"Of course."
Orochimaru licked his lips.
Tagorihime seemed to have lived for hundreds of years, but in reality, this snake was easy to understand in a way.
The Ryuuchi Cave's power structure was very simple. Below the White Snake Sage were the three snake princesses, and even the more powerful Akagami and Manda were lower than them.
Over time, it was normal for them to develop some arrogance.
Orochimaru had felt before that Tagorihime followed the example of the White Snake Sage, not treating the snakes of Ryuuchi Cave as the same kind, but as mere worms.
Whether this 'treating everything as worthless' mentality was good or bad was not important, but there was no doubt that they were lonely.
Orochimaru understood loneliness too well. Imprisoned in Ryuuchi Cave, the three snake princesses could only talk to each other, and none of them showed their true feelings.
They didn't have enough ability to control themselves like Orochimaru, and besides, hundreds of years was too long. Even snakes would go crazy from loneliness.
In this situation, finding something to do was incredibly easy.
"When I dealt with the Third Kazekage puppet, the desire in your eyes was obvious."
Orochimaru spread his hands and smiled, "Unfortunately, it's a bit difficult to achieve the effect you want with sealing techniques. I'm also busy with the White Snake Sage's request, and I don't have time to help you. You'll have to do this yourself."
Orochimaru wasn't worried about the consequences of Tagorihime learning sealing techniques. At most, he would just lose a few interesting souls who knew how to please women.
It was a small matter. Anyway, these people probably couldn't give him the value he wanted.
"Are you looking down on me?"
Tagorihime glanced at Orochimaru, slightly annoyed.
Everything he said implied that she couldn't do it, and that she had no chance of succeeding without him.
"..."
Orochimaru didn't respond, which only made Tagorihime angrier. She simply disappeared from the spot.
"A clumsy trick to provoke her."
The Lamp Spirit observed the entire conversation and raised an eyebrow. "But it works surprisingly well on this simple snake princess from Ryuuchi Cave."
The Lamp Spirit was very pleased at this moment, marveling at Orochimaru's growth.
In the past, Orochimaru wouldn't have cared whether the snake princess could create some powerful sealing technique or not. He would just do his duty perfunctorily.
"Anyway, I just mentioned it casually. I have no hope that they can do it."
Orochimaru replied to the Lamp Spirit and then turned back to the building where the sealing team was, to check their research progress.
After giving them new tasks, he returned to the underground laboratory to continue his research on First Hokage cells and White Zetsu clones.
...
In a dark cave, a huge square box was embedded in the rock wall. On the exposed surface were carvings of twisted monster faces, vaguely resembling a goat's face, staring greedily at the humans in front of it as if it would leap out and devour everyone in the next moment.
"Still not enough Chakra."
An elder from Kusagakure, also wearing a goat mask, stepped forward to adjust it and then said in a deep voice, "We need at least the amount of four or five Jonin. How long will it take your Akatsuki to catch them?"
Kakuzu was expressionless, but he sneered inwardly. As the day for opening the Box of Ultimate Bliss approached, these Kusagakure elders became more and more arrogant, treating them like subordinates.
As Pain said, they were not good partners.
Thinking these thoughts, Kakuzu remained calm and slowly said, "Jonin are not so easy to catch. Sasori and the others need more time."
The bull-faced elder, the dog-faced elder, and the monkey-faced elder behind them looked at each other and said, "Then why not sacrifice the Jinchuriki from Takigakure Village? She alone is worth ten or eight Jonin."
Kakuzu glanced at them and refused without hesitation, "I said before, we can't do that."
Directly inserting the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki into the Box of Ultimate Bliss would easily meet its opening requirements, but it would also mean the death of the Seven-Tails, and it would take years for the tailed beast to revive in the ninja world.
The Akatsuki would collect tailed beasts later, so they naturally wanted to avoid such a troublesome thing.
But Kakuzu's attitude made the Kusagakure elders misunderstand.
"Compared to opening the Box of Ultimate Bliss as soon as possible, sacrificing a Jinchuriki with no fighting power is undoubtedly worth it."
The bull-faced elder said confidently, "No, even a complete tailed beast is nothing."
Kakuzu glanced at these excited and crazy fools without saying a word. He had no interest in talking to them anymore and showed his attitude through silence.
Seeing that Kakuzu didn't take them seriously, a fierce light flashed in the goat-faced elder's eyes, but he quickly suppressed it.
They were not currently a match for this bounty hunter, but once the Box of Ultimate Bliss was opened... heh heh...
Silence returned to the cave, with only evil and violent Chakra being suppressed.
Even someone as strong as Kakuzu felt uncomfortable, but the four Kusagakure elders seemed to be unaffected.
Kakuzu didn't think that made them stronger than him. The reason they were like that was because their fanatical and soaring mental will helped them ignore these negative factors.
How ironic... Hidden behind his mask, Kakuzu smirked.
After an unknown amount of time, footsteps came from outside the cave.
Soon, Sasori, controlling Hiruko, walked in, with Hiruko's long scorpion tail binding a unconscious ninja, and a tall, black-haired man following behind the puppet.
"Only one Jonin?"
The Kusagakure elder wore a mask so his expression was unclear, but his tone contained clear dissatisfaction.
Of course, this dissatisfaction could not be vented on the bounty hunter, so it turned sharply to the black-haired man.
"Mu, why are you here? I don't remember assigning you the task of catching ninjas."
The man named Mu didn't say a word, but Kakuzu suddenly opened his eyes and said to Sasori, "Too slow."
"I don't remember agreeing to a time with you."
Sasori's cold voice came from inside Hiruko, "Convincing him to agree to the agreement was not easy."
The two's conversation as if no one else was there made the Kusagakure elder feel a hint of uneasiness. "Mu, what are they saying? You..."
The voice stopped abruptly. The four masked monsters had bound them without anyone noticing. The Kusagakure elder wanted to resist, but found that his Chakra could not be used at all.
Kakuzu and Sasori were not talkative people. While they were talking, poison had already been laid down. Except for Mu, who had taken the antidote in advance, both of their bodies were special and completely ignored this powerful poison.
"Traitor!"
"You actually... betrayed the village?"
"..."
Facing the elders' fierce gazes, Mu was expressionless.
"Elders, I didn't betray the village, I just betrayed you."
---
You can read 50 Chapters ahead on my
pat reon.com/GMadman
Free member can read 3 chapters ahead