Of course,
coveting Yuu was one thing, but Orochimaru had no intention of making a move against him right now.
First, the development and refinement of Living Corpse Reincarnation still required some time.
A technique involving "reincarnation" naturally carried enormous risks. Until he had absolute confidence in it, Orochimaru had no desire to gamble with his life.
Second…
he might not actually be able to defeat Yuu.
That sounded rather embarrassing, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Yuu genuinely possessed several terrifying trump cards that even Orochimaru was wary of. He intended to plan things carefully before considering the matter of "reincarnation."
And third…
there was currently something even more important than reincarnation that Orochimaru needed to consider.
It concerned whether he would still be able to return to Konoha.
"Danzō's arrest this time will probably draw the old man's attention toward the Wood Release experiments. From there, he may conduct a thorough investigation into Root's past activities and discover clues concerning the other human experiments.
"Danzō himself might even expose me in order to shift responsibility and make me take the blame for him.
"When that happens…"
Things could become troublesome.
Orochimaru narrowed his eyes slightly as he considered the matter, his expression difficult to read beneath the dim light.
The Wood Release experiment was naturally not the only project on which he had cooperated with Danzō.
However, all of those projects shared one thing in common—
none of them could ever be exposed to the light.
For the sake of conducting his experiments conveniently, Orochimaru had abducted quite a few ninja and civilians from both inside and outside Konoha.
The vast majority had died during the experiments as disposable "materials."
As for the small number who survived…
their current conditions were hardly normal.
Some might even have been better off dead.
Such actions were not particularly compatible with the Will of Fire.
Once word spread, not only Orochimaru but perhaps Konoha's entire reputation would plunge into the moral gutter of the ninja world and become the target of contempt from every other village.
After all, there was a reason Konoha had repeatedly found itself surrounded by other ninja villages during the previous Ninja World Wars.
Part of the blame lay with the reputation left behind by Senju Tobirama.
Using Reanimation Jutsu to control an enemy's dead relatives and friends, interrogating them for intelligence, or turning them into living bombs with the Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags…
Those methods were simply too sinister.
They hardly seemed like ideas a mentally healthy person could devise.
When Senju Tobirama had been killed by the Gold and Silver Brothers, who knew how many people had secretly applauded and thanked those two Kumo ninja for carrying out justice and eliminating a menace…
Of course,
Orochimaru understood his teacher's personality quite well.
When Sarutobi Hiruzen was young, he had been known as the God of Shinobi, but as he grew older, emotional attachments increasingly restrained him and made him indecisive.
Otherwise, he would never have tolerated Danzō openly challenging him for so many years, only dealing with him when circumstances finally left no other choice.
Therefore, even if Orochimaru's experiments were discovered, he believed Hiruzen would not kill him.
But…
if he were placed under house arrest like Danzō and forbidden from freely continuing his experiments, Orochimaru would find that even more unbearable than death.
Moreover, once scandals like these were exposed, he could forget about becoming the Fourth Hokage.
Orochimaru was not particularly obsessed with that position, but losing it to a junior rather than Tsunade or Jiraiya would still leave an unpleasant taste in his mouth.
"It seems…
"it's time to prepare an escape route."
Thinking this, Orochimaru raised his head toward the map on the wall.
His gaze lingered briefly over the area labeled Land of Rice Fields, his golden eyes flickering.
…
At roughly the same time.
Near the Valley of the End, inside the Mountain Graveyard.
Within a naturally formed underground cavern,
a dense barrage of objects suddenly tore through the air.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—!
Thousands of poison needles, each as thin as cow hair and coated in a ghostly blue sheen, shot like a violent storm toward a white figure leaping nimbly between the stone pillars.
"Whoa! That was close! So close!"
White Zetsu Tobi let out an exaggerated cry.
His pale body twisted and bent with flexibility that seemed to defy the laws of physics.
Like a weightless ghost, he continuously dodged and weaved between the jagged stalagmites.
Countless poison needles brushed past him and embedded themselves into the rock wall behind.
Not a single one struck him.
On the other side,
Sasori stood motionless in the form of a beautiful, androgynous young man.
His chest cavity was open, revealing an intricate system of gears and mechanisms inside, along with the remaining mass of flesh that served as his chakra-conducting core.
Both hands were raised.
His right contained a poison-needle mechanism that was currently closing, while the left had just begun glowing orange from a flame nozzle.
Hiss—!
A concentrated beam of scorching flame erupted outward and swept across Tobi's path of retreat.
The extreme temperature distorted the air.
The surfaces of nearby rocks instantly melted and turned red before cracking and collapsing within only a few seconds.
That was right.
By now, Sasori had completed the modification of his own body.
He had essentially abandoned his status as a carbon-based life-form and transformed into a cybernetic existence.
His close-combat capability had increased considerably as a result.
Just as he was about to continue testing the other functions of his new body,
Black Zetsu suddenly seeped out from the shadow of a rock.
"Sasori. Lord Madara wants to see you."
"…Give me a moment. I'll be there."
Sasori nodded, retracted the mechanisms in his body, and turned toward the exit.
Black Zetsu and White Zetsu followed behind.
A short while later,
they passed through the tunnels and arrived in the chamber containing the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
The white-haired Uchiha Madara sat cross-legged beneath the statue, his eyes closed as he rested.
Beside him stood several rectangular coffins arranged upright in a straight line, radiating the cold aura of death.
Sasori glanced at them once before looking away, showing no unnecessary curiosity.
"You're here."
Madara opened his eyes and glanced toward Sasori.
Then he raised the index and middle fingers of his right hand.
"I won't waste time with idle talk. I recently made a trip outside and collected several things.
"Take a look."
Before his words had even finished—
Creak—
An unpleasant grinding noise echoed through the cavern.
The lids of five stone coffins opened simultaneously, revealing the figures standing within.
Sasori instinctively looked over.
The moment he saw the first body, his heart stirred.
It belonged to a stern-faced, middle-aged man.
He was bald, with blue dragon-shaped tattoos across his scalp and around his eyes, and wore a yellow cloak.
Although no trace of life remained in him, any ninja born in Sunagakure would recognize him instantly.
The Second Kazekage, Shamon!
Compared with his identity as Kazekage, however, he held another title even more important to Sasori—
he was the founder of both puppetry and Magnet Release!
To most puppet masters of Sunagakure, he was practically a godlike figure.
Sasori himself had once considered digging Shamon out of his grave and transforming him into a human puppet as a sign of respect.
Unfortunately, the graves of former Kazekage were guarded far too heavily, and he had never succeeded.
He had not expected to see Shamon here.
At this moment,
Madara's voice sounded again.
"You should recognize most of these people—or at least know their names.
"If you don't, that doesn't matter. I'll introduce them."
"The First Mizukage of Kirigakure, Byakuren. Skilled in Water Release and taijutsu."
"Kinkaku and Ginkaku of Kumogakure. Bearers of the Nine-Tails' chakra, descendants of the Sage of Six Paths. Near the end of the First Ninja World War, they killed Konoha's Senju Tobirama."
"And this one…"
"The White Fang of Konoha, Hatake Sakumo.
"Sasori, you should know quite a bit about him, shouldn't you?"
"…"
Sasori's thoughts shifted slightly.
Every name Madara had mentioned belonged to a powerhouse who had once dominated an era.
Sasori had merely heard of the first three and had never personally interacted with them.
Hatake Sakumo, however, was the enemy who had killed his parents.
Chiyo had mentioned him countless times.
She had even carefully devised a detailed plan for assassinating Sakumo.
Unfortunately, before the plan could be carried out, he committed suicide in Konoha, leaving Chiyo deeply disappointed.
He had never expected…
to encounter Sakumo here.
But…
why had Uchiha Madara gathered the corpses of all these powerful people?
Could it be…
"Exactly."
Madara seemed to understand what Sasori was thinking and nodded slightly.
"These are materials I prepared specifically for you.
"You may modify them however you wish and bring your 'eternal art' to its fullest potential."
"!"
Sasori's heart jumped again.
Even his cold, mechanically altered pupils contracted slightly.
An inexplicable feeling of…
being moved?
rose inside him.
After all these years, he had never encountered anyone who understood and supported his "art" to this extent.
And now Madara had obtained so many legendary materials at once for him to use.
Not even his own grandmother Chiyo could do something like this.
Nor could she possibly have done so.
After all, the remains of these Kage-level figures were strictly guarded by the major ninja villages.
The possibility of successfully stealing them was virtually zero.
And yet now…
if Sasori had possessed a little more literary education, he might have dropped to his knees, kowtowed twice to Uchiha Madara, and declared:
"Sasori has drifted half his life, regretting only that he never met a worthy lord. If you do not disdain me, Sasori is willing to acknowledge you as his foster father!"
"How is it?"
Madara spoke again.
"Are you confident that you can complete their modifications?"
"If not, that doesn't matter either.
"There is another ninjutsu called Reanimation Jutsu. Using only a small amount of a dead person's body tissue, it can summon their soul back from the Pure Land and temporarily revive them through another person's body.
"Furthermore, bodies in that state possess a continuous supply of chakra and are effectively immortal.
"If you want to try it, tell Black Zetsu. It can help you perform the technique."
At this point in time, Reanimation Jutsu was still the primitive version originally developed by Senju Tobirama.
It was relatively crude and could not reproduce the full power a resurrected individual had possessed while alive.
Usually, it was paired with Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags.
That was also why Madara had not used Reanimation Jutsu on Hatake Sakumo and the others, and why he was reluctant to use such a method to "revive" himself.
However…
if Reanimation Jutsu were combined with Sasori's puppetry, the outcome might be different.
In theory, the upper limit of a puppet master could surpass that of the puppet itself.
Madara intended to let Sasori experiment on his own.
"That's the basic situation."
Madara said,
"I'll give you three months to modify these five bodies, then familiarize yourself with and master their ninjutsu until they are ready for combat.
"At that point, I will personally inspect—"
"One month!"
Sasori suddenly interrupted.
"Hmm?"
"One month.
"I can complete all the work in one month, Lord Madara!"
Sasori spoke with absolute certainty.
To him, everything Madara had done was almost beyond imagination.
The corpses of Kage-level fighters.
A "resurrection technique" capable of summoning souls.
Just imagining what could result from combining those elements made Sasori tremble with excitement.
Under these circumstances, he wanted nothing more than to return immediately and begin carefully processing the corpses.
He did not want to waste even a single minute.
Besides, he was no longer human in the conventional sense.
Theoretically, he only needed to absorb chakra to survive.
He no longer required food or sleep.
He could work twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week without interruption, achieving three to five times the efficiency of an ordinary person.
Madara, however, still advised him as an elder that excessive haste could lead to failure.
At the same time, he subtly indicated that his own body could also become material for Sasori's modifications in the future.
Of course…
only after he died naturally.
Otherwise, if Sasori became eager enough to obtain his corpse that he tried to recreate what had happened to the Third Kazekage, Madara would not exactly be afraid—
but he would find it extremely annoying.
This series of surprises left Sasori almost dizzy.
Even the chakra core he had believed could no longer be disturbed by external emotions now felt burning hot.
Before long, he departed with the five coffins, accompanied by White Zetsu Tobi.
After Sasori's figure disappeared around the corner,
Black Zetsu finally spoke in a deep voice and reported the recent events in Konoha.
"…Oh?"
"That disciple of Senju Tobirama was removed from power by another of his disciples because he sold military intelligence and conducted human experiments?"
"Hmph. It's rare to hear genuinely good news.
"It's just a pity that Senju Tobirama himself was never punished like that by Hashirama."
"…"
Black Zetsu listened to Madara's words and hesitated.
No, seriously…
Was Senju Tobirama actually your true love?
Why had Madara been saying Tobirama's name more often than Hashirama's lately?
Then again, it made some sense.
A white-haired brat who looked remarkably similar to Tobirama had recently appeared in Konoha.
If that brat had not displayed extraordinary talent in Fire Release instead of Water Release, Madara and Black Zetsu might already have concluded that he was Senju Tobirama's reincarnation.
At this moment,
Uchiha Madara slowly rose to his feet.
His body cast a long shadow beneath the dim cavern light.
"Black Zetsu, continue watching Konoha.
"I'm going out again."
"You mean…"
"I'm going to Kirigakure."
Madara said,
"That brat Suien has been Mizukage for far too long. His brain has gone rotten.
"That white-haired brat certainly has some ability, but if Suien hadn't kept feeding troops into the battlefield piece by piece, Kirigakure would never have suffered such a miserable defeat against Konoha…
"It seems I'll have to go personally and teach him how to fight a war."
"…Understood, Lord Madara."
Black Zetsu bowed.
Madara pulled out the tube connecting his body to the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, rolled his shoulders and neck slightly, then stepped forward.
His figure gradually disappeared into the depths of the cavern.