Infestation

However, Orochimaru had plenty of time to wait, and Mizuki had never intended to control Orochimaru forever.

"If this counts as punishment for my failure, then it's appropriate enough. Fortunately, Mitsuki shouldn't be affected, and staying by your side might even bring him some unexpected gains..."

"You're taking this rather well!"

Yongjie and Shen, who had long since made their preparations, tended to Mizuki lying on the operating table and began preparing for the surgery to transplant Shisui Uchiha's Mangekyō Sharingan.

"You're going to use Kotoamatsukami yourself? I thought you'd have a clone undergo the Mangekyō Sharingan transplant!"

"Kotoamatsukami is rather special. If something goes wrong, it'll be troublesome."

"That's a decent reason!"

Orochimaru nodded indifferently, then turned to inspect some of the experimental specimens Mizuki had collected around them.

"Researchers obsessed with biotechnology can never resist conducting human experiments, even tampering with their own bodies. But you seem to be in a hurry now. Could it be that the moment of fate from your prophecy is approaching? That seems like the only possibility."

Although Orochimaru and Mizuki were both the sort to be ruthless toward others and even more ruthless toward themselves, there was one strategy they had both adopted without prior agreement.

When it came to powers passed down since ancient times, including Kekkei Genkai, they made extensive use of them but rarely transplanted them directly into their own bodies. It was not because either of them had some obsession with physical or spiritual purity, but out of concern for safety.

The more powerful the ability, the greater the harm it could cause when one's compatibility with it was poor. Having studied countless biological phenomena, both understood that the genetic chains of creatures in the Shinobi World were extremely fragile. The interference between matter, energy, and spirit was