章節 2: Chapter 2 - A conversation between two scientists.

The next day, early in the morning, Yusuke's family went to the cemetery.

The weather was sunny, many people in black clothes walked silently towards the cemetery. Only occasionally nodding in greeting to each other. It was obvious that even though the war was over, the huge sacrifice of the shinobi of the village still shrouded the hearts of the living in a dark haze.

Holding Izumi's hand, Yuusuke quickly reached the cemetery with his mother. Even though they left early, when they arrived there were already a lot of people there. And more kept coming. Not much time passed and a huge number of people gathered in front of the huge monument of the "Will of Fire".

The Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen slowly approached the monument and paid tribute to the dead, began his speech dedicated to those who died in the Third Shinobi World War. Many of those present lost their loved ones in the war, listening to the speech of the Hokage, people could not hold back their tears, the cemetery was filled with sobs.

Yuusuke stood in the crowd, his eyes were also sad. Although he did not have many friends, there were people who went on dangerous missions with him many times during the war. At such moments, it does not take much time to get to know a person. Yusuke saw many good, kind and brave guys who were more worthy of life than many surviving cowards who hid and evaded responsibility. Unfortunately, no matter how strong we are, one end awaits everyone - death. Someone later, someone earlier, thinking about it, the young man discarded his memories and looked at Sarutobi Hiruzen.

At this time, Hiruzen was not as old as when the original story began. However, Yusuke could already see the signs of aging on him, his back was no longer as straight as it used to be.

The memorial service did not last long, after the end of the ceremony of honoring the dead, Sarutobi Hiruzen made a statement that shocked everyone. Stating that the village had suffered too many casualties in this war and that most of it was due to his incompetence, Hiruzen announced his resignation as Hokage just after the election of the Fourth Hokage was over. Although many of the villagers objected, Hiruzen did not go back on his words and announced two candidates for the position of the Fourth Hokage. One of them was his own student and one of the three legendary Sannin Orochimaru, and the second was the man who made a big name for himself in the Third World War - the Yellow Lightning of Konoha - Namikaze Minato.

Of the two candidates for the position of Hokage, Orochimaru surprisingly was not nominated by Sarutobi Hiruzen, but by Shimura Danzō while Minato was the candidate of the Third Hokage himself. But few people knew that there were originally three candidates. Uchiha Fugaku the head of the Uchiha clan also had the right to participate in the elections, but refused for some reason.

Yusuke of course knew the results of these elections, but this, in his opinion, was to be expected. Orochimaru just doesn't fit the role of Hokage. He is too creepy a person, even his appearance, you can star in horror films with her without makeup. Especially frightening is his excited look, when he finds something interesting, they can scare anyone to death, it is natural that no one wants to see such a person in the Hokage chair.

On the other hand, Minato is like the sun, he is not arrogant, quite sociable and always ready to help. People like him will always be in the spotlight wherever they are.

"Crying for the dead is pointless. There is no point in life…" Orochimaru lamented standing in front of an unnamed tombstone in a remote corner of the cemetery.

"What is the sense of life?" - suddenly a child's voice was heard near him, a boy of about six looked at him with curiosity.

Orochimaru looked at the boy in surprise. Usually, due to his gloomy appearance and murderous aura, even adults avoid him, and talking to him is out of the question. At least with the exception of a few people, Orochimaru didn't remember this happening. Yet there was not a shred of fear in the eyes of the little boy opposite him.

"There is no point - Orochimaru slowly replied and added - If he exists, then only when life is eternal!"

"Orochimaru-sama, I still have a lot to do, if you don't mind, I would like to finish our business as soon as possible," a voice came from behind them, interrupting their discussion about the meaning of life.

Not far from them stood a tall youth, that youth was none other than Yusuke Uchiha. After the memorial service ended, Yusuke escorted his family to the exit and went to Orochimaru as quickly as possible.

"Hehe, of course, of course, Yusuke-kun." Orochimaru nodded at the boy next to him and disappeared using the body flicker technique. Before leaving, Yuusuke also glanced at the boy and immediately recognized him, the most brilliant member of the Uchiha clan, Uchiha Itachi. True, at this moment Itachi is still a small boy with a cute face, but his eyes seemed to hide a lot of things. He did not know Itachi well and did not communicate with him at all, so he limited himself to a simple nod, after which, after folding the seal, he disappeared with a flash of fire.

"Uchiha Yuusuke..." Itachi muttered as he looked at the disappearing

One of the Three Legendary Sannin Orochimaru. An insane and somewhat genius scientist of the Naruto world, he became Yuusuke's first target when he decided to seriously research ninjutsu. Once meeting with him, both scientists discovered many common themes and quickly became friends. From that moment, Yusuke was able to fully immerse himself in the study of chakra and the principles of its action, in other words, he began to study chakra and jutsu, often consulting with Orochimaru on issues he did not understand. As for the biological research of the latter, Yuusuke did not know where and when Orochimaru was conducting his experiments, but even if he knew, he would not interfere. On the contrary, he was even a little interested in hearing about the successes of a colleague.

Hidden laboratory.

"Yusuke-kun, your theory about the genetic inheritance of certain cells inspired me a lot, thanks to it, I was able to significantly improve the cursed seal with Hashirama cells. Want to try?" Orochimaru said with excitement in his voice.

"Orochimaru-sama, you already know the answer to your question. For me, my own strength is important and I'm not going to experiment with my body "- Yusuke refused Orochimaru's tempting offer without hesitation. He wasn't so naive as to think that this twisted mad scientist would make him stronger out of the goodness of his heart. In addition, Orochimaru's cursed seal turned anyone marked with it into a vessel for reincarnation.

"It's a pity..." Orochimaru suddenly folded his hand seals and disintegrated into hundreds of white snakes, which opened their mouths and rushed towards Yuusuke.

Seeing this, Yuusuke quickly stepped back and summoning a katana in his right hand, waved it towards the white snakes. But right after that, Yuusuke's eyebrows jumped in surprise, it happened because the katana went through the body of the white snake. Hundreds of small white snakes took advantage of the situation and quickly clung to Yusuke's body, injecting their venom into it.

"Have you succeeded? I must admit, I didn't expect you to handle it so quickly." Suddenly, Yusuke's snake-covered body burst into flames and disappeared. At the same time, the present appeared from another corner of the room.

As he spoke, hundreds of white snakes merged together, returning Orochimaru to his original form. Without saying anything, the Sannin took out a scroll from his inner pocket and handed it to Yuusuke, "Thanks to you, I was able to get inspiration, so not only did I complete the jutsu you asked me to do, but I also improved it a bit, adding the ability to add my attribute and illusion." .

Yuusuke accepted the scroll and unfolded it, carefully reading the contents, he returned it back to Orochimaru and taking two steps back quickly folded the hand seals.

『Fire Ghost Crow Division』 As soon as Yusuke's voice subsided, his body split into a dozen fire bursts, each of which then took on the form of a raven. The bodies of the ravens flickered, becoming normal, and then transparent again. This was a result of the combination of the chakra of the elements of fire and illusion. This is how this technique got its name *fiery ghostly crows.

Dividing his body into fiery ghost ravens, Yuusuke made them circle around the room for a bit before combining them again. The Fire Phantom Crow Division is a technique invented by Yuusuke based on Itachi's Crow Division technique from the original story. Together with Orochimaru, they were able to make this technique even stronger, of course, along with this, the requirements for its use also increased.

"I see you have become stronger again. The speed at which you stack hand seals may have already surpassed mine." Orochimaru said with a laugh.

Yusuke only smiled slightly in response. For many years since his appearance in this world, he has been training hard and most of all, after the element of fire, he paid attention to the aspects of speed. According to Yusuke, in a battle, speed is the most important thing.

"Orochimaru-sama, today, I came to discuss this technique with you, but I could not imagine that you had already completed it and even improved it, you can consider that I am in your debt," Yu said slowly looking at Orochimaru.

With a casual wave of his hand, Orochimaru gestured for him to sit down with him on the tatami, "Yusuke-kun, how good do you think my chances of winning the election are?"

Yuusuke slowly sat in front of Orochimaru and said as he was, "Orochimaru-sama just ask yourself what are your advantages over Minato?"

Hearing Yusuke's answer, Orochimaru's pupils narrowed, and at the same moment, a powerful bloodthirsty aura burst out of him. Yuusuke didn't react to this, continuing to silently look into his eyes.

After a dozen seconds of silence, Orochimaru returned to normal and spoke, deciding to change the subject: "Most recently I met a very interesting person, he is a puppet master and I must admit he knows his business, do you want to go and meet him?"

Yuusuke immediately guessed who they were talking about. Sasori should have already killed the Third Kazekage and deserted from Hidden Sand Village. Most likely Orochimaru accidentally stumbled upon him during his travels.