Orochimaru looked at him for a moment, then gave a small laugh.
"A chance?" he repeated. "And what kind of chance would Shinichi-kun offer to a prisoner like me?"
Shinichi's expression did not change.
"A chance to leave this cell."
The smile in Orochimaru's eyes faded.
The chains on his wrists made a light sound as he moved a little, but he did not speak right away. He had been locked here for a long time. Even he could not treat those words as a joke.
Shinichi spoke again in a calm voice. "You will walk out of this prison and return to the Ninja World."
Orochimaru's gaze sharpened. "And the price?"
"Break the Dead Demon Consuming Seal," Shinichi said. "Bring back the soul of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, from the Shinigami."
The cell went quiet.
The surprise in Orochimaru's eyes slowly faded and turned into doubt.
"Only for the Fourth Hokage's soul?"
Shinichi did not answer.
That silence told Orochimaru there was more to it. Shinichi was not the kind of person to act out of kindness, and there was no reason to free someone like him just for a man who had been dead for thirteen years.
There had to be another reason.
But Orochimaru did not ask right away. He glanced at the chains on his wrists, then looked back at Shinichi.
"What happens after I do it?"
"When it is done," Shinichi said, "I will give you a new identity. You will no longer be a prisoner of Konoha."
Orochimaru's breathing grew a little heavier.
A new identity. Freedom. A way back into the Ninja World.
No matter what Shinichi really wanted, the offer was hard to refuse. Orochimaru had spent a year in this cell, sealed so tightly that he could not even use chakra. For someone like him, this place was worse than death.
His fingers slowly tightened.
After a long silence, Orochimaru let out a quiet laugh.
"Fine."
The playfulness in his voice faded, leaving only desire.
"I accept."
Shinichi nodded slightly. "A wise choice."
Orochimaru let out a low laugh. "Then when do we start? I have had enough of sitting in this cell without even being able to move my chakra."
Shinichi did not answer.
The stone under Orochimaru's feet shifted, and thin wooden tendrils pushed out from the cracks. They crawled across the floor and wrapped around the sealing chains on his wrists, ankles, and neck.
The runes on the chains flared. A moment later, sharp cracks rang through the cell, and the chains that had held Orochimaru for a year broke apart one after another. Pieces of metal fell around his feet with a cold clatter.
Orochimaru lowered his head and looked at his freed hands. The red marks on his wrists were still there, but the weight was gone.
Then his chakra moved.
It was stiff at first, like something forced awake after a long sleep. Orochimaru slowly curled his fingers, feeling the flow return through his body bit by bit.
His smile came back.
"So sudden," he said softly. "You really do not waste time, Shinichi-kun."
"You accepted," Shinichi said. "There was no reason to wait."
Orochimaru looked down at the broken chains, then at the empty corridor beyond the cell. The guards had withdrawn, his chakra had returned, and Shinichi was standing there as calmly as before, as if he had not just released a snake from its cage.
Orochimaru's smile deepened.
"Shinichi-kun," he said, "you may have released me a little too easily."
The words had barely left Orochimaru's mouth when his smile stopped.
His chakra had returned, and so had his senses. A moment ago, Shinichi had only seemed like a quiet visitor standing outside the barrier. Now, to Orochimaru, that same figure felt completely different.
Shinichi was not showing killing intent. He was not even trying to pressure him.
That made it worse.
Orochimaru's fingers slowly froze. The thought of leaving the cell was still there, but his body refused to move. Every instinct he had told him the same thing.
Do not move.
He looked at Shinichi again, and the amusement in his eyes disappeared.
During the Konoha Crush, Shinichi had already been dangerous, but Orochimaru could still understand him then. This was different. If he made one wrong move now, he would die.
Shinichi saw the change in his face and gave a small smile.
"It seems you were about to make a mistake."
Orochimaru was silent for a moment before a rough laugh slipped out of him.
"How frightening," he said softly. "It seems I have been locked away for too long. Even my judgment has become a little dull."
Shinichi did not bother exposing the excuse. "Then let it recover quickly. I did not come here to watch you test the walls of this cell."
Orochimaru glanced at the broken chains around his feet. His smile returned, thinner than before.
"Of course. It was only a small joke, Shinichi-kun."
"Then make fewer jokes."
The wooden tendrils withdrew into the floor, taking the broken pieces of chain with them. A moment later, the barrier in front of the cell rippled and opened a narrow gap, just wide enough for Orochimaru to walk through.
Orochimaru stepped over the remaining fragments of metal and left the cell without touching the edge of the barrier. His chakra was still returning, slow and uneven after a year of suppression, but this time he did not force it.
When he stopped outside, Shinichi turned and started walking.
"Come."
Orochimaru followed, his smile faint. "Where are we going?"
"Out of this prison first," Shinichi said. "After that, you begin your work."
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