Otogakure, underground base.
There is no sunlight here, only the faint green liquid in the culture tank is emitting faint fluorescence. The air is filled with the smell of various reagents and disinfectant water, which is the smell that Orochimaru is most familiar with - the smell of "science".
Orochimaru stood in front of the huge experimental table, his golden vertical pupils staring intently at a report in front of him. That was the last data transmitted back from the front line of Land of Grass.
"Impure World Reincarnation... disintegrate instantly?"
Orochimaru's slender fingers tapped the cold metal table, making a rhythmic "ta, da" sound.
"The soul was forcibly removed, and even the so-called 'immortality' became a joke in front of that blond kid." Orochimaru whispered hoarsely to himself, "Naruto Uzumaki, you should have already spoken to Death God."
He turned around and looked into the shadows.
"Kabuto, please explain. Why do you put such precious experimental materials into a battlefield that has no profit?"
In the darkness, the round glasses reflected a cold light.
Kabuto Yakushi walked out slowly, with that everlasting fake smile on his face, but his originally gray hair now looked a little haggard, and there were faintly abnormal purple blood vessels under his skin.
"Lord Orochimaru, how can this be called no gain?" Kabuto's voice was soft, with a kind of creepy enthusiasm, "That's a 'test'. We are testing the bottom line of Naruto Uzumaki, and we are also testing... the limits of the new power."
"Test?"
Orochimaru sneered and licked his lips with his long tongue, "I think you are going to die. The coalition forces of Iwagakure and Kumogakure are just a bunch of pigs waiting to be slaughtered. Naruto's Arsenal has turned the war into a slaughterhouse. It is not in my interest to continue investing resources at this time."
He walked up to Kabuto, his eyes filled with killing intent.
"Listen, Kabuto. That madman named Madara, and the so-called 'Akatsuki', their plans are getting out of control. I don't need burial objects. Cut off all contact with them immediately, seal all Impure World Reincarnation samples, and let's evacuate Otogakure."
This is the survival philosophy of Orochimaru.
He is a snake. Snakes always run the fastest before they sense an earthquake. The power Naruto Uzumaki showed - especially the method that can directly interfere with the soul, made Orochimaru smell the breath of death.
In this world, only by living can you be qualified to explore the truth.
However, the expected obedience did not appear.
Kabuto stood there, not moving, not even the curvature of the corners of his mouth changed.
"Evacuate? Where to go?" Kabuto tilted his head, with a strange pity in his eyes, "Lord Orochimaru, you are still so... timid."
The air solidified instantly.
Orochimaru's eyes narrowed. "What did you say?"
"You have always claimed that you are pursuing truth and eternal life." Dou pushed up his glasses and walked towards Orochimaru step by step, "But when the real 'eternity' is in front of you, you want to run away because of fear. This is so disappointing to me."
"Have you been brainwashed by that Masked Man?" A poisonous snake slipped out of Orochimaru's sleeves and hissed, "In this Shinobi World, only the power in one's own hands is real. The so-called 'Eye of the Moon' is just another huge Genjutsu cage."
"No, not Eye of the Moon."
Kabuto stopped and opened his arms, as if embracing some invisible existence.
"What does that idiot Madara know? He is just a tool blinded by hatred. And I... I heard the real voice. It was... a whisper from beyond the starry sky, from the gap between dimensions."
As Kabuto finished speaking, the lights in the entire underground base suddenly began to flash.
Sizzling--sizzling--
The sound of electricity was mixed with some kind of disgusting wet and slippery sound.
Orochimaru was keenly aware that the flow of chakra around him had changed. It was no longer the familiar five-element chakra, but an energy full of chaos, distortion, and madness, coming from all directions, like purple oil, sticky and disgusting.
"Lord Orochimaru, do you think you are still the master here?"
Kabuto snapped his fingers.
"Come out and let him see what true 'evolution' is."
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The stainless steel doors surrounding the laboratory were violently blasted open at the same time.
Four figures walked in.
Sound Ninja Four.
Kidomaru, Tayuya, Sakon and Ukon, Jirobo.
But with their current appearance, even Orochimaru, who created Curse Mark, feels nauseated.
Jirobo's body expanded three times, and the skin turned into a black rock texture, covered with eyes that were constantly opening and closing; Kidomaru's six arms turned into purple tentacles, secreting corrosive mucus; Tayuya's flute melted into her mouth, and a huge mouth opened in her throat, filled with fine fangs; Sakon and Ukon completely fused into a lump of flesh, with two heads wandering over the lump of flesh, letting out a shrill laugh.
"This... isn't Curse Mark." Orochimaru's pupils trembled.
He couldn't feel any "Natural Energy" in these monsters, only pure malice and Chaos.
"This is 'Blessing'." Kabuto said enthusiastically, his right hand suddenly mutated and instantly expanded into a purple claw, "The sacred Blessing from another space! Lord Orochimaru, your Curse Mark is too low-level, just using the skin of Natural Energy. And I am directly connected to the real source of power!"
"Sound Ninja Four... No, we should call them 'Chaos Four Apostles' now."
Kabuto waved his hand violently.
"Catch him! Let him become a part of us! Lord Orochimaru's body must be the best container!"
Roar--!
The mutated Jirobo was the first to attack. He was like an out-of-control Human Bullet Tank, crashing into Orochimaru.
The speed is amazing!
Orochimaru's figure flashed and turned into countless small snakes and spread out, avoiding this fatal impact.
"Hidden Shadow Many Snake Hands!"
Several giant snakes sprang out from the shadows and bit Kabuto's neck.
However, the huge mouth in Tayuya's throat suddenly opened and let out an indescribable scream.
That's not a sound.
That is a shock wave that directly affects the spirit.
The giant snakes summoned by Orochimaru instantly stiffened in mid-air. Then, their bodies began to fester from the inside, and purple pus burst out.
"Spiritual Pollution?" Orochimaru condensed into a human form again, with an ugly expression on his face.
"It's useless, Lord Orochimaru." Kabuto stood there, waving the mutated purple claw gently, leaving black cracks in the air, "Here, the rules of ninjutsu have been rewritten. The science you are proud of is just a child's trick in front of God."
The meat ball transformed by Sakon and Ukon squirmed and rushed forward, and those tentacles were like living creatures, trying to get into Orochimaru's skin.
"Damn."
Orochimaru kicked the ball of flesh away, and the Kusanagi Sword in his hand instantly unsheathed and cut off the incoming tentacle. However, the broken tentacle did not die. Instead, it twisted crazily on the ground and regenerated quickly.
Immortality.
An immortality even more disgusting than Impure World Reincarnation.
Orochimaru observed Kabuto coldly while avoiding the attack of four people.
He got it.
Kabuto not only wants to seize power, but also wants his body as a higher-level container to carry that "Chaos power".
"How ironic, Kabuto."
Orochimaru suddenly stopped moving, letting Kidomaru's purple tentacles wrap around his ankles.
"I taught you so much, how to hide, how to calculate, how to take advantage of human nature. But I only forgot to teach you one thing."
Kabuto looked at Orochimaru who was no longer resisting, and a trace of vigilance flashed in his eyes. "What?"
The corner of Orochimaru's mouth slowly raised his signature, cold smile.
"That is... never try to control something you cannot understand. Whether it is the blond Nine-Tails brat or the so-called 'god' behind you."
"You still keep talking even when you are about to die." Kabuto snorted coldly, "Swallow him up!"
Four monsters swarmed up.
At this moment, Orochimaru's body suddenly expanded like a balloon.
Wrong!
Kabuto's expression suddenly changed.
That's not expansion, that's -- self-destruction!
Without any warning, Orochimaru's body instantly exploded into fragments of flesh and blood that filled the sky. But these fragments did not fall to the ground, but turned into countless pieces of Explosive Tag.
Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags·Change·Continuous blasting array.
This is the last resort prepared by Orochimaru to prevent laboratory data leakage.
"Boom, boom--!!!"
The violent explosion instantly engulfed the entire underground hall. Kakkō soared into the sky, the support columns collapsed, and tons of rocks and soil poured down.
"Protect me!" Kabuto screamed.
Jirobo turned into a huge human shield and stood in front of Kabuto, withstanding the terrifying explosion.
Smoke and dust filled the air.
A few minutes later, among the ruins.
Kabuto pushed away the broken body of Jirobo and crawled out in embarrassment. His glasses were broken into pieces, and the mutated purple claw was still twitching slightly.
"Run away?"
Kabuto looked around, except for the minced meat on the ground, there was no sign of Orochimaru anywhere.
At the last moment of the explosion, he sensed an extremely obscure spatial fluctuation. It was Reverse Summoning Technique.
"Orochimaru..."
Kabuto gritted his teeth, and the expression on his face gradually changed from anger to twisted laughter.
"Hahahaha! Run! Run as much as you want!"
He stood on the ruins, opened his arms, and roared at the empty underground base.
"You have been abandoned by the times! From today on, Otogakure belongs to me! This is no longer a laboratory for the pursuit of truth, this will be... the hotbed for the arrival of Chaos!"
He lowered his head and looked at his purple claw, with a sickly light shining in his eyes.
"Just wait, Naruto Uzumaki. Orochimaru will do what you dare not do. I will kill whoever Orochimaru dare not offend."
Thirty kilometers away from Otogakure, there is a hidden snake cave.
An inconspicuous little white snake emerged from the crack in the rock.
The little white snake opened its mouth and stretched out a pair of wet hands, followed by its head, shoulders...
Orochimaru crawled out of the snake's mouth covered in mucus. It was an extremely disgusting "Orochimaru Style Substitution Technique" and an excellent life-saving stunt.
He was holding on to the wall, breathing heavily, and his face was as pale as paper.
Even after escaping, he still felt a sting in his spirit. That purple chakra... that power called "Chaos" almost really Pollution his soul just now.
"Kabuto Yakushi..."
Orochimaru wiped the mucus off his face. There was no anger in his golden vertical pupils, only deep fear and a trace of ridicule.
"Idiot. You think you are using the power, but in fact you have just become the feed of the power."
He walked to the spare experimental table and quickly packed away a few of the most important scrolls.
"Otogakure can't stay anymore. Land of Fire can't stay either."
Orochimaru looked at the map, and finally his eyes fell on a distant sea area.
"It seems that we need to find a truly safe place to study the nature of this 'Pollution'."
He remembered Naruto.
The blond kid seems to be no stranger to this kind of power, and has even been wary of it.
"Naruto Uzumaki..." Orochimaru murmured in a low voice, "What do you know? What does the world in your eyes look like?"
He put away the scroll and took one last look in the direction of Otogakure.
There, purple clouds are gathering.
"I wish you good luck, Kabuto. I hope you can cause some decent trouble to Konoha before being eaten by that monster."
Orochimaru's figure gradually faded into the darkness and disappeared.
All that is left is a whisper that drifts in the wind:
"After all, I also want to see who is the ultimate answer to this world."