I rely on myself

Chapter 691: The tacit understanding between Danzo and Orochimaru

Somewhere in Konoha Village. It's underground, so sunlight can't get in at all. It seems extremely dark and depressing, but for the Root leader Danzo Shimura, these are just commonplace.

Danzo tapped the ground with his cane before he asked, "What is that Orochimaru doing now?"

Just as he finished speaking, a Root ninja wearing an animal mask appeared from the surrounding darkness, half-knelt in front of Danzo and bowed his head and replied: "According to the information sent back not long ago, Orochimaru is now in the Death Forest, and his target is Uchiha Sasuke. In addition, Mitarashi Anko, who was once Orochimaru's disciple, has discovered Orochimaru's whereabouts. While reporting it, she also took several Anbu ninjas to track him down."

"......" Danzo was silent for a moment, then said in a disgusted tone: "It's the Uchiha again, the inherently evil clan. If Hiruzen wasn't so weak, I would have wiped out all of them long ago, and things wouldn't be like this now... By the way, what's the situation in the Snow Country, have you found out anything?"

"I am incompetent. I have not yet obtained detailed information about the Snow Country. I only know that a coup d'état took place in the Snow Country a few years ago, and its upper echelons have been replaced. As for more, I have no information. Please punish me, sir."

"…Forget it. Let's speed up the collection of intelligence from the Snow Country. If we want to find out where the Uchiha clan that escaped that night is, we must find out as soon as possible!"

As he spoke, Danzo once again slammed the ground with the cane in his hand. The extremely loud sound echoed in this underground space, demonstrating Danzo's determination.

"Yes!"

The half-kneeling Root ninja responded after hearing this, and immediately stepped back to convey Danzo's order.

At this time, on the other side, in Konoha's Forest of Death, Orochimaru, whom Danzo was discussing, was also talking about him with his subordinates.

"…That's roughly the situation. Lord Danzo has promised not to hinder our next plan."

The person who reported to Orochimaru at this time was none other than Kabuto Yakushi. After listening to Kabuto's report, Orochimaru sneered, "Should I say you are worthy of being Danzo? You haven't changed in all these years. Are you still dreaming of becoming a Hokage? Ridiculous."

Kabuto Yakushi did not comment on Orochimaru's words. After all, he had a certain self-awareness and knew that he was just a small figure. He had to be cautious no matter how much he was appreciated.

Orochimaru did not receive a response, but he was not angry. After all, he was not surprised by Kabuto's behavior. After all, Kabuto had been under his command for several years and he knew the other party's cautious character.

At this time, Orochimaru seemed to have thought of something, and suddenly said to Kabuto: "By the way, what is the situation in the Snow Country? I remember that among the two teams sent by the Snow Country to participate in the Chunin Exam, one of them also has members of the Uchiha clan."

Hearing the word Snow Country, Kabuto's eyes flashed with an ambiguous look, but on the surface he remained calm and replied: "Yes, according to the intelligence we have collected, one of the two teams of the Snow Country was selected from the Fatui Army, and the other is a traditional ninja team. In addition to a member of the Uchiha clan, there is also a member of the Mizunotsuki clan. As for the last person, it seems to be a civilian."

After finishing the information about the two teams from the Snow Country, Kabuto looked hesitant, but finally gritted his teeth and said: "Lord Orochimaru, didn't you just test Uchiha Sasuke? Could it be that he didn't meet your expectations?" Hearing what Kabuto said, Orochimaru showed an ambiguous smile on his face and looked at him, while Kabuto was naturally directly sweating profusely because of Orochimaru's eyes, but he still maintained a curious look on the surface.

Orochimaru's smile grew wider as he looked at Kabuto's disguised appearance, and Kabuto also felt more pressure, and when he was about to give up, Orochimaru suddenly spoke.

"Not really. Sasuke performed very well. Even from my point of view, he can be considered a genius. Of course, he is still not as good as his brother Itachi. But he is good enough as the body for my next reincarnation. If I didn't have something important to do, I would definitely take him away. As for now, I left him a gift... hehe, he should like it."

Hearing this, Kabuto thought he had barely gotten through and was about to breathe a sigh of relief when Orochimaru's words came again.

"But since you care about this kind of thing, it's very inconsistent with your usual low-key style. Is there any reason? Can you tell me?"

"Uh... Lord Orochimaru..."

Faced with the sudden question, cold sweat broke out on Dou's forehead and he couldn't stop it at all. At the same time, he kept thinking about what excuses he could come up with to explain it.

Orochimaru naturally saw what Kabuto was planning at the moment, and was not in a hurry. He just stared at him with interest, but his battle-hardened aura and murderous intent burst out without reservation, enveloping Kabuto entirely.

At this critical moment, both Orochimaru and Kabuto Yakushi's faces suddenly changed. They did not dare to delay for a moment and left their original place immediately.

The next moment, a dark green spear descended from the sky at an extremely high speed, piercing straight through the thick branch where the two had been standing before. At the same time, the high-density wind blades wrapped around the spear burst out, directly sucking in the surrounding trees like a meat grinder and instantly crushing them into pieces, turning them into a pile of extremely fine wood chips floating in the wind.

Orochimaru looked at the original position and saw that except for the branch where it was originally standing, the dark green spear continued to move downwards until it directly pierced a two-meter-deep hole in the ground before disappearing.

Even Orochimaru, who was proficient in many forbidden techniques, did not dare to withstand such a powerful attack, let alone being completely defenseless like he was just now.

Seeing this scene, Orochimaru, who was still frightened, did not hesitate and raised his head to fight back at a figure who had appeared silently at an unknown time: "It's too exaggerated to attack directly when we first met. Is this the way of hospitality in the Snow Country? It's really eye-opening."

In response to this counterattack, the figure who appeared out of nowhere also replied rudely: "Of course it is necessary, otherwise Mr. Orochimaru, who is one of the three ninjas, would probably not look at us country guys straight in the eye. But Mr. Orochimaru, it was beyond my expectation that you would be so embarrassed, so I apologize for this."

As he said this, the figure raised his head, revealing a green ghost mask with two horns on his head. As if something was triggered, the ghost mask began to dissipate from the edges, and soon completely turned into points of light that drifted away with the wind, revealing this person's true face. It was none other than the team leader of the two teams from the Snow Country participating in the Chunin Exam this time - Jie!

(End of this chapter)