Chapter 360: Nagato
Splendid fireworks bloomed one after another in the night sky, pushing Hidden Leaf Village's joy and festive atmosphere to a climax.
However, beneath this laughter and cheer, certain corners of Hidden Leaf Village remained shrouded in silence and shadow.
For example, Hidden Leaf Village's prison, which held extremely dangerous or uniquely identified prisoners, and also stored research materials and items unsuitable for public disclosure.
A man with striking red hair was moving silently through the dim corridors.
He wore a Shuten-doji mask on his face, concealing his features and only revealing a pair of purple Rinnegan eyes flickering with complex light in the shadows.
It was Nagato.
After quietly infiltrating Hidden Leaf Village with Obito, he had come alone to this heavily guarded Forbidden Land.
His goal was clear: to find Konan.
He walked past one cold, sturdy cell after another, his purple Rinnegan scanning through the eyeholes of his mask at the figures inside—some numb, some alert, some sleeping.
There were high-ranking rogue Ninjas from enemy nations, taboo experimental subjects from failed research, and political prisoners with sensitive identities...
But he never saw that familiar figure.
"Fireworks?"
Nagato stopped at a corner with a ventilation hole, where he could vaguely hear the bustle outside and see sporadic flashes of firework light.
He tilted his head slightly, looking through the narrow hole at the distant night sky where colored spots of light bloomed intermittently.
Beneath the mask, a trace of daze and longing imperceptibly emerged in those purple eyes.
That represented the liveliness of the human world, the joy of peace, the warmth within reach for ordinary people...
All of these were things he, Yahiko, and Konan had dreamed of while looking up at the sky in the dilapidated streets of the Hidden Rain Village in their youth, yet they seemed forever unattainable.
But soon, this faint wavering was suppressed by a deeper obsession and purpose.
He withdrew his gaze, his eyes becoming firm and cold once more.
No matter how beautiful the Festival fireworks were, they had nothing to do with him.
He had to find Konan, rescue her, and then complete what he had to do.
He continued deeper along the intricate, maze-like underground passages, avoiding several hidden alarm traps and patrolling Puppets.
Finally, after bypassing an area that appeared to be an abandoned warehouse, he relied on the perception of his Rinnegan and a certain intuition to find an extremely hidden downward staircase entrance.
Pushing open a heavy small door, he entered an even colder passage filled with various pipes and energy lines, eventually arriving at a place resembling a core laboratory or database.
The area was filled with various precision instruments he had never seen before, glowing with eerie light, culture tanks, and energy nodes. The residual Chakra and strange odors in the air were even heavier.
Just as he was alertly looking around, trying to find more clues, a side door he hadn't noticed before slid open soundlessly.
Alarm bells rang in Nagato's heart, and his Rinnegan instantly locked onto the doorway.
Powerful Chakra was ready to burst within his body.
"You are the first 'guest' to come here through this entrance."
A female voice, unfamiliar yet carrying a hint of strange familiarity, rang out in the empty laboratory with a touch of laziness and amusement.
By the sliding door, a figure wearing a white lab coat with hands casually tucked in pockets was leaning lazily against the doorframe, observing him with great interest.
It was a woman.
She had pale skin, long black hair flowing loosely, and golden snake-like pupils flickering with cold, intellectual light under the lab's blue instrument lights. A faint, knowing smile played on her lips.
Her appearance was beautiful yet carried an inhuman, eerie quality; her temperament was complex and difficult to define.
It was the current Orochimaru.
"Those eyes... the Rinnegan. And that hair color..."
Orochimaru's golden snake pupils narrowed slightly, her gaze seemingly able to penetrate the Shuten-doji mask on Nagato's face.
"You are the leader of the Akatsuki Organization, 'Pain'... or perhaps, I should call you by your real name."
Orochimaru drawled, spitting out the name one syllable at a time:
"Nagato?"
Nagato had completely unexpected meeting one of the legendary Sannin, Hidden Leaf Village's S-rank rogue Ninja, and the Ninja World's most dangerous scientist here, in this manner!
What shocked him even more was—
"Orochimaru?"
Nagato almost blurted it out.
"You... how did you become a woman?"
The Orochimaru in his memory was clearly that cold, pale, raspy-voiced male Ninja.
The being before him, while still possessing a dangerous and eerie aura, was undeniably female in appearance and voice, completely overturning his understanding!
Could it be that the female Uchiha following Naruto really is Sasuke?
It's fine, Itachi.
Raising a son or daughter is all the same; your parents can be considered to have both now.
Faced with Nagato's almost unseemly shocked questioning, Orochimaru did not get angry. Instead, as if she had heard something amusing, a trace of malicious mirth flashed in her golden snake pupils.
She remained leaning against the doorframe, tilted her head, and responded nonchalantly with an extremely perfunctory, almost "none of your business" tone:
"That is none of your concern."
"My gender and form are part of my eternal research. It's not for a stray dog who calls himself 'God' to worry about."
She unceremoniously poked Nagato's "sore spot."
"You've infiltrated this place, looking all around—you're searching for that little girl named 'Konan', aren't you?"
Orochimaru cut straight to the point, clearly having a thorough understanding of Nagato's intentions.
Nagato's heart tightened, but he didn't deny it. His Rinnegan stared fixedly at Orochimaru, waiting for her next words.
Orochimaru seemed to enjoy Nagato's slightly tense gaze. She slowly straightened up, took her hands out of her pockets, casually brushed off non-existent dust from her lab coat, and then pointed a thumb toward the passage behind her, giving the answer plainly:
"Don't waste your time here. She's not in this sector."
"She is that idiot Jiraiya's student. Although she was once your accomplice, Naruto has been fairly 'polite' to her."
Orochimaru paused, an inscrutable emotion flashing in her golden snake pupils, and continued:
"She has been vouched for by Jiraiya and is currently at Jiraiya's home. Jiraiya has been worried about you all."
"I see..."
Nagato nodded. He had seen Jiraiya attending the Summer Festival, and theoretically, Konan, being a criminal, wouldn't go.
In other words, he just needed to find Master Jiraiya's home to take Konan away.
"I advise you not to think about making a move. The Village is covered in Naruto's Flying Thunder God marks. If you don't run now, you won't be able to escape at all."
Orochimaru looked at Nagato with a beaming smile.
In truth, she was lying to Nagato.
Even if Nagato wanted to run now, he wouldn't be able to.
The moment she first discovered Nagato, she had informed Naruto. By now, Naruto should have already set up the barrier!
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