Chương 172: Want to live forever, but die young

The extraction of Orochimaru from Sasuke's body was... terrible.

After setting everything up with everyone's help, I realized that it had the appearance of a sort of Satanic or black magic ritual. It was even eerily similar to that scene where Shizune healed Neji in the series after attempting to bring back Sasuke.

It's the first time that sealing techniques give me bad vibes, maybe because it was necessary to use Mikoto's blood to paint about half of everyone and I had to give her some supplements to recover from the blood loss.

Very bad vibes, seriously. It also reminded me a bit of that movie where the bad guy did voodoo and cursed a prince, turning him into a frog. Although I liked the song, what was it called...

Do I have friends in...? No, that's not it.

I think I did well to keep Tsunade out of it, because once it started and we began to remove her former teammate from Mikoto's youngest son's body, Orochimaru began to fight like a madman.

The screams were worthy of being recorded to sell them in a haunted house and the scene looked like it was taken from a Saw movie.

He put up a lot of resistance, and I even doubted if it was because he had finally obtained the body he desired after so long, or if it was because he no longer had more people with the cursed seal to resurrect from.

The first three hours already made people start sweating from the effort, since removing him would be much easier if we didn't have to be careful with Sasuke, but from the fourth hour is when Orochimaru started to take more desperate measures.

He began to try to damage the part that was being separated, probably trying to create a front of mutual destruction, exploiting the fear of continuing with the process.

This wasn't too problematic at first, I can always heal Sasuke with some time. The annoying part was when we had to extract it from parts like the heart, the bone marrow, and other fairly fragile parts.

I had to pull out some tricks to keep the body from kicking the bucket, at least six times.

At the ten-hour mark, we had practically pulled out everything that made up Orochimaru, but there was still a bit more to remove and if we didn't, he would grow back like a persistent weed.

And the remaining part was the most problematic, the one that clung around Sasuke like... well, like a snake.

Mikoto was on the verge of fainting, as she needed to maintain her connection with her son at all times, without distractions. The mental pressure and stress were enormous, but we almost finished.

Although Sasuke wasn't exactly giving his best to recover his body.

I don't know if he was stunned by the time he was suppressed by Orochimaru's consciousness or if he somehow managed to see Orochimaru's memories, finding out that the goal he had been seeking power for his whole life was no longer there.

Put in some effort, for heaven's sake!

He's so focused on Itachi's disappearance that his mother had a lot of trouble supporting him in his fight with Orochimaru. You could almost say that she was leading the charge when it was him who was supposed to do that part.

At the thirteen-hour mark, we were finally able to have the two separated into two halves of the same seal.

Orochimaru looked like that snake form with several heads, but his size was between that of a Chihuahua and a Corgi. He asked for it himself, I had to discard some parts to avoid permanently harming Sasuke, so I can't be held responsible for his size reduction.

Mikoto fainted just before reaching the twelve-hour mark and I think it was for the best, Sasuke's body wasn't exactly for giving him a hug.

He looked like a piece of Emmental cheese, full of holes everywhere and adding the fact that his eyes were missing...

No, wait, I think it would be more accurate to say that he looked like a member of the Aburame clan in his underwear.

—"That's disgusting!" commented Karin, although if she was referring to Sasuke's condition or to Orochimaru's current appearance, I have no idea.

And given what would have happened in Danzo's confrontation in the original story, I couldn't care less. Karin had the right to kick Sasuke a few times if she wanted to, at the very least.

—What do we do with him? —Shizune asked me as she looked apprehensively at Orochimaru.

An Orochimaru who can barely move his heads, completely disoriented.

—We don't have to do anything —I replied to her as I put a hand on her shoulder and changed her gaze to me— If he doesn't get a body in the next twenty hours, he'll suffer a cellular collapse and die completely —this time I looked at what was left of Orochimaru— And even in the remote possibility that he could get one, I doubt he'll have the strength to take the body. By this time tomorrow, there will only be Tsunade of the three Sannin.

—Tsunade-sama hasn't liked that title for a long time —Shizune commented absentmindedly— She doesn't like that Konoha still tries to use her reputation to their advantage, she feels used.

—Well, it doesn't seem like Konoha is going to last much longer either —I replied to her as I made sure with Mariko that the seals around Orochimaru didn't have exploitable flaws— Nemu, take both Uchihas to recover, please.

—Should I re-implant Sasuke's eyes?

Right, I forgot that we took his eyes because of all the illusions and absurd powers...

—No, that will only add more strain to his body at this moment and will take longer to recover —I shook my head— First let's fix his body and when he's better, we'll see about returning them. I'll go look for a bed so Mikoto can rest next to the medical pod with her son.

Not in a million years will I let Sasuke have access to his eyes while he's in my house before I've talked to Mikoto, the guy is capable of going crazy and smashing things in a frenzy.

I'm friends with Mikoto, but if her son becomes the slightest threat to mine, I'll kill him. Besides, I'm not lying, his body will recover almost twice as fast if it doesn't have to deal with the eyes he has now.

And returning the eyes, connecting the nerves, and the like is something that can be done in a few minutes with Karin's medical ninjutsu, so there's no rush.

Once everyone left, I stayed silently looking at Orochimaru's remains and sighed inevitably. If this man had devoted all his efforts to research and innovation instead of killing and seeking immortality, he would be (to a lesser extent) the equivalent of Vegapunk in the world of Naruto.

But he fell prey to the fear of death from a young age, which ultimately deprived the world of someone very capable. And now, he will die even before reaching old age.

Too bad he discarded his original body so long ago, he could have made clones of him to help me along with Nemu. This research talent was the best of his time.