"Of course!"
"Danzo is far too calculating. I won't trust him."
Orochimaru spoke.
Then he looked at Xia Le again and smiled softly.
"As for you, Xia Le..."
"You and I are like-minded partners!"
Xia Le merely smiled at those words.
To him, whether there was trust between them did not matter.
Overwhelming strength could render everything else irrelevant!
"I'll contact you again once I've set up the laboratory and begun!"
"Just as you need me, Xia Le, I need you!"
Orochimaru rose and left.
Time passed once more.
A month later, Orochimaru sent Xia Le a message through a snake.
"The laboratory is ready!"
"I've also obtained Lord Hashirama's cells."
"Now we need samples of the Uchiha Clan's bloodline."
Those few brief sentences made Xia Le narrow his eyes.
Hashirama cells were naturally what he wanted most at present, while samples of the Uchiha Clan's bloodline...
Without question, that meant the Sharingan.
These two things could be called the most powerful forces in Konoha.
After a little thought, Xia Le sent his reply.
"Of course!"
The Uchiha Clan naturally kept the eyes of deceased clansmen, including many who had awakened the Sharingan.
They had everything from one tomoe to three tomoe. The Uchiha Clan would never allow outsiders to lay their hands on the Sharingan's power.
With Xia Le's current standing in the clan, obtaining an eye was an easy matter.
That very day, the laboratory Orochimaru had built outside Konoha received a perfectly preserved pair of one-tomoe Sharingan submerged in a glass vessel.
"The Sharingan!"
"Only one tomoe, but for research...!"
Holding the blood-red eyes up before him, Orochimaru examined them carefully, a smile gleaming in his eyes.
"Hashirama Senju's cells and the Uchiha's Sharingan."
"What secrets lie within these two mighty powers?"
"Even a man like Xia