Orochimaru's arrival, and the way he asked, made something shift in Hiruzen Sarutobi's chest.
He stood and loosened his shoulders. "Sure. A walk's fine. Work and rest, right?"
Orochimaru's smile turned knowing.
Good. That was a good start.
Teacher and student walked side by side beneath Konoha's starlit sky, chatting lightly as they went.
With Orochimaru guiding without ever making it obvious, their path slowly bent toward a cemetery tucked inside the village.
"War takes so many people," Orochimaru said quietly. "Sensei…"
There was a trace of feeling on his face as he looked ahead. "Nawaki. Dan. And there will be more wars in the future."
Hiruzen nodded, silent.
They kept walking until they stopped in front of a headstone.
Moonlight spilled down, just enough to make the carved name clear.
Orochimaru's parents.
Konoha shinobi, killed in the war.
"So it's them…" Hiruzen sighed. He pulled out a cigarette case, then set three sticks into the incense burner one by one.
A small flame flickered at his fingertips as he lit them.
Orochimaru wiped the stone, warmth spreading through him. "Sensei. Can I have one?"
"Smoking's bad for you, but with our bodies…"
Hiruzen held a cigarette between his lips and shook his head. "That's a pointless thing to say."
Orochimaru took the cigarette. He sparked a flame for Hiruzen, and the two of them stood in silence before the grave.
A light breeze passed through.
No words.
Only two tiny flames jumping now and then, like memories that rose without warning.
Orochimaru drifted into the past.
He still remembered the first time Hiruzen Sarutobi took him in as a student. He'd brought him here to pay respects.
Back then, Orochimaru had found a shed snakeskin on the ground. Hiruzen had told him it was a sign of luck, of rebirth…
So much time has passed.
So many important people had slipped away from him.
But not all of them.
Orochimaru pinched out his cigarette with his fingers.
"Sensei. I developed a forbidden technique. It's called the Immortality Jutsu…"
"It can transfer the soul into someone else's body…"
He didn't dodge it. He didn't soften it. He said it straight. "I like this jutsu. I think it can fulfill my dream."
As he spoke, Orochimaru handed Hiruzen a scroll.
Hiruzen's brow lifted, and a quiet laugh stirred in his chest.
Of course. In this shinobi world, the thoughts of geniuses tended to converge in the same dark corners…
Just like Tobirama Senju studying Summoning Jutsu: Reanimation and techniques that bound the soul…
A soul you could almost see. Life and death that felt blurred at the edges.
If you had the ability, how could you not start thinking about it?
The problem was…
The word "immortality" always made people crazy. It promised endless possibility.
Order and ethics grew fragile in its shadow.
Hiruzen studied Orochimaru for a long moment, expression unreadable, then unrolled the scroll.
Orochimaru's heartbeat picked up.
Still, he understood what his teacher wanted and lit a small flame between his fingers to give Hiruzen more light.
Hiruzen read carefully.
After a while, he understood the basic structure.
It was a complicated technique.
First, Immortality Jutsu required the caster to have an intense awareness of the soul, enough to drive their own soul out and move it.
That single step alone locked out most shinobi.
It was like Flying Raijin in a way. Shinobi who could use space-related techniques already had talent for the concept itself.
To a Flying Raijin user, invisible space didn't feel invisible. It felt segmented. Almost tangible.
Something you could see, something you could touch.
But moving the soul wasn't the end of it. The body you stole mattered just as much.
Like rejection between different cells, there was rejection between soul and flesh too. If the compatibility was wrong, the backlash would be severe.
In an unsuitable vessel, the soul would feel like it was trapped in a steamer, weakening every moment.
And this kind of rebirth wasn't limitless.
Unlike Ghost Transformation Jutsu, which was only a brief separation, Immortality Jutsu made the original soul and the new container tangle together. By Orochimaru's estimate, each transfer would need at least a three-year gap.
In special situations, even three years might not be enough.
In short, it was a half-finished technique.
But the "problems" with it…
Between Tobirama Senju and Izuna Uchiha… no, between Tobirama and a Tobirama clone created from Izuna's cells, those problems weren't an unbreakable wall.
It was, in fact, workable.
All you could say was this:
Tobirama Senju's lingering obsession with Izuna Uchiha had echoed back to him thirty years later.
Sometimes Hiruzen caught himself thinking about it.
What kind of mindset had his teacher been in, to research Izuna's cells in so many ways? Failing again and again wasn't enough…
He'd even mixed in his own cells.
And shinobi cells were shaped by Chakra. Ordinary cloning methods wouldn't work. Without the right growth environment, it would fail outright. You'd have to adjust it step by step, protect it constantly, nurse it along.
The time and difficulty involved… it was practically handcrafting life.
Even Hiruzen Sarutobi had to admit it left him uneasy.
The twisted bond between the Senju and the Uchiha, rival and equal, ran deeper than most people wanted to imagine.
And he understood why Orochimaru was being so careful.
With the shinobi world's current level of technology, if you set your eyes on a shinobi's body, cloning wasn't realistic. That path was closed.
So the only road left was taking it.
And the Will of Fire preached "inheritance." An immortality technique built on stealing bodies… it was hard not to draw ugly conclusions.
If the village produced an unparalleled genius one day, would Orochimaru choose them as a target?
It was possible.
Hiruzen slowly rolled the scroll closed, eyes hardening.
Chakra gathered without a sound.
He didn't move, but the pressure around him thickened until it felt physical, like the air itself had turned sticky.
Orochimaru's heart lurched.
He'd imagined worst-case outcomes. His teacher attacking him. Rejecting him.
He just hadn't expected this.
Hiruzen felt… stronger than he had the last time they fought.
Orochimaru couldn't measure his teacher's strength in numbers. It was instinct, the kind that kept shinobi alive.
His sixth sense screamed at him.
If Hiruzen Sarutobi struck without holding back…
Even with multiple escape techniques in his pocket, could he really get away?
And Konoha's defenses, inside and out, had upgraded more than once by now.
If he truly needed to flee, he might have to play the pitiful card.
"Sensei, you…" Orochimaru swallowed, bitter.
He'd decided to confess. He'd told himself he could accept any outcome.
But standing here, right at the edge of it, the bitterness still rose in his throat.
Hiruzen narrowed his eyes.
Orochimaru watched him like a hawk, sweat dampening his palm.
"Why are you so tense?"
Suddenly, Hiruzen let the chakra disperse and burst into laughter. "I'm messing with you, you little brat!"
Orochimaru froze.
But his teacher's expression was too open to be fake, and little by little, Orochimaru's body loosened.
He couldn't help it. "Sensei, don't just gather chakra like that!"
"Sometimes I want to show a bit of teacher authority," Hiruzen said, lifting a brow.
Orochimaru gave him a dry laugh, his protest wordless but clear.
"I've told you before. You're the student I'm proudest of."
"You've been torn up about whether to tell me about this forbidden technique, haven't you?"
Orochimaru hesitated, then nodded. "I didn't know what your attitude would be…"
"As your teacher, unless my student has done something truly unforgivable, something that makes the world hate them, why would I ever raise my hand against you?"
"What I just did was to tell you this, you should trust your teacher."
Hiruzen patted Orochimaru's shoulder. "That look you had, like you really thought I was going to strike you… it hurt, you know."
"Come on. Let's talk somewhere else. Let the dead sleep."
Orochimaru blinked, then looked at his teacher's back, and a real smile rose from the bottom of his chest.
He hurried to catch up.
There wasn't a better answer than this.