Oh no, I've become Orochimaru?!

Land of Fire, Konoha.

Inside an unremarkable house.

A young boy with pale skin, long straight black hair, snake-like eyes, and purple eyeshadow stared at his reflection in the mirror with a dazed expression.

After a long while, Orochimaru finally snapped out of it, making a few funny faces and performing his signature tongue-flicking gesture.

The boy in the mirror mimicked his movements perfectly, forcing him to accept the reality that he had transmigrated.

But... why did it have to be Orochimaru? And why his childhood, of all times?

Recalling the plot of the original Naruto series, Orochimaru couldn't help but sigh.

Was Orochimaru impressive? Very impressive. Without any special bloodline or bizarre eyes, he relied solely on his extreme survival instincts to make it to the very end.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's Reaper Death Seal couldn't kill him, Second Pillar couldn't kill him, and the Sword of Totsuka wielded by Itachi Uchiha couldn't kill him either. He could even resurrect himself through the Cursed Seal, and by the time of Boruto, he was growing younger, showing signs of eternal youth.

But the only problem was... all of Orochimaru's methods relied on scientific research and human experimentation.

Although he had been a scientific researcher in his past life, he had specialized in physics, which had nothing to do with biotechnology...

Forget it... I'll just have to start learning from scratch...

Besides... ninjutsu... bloodlines... chakra...

This world is truly interesting.

After a long time, Orochimaru exhaled, thinking about the anomalies of this world, and couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement.

He loved the feeling of turning the unknown into the known, which was exactly why he had chosen to study physics in his previous life.

To him, nothing was more exciting than an unknown world...

"However... this world is quite dangerous, isn't it..."

Thinking about the worldview of Naruto, Orochimaru felt a headache coming on.

The world of Naruto was in a constant state of war; never mind research, just surviving was no simple task.

The only good news was that, according to his predecessor's memories, he had already graduated from the Ninja Academy.

Just like in the original story, he had been assigned to the squad led by the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, alongside Tsunade and Jiraiya.

This was naturally good news for him; after all, who knows how those three ended up in the same squad in the original series.

If he hadn't managed to secure the connections of the Third Hokage, he would have been finished...

But... do students really graduate from the Ninja Academy at six years old now?

Thinking about his age, Orochimaru couldn't help but complain.

Six years old! Damn it, I'm only six!!

In his past life, that was an age where even buying soy sauce was a struggle, yet in this world, he was already expected to go to the battlefield and kill people!

Although the era of Naruto decades later was also absurd, at least they were twelve years old!

Whatever~

Orochimaru shook his head; since he couldn't change this world for the time being, he would just have to adapt.

He closed his eyes and began to refine chakra according to the methods in his predecessor's memories.

Although it was his first attempt, the process of refining chakra was easier than he had imagined. Before long, he felt a warm current flowing through his meridians, eventually gathering in his dantian.

"Huh? Has my chakra volume increased?!"

Feeling his own chakra, Orochimaru noticed something different from the memories; his current chakra volume was about fifty percent higher than what he remembered.

This amount couldn't be explained away as a mere margin of error...

"Is it because I transmigrated?"

Orochimaru muttered to himself. According to the lore of Naruto, chakra is the product of mixing spiritual energy with the life energy within one's cells.

Did his transmigration, which involved absorbing the memories of the young Orochimaru, increase his spiritual energy, thereby affecting his chakra volume?

That is... truly interesting!

Having made contact with chakra for the first time, Orochimaru couldn't help but feel excited.

Following his memories, he began to practice ninjutsu in the room.

Because he came from a civilian background, the only things he knew were the Three Basic Techniques taught at the Ninja Academy.

He naturally didn't know any clan secret techniques or bloodline ninjutsu...

In the original series, most of Orochimaru's snake-themed ninjutsu were learned at Ryūchi Cave...

However, for someone encountering ninjutsu for the first time, this was already enough.

Among the Three Basic Techniques, the one he was most interested in was naturally the Transformation Technique.

After all, this technique was far more absurd in the original series than the other two; it could change not only one's body and gender, but could even turn one into animals and ninja tools... it was simply ridiculous!

Thinking this, Orochimaru attempted to form hand seals, guiding the flow of chakra within his body.

Following that...

"Poof!"

Accompanied by a puff of smoke, Orochimaru's appearance shifted, transforming from a child into a young man wearing a white lab coat.

"This is truly... miraculous!!"

Orochimaru looked at his reflection in the mirror with some excitement; it was his appearance from his previous life.

He touched himself up and down, feeling the genuine sensation of flesh and blood; it was not an illusion.

His physical body had truly been altered...

Afterward, like a child who had found a new toy, Orochimaru began to transform into all sorts of things.

From people to animals, then to plants, and even inorganic objects...

Everything could be transformed, and it was not a genjutsu, but a literal change in the material composition of his own body.

However, it was not as overpowered as he had previously imagined.

Maintaining the Transformation Technique required a continuous consumption of chakra, and the smaller the difference between the target and his own body, the less chakra was consumed.

Transforming into a human of similar size was the easiest; as for non-living things, simple structures like shuriken were fine, but he could not transform into things with complex structures.

Moreover, the transformed objects were merely superficial, and their material strength could not compare to the originals at all.

But even so, it was enough to demonstrate the absurd nature of the chakra system...

As for the Clone Technique and Substitution Technique, they were quite plain. The Clone Technique only created illusions, similar to mass projections, and were not solid clones like the Shadow Clone Technique.

The Substitution Technique also simply left a wooden log in place at the moment of an attack before running away...

Compared to the Transformation Technique, which could completely alter his own body, they were indeed a bit plain.

Just like that, amidst his experiments, night had arrived before he knew it.

"Let's stop here for today..."

Orochimaru wiped the sweat from his forehead. His face was a few shades paler due to the chakra consumption, but his eyes were even more excited.

He wanted to investigate right now how chakra influenced human cells to achieve such feats, but even a clever housewife cannot cook without rice; he lacked tools like a microscope.

More importantly, he had to meet his instructor tomorrow, so he needed to get some rest early tonight.

Thinking this, Orochimaru opened the refrigerator and made a bowl of noodles to fill his stomach.

After eating and taking a quick shower, he went to bed to rest.

The world of Naruto had cell theory, so surely the corresponding research tools should be available at the hospital?

Could he manage to get a set through the connections of the Third Hokage?

And the relevant research materials...

Wait? Hold on, these things seemed to be readily available, didn't they?

Thinking of this, Orochimaru's eyes lit up. He had almost forgotten that Lady Tsunade would soon become his teammate.

She was destined to become famous for her medical ninjutsu in the future, so why should he look far afield?

According to the future trajectory, for Tsunade to research medical ninjutsu to that level, it couldn't just be innate talent; there must have been a vast amount of data.

And judging by the medical standards of the Konoha hospital, that data likely didn't come from there...

In other words, did it come from the Senju clan?

If that were the case..., as her teammate, it shouldn't be a problem to mooch off her a little, right?

Just like that, amidst fantasies of a bright future, Orochimaru drifted off into dreamland.

Then, accompanied by a sensation of weightlessness, Orochimaru instantly snapped awake.

When he regained his senses, he found himself in a space filled with gray fog.

And in front of him were several figures of varying heights, wearing different clothes, and even of different races.

Judging by their expressions, they were looking at... him with anticipation?

What on earth... is going on here?!

(The setting of the Sannin graduating at 6 years old is absurd, but it comes from the Book of Sho, I'm not making it up.)

(Let me explain again, I believe Naruto has a dantian or a location for storing chakra. This can be seen when Naruto erupts with the Nine-Tails' power during the Chunin Exams; the chakra emerges from the lower abdomen and then travels throughout the entire body.)