Hiruko arrived with Orochimaru.
On the way over, the two of them chatted and laughed like they had all the time in the world.
Hiruko was a different person lately. The usual gloom was gone, his pale complexion even carrying a healthy flush, like someone who'd finally caught a break and couldn't stop feeling it.
Because he wasn't a nobody among the jonin anymore.
He was one of the future Konoha Commissioners. Handpicked by the Hokage himself. A shinobi treated like gold.
Sure, he couldn't compare to Orochimaru, who'd been scooped up early by the brilliant Third and accepted as a personal disciple, but Hiruko hadn't wasted that much time either.
He was still doing well.
He'd climbed back into the same circle as the three from Team Hiruzen.
Orochimaru was pleased with the current state of things, too.
Their teacher openly supported his research. He'd practically spelled out that Orochimaru was the front-runner for the next Hokage, as long as nobody managed to outshine him.
You still had to be someone the village could accept.
Orochimaru had no complaints.
He simply didn't believe anyone could contend with him.
Danzo Shimura?
He looked fierce, and he'd gotten a bit smarter, but in the end he was still just a stray dog in the shadows.
And Hiruko… Hiruko was one of the pieces Orochimaru intended to keep close for when he eventually sat in the Hokage's chair.
The Land of Fire was mostly plains. In theory, there weren't supposed to be "peaks."
But get enough people together and you always ended up with factions anyway.
Someone had to be the "research side."
"Lord Hokage!"
"Good. Sit," Hiruzen Sarutobi said. "I'll keep it short."
He handed Hiruko a copied manuscript of a sealing technique.
"This is a sealing jutsu developed by Mito-sama," Hiruzen said. "Its function is to create a special environment that weakens the rejection between cells and Chakra."
Hiruko's eyes lit up.
Mito Uzumaki? A technique from that woman?
Some names carried weight all on their own. Just hearing it was enough to make him feel a surge of anticipation.
And it drove something else home, too.
This was what it meant to be inside the village's core.
He'd only submitted results a few days ago, and the support was already this direct.
"This should help your line of thinking," Hiruzen continued. "The village has always wanted a breakthrough in limb reattachment, for the shinobi who come back from the battlefield crippled."
"And to reduce the disability rate if we end up in another war."
Hiruko listened seriously.
It was strange. Ever since he'd learned he was going to become a Konoha Commissioner, his gaze had started drifting toward the genin and the lower-ranked shinobi again, like he was seeing them for the first time.
Maybe this was what authority did. Status forcing your stance to shift, tying responsibility and power together until you couldn't pretend they were separate.
"Lord Hokage," Hiruko said, voice low and steady, "please rest assured. I will contribute to Konoha."
"Good," Hiruzen said. "Go. Get to work."
After Hiruko left, Orochimaru calmly poured himself a cup of hot tea, the tension in his posture easing.
"Sensei," he said, tone light, "what about mine?"
When people were around, he called him Hokage. When they weren't, he called him teacher.
Hiruzen narrowed his eyes and pointed at the cup in front of him. "None for you. If you want it, file a request and go copy it from the archives yourself."
Orochimaru's mouth curled. He refilled Hiruzen's tea anyway, while complaining on purpose.
"What a biased teacher."
But he understood perfectly.
This was what it looked like when Hiruzen didn't treat him like an outsider.
"This is an excerpt from Tobirama-sama's research notes," Hiruzen said, sliding a scroll across the desk.
He took a sip of tea, then his gaze sharpened.
"This is top secret."
"It records that Senju and Uchiha cells seem to have a mutual suppressive effect on each other. Tobirama-sama never fully completed the cause, the mechanism, or the finer details."
He held Orochimaru's eyes.
"I'm handing it to you, Orochimaru."
"This might be our chance to make Hashirama Cells usable on a broad scale."
Orochimaru's snake-like pupils tightened without him meaning to. Interest, pure and instinctive.
For a research genius like him, besides immortality, he loved problems like this. Weird, difficult, the kind that didn't yield unless you bled for it.
And the monstrous vitality inside Hashirama Cells wasn't exactly unrelated to immortality, either.
"I see what you're aiming for," Orochimaru said, already reading ahead.
He accepted the scroll with quick, efficient hands. "Use Uchiha Clan cells to suppress the First's cells, reduce their violent activity?"
The problem with transplanting Hashirama Cells was that their vitality carried something close to an "absorption" trait. Most hosts couldn't handle it. They got drained instead, their Chakra sucked dry by the very thing they were trying to graft.
"Yes," Hiruzen said. "As things stand, cases like Yamato are far too rare."
"I'm thinking we take two approaches. Try extracting some kind of resistance from Yamato, and also find a way to weaken the First's cells themselves…"
He leaned back slightly, thinking as he spoke.
"Wood Style, in a sense, is similar to the Nine-Tails. In its complete form, it's a power the village can't truly control."
"Power you can't control isn't power. It's an unstable variable that threatens the village's peace."
"So we don't need to obsess over whether weakened Hashirama Cells can still pass on Wood Style. Even if all they provide is Chakra and vitality, that alone has enormous strategic value."
That was Hiruzen laying out his plan.
And also quietly hiding his other goal.
Limb regeneration, research into Hashirama Cells, those were real priorities for a Hokage who wanted to strengthen his village. If both succeeded, Konoha's injury problem would change overnight, and the average shinobi's Chakra reserves would jump to a new level.
But beyond that…
These were also key pieces for perfecting that experimental body.
Limb regeneration corresponded to meridian damage. Senju and Uchiha corresponded to the complete fusion of cells and Chakra.
"Interesting," Orochimaru murmured, and then he softly clapped, once, twice. "Very interesting. And practical."
He tilted his head, eyes gleaming. "Sensei, it's a shame you're Hokage. Research might actually be what you're best at."
"An idea is just an idea," Hiruzen shot back, amused. "The one who makes it real is the one with true skill."
He lifted his cup slightly, pointing with it. "Like you, you brat."
For a moment, teacher and student both laughed, the room warm with genuine ease.
And in that warmth, Orochimaru's mind drifted to the jutsu he'd nearly completed.
Immortality Jutsu.
If Hiruzen knew about it… would he still look at him the same way?
Stealing another person's body and transferring into it had almost no "practical value" for the village. It clashed with everything the Will of Fire preached about inheritance and passing things on.
But the problem was…
Hiruzen had clearly noticed Orochimaru's work on the soul.
He'd given him the parts of Tobirama's notes dealing with the spirit. He'd asked questions, more than once. It was proof.
Orochimaru suspected his teacher's tolerance was higher than most, but the enhanced Immortality Jutsu was… terrifyingly effective.
A first step toward "eternal life," close enough to see.
I wish this could last forever, Orochimaru thought.
Even if telling him is risky… I still want him to know.
More than hiding Immortality Jutsu and making up excuses to brush Hiruzen off, Orochimaru's feelings toward him, half teacher, half father, came with a strange kind of stubbornness.
He wanted Hiruzen to understand him. To accept all of him.
It was impulse, yes.
But it was also the conclusion he reached after thinking it through.
How long could he hide it?
If Hiruzen figured it out on his own, it would carve a crack into trust that might never heal.
And with Hiruzen actively making peace, giving him resources, giving him full trust… the urge to conceal only grew weaker.
Even if he can't understand, maybe that's fine.
Then I'll have proof that bonds are just shackles… and I'll finally be completely free.
He tried to comfort himself with that.
But deep down, he knew the truth.
What he wanted wasn't freedom.
It was total recognition.
Just then, there was a knock.
Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado stepped in, faces grim.
"Hokage," Koharu said, "something happened. Danzo is already on his way."
Homura's voice was tight. "The Hidden Cloud Village has noticed our retaliation. They've issued a harsh condemnation against the village."