Senjutsu Chakra

"Kato, I assume the Cursed Seal isn't unfamiliar to you..."

Kato Xu pursed his lips. Although Danzo had never shown any sign of activating the Cursed Seal, and now seemed to have completely submitted to Orochimaru, Damocles' Sword still hung over his head, preventing him from making any reckless moves.

"When Senjutsu Chakra combines with a Cursed Seal, do you know what wondrous changes occur?"

Hidden within the pitch-black passageway was an enormous laboratory. Though it was not as spectacular as Root's laboratory, it was still fully equipped with all kinds of facilities. It seemed Orochimaru had been conducting research here for a long time. This was likely his most secret laboratory.

Even at such great cost, he had concealed his secrets here. Kato Xu felt as though he had come into contact with Orochimaru's most central research project.

"Like this..."

Before Kato Xu lay a burly man on an experiment table. Kato Xu could sense his presence. He was still alive.

With a light tap of Orochimaru's finger, the burly man's body began to undergo some kind of mutation. His entire body seemed to be vastly strengthened, his aura at least ten times stronger than before. Countless black markings emerged from the black dot on the back of his neck and crawled across his entire body in an instant.

"Except this is still a failed product..."

The man on the experiment table looked like a corpse, but his twisted expression showed that he was still alive. He could only let out faint hissing sounds.

A glimmer of light extended from Kato Xu's finger and connected to the experiment subject's brow. As the black markings covered the subject's body, he could sense that the subject's soul fluctuations were continuously weakening.

It seemed the consumption of this Cursed Seal did not come entirely from Senjutsu Chakra. Excessively activating the Cursed Seal would cause excessive depletion of mental energy, which in turn damaged the soul. It was still unclear whether such damage could be reversed.

"Ryūchi Cave's Senjutsu Chakra will erode all of his spiritual will. Right now, he is nothing more than a living dead man..."

Orochimaru glanced at Kato Xu and activated the Cursed Seal again. The man's body began to mutate. Fleshy tumors started growing all over him, as though something were about to break free from within, but it abruptly stopped. His entire body then began to shrivel.

"His soul has vanished..."

Kato Xu frowned and silently withdrew his finger. Once the limit of endurance had been exceeded, the man's soul fluctuations continued to weaken until they gradually disappeared.

He could tell that this disappearance was completely irreversible. The soul energy had been utterly exhausted, every trace of it scattered and gone. It was entirely different from the minor damage earlier.

"Kato, you understand now, don't you? There is no need for me to say more about your perception of souls..."

"Orochimaru-sama, as far as I know, the soul itself is also a form of energy. Under normal circumstances, this energy cannot be utilized. It is like a protective layer wrapped around consciousness."

"There is almost no way to replenish consumed soul energy. It can only recover slowly over time..."

"This Cursed Seal is far too terrifying..."

No one would refuse the desire for power. Kato Xu could imagine how many followers such a thing would attract. If one carried the resolve to die, no one would reject such power.

"Kato, if a person's soul is completely severed from their body, then by all conventional reasoning, that person is dead."

"Then, if that severed soul obtains an intact body without a soul..."

There was madness and trembling in Orochimaru's eyes. Only at times like this could Kato Xu sense Orochimaru's emotional fluctuations. They were like a blazing star, as if they could scorch him.

"Then it will be reborn!"

"Body possession..."

Kato Xu had never felt more keenly than now that Orochimaru was a genius. This somewhat gloomy man was undoubtedly a peerless genius.

"Kato, I have named this ninjutsu Living Corpse Reincarnation..."

"I believe that with Kato's help, the development of this ninjutsu will surely succeed..."

"Kato, what do you think?"

Perhaps Orochimaru had conceived of this idea long ago. Kato Xu now fully understood his own value. No wonder Orochimaru had regarded him so highly.

"It seems Orochimaru-sama had this idea long ago..."

"Orochimaru-sama..."

"Will I survive?"

Kato Xu silently watched Orochimaru. He knew too many secrets...

"Kato, if I remember correctly, you are only ten years old this year, aren't you..."

"Truly young..."

Orochimaru chuckled softly before slowly turning his gaze to Kato Xu. There was an indescribable meaning in those appraising eyes, making Kato Xu deeply uncomfortable.

"If I had not watched you grow bit by bit to this point, I might even think another soul was hidden within that tiny body..."

"Konoha has many geniuses, but even Kakashi Hatake, White Fang's son, who graduated at five and became a Chunin at six, is merely a child in my eyes."

"But Xu, you are truly different."

"Orochimaru-sama, when do you think people grow up?" Since everything had already been said plainly, he merely wanted to live. Kato Xu seemed to have set down his burden and became somewhat more casual.

"I once heard that goshawks push their young from the nest. If they cannot learn to fly in that brief instant, then an endless abyss awaits them..."

"In Root, there were many children like me. They had no choice but to learn to fly within an extremely short time. Perhaps I merely flew a little faster than the others..."

"Xu, I look forward to the day you break free of your restraints and soar into the blue sky..."

A special light appeared in Orochimaru's eyes, seeming somewhat different from before. His voice paused, as though he were considering something, and only after a long while did he speak.

"Perhaps you may call me teacher..."

"I should be fairly qualified..."

Kato Xu froze. He had not expected this outcome. Seeing the faint smile on Orochimaru's face, one so subtle it was nearly impossible to detect, his heart finally settled completely.

"Orochimaru... Teacher!"

"Xu, just do not regret it..."

Orochimaru said nothing more, but Kato Xu could sense that his mood seemed to have improved somewhat.

"Orochimaru-sensei... I believe the key to Living Corpse Reincarnation lies in two aspects. One is severing the connection between one's own soul and body. The other is guiding the soul into a new body."

"If a soul lacks a body, it enters a special state of complete darkness, without any perception. You will feel as though you do not exist. Under such circumstances, there is no possibility of acting independently..."

"Oh? It seems Xu has experienced this before. You truly have not disappointed me..."

"In the Kato Clan's records, a clan member once did such a thing. If the clan head had not discovered it in time, that disembodied soul would have dissipated completely..."

"After that, the method of severing the connection between soul and body was permanently removed from the Spirit Transformation Technique..."

Kato Xu replied in a muffled voice. Through the Kato Clan's secret technique, there were certain things he could reveal without concern.

"How free a soul that has escaped the shackles of the body must be..."

Orochimaru sighed softly, then turned his gaze toward Kato Xu.

"It is about time to return..."

"The Wood Release fusion experiment is destined to fail. Perhaps there are other methods, but for now, without the ability to control Senjutsu Chakra, no one can subdue the Hashirama Cells..."

"Relying solely on the willpower of those experiment subjects, it would take nothing less than a miracle..."

"But... why not stop this experiment?"

Kato Xu felt somewhat dejected. He could accept any cruel act done to those prisoners, but for children only four or five years old, was it not too cruel? They had not even properly seen what the world was like...

"Only extraordinary people can accomplish what ordinary people cannot..."

"Xu, sometimes we have no choice but to give up certain things, do we?"

"As for why the experiment is not being stopped, I believe Kato already understands, does he not?"

For the experiment subjects, a miracle meant an entire lifetime. But for the authorities waiting in expectation, it was merely an event with a tiny but still possible chance of success.

If one hundred people could be exchanged for a single Wood Release ninja, not a single member of the upper ranks would refuse such a thing.