"Then I'll be going, Ren."
At the crossroads, Minato greeted Ren, then vanished using Flying Thunder God.
"Being Hokage is really tough…"
Ren glanced at the Hokage Building, sighed, then leaped onto a rooftop and sped off into the distance.
When he stopped again, he was already in the forest behind Hokage Rock. After looking around, he followed his memory and walked deeper inside.
The trees here blocked out the sun, and the roars of unknown beasts occasionally echoed. To Ren, throwing Hidan here for two days of training would be quite good.
After walking along a small path for half a day, until the surrounding weeds reached his knees, Ren finally stopped and, looking at the "sloping dirt hill" not far away, called out.
"Hey, I'm here again, big guy, open up."
As soon as Ren finished speaking, the slope in front of him slowly began to rise, large chunks of dirt falling off. A pair of eyes suddenly opened on it, staring at Ren and constantly flicking its tongue.
Ren showed no panic at the giant snake that suddenly appeared before him. He walked two steps closer, patted its cold scales, and smiled.
"Help me open the door, thanks."
The giant snake lowered its head to look, then its body began to turn, revealing a passage for Ren.
"Alright, you can go back to resting."
After Ren entered, the giant snake coiled its body again, closed its eyes, and lay down to rest.
…
After closing the large door behind him, Ren continued to descend through the passage in front of him. Lamps were hung at intervals along the walls on both sides, bringing some light to the dark passage.
When he exited the passage, what greeted his eyes was a large hall filled with massive containers. Various creatures, both animals and humans, were suspended in nutrient solution.
Ren showed no reaction to this. After passing through these containers, he soon reached the end.
Looking at the doorway in front of him, Ren didn't hesitate, pushing the door open directly. What met his gaze was a bent figure standing at a console, seemingly tinkering with something.
Noticing the movement behind him, the figure paused for a moment, then continued to busy himself.
Ren had no intention of disturbing him. After gently closing the door behind him, he walked to the bookshelves on either side, casually pulled out a book, and leaned against the wall, quietly reading.
In this strange atmosphere, after an unknown amount of time, the figure at the console finally put down the object in his hand, removed his gloves, and walked to the side to wash his hands.
The sound of running water brought Ren back to his senses. He looked up at the person not far away and smiled,
"Finally finished, Orochimaru-sama."
"Hehehehehe."
After turning off the faucet, the man turned around. The pale face visible through his long black hair, coupled with his somewhat unsettling smile, was none other than Orochimaru, whom Ren hadn't seen in a long time.
"My apologies for making you wait, Ren-kun."
Orochimaru picked up a towel to wipe his hands, his golden snake eyes fixed on Ren, and he smiled.
"May I ask if there's something you need today?"
The last time the two met was at a pub. After Jiraiya was knocked out by Tsunade's punch, Orochimaru took him to the hospital for treatment. Since then, Ren hadn't seen him again.
There was no need to guess; given his personality, besides his laboratory, he had nowhere else to go.
"Let's not talk about that yet. I mainly came to pay you a visit."
Ren closed the book and returned it to the bookshelf, then pulled two scrolls from his person and tossed them to Orochimaru.
"A small gift, not much, please don't mind it."
"Hmm?"
Seeing the scrolls flying towards him, Orochimaru raised his hand to catch them. After a glance, he recognized them as storage scrolls, then looked up at Ren with some confusion.
"Just some experimental materials."
Ren rubbed his nose and explained.
"Didn't I go on a mission to the Land of Hot Springs two days ago? Who knew I'd run into some Evil God Cult guys causing trouble, so I went to their main base and dealt with quite a few of those cultists.
I don't really have a use for them, but I remembered you probably need this stuff a lot these days, so I packed them all back."
After speaking, as if afraid he hadn't made himself clear, Ren added another sentence.
"There are about three hundred of them, which should be enough for you for a while."
After hearing this, Orochimaru's snake eyes widened, the corners of his mouth turned slightly upward, and a hint of a smile appeared in his eyes.
"This is truly a grand gift, Ren-kun."
One could say that Ren's gift was like a timely rain for him. His research was currently at a critical stage, requiring a large amount of materials for experiments and verification every day.
However, since his teacher, Hiruzen Sarutobi, seemed to have noticed something recently, he had begun to strictly control the supply.
This led to the cessation of material supply from Konoha Prison. The materials he had been using during this period were his own wartime reserves, and now even these reserves were about to run out.
This made him irritable. At this critical moment, the experiments absolutely could not stop. If there were no materials, he would not hesitate to start looking for materials within Konoha Village to continue his experiments, even if it meant his reputation would be ruined if the matter was exposed; he didn't care.
And now, the delivery of these materials by Ren was truly a godsend, alleviating his urgent need.
But at the same time, he was also somewhat puzzled.
He had originally thought that Ren would stand with his teacher and the others, either persuading him to turn back or trying to stop him.
But what he didn't understand was why Ren chose to help him instead. This left Orochimaru a bit confused.
"Keep up the good work, Orochimaru-sama."
Seeing the slightly puzzled look on Orochimaru's face, Ren roughly guessed what he was thinking, then smiled.
"No matter when, science and technology are the primary productive forces. The direction you are taking is correct, but if you deviate even a little, it will go awry."
"Hmm?"
Orochimaru's gaze shifted slightly, and a thoughtful expression appeared on his face.
He understood all of those words, except for the last sentence, which still left him a bit confused.
"Do you know why the Old Man opposes your experiments?"
Ren looked at Orochimaru, who was standing still, and asked.
"Why?"
Orochimaru repeated, then, without thinking, replied with a slightly mocking tone.
"Hiruzen-sensei is getting old. He doesn't understand what these things mean for a Ninja.
And all he cares about are just some sacrifices."
In Orochimaru's view, his teacher had begun to become as rigid as those two old geezers, Homura Mitokado and Utatane Koharu.
They were just some weaklings; using them to exchange for the development and progress of science, what a wonderful thing that would be.
In Orochimaru's opinion, possessing technology meant possessing even greater power.