"Arisu-kun, if you insist on taking me back to Konoha, then please leave."
"I don't want to fight you and make things ugly."
"I only ask that you don't disturb me and let me remain alone in this laboratory, searching for the true truth of the ninja world."
Without even turning his head, Orochimaru turned around.
His pale golden snake eyes completely moved away from Arisu.
Leaving his back facing Arisu.
Holding a glass dropper between his fingers, he resumed his experiment and directly ignored Arisu's presence.
Standing nearby, Kabuto Yakushi quietly tightened his grip on the experiment logbook, and a thin layer of sweat appeared on his forehead.
Was this Lord Orochimaru's mental strength?
Did he really feel no pressure?
Facing a powerful enemy who could attack at any moment, he could remain so calm without showing even a trace of panic.
He definitely had to learn this composure from Lord Orochimaru, this ability to remain unmoved even when a mountain collapsed before him.
A fanatical light flashed in Kabuto's eyes as he nodded hard in his heart.
Arisu quietly looked at Orochimaru's back, and a meaningful smile slowly appeared on his lips.
"Orochimaru, do you really think you've already touched the truth of the ninja world?"
"Do you really think you've seen through the essence of this world?"
Orochimaru closed his eyes, treating it as a silent answer.
Everyone in the world was obsessed with meaningless ninja battles, shouting empty slogans about the "Will of Fire."
Only he had combined science with ninjutsu and used practice to test every truth.
Seeking immortality...
Compared to them, he naturally developed a lonely pride, believing that everyone else was drunk while he alone remained awake.
"Orochimaru, there are still too many things you don't know. For example, you still know nothing about who truly controls the ninja world."
Arisu's voice remained calm.
"Of course I know. It's those politicians and daimyo hiding behind the scenes."
Orochimaru didn't even raise his eyelids. His tone was matter-of-fact.
"Wrong."
Arisu gently shook his head.
"The ones who truly control the ninja world are a deep government hidden beneath every country and every ninja village."
"Heh..."
Orochimaru let out a mocking laugh, and the dropper in his hand paused.
"Arisu-kun, you've read too much trash literature. You actually believe this kind of baseless conspiracy theory? Rather than believing that, you might as well believe aliens really exist."
"Aliens do exist."
Arisu rubbed his chin, his tone unusually serious.
Orochimaru was completely speechless. He couldn't even be bothered to mock him anymore and only spat out four words.
"I thought you were the most normal one in Konoha. Now it seems you're beyond saving."
"Arisu-kun, after staying with those pigs for too long, you've really become a pig."
Orochimaru continued his experiment.
"Forget it. Hearing something is false, seeing it is believing."
"If your adoptive father who died many years ago suddenly appeared before you right now, how would you react?"
Arisu suddenly changed the topic and asked thoughtfully.
"It would obviously be you using the Transformation Technique."
Orochimaru answered without hesitation.
Before he even finished speaking, a faint white light appeared around Arisu.
His bones made soft cracking sounds. His handsome young appearance twisted and reshaped at a visible speed. In just an instant, he turned into a middle-aged man with a thick beard and gentle features.
Even the black coat he wore turned into the long robe Shopkeeper Wan used to wear.
"Orochimaru, take a look now. Who am I?"
Arisu's voice changed as well, carrying the hoarseness unique to a middle-aged man. A strange smile appeared on his lips.
When that face buried deep in his memories, a face long sealed away by death, entered his sight, Orochimaru's hand holding the test tube suddenly tightened.
His pupils instantly shrank to the size of needles, and even the air around him seemed to freeze for a moment.
But after only one second, that nearly invisible reaction disappeared without a trace.
Orochimaru slowly relaxed his hand and steadily placed the test tube back on the rack. No emotion could be heard in his voice.
"The resemblance is too perfect. Your Transformation Technique is truly terrifying."
Orochimaru's voice was low as his gaze remained fixed on the face before him, identical to his adoptive father's.
His adoptive father had never left behind a photograph. Seeing this face so suddenly, an indescribable sense of loss rose uncontrollably in his heart.
"You've become exactly like my adoptive father..."
"Little Orochimaru, have you forgotten the time you, Jiraiya, and Kakuzu built a snowman in the yard?"
Using the way he used to speak back then, Arisu slowly recalled the past.
Orochimaru's heart trembled violently, but his tone remained calm.
"Did Jiraiya tell you?"
Jiraiya indeed knew about this. With his inability to keep secrets, he had probably mentioned it to Arisu while drunk.
"Then let me tell you something that only the two of us know."
"Do you remember who taught you the periodic table back then?"
Arisu looked at him with deep eyes.
As soon as those words fell, Orochimaru finally lost his composure completely.
His adoptive father had guided him onto the path of science. Back then, inside that sealed study, only the two of them had been present. Arisu was the same age as him, so there was no way he could know about this old memory.
"How do you know that?"
Orochimaru slowly narrowed his golden vertical pupils. The air around him suddenly turned cold, and a chill appeared in his voice.
His first thought was that someone had used genjutsu to invade his mind and steal his memories.
But he only knew that Arisu was skilled in the five nature transformations. He had never heard that this man possessed any talent in genjutsu...
Then, under Orochimaru's shocked gaze, Arisu spoke of even more events from the past. Details, times, even the exact words spoken back then were all recounted.
Orochimaru was completely stunned.
This was impossible.
There were things even he had forgotten, only remembering after Arisu mentioned them.
Yet Arisu knew every one of those things like the back of his hand.
"Who are you?"
Cold sweat streamed down Orochimaru's face, and all his previous calm had vanished.
Facing someone who knew everything about him, Orochimaru felt as though he had been completely seen through.
"Who am I? I have many identities. I am Arisu, one of Konoha's Two Lights, and I am also the First Hokage who founded Konoha!"
Arisu transformed once again.
The First Hokage Arisu from long ago appeared before Orochimaru wearing the Hokage robe.
His face was aged, that of an old man, but every gesture and every word carried the feeling of commanding thousands of troops and ruling over the ninja world.
This feeling of a ruler who had stood at the peak for many years could not be imitated.
"The First Hokage!? This..."
Orochimaru's pupils trembled in shock.
'If the First Hokage had lived until now, then how old was he?!'
Arisu changed again.
"Of course, I might also be the Sage of Six Paths..."
The moment those four words came out, sweat immediately poured down Orochimaru's back.
Nearby, after seeing Arisu transform from a bearded middle-aged man into the First Hokage and now claiming to become the Sage of Six Paths, Kabuto's sanity was starting to collapse...
In an instant, a heaven-reaching aura suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
The First Hokage's robe instantly turned into a black and red long robe, and behind him, a Six Paths Sword slowly floated into view.
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