After the ceremony, Third Hokage stepped forward to comfort Tsunade, but she stood completely unresponsive, as if she couldn't hear a word.
Third Hokage then raised his eyes to Orochimaru, a silent plea for help in his gaze.
"Teacher, why don't you go ahead and attend to your duties? I'll take care of things here."
Orochimaru tactfully stepped forward to relieve him. Although Third Hokage sensed that Orochimaru seemed slightly different from usual, he didn't give it much thought, unable to pinpoint exactly what had changed.
Having spent over a decade together as master and disciple, he knew his three students inside and out, so that fleeting sense of oddness merely flashed across his mind and vanished.
"Very well! Ah..."
Patting Orochimaru on the shoulder, Third Hokage said no more, turning to leave with a sigh as he carried his long-stemmed pipe.
Seeing the leader depart, the others also offered their farewells and left. Orochimaru stayed behind to help Kato Dan's relatives escort the guests out of the cemetery.
"Take the child back first. It won't do for her to catch a chill."
Orochimaru instructed the woman holding Shizune to leave first, then turned and walked back into the graveyard.
By now, the sprawling cemetery was empty except for Tsunade, who was sobbing alone before the graves.
With no outsiders present, she no longer cared about keeping up appearances, dropping straight to her knees in front of the tombstone and burying her face in her hands in agonizing grief.
Orochimaru's impression of Tsunade was mostly shaped by how she appeared in the original story:
Boisterous, a heavy drinker who was prone to trouble when intoxicated, unleashing an uncontrollable, destructive fury that inevitably spelled disaster for whoever crossed her path;
A compulsive gambler who always lost, where the single time she actually won a bet in her life, a catastrophe was bound to follow—such as the deaths of Third Hokage, Jiraiya, and so on.
Her lifelong dream from childhood had been to gamble across the entire Shinobi World, which she eventually achieved, only to become a walking ATM and a fat pig in the eyes of every gambling house.
The only bet she ever got right was placing her future in Naruto's hands.
*Perhaps her disillusionment with Konoha begins right at this moment.*
Returning to Tsunade's side once more, Orochimaru could only stay with her in the rain, sharing in the malice this world had dealt her.
How much time passed, nobody knew. The dark clouds in the sky gradually scattered, and Tsunade's sobbing had grown intermittent.
Orochimaru genuinely feared she might pass out from grief. He had felt the agony of losing loved ones himself; in both past and present lives, such memories were a heavy, painful burden for anyone.
Barely twenty, in the golden prime of youth and youthful dreams, she was now the sole survivor of her entire clan—she must feel terribly lonely.
"Though torrential rains lash the mortal world, you must harbor your vulnerabilities in secret; all things merely struggle to survive, and no one will bear extra burdens for you. Do not resent the bumpy road ahead, for life is naturally fraught with twists and turns!"
Orochimaru sighed involuntarily, a look of weathered exhaustion creeping into his gaze. Though his previous life had lasted only a little over thirty years, he had climbed his way up from the countryside through endless hardships and struggles, tasting every bitterness of the lower rungs of society.
Perhaps hearing Orochimaru's murmur, or perhaps simply exhausted from crying, Tsunade looked up at Orochimaru sitting beside her, catching the trace of gentleness in his eyes.
That kind of gaze was a rare sight indeed coming from Orochimaru. Ever since they went to the battlefield, Tsunade had never seen him wear such an expression.
During one mission, she, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya had been trapped in a cave with Village Hidden by Rocks ninjas surrounding them outside.
With Jiraiya severely wounded, their situation had become increasingly precarious.
At that time, Orochimaru had proposed abandoning or killing Jiraiya, arguing that he and Tsunade would have a much higher chance of breaking through the encirclement on their own.
Naturally, Tsunade would never allow such a thing to happen, instantly blocking Orochimaru's move without a moment's hesitation. Had reinforcements from Konoha not arrived in time, the two of them likely would have started a civil war before the enemy even breached the cave.
Now, seeing this gentle look Orochimaru was showing her, a warmth inexplicably blossomed in Tsunade's heart.
"You... why haven't you left yet?"
Seeing Tsunade's tear-stained face and red, swollen eyes, Orochimaru felt a pang of heartache, his tone softening in spite of himself.
"I don't have anything pressing to do anyway, so I thought I'd keep you company—was afraid you might do something foolish!"
Orochimaru was never good at sweet talk, especially at a time like this when someone had lost loved ones. Actions alone were silent support.
Hearing Orochimaru's perfunctory response, Tsunade didn't find it strange. For someone as consistently cold-hearted as Orochimaru to speak in such a tone was already a rarity.
Seeing that Tsunade made no move to react, Orochimaru continued:
"Roshi is my disciple, and Kato Dan was my comrade as well. Their departure makes me equally sad. There aren't many people left whom I truly care about."
Orochimaru wasn't just saying this to be dramatic. Over his years in Konoha, many acquaintances, friends, and strangers alike had died on the battlefield.
His only remaining bonds were Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Aside from them, looking across Orochimaru's life, what comrades did he even have? Everyone else was merely a subordinate he cultivated, and those subordinates were only used as tools to do his bidding.
Tsunade never expected Orochimaru to say such words. She recalled that when Roshi passed away previously, Orochimaru's attitude had been, at most, dutiful and professional.
The words he spoke back then had been rigid and harsh—he certainly wouldn't have revealed his inner thoughts like this.
Little did she know that on the day Roshi died, Orochimaru had shed tears of guilt; the cold demeanor he showed before others was merely a disguise.
Tsunade's underlying astonishment did not escape Orochimaru's notice. He was well aware of what the original Orochimaru was like before his transmigration—a lone wolf in his actions and style, entirely uninterested in and even indifferent to most things.
"I'm fine, leave me alone..."
Suppressing her look of surprise, Tsunade spoke in a low voice, then opened her palm to reveal an ice-blue crystal pendant resting within it.
Orochimaru saw the pendant as well. He remembered that when Roshi died, he had personally handed the pendant back to Tsunade.
Who could have guessed that Tsunade would turn right around and give the pendant to Kato Dan? And everyone knew how that story ended.
This necklace had been left to Tsunade by First Hokage. During her life, she had passed it on to the two people she cared about most, yet both of them had died not long after.
One could say it was a cursed necklace—if your fortune wasn't strong enough, you couldn't wear it. As for later when Tsunade handed it over to the protagonist Naruto, even Naruto failed to keep it safe and it was destroyed during his battle with Pain.
And just as Orochimaru laid eyes on this necklace, the system prompt rang out in his mind once more:
"Plane plot triggered. Host may make the following choice:
① Kiss Tsunade and take the necklace; you are the man with the strongest fortune in this world, and you will acquire Hawkeye's dynamic tracking vision;
② Turn a blind eye, play a dead snake, and live an ordinary life. (Note: The system will cease activation and retract the Newbie Gift Package)"
Well, well, so that's how the system works. No wonder it was so easy to get rewards—the catch was waiting right here.