In that hoarse voice came a laugh that had gone a little too far.
Orochimaru conducted six consecutive full autopsies, the most meticulous kind, and by the time he was done, he had spent an entire night on them.
At last, through all the details, he completely ruled out the possibility that those shinobi had died to Fire Release. He also confirmed that their shattered hearts had indeed been torn apart by their own cardiac muscles.
Although ten days had already passed, and the high concentration of adrenaline had long since been metabolized beyond detection, Orochimaru still managed to find traces of it through the distortions in the muscles, blood vessels, and nerves.
Orochimaru was not some detective from Tokyo's Beika District.
He had no need for hard evidence that could be nailed to a board and declared ironclad proof.
As long as the traces were enough to infer the cause of death of those Root shinobi, enough to confirm that his suspect had a problem, that was already sufficient for him.
Rather tired, Orochimaru licked across his own eyeballs, forcibly refreshing himself in that bizarre way. Once his spirits recovered, excitement gradually rose instead. He took out all the data recorded through the night and began analyzing it in detail, constructing one unprecedented combat model after another in his mind.
"Hehehe… how interesting."
"Once all the disguising traces are stripped away, most of these Root shinobi were actually uninjured externally at the moment of death."
"The only four who were wounded before dying… were injured by each other."
"Mutual slaughter."
"Was it puppetry, directly manipulating the body through the nerves? Or a genjutsu capable of completely controlling the human mind?"
"Mm… considering the Uchiha clan's Sharingan, genjutsu is the more likely answer. But that still can't explain muscles tensed to the point of tearing, nor can it explain a heart being ripped apart by its own myocardium."
Orochimaru fell into thought.
After one wild possibility after another, he began examining and eliminating them one by one. In the end, he arrived at an answer so contrary to common sense that even he found it hard to believe.
The conclusion startled him enough that he actually spoke aloud.
"Genjutsu… can deceive the brain to the point of taking over the neural network? The neural network can be taken over?!"
"How is that possible?"
"..."
The more he thought, the more excited he became. Even his tongue unconsciously revealed its split, modified form, and the pitch of his voice shifted with it.
"It's possible… no, it has to be like this!"
"Uchiha Yoru is only eighteen, yet he's pushed genjutsu development to this level? So this is what an Uchiha genius looks like—something this outrageous?"
"No, no, that's not right. What I'm thinking is still wrong. This isn't just a matter of genjutsu talent. To do this, he would also need an extremely deep understanding of human anatomy, and a comprehensive grasp of the nervous system."
"This already goes beyond my own field of knowledge. Even Tsunade hasn't studied nerves to this degree."
"That's impossible. Where would he get the time and resources to conduct enough dissections?"
Orochimaru had never been the type to get tangled up over a problem he couldn't figure out.
He casually took out a scroll, recorded his doubts and conjectures, and temporarily set the matter aside.
After packing up his makeshift laboratory, sealing away the equipment and medicines, he left the dissected corpses untouched and simply burned them.
Once the bodies and all the remaining evidence had been charred past recognition in the flames, he casually used Earth Release to collapse the underground chamber he had excavated, burying every trace deep beneath the earth.
But just after returning to the surface, another thought suddenly occurred to him.
"Mm? Wait. If I remember correctly, Shimura Danzo sent out four Root squads, two living weapons, and one Root shinobi in command. That should make exactly fifteen people."
"The Root shinobi in command was one of my former test subjects… the one with two hearts. Where's his corpse?"
He closed his eyes and recalled the matter.
Very soon, Orochimaru confirmed that among the collected corpses, his test subject was indeed missing. Then he remembered that in Uchiha Yoru's report, he had mentioned using Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique to kill four enemies, blasting them so thoroughly that not even bones remained.
"Shhhehehehe… Uchiha Yoru…"
"The more I think about him, the more interesting he becomes. He clearly said everything, yet managed to bury the truth inside a heap of nonsense. Even I was fooled for a moment. His skill at playing with written reports is actually better than mine…"
"A mysterious Uchiha. He handles almost every aspect flawlessly, yet leaves obvious holes when it comes to concealing matters from the upper ranks. It seems he really does lack experience as a leader."
"Could it be that Uchiha Yoru isn't the next clan head specially cultivated by the Uchiha, but merely a grassroots Uchiha who rose through talent alone?"
As someone who had also come from nothing, Orochimaru felt a rare sense of empathy at that thought.
His favor toward Uchiha Yoru rose sharply.
He decided to help Yoru cover up the gaps he had left behind.
Not only because of goodwill, but because of curiosity.
Yes, Orochimaru's curiosity toward Uchiha Yoru had already burst past the limit. He even set aside the work he was supposed to handle next and sat down where he was, beginning a complete analysis of this rising Uchiha figure who had suddenly entered his sight.
He wanted to run through every piece of information in his mind, reorganize and reassemble it, and see Uchiha Yoru as a whole from a higher vantage point.
After a long while, the astonishment in Orochimaru's eyes only deepened.
His initial condescension toward Uchiha Yoru disappeared entirely. He now regarded him as someone on equal footing.
"I never expected Uchiha Yoru to be this strange. Other than those Sharingan eyes, nothing about him feels like an Uchiha. Compared to him, even the more famous Uchiha Obito is actually more Uchiha—stubborn to the point of obsession, self-centered, arrogantly certain of himself."
Orochimaru frowned slightly and murmured,
"That alone would already be odd enough. But the strange part is… he gives me a very, very familiar feeling. Who is it?"
"My teacher? No. In every aspect other than personal strength, he's far more impressive than my teacher."
"Then it must be a shinobi stronger than my teacher, and one I've personally encountered… Hanzo? Heh, no. His combat power is sufficient, but as a leader he's hardly worth mentioning."
"First Hokage-sama? Tch. When the First died, I wasn't even a year old. I'm very familiar with Senju Hashirama's cells, but not with the man himself. It can't be him."
Then, suddenly, inspiration flashed through Orochimaru's mind. The thought was so startling that he blurted it out.
"The Second Hokage! Senju Tobirama-sama!"
"That's right. That's the feeling."
"Powerful. Patient. Good at enduring and laying plans. Good at developing ninjutsu. Good at political maneuvering. Uchiha Yoru is very… very much like Tobirama-sama."
Orochimaru could not help but smile bitterly.
He began to worry for his teacher, Sarutobi Hiruzen.
For the Uchiha clan to suddenly produce someone so similar to the Second Hokage sounded like a joke. But for the Third Hokage, this was a genuine opponent.
If Uchiha Yoru became the one in power within the Uchiha clan, Orochimaru felt that his teacher would probably—possibly, very likely—be crushed on every front, left dusty-faced and disheveled as a matter of routine.
Tilting his head, Orochimaru rubbed his chin with his right hand, a rare gesture for him, and muttered,
"Or perhaps… once Uchiha Yoru becomes Uchiha clan head, his opponent will be me?"
"Now that would truly be interesting. If I had someone like him as an opponent, being the Fourth Hokage might not be boring after all."
"Hokage… immortality…"
"Hahahahaha…"
All at once, Orochimaru burst into wild laughter.
He laughed without restraint, laughed until tears nearly came, completely unconcerned by the strange looks secretly cast over by the guard shinobi he had startled.
"What am I even thinking?" Orochimaru said in self-mockery. "Life is so fragile. The First Hokage died suddenly. The Second Hokage died suddenly too. Nawaki also suddenly…"
"So what if someone is powerful and lucky? Didn't Sakumo-senpai also die suddenly…?"
"I don't even know whether I myself will survive to the end of this war. What exactly am I thinking?"
Orochimaru looked toward the rising sun in the east and smiled with genuine delight.
"Uchiha Yoru. If you can live to the end of this war, and I can live to the end of this war, then as Fourth Hokage, I'll have a proper game with you."
"Ten years, twenty years, thirty years—it doesn't matter. Our lives are short and fragile either way. At the very least, they should be lived brilliantly enough."
...
"—Tch!"
Uchiha Yoru suddenly shivered.
His heart thudded violently twice, then quickly settled again, leaving behind a layer of cold sweat that clung to his skin—sticky, damp, and unpleasant.
"Who the hell is scheming against me this time? Or did someone discover one of my secrets?"
"Ugh… what a pain!!"
His face twisted into a thoroughly constipated expression.
Among all his divine abilities, this one—Whim of the Heart—was the least reliable.
When it activated, there was never any warning. It came and went without a trace, leaving him with no idea where to even begin.
And even when it did trigger successfully, its usefulness was limited.
Because Uchiha Yoru did not truly know how to foresee the future. Nor could he pinch his fingers and deduce heavenly secrets. He had no way of knowing what exactly had caused the divine ability to erupt.
Worse, Whim of the Heart was easily affected by his own knowledge, information, common sense, and even changes in mood.
Sometimes, after enough interference piled up, what it gave him was not warning, but outright misdirection.
His good mood from seeing the morning's first thread of purple qi had been thoroughly ruined by that sudden jolt.
Yet Uchiha Yoru did not immediately get up. He remained seated atop the reef by the sea, closed his eyes, and continued savoring the sensation of that first strand of purple qi entering his dantian.
...
After arriving on the uninhabited island last night, Uchiha Yoru and Miwa Masayo had immediately entered full glutton mode.
After finishing the coconut water, the man and cat built the campfire into a huge blaze, then took out all sorts of stored food and roasted it over the fire, eating from the moment the moon rose until it was high overhead.
Still feeling unsatisfied, Miwa Masayo had even taken advantage of the darkness to dart into the sea, intending to catch some seafood in the black water.
As a cat whose native land was the desert, her attempt met with a shameful defeat.
But when Miwa Masayo climbed ashore in helpless frustration, she discovered that the sea behind her had somehow begun to glow.
Countless fluorescent squid had swum up from the deep sea into that small bay. They chased, jostled, and played in the shallow waters, competing with one another through the brightness of the blue-green light they emitted, all for the best upstream position once the incoming tide brought the current into the bay.
Miwa Masayo immediately charged back into the sea and began hunting again.
The glowing squid were so densely packed that there was no room for them to dodge. Even if the tabby cat shut her eyes and swung a paw at random, she could hook at least one squid every time.
She caught thirty to forty of them with absurd ease, but that very ease ruined the fun.
By the time she came back to shore, her face was drooping. She shook the seawater from her fur, curled up in Uchiha Yoru's arms, and accompanied her human as they quietly watched the sea, whose brilliance outshone even the star-filled sky.
Once the pleasure of the hunt was gone, even the joy of grilled squid lost much of its appeal. Miwa Masayo only ate a little over ten before losing interest.
Then she suddenly asked,
"Yoru, what are all these squid doing, nya?"
"Why are there so many gathered here, nya? And why aren't they afraid of dying, nya?"
Uchiha Yoru could not take his eyes off the sea at all. Even his answer seemed to carry a strange rhythm.
"Spring has arrived, all things revive, and the great prairie has once again entered the season when animals…"
"Bah. Wrong one. Let's start over."
"Winter has arrived. The squid of the sea have begun their grand gathering of the year. They gather in warm bays, lay countless eggs, and make preparations for hatching in the spring to come."
"Talk properly, nya!"
Uchiha Yoru burst out laughing.
"I'm not a marine expert. I don't know much about these squid, so I can only make a guess based on common sense."
"I think this bay is probably the spawning ground of this species of fluorescent squid. Maybe the seawater here is warmer, so the eggs have an easier time surviving the winter. Or maybe the bay floor is completely covered in sand, so predators can't eat every last egg."
"In any case, this should be the place where their eggs are best suited to overwinter."
"And judging by how frenzied they are… their lives may already be at their end. They might even die after tonight."
"In order to leave behind offspring, in order to let the code of their lives continue, squid like these will use every last bit of strength. At a time like this, they've already stopped caring about their own survival."
Miwa Masayo fell silent.
With Yoru's explanation, she finally felt the madness in those squid that had seemed so easy to catch.
The two sat on the beach and watched quietly.
What they were watching was not any single squid, but the sea itself, reflecting and echoing the brilliant starlit sky above—a grand and magnificent tide of life formed from countless squid.
Then, all at once, Uchiha Yoru sharply sensed a reversal in the ocean current.
The seawater had begun to pour inward, into the bay.
The tide was coming in.
With the influx of seawater, Yoru sensed the squid receiving a violent stimulus. Not only did their fluorescent brightness double again, each individual squid even began emitting chakra intense enough to be perceived, converting it into powerful electromagnetic waves.
Countless squid gathered together, forming a strong magnetic field that covered the entire bay.
It was almost like some sort of natural barrier.
"Rika-chan!"
"Nya?"
"The tide's coming in. The squid gathering's about to reach its climax!"
Boom—
Before Uchiha Yoru had even finished speaking, a gigantic swordfish leaped into the bay entrance, riding the incoming tide and crashing its way in.
Then came a second. A third.
And more and more of them kept coming.
This kind of large carnivorous fish—rarer than marlin, larger in size, and even fiercer in combat ability—had somehow gathered more than twenty individuals in this tiny bay.
It was unbelievable.
There was no question about it now. These fluorescent squid possessed some kind of unknown special value, enough to draw swordfish from all over the seas of the shinobi world from unimaginable distances.
As the swordfish's high-speed bodies cut through the magnetic field, they instantly generated powerful currents. Bright electric sparks crawled over their scales, bringing them tremendous pain. Some of their scales were even blasted loose by the shocks.
Enduring the agony, the swordfish thrashed desperately through the water, chasing the larger female squid with their bulging, ball-like bellies. Once they bit into one, they tore open the abdomen and swallowed what was inside, showing no interest at all in the squid's head or tentacles.
Uchiha Yoru instantly understood.
The swordfish had come for the roe.
Squid roe was good stuff.
But after seeing more than twenty swordfish writhing in pain under those arcs of electricity, the greed that had just risen in his heart immediately died again. There was no need to dive into the squid's electromagnetic barrier now. He could wait until the squid were gone, then find a way to scoop up the roe afterward.
The fragile barrier did not seem capable of killing such huge swordfish, but pain from electric shock was still not something easily endured. The smaller swordfish seemed to have either eaten their fill or simply reached the limit of what they could bear, and were the first to leave the bay.
Then the larger swordfish also retreated one after another, and once they reached the outer sea, they scattered in all directions.
Uchiha Yoru could not help but say,
"Strange. Why do these swordfish look like they're running for their lives?"
"Could there be something even fiercer coming?"
By then, the female squid had already begun releasing eggs. Those strings of eggs glowed as well, shining brilliantly in the dark seawater.
The male squid had also begun releasing milt farther upstream with the tide. The immense mass of squid turned the water milky, until the sea in the bay lost all sense of clarity and transparency.
Uchiha Yoru and Miwa Masayo both felt sick at the sight, instantly finding the water in front of them utterly disgusting.
Uchiha Yoru slapped a hand onto the beach and used an Earth Release technique.
Earth Release: Rock Pillar.
Under his control, the originally offensive effect of the technique was released slowly instead. A roughly ten-meter-wide section of sand was lifted by the stone pillar, along with the campfire, raising them more than ten meters into the air.
And right at that moment, from the pitch-black waters outside the bay, a tentacle so enormous it defied description slowly rose up, winding its way toward the bay.
Uchiha Yoru and Miwa Masayo both went pale with shock.
They could both sense the chakra coming from that tentacle. Its intensity was not especially high, but the emotion contained within that chakra—a dense, hateful malice—was unmistakable.
That was tailed beast chakra.
Actually encountering a tailed beast was impossible. At present, every tailed beast in the eastern seas had already been sealed into jinchuriki. And if they had really run into a jinchuriki, that would be intelligence important enough to warrant immediate return to camp and a full report.
Uchiha Yoru was completely dumbfounded.
Could it be that this disguised vacation he had secured through a special mission had only lasted half a night?
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