The meeting ended, and Orochimaru and Hizashi and his son left the Hokage's office one after another.
It was late at night, but the sky was clear and bright, with stars and moonlight covering the mortal world.
Turning into a small alley and walking into the shadows, Orochimaru suddenly turned around and looked at Hizashi, who had been following him, with a half-smiling expression,
"This happened suddenly, and you don't seem to be able to accept it. You have a lot of dissatisfaction with me in your heart?"
Hizashi was slightly stunned and quickly denied, "How could that be? I know very well that you were saving me. If it wasn't for..."
"But you seem to be more willing to accept your own sacrifice."
Orochimaru interrupted him, his eyes piercing, staring straight at Neji's father.
Under this piercing gaze, it seemed as if everything about him was seen through. Hizashi's words stuck in his throat, and he couldn't speak. After hesitating for a moment, he nodded and said, "Yes!"
"Utterly foolish!"
Orochimaru directly and unceremoniously delivered his assessment. Hizashi heard this and lowered his head with a bitter smile.
"Shortsighted, only seeing immediate gains and losses, do you think what you're doing will have any consequences?"
Orochimaru smiled, but the smile seemed very sarcastic.
"It's clear that Neji respects you very much, not just as a father, but as a role model. Perhaps he once said something like 'I want to be like my father in the future.' Guess what he'll think if you, like an object, easily die for the Main family's mistakes?"
Hizashi stood there, clutching Neji tightly.
"Young people... before they have true wisdom, they view things with only two attitudes: right and wrong."
Orochimaru's voice was erratic, as if reminiscing about the distant past, but he quickly snapped out of this sentimentality and turned his gaze to the unconscious child.
"Neji is still young, but he has a certain tenacity, plus good talent, so he probably looks down on the Main family, who are weak enough to be disgusting."
"He will choose to deny!"
Hizashi looked down at Neji, his eyes flickering. Orochimaru was very accurate; this was also his view.
"But the path of 'denial' is not so easy to walk."
"His mother will advise him, his Branch family companions will advise him, the Main family will force him, and the people in the village will not approve either."
"Because this is the path his father chose. If Neji wants to deny it, he must first deny his own father."
Orochimaru said faintly, "He respects you very much, so this process is destined to be very painful."
Hizashi clenched his fist, his body trembling uncontrollably.
"Of course, there is also a possibility that Neji's mother foresaw this and asked your brother to hide some of the facts, only letting Neji know that his father was sacrificed by the Main family."
Orochimaru's lips curled slightly. "Although this also requires fighting against everything around him, at least he doesn't have to deny his own father first."
Hizashi's heart shook, and his face turned pale as paper.
He knew very well that Orochimaru was right. Given his wife's nature and his brother's compassion, things were likely to develop to this point.
Such a future...
"However, although the probability is very small, there is another possibility."
Orochimaru smiled. "That is, Neji respects you even more than he imagines. He accepts your sacrifice and, therefore, accepts the fate of the Branch family. Then, in some future, like you, he will easily die for the Main family, like a weed."
``Do you like this future, Hizashi?''
The voice was very low, but it sounded like a thunderclap to Hizashi's ears, deafening him.
He collapsed to the ground as if all his strength had been taken away by this sentence.
Hizashi's face twisted, his expression like his brother's, showing a doomsday-like scene.
He wasn't afraid of what would happen to him. Over the years, he had already implicitly accepted what he should accept.
But Hizashi was afraid that the same fate would befall Neji again.
That, for him, would be a scene more cruel than hell.
Fortunately, that future would never happen again. Hizashi gasped for a moment before his nerves cleared, and he realized that those were just Orochimaru's predictions, and predictions that would never happen again.
Hizashi quickly stood up from the ground, embarrassed, and said, "Orochimaru-sama, I've made you laugh."
It's no wonder he was so out of sorts just now. What Orochimaru said was like personally witnessing the future and bringing it frame by frame to his face.
Even now, imagining it again still made his heart palpitate, and there was a sense of unreality.
"Hehe, 35 million ryo. Now you understand that the money wasn't wasted, right?"
Orochimaru turned around and stepped into the darkness, leaving only a voice echoing in his ears,
"I fulfilled your wish according to our agreement."
Hizashi's eyes warmed as he bowed deeply in the direction where Orochimaru had disappeared.
...
On top of a tree, Orochimaru looked at the full moon in the night sky and asked,
"Hyuga Hizashi's wish has been fulfilled. Now, how is the wish power collection going?"
"Not bad, it's made up for the previous debts, and there's still some left over."
The genie stroked his chin, his face showing clear joy. "Tsk tsk tsk... I didn't expect you to perform so well. People's hearts are fickle. It's not easy to get Hizashi to genuinely approve of what you did."
"It's not my skill."
Orochimaru shook his head. "It's your predictions about Neji's future that were very clear and persuasive."
"That's true."
The genie frankly accepted Orochimaru's praise and said with a smile, "But thanks to the remaining wish power this time, the zanpakuto you rejected before has a chance to be put back on the agenda."
Orochimaru's expression changed. "Is there no risk at all?"
He had finally recovered from his soul injuries, and he was very reluctant to divide his soul again. He didn't want to hurt it again just to gain another ability.
"Don't worry, rough skill replication is just my own immature ability, but fulfilling wishes is my essential work."
The genie patted his chest. "I'm a qualified genie."
Orochimaru glanced at the genie, noncommittal to his previous remarks, but a soul-based ability was still extremely attractive to him.
After pondering for a moment, he said, "My swordsmanship is average, and I'm not good at close combat. Can I exchange the zanpakuto for other soul abilities?"
"You've misunderstood. The 'sword' in zanpakuto is just a name. What it actually is depends on individual characteristics."
The genie smiled. "For example, my previous host, Ohmaeda Mareyo, his zanpakuto, when released, was a giant spiked mace."
"Other zanpakuto, like Soi Fon's whip, Komamura Sajin's armor Mingwang... all kinds of things, endlessly."
"Is a sword such an inconvenient thing? Don't worry, you don't need to have any concerns."
Orochimaru thought for a moment and nodded, "Alright."
---
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