Deep beneath Las Noches lay the laboratory designated the "Seventh Biotic Modification Zone."
Its scale and the sophistication of its equipment had long since surpassed the makeshift version Orochimaru had secretly built beneath Konoha.
Dense networks of reishi conduits covered the silver-white alloy walls.
Azure nutrient fluid circulated silently within enormous cylindrical cultivation tanks.
Suspended inside were naked human bodies, riddled with tubes, their faces contorted in pain-the dozens of elite ninja brought back from the Uchiha Compound, all of whom had awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
The air was thick with the smell of disinfectant and the sweet, metallic tang of reiatsu suppressants.
There was also a faint, elusive scent of scorching, produced when flesh and energy were forcibly fused.
Orochimaru stood at the central control console, his golden snake eyes gleaming with almost crazed excitement beneath the dim, cold light.
An unnatural flush colored his pale face. His tongue flicked unconsciously over his lips, and his hands blurred across the console's multitude of buttons and screens.
"Forced Hollowfication gene implantation, trial thirteen hundred, begins now!"
His voice trembled slightly with excitement. "Use the 'Gillian-level, Beta Subtype' gene sequence. Increase the reiatsu load to 115% of the critical threshold!
Activate the Deep Neural Link!"
Hummm-!!!
The azure nutrient fluid in every cultivation tank instantly turned dark purple.
The viscous modification fluid, imbued with the essence of Hollow reiatsu, surged through the tubes into the Uchiha elites' bodies as though it were alive.
"Aaaaargh-!!!"
Even under deep anesthesia and reiatsu suppression, the intense agony drew inhuman screams from the test subjects inside the tanks.
Their bodies twisted and convulsed at impossible angles. Veins bulged across their skin, which rapidly turned an ominous purplish black.
Pale bone spikes tore through the skin around their shoulder blades, spines, and joints, growing and deforming