"Orochimaru, was this your doing?"
Jiraiya frowned slightly and stared hard at Orochimaru for a while before saying quietly, "You shouldn't have done this for the Hokage position..."
"You give me far too much credit. Do you think I could uncover what Teacher Sarutobi did?"
Orochimaru chuckled and continued, "Which do you think was worse, what I did or what Teacher Sarutobi did? Jiraiya, what grounds do you have to criticize me? Forget it. Perhaps you'd be better off leaving the village to search for the Child of Prophecy."
Jiraiya said gravely, "I won't stand by and watch you destroy the village, Orochimaru. You've changed."
"Destroy the village? I protected hundreds of ninja during Sunagakure's attack. Could you or Mount Myōboku have done that?"
Orochimaru suddenly felt he had said too much. Jiraiya had been an idiot who couldn't be reasoned with for a long time. Although they were teammates who could trust each other on the battlefield, their ideals and personalities were far too different. It was only natural that they had reached this point of near estrangement.
Even without the Hokage position, he still couldn't stand how Jiraiya placed all his hopes on an elusive Child of Prophecy. Rather than evade things as Jiraiya did, Orochimaru wanted to learn every truth himself and master the laws governing all things.
"That's enough for today. ANBU, return for now and wait for Teacher Sarutobi to handle this matter."
Orochimaru addressed the ANBU ninja, but his words directly branded their actions as unauthorized. If the ANBU withdrew, word of this would certainly spread again.
The ANBU squad leader stepped forward half a pace and said, "Lord Orochimaru, we..."
But he only managed half a sentence before Orochimaru's imposing presence left him unable to open his mouth. Within seconds, fine beads of