When Hansen's figure reappeared, he was already back in Konoha Village.
He didn't alarm anyone, appearing directly in front of a newly built, heavily guarded structure in the village.
This place was originally the base of 'Root', dark and secretive.
But after Danzo's death, Hiruzen Sarutobi ordered its renovation.
Now, it displayed a sign that read 'Konoha Institute of Science and Technology' and was entrusted to the 'reformed' Orochimaru.
As soon as Hansen appeared, the institute's door opened automatically.
Orochimaru, dressed in an immaculate white lab coat and wearing gold-rimmed glasses, looked much more refined.
He hurried out, a respectful and fervent smile on his face.
"Lord Hansen, you've returned."
He bowed slightly, his posture extremely humble.
"Mm." Hansen nodded, sizing up the completely transformed Orochimaru before him.
Imbued with the 'Imaginary Divine Power' that forged his ideological steel, Uncle Snake now exuded a radiant aura of 'for science, for Konoha' from head to toe.
He looked like a model young-to-middle-aged Konoha citizen, well-versed in politically correct works like 'The Will of Fire' and 'Hiruzen Sarutobi's Action Plan,' with no trace of his former cold and treacherous rogue ninja self.
"Take me to the Uzumaki Country ruins; I want to meet this world's Shinigami."
Hansen's words were calm, yet they made Orochimaru, the newly appointed director of the Konoha Institute of Science and Technology, suddenly narrow his pupils.
"Lord Hansen, are you referring to... the Shinigami summoned by the forbidden jutsu 'Reaper Death Seal'?"
Hansen nodded: "Exactly, that one."
"Yes! Your will be done!" Orochimaru immediately bowed, without another word of dissent, the fanaticism in his eyes even intensifying by three points.
He knew very well that the price of that jutsu was the caster's soul, a taboo for mortals touching the realm of gods, irreversible.
But in Orochimaru's reshaped perception, Hansen's commands were above all else, even if it meant his immediate death.
He would only consider how to die more efficiently, how to better showcase Lord Hansen's might.
At the edge of Konoha Village, an ancient and eerie shrine stood silently.
Inside the shrine, the walls were covered with masks of various shapes and terrifying expressions of spirits (oni-gods); this was the Mask Storage Hall where the Uzumaki clan sealed forbidden jutsu.
"This is it." Orochimaru took a Hannya mask with sharp horns and fangs, its expression particularly fierce, from the wall and respectfully handed it to Hansen.
Hansen glanced at it, unenthusiastic, and gestured for Orochimaru to begin.
"Yes!"
Orochimaru took a deep breath, placing the ominous mask on his face.
As he performed a series of ritualistic dances and hand seals, a cold, malevolent aura erupted from him!
"'Sealing Jutsu: Reaper Death Seal'!"
Orochimaru's low roar caused the temperature inside the entire Mask Storage Hall to plummet to freezing point.
A blurry and gigantic phantom slowly emerged behind Orochimaru.
The phantom had blood-red demon horns on its head, wore a desolate white robe, its disheveled white hair like withered grass, and its face was terrifyingly grotesque.
Most striking was the short blade it clutched firmly in its mouth, shimmering with a ghostly, cold light.
It had no physical form, as if it were a conceptual aggregate existing between life and death.
Its mere presence made living beings feel a chilling cold deep in their bones.
To look directly at it made even one's soul tremble and wail!
The Shinigami descended!
As soon as the Shinigami's phantom appeared, it emitted a terrifying, soul-freezing aura—a pure concept of "death" that transcended any killing intent or pressure.
Orochimaru, wearing the mask, trembled violently; he could feel his life force being frantically drained, his soul seemingly being torn from his body.
Death.
This was the price mortals paid for gazing upon a deity.
The Shinigami's gaze, or rather its perception, instantly locked onto Orochimaru, who served as both sacrifice and caster.
In its rules, summoning it required the offering of a soul.
A pale and gigantic ghostly hand, carrying the absolute power to tear souls, ignored the distance of space and silently reached for Orochimaru's chest.
Orochimaru's body completely froze; he could clearly "see" that hand piercing through his body, grasping the core of his soul.
A primal fear stemming from the very essence of life chilled him to the bone; even though his personality had been altered, he still trembled in the face of this ultimate annihilation.
However, just as that ghostly hand was about to exert its force and completely drag out his soul—
A slender, powerful hand appeared out of thin air, grabbing the Shinigami's pale wrist.
It was Hansen.
He had appeared in front of Orochimaru at some point, still looking bored, with even a playful smile on his face.
"Hey, I didn't go through all this trouble to call you out just so you could casually have a meal."
Time, it seemed, stood still at this moment.
The Shinigami's movement halted.
Its hollow eyes, devoid of any emotion, slowly turned towards Hansen.
It seemed to be assessing this tiny existence that dared to defy its authority and interrupt its "feeding."
Boom—!
A pressure representing death and finality crushed towards Hansen, yet it couldn't even stir the hem of his clothes.
Substantial platinum-gold flames rose around Hansen, and a 'Divine Pressure' far more potent than the Shinigami's enveloped the entire shrine.
It also isolated the concept of death, like a gentle breeze, causing no ripple.
On the Shinigami's eternally unchanging, grotesque face, a flicker of emotion, similar to confusion, seemed to appear for the first time.
In its understanding, all living things should tremble and wither under its dominion.
But this man before it, clearly brimming with an extremely vibrant life force, was completely beyond its rules!
"A power of authority similar to divine pressure? A bit interesting." Hansen grinned, a glint of excitement flashing in his platinum-gold pupils—the look of a hunter seeing top-tier prey.
He suddenly tightened his grip on the Shinigami's ghostly hand!
Crack!
A crisp sound, like shattering glass, didn't come from a physical level but exploded directly on a conceptual level!
The Shinigami's ghostly hand, made of the concept of death, was actually crushed by Hansen, forming cracks!
"Aow—!!!"
A non-human roar, filled with pain and anger, erupted from the Shinigami's throat, shaking the entire space violently.
It felt "pain" for the first time!
"Your power is good, I like it." Hansen's smile grew even brighter; he extended his other hand, directly piercing through the Shinigami's chest, as if to grasp some invisible core.
"Your authority over death, give it to me!"
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