Chapter 31: Ascending to Immortality

Konoha.

Habara had returned to being homeless, or rather, he had always been homeless... After Izayo's unexpected death, he naturally couldn't continue living in her house.

Daigo was currently there, helping to sort through Izayo's belongings.

The process of burying Izayo wasn't complicated, or rather, after the war had gone on for so many years, this kind of burial process was practically simple... Death was death, and everything else was just the living clinging to something.

Habara was now staying in a small inn in Konoha. He didn't have to worry about food, clothing, shelter, and transportation, but no one could treat an inn as their home.

Because of how Izayo died, Habara had developed many negative perceptions of Konoha. He probably wouldn't have much sense of belonging to this village, but that didn't mean he wanted to become a "terrorist." A normal adult's views certainly couldn't be black and white, and thoughts couldn't be too extreme.

Join the "Akatsuki"? That was a joke. Forget everything else, would they even consider someone with Habara's strength? He was cannon fodder in Konoha, wouldn't he be cannon fodder in the "Akatsuki"? If he was going to be cannon fodder either way, why would he travel all the way to the Land of Rain?

And the key question was, who was responsible for Izayo's death?

Moreover, the "Akatsuki's" ideals weren't even as good as Konoha's. Konoha's ideals were beautiful; its problem was that it was internally corrupt, and the beautiful vision couldn't be realized. The "Akatsuki's" ideals were fantastical, but their methods were terrifying, and their actions were extremely radical.

Konoha was a disabled normal person, while the "Akatsuki" was a raving lunatic... This wasn't hard to understand.

As for what to do next, to be honest, Habara hadn't figured it out. Overall, he was still in a state of drifting along.

The third day after returning to Konoha.

In the morning, Habara routinely went to a certain organization department in Konoha to check in... Since he had completely lost his squad structure, and he couldn't sever his connection with Konoha, as long as he was in Konoha, he had to check in every day... In the morning, he wandered around Konoha for a few laps, seemingly familiarizing himself with the village. At noon, he ate something casually and then returned to the inn for a nap.

In the afternoon, he stayed in the inn and began to refine chakra.

It wasn't until dusk, the time when Konoha personnel were most active, that Habara left the inn again. He seemed to be wandering around the village's small night market, but if you observed him carefully, you could see that his actions were not aimless.

The further Habara walked, the fewer people there were around him. Finally, he arrived at an unnoticed corner of Konoha. Habara was very familiar with this situation, because he had walked out from here and seen the light of day again.

Soon, Habara found the entrance to the underground. After confirming several times that no one was around, he pulled open the heavy cover and stepped inside.

Habara wasn't familiar with the underground environment. To be honest, he had only observed a limited amount of information when he was hastily taken away from here. But fortunately, he had a rough map.

The underground space beneath Konoha was interconnected, with various pipes connecting various facilities. This section was a sewer, but if you kept walking, you might end up in the "Root" underground base.

Fortunately, the path Habara took wasn't that complicated. After about twenty minutes, he found Orochimaru's underground facility again.

Naturally, it had been abandoned. Orochimaru's various experimental facilities, research materials, and research results had probably been emptied by Konoha... except for the most core parts that Orochimaru himself had destroyed or taken away.

There were no more prisoners in the dungeon either.

Habara held an oil lamp and walked in this ghost-like environment. Perhaps because he had seen too many corpses, he didn't find this place scary at all. Things like ghosts and vengeful spirits definitely couldn't scare a materialist like him.

Conversely, he would rather encounter a ghost here than have a person suddenly jump out from some corner. The latter was truly frightening.

Fortunately, the only sound Habara heard from beginning to end was his own footsteps.

According to the instructions on the map, Habara then entered a certain cell. He walked to a wall and tried tapping on the wall surface one by one.

After tapping around, Habara was a little confused, because he found that the entire wall was solid.

Was the map marking wrong? That was unlikely. Thinking about it conversely, if there was just an ordinary secret room here, it would definitely have been discovered, and the things inside should have been taken away long ago.

So...

Habara started scraping the wall.

It was a bit unfortunate that although Habara had Earth Release chakra, no one had ever taught him Earth Release techniques. Fortunately, as a Magnet Release ninja, he had a certain efficiency in construction.

Using blades vibrating at high frequencies like electric saws, Habara slowly chipped away at the wall. Then he discovered a wooden box, about one meter square, sealed within the wall... This was what the female ninja, Hotaru, had left behind.

This box should have been completely sealed into the wall using Earth Release. It was hidden quite well.

However, Habara didn't immediately move the box. To prevent any traps Hotaru might have set, he retreated more than ten meters and used a black iron rod extending from his palm to first gently shake the box. After confirming that nothing exploded, he then forcefully pried open the lid of the box.

As it turned out, he was a bit overly cautious; there were no traps.

Habara walked to the box and found that it was filled with various scrolls and books.

"Unbelievable... Your efficiency as a spy was a bit too high, wasn't it?"

Looking at this pile of things, Habara couldn't help but exclaim.

In an extremely dangerous environment, a spy who could leave behind a single sheet of paper could be considered a good spy. But Hotaru had left behind a whole box?

However, the reality wasn't that exaggerated. After a brief inspection, Habara found that most of the scrolls and books were blank. Only a small portion contained writing.

Habara had originally planned to quickly browse through them and pick out the valuable ones. However, when he opened the first scroll, his attention was instantly captivated.

This scroll didn't record any exaggerated forbidden techniques, but rather generally described what kind of experiments Orochimaru was conducting, and what he was trying to do.

"A Wood Release body fused with Hashirama's cells..."

"Creating cursed seals to absorb natural energy..."

"Investigation of the three great dojutsu..."

"And... Living Corpse Reincarnation..."

"I can only say, as expected of Orochimaru..."

Based solely on the instructions in his hand, Habara didn't know to what extent Orochimaru had investigated certain secrets of the ninja world. But it was certain that he had already gathered the main elements... Sage Body + Sage Power + Sage Eyes + Living Corpse Reincarnation. Perhaps the current Orochimaru didn't yet know what he wanted to do, but in Habara's view, what Orochimaru wanted to do was crystal clear.

If Living Corpse Reincarnation was just a technique to transfer the caster's spirit to a new body to increase lifespan, it would easily give people the impression that Orochimaru was "nothing special." This obviously didn't fit Orochimaru's personality of pursuing knowledge, seeking the root of things, and being willing to pay any price. But what if it was just a "half-finished product"?

But that wasn't right.

If Orochimaru had a complete plan, then why in the original story did he just frequently transfer between various bodies?

Where was the difference? Was there something different?

After thinking about it, Habara seemed to understand where the problem lay...

It was in the time of success of the "Wood Release experimental subject."