Stone Village, core laboratory, third underground level.
This level never saw daylight. Only several enormous glass tubes glowed green, thick bubbles gurgling inside them.
The air reeked of rotting formaldehyde, mixed with a nauseating sour stench like fermented fish guts.
Yoru kicked open the alloy door, as thick as a vault door, and its hinges let out a teeth-grating squeal.
The hinges had clearly not been oiled in far too long. They were caked with rust, and the raw iron smell stung his nostrils.
Orochimaru was hunched amid a chaotic pile of experimental equipment, his golden slit pupils bloodshot.
His white lab coat was splattered with green nutrient fluid, and two strips of dead skin of unknown origin still clung to his collar.
He stared fixedly at the enormous monster in the center of the laboratory, as though it had grown straight out of hell.
It was a tree.
No, more precisely, it was a grotesque root formed from countless chunks of pallid flesh.
The trunk was covered in pulsing flesh sacs that rose and fell like beating hearts. With every pulse, they pumped out dark green fluid radiating violent chakra fluctuations.
"This is the result you wanted, Lord Yoru."
Orochimaru's voice was hoarse as his tongue greedily licked his lips, its tip still stained with tissue fluid from some unknown creature.
He clutched something resembling a shriveled old branch in his hand, and a small unripe fruit grew from it.
"Not some half-crippled thing like the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path that can only serve as a battery."
"These are pure, living God Tree cells."
Yoru stepped closer and looked over the continuously writhing mass of flesh.
He grabbed a root resembling a blood vessel and yanked hard, producing a soft splat.
Fluid sprayed all over his sleeve,