Naruto: Reincarnation of a Hundred Lifetimes, the Uchiha's White Moonlight

Orochimaru remained unfazed upon seeing his old friend.

Danzo spoke up first, waving his hand, and several of his trusted subordinates quietly withdrew behind him.

"Orochimaru, the Uchiha clan has been acting rather restless lately."

Danzo spoke first, his tone grave, "Just yesterday, they actually invited a civilian to serve as a special advisor to the security department. This information has just been delivered to Hiruzen Sarutobi's desk, and I think we need to..."

Don't do unnecessary things.

Orochimaru's gentle expression instantly turned cold, and his indifferent gaze fell upon the man who was the leader of Root and also the advisor to the Hokage of Konoha, his eyes showing no sign of compromise.

Only the superior can absolutely suppress the inferior.

Being stared at like that, Danzo felt a surge of anger rising within him.

He was all too familiar with that look.

Whenever he disagreed with Hiruzen Sarutobi, the latter would bring up the title of Hokage and give him this look.

"Orochimaru, you..."

Danzo was furious and immediately shouted loudly.

It's one thing for him to be suppressed by Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Hokage of Konoha, but Orochimaru, a mere commoner, what gives him the upper hand?

He wanted to let the other party know who the leader of this group was, and who truly held the dominant position in their cooperation.

"Don't forget, everything you have today is thanks to me, Danzo."

Danzo was furious and said in a deep voice.

"hehe."

Orochimaru crossed his arms and leaned back on the cold bench, his tone slightly amusement, "What if I said that human research experiments would be temporarily suspended?"

"We must never use the villagers' bodies for research; we can only use the corpses of the enemies outside the village."

"You should know that this plan has not yet been fully implemented. Even if you expose this, I believe the teacher will not consider me a rogue ninja."

"Want to take a gamble?"

Orochimaru leaned forward, and a powerful force surged through his cold, gleaming pupils, ultimately gaining absolute dominance.

Danzo was so suppressed that he couldn't utter a single word.

Orochimaru slowly stood up, looking at him with disappointment.

Danzo is still the same as he remembers.

Same as always.

Although they used some political tactics, they were far too rudimentary, at best only a level above the Uchiha clan, in the eyes of Orochimaru, who had been Hokage.

It can only be described as insignificant and easily defeated.

"Danzo, do you want to become Hokage?"

The atmosphere was chilling and menacing; Danzo's face was ashen and frighteningly pale.

He clenched his fists, his right arm slightly extended, barely able to contain his anger, ready to fight Orochimaru right there in the laboratory.

He is the leader of the root, and we absolutely cannot back down.

But at that moment, Orochimaru's casual remark struck him squarely at his weak point, rendering him instantly immobile.

"Orochimaru, what do you mean by that?"

Danzo's eyes flickered, and he asked in a deep voice.

Orochimaru didn't even glance at him, instead flipping through the previous data analysis records on the lab table. He seemed absent-minded, but what he said made Danzo wholeheartedly agree: "One of the prerequisites for becoming Hokage is to provide corresponding benefits to each level of the group."

"The social hierarchy of Konoha consists of commoners, ninjas, small ninja clans, and large powerful clans. Rather than saying that the Hokage is the Hokage of Konoha, it would be more accurate to say that he is the representative of consensus elected by all these social strata."

"And Danzo, as the leader of Root, what corresponding benefits can you offer to each level?"

He paused, then calmly countered, "Even if you step down, I'm afraid that Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, who are also Hokage advisors, have a much better chance of becoming Hokage than you."

"Isn't that right?"

His tone was neither too light nor too heavy, seemingly calm and composed, yet he thoroughly dissected Danzo's obsession over the years, revealing it from the inside out with unparalleled clarity.

Various thoughts flashed through Danzo's chaotic mind like lightning.

The more he thought about it, the more rapid his breathing became, until finally his eyes became bloodshot and crimson.

This is not anger, but rather caused by an overwhelming surge of emotion within.

At this moment, he seemed to see the Hokage position, which he had sought all his life but could never obtain, laid bare before him.

With just one step, he could ascend to the pinnacle of power.

"So what should I do?"

Danzo asked in a hoarse voice, and when he looked at Orochimaru again, the anger in his eyes had long since receded like the tide, replaced by an involuntary sense of inquiry and respect.

It is not the weak's awe of the strong, but the ignorant's respect for the learned.

Seeing Danzo like this, the so-called leader of Root and one of the core figures in Konoha who could be easily swayed by a few political rhetoric, Orochimaru chuckled and shook his head in even greater disappointment.

Yet, a sudden inspiration struck him.

I just remembered something my best friend Yun'an said to me when I was a child in the Konoha orphanage: "Politics is a compulsory course in life. If you don't care about politics, it will definitely come to care about you."

……

[Orochimaru's dream sequence]

The Konoha Orphanage during the war.

It was early morning, and the dazzling dawn turned into golden rays, but they couldn't penetrate the orphanage's dire situation.

For three consecutive months, no corresponding resources have been distributed within the village.

The reason given was that "all relevant resources within the village must be mobilized and transported entirely to the front lines."

The implication is clear: without the front line, Konoha would not survive, so the nearly three hundred orphans in the Konoha orphanage during the war naturally became victims of the overall situation.

This is just a small part of the bigger picture; the Konoha orphanage is only a tiny fraction of the whole.

Large numbers of civilians, as well as other small ninja clans, were almost all included in the list of sacrifices in the eyes of those in power.

It's either a list or a candidate list; the difference isn't actually that big.

However, over these three months, the situation at the Konoha Orphanage was gradually changed by an orphan named Yun An.

At first, he went out alone with two young followers who were not much different in age from him, and when they returned, they brought back a lot of supplies.

While some people have filled their stomachs, others yearn to fill their stomachs as well.

So the second time, even more people went out, and they brought back even more supplies.

In less than a month, most of the children in the Konoha orphanage, except for a very small number, became his followers.

Orochimaru was one of those very few.

Originally, the two were like two parallel lines in life, distinct from each other, never to intersect.

Just after lunch, as the smoke from the chimney at the east end of the orphanage had died down, a group of small, bean-sized children with fierce expressions found Orochimaru and surrounded him.

More than two hundred pairs of eyes were staring at him. An ordinary child would have turned pale and panicked long ago, but Orochimaru simply looked back at everyone with cold eyes, showing no fear.