Otogakure, underground laboratory.
Dozens of glass culture tanks glowed with an eerie green light beneath the dim lamps. Kabuto Yakushi sat before the workbench, while the cabinets behind him were filled with specimens of various human organs, displayed as though in an exhibition.
His eyes remained fixed on the series of energy fluctuation curves on the screen before him.
They were Xeno Energy extracted from the horrifying scar on Orochimaru's chest, and lingering chakra traces found on a roof tile brought back from Konoha's ruins.
That tile had been located exactly where Naruto had performed the Summoning Jutsu.
Orochimaru's wound had already healed, and he did not care much about it. But Kabuto's intuition told him that the power Naruto Uzumaki had displayed during the Konoha Crush Plan was far more complicated than it appeared. Especially when he had summoned "that thing," the strange and powerful energy fluctuations had been utterly impossible to explain through any known ninjutsu system.
He had broken down and compared the energy fluctuation curves of the two samples countless times. From chakra nature to intensity, then flow patterns, he had tried every possible analytical dimension. At first, there had been no result. The two samples appeared entirely unrelated. He had even begun to wonder whether he was wasting his time.
But the obsession buried deep in Kabuto's bones would not let him give up. He redefined the analytical model, excluding every physical quantity he had tried—shape, temperature, and so on—leaving only a pure dimension of "existence."
"What if this isn't energy from a known world?" he murmured, his fingers flying across the keyboard.
On the screen, the formerly chaotic and unrelated curves abruptly changed after being broken down through this new dimension. The two curves began to reveal an astonishing similarity. They were not alike