Orochimaru

"Ah! Orochimaru!" Hatake Ziyan took a sip of wine and spoke without turning his head.

Seeing that Hatake Ziyan had not driven him away, Orochimaru walked over and sat beside him.

"People really are fragile, but they also have the greatest potential!" Hatake Ziyan said.

Orochimaru was taken aback by his words. Looking at Hatake Ziyan, he said, "Even so, human lives are very short, and war kills far too many people. I want to create a ninjutsu that can grant people eternal life, but I have no idea where to start!"

Hatake Ziyan glanced at Orochimaru, then took another sip of wine and gazed at the village below. He realized that Orochimaru had yet to begin researching the Reincarnation Technique. With Orochimaru's intellect, he thought, perhaps he really could develop the Creation Technique if his research followed the right path!

"Orochimaru, how do you think someone could achieve eternal life?" Hatake Ziyan asked.

Orochimaru pondered for a moment before saying, "The soul! I believe only the soul can exist forever. The body is insignificant. I want to develop a ninjutsu that can attach my soul to someone else's body and prolong my life that way.

"As long as I succeed, I can overcome both the destruction of my body and natural aging. Then I'll be able to live forever!"

Watching Orochimaru revel in his imagined future, Hatake Ziyan interrupted his fantasy. "You might cling to life for quite a few years that way, but that's all you'd be doing. With your method, you would lose some of your soul's power every time you reincarnated. You might not notice anything in the short term, but over time, your resistance to genjutsu would weaken. Given long enough, you might become an idiot!"

Orochimaru frowned and looked at Hatake Ziyan. "How do you know that? Have you researched it too?"

Hatake Ziyan chuckled. "I wouldn't research that sort of thing! What I pursue is the pinnacle of the martial way, the sublimation of the soul, and an immortal body! If I achieve that, I can live forever too, and the results would be infinitely better than your shortcut!"

Orochimaru sank into thought again. A powerful man like Hatake Ziyan had no reason to deceive him. After all, if he did not want to talk to him, he could simply ignore him. Orochimaru would not dare do anything to him anyway.

But that was precisely the problem. If Hatake Ziyan was telling the truth and had never researched the Reincarnation Technique, how did he know where its flaws lay?

Orochimaru, who had always considered himself intelligent, found himself at a loss for how to continue the conversation with Hatake Ziyan.

After thinking for a long time, Orochimaru opened his mouth, but not a single word came out.

Naturally, Hatake Ziyan noticed Orochimaru's awkwardness beside him and continued sipping his sake with a chuckle.

Orochimaru was also watching Hatake Ziyan's reaction. Seeing him smile as he drank, Orochimaru could tell how little importance Hatake Ziyan placed on the matter.

"Lord Sword God, since you know about this flaw, do you also know how to fix it? Could your method resolve the loss of soul power after reincarnation that you mentioned?" Orochimaru hurriedly asked.

Hatake Ziyan looked at Orochimaru and asked, "What use are you to me?"

Orochimaru froze, then immediately understood what Hatake Ziyan meant. This was only their second meeting. Why should Hatake Ziyan give him the real answer to something like this? If their positions were reversed, he would not tell someone he had met only twice about a ninjutsu that could grant eternal life either!

Hatake Ziyan did not rush Orochimaru for an answer. He stood and said, "If you think you have something worth offering, you can trade it for the answer. You can come find me anytime. I won't be leaving Konoha for a while!

"Of course, if you don't believe me, you can research it yourself. But I have to warn you: don't use people from Konoha for human experiments. If you dare do that, I'll kill you myself!"

With that, Hatake Ziyan left without wasting any more words on Orochimaru.

Meeting Orochimaru had been a coincidence in the first place. On top of that, Orochimaru had dared to approach him and talk, something many people wanted to do but lacked the courage for. That was why he had said so much.

Hatake Ziyan certainly would not tell Orochimaru that he had only exchanged those extra words with him because a system choice with rewards had been triggered!

The moment Orochimaru came up and mentioned the Creation Technique, the system triggered another choice.

"Ding! Congratulations, host. A choice has been triggered.

Option one: Help Orochimaru research the Immortality Reincarnation Technique and mitigate its side effects. Reward: Pangu Visualization Diagram. It can raise the soul's realm, ultimately allowing the formation of a divine soul that will never enter the cycle of reincarnation!

Option two: Dissuade Orochimaru from researching the Immortality Reincarnation Technique. Reward: Immortality Reincarnation Technique (Orochimaru's improved version!). Reincarnation will not consume soul power!"

Upon seeing the two choices, Hatake Ziyan chose the first without a second thought!

Hatake Ziyan had left Orochimaru with something to think about. Given Orochimaru's obsession with eternal life, he did not believe Orochimaru could resist the temptation. After all, as someone on the same level as Hashirama, he could not simply walk up and offer to help research a secret technique for eternal life. Did he have no dignity? Now all he had to do was wait for Orochimaru to come to him.

Hatake Ziyan left without a care, but Orochimaru remained rooted to the spot. Instinctively, he did not believe what Hatake Ziyan had said, yet he could find no explanation for it himself.

Besides, at this point, Orochimaru did not have a particularly strong craving for eternal life. He merely had some ideas about it. What he wanted most right now was to master every ninjutsu in the Shinobi World and properly teach Senju Nawaki!

Watching the sun sink on the horizon, Orochimaru stopped dwelling on whether Hatake Ziyan's words were true. What he needed to do now was visit the Senju Clan and bid farewell to his student and teammate's grandmother, the First Hokage's wife, Mito Uzumaki!

Yet Orochimaru was not the only person Hatake Ziyan had left troubled. Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo were suffering too.

The Hatake Sakumo affair had already diminished Hiruzen's prestige as Hokage, and this Nine-Tails sealing incident had dragged his reputation through the dirt.

He had actually killed a Hokage Advisor with his own hands-his teammate, Utatane Koharu, who had been his friend for decades!

What distressed him most of all was that Utatane Koharu's death had damaged his standing as Hokage. If he handled this poorly and word spread throughout Konoha, his time as Hokage would be over.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was busy trying to erase the repercussions of killing Utatane Koharu, while Danzo was busy trying to spread the news throughout Konoha and force Hiruzen Sarutobi out of office.

After all, our Fifth-and-a-Half Hokage (insert smirking face) had always wanted to become Hokage, but had never succeeded!