August, Konoha Year 38.
A year had passed since the complete end of the Second Ninja World War.
The various ninja villages had entered a relatively peaceful period and begun to recover their strength.
Several dozen li from Konoha's East Gate stood a small mountain.
At its foot was an underground laboratory.
Shiraha and Orochimaru wore green surgical gowns and white gloves as they stood on either side of the operating table.
A young man lay on the operating table with his upper body bare. Surprisingly, the skin on his right arm was deathly pale, clearly different in color from the shoulder down.
The two stared intently at the young man, watching his condition and the changes in the instrument readings.
When the scheduled time had passed, they both let out a breath of relief.
Orochimaru cut a small piece of flesh from the young man's arm with a scalpel and handed it to Shiraha.
Shiraha placed it beneath a Microscope and examined it carefully.
"How is it?!" Orochimaru did not step forward to look for himself. There was even a faint trace of nervousness in his gaze as he watched Shiraha, clearly placing great importance on the result.
"The cells have basically completed fusion. There's no rejection reaction. It succeeded!"
There was a faint excitement in Shiraha's eyes.
Orochimaru was somewhat excited as well, but he soon calmed down and frowned slightly. "The success rate is still too low."
"Indeed." Shiraha regained his composure and analyzed, "Including the previous failed experiments, the cell fusion success rate is less than 5%. But as long as we've succeeded once, we can keep eliminating variables and definitely raise the success rate."
"Mm." Orochimaru nodded in agreement, a smile appearing on his face. "This time, it was all thanks to you!"
"The credit