Uchiha's personal opinion

Orochimaru clearly remembers everything from the nightmare.

Tonight's nightmare wasn't just a single image.

In the dream, the scene that appeared was the teacher patiently guiding and carefully teaching the three of them. But a strange scene appeared. A blurry Uchiha ninja would always appear next to the teacher, Hiruzen Sarutobi, staring with bloody Sharingan eyes and beheading him with a single blow. The flying head would still be kindly explaining the details of ninjutsu to him.

Even after losing his head, his body, with blood gushing from his neck, was still standing there, gesturing and explaining the hand seals and optimization methods for each ninjutsu.

The Uchiha ninja, his face blurred yet grotesque, mercilessly tore his teacher's body to pieces. But the scattered limbs and remains on the ground still struggled, mimicking the details of hand seals, as if trying to make Orochimaru remember something...

Even the severed head of the teacher lying beside him was still chattering on about the precautions to take when using ninjutsu against the enemy.

Finally, the Uchiha ninja in the dream, as if ignoring Orochimaru's presence, unleashed another fire dragon, burning his teacher's head into a skull.

What terrified Orochimaru most was the "smacking" sound coming from the skull's mouth as it opened and closed.

And, for some reason, a sudden understanding arose within him of the sounds made by the opening and closing of the skull's jaw—

"Orochimaru, have you remembered this?"

"Orochimaru, don't forget..."

"Orochimaru……"

"..."

Orochimaru took a big gulp of water, his breathing becoming heavier and heavier.

"teacher……"

Half of the water in the glass spilled from her mouth and dripped onto her pristine white clothes. Under the dim light, the water stains looked like bloodstains.

"teacher……"

Orochimaru felt dizzy.

Hiruzen Sarutobi treated Orochimaru the best of his three disciples.

As the granddaughter of the Senju clan, Tsunade commands a certain degree of respect even from Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Hokage. Moreover, her strength is built upon the secret techniques of the Senju clan and the sealing techniques of the Uzumaki clan, so she doesn't need any instruction from Hiruzen Sarutobi, who is her teacher. He only needs to guide Tsunade's values ​​appropriately.

As for Jiraiya, that idiot, his main role was to demonstrate the fairness of the Hokage lineage to the largest group of civilian ninjas in the ninja village. Moreover, because his talent was relatively average, he only persisted with a kind of perseverance that Orochimaru found inexplicable. Therefore, although his teacher Hiruzen Sarutobi treated everyone equally on the surface, he still focused his ninjutsu teaching efforts on Orochimaru.

—All geniuses, to some extent, have a "dislike of stupidity".

"Sarutobi-sensei..."

Orochimaru clutched his head in agony, his body contorted like a boiled shrimp.

Faced with the now overwhelming power of the Uchiha clan, even Orochimaru is nothing more than a shrimp to be slaughtered.

In the vast ninja world, where else could he hide besides his own little corner?

Orochimaru also clearly sensed that although the Uchiha clan outwardly trusted him greatly, not only allowing him to continue managing Konoha's various laboratories but also appointing him as the director of a committee under the House of Representatives, their vigilance and attention towards him had never been relaxed.

Moreover, the Uchiha clan's attention is becoming increasingly overt, just like the growing number of Uchiha boys in the laboratory, which is slowly tightening their control over Orochimaru's private territory.

Orochimaru felt as helpless and suffocated as a snake being slowly stewed over a low flame.

He can't be like that idiot Jiraiya, using his superhuman abilities to spy on women in bathhouses and defile himself, can he?

Moreover, if Orochimaru were to imitate what that idiot Jiraiya did, the Uchiha clan would probably immediately assume that Orochimaru was trying to "hide his strength and bide his time" while waiting for a chance to retaliate. At that point, their control and surveillance would likely become even tighter.

"Tsunade..."

Orochimaru remembered the most unique person among his fellow disciples.

The Senju clan is not in a good position.

Not only is the current strength of the Senju clan not worthy of its reputation as a powerful clan in the ninja world, but the only real power it can wield is the Konoha medical system.

Moreover, even though there are still many Senju clan members teaching at the Konoha Ninja Academy, the police department's preparatory training school is becoming increasingly popular and has already surpassed the traditional ninja academies...

Although Tsunade tried her best to unite other ninja clans and attempt to become an alliance that could substantially influence the direction of Konoha, just like the Hyuga clan, she still faced great difficulties.

"He has nothing but fame and fortune..."

Thinking of this, Orochimaru couldn't help but chuckle to himself.

Aside from a little fame, he was practically penniless in terms of wealth! If it weren't for the continuous investment from the village and the Uchiha clan into the laboratory, Orochimaru would probably have to go on missions to cover the laboratory's expenses.

Orochimaru silently poured himself another glass of water.

After calming his wandering thoughts, Orochimaru attempted to interpret the dream again.

Dreams are a projection of reality, and even more so, a concrete expression of one's true inner feelings.

The fact that Orochimaru dreamed of his former teacher and witnessed his teacher's tragic death in the dream, coupled with his final words of instruction to Orochimaru before his own death, at least indicates that Orochimaru still harbored resentment over his teacher Hiruzen Sarutobi's demise at the hands of Uchiha Tokumitsu.

However, this is normal.

Although Orochimaru appears to ordinary people as cold-blooded as a venomous snake in human skin, he still has some soft and gentle sides to his heart.

One was his apprentice, Tsunade's younger brother, Senju Nawaki; the other was his teacher, Sarutobi Hiruzen, who treated him like his own son.

There's also someone I'm not sure if they count as half, namely Jiraiya and Tsunade, who are from the same school.

But his teacher, who treated him like his own son... is dead!

He died under Uchiha Tokumitsu's Susanoo!

A valiant ninja hero! The Third Hokage of Konoha! He died right before everyone's eyes in battle, leading his troops to quell a rebellion!

Even families that were teachers were completely dismantled. The core members of these families were either thrown into the occupied territory of the Land of Lightning as cannon fodder or imprisoned in the disciplinary camp directly under the Governor's Office to serve as death soldiers!

Thinking of this, Orochimaru felt a splitting headache again.

"teacher……"

Orochimaru's eyes began to moisten.

In front of outsiders and even in their own minds, Orochimaru is a cold-blooded and ruthless person.

Before his teacher's body was even cold, he took the initiative to go to Uchiha Tokumitsu's residence to surrender. Then, with the support of the Uchiha clan, he successfully took over all of Konoha's experimental institutions, which was regarded by the outside world as the result of his surrender to the Uchiha clan.

Now, not only do the Hokage faction lurking in the village regard him as a traitor, but even his former subordinates have gradually reduced their contact with him.

Orochimaru felt like a venomous snake trapped in a sack. No matter how fierce his fangs were, he couldn't harm the snake catcher outside the sack. Instead, the slightest movement would result in a heavy blow or even being boiled into a cup of snake soup.

Thinking of this, Orochimaru suddenly felt that the cup in his hand was burning hot...

Judging from the size, the white snake he used to hide in would probably just fill this cup if it were made into snake soup...

"Alas!"

Orochimaru seemed to have been burned and flung the cup away from his hand.

"Clap!"

With the sound of the glass shattering, Orochimaru suddenly calmed down.

Then he found another cup, suppressed his discomfort, poured himself another glass of water, and went to the kitchen to find a few eggs and apples. Without doing any extra cooking, he simply washed them and swallowed them whole, like a python eating its prey.

"call……"

After eating something, Orochimaru's complexion became slightly rosy, and he slowly strolled from the dark kitchen back to the study, which was slightly lit.

Even the cup, which he had initially been inexplicably wary of, no longer made Orochimaru uncomfortable.

"Gurgle, gurgle..."

Orochimaru drank the water in his cup in one gulp, then stood in front of his desk and continued to ponder.

Unsurprisingly, Orochimaru also felt that he had fallen into some inexplicable obsession and was unable to extricate himself.

Moreover, after self-examination, Orochimaru ruled out the possibility of external genjutsu influence and attributed his obsession to his longing for his teacher.

But how should we break free from this obsession?

Orochimaru actually knew the answer in his heart.

But this answer is no different from no answer at all.

—After all, the "grand ambition" of annihilating the Uchiha clan to avenge their teacher is something that even the major ninja villages in the current ninja world could not accomplish by joining forces!

Moreover, as time went by, with the emergence of new-era ninjas who had grown up under the influence of the Uchiha clan filling Konoha, Orochimaru had even less chance of avenging his teacher!

"We can't wait any longer..."

Orochimaru's hand involuntarily shattered the cup in one grip.

"..."

After cleaning up the shards of porcelain scattered on the floor with a blank expression, Orochimaru thought of another problem that had been holding him back.

Where else could he go?

Where in the Ninja World is there a place that the tentacles of the Uchiha clan cannot reach?

Thinking about this, Orochimaru couldn't help but feel bewildered.

Suddenly, Orochimaru, who had been looking completely bewildered, seemed to have a sudden inspiration. He quickly swept away the clutter on his desk, bit his finger, and activated a summoning jutsu on the desk.

"Bong!"

As a cloud of smoke burst forth, Orochimaru summoned a flower snake.

"Is there a problem?"

Orochimaru frowned and asked, "Why are you suddenly creating fluctuations from a reverse summoning jutsu in the middle of the night? Are you deliberately trying to cause trouble?"

This flower snake is one of the connecting snakes in Yongji Cave, and also one of the few snakes in Yongji Cave that can speak human language.

"Eggs! I want to eat eggs!"

The flower snake, Zila, said with its venomous fangs, "I'll tell you after you eat the egg."

Orochimaru frowned, casually forming hand seals to create a shadow clone that went to the kitchen to find eggs, while he kept a close eye on the flower snake on the table.

After happily swallowing several eggs, the flower snake burped and said, "The Great Immortal White Snake wants to see you. When you have time, please come to Dragon Cave!"

"...The White Snake Immortal?"

Orochimaru's brows furrowed even more.

Unlike Jiraiya, Orochimaru, although he uses the power of Ryuchi Cave and his power system is built on the foundation of Ryuchi Cave, is actually extremely wary of so-called sacred sites for summoning beasts like Ryuchi Cave.

Moreover, among the snakes in Ryuchi Cave, Manda alone, who often cooperates with him in battle, already gives him a headache, not to mention the so-called "Three Goddesses" who are actually superior to Manda, as well as the White Snake Sage whose strength is as deep as the ocean.

"Yes, the White Snake Immortal wants to see you! You'd better come with me right away!"