Starting as a pirate, he rose to become the strongest Shinigami in Soul Society.

Chapter 360 Bane: These two arms are a loan to you, Orochimaru.

After saying this, Orochimaru couldn't help but glance at Shukaku, who was chatting with Fubuki in the corner.

"What the hell is this thing?" Orochimaru was very surprised.

He also studied the Tailed Beasts and even went to Kumogakure to mess with the previous Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, managing to kill him by drugging him. He also secretly obtained a sample of Gyūki's horns for research.

Therefore, he could tell at a glance that the strange little thing looked exactly like Shukaku.

However, it lacked the massive chakra that a tailed beast should have, and its form was also quite bizarre. Based on his research on souls, if he wasn't mistaken, that thing should be a soul entity, right?

Although he didn't witness it firsthand, he had heard that when he was causing trouble in Konoha, the Spirit Lord had taken away Shukaku, the One-Tailed Beast, from Sunagakure.

How come Shukaku has been transformed into such a grotesque form in the blink of an eye?

If the soul creates things, isn't that the same as creating life? Shouldn't that be the authority of God?

The Spirit Lord is truly terrifying!

However, the higher the Lingzun's attainments in the soul, the happier he was, because it meant that the recovery of his arms was more likely!

Just as Orochimaru was thinking these things, Bane, lying on the bed, exhaled a puff of smoke and said in a very lazy tone, "You're quite lucky to have survived the Reaper Death Seal."

"If it weren't for the Spirit Lord's intervention, I'm afraid I would have already..." Orochimaru said weakly, but still maintained sufficient humility.

Although Bane wasn't actually there to help Orochimaru, he did help him in fact. Now is the time to build a relationship, and Orochimaru certainly won't miss this opportunity.

"Hehe." Bane chuckled, then said, "Your situation is a bit complicated. The souls of your arms were severed and eaten by Death, and that guy is terrified of me. I really want to see him again, but unfortunately he will definitely avoid me, which is very troublesome. If he doesn't show himself, I can't help you get your hands back from his stomach."

Orochimaru's expression stiffened slightly.

Even the Spirit Lord couldn't do anything about it?

"Isn't there any other way? Last time my soul was damaged, you, Spirit Lord, used pure soul power to repair it for me. Can't this method work too?" Orochimaru asked somewhat nervously.

"It's not very convenient," Bane said, shaking his head.

Actually, it's not impossible. By using pure soul power to replenish it, Orochimaru could slowly absorb it, which would also replenish the total mass of his soul, and thus fully restore him to his current state.

But Bane had other plans, so he refused Orochimaru.

Orochimaru was a smart man. After the Spirit Lord said "it's not convenient," he didn't press for details, lest he anger this powerful figure.

Just then, Bane grinned, revealing a slightly wicked smile, and said, "However, I have another way to temporarily restore your arms."

Upon hearing this, Orochimaru immediately said, "I beg the Spirit Lord to lend a hand!"

"So what's the price? Orochimaru, you know the rules." Bane yawned and said casually.

Orochimaru was clearly prepared and immediately said, "Spirit Lord, since you are interested in forbidden and secret techniques, I have prepared Konoha's secret taijutsu technique: the Eight Gates."

"I've already acquired many of Konoha's forbidden techniques, including the Eight Gates you mentioned, so I'm not really interested in them anymore," Bane said, shaking his head.

Orochimaru's expression faltered slightly upon hearing this. Had he obtained many of Konoha's forbidden techniques?

Could it be that Konoha wanted to establish a friendly relationship with the Spirit Lord? No, impossible. Although my teacher was very cunning, he would never offer up a large number of forbidden techniques just to establish a relationship with the Spirit Lord. Maybe one or two, but judging from the Spirit Lord's attitude, he must have received quite a few forbidden techniques.

The moment he suppressed that thought, Orochimaru's eyes lit up with understanding, but then he looked at Bane with some uncertainty.

"As you guessed, I have obtained the Book of Seals that you mentioned to me before," Bane replied calmly.

There's no need to hide this from Orochimaru. Besides, he'll need to personally verify the authenticity of the Book of Seals later anyway. Once it's brought out, Orochimaru will definitely recognize it, so it can't be kept secret anyway.

"Congratulations, Spirit Lord, your wish has been fulfilled." Orochimaru immediately offered his congratulations.

He didn't ask for the details, but he already had a guess in his mind. Perhaps the two mysterious guys that Kabuto Yakushi encountered were not the Akatsuki organization he had guessed, but rather subordinates of the Spirit Lord?

Without mentioning forbidden techniques again, Orochimaru remained silent for a moment before saying, "The Uchiha clan of Konoha, who were wiped out, once possessed the incredibly powerful bloodline limit, the Sharingan. I wonder if the Spirit Lord is interested in this?"

"The Sharingan of the Uchiha clan?" Bane pondered for a moment and said.

Bane is quite interested in the Sharingan. In short, the whole story of the ninja world can be summed up in four words: "the legend of the eye."

The Sharingan runs directly through the main storyline of this ninja world and indeed possesses extremely powerful abilities. It would be a lie to say that Bane wasn't interested.

But how to put it, he was quite satisfied with his eyes. It was impossible for him to take off his eyes and get a new pair just for the sake of the Sharingan, even though that thing was terrifying in the ninja world. It was plug-and-play, completely unreasonable, and incredibly convenient.

Although I don't plan to remove my own eyes and replace them with a new pair, I am still interested in studying them, and it would even be nice to collect them. I also mentioned this to Robin before, and Robin probably wouldn't accept the idea of ​​gouging out her own eyes to replace them with Sharingan eyes. Even if her whole body is black when cut open, she would probably still feel uncomfortable.

Hmm? No, wait, maybe I can take it back as a gift for Brother Yixiao?

He was blind to begin with. In the past, he chose to "close his eyes" so as not to see so many unpleasant things. Now that the pirate world has been pacified and he has gone to the Empire with Bane, he probably wouldn't resist regaining his sight. It would be interesting to get a pair of powerful Sharingan eyes, wouldn't it?

With that thought in mind, Bane put those thoughts aside and nodded, saying, "Okay."

After a slight pause, Bane asked curiously, "The Uchiha clan has already been wiped out. Speaking of which, do you have a lot of Sharingan?"

Orochimaru looked slightly embarrassed upon hearing the question, but still nodded and said, "In terms of quantity, there are actually quite a lot."

Danzo took almost all the eyes of those killed in the Uchiha clan on the night of the massacre, and Obito took the rest. Logically speaking, Orochimaru didn't actually have many Sharingan.

However, Danzo insisted on giving it to him. In order to master this power, Danzo contacted Orochimaru after the night of the massacre and gave Orochimaru many Sharingan eyes. Later, Orochimaru gave Danzo a Sharingan arm with a large number of Hashirama cells in return.

This gave Danzo the power to use both Wood Release and the Sharingan, two of the strongest bloodline limits in the ninja world. However, judging from his final actions, he could be considered to have squandered these two bloodline limits.

During this time, Orochimaru naturally preserved many Sharingan eyes, even making copies of them, and even created the bizarre existence of "Uchiha Shin".

Not a single mistake, not a single poem, not a single post, not a single piece of content, not a single look!

So don't be fooled by Orochimaru's apparent covetousness of Itachi's Sharingan and his many schemes against Sasuke. In reality, what he truly desires isn't the eyes, but rather the bodies of a pure-blooded Uchiha.

As a perfectionist, he felt that only a complete Uchiha could reach a higher level. A pair of Sharingan eyes, without a suitable physique, could not grow much, and might even turn into Kakashi. He couldn't be sure whether the Sharingan was helping him or hindering him.

Bane didn't ask Orochimaru about the number of Sharingan he had. After hearing that Orochimaru had quite a few, he nodded knowingly and said, "Then two pairs of Sharingan will do. Any problems?"

"No problem!" Orochimaru said without hesitation.

As long as his arms can recover, even if it's just a temporary recovery using special methods as Lingzun wishes, that's enough. Let alone two pairs of Sharingan, he could easily produce twenty pairs!

"It might hurt a little," Bane said with a grin.

As soon as he finished speaking, his soul pressure erupted instantly, directly enveloping Orochimaru.

At the same time, this soul pressure was mixed with a hint of domineering aura, making it extremely intimidating.

Even though Orochimaru had been forced to confront the terrifying existence of the Grim Reaper by Hiruzen Sarutobi, he still trembled with fear upon feeling the soul pressure emanating from Bane.

"No wonder he could make the Grim Reaper flee in terror." Orochimaru felt both fear and a sense of感慨 (gan3kai3, a feeling of mixed emotions, including admiration and awe).

On Bane's side, he could clearly feel Orochimaru's fear of him, and the moment that fear arose, he could easily harvest Orochimaru's soul completely.

Bane leaned back on the couch, his movements seemingly casual as he reached out and grabbed at the air.

Then, Orochimaru felt a tearing pain, as if he were being pulled out of his body by the Spirit Lord. He then realized that this was not an illusion.

His soul was indeed casually pulled out of his physical body by the Spirit Lord!

"As expected, with the Spirit Lord's strength, killing me would be a piece of cake for him. How terrifying. Fortunately, he is not a ninja and has no conflict with me." Orochimaru suppressed the pain, shifted his attention, and calmly thought about these things.

Bane absorbed Orochimaru's soul and made it float above his bed. Then, he raised his hand, and pure soul power emerged from his palm, emitting a ghostly green light.

"Go wake up." Bane struck Orochimaru's 'vessel' directly with the soul power in his palm.

This entire process is precisely the method for creating Homies. To reiterate, in the world of One Piece, perhaps due to the rules or some other reason, users of the Soul-Soul Fruit are unable to perform Homie modifications on living people or corpses. However, this is possible here, as his Soul-Soul Fruit power is no longer subject to these limitations.

After that surge of soul power entered Orochimaru's vessel, the arms, which had become like corpses due to the lack of a soul, began to rapidly revive. An eye opened on the back of each hand, and mouths opened in the palms, excitedly barking and calling Bane "Master."

Orochimaru, whose soul had left his body and was floating in the air, was also quite incredulous at this scene. What kind of operation was this?

Before his surprise could even subside, Bane casually flicked his wrist, and Orochimaru's soul quickly returned to its place, forcibly reinjected into his vessel by Bane. The tearing and squeezing sensation caused Orochimaru excruciating pain, but the guy probably didn't want to lose face in front of Bane, so he forced himself not to utter any painful groans.

Before long, Bane re-injected Orochimaru's fragmented soul into his vessel, and then forcibly reattached the Homies that had been infused into his hands to the incisions in Orochimaru's fragmented arms.

After completing this series of actions, Bane withdrew his soul power and said with a smile, "These two arms are a loan to you. Take them and use them, Orochimaru."

At the same time, Orochimaru swallowed hard, the pain in his body gradually dissipated, and he also felt the presence of his own hands!

With a mix of excitement and trembling, I raised my arms and clenched them tightly, my palms forming fists with remarkable ease!

If it weren't for the two eyes that were open on the back of his hand, and if he hadn't conducted a thorough examination of his soul, he would have really thought that his hands had been completely restored!

(End of this chapter)