Libra Jugo

This secret research base had been built beneath a mountain peak, half underground and half within the mountain itself. The scale of the project alone was extraordinary.

Orochimaru regarded this place as his northern stronghold, which said it all.

Bang!

Houka kicked open the door to a laboratory. All sorts of instruments and equipment inside had already been destroyed, strewn chaotically across the floor.

In one corner of the laboratory was a pile of ashes, presumably the experimental records that had been burned.

Houka checked it over but found nothing unusual, so he continued his search.

After searching laboratory after laboratory, Houka discovered that everything of value had been completely destroyed by Orochimaru's subordinates. Even the four experimental corpses had been burned beyond recognition with Fire Release, charred on the outside and cooked through within.

Their thorough methods showed that these people were all fiercely loyal to Orochimaru. Getting them to talk would likely take more than violence.

Houka periodically used the Chakra Sensory Technique to investigate, yet he still failed to find the thirteenth person in the research base.

Had that person already died, with the body destroyed and all traces erased?

Otherwise, that person had no chakra and could thus evade his Chakra Sensory Technique.

But the Shadow Clone that had first discovered this place had clearly sensed them.

Strange.

Houka quickly made a full circuit of the research base before returning to the previous room.

Those people had already been beaten half to death by his Shadow Clones, but just as he had expected, not one of them spoke.

Houka directly dispelled all the Shadow Clones, and their memories made his mind jolt slightly.

Orochimaru's subordinates, sprawled on the ground in barely human shapes, each looked at Houka with contempt. Making them talk? Dream on!

But in