Konoha Village.
nma, who was making a snowman with Hinata and Naruto in the park, suddenly paused.
His shadow clone had already used the Flying Thunder God Technique to leave the items at ho before dispelling itself, flooding nma's mind with a surge of information.
"nma?" Little Hinata keenly noticed nma's odd behavior, and concern appeared in her snow-white eyes.
But Naruto remained oblivious and was still busy sticking a branch into the snowman's head as a nose.
"It's nothing. Let's keep playing." nma shook his head, signaling to Hinata not to worry, and continued the snowman-building ga with them.
By now, nma had beco the king of the kids in this park. The other children either avoided him or acknowledged him as their 'boss', and even Naruto occasionally received so kindness from the other kids as a result.
Of course, this only happened when their parents weren't around.
At least it ant Naruto's childhood wasn't completely lonely.
In a couple of years, when they entered the Ninja Academy, kids from Ninja Clans like Shikamaru and Choji wouldn't discriminate against Naruto, allowing him to make a few more friends.
"nma! Look!" Naruto shouted excitedly.
nma and Hinata turned to see that Naruto had taken off his own red scarf and wrapped it around the snowman.
"You'll get your scarf dirty. It'll take days to dry after washing." nma vaguely rembered that this scarf might have been knitted by Kushina for Naruto.
"It's fine! I have another scarf at ho, though it's a darker color." Naruto grinned and didn't care.
This sentence made nma stunned for a mont: "There's another one?"
"Yeah." Naruto nodded, thinking for a bit before adding, "Not just the scarf, but clothes, hats, and stuff too… there's always a darker version. I don't know why."
Hearing this, nma's heart skipped a beat.
'"So… Kushina and Minato prepared for two children…' nma bit his lower lip lightly.
He didn't know why Hiruzen hadn't searched for the missing child of the Fourth Hokage and his wife, nor why he hadn't investigated the extra orphan from the night of the Nine-Tails Rampage.
But now, it seed that Kushina had indeed been pregnant with twins and had prepared clothes and other necessities for two children.
'Had I not been born directly into the Limited Tsukuyomi World? Had he first existed physically, been born from Kushina, and then entered the Limited Tsukuyomi World?'
'So… was it still Obito's doing?'
After parting ways with Naruto and Hinata, nma returned ho and retrieved the samples from the Iburi Clan.
Then, using the Flying Thunder God Technique, he arrived at the secret hideout in the Land of Rice Fields.
The sky had already darkened completely when nma, wearing his white three-eyed fox mask and black robe, appeared in Otogakure.
By now, the village had been completely taken over by Orochimaru, with its residents surviving under his rule.
In these turbulent tis, villages protected by Ninjas were incredibly rare.
Moreover, Orochimaru had little interest in these ordinary people, as they were rely there to produce basic supplies for him.
"Shura-sama." A red-haired girl waiting at the village entrance finally saw the figure erging from the darkness and nervously approached him.
"Lead the way." nma glanced down at Tayuya. Like Orochimaru's other subordinates, she had tied a shinawa rope around her waist.
Many of Orochimaru's followers were orphans or troubled children, harboring a strong sense of worship for him. So even willingly offered their bodies to beco his vessels.
This near-brainwashing ideological indoctrination was the cornerstone for Orochimaru to establish Otogakure.
"Yes!" Tayuya bowed slightly before guiding him forward.
Compared to the previous year, the village now had many more buildings, and the entrance to Orochimaru's underground base had undergone major changes.
Entering through a large wooden structure in the village, nma descended a long, winding passage before arriving at Orochimaru's base once again.
Cages filled with various test subjects lined the area, the air thick with the scent of blood and disinfectant. Behind his white mask, nma frowned slightly.
"So, you really were in the Land of Bears." Orochimaru, in female body, erged from a laboratory, visibly pleased that his guess had been correct.
"Where are the results?" nma stepped forward, crossing his arms, his white three-eyed fox mask tilting slightly as he locked eyes with Orochimaru.
Orochimaru chuckled lightly and stepped aside, gesturing for nma to follow him into the laboratory.
Once inside, Orochimaru began his explanation: "Thanks to the White Zetsu you provided, I was able to use its cellular structure to stabilize the Iburi Clan's genes, achieving controlled Smoke Transformation."
"However, these tests were only conducted on tissue samples. Human trials haven't been perford yet. If you could provide a few Ibuki Clan's mbers-"
Before Orochimaru could finish, nma cut him off.
"We're not at the stage for human experintation yet." The voice behind the white three-eyed fox mask was firm.
Hearing Shura's refusal, Orochimaru frowned slightly.
"Shura, aren't you… overly concerned about the lives of the Ibuki Clan?" Orochimaru's golden vertical pupils narrowed slightly.
He couldn't understand why a top-tier powerhouse like Shura, soone who had wreaked havoc in Konoha and Kumogakure, would care so much about a weak, insignificant clan.
"Orochimaru, do you know the biggest difference between you and the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama?" nma tilted his head slightly, looking at Orochimaru behind him through the white three-eyed fox mask.
"Except for the fact that I may not be as good as him in terms of strength, I don't think I am worse than the Second Hokage in the field of scientific research." Orochimaru licked his cheek with his long tongue, very confident in his scientific achievents.
"It's about limits, Orochimaru." However, Shura's seemingly casual words struck Orochimaru like a hamr to the chest.
Orochimaru's pupils contracted slightly, and he couldn't help but recall all the information about the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama.
Tobirama is also a scientific research expert, but he seems to have never conducted experints on living people.
Even his treatnt of the Uchiha Clan had been more lenient than Hiruzen's.
After all, Tobirama had taken an Uchiha as his student.
He probably really wanted to change the Uchiha Clan.
"Enough of that." Orochimaru suddenly grinned and walked over to a cabinet beside the lab table, pulling out a scroll and tossing it to nma.
"What about the teorite and Devil's Ravine? Have you considered my proposal?" Orochimaru then brought up his plan to establish a new base in the Land of Bears.
"No need for a new base. I'll allocate a research building in my Land of Bears' facility for your people." nma unrolled the scroll, skimd the data, and nodded slightly. It was roughly the sa research direction as his own, though the progress was much faster.
After closing the scroll and putting it away, nma took out a sealing scroll and gave it to Orochimaru.
"Fine by . I'm only interested in the teorite and the toxic gas at Devil's Ravine anyway." Orochimaru caught the sealing scroll and promptly swallowed it whole.
Just as he said, unless further uses were discovered, the poisonous gas and teorite were little more than curiosities to him.
"So, how about the trip to Kirigakure?" After swallowing the scroll, Orochimaru licked his lips and extended an invitation.
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