Orochimaru was no stranger to bizarre knowledge. He'd encountered someone in the Akatsuki who called himself a "god," and he had even brushed up against the level of the Sage of Six Paths.
So when the cow-patterned cat spoke of a "Cat God," he wasn't the least bit impressed.
"Your mom is that powerful, yet you really think I can fix this so-called 'game console'?"
The cow cat looked aggrieved.
"I did a keyword search! You were the smartest one who met the requirements... and you have a special aura about you..."
Special aura?
The little cat couldn't explain it clearly, and Orochimaru didn't bother pushing. Instead, he asked,
"Tell me—what exactly is broken about this 'game console'?"
The cow cat explained that back when its mom was around, it wasn't allowed to mess around with the game freely—strict supervision, no exceptions. But then, one day, an invisible mouse broke into their home. No matter what her abilities were, Cat God couldn't detect the intruder. All she knew was that it was wreaking havoc.
Even worse—the "mouse" wanted to eat cats.
Cat God only told the kitten she was going out to catch a mouse, not daring to reveal too much. In truth, she used herself as bait in an attempt to trap the enemy—and to keep the danger far from the cat den.
With the grown-up gone, the naughty kitten let loose. All the so-called mysterious tales, the blood mist amusement park, and the bizarre happenings in the shinobi world? All just games made to entertain the cat.
"You don't care about world peace at all, do you?" Orochimaru couldn't help asking.
"The world is peaceful, though?" The cat blinked and pulled up a screen for Orochimaru—an idyllic scene where a bunch of cats lived carefree lives, with no worries about food or predators. Pure bliss.
Orochimaru got it immediately—"world peace" in cat terms referred only to peace for cats. Human affairs didn't matter one bit.
Even if every human and every creature in the world dropped dead, it wouldn't be a big deal. After all... the sandbox game could just be reset, back to the Warring States era.
"Reset?" Orochimaru was startled again. "You mean time reversal?"
The cow cat nodded.
"Not just that—we can fast forward too! I can skip to whichever era I like best... or I could. It's broken now."
To be precise, the sandbox wasn't actually broken. The control access was slowly being devoured. But the kitten didn't understand any of that—it just assumed the console was malfunctioning.
Orochimaru took the chance to probe about the origins of those "games." After all, with this cat's intelligence, there was no way it came up with anything that mind-bending.
Sure enough, the cow cat lazily flicked its tail and said the games were all made by its mom.
That caught Orochimaru's attention. Games made by the Cat God? They couldn't possibly just be for fun and games, right?
Right now, Orochimaru was observing the sandbox's internal scenarios. Someone had gone through great lengths to design them.
"Is there a reward for clearing these games?"
The kitten had no idea. It just liked watching humans struggle to survive under cruel rules. Like a child pouring boiling water into an anthill—it never cared whether the ants gained anything from the ordeal.
Of course, the more fun it had back then, the more it regretted things now. With the sandbox broken, its mom was definitely going to punish it severely!
Orochimaru looked at the cat and gave up any hope that it might be intelligent.
"If I fix the game console for you, what do I get in return?" Orochimaru, by habit, negotiated.
The cat's eyes went wide and round.
"You're so mean! I'm just a little kitten—you should help me!"
Yep. Classic spoiled brat behavior, exposed in an instant.
Orochimaru didn't care in the slightest.
"Have you ever been to school? Does your mom read books? Bring me a couple to look at."
The sandbox tech was so advanced, Orochimaru was hoping to glean some secrets from the Cat God's reading materials.
The cow cat sulkily handed him a book with a circular triangle symbol printed on the cover.
Orochimaru couldn't read the text, but he used a special technique to copy all the characters.
The symbol on the cover was from a heretical cult—he remembered Hidan often used it in his rituals. Could it be... the Cat God was one of the Evil Gods?
The cat was getting impatient. "Can we fix the game console now?"
Orochimaru nodded. He was planning to bluff his way through it—until the cat tried to throw him into the sandbox game!
So that's what the kitten meant by "fixing"—not giving Orochimaru full control of the sandbox, but making him act as a repairman inside the game, checking for issues one step at a time!
Heh. Orochimaru was nearly laughing out of frustration. This kitten was really treating him like a tool. Did it not realize how dangerous those games were? Could he even survive?
Still, thinking about it more carefully—it made sense. Cats only saw other cats as equals.
Orochimaru had absolutely no intention of getting involved. Cat Gods, invisible entities... this world was already a mess. He'd been planning to escape through the Dragon Vein anyway.
Unfortunately, there was trouble in Rōran too. That place had become the stage for a Squid Game scenario. Orochimaru didn't dare go near it and had been hiding in his base, playing dead. Yet, somehow, disaster still found its way to his doorstep.
Orochimaru had a hunch: the Sage of Six Paths might really be dead. Reliable intel said both Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke had lost themselves in those rule-based horror games—they'd gone mad.
And the Sage never showed up to save either of his reincarnated sons. Not even the slightest interference.
To Orochimaru, that spelled a serious problem.
Ashura and Indra had incredibly strong wills. If Naruto and Sasuke had gone mad, it meant the chakras of Ashura and Indra had either failed, disappeared—or been transferred elsewhere.
Best-case scenario: the Sage had taken both sons and gone into hiding.
Worst case? The Sage of Six Paths had truly perished.
Orochimaru was leaning toward the latter.
Seeing that the cow cat was about to forcefully teleport him into the sandbox, Orochimaru quickly agreed to go. He picked Rōran's Squid Game as his first destination.
...
Somewhere unknown in the shinobi world—
A massive creature, possibly a cat, stood tall. Though calling it a "cat" was generous. It looked more like a writhing mass of black-and-white flesh, with countless tendrils and growths waving in irregular patterns. Sparse, patchy fur clung to its distorted form.
Its head was grotesquely large, with no neck—just a giant skull jammed straight onto its chest. Its maw took up half its face, filled with layer upon layer of long, sharp teeth, like a seven-gilled eel's mouth.
Murky yellow drool dripped constantly from its lips, sizzling and smoking wherever it landed. And that wasn't even its only mouth—smaller versions, all lined with jagged teeth, were scattered across its flesh.
"You~ are~ here~?"
A chorus of mouths spoke at once, a chorus of corrupted whispers echoing from all directions...
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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