Beside a small river, Dou frantically washed the blood off his hands, his mind incessantly questioning his own conscience.
Looking at his reflection in the water, Dou felt lost about life for the first time.
He took off his glasses, which were a gift from the dean, a symbol of the bond between them.
But now...
Suddenly, a strange man's face appeared in the water. "Looks like you haven't seen yourself clearly yet."
Kabuto quickly put his glasses back on, only to see the man emerge from the water, laughing and saying, "You've certainly become an excellent ninja. I still remember you, Kabuto."
"You... you are the big..."
Dou was so frightened that he backed away repeatedly, clearly remembering this man with a cold and stern face, like a venomous snake.
"Hehe... Actually, I've been watching you and Nonō. Come with me, and I'll tell you everything."
When it comes to manipulating people's minds, Orochimaru is a professional.
After a series of manipulative tactics, he successfully subdued Kabuto and made him his ox or horse, and generously gifted him his secret base in the Land of Earth.
With Kabuto joining the team, Orochimaru was able to be freed from his work and do other things.
He is interested in Tōu he doesn't understand and wants to study everything. He often travels between different bases. In addition, he has reached an agreement with the daimyo of the Land of Rice Fields.
He secretly established the Sound Ninja Village, gathering his lured subordinates there to work for him.
Half a year passed quickly, and Orochimaru was living quite comfortably. Konoha had a high tolerance for rogue ninja and adopted a laissez-faire policy.
Unlike the rogue ninjas from other villages who were constantly hunted down and lived in constant fear, they were not like those from other villages.
However, he was a cautious person. Even though Konoha hadn't actually hunted him down, he was still very careful and would set up many traps in his base.
Some traps are well-hidden and irreversible, while others are set based on the deepest desires of the human heart.
For example, at a sea base near the Land of Whirlpools, there was a scroll in a secret room, with scattered documents containing research data on the Sealing Jutsu of the Uzumaki Clan.
For example, inside the base in the Land of Rice Fields, there is a detailed explanation of Summoning Technique, and it is a rare type of ninja tool summoning.
Compared to the northern base, he placed a Kinjutsu that could enhance his power.
If anyone manages to sneak into the base, nine times out of ten they will succumb to temptation and fall for the trap; it's all about curbing human nature.
At this moment, Aoki Tsuki looked at the ' Kinjutsu ' scroll on the table, rubbed his hands together, and lingered there, unwilling to leave. Heaven knows how much he wanted to open it and take a look.
Orochimaru has a lot of good stuff, and he's learned a lot from him over the past six months.
This guy is truly cruel. Just look at those grotesque corpses soaking in the glass jars; it wouldn't be a waste to cut him into a thousand pieces.
He drew a map of all of Orochimaru's exposed strongholds and sent it back to Akatsuki.
During this process, Aoki Tsuki also discovered that he wasn't the only one monitoring Orochimaru; the Root members were also tracking him, but they were being manipulated by Orochimaru.
Follow behind and eat farts.
There is also an even more covert surveillance agent: White Zetsu Clone.
If he hadn't combined the two secret techniques of the ' Gift of the Sages's Heavenly Eye and Boundless Mind Domain, allowing his spiritual energy to break through once again, he wouldn't have been able to detect it.
At first, he thought they were monitoring Orochimaru, but when he realized they were monitoring him, he was startled.
'When did White Zetsu start targeting me?'
He thought he was being discreet enough, but little did he know he was already being watched.
After much deliberation, he decided to remain inactive and wait for an opportunity to use someone else to eliminate this troublesome subordinate.
Orochimaru, that old fox, is definitely capable of handling this task.
Without a doubt, this scroll is most likely a trap, and similar situations exist in every base.
Aoki Tsuki took out a piece of paper from his person. The size of the paper and the handwriting were almost identical to the other draft papers on the table.
The difference lies in the content above, which presents the results of experiments on the Uchiha and Senju bloodlines. To increase its appeal, it even includes the Ten-Tails hypothesis.
Jue's clone wasn't particularly clever to begin with, so it had no idea about the intricacies of the situation.
They would definitely feel they had discovered some important information and couldn't resist taking the scroll to report to the main body.
" Lord Orochimaru, I'd like to borrow your trap for a moment. You surely won't mind, will you?"
Sure enough, not long after Aoki Tsuki left the base, the clone with half a face appeared in the secret room. As usual, it glanced at the things on the table.
The original body had warned it not to touch Orochimaru's things without permission.
"This is..."
The contents of the document deeply attracted its attention. " Orochimaru, that guy, has actually cracked the secrets of the Senju and Uchiha to this extent?"
If we let this guy keep researching, he might actually discover something.
After pondering the contents of the scroll for a moment, the clone decided to open it and take a look.
However, the instant its hand touched the scroll, black runes rapidly spread along its arm to its entire body, sealing it off and rendering it immobile.
puff...
Suddenly, large amounts of anesthetic gas were ejected from the surrounding walls.
"Oh no... this is a trap!!"
The clone struggled violently, but felt powerless all over, and soon lost consciousness and fainted.
"Ew! Tsk tsk... Orochimaru is really cunning, hahaha... You're mine now."
Aoki Tsuki never imagined that he would one day be able to capture Zetsu's clone alive.
This is a real treasure; whether you use it yourself or trade it, its value is immeasurable.
He carefully put away the piece of paper on the table, then picked up Jue's clone and left the base.
Half a day later, Orochimaru returned, expecting to have captured some prey, but the scene was empty.
"The trap has clearly been triggered..."
After a thorough examination, he still discovered some clues, indicating that more than one person had entered the premises.
"Heh... it seems quite a few people are interested in me. Who could it be?"
Orochimaru licked his lips, inexplicably becoming excited.
He loathed a peaceful life and enjoyed playing dangerous games. It didn't matter if he wasn't caught, as long as he knew someone was watching him, things would be much easier.
Soon, the main body of Jue also realized that there was a problem with his clone. He had a fixed time to communicate with each of his clones.
If there's no contact by the appointed time, there's a very likely problem.
"Oh no... This is bad... One of my clones has lost contact."
"Which one?" Black Zetsu asked.
He knew Jue's stealth and capabilities best; the fact that he had lost contact was alarming.
"The guy I sent to monitor Aoki Tsuki, I knew he was likely a sensory ninja. Looks like he did detect our movements."
Zetsu had warned him more than once before, but Obito and Black Zetsu that he go and monitor Aoki Tsuki.
Now, all they can do is hope that the other party destroys his clone or disposes of the body.
Black Zetsu asked, "Where was the last place where they disappeared?"
"It's near one of Orochimaru's bases... Could it be him...? Oh no!!"
If falling into Aoki Tsuki's hands was just a minor problem, then falling into Orochimaru's hands would be a major problem.
Orochimaru already had considerable knowledge of the First's cells, so it's impossible that he didn't realize the relationship between his clones and the Hashirama Cells.
Nine times out of ten, they'll find a way to deal with him, and might even clone a batch of their own kind, like Blue Absolute and Green Absolute...
A ninja's greatest secret is their own intelligence; once it falls into the enemy's hands, it's like being naked.
Zetsu became increasingly panicked and asked, "What should we do? Should we tell Obito?"
Black Zetsu clearly realized the seriousness of the problem, and said, "Don't panic. The most important thing now is to find out who has it in their hands."
Go and inform Obito, and tell him to find a way to get it back.
They couldn't risk such a dangerous situation again; the enemy was definitely lying in wait.
Only Obito's personal intervention can ensure absolute success.
As an intelligence agent, he was responsible for monitoring the Shinobi World and was also the most important pawn in the execution of the Eye of the Moon Plan, making him irreplaceable.
"How can we find out who has them? These two are not easy to deal with," Jue said worriedly.
Orochimaru, in particular, was someone even Obito found troublesome.
Aoki Tsuki is a master of deception; who knows what wicked tricks he's up to but hasn't used yet?
"Simply put, if Orochimaru gets his hands on it, he'll immediately start researching it; if Aoki Tsuki gets his hands on it, he'll most likely hide it away first."
However, since he doesn't understand the technology, there's no need to worry too much.
Black Zetsu analyzed it this way.
So what should we do?
"Reveal Aoki Tsuki about Orochimaru's surveillance of Orochimaru. That guy isn't one to suffer a loss. Let them keep each other in check and buy some time."
"Huh? That's actually a good idea! Let those two annoying guys double-cross each other!"
Zetsu immediately sprang into action, sending a Orochimaru to inform Kirigakure to seek help from Obito.
Aoki Tsuki was indeed a novice. Even if he knew that Zetsu's clone contained Hashirama Cells and the secrets of the God Tree, he couldn't use them.
They could only hide for now and continue their surveillance work.
Soon, Orochimaru went out again; it was time for his hunt, and he certainly wouldn't approach easily.
Inside the dark base, Zetsu's clone reappeared, but this time it dropped a scroll on the ground before disappearing back into the wall.
When Orochimaru returned, he stared blankly at the scroll on the ground.
"Looks like the prey has shown its tail."
He picked it up from the ground, read what it said, and his face immediately turned ugly.
He was being followed for half a year without even realizing it, which means that several of his strongholds had already been exposed to the enemy.
"They've been monitoring us for that long? Interesting..."