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"I also know that after that, you continued conducting more research and experiments—and that you've already achieved some results. But you should also understand the cruelty and danger of those experiments. If they get out of control, they could bring disaster." Minato's voice wasn't loud, but his tone was stern and righteous.

At that moment, Tōji understood—the "secret" they'd been talking about was being deliberately redirected by Minato into something related to secret experiments conducted with the village…

Orochimaru sneered. "Minato-kun—are you here to lecture me? What I do is none of your business."

Before Minato could speak, Orochimaru crossed his arms, his cold, ruthless gaze fixed on Minato's eyes. "Or is this Sarutobi-sensei's intention?"

Minato shook his head. "Orochimaru-sensei, I'm not here to lecture you. And it's not the Third's order. I just want to remind you—that series of experiments is far too dangerous. You can't continue. And you know as well as I do that it's now classified as a forbidden practice in Konoha. If it's discovered, even you would face severe punishment."

Orochimaru's expression darkened further. "Minato-kun—are you threatening me?"

Minato smiled. "Orochimaru-sensei, I wouldn't dare threaten you. I just want to tell you—I don't want to see you walk down an irreversible path. If you're willing to abandon that series of experiments, I can guarantee your reputation and prestige in the village. And no one will ever know about your affairs."

Orochimaru was silent for a moment, then said, "Minato-kun, you make a lot of sense. But I have my own pursuits—you wouldn't understand. I've already invested too much time and energy into this. I won't just give it up. And I believe that if I can control that kind of power, I'll get closer to the truth of this world."

Minato sighed. "Orochimaru-sensei, you're too stubborn. I hope you'll think it through clearly—don't do something you'll regret."

Orochimaru smiled. "Minato-kun—thank you for your concern. But I've already decided. I won't give up. And I won't let anyone stop me—not even the entire Konoha."

With that, Orochimaru scanned Minato, Tōji, Natchi, and then Tenchi and his octopus monster one more time. Slowly, he turned and walked deeper into the passage.

After just a few steps, Orochimaru's cold voice echoed from the depths. "Tenchi—don't disturb me unless it's important."

"Yes! Lord Orochimaru!" Tenchi answered in terror, tossed the bamboo tube onto the ground, and scrambled on all fours toward the laboratory deeper in the passage.

Natchi quickly picked up the small bamboo tube for Tōji and placed it back in his hand, nodding to him.

Tōji smiled faintly.

Minato shook his head helplessly. He knew Orochimaru couldn't be persuaded—there was no turning back.

"Let's go—we'll talk when we get back." Minato said to Tōji and Natchi.

Tōji and Natchi nodded.

Tōji knew all too well—they couldn't stop Orochimaru.

Minato placed his hands on Tōji's and Natchi's shoulders respectively. What followed was the physiological discomfort brought on by the 【Flying Thunder God Technique】…

In just an instant—dizziness, blurring vision—and then, before Tōji could even process the confrontation between the big shots, he finally understood what kind of side effects a truly powerful space-time ninjutsu had. The dizziness after long-distance teleportation, the urge to vomit, the helplessness of losing control over one's own chakra…

Before Tōji and Natchi could even try to calm their chakra themselves, Minato had already acted. In just a few dozen seconds, he'd smoothed out both their chakra. Along with it, all the physiological discomfort dropped to negligible levels.

Tōji focused his eyes—they were on the Hokage Rock in Konoha.

177

Minato looked at Tōji and Natchi, the sternness from earlier gone from his face. Instead, he smiled warmly. "Are you two alright?"

Tōji and Natchi quickly shook their heads, indicating they were fine.

Minato nodded, then looked down at the village below, its lights scattered everywhere. "About Orochimaru-sensei—I plan to tell you what happened. It occurred over the past few years."

Minato's gaze turned grave. He looked down toward Senju Tobirama's face on the Hokage Rock and continued, "You two must know about the Second Hokage, right?"

Tōji and Natchi both nodded firmly.

"Back then, the Second invented quite a few forbidden jutsu, and he also proposed and oversaw some experiments that couldn't be made public."

Minato's gaze shifted from Tobirama's face to Hiruzen's.

"And during the Third's tenure, a prolonged war broke out, and the village lost a massive number of shinobi. A few years ago, several of the village's higher-ups began discussing continuing the Second's unfinished research—to serve the next war…"

"After the Third gave his approval, forbidden jutsu research and human experimentation quickly got underway. One of those forbidden jutsu projects already produced results."

"That forbidden jutsu is called… 【Edo Tensei】."

Hearing this, Tōji secretly shot a strange look at Minato's back. But Minato kept talking…

"But Orochimaru-sensei wasn't satisfied with 【Edo Tensei】. After coming into contact with a forbidden jutsu that blurred the line between life and death, he seemed even more obsessed with studying life and death. His experiments became harder and harder for the village to accept. And…"

Minato paused there for quite a while. Natchi couldn't help but ask, "And what? Lord Minato."

"Another experiment produced no results at all, yet it was like a bottomless pit—it required sacrificing a large number of living people. Even so, Orochimaru-sensei had no intention of stopping. He grew indifferent to life. Eventually, the Third ordered all forbidden experiments halted."

Tōji could easily guess that the successful forbidden jutsu Minato mentioned was 【Edo Tensei】—though at this stage, 【Edo Tensei】 wasn't actually very effective. The forbidden jutsu Orochimaru still wanted to research was 【Living Corpse Reincarnation】. And the experiment that sacrificed masses of living people was human modification. All of them required fresh human lives as fuel.

Recently, Orochimaru had gained Danzo's secret support. Even if he continued such experiments in the shadows, he'd never been caught red-handed.

Yet the Konoha higher-ups weren't entirely ignorant.

Konoha certainly had the power to completely ban Orochimaru's experiments. But in reality, those higher-ups turned a blind eye.

Who knew—maybe some people representing Konoha's will were waiting to share in Orochimaru's research results, especially the creation of an "artificial Hashirama"… Tōji thought with ill intent. Though Minato didn't say it outright.

"I brought this up with Orochimaru-sensei for two reasons. First, to shift focus away from your matter." Minato's gaze fell on Tōji. "Second, to use this as a warning to him."

"But he didn't listen." Natchi blurted out.

"Mm." Minato nodded.

"You two don't need to worry. Handling this is my responsibility." Minato made clear his stance on Orochimaru's experiments.

His expression turned serious again, and he brought the topic back to Tōji. "So then, Tōji—can you tell me about your situation?"

Tōji knew this was coming and had long since prepared himself mentally.

"Is it okay for Natchi to hear this?" Tōji asked first.

"Say whatever you need to. Whether it's me or Natchi—if there's anything we shouldn't know, I can erase those memories." Minato offered his fallback measure.

"Alright. Then prepare yourselves—what I'm about to say goes beyond ordinary understanding."

178

"Not long after I started forming memories, I would occasionally wake up from sleep with extra fragments of memory quietly appearing in my mind."

"And those memory fragments—even though I was so young at the time, I could already remember them with incredible clarity. The fragments were all连贯, as if I'd experienced them firsthand."

"Actually, I couldn't even judge whether they could be called memories. At first I thought they were just dreams. But gradually I felt they weren't like dreams. Yet those memories were so absurd, because…"

"It was an entire complete life—one person's whole lifetime existing in a strange world."

"What's even more incredible is that in that strange world, he could learn about our world… through manga and anime."

"Anime—that's manga that moves." Tōji suddenly remembered that this era only had manga.

"In other words, I was born knowing the past and future of our world. But I'm not sure whether these memories will play out exactly as they are, step by step."

"The only thing I'm certain of is that everything that's already happened matches those memories exactly."

Tōji kept gazing up at the stars in the night sky, not looking to see what kind of reactions or expressions Minato and Natchi had.

"These memories shaped the special personality I was born with. They influence my way of thinking, they sway my judgments and choices."

"Including—I know how terrifying the Land of Water currently is."

"Including—I tried to use Captain Kenji to change the village's decision about investigating the Land of Water."

"Including—all my actions with Tenchi, Lord Orochimaru, and you, Lord Minato. That is, all my behavior after getting dragged into this crisis."

Tōji looked at Minato, who was perfectly calm—still even wearing a smile. "And I truly hope that your future, Lord Minato, can be different from the ending in my memories…"

"Shh~ Tōji, I believe in fate's arrangements." Who knew what Minato's true state of mind was. "That work from another world about our world—it should have arranged a pretty good ending, right?"

"Lord Minato. I once had a wild thought—whether it's the creator's inspiration that comes first and then the story is written, or whether the story truly exists first and the creator captures that inspiration." Tōji had boldly imagined this one night. In a more idealistic sense—could so-called inspiration be information that the creator passively received…

"Hahaha—your ideas are quite fascinating." This time, Minato laughed heartily.

Tōji suddenly felt that in front of Minato, he seemed immature, and couldn't help but feel his face warm.

"Alright—I understand everything now. Thank you for trusting me." Minato patted Tōji's shoulder.

He then looked at Natchi, who was wide-eyed and had been rendered speechless. "Natchi—there are some memories we shouldn't have. Would you mind if I cleaned them for you?"

"Ah! Of course, of course! But… this is just… too… too unbelievable." Natchi tilted his head to look at Tōji, then stretched out his index finger to scratch his head. "Tōji, you bastard… uh…"

Seeing Natchi's brain was somewhat on the fritz, Tōji smiled and nodded.

"Natchi, close your eyes. Time to sleep." Minato didn't wait for Natchi to digest what he'd heard tonight.

"Mm!" Natchi was decisive too—whatever his idol told him to do, he just did it.

Minato quickly formed a string of hand seals and lightly tapped Natchi's forehead with one hand. "Seal!"

Natchi collapsed on cue. Minato reached out in time to catch Natchi's back, so this young man—now taller than his shoulder—wouldn't fall to the ground.

Tōji silently watched the scene before him. He felt tonight was like a dream—none of this was a scenario he'd ever anticipated.

But he remembered that saying: "After all, a novel's ending is most compelling when saved for the very last."

Namikaze Minato—he really was so much like his teacher.