Naturally, there was no way Orochimaru could really die. This was actually the result of his recent research.
Obsessed with immortality, Orochimaru walked a different path than Aoba. He constantly experimented with manipulating the soul, using the method of body-swapping to maintain eternal life.
That's exactly what the Living Corpse Reincarnation technique was for. But he soon realized a serious problem: Living Corpse Reincarnation had a huge flaw.
The mismatch between soul and body would result in a weakening of the soul itself.
To solve this, Orochimaru conducted countless experiments, but none could fully eliminate the issue, until the appearance of Aoba.
Orochimaru had sensed something off about Aoba a long time ago. The man knew too many secret things, so many that it was just unnatural.
Even though everything Aoba revealed seemed understandable on the surface, someone as cunning as Orochimaru could instantly tell that Aoba was still hiding a massive amount of information.
Later, the changes that happened in Konoha completely confirmed his suspicions.
Although Tsunade was the Hokage of Konoha, Orochimaru knew his old friend far too well. He was crystal clear on just how capable Tsunade really was.
There was no way she alone could have developed Konoha into what it was now. Konoha had become the undisputed hegemon of the ninja world.
You could say that if Konoha wanted to unify the entire ninja world, nothing could stop them.
Tsunade even managed to defeat Onoki head-on. Theoretically, there was now no force in the entire ninja world that could rival Konoha.
Yet, Konoha didn't seem to be in a rush. While the rest of the ninja world saw them as aggressively expanding, Orochimaru noticed that Konoha still had a massive amount of unused power.
That's when Orochimaru realized that Aoba was already preparing to deal with that legendary enemy.
Yes, the enemy.
Orochimaru might've been the only one in the entire ninja world who immediately agreed with Aoba's philosophy, defining the Sage of Six Paths as the enemy.
In some ways, their minds were actually quite similar. That was also why Orochimaru could guess Aoba's goals.
In a secret experimental base somewhere, a new genderless body inside a cultivation tank suddenly opened its eyes.
Beside it, Kabuto looked on in surprise at the awakening Orochimaru.
"Orochimaru-sama, what's going on?"
"...You can just say it directly, Kabuto. My soul has returned."
"...To force you into such a situation, could it be you ran into Aoba Kamikawa?"
"...Heh, I wish. But actually, I only encountered a standard ANBU jonin team. Just four of them were enough to force me to use Spectral Reincarnation."
Spectral Reincarnation, a more advanced version of Living Corpse Reincarnation.
While trying to solve the negative side effects of Living Corpse Reincarnation, Orochimaru realized those side effects stemmed from two main issues:
First, when the soul leaves the body, it lacks protection and suffers damage in the open air.
The ninja world simply isn't a place where souls can safely exist. Without a physical body, a soul is harmed by all the free-floating energies, radiation, and even the breath of humans in the air.
Second, there's the issue of body mismatch. Though Orochimaru could use genetic techniques to make another body genetically compatible with his own... Matching it to his soul was a whole different matter. That operation itself went against the basic laws of the ninja world.
So even if it succeeded, it could never fully integrate. Which meant Orochimaru had to periodically switch to a new body.
To solve the first problem, Orochimaru turned to the Spirit Transformation Technique.
He studied the technique created by Kato Dan. Although it was said that no one after Dan had ever managed to master it...
Orochimaru, pouring in all his resources, managed to unlock part of its secrets. He didn't truly master the technique but he did discover a way for the soul to leave the body without taking damage.
As for the issue of mismatched bodies, the solution was once again Hashirama's cells. As a natural Sage Body, his cells possessed a unique innate compatibility.
They could almost perfectly host any soul. This was already verified by the reincarnated Hokage, whose bodies were cultivated using Hashirama cells and showed no signs of rejection or backlash.
Orochimaru used the same method to cultivate a large number of new bodies for himself. With that, his life-preserving ability ascended to a whole new level.
If he couldn't win? He'd just let his soul escape. To his enemies, it would look like he simply dropped dead. Then he'd return to his base and revive in a fresh body.
At this point, Orochimaru had basically completed the theoretical foundation for immortality.
Of course, it would all be perfect, if not for Aoba Kamikawa. At least then, he wouldn't have to hide underground like this.
Unfortunately, what Orochimaru didn't know was that Aoba was no longer the same person he once was.
His underground lab, protected by countless cloaking jutsu, was like a transparent glasshouse in Aoba's eyes.
With authority over the Earth itself, Aoba locating a hidden lab underground was about as easy as us pulling a coin from our pocket.
If you would like to read more...
The novel has be completed (Chp. 362) on the patreon -> SaintXI