Main World.
Winter, Year 29 of Konoha.
Konoha, Underground Laboratory.
The light was white.
Not the white of daylight, but a deathly, cold white, like the color of a corpse's skin. Orochimaru sat at the Control Console, a small pile of grayish-brown powder before him. The powder had been brought back from Rōran. Members of the Vine Division had gone there, mingled with the crowd collecting fertilizer, and scooped up a handful from the ground. It had not been stolen from a factory or a laboratory. It had been scooped up from a field. Soil, sand, and dust were already mixed into it.
But it was enough. What he wanted was not "purity," but "direction."
Orochimaru extended his right hand and lightly nudged the powder with the tip of his index finger. It was fine, dry, and odorless. He picked up a pinch and slowly rubbed it between his thumb and index finger. It felt distinctly grainy, finer than sand but coarser than flour. Like ground bone.
He put the powder into a test tube, added distilled water, and shook it. The powder did not dissolve. It merely hung suspended in the water, slowly settling. He picked up the test tube and held it against the light. The sediment separated into three layers-the bottom held heavy particles, possibly grains of sand; the middle held flocculent matter, possibly organic residue; the top was a slightly cloudy supernatant.
He drew off some of the upper liquid with a dropper and dripped it onto a test strip. The strip changed color-pale green, on the alkaline side.
"A pH of about eight," he said quietly. "Alkaline, but not strongly so. Suitable for improving acidic soil."
He placed the test tube on its rack and removed a slide from beneath the microscope. A thin layer