Ch 171 : Sanada and Orochimaru

Reading the news from Itachi, Sanada couldn't help but smile.

Akatsuki's original plan was to recruit Orochimaru and tried to use his grudge against Sanada as the fuse for this cooperation. However, they were destined to fail from the start.

" Hmm? Why are you grinning, Sanada? Is the letter from your lover?"

All of a sudden, Kakashi appeared, which startled Sanada.

He then looked into Sanada, who was holding the letter in his hand with a deep contemplating mood before he just nod and leave, as if saying that he understood.

" .... "

Back to the topic, right now was indeed not the most suitable time to read the letter. But after making sure that Kakashi and Guy were away, and Kurenai and Asuma were too absorbed in their own world, Sanada continued to read the letter.

As for why the plan was destined to fail, the reason was very simple.

How could a plan works if Orochimaru, from the beginning didn't have any grudge against Sanada?

Yup, they might be enemies at the beginning, but as times passed and Sanada's continuous fails in killing Orochimaru, a friendship began to bloom between them. Heck, they even shared a toast a few months prior.

. . . . . .

- Few months prior -

Inside Orochimaru's hidden base in Sound Village, the drunk Sanada was currently toasting Orochimaru.

" So, you gonna continue your journey?"

Orochimaru said. His face still had that indifferent expression, but for some reason, there was some loneliness in his eyes.

" It's time to leave. Just like every meeting, there would always be a farewell. But I'll miss you, my friend!"

The two had a pretty strange relationship, From going to kill each other, to now regarding each other as a friend. To be honest, none of them ever expect this. It was just that they eventually recognized each other after a long time.

Orochimaru, no matter how much heinous he was depicted in the first arc was actually just a lonely individual. In this world of Naruto, no one was ever come close to him in terms of intelligence, and there was much black hand behind his betrayals. Furthermore, Sanada had proved his strength to Orochimaru, even to the point that Orochimaru realized his own inadequacy and conceded that he could never take Sasuke's body under Sanada's protection.

As for Sanada, he was on the road to finding his goal, so at that time, meeting and chatting with Orochimaru was a blessing in disguise. As people say, birds of the same feather flock together.

" But to think the most help I would get is from you, fate is surely strange, isn't it?"

" Heh, I'll say the same words for you.."

Orochimaru's true ideal was to master all jutsus possible to humankind, and the discussion with Sanada had proven to be much use to him. But tonight, Sanada would say his farewell, and that's the reason why he felt a bit lonely.

" Ohhh... don't be so sad. Even the little Orochimaru had that cute moment.. Come here, I know you'll miss me."

" ..... "

. . . . . . . .

Back to the present, Sanada felt a little bit melancholic when he reminisced about that moment.

'*Sigh* Why did he react that greatly.. it's just a joke.. Hmm, maybe I should try more Dad jokes with Orochimaru.'

Nonetheless, Sanada quickly snapped out of his daydream as he proceeded to burn the letter in his hand.

After all, this letter was from Itachi, and even though Sanada had cleared his status to Tsunade, a lot of Konoha's people still didn't know Itachi's true status.

But there was one important piece of information that Sanada needed to take note of. And that was Itachi's condition was a lot worse than the original.

In the letter, Itachi stated that he didn't know how long he could hold on and hoped that Sanada could bring Sasuke to him.

The bond between two brothers, even as a transmigrator, Sanada wouldn't be one that intrude into this. And as Itachi's friend, he would respect Itachi's choice, no matter how much it would make him uncomfortable.

After a while, the party stopped, and each of the Jonin here said goodbye, but obviously not before Kakashi, who teased Sanada, and made a commotion as everyone began to believe that Sanada had a girlfriend.

Now Sanada had returned home. He immediately lay in the bed.

Orochimaru's problem was not much of a concern to him. However, he still needed to think things through.

Should he come and check at Orochimaru, or should he prioritize Sasuke's matters and Itachi's first? Furthermore, he also still have Sasori's problem to attend to.

Sasori was not Deidara and to make him fully submit took more than some effort. In the end, even after a few weeks, Sanada still didn't have that much progress in turning Sasori into an ally.

" Hmm... if I'm not wrong, I have sent Deidara and Ami to observe Orochimaru. Maybe I should have waited for them first before making some decision."

. . . . . . .

Read up to fifteen chapters ahead in my p.a.t.r.e.o.n

www.pâtreon.com/rysangel

- - - - - - - - -..