi, you want to dabble in forbidden jutsu too?"
Orochimaru flicked his tongue over his lips, his expression growing increasingly excited.
He instinctively assumed Shinichi was the same sort of person as Danzo, wanting to use him to research various forbidden jutsu and Kekkei Genkai. Orochimaru was undoubtedly passionate about such work. As long as the compensation was sufficient, he would never refuse, no matter who approached him.
"You could say that!"
After a moment's thought, Shinichi spun his story. "You know I have