"I don't recall the Wind Style: Rasenshuriken having the side effect of stitching souls together," Fujimoto Tōma said dryly. He finally couldn't help commenting.
Orochimaru chuckled, his voice curling like smoke. "Fufufu… Tōma-kun. You don't understand, do you? At the very edge of death, the will to survive can force miracles into existence."
"Then do you understand how it happened?" Tōma asked calmly.
Orochimaru's laughter stopped mid-note.
That pause answered everything.
So it really was coincidence. Even the people involved probably didn't understand what they had done. That was why it was called a miracle.
Tōma replayed the battle in his head. The Rasenshuriken had absolutely shredded both Orochimaru and Kabuto. Kabuto dying from it made sense. Orochimaru, though? No. That man slipping out of death was practically a habit.
Which meant the "person at the brink of death" Orochimaru mentioned had been Kabuto.
That was… backwards, to say the least.
"There are simply too many mysteries in this world," Orochimaru said, excitement creeping back into his voice. "No matter how I research it afterward, anything involving the soul is unfathomably deep."
His eyes gleamed.
"That is why I want to master every jutsu in existence. If I learn them all, then no mystery will remain beyond my grasp."
Snake-like pupils fixed on Tōma as Orochimaru slowly dragged his tongue across his lips.
"But ninjutsu is endless. What I know now is barely a drop in the ocean. To learn everything, I need time. A very long life."
He tilted his head. "Tōma-kun, surely you understand that?"
"I understand the goal," Tōma replied evenly. "I just don't agree with how you pursue it."
In Tōma's view, Orochimaru's dream itself wasn't wrong. The problem was the road he chose. A road most people could never accept.
Orochimaru burst into laughter.
As his laughter echoed, the walls of the hall seemed to stir. The snake carvings embedded in the stone looked alive, countless eyes opening and locking onto Tōma.
Even without a fear of crowds, the sight made his scalp prickle. It was excessive. Deliberately so.
"Perhaps one day," Orochimaru said, laughter fading, "you'll understand that for truth itself, any method is worth the cost."
His expression shifted. The air turned cold.
"So tell me, Tōma-kun. Did you come here to kill me? To punish me for leaking your information to the Akatsuki?"
"That was the original plan," Tōma said honestly. "But you're clearly prepared. Even if I killed you here, you'd crawl back out of some hole somewhere."
Orochimaru smiled, tacitly agreeing.
"And you found me through Ryūchi Cave, didn't you?" Tōma added. "Otherwise you wouldn't have known I was looking."
"My turn to ask a question first," Orochimaru replied smoothly. "How did you find me?"
"The value's not equal," Tōma said flatly. "And even if you don't answer, I'm already pretty confident."
"Heh. Fair enough."
Orochimaru's eyes lit up, the corner of his mouth curling.
"Then what if the price is Danzo's crimes?" he said lightly. "Is that worth it to you?"
Tōma froze.
Orochimaru continued, voice casual. "You came here for evidence, didn't you? Danzo was the one who sold your information to the Akatsuki. He put you in real danger."
Tōma stayed silent.
Back then, when Pain and the others appeared, he had genuinely thought he might die. The only reason he didn't was simple. He had become stronger than expected.
If he'd possessed that strength from the start, things might have gone very differently. He might even have been able to kill one of them before Pain reacted.
Just one. After that, Pain would never have stayed outside again.
At the time, Tōma hadn't planned to fight Pain at all. His original plan was survival. Stall, confirm the others couldn't kill him, force Pain to enter, then escape with Flying Thunder God.
The problem was that his growth overshot his own calculations. It wasn't that they couldn't kill him. It was that he might have been able to kill them.
Even then, he hadn't seriously considered it. Pain was watching. And Tōma didn't want a full confrontation while still unfamiliar with his own power.
Only after briefly controlling Kisame with a risky technique did the thought surface. Maybe I could kill Itachi.
Reality shut that idea down quickly. Monsters like that weren't so easily handled.
Seeing Tōma's silence, Orochimaru smiled.
"Someone who survives an Akatsuki operation and leaves them short two members," he said. "Perhaps you never truly faced danger at all?"
"And if I did?" Tōma shot back. "And if I didn't?"
Orochimaru's eyes gleamed. He stared at Tōma with naked fascination, enough to make Tōma uncomfortable.
"So it's true," Orochimaru murmured. "As expected of you. Tōma-kun… you only grow more interesting."
"Please don't," Tōma said flatly. "I'm not built to handle your interest."
For a moment, he wondered if Orochimaru had transferred his obsession with Sasuke onto him. The thought alone gave him chills.
"Relax," Orochimaru said, waving it off. "I have no interest in your body. Even if I took it, I couldn't use your strength."
He paused, then added quietly, "There was once another shinobi like you. No bloodline. Still overwhelmingly strong. Not quite you, but a true genius."
"…The Fourth Hokage?" Tōma asked.
"Yes." Orochimaru's eyes sharpened. "After his death, I believed only bloodlines led to ultimate power. You've seen it too. Those eyes."
His voice grew feverish. "The Rinnegan. Power worthy of a sage. And I missed it, right under my nose in the Rain Village."
Tōma nodded. He couldn't deny its power. Even Nagato, who couldn't fully wield it, had been terrifying. In the hands of its true owner, Uchiha Madara… it was unthinkable.
"But you," Orochimaru said, locking eyes with him, "show me another path. If you reach the peak without a bloodline… doesn't that mean I might still have a chance?"
He smiled, sincere for once.
"So I truly hope you reach the end, Tōma-kun."
Tōma didn't respond. Orochimaru's faith in him was unexpected. And unsettling.
Whether Orochimaru could ever reach the summit was debatable. Probably not.
But immortality?
That, unfortunately, sounded possible.
"So," Tōma said, cutting the moment short, "the evidence on Danzo?"
"Already prepared."
Orochimaru tossed him a scroll without waiting for agreement.
Inside were records of every exchange. Messages, intermediaries, payments. Some items Orochimaru had deliberately requested in stages.
Danzo had been cautious. Nothing here was perfectly clean. Whether Konoha could trace it back to him would depend on how well Tōma used it.
Tōma skimmed the contents, eyes narrowing.
ANBU rosters. Root personnel lists.
The ANBU information alone should have been restricted to the Hokage. Danzo having access wasn't surprising. Root was officially tied to ANBU, after all.
But the Root list?
Even the Hokage might not have had a complete version of that. This one was clearly partial. Probably padded with false names too. Danzo would never expose his full hand.
Even so, the resources listed made Tōma's eyes flicker.
Danzo Shimura had been hoarding power for decades. And it showed.
This was more than enough.