Beneath Konoha.
Unlike the sun-kissed village above, brimming with life and the bustle of ordinary people, this was a cold, deathly silent, yet meticulously ordered "kingdom."
The air was perpetually steeped in the distinctive smell of disinfectant mingled with some strange variety of formalin. Cold incandescent light illuminated every inch of the metal walls in minute detail, reflecting a light devoid of warmth.
Countless precision instruments operated silently, while glass vessels held biological tissue specimens that were both horrifying and possessed of a strange, eerie beauty.
This was Orochimaru's secret base, his "temple" for exploring the truths of the world, and the most technologically advanced, most heavily secured laboratory in the entire Shinobi World.
Whoosh-
A barely perceptible ripple in space spread through the laboratory's innermost central area without triggering a single alarm.
Uchiha Shinichi stepped silently out of nothingness.
He still wore his unchanging loose loungewear, his naturally curly silver hair a disheveled mess. But his dull eyes, usually half-lidded as though nothing in the world could interest him, were open for once. Their usual laziness and amusement were gone, leaving only an abyssal, unruffled calm.
"Shinichi... big brother?"
A slightly hoarse voice, hissing like a serpent's flickering tongue yet filled with irrepressible delight and respect, came from the laboratory's shadows.
Orochimaru slowly emerged from behind a cluster of complex instruments. On his pale, handsome face, his signature golden snake eyes were fixed on Shinichi, churning with almost fanatical worship and a barely perceptible affection for an elder brother.
He had long since grown accustomed to his "older brother's" unpredictable entrances.
"Orochimaru."
Shinichi spoke in a voice without the slightest ripple of emotion, yet Orochimaru instinctively straightened his back, his expression growing even more deferential.
He knew that only when discussing something truly important would this older brother of