Konoha.
It was late at night. Orochimaru was leaping from rooftop to rooftop all by himself.
A little while ago, he'd finished talking with Jiraiya and Tsunade. He'd given them his word, but who knew how things would turn out?
After returning to his base, Orochimaru headed straight for his laboratory.
As soon as he entered, he switched on all the monitoring equipment and cut out the piece of flesh Tokiju had marked.
He'd already tried to remove the mark. It was nearly fused with his flesh and blood, so cutting it out was the best way to get rid of it.
His movements were smooth and precise, and not a drop of blood contaminated the sample.
Removing the flesh would also help him determine whether the mark affected only the surface of his skin or reached deeper. He needed to experiment.
Orochimaru looked at the wound on his hand, where blood was welling up, but saw no new mark appear on his body.
And the mark was still on the piece of flesh he'd just cut out.
This confirmed that Tokiju's mark affected only the surface of the skin, not anything deeper inside.
The discovery put Orochimaru at ease. It seemed Tokiju probably didn't mean him any harm.
But with that question settled, new ones arose.
What exactly did Tokiju's mark do? What was its purpose? He would have to find out through research.
Just as Orochimaru was about to put the piece of flesh in a petri dish, the diamond-shaped mark sprouted butterfly-like wings and slowly took flight.
At once, Orochimaru used the Body Flicker Technique to retreat. When he didn't know what he was dealing with, caution couldn't hurt.
The butterfly didn't fly toward Orochimaru. Instead, it settled in the brightest part of the room and began