At the thought, Orochimaru took a deep breath.
His gaze fell on the enormous glass tank beside him.
Inside lay a pale, lifeless body.
Its skin was unnaturally smooth, without a single hair, like an unfinished sculpture carved from pale stone.
It was one of the prototype bodies he had cloned using Hashirama Cells.
He had initially developed the technique to see what earth-shattering changes might arise when the cells of the legendary First of the Senju of the Forest were combined with the Uchiha's Sharingan.
He had cultivated six such blank bodies in total.
Three had already been sent to that old geezer Danzo, for the tools of Root to try transplanting and stimulating the Sharingan, in hopes of some unexpected results.
Orochimaru wasn't particularly optimistic. That man Danzo had virtually no scientific talent beyond political scheming and training obedient killing tools.
The remaining three were kept in his own secret laboratory, to serve as experimental subjects and sources of Hashirama Cells.
The one before him was about to host a great soul, becoming the first witness to the complete perfection of the Impure World Reincarnation technique.
At the thought, Orochimaru's lips curved into an irrepressible smile.
He motioned for the Shadow Clone beside him to start the camera in the corner. Its cold lens pointed at the laboratory table, ready to record this historic moment.
Then he took a small jar from a specially designed cold-storage cabinet. It was sealed beneath layer upon layer of talismans.
Inside lay a small piece of dark red flesh.
No one could have imagined that this unremarkable thing had once belonged to the Second, Tobirama Senju, who had shaken the Ninja World.
"Finally... it's time to begin."
Orochimaru murmured, placing the piece of tissue on the blank body.
His hands began forming