Stone Village Scientific Research Department Established, Orochimaru Can't Stop Raving About It!

Bang!

The heavy wooden door to the Tsuchikage's office was shoved open without ceremony.

Uchiha Yoru strode in with both hands tucked into his trench coat pockets.

Behind him followed a long-haired, gaunt man with deathly pale skin.

The man's golden slit pupils swept over the room. Every so often, he stuck out his long tongue and licked his pale lips.

Cold-blooded, clammy, and carrying a sinister aura that made one's scalp tingle.

Ōnoki, who had been seated behind his desk reviewing documents, abruptly looked up.

The instant he saw who had entered, the brush in the old man's hand fell onto the desk with a clatter.

"Orochimaru?!"

Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, Ōnoki instantly activated the Light-Weight Rock Technique and floated straight up from his chair.

His hands flashed through seals, his clouded old eyes filled with vigilance and killing intent.

"Yoru! Have you lost your mind?!"

Ōnoki pointed at Orochimaru's nose and roared in fury.

"He's one of Leaf Village's Sannin! An S-rank rogue ninja, one of the most wanted criminals in the entire shinobi world! Why did you bring him into my office?!"

Orochimaru ignored Ōnoki's hostility.

He let out a dry, hoarse chuckle, like fingernails scraping across glass.

"Lord Tsuchikage, it is a pleasure to meet you."

Orochimaru gave a slight bow, though there was not a trace of respect in his tone.

"I am no longer one of Leaf Village's Sannin. I am merely Lord Yoru's chief researcher."

"Bullshit!"

Ōnoki was having none of it. White light had already begun gathering in his hands as chakra condensed.

"A venomous snake doesn't suddenly start eating grass! Sooner or later, he'll bite us back!"

"Enough, old man. Put away that shabby Dust Release of yours."

Yoru walked over to the sofa, dropped down onto it, and casually propped his legs on the coffee table.

He did not even raise his eyelids, merely waving a hand dismissively.

Buzz—

An icy, bone-chilling killing intent spilled from Yoru without warning.

There was no need to activate his Sharingan. The sage art pressure mixed with the aura of the Six Paths alone instantly froze the air throughout the office.

Ōnoki, suspended in midair, felt his chest tighten as the chakra he had condensed halfway was forcibly scattered.

Like a kite with its string cut, he stumbled back onto the ground, his old face flushed red.

"Anyone I bring back, I can keep on a leash."

Yoru picked up the cold tea on the table and took a sip.

"In this world, no one has ever dared default on a debt to me. And no one has ever dared bite the hand that feeds them."

Yoru turned his head, his calm gaze sweeping over Orochimaru.

Orochimaru's entire body stiffened. The false smile vanished from his face at once, and he obediently lowered his head, barely daring to breathe.

He had personally experienced this monster's utterly unreasonable crushing strength. How could he possibly harbor even the slightest thought of betrayal?

Seeing one of Leaf Village's legendary Sannin cower before this brat like a harmless snake, Ōnoki swallowed and finally shut his mouth.

He patted his chest, sat back down with lingering fear, and snorted coldly, tacitly giving his approval.

"Come on, great scientist."

Yoru rose to his feet and tilted his head toward Orochimaru.

"I'll show you your new territory."

More than ten minutes later, in the deepest underground level of Hidden Stone Village.

As a meter-thick alloy blast door slowly slid open to both sides.

Rows of cold white shadowless lights flickered on, illuminating the vast underground space before them as brightly as day.

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes, adjusting to the blinding light.

When he finally saw the sight before him clearly, his snake eyes abruptly constricted, and even his breathing stopped.

A sealed laboratory as large as three football fields.

Rows upon rows of towering sterile cultivation tanks stretched all the way to the ceiling, glowing with a technological blue light.

At the central workbench sat a full set of brand-new, ultra-high-precision microscopes and centrifugal separators.

There was not the slightest hint of the moldy stench of sewers in the air.

Instead, the highest-grade air purification system filled it with freshness and dryness.

"These... these are..."

Orochimaru hurried to a cultivation tank, extending trembling pale fingers to touch the cold glass.

Even his voice shook, as though he had just seen a priceless treasure.

"The Supreme Scientific Research Institute of Hidden Stone Village officially opens today."

Leaning against the doorframe, Yoru casually tossed him a pure white lab coat.

"I had this equipment custom-made at ten times the precision of that scrap metal you used before."

Orochimaru caught the lab coat in a fluster, and the light in his eyes grew increasingly fanatical.

Clang.

The isolation door at the side of the laboratory was pushed open.

A tall man wearing a Stone Village forehead protector, his face covered in coarse green stitches, walked out carrying a thick stack of ledgers.

He glanced at Orochimaru, his deadened gaze carrying the cold indifference of a man who cared for money and nothing else.

"Kakuzu?!"

Orochimaru froze.

Of course, he recognized this notorious bounty hunter from the underground black market, an important member of the Akatsuki Organization.

Why had this man come to Hidden Stone Village and put on a forehead protector?

"Yoru, this new employee you hired spends money with absolutely no restraint."

Kakuzu did not acknowledge Orochimaru at all. He walked straight up to Yoru and slammed the ledgers heavily onto the workbench.

"Thirty-two imported centrifuges, sixteen high-pressure sterile chambers. To buy this stuff, I emptied out three black-market banks in the Land of Lightning."

A few days ago, Yoru had used Kamui to go straight to the border of the Land of Fire, smashed a bag of gold bricks into Kakuzu's face, and forcibly recruited the miser.

Now, Kakuzu was Hidden Stone Village's legitimate chief financial officer.

"If money can solve it, it isn't a problem."

Yoru did not even look at the ledgers before turning directly to Orochimaru.

"Kakuzu has approved your first-stage research funding. Take a look."

Orochimaru leaned over in confusion, his gaze sweeping across the long string of zeros at the end of the ledger.

Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten-thousands...

One billion ryō?!

Orochimaru sucked in a sharp breath, nearly biting his tongue.

He remembered his days in Leaf Village.

To get even a little research funding, he had needed to grovel before Danzō.

And all he got in return was a pile of rusty scalpels and several foul-smelling basements, while living in constant fear that the Anbu would come knocking.

But look at him now.

A top-tier sterile laboratory, logistical support that handled every trivial matter for him.

And a full billion ryō in startup funds thrown straight in his face to spend as he pleased!

This was the treatment a researcher was supposed to get!

Leaf Village's pathetic resources were not even worthy of carrying shoes for this laboratory!

"Lord Yoru."

Orochimaru clenched the lab coat, even changing the way he addressed him. His tone was filled with fanatical reverence.

"With this equipment and funding, I guarantee that the theories on your scroll will soon become reality!"

"Don't rush to swear loyalty."

Yoru took a sealed glass test tube from his clothes. Green liquid flowed within it.

"I didn't leave out even a speck of the First Hokage's cell sample."

He tossed the test tube to Orochimaru.

"Your top priority is to remove the violent genes from the Wood Release cells and develop a safe, stable Perfect Gene Fusion Serum."

"I want every elite of Hidden Stone Village to be able to use it."

Orochimaru carefully cradled the test tube, his eyes intoxicated, as though he were holding his lover.

"But... Lord Yoru."

Orochimaru swallowed, though a trace of his old greed still flashed in his eyes.

"Actually, if one wishes to obtain power, that Uchiha brat named Sasuke has the most perfect ves—"

Slap!

Before Orochimaru could finish, Yoru backhanded him with a resounding slap, sending him spinning halfway around on the spot.

Orochimaru covered his swollen cheek, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. He lowered his head in terror, not daring to utter a word.

"Is your brain filled with formaldehyde?"

Yoru shook his wrist and looked at him as though he were an idiot.

"I gave you perfect cloning technology and gene recombination theories, yet you're still thinking about stealing some brat's body?"

Yoru pointed at the rows of advanced cultivation tanks, his tone full of mocking disappointment.

"You can use cells to clone a flawless young body with Hashirama's physique built right in."

"Yet you insist on wearing someone else's secondhand, worn-out shoes?"

Orochimaru suddenly stiffened.

It was like a bolt from the blue had shattered the stubborn mental dead end that had trapped him for more than a decade.

That was right!

With such era-defying technology and endless resources.

He could completely customize a perfect immortal body as easily as molding clay!

Taking over the body of some Uchiha brat not only meant risking spiritual rejection, but also having to guard against retaliation from the monster before him.

It was like throwing away a watermelon to pick up a sesame seed. Utterly stupid!

"I understand... Lord Yoru."

The greed in Orochimaru's eyes instantly vanished, replaced by an utterly pure thirst for knowledge.

"I was foolish. From this day onward, that brat's life and death have nothing to do with me."

He abruptly turned around and slipped on the lab coat in a few swift motions.

He moved as fast as a white bolt of lightning, throwing himself straight at the microscope workstation in the center.

"Kakuzu, approve another fifty premium constant-temperature culture dishes for me! I need them immediately!"

Without even lifting his head, Orochimaru shouted, completely entering workaholic mode.

Kakuzu's face darkened. Muttering curses, he recorded another entry in his ledger before turning to leave and arrange the supplies.

Watching Orochimaru descend into a frenzy, Yoru nodded in satisfaction and walked out of the laboratory.

Let this workaholic grind away underground. Stone Village's technological explosion was only a matter of time.

Over the next half month, Orochimaru completely took root in the laboratory.

He neither ate nor drank, surviving solely on Stone Village's specially supplied soldier pills.

His bloodshot snake eyes remained fixed on the flickering data displays, never closing for even a moment.

The theories Yoru had given him were simply too perfect.

Perfect gene splicing, perfect enzyme chain reactions.

The cellular rejection problems that had plagued him for more than a decade were as simple here as calculating one plus one equals two.

"Almost... almost there..."

Orochimaru's hands became afterimages over the control keyboard as he muttered like a madman.

Late at night on the fifteenth day.

Ding—

The main console let out a crisp notification.

Inside the specially designed glass centrifuge tube at the center, the violently boiling green liquid suddenly calmed.

The previously savage, aggressive Wood Release chakra became as gentle and pure as lake water, radiating alluring vitality.

Stable, safe, perfectly fused.

Orochimaru pressed his pale cheek tightly against the cold glass wall.

Staring at the dark green perfect cell serum within, his entire body convulsed violently from overwhelming excitement.

He had succeeded.

With his own hands, he had broken the boundary between life and death and touched the realm of the gods.

Orochimaru could no longer contain the tumult in his heart.

He suddenly stretched out his long, slime-covered tongue and extravagantly licked his cracked lips.

Through the empty laboratory echoed his hoarse, trembling laughter, filled with boundless ecstasy.

"That backward swamp called Leaf Village was simply wasting my life."

Orochimaru stared fixedly at the cell serum, tears of excitement even streaming from the corners of his eyes.

"The Third Hokage, the Will of Fire—let them all go to hell!"

"Hidden Stone Village... is the true holy land of science!"

"This is incredible!"