For the longest time, Orochimaru's ideological tendencies had leaned toward the negative and the self-centered. Because he feared seeing his comrades get hurt, he chose not to believe in the strength of comrades altogether.
Concurrently, due to losing both his parents at a young age, coupled with witnessing the deaths of his close friend and his disciple, alongside his life experiences during war times where people held no respect for life, his personality had been driven further into the darkness, causing his style of handling matters to grow increasingly terrifying.
He blindly believed in ninjutsu and raw power, going as far as to disregard the original essence of life itself.
He consistently fantasized about developing a technique for immortality to alter the world, yet while pursuing his personal goals, he cast aside and sacrificed the lives of other people to serve as experimental test subjects.
Consequently, from the absolute beginning, he had walked very close to Aoki Shiraishi, the Fifth Kazekage. In his eyes, Shiraishi and he were of the same breed.
This sense of appreciation accompanied Shiraishi's step-by-step growth, gradually transforming into something that filled Orochimaru with dread.
Sunagakure might thoroughly destroy Konoha Village!
Compared to the other people of Konoha, Orochimaru understood far too much about Sunagakure.
Currently, the various technical talents and the specialized ninja tool research departments within Sunagakure all possessed a batch of armored mechanical puppets with terrifying combat capacity—the combat strength of these puppets could stand in comparison to an ordinary large-scale summoning beast.
Apart from this, alongside the comprehensive elevation of Sunagakure's technological industries, the war planning capability of the entire Sunagakure faction right now went vastly beyond that of the various great ninja villages; this was an achievement that led a whole era.
The existence of such a terrifying opponent caused Orochimaru to unknowingly develop a mindset of worrying over Konoha's future.
In the beginning, Orochimaru utterly loathed the fact that his inner heart would generate this kind of mindset. All along, he had wished more than anyone else for Konoha to collapse and be destroyed, even going so far as to personally kill that old fellow, the Third Hokage.
Yet when the Third Hokage truly died before his eyes—and was murdered exceptionally easily through a single calculated scheme by the Kazekage—the violently feral rage within Orochimaru's inner heart could no longer be suppressed.
An inkling of a thought suddenly sprouted within him; Orochimaru abruptly wanted to do something to alter this situation that left him somewhat anxious; hence, he began developing the Impure World Reincarnation ahead of schedule.
Only by utilizing this powerful forbidden technique could they reverse the situation when Konoha and the other ninja villages confronted the comprehensively crushing power of Sunagakure, retaining a single sliver of hope for a counterattack.
Apart from the Impure World Reincarnation, Orochimaru had additionally been researching a powerful cloned lifeform similar to the White Zetsu a while back, utilized to replenish the problem of military strength on the shinobi battlefield.
This technology was originally intended to replenish the living sacrifice issue required by the Impure World Reincarnation.
But later on, Orochimaru discovered that it could, in fact, be extensively generalized for more applications; even within the field of medical ninjutsu, its value was exceptionally massive.
His own arms had been severed multiple times. In the past, treating this kind of severed arm injury would take the Medical Corps at least several months, and if the injury was excessively severe, there was even a possibility it could not be cured at all.
However, an arm made from this Wood Style cloned lifeform was an exceptionally excellent material, allowing one to graft it on directly.
Right now, the three great ninja villages had united, seemingly boasting abundant military strength.
In Orochimaru's eyes, a single Sunagakure squad could overturn the structural configuration of an entire Allied Forces battalion; therefore, this category of technology was additionally the key to reversing the dynamics of the war.
It was precisely because Orochimaru grasped far too many technologies that it resulted in Shiraishi deploying a definitive fatal trap, borrowing the blade of Konoha to force Orochimaru into the absolute most desperate corner.
"Senior Orochimaru, you could have gone to Ryuchi Cave to slowly recuperate and restore your damaged soul status, yet right now you are in a rush to head to Konoha. That is a true path of no return."
Shiraishi sat inside the Kazekage's office. While weaving hand signs with both hands, a specialized Magic Lantern Flex Technique was applied to a bird on the battlefield, utilizing it to observe the ongoing battle between Orochimaru and Danzo.
The injured Orochimaru possessed an exceptionally high fighting spirit. The members of the Foundation had been slaughtered to the point where practically not many people remained, which left Danzo heavily damaged.
His own Foundation forces had been continuously drained over these past years by the Uchiha clan and individuals like Orochimaru; the genuine talents available for use were virtually exhausted, causing Danzo to feel an intense wave of heartache for a time.
During these few exchanges, Danzo was killed twice more by Orochimaru. Left with a mere five lives, a trace of freezing chill bled through Danzo's gaze.
At this exact moment, a scene transpired upon the battlefield, allowing Danzo to seize the opportunity!
During the process of the clash, while the countless venomous snakes controlled by Orochimaru impaled the physical frame of a Foundation member, he simultaneously delivered a bite, forcefully absorbing the flesh and blood within the body to replenish his severely depleting physical energy.
A resounding explosion blasted outward from the corpse of the Foundation member. Countless bizarre, venomous gases and defiled energies surged directly into Orochimaru's body, forming a continuous chain of killing moves.
Orochimaru's face instantly turned deathly pale. Seizing this absolute split-second, Danzo charged forward rapidly, holding a Wind Style kunai that formed a blade of wind.
Under the continuous chain of wind-blade killing moves, mottled stains of blood dripped across Orochimaru's body...
"Orochimaru, hand over the scroll. Could it be that to you, Jiraiya is truly more worthy of entrustment than I am?"
Confronted by Danzo's inquiry, Orochimaru's Kusanagi sword shot out rapidly. Beneath Danzo's astonished gaze, a single slash to the throat claimed Danzo's life.
"You talk too much prose, Danzo!"
Retracting the Kusanagi sword, the exact moment Danzo reincarnated once more, a single wind blade blasted directly in front of Orochimaru, sending him flying backward ruthlessly.
"Foolish fellow, you have truly left this old man far too disappointed."
Danzo was somewhat exasperated. He had never expected that dealing with a heavily text-injured Orochimaru would deplete so much of his own strength. Thinking up to this point, he walked forward viciously, innumerable wind blades instantly slicing off Orochimaru's arms.
"Now that you have lost both your arms, how much strength do you have left to battle?"
With both arms severed simultaneously, Orochimaru spewed a vast quantity of venomous snakes from his mouth, immediately following up by rolling to one side to trigger a detonation.
Witnessing this, Danzo rapidly exhaled a powerful air current to disperse the blast, throwing a punch that knocked Orochimaru flat onto the earth.
Stamping a foot directly down upon him, Danzo's gaze was ice-cold: "A thing that knows not the meaning of death. Take him away."
Just as the remaining members of the Foundation prepared to take action, a single figure rapidly surged into the crowd, throwing Orochimaru directly onto his back!
The individual who intervened was tall in stature, wearing a forehead protector inscribed with the character for Oil. His long white hair reached all the way down to his waist.
Beneath his eyes rested red lines; according to Orochimaru's memories, these marks grew progressively longer alongside his growth.
He was garbed in a red haori, beneath which lay tea-colored clothing, with wooden sandals on his feet and armor-like gauntlets worn across both hands.
He was precisely one of the Sannin—Jiraiya!
"Jiraiya, do you intend to meddle in this matter?"
Gazing upon the already dying Orochimaru, Danzo's brows knitted together as he barked a reprimand.
Confronted by the provocations of the Foundation crowd, Jiraiya forcibly suppressed the raging fury within his inner heart, feeling the immense weakness of the man upon his back. The two had grown up together ever since childhood; when had Jiraiya ever witnessed him in such a state?
In an instant, the rage of this hero of the shinobi world caused the surrounding air currents to roll violently inward, pressuring the remaining members of the Foundation to the point of gasping for breath. Even Danzo was secretly startled by Jiraiya's current strength.
His period of cultivation at Mount Myoboku during this time seemed to have broken through a substantial amount of Jiraiya's strength, to the point where he could occasionally deploy a portion of simple Senjutsu without even necessitating Sage Mode.
"Danzo, before I decide I want to kill you—back off!"
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