At 10 PM, the lively Konoha village gradually began to quiet down.
Most of the villagers, who had worked hard all day, had already fallen asleep.
Only a few vendors and patrolling ninjas were still on duty.
In a more remote area of the village, one of Orochimaru's laboratories was built here.
"Hurry up, get it done so I can return to the pure land soon."
In one of the rooms of the laboratory, the resurrected Danzo, brought back to life by Orochimaru, looked at the group in front of him.
He no longer had feelings of fear, anger, or resentment. Instead, he was calm and indifferent.
At this moment, Danzo looked like a monk, someone who had seen through the world.
Power, status, all the things that once mattered seemed like fleeting illusions, things that no longer concerned him.
Seeing Danzo like this, Jiraiya and the others exchanged glances, unsure of what he was up to.
"Danzo? Did water get into your brain?"
Danzo glanced at Jiraiya, then calmly replied, "Your brain has water in it."
"So what's going on here...?"
Facing the puzzled looks from Jiraiya and the others, Danzo remained calm and replied, "After being resurrected by you all, killed, and resurrected so many times, I'm tired... So hurry up and get it over with."
Orochimaru frowned when he heard this.
Danzo's attitude was really irritating to him.
He preferred to see the arrogant and unyielding Danzo.
With that thought, Orochimaru decided to have some fun with Danzo and see if he really was that indifferent.
"Heh heh heh, I was going to tell you some good news, but seeing you like this, it seems you don't need it anymore."
Danzo's heart stirred when he heard this.
Given his current state, the only thing he would consider good news was related to life itself.
Could it be?
When thinking about a certain possibility, Danzo's thoughts immediately became active again.
It's the same as always; if one can survive, no one wants to die.
"What good news?"
Seeing that Danzo couldn't help but ask, Orochimaru slightly curled his lips, showing a smug smile of having succeeded in his plan.
"Jiraiya."
Cough cough
"Let me speak instead."
Jiraiya interrupted Orochimaru, indicating that this good news was something he would personally share.
Orochimaru didn't mind and waved his hand, signaling Jiraiya to continue.
"Danzo, I'm rewarding you this time because you provided us with information about five of the Six Paths of Pain puppets."
"A reward?"
"Yes, that's right. I am someone who believes in clear rewards and punishments. If you make a mistake, you'll be punished. If you do something good, you'll be rewarded."
Hearing this, Danzo couldn't help but start to feel his heartbeat quicken, his breath becoming heavier.
He barely managed to suppress his excitement and asked with a slightly trembling voice, "Then what exactly is this reward?"
"Of course, it's what you most desire."
At this moment, Danzo's right hand trembled more and more, so excited it was as though he had caught a glimpse of something beyond his reach.
Seeing this, Jiraiya stopped holding back and said, "I have decided to reward you with one life."
"What do you mean?"
"Just the literal meaning."
"Hahahaha~"
After receiving Jiraiya's affirmative response, Danzo finally couldn't hold back and started laughing out loud.
However, immersed in excitement, Danzo didn't notice that the people around him looked at him with pity in their eyes.
The Third Hokage even sighed, turning his head away, unable to bear watching the disappointment Danzo would soon face.
"Danzo, are you happy?"
"Happy? Of course, I am happy, hahahaha."
"I'm glad to hear that. I brought you such good news. Shouldn't you say thank you to me?"
"What?"
Danzo stopped laughing, looking at Jiraiya in surprise.
He had expected Jiraiya to seize the opportunity to give him some difficult task.
But all it took was to say thank you?
"Hmm? Didn't you hear? Say thank you!"
"Oh, okay, thank you, Jiraiya."
Seeing that Danzo finally said thank you, Jiraiya was very happy.
Having completed his task in the office, he felt that Danzo no longer had any reason to keep living.
"Sakumo."
"What is it, Fifth Hokage?"
"Na'i group special."
The Anbu had its own code language.
As the former head of the Anbu, Sakumo knew exactly what that meant.
"Understood."
Sakumo gripped the short sword at his waist, and with a flash of the blade, Danzo, who didn't have time to react, was instantly killed.
A few minutes later, after Danzo was revived, the moment he saw Jiraiya, he immediately started cursing.
"Jiraiya, you bastard, you're not human! You promised to give me one more life as a reward, but you went back on your word! I really want to curse you!"
"Haha, you being like this actually makes it more comfortable."
Jiraiya didn't mind the foul language that Danzo was throwing at him. Instead, he leisurely dug at his ear before saying, "I was originally planning to kill you ten times, but now I'm only killing you nine. Doesn't that count as giving you one more life?"
"Dammit!"
Hearing this, Danzo, whose mindset had collapsed, cursed even worse.
"Sakumo, continue."
".Yes."
About half an hour later, Jiraiya walked out of the lab, looking refreshed.
Except for Naruto, who was somewhat dissatisfied, everyone else seemed in good spirits.
"Naruto, how do you feel?"
"It doesn't feel like much anymore."
In order to change their son's naive views, whenever there was an opportunity to kill Danzo, Kushina and Minato would bring Naruto to watch.
No matter how violent or bloody the process was, they would force Naruto to watch it all.
After a few times, it started to have some effect.
"Mom, isn't Sasuke coming back with us?"
"I guess he wants to ask Orochimaru when he will revive his parents."
Inside the lab, Sasuke, just as Kushina had said, was interrogating Orochimaru.
"Don't be so hasty, Sasuke-kun."
Orochimaru didn't mind Sasuke's bad attitude. Instead, he led him to two large glass tanks, which contained the clones of Fugaku and Mikoto.
"In order to not affect Fugaku's abilities, I spent over two months developing this clone."
Hearing Orochimaru's words, Sasuke's expression became somewhat better.
As Orochimaru's disciple, Sasuke was somewhat familiar with cloning technology.
I can see that the creepy teacher wasn't lying.
"How long until these two clones fully mature?"
"It won't be long. According to my calculations, they'll be fully matured in about a week."
"A week?"
"Yes."
"Alright, I'll wait another week then."
With that, Sasuke turned and left the laboratory.
"Next, let me try and see if I can still bring someone back to life after splitting their soul."
As for the test subject, of course, it's our resurrection workhorse, the old man Danzo!
Just thinking about the impact once this experiment succeeds, Orochimaru couldn't help but "drool."
"Tch, the female body is such a hassle."
Casually wiping off the saliva with a piece of paper, Orochimaru muttered to himself, "Looks like I'll need to find a time to switch back to a male body."
*********
Support me on my ko-fi account and read upto 15 early chapters,
https://ko-fi.com/aayume