The black scroll lay quietly in the center of the main control console.
Set against the countless giant cultivation vats glowing with an eerie green light, it did not look small at all. Instead, it seemed like the absolute center of a stage, drawing in all the light and attention.
The hum of the large equipment operating at low power seemed to be the only background noise in the laboratory.
Three ANBU guards formed a triangle around Baishi. Their bodies were tense, Chakra flowed silently through them, and they remained alert to any possible changes. Their gazes swept back and forth between the writhing unidentified lumps of flesh and the strange scroll.
Baishi raised a hand.
A simple gesture.
The ANBU operative codenamed Night Owl immediately understood and stepped forward. He did not touch the scroll directly. Instead, he took a monocle from his Ninja Tool Pouch and put it on. Streams of pale-blue data rapidly flashed across the lens.
A moment later, he shook his head slightly.
"Lord Hokage, no conventional Explosive Tags or poison traps detected."
He extended his gloved index finger, condensing an extremely fine strand of Chakra Thread at its tip before cautiously probing toward the scroll. The thread traveled once around the scroll's surface without triggering any reaction.
"No Perception Barrier, no Sealing Formula, not even the slightest trace of Chakra camouflage." Confusion colored Night Owl's voice. "It's like an ordinary object that was casually left here."
The more ordinary it was, the more abnormal it seemed.
That was not Orochimaru's style.
Baishi's gaze passed over the coiled snake embroidered with golden thread on the scroll.
He knew that Orochimaru never did anything meaningless. This brazen posture was itself the most advanced form of psychological warfare. It was saying: *I knew you would come, knew