They got on a ship at the nearest port. This ship landed on an island, and they transferred to an even smaller boat. The path ahead was shrouded in fog, and visibility grew worse. The boatman, perhaps accustomed to these conditions, paddled the boat wordlessly.
“But it is strange that you can move so freely like this,” Sasuke said, staring in the direction of the boat’s progress through the fog.
The murder of the fourth Kazekage in the operation to destroy Konoha. And Orochimaru had committed many other grave crimes in addition to this.
“Goodness. You’re one to talk, Sasuke,” Orochimaru retorted, staring at the waves blown up by the wind. And it was true. Normally, Sasuke would also have been imprisoned. “And Kabuto, he’s a war criminal from the Fourth Great Ninja War, and he lives in the outside world too?”
Yakushi Kabuto, Orochimaru’s talented right-hand man, constantly accumulating all kinds of things in his body in order to learn what exactly he was. The forbidden jutsu he used—the Edotensei—had set the world of the ninja on a path of ruin. No one could say he had been forgiven for his actions, the lives he took, and all his evil deeds. There were certainly some who despised what Kabuto had done, and there were no doubt some who looked to his future uneasily, worrying he would make the same mistakes again if they let him live.
“Although compared with me, the probability that Kabuto will turn to evil again is likely low.”
“How can you say that for sure?”
“Heh heh. You don’t trust the power of Uchiha Itachi?”
Sasuke was forced into silence.
Having been brought back to life by the Edotensei, Itachi fought Kabuto to release the jutsu. At that time, he had used Izanami on him. As long as the subject did not take a hard look at themselves and accept who they were, the jutsu could not be released.
But it was hard for Sasuke to imagine exactly how Kabuto had made it out of the Izanami jutsu, having seen how fierce he had been.
“Look at it like this. Kabuto also had a connection to someone. That likely led him to understand how to release the jutsu.”
“A connection to someone?”
“Yes. There was the woman who saved Kabuto after he was orphaned in the war.”
Knowing nothing of Kabuto’s past, Sasuke was surprised at this.
“She was originally a Konoha shinobi and actually belonged to the Foundation, the elites of the intelligence division. She had an integrity that could almost be said to be abnormal for the Foundation. But she left that organization and went to work for an orphanage. And Kabuto was there.”
Sasuke waited for him to continue.
“Kabuto got pulled into war from the simple, pure desire to be of use to her and the orphanage. The fact that he came to my attention meant that his luck had run out, I suppose,” Orochimaru said, without a hint of malice.
“In the end, Kabuto was made to bear Konoha’s darkness, and he killed this woman he adored with his own hand. And then he was my faithful subordinate. No matter how dirty the task, he did it without issue. But when he gathered together and used all those famed ninja with the Edotensei jutsu, it was only she he did not attempt to reach out to. Even though there had to have been any number of ways in which he could have used her powers as a ninja. Perhaps all of his human emotion was concentrated in her.”
He reminds me of the old me.
In the back of his mind, the voice of Sasuke’s older brother came back to life. Those were his words after he used Izanami on Kabuto. Itachi had said that he and Kabuto had both been toyed with by the world of the ninja.
Unlike me, I want Kabuto to realize that before he dies.
Sasuke didn’t think Itachi and Kabuto were alike. Even now, he couldn’t believe they were like each other. But he could envision that Kabuto had his own pain that only he could understand.
“She couldn’t tell Kabuto this, but she had also been thinking of him that whole time. Perhaps in the middle of the Izanami, he had realized these thoughts of hers.”
What road exactly would Kabuto walk down from now on? Was it the path that this woman—so important to him—illuminated for him?
“Also … perhaps it’s insurance for those times when something nonsensical happens.”
“Insurance?”
“Every era has its dissenters. And when those dissenters show up, inhuman powers like ours are sometimes required. Because some things cannot be protected with justice alone. So taming us properly is for everyone’s sake.” Orochimaru let out a short laugh.
“What?”
“Your friend likely doesn’t have an inkling of all this in his head.” He meant Naruto.
“I guess so.”
Orochimaru narrowed his eyes. “Well … I can see it now.” He lifted his face.
From under the cover of fog, an island started to come into view, its outer periphery circled by precipitous cliffs. The boatman pulled into a small cave in the cliffs, and they kept moving toward the interior of the island. Once the sky opened up above them, the dock appeared.
“Welcome! Welcome!” A man dressed in dazzling costume came to greet them. The island was lined with gorgeous buildings, and the people coming and going were dressed quite ostentatiously. It made the heavy atmosphere on the outside seem like a lie.
“This desert island does not appear on maps,” Orochimaru said, and they headed forward between the buildings. Soon, a remarkable dome-shaped building came into view.
“‘Arena?’”
“That’s read as ‘Coliseum.’”
They went up into the spectator seats, and Sasuke could tell at a glance that the people sitting there were wealthy. Furrowing his brow at the abnormal enthusiasm, he watched as someone who was apparently the promoter appeared in the center of the Coliseum.
“Thank you so much for coming today! Glory for the victor, despair for the loser! The rules are simple; just pit your hand against that of your opponent! And then the winner takes both! Survival of the fittest! The very simplest style!”
Things were getting fairly suspicious.
“What is this, Orochimaru?”
“Just as the man said. The people here make the ninja in their employ fight, and if you win, you get your opponent’s ninja.”
“This is your amusement park?!”
Just as he revealed his own disgust, the fight began. A cheer rose up from the excited millionaires.
“It’s like some kind of spectacle …”
“I wonder if you remember the chunin exams, Sasuke?” Orochimaru chuckled. “That too is a microcosm of the battlefield, a place where the ninja villages make an appeal to show off how talented their ninja have grown up to be, how much battle power they have. This is like that.”
Orochimaru turned his gaze on the spectators.
“They’re letting everyone here know that they have the financial wherewithal to hire the best ninja. The rich here are people of the dark side. By boasting of their power and increasing their prestige, they try to make things happen to their advantage. Which reminds me. Apparently, Gato of Gato Transport was a regular here.”
That was the name of the man who had once had the Land of Waves under his thumb. Sasuke remembered his despicable nature. No doubt, a lot of the wealthy here were people like Gato. Sasuke’s disgust grew.
“But this is basically the only place you’ll ever catch Oyashiro En. And he won’t show up unless there’s a hand he wants.”
As they talked, the match had apparently been decided. The ninja who had fought stepped back, and the MC called out the next duel cards.
“Now then, next up we have Oyashiro En’s Futsu, and Orochimaru’s Sasukeeeee!”
Sasuke stiffened the instant he heard this. “What’s the meaning of this?”
“It seems he took the bait.”
“I asked you what the meaning of this is.”
Orochimaru’s smile did not change in the face of Sasuke’s annoyance. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying himself even more. “I told you. Oyashiro doesn’t show up unless there’s a hand he wants. You see, he collects kekkei genkai.”
“He collects kekkei genkai?”
“Exactly. He’s a man who likes rare things. And you, Sasuke, with the sharingan, well, he probably desperately wants you.”
Apparently, the bait had been Sasuke.
“Now that I know he’s here in the arena, all I have to do is find him, then?”
“Oyashiro is a deeply cautious man. I have no idea where he is. He’s a medical ninja, you see. Here especially, it helps if you imagine Kabuto. It’s not an issue for him to hide his form, naturally, or even his scent. But he absolutely must come out during the exchange of hands at the end of the tournament. That is the custom here.”
So in order to see him, Sasuke apparently had no choice but to fight. He clicked his tongue.
“Oh, my! Is this a default?” Perhaps waiting for their move, the ninja Oyashiro was playing did not immediately come forward.
Glaring at Orochimaru, Sasuke said, “I’ll make this quick,” and jumped down into the arena.
At Sasuke’s appearance, the electricity in the venue shot up. As if in response, steam appeared in the arena and took on the form of a person. A boy in his late teens, Oyashiro’s ninja, Futsu.
“Now, start!”
With the signal, Futsu at once closed the distance between them. His hands nimbly wove signs, and just as Sasuke wondered if Futsu’s cheeks were swelling up, something like fog shot out of Futsu’s mouth.
Sasuke jumped backward to keep whatever it was from touching him. He caught the faint scent of acid.
“I see, a kekkei genkai collector, huh?” After putting some distance between them, Sasuke looked at Futsu. “Vapor Style, Solid Fog, hm?”
“How do you—?!”
Because kekkei genkai were rare, knowledge of and experience with them tended to be scarce. Most of the time, if someone with a kekkei genkai struck first, they could come out on top, which was why Futsu had immediately attacked.
“I’ve run into this technique in the past.” But Sasuke knew this jutsu. It was a fog of acid that could melt a person. The Mizukage, Terumi Mei, had used it when they fought. She had gone so far as to melt Sasuke’s Susano’o with it.