Outside a certain Secret Base, a person covered in slime staggered inside, one labored step at a time.
Who was this person?
Naturally, it was Orochimaru, who had been absent for over fifty chapters after taking a direct hit from Chinatsu's "World Nuclear Peace Technique."
When it came to survival techniques in the Shinobi World, if Orochimaru ranked second, no one would dare claim first. With his arsenal of life-preserving techniques, led by Living Corpse Reincarnation, he could sometimes be a "he," sometimes a "she," and sometimes even an "it." Even immortality was within his reach.
The World Nuclear Peace Technique had merely blown up one of his bodies. Though he had ended up in a sorry state, he had ultimately survived.
"Cough, cough... I never expected this reincarnation to take so long. Chinatsu Uchiha... I really underestimated her. With ninjutsu that terrifying, could she have some kind of monster dwelling inside her?"
Orochimaru muttered to himself, but now that he understood Chinatsu's strength, he was even more interested in her body.
She possessed both the Sharingan and Wood Release, and he estimated that she had an aptitude for every chakra nature. Orochimaru even suspected that a terrifying monster resided within her.
Was there a more perfect body anywhere in the world? Orochimaru did not believe one existed. In fact, he felt that a body with Chinatsu's qualities should not even exist in this world.
Yet that very excellence left Orochimaru unable to think of a way to wrest her body from her.
Fight her head-on? Orochimaru had no desire to take another World Nuclear Peace Technique.
Ambush her? With her Sharingan, the odds of success were laughably low. Orochimaru did not have enough spare bodies to keep testing his luck.
As Orochimaru walked, he pondered how he could seize