"Your mother seems very sad. Do you know why?"
Orochimaru looked at Neji, who seemed like a 'little adult' in front of him, with a slight smile.
"Orochimaru-sama..."
Neji's mother's expression changed greatly. She knew what Orochimaru was going to say, and she hurried forward to stop him from continuing.
"Hmm?!"
Orochimaru glanced at her, and his cold power immediately spread out. Neji's mother was as quiet as a cicada in winter, but when she saw the helpless Neji beside her, she struggled to say something again.
But Orochimaru continued, "I can choose not to say it now, but how long can you hide this from him?"
Hearing this, Neji's mother opened her mouth, her face changed several times, and finally she knelt on the ground, dejected and silent.
Neji looked at his mother, then at his teacher, with unease.
Orochimaru smiled and said directly, "Your father, Hyuga Hizashi, is going to die."
"Die?"
Neji looked blank, with confusion.
At his age, he couldn't fully understand the concept of 'death,' but children in the ninja world mature early. He could feel the terror in it.
This was a very bad thing, and it was going to happen to his father.
Neji turned to look at his mother, wanting to get a negative answer from her.
But Neji's mother turned her head away, not daring to look at him, and a line of tears slid down her cheek.
Neji got the answer from his mother's expression, but he still didn't understand why his father suddenly had to die.
He looked at his teacher and asked the question in his heart.
"It's very simple, because someone wants to kill him."
Orochimaru licked his lips, and a small green snake suddenly crawled out of his long sleeve.
Neji hadn't understood these words when he was startled by the green snake and instinctively took two steps back, but he quickly stopped.
Because the snake on Orochimaru's arm also stopped moving. The just-alive life was disappearing at an extremely fast speed.
Neji widened his Byakugan, looking at Orochimaru's fingers pinching the green snake's neck, and for the first time understood what 'death' was, what 'killing' meant.
Would his father die like this too? Fear, panic... all kinds of unspeakable emotions flooded his heart.
After a long while, Neji asked, "Teacher, can you save my father?"
"I can't."
Orochimaru looked at Neji, a strange smile appearing on his face.
"But you can save him, as long as you are willing to pay some price for it."
"..."
...
At night, the Hokage meeting room was brightly lit.
The Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen, the two Hokage advisors, and the Konoha Sannin sat around the conference table, some with serious faces, some cynical, chatting in a few words.
They didn't stop talking and put on a relatively serious expression until the jonin representatives Nara Shikaku, Uchiha Fugaku, Hiashi Hizashi brothers, and Hyuga Main family elders came in one after another.
This was a small meeting, and the purpose was to resolve the matter of the Hyuga clan's Clan leader killing the leader of the envoy in the Hyuga clan's territory.
To this end, it had been done three times, and in the last time, a decision had been faintly made, planning to have Hizashi sacrifice himself.
But the news that Orochimaru suddenly provided completely overturned this matter...
Utatane Koharu questioned directly, "Orochimaru, where did you get the news from? How are you sure that Kumogakure knows about this?"
In the meeting room, all eyes were focused on Orochimaru, with searching gazes.
This was also what they were curious about.
Orochimaru smiled, but avoided talking about it, and instead said, "I met the culprit who launched the Nine Tails incident."
Without getting the answer she wanted, Utatane Koharu was shocked, "What did you say?"
Beside her, the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen's eyes sharpened, "Orochimaru, you can't talk nonsense about this matter."
He was reminded of the old story Orochimaru told after he faked a severe injury from training soon after the Nine Tails incident.
"Old man, this time it's real."
Orochimaru raised his eyebrows and spoke eloquently,
"That person is wearing a black coat, wearing a tiger-striped mask, exposing only his right eye, which is a Mangekyo Sharingan. His eye power is a kind of space-time ninjutsu, which he uses to enter and exit Konoha..."
In great detail, Orochimaru described Obito completely, and almost all of it was explained clearly, except for his true identity.
In the meeting room, the more everyone listened, the worse their faces became.
It was said so specifically, this was obviously not made up by Orochimaru, and Mangekyo Sharingan...
Hearing this term, their eyes couldn't help but look at Uchiha Fugaku, flashing with unclear meanings.
Fugaku's face also changed for a while. At first, he was a little confused as to why he was asked to attend the discussion of the Hyuga family's misfortune. Obviously, he had not participated in anything before. It turned out that they were waiting for him here.
Thinking of this, Fugaku couldn't help but turn his gaze to Orochimaru, with a hint of complaint in his eyes.
Why didn't you tell him this news earlier? He wasn't prepared at all now.
However, his doubts were quickly answered, because Orochimaru continued,
"Although I don't know the specific reason, it is clear that the masked man has always had a grudge against Konoha. Using the Nine Tails to attack Konoha is undoubtedly to vent his anger..."
Speaking here, Orochimaru paused and said slowly, "Of course, also to provoke the relationship between the Uchiha Clan and Konoha."
Everyone present looked at each other. Thinking of the tense situation in the village just after the Nine Tails incident ended, they were all silent and could not refute.
Sensing the change in the atmosphere, Fugaku breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly asked, "Orochimaru-sama, what is the matter with the Mangekyo Sharingan? Are you really sure?
There are no missing people in the clan, how could outsiders have the Mangekyo Sharingan?"
"I'm not sure about this, and I couldn't confirm it."
Orochimaru shrugged, his eyes suddenly turned to Danzo, who was silent, and smiled,
"It doesn't necessarily have to be your clansman. Perhaps some outsider got the Sharingan and then had the good luck to open it. It's not impossible."
Meeting Orochimaru's ambiguous eyes, Danzo shivered slightly, but when he thought of this possibility, a burst of passion surged in his heart.
"Perhaps there really is such a possibility."
Fugaku muttered to himself. In so many years of war, there were always people who were bold enough to not believe in evil, stealing and attacking in secret. The Uchiha Clan had also lost a lot of Sharingan.
But on the other hand, apart from Kakashi, no ninja had become famous for this, so the Uchiha Clan had never spent much effort to investigate.
While everyone was thinking about and digesting the information provided by Orochimaru, Hiashi suddenly stood up and said,
"Before Guroya died, there were traces of genjutsu controlling him on his body, Orochimaru-sama, are you saying that this may have been done by that masked man?"
"Not 'may have been,' but 'inevitably.' Judging from provoking the village and the Uchiha, this is his usual practice."
Orochimaru looked around and said slowly, "Now you understand, this matter is not about whether the Kumogakure envoy knew about it."
"But that they definitely would know."
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