At the Land of Birds Exchange Point, Kakuzu was busy selling some of the corpses he had collected from the battlefield.
Taking a scroll sealed with a large sum of money from the Exchange Point clerk, Kakuzu raised an eyebrow. "Has anyone named Orochimaru come looking for me lately?"
The clerk froze for a moment. Orochimaru was incredibly famous, much more so than an "old veteran" like Kakuzu in the current shinobi world. He certainly knew the name.
"No," the clerk shook his head.
"Is that so?" Kakuzu replied, his expression unchanging as he nodded. He took the scroll and turned to leave.
Walking down a small path away from the Exchange Point, Kakuzu mused to himself. So much time had passed without a peep from Orochimaru. It seemed the man had no interest in Diarmuid's blood. It looked like Diarmuid's plan to bait Orochimaru had failed.
The body of the Third Raikage had been delivered to Sasori, but Sasori hadn't guaranteed he could crack it; he only said he'd try. Kakuzu had then come here to collect his bounty. He wondered if Sasori had succeeded.
Deep down, Kakuzu doubted it. The Third Raikage was a Kage of one of the Five Great Nations. Could the secrets on his person and the seals within his mind be broken so easily? In Kakuzu's eyes, Sasori likely lacked the necessary expertise. Even if he acknowledged Sasori as a genius, Sasori had poured all his talent into Puppet Mastery. When it came to a broad range of ninjutsu, Sasori was perhaps even less proficient than Kakuzu himself.
"I wonder when it'll be done..." Kakuzu muttered.
After a few more steps, he suddenly stopped. His expression remained neutral, but he spoke aloud to the empty air: "Orochimaru?"
"Hehehe... your senses are quite sharp, aren't they?" A soft, feminine laugh drifted from a large tree not far away.
Kakuzu looked up to see a large, mottled snake coiled around a branch. It was as if the snake itself had spoken. As he watched, the snake unhinged its jaw and, in a grotesque display of regurgitation, vomited out a slimy, mucus-covered figure.
The figure dropped from the tree. Upon landing, the mucus-like membrane burst, scattering across the ground, yet the man himself stood clean and composed. He wore a pale yellow yukata with a purple shimenawa rope tied in a bow behind his waist. His long black hair was smooth, his skin deathly pale, and his cold, reptilian eyes featured vertical slits for pupils.
Despite the lack of a forehead protector or any ninja insignia, Kakuzu knew without a doubt: this was Orochimaru.
Orochimaru's praise for Kakuzu's senses was genuine. His current state of hiding inside a snake was identical to the stealth method Jiraiya would later use to infiltrate Amegakure. Normally, a sensor would only detect a large snake, not the presence of a person. Orochimaru had intended to observe this mysterious Kakuzu from the shadows, but being discovered instantly was somewhat embarrassing.
As for how Kakuzu had sensed him, Orochimaru didn't ask; such secrets weren't shared freely.
Kakuzu looked at Orochimaru's entrance with slight disgust. Why was it that everyone Diarmuid took an interest in was a freak? Sasori hid inside his Hiruko puppet, and this guy hid inside a snake's belly... He conveniently forgot that he himself was a bizarre exception to humanity.
"I've been waiting for you," Kakuzu said directly.
Orochimaru didn't waste time either. "That tube of blood... is it yours?"
So he really was lured in by Diarmuid's blood? What's so special about that guy's blood? Kakuzu thought, but aloud he said: "No. It belongs to Rodriguez Diarmuid."
Orochimaru's eyes lit up. "The man who recently killed the Third Raikage in the Land of Earth?"
"The very same," Kakuzu nodded.
"So, you are working for him? He gave me that blood to find me? What does he need from me?" Orochimaru asked, piecing it together.
Kakuzu frowned slightly. "Don't talk as if I'm his subordinate. He and I are partners..." He paused, then added, "You could say we're friends."
Orochimaru: "???" Was that the important part of the conversation?
Before Orochimaru could speak, Kakuzu brought the topic back. "Yes, he has things he needs your help with. Since it's hard to track you down, he used that method to draw you out. I thought it was a pipe dream, but it seems he was right."
"He was indeed right," Orochimaru nodded.
It appeared this stranger, whose name he hadn't even heard before the Raikage's death, knew a great deal about him. In a way, this put Orochimaru at a disadvantage; he knew nothing of the other party, while they understood him.
Since the blood wasn't Kakuzu's, Orochimaru abandoned his darker impulses. He had initially thought that if the owner of the blood was weak, he would simply capture them as a research subject. But Kakuzu was clearly powerful, at the very least, his perception was top-tier. There was a reason he had survived in the shinobi world for so long. Besides, since the blood wasn't his, capturing him was pointless.
"In that case, I am very interested in him. I accept the invitation. If possible, take me to see him now," Orochimaru said after a moment's thought.
Kakuzu nodded. He had come to the Exchange Point specifically to check for Orochimaru. Taking him to Sasori's base was part of the plan. "Follow me."
The two set off. Because Sasori frequently needed to purchase strange materials or corpses for his Human Puppets, his base in the Land of Birds was not far from the Exchange Point. After a half-day trek, they stopped before a mountain cave.
Orochimaru stood before the cave entrance, looking somewhat dazed.
"What's wrong?" Kakuzu asked, noticing the shift in his demeanor.
"Nothing. It just feels as if I've returned to a place I once knew," Orochimaru shook his head, a self-deprecating smile on his lips.
Ryūchi Cave.
As one of the Sannin, his summon was the snakes of Ryūchi Cave. The shinobi world had Three Great Sage Regions: Mount Myōboku, Shikkotsu Forest, and Ryūchi Cave. By coincidence, each of the Sannin had contracted with one.
First was Jiraiya. When Hiruzen taught him the Summoning Jutsu, the boy performed it without a contract and was reverse-summoned to Mount Myōboku. It changed his life; he went from a "dead last" to an elite, mastering Senjutsu and Natural Energy.
Years later, Orochimaru and Tsunade found their respective homes.
Tsunade was a Senju, and her clan had ties to Shikkotsu Forest. Though Hashirama didn't use summons much, his Sage Mode was likely derived from there. It wasn't surprising she gained their approval.
Orochimaru, however, was a commoner. Finding Ryūchi Cave was a mix of luck and destiny. While he successfully signed the contract because his aura felt "reptilian" to them, he failed to master Sage Mode. He couldn't pass the tests of the White Snake Sage. However, the exposure to Natural Energy led him to research it for years, eventually creating the Cursed Seal, which was, in essence, a perverted form of Senjutsu power.
The cave before him reminded him of the entrance to the Sage's domain. Shaking off his thoughts, he followed Kakuzu into the secret base. From a distance, they could hear two voices arguing in a room with an open door.
"And you call yourself a genius ninja? Aren't you supposed to be an expert on the human body? You can't even crack the first layer?" one voice complained.
"Geniuses have specialties!" the other snapped back irritably. "This isn't my primary area of interest. He was the Third Raikage; the mental blocks in his head are incredibly powerful. If I try to force it, I'll likely destroy the brain..."
It was Diarmuid and Sasori.
"Tch. The Third Kazekage must have had similar things in his head. How did you handle that?" Diarmuid asked.
"I didn't bother. I only wanted him for a Human Puppet. What do I care about his brain?" Sasori replied dismissively. As the grandson of Chiyo, he already knew most of Sunagakure's secrets; he didn't need to dig through a dead man's mind.
Orochimaru's expression turned into one of pure curiosity. So, they really did have the Raikage's body. At least one of them was smart enough not to ruin the specimen. To Orochimaru, a Kage's corpse was a village's treasure, usually impossible to obtain. In the original history, the Raikage's body was recovered by Iwagakure, but only after he had triggered a "self-destruct" protocol.
But here, Diarmuid had blitzed and controlled him so quickly that the Raikage died before he could wipe his own secrets. This was a rare, precious opportunity.