Naruto Dream Fulfillment Master

Page 266

He suppressed his emotions and said in a low voice, "In that case, I understand. If there's nothing else, I'd like to take my leave."

After speaking, Itachi bowed slightly to Pain, then turned and walked towards the entrance of the hall.

Payne's voice rang out coldly from behind again: "Stop."

The weasel paused in its tracks.

His heart tightened, but he had no choice but to stop.

Almost simultaneously, he keenly sensed a chilling aura behind him.

Before anyone knew it, Xiao Nan had already swiftly formed hand seals, summoning a large number of snow-white paper scraps.

The paper scraps coalesced into dozens of sharp paper shuriken, hovering in mid-air, completely blocking Itachi's escape route.

Itachi caught a glimpse of something amiss behind him, and his eyes darkened slightly.

With Payne in front and Konan behind, he was instantly trapped in the center of the hall.

To make matters worse, he noticed that a tall, burly man had appeared at the doorway and was blocking the only exit.

The man was tall and muscular.

He sported an explosive, short, spiky hairstyle, and his hair was an eerie orange color, strikingly similar to that of Pain.

His face was ashen and bloodless, with black rods embedded in his forehead, nose, cheeks, and ears, arranged in various patterns; most striking were his eyes, which were none other than the cold Rinnegan!

It is Pain, one of the Six Paths of Pain—the Hell Path.

Pain of the Hell Path stood there expressionless, like an iron tower guarding a gate.

He did not launch an attack immediately, but stared intently at Itachi in the arena, as if waiting for some signal.

After a brief silence, Payne slowly stood up.

He raised his gaunt face, his expression indifferent: "Uchiha Itachi—answer my question."

As they spoke, Pain of the Hell Path moved at the sound.

He formed a hand seal and slammed his hands onto the ground in front of him.

Suddenly, a strange ring of purplish-red flames erupted around Pain, the Hell Path, enveloping his figure. A gust of cold wind arose out of nowhere, stirring up the fine dust in the air and emitting a strange, wailing sound.

"Boom——"

A deafening roar, like muffled thunder, caused the earth to tremble slightly.

Under Itachi Uchiha's gaze, the floor in the center of the hall suddenly cracked open, and a hideous, enormous demon face slowly rose from the ground!

The demonic face resembled Yama himself appearing in the world, with sharp horns on its head, and its tightly closed eyes suddenly opened, revealing the same Rinnegan!

A sinister and terrifying atmosphere instantly filled the entire hall, and the temperature seemed to drop several degrees.

Itachi Uchiha's gaze trembled slightly, and a bead of cold sweat quietly slid down his forehead.

"Uchiha Itachi—" Pain's voice, chilling with murderous intent, came from behind the demon face, like a divine judgment, "Whom do you serve?!"

The questioning echoed in the vast council chamber, so powerful that the air seemed to freeze.

The black-haired youth who had been called out stood quietly before the ghost face, his handsome, pale face flickering in and out of focus under the dancing purple flames.

Itachi pursed his thin lips, his dark eyes reflecting the enormous Rinnegan.

He could feel a strange power enveloping him, ready to unleash merciless punishment the moment he made a lie or attempted to resist.

……

Meanwhile, at the Hokage Building in Konoha Village.

The spacious Hokage's office was now packed with people.

The Fifth Hokage, Tsunade, sat behind her desk, her expression unusually devoid of her usual composure.

Jiraiya and Kakashi stood beside her, both with extremely solemn expressions.

Beside him stood Hiruzen Sarutobi, the former Third Hokage and advisor to Konoha, whose hair was gray but whose eyes were piercing.

The room was completely silent, and the air pressure was so low that it was hard to breathe.

Just now, Jiraiya and Kakashi reported everything they saw in their dream last night to Tsunade and Hiruzen Sarutobi.

When the last syllable fell, the entire room fell into a deathly silence.

"You mean..." After a long silence, Tsunade finally spoke, her hoarse voice breaking the silence, "The mastermind behind the Nine-Tails' rampage was actually Uchiha Madara?"

As the granddaughter of the First Hokage, Tsunade had naturally heard of Madara Uchiha's name.

That was the strongest nemesis of my grandfather, Hashirama Senju, a man who should have perished after the battle at the Valley of the End decades ago.

However, Jiraiya now tells her: Madara Uchiha may still be alive and secretly stirring up the entire ninja world!

Jiraiya nodded heavily.

Upon hearing this, Tsunade's pretty face turned pale, and she stood there speechless for a moment.

At this moment, Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had been silent for a long time, slowly sighed and said with a solemn expression, "I didn't expect... after all this time, that person is still alive."

Hiruzen Sarutobi is the only one among everyone here who has personally witnessed Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju fighting.

Although he was young at the time, that scene is still deeply imprinted in his memory and will never be forgotten.

Even though most of his life has passed, he can still vividly recall the earth-shattering scene whenever he closes his eyes.

The commotion at the Valley of the End could be glimpsed even by Konoha, which was dozens of kilometers away.

That Susanoo, so powerful it resembled a god...

Such divine methods were beyond his wildest imagination at the time!

……

Unlike the somber and oppressive atmosphere in Amegakure and Konoha, Orochimaru, who had been inexplicably released, had safely returned to the underground base of Otogakure in the Land of Rice Fields.

Orochimaru walked alone in the passageway leading to the main laboratory, his footsteps making a crisp clattering sound on the metal floor that echoed in the silent underground.

"It's too quiet..." Orochimaru frowned slightly as he walked, the strangeness in the base making him more vigilant.

Did something happen to Kabuto?

Or……

Just as I was pondering this, a strange sound suddenly came from the depths of the corridor ahead.

"Boom...boom..."

It sounded as if something heavy was slowly tapping the floor, accompanied by a faint hissing sound, which resembled a painful groan.

Orochimaru stopped in his tracks, his golden pupils beneath his black hair narrowing slightly.

He was certain that no experiments had been conducted at the base when he left, and there should have been no unusual activity.

But what exactly is this strange noise?

Before he could think it through, another loud bang suddenly rang in his ears.

"Bang!" Accompanied by the sound of objects hitting the ground, there was also a faint, ear-piercing sound of machinery overturning.

"Not good!" Orochimaru's face darkened, and without further hesitation, he quickly ran towards the sound.

An ominous premonition welled up in his heart.

This base contains a lot of valuable research materials and samples, so we must not let anything go wrong!

After winding his way down the corridor, Orochimaru finally stopped in front of a tightly closed metal door.

He remembered that this was a laboratory that Yakushi Kabuto usually managed.

The door, which should have been locked, was now half-open, with dim, flickering light shining through the crack.

Orochimaru stood at the doorway and slowly pushed the door open.

The scene that came into view made his pupils shrink; the laboratory was in complete disarray.

A large medicine cabinet against the wall was kicked over and fell to the ground, with glass shards and medicine residue scattered all over the floor, mixed with messy papers and broken pieces of utensils.

A pungent medicinal smell filled the air, and a sense of danger seemed to permeate the atmosphere.

In the center of the room, a young man with short silver-gray hair sat in a chair, his thin upper body completely exposed, his muscles twitching and trembling violently.

He was none other than Orochimaru's most trusted subordinate—Kabuto Yakushi.

At this moment, Dou's expression was extremely painful, with large beads of sweat seeping from his forehead, and his glasses were askew and had fallen to the ground.

His eyes were tightly closed, his jaw was clenched, and his left hand pressed firmly against his right arm, as if he was trying his best to suppress something terrible.

Looking down into Dou's right arm, one could see a needle inserted into the arm, connected to a bag of an unknown pale green solution on an IV stand, which was dripping steadily into his veins.

Dou's right arm was completely deformed.

Veins bulged beneath his pale skin, throbbing and twisting wildly along the blood vessels. Strange snake scale patterns appeared near the injection points that were originally close to the skin, spreading continuously down his arm.

Orochimaru's expression changed: "Kabuto, what are you doing?!"

The sudden explosion in the silent laboratory was like a blow to the head for the pharmacist.

He abruptly opened his tightly closed eyes and stared incredulously at the doorway: "M-Lord Orochimaru?!"

Dou gasped in a hoarse voice, his face filled with shock.

Orochimaru stood motionless at the doorway, draped in a wide black robe, revealing only the lower half of his pale, handsome face.

"Lord Orochimaru?!" Upon hearing the familiar voice, Kabuto suddenly opened his eyes and stared incredulously at the doorway.

His pupils, which had been glazed over from the excruciating pain, suddenly dilated, his bloodshot eyes filled with shock and bewilderment: "This...this is impossible! How...how could you..."

Yakushi Kabuto opened his mouth, but for a moment he didn't know where to begin.

His mind was in complete chaos.

In order to rescue Orochimaru, he took a desperate gamble, integrating all of Orochimaru's research findings and injecting them into his own body, thinking only of fighting to the death to obtain enough power to fight against the Akatsuki organization.

But fate played a cruel joke on him.

Just as he was enduring excruciating pain and the effects of the drugs, struggling on the verge of death, Orochimaru miraculously returned unharmed!

"Could it be...an illusion?" Dou muttered to himself, his eyes momentarily unfocused.

However, it was this moment of distraction that caused his chakra, which he had been struggling to circulate, to suddenly lose control!