Orochimaru's Laboratory

Early the next morning, before dawn had fully broken, a tiny jet-black snake silently slipped in through the gap beneath the door.

Uchiha Jun opened his eyes and watched the snake flick its tongue at him before opening its mouth—a mouth far larger than a snake's normal physiology should allow—and spitting out a scroll covered in slime.

"Say, could you snake courier service use a different kind of packaging?"

Uchiha Jun pinched the corner of the scroll with a look of disgust, shook off the slime, and unrolled it.

There was only one line written on it—

"Downstream of the Naka River, Abandoned Torii, 9 to 11 a.m.—Orochimaru"

The handwriting was sloppy, clearly scribbled down in passing.

But the moment Uchiha Jun saw the words "9 to 11 a.m.," he fell silent.

That was the Hour of the Snake, from nine to eleven in the morning.

His teacher had really carved the character for "snake" into his DNA. Even the meeting time had to fall during the Hour of the Snake.

He tossed the scroll into his Storage Scroll, washed up quickly, strapped on the Nameless Kusanagi Sword Orochimaru had given him, and headed for the lower reaches of the Naka River.

A ninja had to be punctual, especially when dealing with a moody superior like Orochimaru.

The lower reaches of the Naka River were already close to the outskirts of Konoha.

The river narrowed here, its current rushing between steep cliffs overgrown with wild grass.

The Abandoned Torii stood beside a stretch of gravel shore. Most of its vermilion paint had peeled away, exposing patches of wood riddled with insect holes.

Uchiha Jun had stood beneath the torii for less than three minutes when he sensed a cold chakra rising from underground—not from somewhere else, but directly beneath his own feet.

He wanted to dodge, but held himself back.

The next second, a crack split the ground, and a snow-white snake crawled out, opening its huge mouth.

Orochimaru was "spat" out of the snake's mouth whole.

Looking at those golden vertical pupils, Uchiha Jun barely managed to swallow the words, "Can't you snake people use the front door?" He gave a proper bow instead. "Teacher Orochimaru."

Orochimaru was covered in the distinctive slime of snakes, yet he did not care in the slightest.

He examined Uchiha Jun, a meaningful smile curling at the corner of his mouth. But for once, he did not make any snide remarks. He simply turned and walked toward the cliff wall behind the torii.

Uchiha Jun followed behind, keeping a wary distance of roughly two meters.

There was an extremely narrow crack in the cliff wall, so narrow that it was nearly impossible to spot with the naked eye.

Orochimaru raised a hand and formed a seal. The rock walls on either side of the crack suddenly slid apart like a snake shedding its skin, revealing a pitch-black entrance.

Inside was a descending spiral staircase. Faintly glowing ore was embedded in the stone walls on both sides, bathing the entire passage in a ghostly blue light like a snake's eyes.

Uchiha Jun followed behind, silently memorizing the number of stone steps beneath his feet and the direction of every turn.

The staircase was long.

After walking for around five minutes, the terrain suddenly opened up.

The bright light made Uchiha Jun's pupils contract slightly. A moment later, he saw everything clearly.

This was an underground base of astonishing scale.

The domed ceiling was over ten meters high. The walls were natural rock, the floor paved with smooth stone slabs, and the entire space was at least as large as two ordinary training grounds.

The interior of the base had been divided into several areas, each separated by semi-transparent barrier screens.

On the far left was the specimen area. Shelves against the wall were packed with glass jars of all sizes, filled with pale green liquid in which were soaked biological organs and limbs, some he could name and some he could not.

There were even several intact corpses. Judging by the symbols on their forehead protectors, they included ninja from at least Iwagakure, Kumogakure, Kirigakure, and Sunagakure, along with others whose village symbols he did not recognize.

The far-right side appeared to be some sort of restricted zone, completely concealed behind an airtight barrier screen. It was impossible to see what was inside, and more than a dozen sealing talismans were pasted onto the barrier.

Only, faint noises occasionally came from within. It was impossible to tell whether they were caused by the wind or something else.

The central area was the core laboratory. Several long stone tables were covered with bottles, jars, and scrolls, while several machines Uchiha Jun had never seen before—but could guess the purpose of—hummed away.

The air was filled with an indescribably pungent smell.

Uchiha Jun knew from the smell alone that this was no legitimate place—but he was not particularly surprised.

Given the personality he had displayed, it made sense for Orochimaru to bring him here to see the "laboratory."

Orochimaru walked to the central workbench, picked up a scroll, and turned to look at Uchiha Jun.

"Come with me."

Orochimaru led Uchiha Jun on a tour around the base.

When they reached the specimen area, Uchiha Jun's gaze instinctively swept over the limbs and organs soaking in the solution. His pace did not slow, and his expression did not change in the slightest.

Uchiha Jun was silent for around two seconds before speaking. "Lord Orochimaru, these specimen labels..."

"What about the labels?"

"They're organized by organ type. But classifying them by organ type scatters different organs from the same individual across different areas. If you want to systematically study the effects of an unknown property on a specific individual, it'll be troublesome to trace back and compare the data later."

Uchiha Jun pointed at several glass jars on different shelves in the corner. "My suggestion is that, for future projects, if you renumber them by individual, it should make control experiments much more convenient later."

He had been a graduate student in biology in his previous life and had helped his advisor manage a specimen room for half a year. He knew at least that much.

If he had not possessed such a powerful Golden Finger, he probably would have returned to his old line of work and seen whether he could come up with a few "clever ideas."

Orochimaru froze for a moment.

Then he smiled.

"You're right."

He walked over to the specimen area, personally adjusted the positions of several glass jars, then pushed a brand-new labeling chart in front of Uchiha Jun.

At the same time, he quietly discarded the last trace of contempt he held for Uchiha Jun.

A twelve-year-old Genin had stepped into this base for the first time, seen so many dismembered corpses, and neither screamed nor backed away. His expression had not even changed.

Yet what concerned him was that the labeling system was not scientific enough, and whether the project's efficiency could be improved.

Not even the slightest respect for life. He truly was a natural-born ninja!

Orochimaru did not rush to say anything. He merely continued showing Uchiha Jun the remaining areas before having him sit down in front of the workbench.

The two began to talk.

The topic gradually extended from preserving the activity of biological tissue to deeper subjects.

When they began discussing the relationship between the body and the soul, Uchiha Jun unusually put away his usual playful grin.

"In the vast majority of cases, the soul is naturally more important than the body."

Orochimaru raised an eyebrow but said nothing, waiting for him to continue.

Uchiha Jun extended a hand and placed it palm-down on the table, fingers together, the skin on the back of his hand appearing somewhat pale beneath the light.

"The body is objectively existing matter. It can be seen and touched, and even modified, strengthened, and upgraded through certain secret techniques."

"But the soul is different."

He raised his hand, turned it over, and pointed at his own brain. "The soul cannot be seen or touched. Ordinary methods simply cannot exert any effect on the soul itself."

"It cannot be cut apart by a blade, burned away by fire, or blasted apart by ninjutsu. Even during bodily modifications, if the body is altered into too much of a mess, it can instead inflict irreversible damage on the soul."

He withdrew his hand and laced his fingers together atop the table. His posture was casual, but every word he spoke struck directly at Orochimaru's heart.

"So, if the soul and body are placed on the same scale, the body's priority can never outweigh the soul's."

"Unless—"

Orochimaru's eyes narrowed, and a glimmer of anticipation flashed through those snake-like pupils, one he himself had not noticed.

"Unless what?"

"Unless the body is so resilient that it is no longer merely a 'container,' but can completely merge with the soul, achieving a 'sanctified flesh' and an 'immortal body.' But as far as I know, there aren't people like that in the Shinobi World yet."

Like Six Paths Madara and Otsutsuki Kaguya in the original story—bodies with inhuman strength, capable of regenerating at a visible speed even after being bisected or having half their bodies kicked apart.

Uchiha Jun did not really believe that a body with the physical qualities of that kind of "athlete" could still possess conventional fatal weaknesses, such as having its heart or brain destroyed.

"As for bodily lifespan... as long as the soul remains intact and independent, just replace the container. It's simply difficult to operate, beyond the reach of ordinary people. And recklessly changing bodies would create another major problem: the rejection produced by the soul."

"After all, even losing a limb can cause phantom limb pain, much less replacing everything, including the brain."

Hearing this, Orochimaru fell silent for an unusually long time.

He watched Uchiha Jun through those golden snake pupils, as though reassessing this student.

He had been researching the prototype of Living Corpse Reincarnation for some time already.

The progress had not been encouraging. On top of that, Living Corpse Reincarnation was not something that could be exposed to the public, leaving him unable to find anyone to discuss it with. He could only test things one by one on his own.

Even for a Kage Level powerhouse like him, that feeling was hardly pleasant!

Yet Uchiha Jun's insights into the body and soul were rather profound to him.

Especially the "phantom limb pain" Uchiha Jun had used as an example!

It hit exactly where it mattered!

He was practically a kindred spirit!

From that moment on, Orochimaru decided to try cultivating Uchiha Jun as his assistant!

This student was unlike any he had taken before!

Unfortunately, he had known Uchiha Jun for too short a time and had no idea what Uchiha Jun truly desired.

Thinking of that, Orochimaru could not help regretting that he had not looked into Uchiha Jun's background.

As Uchiha Jun watched Orochimaru's silence, he silently calculated that what he had said should have landed right on the edge of Orochimaru's understanding—one more half-step forward and he would be placed in the equal position of a "collaborator," arousing suspicion; one half-step back and he would have earned nothing but an eye-roll and ridicule.

But judging by the situation, the result was rather good.

Amid the silence, Orochimaru suddenly thought of another person.

One of his students—Mitaraishi Anko.