"You rejected Danzo just like that? Aren't you afraid of the relationship falling apart? How do you plan to cooperate with him in the future?" Orochimaru spoke as he pushed open the door to Diarmuid's room.
It appeared he had just rushed back from Konoha and came to see Diarmuid immediately.
Inside the room, Diarmuid was currently engrossed in studying the ninjutsu within the Scroll of Seals. At this moment, he was looking at the technique he had been longing for: the Flying Raijin Technique.
Hearing Orochimaru's voice, Diarmuid didn't even look up. "Hard work on the road."
After a short pause, he continued, "Relationship falling apart? That's not an issue. From the moment we blackmailed him, the relationship was already broken. But... then again, since when did we have a 'good' relationship with Danzo?"
Orochimaru thought for a moment, then nodded. "True enough."
Diarmuid and Danzo never had a so-called "good" relationship; it was merely mutual exploitation. It just so happened that this particular attempt at exploitation didn't pan out.
"As for cooperation, don't worry. As long as that man hasn't become Hokage, he's always available for a deal. But let's forget about it for a while," Diarmuid said.
"What's wrong lately? Did something happen?" Orochimaru asked.
"No, nothing happened, but I'm going to be very busy lately," Diarmuid said flatly.
"I thought that was just an excuse you gave Danzo," Orochimaru said, sounding a bit surprised.
Diarmuid chuckled, looked up at Orochimaru, and said, "It wasn't an excuse. I'm truly busy. There are plenty of ninjutsu in the Scroll of Seals for me to learn. And just as I suspected, it contains a significant amount of powerful Wood Release and some other surprises. This trip to Konoha was a massive harvest. Combined with what I've accumulated before, fully digesting it all will take several years. So, I plan to enter seclusion for the next few years."
"Years?" Orochimaru was somewhat astonished. "Even if the Scroll of Seals contains ninjutsu that are difficult to master, surely it won't take years?"
"What I learned before was extremely fragmented. I need time to systematically organize these powers. At the same time, I need to settle down and catch up on the progress of the Spirit Transformation Jutsu. If I'm fast, three to five years; if I'm slow, seven or eight years isn't impossible. During this period, I have nothing else I'm interested in doing," Diarmuid said.
Orochimaru fell silent for a moment, then said, "Actually, it's mainly because of the Spirit Transformation Jutsu, right?"
Diarmuid smiled. "Yeah."
Of course, there was also the Flying Raijin Technique. Diarmuid needed to research and master it, and perhaps even further deepen its application.
Mastering the Flying Raijin wasn't too difficult for him. Over this period, Diarmuid had already begun attempting the basics. As he had predicted, his innate affinity for space-time was incredibly strong; there was no "threshold" for the Flying Raijin in his hands.
However, Diarmuid remained fascinated by space-time. Through the Flying Raijin, he could further understand this power. Perhaps in the future, he could even control the space-time energy within his own body?
On one hand, he needed to master the Flying Raijin; on the other, he needed to gather enough space-time essence through its practice.
He claimed he had nothing else he was interested in, but in truth, he had been wondering if he should head to Kumogakure to obtain the Heavenly Transfer Technique. That was also an incredible Space-Time Ninjutsu involving profound knowledge. If he could obtain it and cross-reference it with the Flying Raijin, it would be highly beneficial.
But he kept these thoughts buried for now and didn't tell Orochimaru.
"I told you, it's better if I try it first," Orochimaru said with a frown.
"Then you'd better start training hard. You're the busiest one from morning till night. If I waited for you to train the Spirit Transformation Jutsu to that level, who knows how long it would take? Ten years? Twenty?" Diarmuid gave Orochimaru a somewhat helpless look.
Orochimaru laughed and replied, "I have many things to research. Besides, as an immortal, ten or twenty years shouldn't be a major concern for you, right?"
"These things are always better done sooner rather than later. Besides, your research is very important to me, especially regarding the Sharingan. So, I decided to handle this myself. I can't put all the pressure on you," Diarmuid said, clicking his tongue.
"But it's a dangerous path. Our understanding of the Spirit Transformation Jutsu isn't deep enough," Orochimaru said after a silence.
"Look at this." As Diarmuid spoke, he spread the Scroll of Seals open again. He found a specific "chapter," pressed his hand onto it, and performed a "Release" seal with his other hand. With a poof, a thick, small scroll popped out of the Scroll of Seals.
This was something Diarmuid had discovered right after obtaining the scroll.
Techniques like the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu were written directly onto the Scroll of Seals; you could see them as soon as you opened it. Many techniques followed this pattern, such as the Flying Raijin and the Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags.
However, a large section in the middle wasn't recorded directly on the scroll but was sealed inside it.
A simple unsealing revealed a massive amount of research data and development notes belonging to Senju Tobirama. It seemed Tobirama had placed them there himself. The latter half of the Scroll of Seals returned to direct recordings, things like Hiruzen's composite ninjutsu and the sealing techniques of the Uzumaki Clan.
Diarmuid deduced that originally, Tobirama intended to write his developed techniques directly onto the scroll, which is why the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu was visible upon opening. Later, perhaps Tobirama wanted to record all his data, insights, and findings, but realized the "capacity" of the Scroll of Seals wasn't enough.
After all, those weren't just jutsu; they were massive amounts of literature, notes, data, and experimental records. The word count was staggering; another full Scroll of Seals likely wouldn't have been enough. Or perhaps transcribing it was too tedious, so Tobirama chose to seal the original documents directly into the scroll.
Thus, this middle section was entirely sealed data.
Following that, the recordings by Hiruzen began to appear, the Konoha ninjutsu he had documented, the composite jutsu he developed himself, and the Uzumaki Clan's sealing techniques. It stood to reason that by this period, Tobirama had already met his end, and Hiruzen had become the Hokage, taking over the Scroll of Seals to continue filling it.
So, in total, the Scroll of Seals wasn't just a collection of powerful ninjutsu as Diarmuid had initially imagined. In reality, it contained the intellectual essence and research results of the shinobi world's greatest inventor of Forbidden Techniques, Senju Tobirama – a complex and detailed archive of various data.
Diarmuid hadn't had time to read it all yet, having only picked out the parts related to the soul. Even so, he was utterly shocked.
In terms of sheer knowledge, he certainly couldn't match someone like Orochimaru, but he possessed a certain level of vision and scientific literacy. After all, he had spent time in the scientific community with Orochimaru, and the two had discussed the soul before.
He had a general baseline for comparison. And precisely because he could judge the level of this work, he placed immense importance on Tobirama's data regarding the soul.
These were incredibly precious materials, likely the accumulated "treasures" of the Senju Clan, one of the top two clans in the shinobi world for centuries.
Orochimaru's development of the Living Corpse Reincarnation and his refinement of the Reanimation Jutsu seemed impressive, but in reality, they weren't the true pinnacle. He was essentially standing on the shoulders of giants to reach higher. The Living Corpse Reincarnation synthesized the essence of the Reanimation Jutsu and the Shapeshifting Jutsu, and the Reanimation Jutsu he refined was originally created by Tobirama.
Furthermore, Orochimaru's subsequent issues with soul weakening, his unfamiliarity with the Reaper Death Seal, and the problem with his arms all showed that while his soul research was skilled, it wasn't truly top-tier.
But looking at Tobirama, he was an absolute titan who had researched the soul in-depth. He created the Reanimation Jutsu in the truest sense – from nothing, building and developing it step by step.
Did he have the ability to further refine the Reanimation Jutsu? Diarmuid had no doubt he did. As for why he didn't, Diarmuid guessed it was partly because he died young and partly because the jutsu was inherently taboo, and Tobirama had no intention of diving deeper.
Moreover, his intent for the jutsu was completely different from Kabuto or Orochimaru. Those two researched the Reanimation Jutsu to manipulate and resurrect the dead, borrowing their power to bolster their own. Naturally, they wanted to preserve as much of the original strength as possible.
As for Tobirama... he simply wanted to use the Reanimation Jutsu to coordinate with the Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags. So, he just did a basic job of it and called it a day.
But it was precisely because of this that Tobirama's genius in this field was even more apparent.
Furthermore, his research into the soul wasn't limited to the Reanimation Jutsu. Tobirama had recorded much in his notes, including a "Spirit Restraint Jutsu." This was a technique Diarmuid had never heard of before.
However, after reading it, he realized: this must be the technique Tobirama used during the Fourth Great Ninja War to save Sasuke's life, restraining his soul within his body to prevent it from departing to the Pure Land.
Beyond that, there was a vast amount of research related to the Pure Land, and even a detailed analysis of the Kato Clan's Spirit Transformation Jutsu.
This left Diarmuid profoundly surprised. He never expected Tobirama would also know the Spirit Transformation Jutsu.
On second thought, Tobirama was the Hokage at the time and held immense prestige. The Kato Clan and the Senju Clan had always been close. It wasn't hard to imagine them gifting the Spirit Transformation Jutsu to the Hokage to curry favor. This was especially plausible if the Kato Clan was considering retiring from the shinobi trade... They might have even used the jutsu to secure a partnership with the Senju family, who were also slowly transitioning away from active shinobi roles.
A slight disappointment was that Tobirama's own practice of the Spirit Transformation Jutsu hadn't reached a profound level, so he naturally hadn't reached the so-called limit. He studied the jutsu to better understand the soul for other purposes.
However, Tobirama had still analyzed the technique in detail and recorded it. Based on the jutsu formulas and his own practice, combined with his understanding of the soul, Tobirama believed that once the Spirit Transformation Jutsu was practiced to a certain degree, a true "Spiritualization" might occur.
As for what this true "Spiritualization" looked like, he couldn't say for certain, offering only a few deductions.
That was one thing, but on the other hand, what shocked Diarmuid was that Tobirama had once used the Spirit Transformation Jutsu to communicate with the Pure Land. He could enter and leave the Pure Land while still alive!
This was absolutely preposterous! Astral projection? A journey to the underworld?
Initially, Diarmuid didn't believe it, but then he figured Tobirama wasn't the type to brag in his own notebook. Furthermore, he saw the proof: it was after this that Tobirama invented the Reanimation Jutsu...
Good grief, so that is how the Reanimation Jutsu was created!
It must be said that although Diarmuid hadn't witnessed Tobirama's brilliance firsthand, he could already sense what an incredible individual he was just from these notes. To a certain extent, Diarmuid felt Tobirama's brilliance could even overshadow that of Madara and Hashirama.
This man truly felt like a mortal who rivaled the gods. Had he lived a few decades longer, who knows what kind of wonders he would have conjured.
Madara once said, "This world is too small; it's barely enough for me to play in."
But Diarmuid now felt that those words should have belonged to Tobirama. After all, he had already played his way all the way to the Pure Land.