The Source of All Evil Infects Two

An underground laboratory, its location unknown, untouched by sunlight.

Orochimaru was absorbed in manipulating his scalpel. At times like this, no one usually disturbed him—a researcher's quiet study time was his most pleasurable.

Yet a ninja suddenly appeared behind him.

The ninja knelt down, bearing crucial news. "Lord Orochimaru, the village has learned of what's happening here."

Orochimaru's movements paused. "So the village knows what I'm doing, do they... Was it 'discovered' or 'leaked'?"

"It was... leaked, Lord Orochimaru." The kneeling ninja buried his head deeply.

"Can you determine the extent of what was leaked?" Orochimaru asked calmly, neither angry nor surprised.

"All information on Experiment A has been leaked. Experiment B... the relevant intelligence should still be secure."

"Heh, as expected of Lord Danzo..."

Since it was a "leak," there was a high probability of a spy here—a spy from the village's upper echelons, or perhaps "observer" was more fitting?

"Lord Orochimaru, what should we do next? Should we completely destroy this place?"

Complete destruction meant, of course, destroying what needed destroying and making what needed to vanish disappear.

"No. Given that the intelligence has already been leaked, if the village demands I hand over what I should, and I have nothing to show, that could mean a certain rupture. Unfortunately, I can't leave the village just yet, so...

Though it's a pity, I'll have to hand over everything in this base to the village. Heh, after all, I am a ninja of Konoha." Orochimaru said with a smile.

"And the one who leaked the intelligence..."

"Aside from the test subjects, there are only a handful of people here. Identifying the spy is a simple matter."

Orochimaru, able to take up and let go, would hand over everything in the base to the village—but that "everything" certainly wouldn't include the spy who had betrayed him.

Yuhara had survived one of Orochimaru's experiments, and as a precious "successful sample," he received careful care afterward... His value before and after the experiment was completely different.

The one responsible for his care was the female ninja named Hotaru.

And Yuhara's recovery speed was unexpectedly fast. After just one week, he could be considered "hale and hearty."

During this time, he had been locked in that cell, together with the tightly bound child. But aside from a fair amount of conversation on the first day, they mostly remained silent... Two prisoners had little to say to each other.

That day, Hotaru came to the cell as usual to deliver meals to the two inmates. Her behavior seemed the same as always, but just as Yuhara took the utensils she handed him, he immediately sensed something unusual... There seemed to be a piece of paper hidden under the tray.

Yuhara glanced at her, but her expression showed no change, so he could only reach out and quietly press down on the paper, then take the opportunity to pocket it without drawing attention.

Whatever the paper was, he wasn't in a hurry to look at it. He needed at least a relatively safe environment first.

But the quiet recuperation time couldn't last forever. Once Yuhara had largely recovered, Orochimaru's next move began immediately.

When Orochimaru appeared before Yuhara again, even though Yuhara had nearly been tortured to death before, he didn't even have a chance to express his resentment.

"The experiment succeeded unexpectedly—good news for both you and me. Please extend your arm." Orochimaru said.

Though Yuhara was a bit afraid that Orochimaru would stick him with another needle, he obediently extended his arm. Fortunately, this time it wasn't about putting something into his body, but taking something out... Just drawing blood. Compared to his last ordeal, this was child's play.

Hoping to glean whatever information he could, Yuhara observed Orochimaru's expression and tentatively asked, "Lord Orochimaru, may I ask... what kind of experiment is this?"

Contrary to the impression of being aloof and unapproachable, as long as one obediently listened to Orochimaru and didn't act against or resist him, he was often relatively easy to talk to. He was polite, courteous, and habitually used honorifics...

This showed that restraint in speech, recklessness in action, and cruelty in character were not contradictory.

As Yuhara had guessed, Orochimaru was very willing to answer his question.

"Just an experiment on inactivation or suppression of activity. To explain a bit further, something was too lethal to be practical, so to make it usable, it had to go through a round of weakening...

Common sense suggests that smaller doses would be easier to achieve this goal, but the reality turned out to be the opposite. The large-dose experiment succeeded instead.

In other words, 'Zero' was too lethal and often in an uncontrollable state. Plus, he was too young for high-intensity experiments, so a 'One' capable of bearing Zero's power was needed.

Neither 'Zero' nor 'One' had much power on their own, but the process from 'Zero' to 'One' was crucial, because the possibilities branching out from 'One' afterward were infinite."

Well, the explanation was fine, but Yuhara didn't quite understand.

"Do you feel any different from before?" Orochimaru asked.

"As for changes, I feel more energetic, more vigorous?" After a slight hesitation, Yuhara continued, "Also, I keep feeling like something in the air is constantly darting around on me. Negative oxygen ions?"

As he spoke, Yuhara quietly withdrew his arm. By now, Orochimaru had drawn a large tube of blood from him. But the latter was indeed Yuhara's direct sensation—this change even made him suspect he'd developed sensitive skin.

"No. That darting sensation you describe should actually be called... Nature Energy."

"..."

The word "epiphany" perfectly described Yuhara's feeling at that moment. In an instant, he finally understood what Orochimaru had just been saying:

The so-called "Zero" was probably Jugo, and "One" was him, Yuhara. His role was merely that of a "human inactivator." At this point, Orochimaru was conducting development experiments on the "Cursed Seal"—or rather, Orochimaru had just begun developing the "Cursed Seal."

At the same time, Yuhara could roughly determine the time period he was in. It should be near the end of the Third Ninja World War, during the period before Orochimaru had defected from Konoha. As for the location, if nothing unexpected, this should be underground in Konoha.

Roughly from this point onward, Orochimaru would become increasingly unhinged, eventually transforming from Konoha's "model ninja" into a deranged rogue ninja.

Orochimaru was already dangerous enough, and staying by his side from now on would only become more dangerous.

Thinking this, Yuhara couldn't help but look at Orochimaru with a worried expression. Regardless, an escape plan was imperative.

Seeming to notice his look, Orochimaru misunderstood something and added an explanation, "Don't worry. I'm only extracting your serum."

"..."

What kind of "nothing to worry about" was this supposed to be?

Over the next three days, Orochimaru came every day to draw a large tube of blood from Yuhara. Strangely enough, Yuhara felt no sensation of blood loss at all—he had no idea what kind of heavily nourishing things Orochimaru had been consuming.

Until a plan for escape took shape, it seemed time would simply pass by in this quiet, uneventful way.

The only thing Yuhara found odd was that, in these three days, he hadn't seen the female ninja he'd encountered most often in this place.