At the same time, while Seiryū was using genjutsu to control an Amegakure shinobi and extract information about the Akatsuki, two men sat across from one another inside a towering structure at the heart of the village.
"Hmm?"
Hanzō, ruler of Amegakure and the man hailed as the Demigod of the Shinobi World, wore a respirator over his face and an Amegakure forehead protector upon his head.
He appeared to sense something.
His eyes narrowed.
"A restriction placed on one of my shinobi has been triggered."
Hanzō turned his gaze toward the man seated across from him, whose delicate features gave him an eerie, almost serpentine appearance.
"You were the one who provided me with this cursed seal technique," Hanzō said coldly. "Now that it has been activated, what could have caused it?"
To strengthen his control over Amegakure, Hanzō had entered into a partnership with the man before him.
The man had provided him with a cursed seal technique capable of tightening his grip over his subordinates, while Hanzō compensated him in return.
"The restriction was activated?"
The feminine-looking man was none other than Orochimaru, the rogue member of the Legendary Sannin.
Even he appeared mildly surprised by Hanzō's words.
Then his eyes gleamed, and a quiet chuckle escaped his lips.
"It is quite simple. Only genjutsu can trigger that cursed seal."
"Someone placed your subordinate under genjutsu and attempted to interrogate him."
"At a time like this?"
Hanzō's expression immediately turned grim.
"Damn it. Could it be someone from one of the three great shinobi villages?"
The situation in the shinobi world was exceptionally unstable.
The Land of Rain lay directly between Konoha, Sunagakure, and Iwagakure.
Its location gave it immense strategic value to all three powers.
Under such circumstances, even the slightest disturbance was enough to put Hanzō on edge.
Now, someone had used genjutsu to control one of his subordinates.
That was hardly a good sign.
"Perhaps," Orochimaru replied. "You should understand Amegakure's current position better than anyone. You are surrounded by threats, both within the village and beyond its borders."
Orochimaru laughed softly.
He showed no concern whatsoever for Hanzō's predicament. If anything, he seemed to be enjoying it, despite the fact that Hanzō was currently his business partner.
That was all they were.
Business partners.
After being forced to defect from Konoha, Orochimaru had taken the opportunity to steal a great many things from Danzō's Root headquarters.
Some of them were extraordinarily valuable.
Among them were cells from the First Hokage, physical data on subjects who had survived transplantation experiments involving those cells, several forbidden techniques, and a collection of highly interesting intelligence reports.
Through those records, Orochimaru had learned about many of Danzō's secret activities, none of which could ever be exposed to the public.
Danzō had not only maintained a partnership with the figure behind the underground bounty exchanges, but had also remained in contact with Hanzō, ruler of Amegakure and the famed Demigod of the Shinobi World.
After defecting from Konoha, Orochimaru lost his primary source of funding and could no longer continue the research that fascinated him.
As a result, he eventually chose to contact Hanzō.
The two reached an agreement.
Orochimaru would provide Hanzō with assistance, and Hanzō would finance his research.
Their partnership was founded entirely on money.
Hanzō was irritated by Orochimaru's words, but he knew they were true.
"Can the restriction provide me with any further information?" he asked. "I need to know which faction is responsible."
"Of course it can."
Orochimaru spoke at a leisurely pace, the smile never leaving his lips.
"However, that falls outside the terms of our current agreement. Your previous request was merely for a way to strengthen your rule."
Orochimaru licked his lips before continuing.
"Every shinobi marked with the Root Eradication Binding Seal is now incapable of betraying you."
His meaning was obvious.
He had already fulfilled Hanzō's original request.
Now Hanzō wanted something more, which meant he would have to pay for it.
"Hmph."
Hanzō snorted coldly.
Had he not already fought Orochimaru and discovered that he could do nothing to him, Hanzō would have subdued the man long ago.
He never would have bothered negotiating.
"What price do you want?" Hanzō asked.
Orochimaru grinned.
"You already know that money is the only thing I want."
"I will pay you afterward. For now, I need to know which faction acted against one of my men."
"Deal."
Orochimaru laughed.
He was desperately short of funds.
He had originally assumed he would need to wait some time before another opportunity arose to squeeze more money out of Hanzō.
He had not expected that opportunity to present itself so soon.
It was a pleasant surprise.
Orochimaru did not know which faction had infiltrated Amegakure or what their true objective might be.
Still, he was curious.
He was also rather grateful to whoever had created this opportunity for him.
Orochimaru opened his mouth and spat out a scroll, placing the saliva-covered object on the table.
After licking his lips again, he said, "This scroll contains several methods for using the Root Eradication Binding Seal. As long as the person placed under genjutsu is still alive, you can recover everything that happened to him."
"Of course, even if he were dead, I could still bring him back to life."
His smile widened.
"But that would cost extra."
The Root Eradication Binding Seal was an inferior version of the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal Danzō used to control Root shinobi.
Even so, it was more than sufficient for a transaction with Hanzō.
The Root Eradication Binding Seal was carved into the soul itself and could not be suppressed by genjutsu.
Once activated, the cursed seal could restore the memories of someone who had been placed under genjutsu, even if the victim had been completely unaware of what had happened.
"That will not be necessary. Whoever acted against my subordinate left him alive, most likely because they did not wish to alert us."
Hanzō gave Orochimaru a cold glance and said nothing more.
He had already witnessed Orochimaru's method of bringing the dead back to life.
Moreover, the subordinate in question had already returned to normal, and the Root Eradication Binding Seal had shown no further signs of disturbance.
Clearly, whoever had acted had wanted to avoid drawing attention.
Hanzō wiped the moisture from the scroll before picking it up and studying its contents.
Orochimaru paid no attention to Hanzō's displeasure.
He merely smiled.
"What a shame."
Even so, his curiosity had been stirred.
The only villages likely to make a move against Amegakure should have been Iwagakure and Sunagakure.
Konoha did not ordinarily invade another nation's territory without provocation.
So which village was responsible?
The brewing Shinobi World War truly was fascinating.
Orochimaru wanted to take part in it as well.
It would give him an excellent opportunity to test several interesting techniques.
Before long, the Amegakure shinobi whom Seiryū had controlled with genjutsu and questioned about the Akatsuki was brought into the tower.
He had already undergone several examinations, but none had revealed anything unusual.
"Release."
Without wasting time, Hanzō formed a hand seal after learning how to activate the Root Eradication Binding Seal.
Through the seal's power, he forced the shinobi to remember everything that had happened earlier.
Hanzō glanced at his subordinate, whose face had gone pale from the pain, but showed no concern for his condition.
"Do you remember who used genjutsu on you?" he asked. "What information did they seek?"
"Lord Hanzō, the person who controlled me was an eleven- or twelve-year-old boy with red hair. He questioned me about the Akatsuki."
Enduring the stabbing pain in his head, the shinobi recounted everything that had happened.
He was terrified.
Someone had placed him under genjutsu without him noticing a thing.
Had the other person wanted to kill him...
The thought alone caused what little color remained in his face to vanish.
A red-haired boy? The Akatsuki?
Orochimaru, who had yet to leave, narrowed his eyes as he considered the information.
An eleven- or twelve-year-old boy with red hair.
Could it be that brat?
Orochimaru already knew what kind of organization the Akatsuki was.
Amegakure faced dangers both within its borders and beyond them.
The internal threat was the rapidly expanding Akatsuki, while the external threat came from the increasingly chaotic shinobi world.
Orochimaru also knew who had founded the organization, a fact he found rather amusing.
The Akatsuki's leaders were the three war orphans Jiraiya had taken in and trained during the Second Shinobi World War.
A meeting between fellow disciples? How interesting.
Orochimaru's thoughts raced as a vague possibility began to take shape in his mind.
The corners of his mouth curled into a playful smile, as though he had stumbled upon something deeply entertaining.
"An eleven- or twelve-year-old boy with red hair?"
Hanzō frowned.
How could a boy of that age have infiltrated Amegakure while the village was under lockdown?
More importantly, how had he placed a chūnin under genjutsu so easily?
What puzzled Hanzō most was that the boy had infiltrated Amegakure solely to investigate the Akatsuki.
He could not understand it.
"Describe his appearance," Hanzō ordered.
The shinobi could only report what he remembered.
"He was a handsome boy. After he finished questioning me about the Akatsuki, my vision blurred, and he disappeared."
"Disappeared?"
Hanzō muttered to himself.
"Could it have been space-time ninjutsu?"
Then something seemed to occur to him.
His pupils contracted.
"An eleven- or twelve-year-old boy with red hair who can use space-time ninjutsu. Only one person fits that description."
His voice grew heavier.
"Konoha's Shinigami, Uzumaki Seiryū, the boy who recently became famous throughout the shinobi world."
An eleven- or twelve-year-old red-haired boy who could infiltrate Amegakure despite the lockdown and vanish in an instant.
Every clue pointed to the same person.
He was one of Konoha's most promising young shinobi and had recently earned a fearsome reputation throughout the shinobi world.
Konoha's Shinigami, Uzumaki Seiryū.
The boy who had inflicted devastating losses on both Iwagakure and Kumogakure.
"It appears Konoha has begun making preparations of its own," Orochimaru said after seeing that Hanzō had reached the same conclusion. "That is rather unlike their usual approach."
A playful grin crossed his face.
"I fear Amegakure may be facing serious trouble, Lord Hanzō."
Hanzō did not know that the Akatsuki's leaders were Jiraiya's former disciples, so he had no way of determining Seiryū's true reason for seeking them out.
Orochimaru possessed information that Hanzō lacked.
That meant there was money to be made.
He began subtly guiding Hanzō toward a different conclusion.
"Konoha intends to use the Akatsuki?"
Hanzō's expression darkened.
"How ambitious."
Even without Orochimaru's encouragement, Hanzō had already begun drawing his own conclusions.
The Land of Rain held immense strategic value for Konoha, Sunagakure, and Iwagakure.
Given the opportunity, any of the three would gladly use Amegakure as a strategic foothold.
Now, a Konoha shinobi had appeared inside Amegakure and begun investigating the Akatsuki.
Clearly, Konoha was preparing to make a move against Amegakure.
They were not planning a direct assault.
Instead, they intended to exploit the Akatsuki, a force already active within the Land of Rain.
Konoha could fund the organization, help it overthrow Hanzō's regime, and seize Amegakure's strategic position in a single stroke.
It was not mere baseless paranoia.
The conclusion was perfectly logical.
Why else would Seiryū be searching for the Akatsuki?
The organization had already grown powerful enough to threaten Hanzō's rule. It could easily be manipulated by one of the great shinobi villages.
It was precisely because he needed to stabilize his rule that Hanzō had entered into a partnership with Orochimaru.
His subordinates had to remain absolutely loyal.
"Seiryū will not be easy to deal with, Lord Hanzō," Orochimaru said slowly in his hoarse voice. "He managed to repel the Third Raikage. Even you, the Demigod of the Shinobi World, may not be his equal."
Hanzō looked at him coldly.
"What are you trying to say?"
Orochimaru laughed.
"Now that I think about it, I also have a score to settle with that brat. My defection from Konoha was partly his doing."
His smile widened.
"I would not mind helping you deal with him, Lord Hanzō."
"Heh. Since when did one of the Legendary Sannin become so desperate for money?"
Hanzō understood exactly what Orochimaru was implying and could not help but sneer.
"It seems leaving Konoha has caused you some difficulties as well."
"Were you not the one who gave us the title of Legendary Sannin?"
Orochimaru paid no attention to Hanzō's mockery. He merely smiled in his usual unsettling manner.
"Your reputation, however, is not what it once was. Now even a brat who only recently became famous dares to walk openly through Amegakure."
Was Hanzō weak?
No.
Although he was no longer as powerful as he had been in his prime, he remained one of the strongest shinobi in the world.
He was no weaker than any of the Five Kage.
However, years spent clinging to power had dulled his resolve, while the fear of losing everything had made him increasingly afraid of death.
To preserve his position, he had even begun eliminating anyone who might become a threat to his authority.
His spirit had weakened.
The convictions he had once upheld were long gone.
Naturally, he had become more cautious, suspicious, and fearful.
That was Hanzō's current state.
His strength still stood near the summit of the shinobi world, but the determination he once possessed had vanished.
That much had already been obvious during his first meeting with Orochimaru.
The moment Hanzō saw the two figures Orochimaru had summoned through Edo Tensei, he had not even dared to test their strength.
That was why their negotiations had gone so smoothly.
Orochimaru's words left Hanzō visibly humiliated.
His fists tightened slightly.
"Anyone who threatens my position is my enemy," he said in an icy voice. "And I will kill every last one of them."
After a brief pause, he looked directly at Orochimaru.
"I can pay you, but I do not intend to become personally involved in this matter. You understand what I mean."
Orochimaru wanted money.
That was simple enough.
As Amegakure's ruler, Hanzō had no shortage of wealth.
If he could pay Orochimaru to handle the matter on his behalf, then the expense meant nothing to him.
Heh. Even now, he still believes he can remain uninvolved?
Orochimaru mocked him inwardly.
Hanzō truly had lost the spirit he once possessed.
However, none of those thoughts showed on Orochimaru's face.
He merely chuckled.
"Of course. I am currently working as a bounty shinobi. As long as the payment is sufficient, I would not hesitate to move against even one of the Five Kage."
(To be continued.)
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