Gojo Satoru was still lying in the tree, his eyes closed, when he sensed that sticky gaze.
"Come out," he said coldly.
"You seem to have known I was here all along?" Orochimaru broke through the trunk and emerged, his snakelike eyes fixed on him. "How did you do it?"
The chakra in his body was incredibly faint, yet he had pinpointed Orochimaru's hiding place with ease.
Interesting. So fucking interesting.
"Slippery, slimy things like you really get on my nerves." Gojo Satoru sneered.
"That's not very polite." Orochimaru stared at him, finding him more intriguing by the second.
"Stop pretending. I know we're cut from the same cloth."
"Could a tiger from the mountains be trapped in some piss-ant village?"
"Konoha can't cage you."
"What exactly are you getting at?" Gojo Satoru gave Orochimaru a strange look.
For the moment, he couldn't work out what Orochimaru wanted.
What the hell was this guy planning?
"Heh..." Orochimaru stuck out his long tongue and curled it, forcing a chilling smile onto his face. "So impatient."
"Uchiha Satoru, would you like to become my apprentice?"
"Staying in Konoha, staying with the Uchiha... you must be suffering, feeling trapped, aren't you?"
Suffering? Trapped? Gojo Satoru's mind instantly filled with question marks.
Had he gotten his wires crossed? Mistaken him for someone else?
Orochimaru kept talking. "You wear that blindfold all day. There must be something seriously wrong with your eyes."
"Bearing the Uchiha name, yet unable to use the power those eyes should give you... doesn't it make you seethe with hatred?"
"No one in your clan understands your pain."
"And those people in Konoha have even less idea what's going on inside your head."
"This world is so narrow and twisted. Isn't it laughable?"
"It's all right. I understand you."
"I understand those ideas of yours that are ahead of their time, the things inside your mind."
"Thought is what truly rules this world."
"So? Will you become my apprentice?"
"Right now, I'm exploring the secrets of life and the limits of the human body."
"Only I can lay everything you want before you."
"When I heard you talking about truth and life last time, I knew we were the same."
"Come to me. Everything you want is right here."
Orochimaru's words were thick with temptation. Brimming with confidence, he watched Gojo Satoru suddenly go still.
Uchiha Satoru, I've already seen through every last part of you.
Come to me, you creature born to steep in darkness and live with hatred on your back.
Gojo Satoru was genuinely stunned by Orochimaru's long speech.
We're the same?
Gojo Satoru considered his own handsome face, then glanced at the slime left behind after Orochimaru had shed his skin.
How could we possibly be the same? We don't even count as the same species.
He had no desire to team up with anything soft and squishy.
By now, he had figured out why Orochimaru had sought him out.
Put plainly, Orochimaru wanted his Uchiha name and his brain.
"I'm not interested in any of that."
"And there's nothing that has me seething with hatred."
"Much less any reason for me to become your apprentice."
Having said his piece, Gojo Satoru locked his eyes on Orochimaru, secretly readying himself for a fight.
With his current abilities, he had no reason whatsoever to fear Orochimaru.
The only headache was figuring out how to explain himself afterward if he revealed his powers.
"You couldn't have said those things without some hatred in your heart," Orochimaru remarked pointedly.
Still putting on a brave face? Still desperately holding it down?
A wild beast was nothing like a house cat. Sooner or later, it would taste blood.
Orochimaru's cryptic guessing game was leaving Gojo Satoru speechless.
I've said all sorts of things. At least tell me which one you mean.
Compared with the Naruto of the future, Orochimaru's gift of gab fell miles short. He never managed to hit the right note.
Gojo Satoru's patience was nearly exhausted.
"That's all just your own wild speculation," he said coldly.
Instead, Orochimaru took that as an admission.
"You'll come to me sooner or later."
"Unripe fruit is the most mouthwatering."
"I'll just have to be patient."
"Let's hope you haven't turned into rotten fruit by the next time we meet."
Leaving those words behind, Orochimaru drew himself back into the tree and vanished.
"Unripe fruit?" "That whole apple thing?"
"Has Hisoka possessed Orochimaru?"
That routine was clearly old dialogue from another hit anime.
Had the barrier between worlds cracked? Were the wires getting crossed?
Gojo Satoru pondered it glumly.
Before you continue