Inside the secret room in Otogakure, a golden flash flickered as Aoba silently appeared.
This was the same room where he had opened the scroll yesterday and been ambushed by countless giant pythons.
He was certain this place concealed the entrance to Orochimaru’s laboratory.
“If it’s an entrance, then the mechanism should be somewhere on the floor.” He first checked beneath the bed, then looked under the cabinets.
After rummaging around for a while, Aoba finally noticed something unusual beneath the mat by the entrance.
He pulled the mat aside and immediately spotted seams in the floorboards underneath.
“No wonder the floor sounded strange when I came in yesterday.
So it was hidden here.” Without hesitation, he opened the concealed entrance.
A passageway leading straight underground appeared before him.
Aoba entered the underground stairway and slowly felt his way forward.
Since he had no idea whether there were any traps, he moved cautiously and didn’t dare speed up recklessly.
Triggering some hidden mechanism down here would be disastrous.
Just in case, Aoba activated Earth Style: Earth Spear as well, hardening the vital parts of his body for protection.
Finally, after spending about a minute making his way through the passage, he emerged into a vast open space.
Unlike the gloomy tunnel, the actual underground chamber was brightly illuminated, allowing him to see everything inside at a glance.
Countless pieces of experimental equipment filled the laboratory.
Aoba even saw quite a few test subjects.
Every one of them was sealed inside some kind of nutrient tank, with numerous tubes inserted into their bodies.
Aoba had no interest in the test subjects.
His eyes were fixed firmly on the equipment.
Microscopes, computers, centrifuges, incubators…
Every piece of scientific equipment was outrageously expensive in the shinobi world.
Even the cheapest items were worth several hundred thousand ryo.
In Aoba’s eyes, these weren’t machines at all.
They were piles of shining money!
Without hesitation, he immediately pulled out several sealing scrolls and began stuffing as much equipment into them as he possibly could.
Only now did Aoba regret not bringing more sealing scrolls.
The total value of the laboratory equipment was definitely close to ten million ryo.
Yet the scrolls he had brought couldn’t even hold half of it.
Helpless, Aoba decided to take what he could first.
He activated the Flying Thunder God Jutsu and instantly appeared at a concealed location outside Otogakure, where Karin was already waiting for him.
“Aoba-sama!” The moment Karin saw him, she greeted him with a smile.
She had learned about Aoba’s plan yesterday, so she had prepared in advance to receive the stolen goods.
“Keep an eye on this equipment.
I’m going back into Otogakure!” Aoba wasted no time.
He unloaded the equipment from the sealing scrolls, then immediately returned to the laboratory.
After making three trips back and forth, he finally sealed away the last batch of experimental equipment and nodded in satisfaction.
Aside from the machinery containing test subjects, which he had deliberately left untouched, Aoba hadn’t left Orochimaru so much as a single useful piece of equipment.
“Otogakure is still a shinobi village.
It has to have some savings somewhere.
The only question is where they’ve hidden the treasury.” Despite his enormous haul, Aoba still wasn’t entirely satisfied.
If he could obtain even more money, he could make gacha pulls much faster and rapidly increase his strength.
The main problem was that he had absolutely no talent for business.
Unlike certain transmigrators who had been complete nobodies before crossing worlds, only to suddenly become business geniuses after transmigrating.
If Aoba had that sort of ability, he wouldn’t need to set his sights on Otogakure’s money in the first place.
And so, Aoba left the laboratory and continued searching throughout Otogakure.
To keep Kimimaro from getting in his way, he created a Shadow Clone and sent it off to cause a disturbance, drawing Kimimaro’s attention.
Meanwhile, Aoba himself carefully searched the village.
Before long, his Shadow Clone began fighting Kimimaro in the distance.
Of course, since its only purpose was to stall the enemy, the clone focused entirely on running away rather than confronting Kimimaro head on, buying the real Aoba as much time as possible.
Otogakure might have been a small hidden village, but it was still considerably larger than an ordinary civilian settlement.
It took Aoba roughly half an hour before he finally located the village treasury.
Unfortunately…
All the money inside was already gone.
Orochimaru had clearly anticipated that Otogakure might face retaliation after the Konoha Crush, so he had transferred the funds elsewhere ahead of time.
Aoba had come up empty-handed.
“Looks like that’s the end of today’s haul.” Aoba was somewhat disappointed that he hadn’t found anything else.
But only somewhat.
After all, even if he sold the equipment he’d stolen at depreciated prices, it should still fetch at least eight or nine million ryo.
That was more than enough to significantly improve his current strength.
Just as Aoba was preparing to withdraw, however, he ran straight into a familiar face.
“Who are you?!” Orochimaru stared incredulously at the masked man before him, his voice as raspy as ever.
Both of his arms hung limply at his sides.
Clearly, Hiruzen had sacrificed his life to seal away the souls in Orochimaru’s arms.
“You came back awfully fast.” Aoba was genuinely surprised by Orochimaru’s speed, but deliberately roughened his voice to conceal his identity.
“Though judging by your condition, it looks like Konoha gave you quite the beating.” “Who exactly are you?!
How do you know my movements?!” Orochimaru had the strangest feeling that he had definitely seen the man before.
Yet no matter how hard he searched his memory, he couldn’t remember where they might have met.
Aoba’s disguise was simply too thorough.
His entire body was completely concealed, leaving only his eyes exposed.
At that very moment, those eyes slowly began to rotate.
A pair of scarlet Three-Tomoe Sharingan appeared!
“You are…
an Uchiha?!” The moment Orochimaru saw those Sharingan he coveted so deeply, disbelief flashed across his face.
He was absolutely certain the person before him wasn’t Itachi.
Other than Itachi, the only suspicious candidate remaining was the masked man who had appeared during the Nine-Tails’ attack.
Both wore masks.
Both concealed themselves beneath black cloaks.
Without realizing it, Aoba had just dumped the blame onto Obito.
Kisame had suffered the same fate earlier.
Apparently, the Akatsuki was exceptionally good at taking the blame for Aoba’s crimes.
“Who I am isn’t important.” Aoba stared at him through the mask.
“What’s important is that since I’ve run into you…
I might as well give you a surprise!” His Sharingan immediately activated a genjutsu.
“Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death!” In the blink of an eye, Orochimaru’s surroundings changed.
A massive tree appeared behind him, its trunk and branches binding him tightly in place.
Within the genjutsu, a figure emerged from behind the tree and drew a kunai across Orochimaru’s throat, severing his head.
And in reality— Aoba effortlessly cut Orochimaru’s head off.
“I didn’t expect it to be this easy.
Looks like Konoha really did a number on you.” Of course, Aoba had no intention of underestimating Orochimaru’s ability to survive.
He immediately formed hand seals.
“Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!” Blazing flames engulfed Orochimaru’s corpse, burning it to ashes.
“Let’s see how you come back from that!” Even as he said it, Aoba still wasn’t entirely convinced.
Knowing Orochimaru, there was no guarantee he didn’t have some other hidden method of resurrection.
Just as Aoba finally began to relax, a tiny white snake silently crawled out from the ashes of the burned corpse and slithered away.
“Just as I thought, Orochimaru.
You’re not that easy to kill.” Seeing the little white snake about to escape, Aoba casually hurled a kunai.
The kunai shot straight toward the tiny white snake— which was, in fact, Orochimaru’s true body.
But just before the kunai could strike— Clang!
Someone suddenly knocked it aside!
And right before Aoba’s eyes, Orochimaru vanished without a trace.