The Serpent's Backward Glance

Land of Fire, an unknown underground base.

This place was a hundred times larger and a hundred times more advanced than the abandoned laboratory En had discovered. Countless massive cultivation tanks emitted an eerie green glow, each containing bizarre experimental subjects of every shape and form. The air was thick with formaldehyde and the strange stench of assorted chemical agents.

At the deepest part of the base stood a private laboratory as spacious as a palace.

Orochimaru stood bare-chested before an enormous glass wall. On the other side was a ninja who had been altered beyond recognition, his body connected to hundreds of tubes as liquids of every color were pumped into him.

"Chakra conductivity... seventy-three percent. Cell activity... down by 0.2. Still no good. The First Hokage's cells are far too incompatible."

Orochimaru extended his long, crimson tongue and licked his lips. His golden slit pupils gleamed with feverish obsession and a trace of dissatisfaction.

He was like the most obsessive artist, forever pursuing the perfect masterpiece.

Then, a faint but needle-sharp sensation suddenly came from somewhere within his body.

Orochimaru froze.

He slowly turned around, a slight frown appearing on his face as confusion flickered in his golden slit pupils.

That strange sensation came from the strand of chakra he had left within Mitarashi Anko, a mark that served as both a "key" and a "monitor."

Just moments ago, that mark had been... erased by an unimaginably violent force.

No, it had not been erased.

It had been forcibly overwritten, then... altered.

Like a hacker using the most brutal brute-force method to breach his firewall, delete his administrator account, and replace it with their own name.

"Hmm?"

For the first time, genuine surprise appeared on Orochimaru's face.

The Heaven's Cursed Seal was one of his life's greatest creations. It combined the Jugo Clan's senjutsu power with his own cells; at its core, it was a semi-living entity. Once implanted, it bound deeply with the host's soul. Unless the host died, it was impossible for an external force to strip it away.

He had designed ten security protocols and thirty-two energy locks to guarantee absolute ownership of this "gift."

Yet now, his pride and joy had actually been... contaminated?

Orochimaru closed his eyes and carefully sensed the faint feedback coming from far away.

Though his chakra mark had been erased, the cursed seal itself remained. Through that trace of fundamental connection between himself and the seal, he could still vaguely "see" something.

He saw it.

Around the black core of the cursed seal that belonged to him was an additional ring of dark-red scarring, as though it had been branded by searing iron.

That scar gave off an aura he had never felt before.

Scorching.

Overbearing.

Utterly pure... destruction.

That was not Fire Release. To him, the temperature of Fire Release was no more than children playing with matches.

It was a more primitive, more fundamental power of "rules," one capable of changing the form of matter itself.

"Interesting... truly interesting..."

The corners of Orochimaru's mouth slowly stretched into an exaggerated grin. The surprise in his eyes was swiftly replaced by an even stronger greed and excitement, like that of someone discovering a new continent.

He did not care that his "creation" had been damaged.

What he cared about was the unknown power that had damaged it.

Like a child whose beloved toy had been dismantled in a way he had never seen before, he would not be angry. Instead, he would eagerly lean closer, desperate to understand exactly how the other person had done it.

"To crack my cursed seal in such a way... it cannot possibly be one of those old fossils in Konoha."

"The Third Hokage? His Fire Release may be powerful, but it still belongs to the chakra system at its core."

"Danzo? His Wind Release and Sharingan lean more toward cutting and genjutsu."

"Jiraiya's senjutsu? Though it shares the same origin, its attribute is 'life,' completely opposite to this destructive power."

Orochimaru's mind raced as he ran through every expert in Konoha, eliminating them one by one.

In the end, a young figure wearing a pure black mask appeared in his mind.

—Uchiha En.

The Uchiha brat who had blasted a lava pit into the training grounds with a single punch during the graduation exam.

The "variable" in the Forest of Death during the Chunin Exams who had made him feel a trace of danger, forcing him to withdraw early.

"So it was you..."

Orochimaru stuck out his tongue and licked his lips again, the greed in his eyes nearly taking physical form.

"The Sharingan... combined with this unknown power that surpasses bloodline limits... it is... perfect!"

"Uchiha En... your body fascinates me even more than Sasuke-kun's..."

He turned and walked to a massive scroll rack, taking down a sealed scroll marked "Top Secret."

The scroll contained an organizational chart of Konoha's ANBU, along with the codenames and information of some members. Before defecting, he had secretly copied it using the privileges of his position.

His finger slowly passed over the densely packed codenames.

At last, it stopped on a newly added name.

—[Lava].

Affiliation: Directly under the Shadow Guard.

Abilities: Suspected super-S-rank Fire Release or an entirely new bloodline limit.

Note: Extremely high clearance, personally approved by the Third Hokage.

"Lava... heh heh, what a fitting codename."

Orochimaru laughed, his voice hoarse and chilling as it echoed through the empty laboratory.

He returned the scroll to its place, then walked toward the other side of the laboratory. There stood a row of hibernation chambers. Inside one of them lay a body identical to his own.

"Looks like it's necessary to return to the village."

As he spoke, he began forming hand seals with practiced ease.

"Hidden Shadow Snake Hands."

Dozens of venomous snakes shot out from his sleeves and vanished into the shadows of the base. They would serve as his eyes and ears, investigating the "toy" that had been growing increasingly interesting to him.

He had a premonition.

This youth called Uchiha En would become the most crucial, and most delicious... piece of the puzzle on his path to "exploring the truth of life."