"What opportunity?" Tenten wrapped the shattered remains of her kunai in bandages and tucked them into the bottom of her ninja tool pouch.
"The opportunity for him to make a mistake under time pressure." Chisen pushed open a small side door beside the laboratory's metal entrance. It was unlocked, probably because the last researchers had forgotten to lock it in their haste when Kabuto evacuated.
Beyond the door lay a long corridor lined with neatly arranged Culture Tanks and laboratory benches.
The culture medium in the Culture Tanks was still circulating, but the specimens had already been removed in an emergency. Only rows of empty tanks remained, their faintly fluorescent blue fluid flowing silently through the pipes.
At the end of the corridor was an office with its door open. Documents and scrolls that no one had had time to take lay scattered across the desk.
Chisen walked over, picked up the topmost scroll, and opened it. The handwriting was Orochimaru's.
But this was not something Orochimaru had written to Kabuto. It was Kabuto's transcription of Orochimaru's notes, copied in meticulous handwriting, with every page's margins crammed with Kabuto's own annotations and revisions.
Chisen leafed through several pages before stopping at one.
On this page, Kabuto had written an annotation in red beside Orochimaru's immunosuppressive factor synthesis pathway.
The handwriting was messier than the surrounding annotations, the strokes so forceful that some had torn through the paper. "Path Five's temperature defect cannot be corrected.
Abandon the immunosuppression approach.
Next phase: immune integration.
Integrate the immunosuppressive factor gene into the vessel's own genome, making it part of the vessel's endocrine system.
After integration, external glands, Culture Tanks, and regular supplementation will no longer be necessary.
The vessel will become a completely self-sustaining, independent life-form."
"Immune integration." As Chisen read the words