How Many Laboratories Did Orochimaru Have?

"You seem to enjoy collecting strange things?" Orochimaru was sitting in Kenichi Amamiya's home, waiting for him to pack his things. After all, they would be leaving the village for a while.

"Ahahaha, Sensei, there isn't much entertainment in the village, so I just collected some little things." Kenichi Amamiya smiled awkwardly. He had collected These Things to try researching them.

Orochimaru nodded noncommittally, then looked over Kenichi Amamiya's collection. Some of the items were indeed quite unusual, though it was not as if he had never seen them before.

But when he saw that piece of amber, Orochimaru became somewhat interested.

Kenichi Amamiya did not pay attention to what his teacher was doing. He quietly packed his clothes and such. His luggage was easy enough to prepare, and ninja did not actually need to bring that much when leaving the village for missions.

If Orochimaru had not told Kenichi Amamiya to change into another outfit, he would have planned to leave directly after grabbing some ninja tools and Military Ration Pills.

"Where did you buy this amber?" When Kenichi Amamiya emerged from the bedroom after changing, he saw Orochimaru examining his Insect Amber.

"I bought it at the market. A Merchant from Sunagakure was selling it then. Apparently, it was an ancient piece of Insect Amber discovered in their area." Kenichi Amamiya answered Orochimaru's question honestly.

Orochimaru nodded and studied the item thoughtfully. He seemed to remember having seen patterns resembling this type of Bug, along with some records, somewhere before.

But he could no longer remember where exactly.

It was probably unrelated to ninjutsu. If it had been related to ninjutsu, Orochimaru felt that he should not have forgotten it.

After a quick round of packing, Kenichi Amamiya left the village with Orochimaru. Orochimaru barely spoke along the way, until they had been out of the village for two days and he finally stopped.

"Kenichi, why do you think the Third Hokage happened to run into you today?" Orochimaru was doing something, but Kenichi Amamiya did not look. It seemed this would be the same as before.

Although they were supposedly out on a mission, they were really heading to a laboratory.

"I think he may have formed some thoughts about you, Sensei, and wanted to verify them, so he sought me out." Kenichi Amamiya voiced his guess.

Of course, it was also possible that it had been entirely coincidental. The Third had indeed gone to the hospital for a physical examination and happened to encounter him.

"Not bad. Compared to Anko, your way of thinking pleases me more." Orochimaru smiled. Then a Cave Entrance appeared in the ground, and he led Kenichi Amamiya inside.

Kenichi Amamiya obediently followed behind Orochimaru. His teacher had perfectly embodied the principle of a cunning rabbit having three burrows. Kenichi Amamiya even suspected that Orochimaru had Test Bases all over the Land of Fire.

He really did not know where his teacher got so much money.

As soon as he entered the laboratory, Kenichi Amamiya was shocked to discover a person soaking inside one of the Glass Jars—someone far beyond his expectations.

The person was male, but that was not the important part. The important part was that there was a pair of Byakugan in his eye sockets.

"Surprised?" Though Kenichi Amamiya said nothing, Orochimaru could fully guess how shocked his disciple was. After all, those were the Hyuga Clan's Byakugan.

"Sensei, doesn't the Hyuga Clan have the Caged Bird Seal?" Kenichi Amamiya truly could not understand it. By rights, the Hyuga Clan's Byakugan rarely leaked outside the clan, precisely because of the Caged Bird Seal, which could completely destroy the Byakugan and the brain.

It was an extremely cruel thing, and also a means for the Main Family to enslave the Branch Family.

They called it protection, but in Kenichi Amamiya's eyes, it was enslavement. It was deeply hypocritical, just like the Will of Fire proclaimed by the Third.

Here was a joke: if the Third truly revered the Will of Fire so much, why had the Fourth died in battle while he remained alive? Why had Naruto, clearly the Fourth's child, suffered such unfair treatment during his childhood?

"There is a Caged Bird Seal, and it is extremely special. Even now, I do not know how to break it." Orochimaru stroked the Glass Jar before him. This was his greatest gain in recent times.

"Is he a child of the Main Family?" That was the only possibility Kenichi Amamiya could think of. After all, Ao of Kirigakure also had one Byakugan, and only members of the Main Family lacked the Caged Bird Seal.

Orochimaru smiled and shook his head.

"He is an illegitimate child, one not recorded by the Hyuga Clan. Naturally, he was never given the Caged Bird Seal." Hearing Orochimaru's words, Kenichi Amamiya finally understood why his teacher had a member of the Hyuga Clan.

Although the Caged Bird Seal was an extremely powerful Cursed Seal—once inscribed, it was said to be impossible to escape for life, except through death—the Hyuga Clan's members were not born with it.

They needed to reach a certain age before the Caged Bird Seal would be inscribed upon them.

But if he was an illegitimate child, then it was indeed possible that he had never received the Caged Bird Seal.

It was just that the odds were too low. The Hyuga Clan attached great importance to This Matter, and the Byakugan's characteristics were too obvious. If someone truly ended up outside the clan, he could be discovered quickly.

"Sensei, you are truly impressive." Kenichi Amamiya sincerely sighed in admiration. However, he was not particularly concerned about the Byakugan. If he wanted to obtain one, he merely needed to acquire something like a Hyuga Clan member's hair.

Besides, Kenichi Amamiya was currently researching the Sharingan and did not have time to deal with the Byakugan for now.

What Kenichi Amamiya did not understand was why his teacher had not implanted the Byakugan into himself. Even if he was competing for the position of Fourth Hokage now, he had not installed it after defecting in the future either.

Even if he did not use it himself, he could have given it to one of his Subordinates or someone else.

Yet there seemed to be no news in the future of Byakugan circulating outside the clan. Did that mean something had happened in between?

"There is something novel within this test subject. I feel it bears some resemblance to the First's Cells." Orochimaru ignored his disciple's praise and instead frowned at the test subject before him.

"First Hokage's Cells?" Kenichi Amamiya froze. The First Hokage's Cells were unique in the Shinobi World. How could there possibly be—

No, Kenichi Amamiya had gone to the hospital earlier to ask about a certain illness.

That immediately piqued Kenichi Amamiya's interest. Speaking of the First Hokage's Cells' special qualities, they possessed an absurdly aggressive nature, posing a powerful threat to the surrounding normal cells, much like Cancer Cells.

Could it be Cancer Cells?