Chapter 262: Mutual Scheming
Danzo sent people to search for Orochimaru's corpse. The battlefield was too chaotic at the time, and he only knew that the corpse had been taken away by a ninja from the Hidden Sound Village. He didn't know exactly who took it. After that, the Hidden Sound Village was in complete disarray. Now, Genyumaru has gained the support of the Daimyo of the Land of Rice Fields and has become the leader of the Hidden Sound Village. Danzo needed to spend more time investigating the exact whereabouts of Orochimaru's corpse.
The soul couldn't be retrieved. The corpse couldn't be found. Orochimaru's two avenues for recovering his strength were blocked. He also read a lot of information from the memories of the Root ninjas and knew that his old comrade, Jiraiya, had become the Fifth Hokage and that Tsunade was also in the village recently. Orochimaru was no longer in a hurry to run away. He took his time working in Root, conducting his own research under the guise of suppressing the Hashirama cells in Danzo's body.
In the central area of the Root headquarters, Orochimaru enthusiastically studied the solution in the test tube. Around him, there were no walls, not even any obstructing furnishings. He was working completely under the strict surveillance of numerous Root ninjas. Orochimaru would occasionally spit out a couple of mouthfuls of blood and cough a couple of times, looking as if he didn't have long to live. Danzo stood on a high platform not far away, looking down at him.
The Third Hokage had made a bold speculation in his notes. He believed that Orochimaru, revived by the Heaven's Curse Mark, should strictly speaking be a replica, a fallback he had created before defecting from the village by storing his life information, memories, ninjutsu, and other things in Anko Mitarashi's body in the form of chakra. The Third Hokage didn't know exactly how his consciousness existed in two places simultaneously or how they could be exchanged. The revived Orochimaru was Orochimaru, and also not, depending on how one defined soul and consciousness.
Danzo had just finished surgery performed by Orochimaru. His body cells were being rapidly eroded by the Hashirama cells, and large numbers of growths were appearing on his body every day, which had to be cut off one by one. At his age, even with capable medical ninjas around him, it was extremely painful. He had Orochimaru transplant a Three-Tomoe Sharingan with the most eye power into his right eye, temporarily slowing down the rampage of the Hashirama cells in his body.
As for the transplantation of the Sharingan on his arm, that was very difficult, at least according to Orochimaru. He needed to adjust and test a lot of data, and then perform extensive calculations and skillfully design the chakra pathways to achieve internal balance. He even had to measure the eye power in the Sharingan. In short, he presented a whole host of difficulties, which all added up to one meaning: he couldn't do it now. Danzo didn't believe a word Orochimaru said, but he had no evidence and hadn't mastered the core technology.
He estimated that the moment Orochimaru recovered his strength would be the moment the two of them turned against each other. At that time, asking Orochimaru to transplant the Sharingan for him would come at a great cost. What to do?. The two of them were now like grasshoppers on the same rope, needing to huddle together for warmth, while also scheming against each other. Danzo couldn't let Orochimaru be discovered by the village's ninjas, and Orochimaru couldn't let Danzo die from the Hashirama cells backfiring.
Relatively speaking, Danzo held the initiative. He wanted to control Orochimaru more. Poisoning? Curse marks? Threats? The methods he could think of would have no effect on Orochimaru. Or perhaps holding a knife to his throat?. Orochimaru insisted that he couldn't perform the arm Sharingan transplant now, and Danzo had no good way either. The two of them could only continue to stall. To avoid being criticized, Danzo had been actively participating in the Advisor Council meetings recently. As long as they held meetings, he would come uninvited, just to show his presence.
Jiraiya suspected that the Akatsuki were within the borders of the Land of Rain. However, the Land of Rain had always been an ally of Konoha Village, sending genin to participate in the Chunin Exams every time. The Land of Rain was also located at the border of the three major powers: the Land of Fire, the Land of Wind, and the Land of Earth. Without concrete evidence, it was impossible to send out a large number of ninjas. Jiraiya sent Kakashi to the Land of Rain to deliver his personal letter and some gifts to Hanzo the Salamander, the leader of the Land of Rain. Kakashi went around in a large circle, but only managed to deliver the letter; he didn't even see Hanzo the Salamander.
This ninja, known as the "Demigod," was already very old. His peak period was the Second Great Ninja War. At that time, it was he who bestowed the title of "Three Sannin" upon Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Tsunade. He was a truly senior figure in the ninja world, so it was reasonable for him to be a bit aloof and not meet with a junior like Kakashi. Konoha had some speculations, but none could be confirmed.
Although Konan was unwilling to talk about the Akatsuki's affairs, through the battle in the Land of This and some information previously sent back by Itachi Uchiha, Konoha Village had a general grasp of the rogue ninja information within this organization. There was the suspected leader, Nagato, and the suspected mastermind behind the scenes, Madara Uchiha. After that, the organization members were Itachi Uchiha, Kisame Hoshigaki, Deidara, Sasori, and Kakuzu and Hidan, whom Konoha had not yet encountered.
Deidara's information was the clearest. This guy was the disciple of the Third Tsuchikage; he wasn't a nobody. However, the Hidden Stone Village and Konoha were not friends at all; they were a stubborn and unyielding group. The letter that Konoha sent requesting a joint investigation and exchange of information was directly ignored by them. We won't provide information, we won't provide help. Say whatever you want. The Stone's Will is not to be shaken.
Sasori was also a bit difficult to deal with. Gaara of the Hidden Sand Village had already gained the support of most of the Jonin, but he still needed to make a final effort to successfully take over as the Fifth Kazekage. Gaara couldn't provide much help to Konoha either. Ebizo's reply to Konoha was very direct: Sasori and I also have a blood relationship; he is my sister's grandson. He betrayed the village and betrayed his grandmother who loved him deeply. You can beat him up, kill him, whatever you want, I don't care. You want to know the weakness of the Performance of a Hundred Puppets? Sorry, I don't know this secret jutsu, and I don't know if it has any weaknesses. The matter of Sasori ends with me. My sister and I have been in seclusion for many years. Have pity on us at our age, and don't bother my sister, who often dies at the drop of a hat, with the troubles of our grandchildren.
Gaara was willing but powerless. Ebizo was powerful but unwilling. Konoha Village could only figure things out on their own. Asuma, through his fight with Sasori, proposed a suggestion. His chakra blades could cut Sasori's chakra threads. So far, this was the most effective solution against puppet users. Konoha Village had fought against puppet users before, but usually, the Hidden Sand Village puppet users encountered on the battlefield were considered competent if they could control one puppet, geniuses if they could control two, and controlling seven or eight was considered a secret technique passed down without written records. Now, Sasori was controlling over a hundred human puppets at once, which was truly astonishing.
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