Winter, Year 29 of Konoha.
The Hokage Office.
Orochimaru stood before the desk, holding a thick report. His face was expressionless, but his eyes were bloodshot-a month of nonstop experiments, with only four hours of sleep a day, would have worn down even a man made of iron. But he did not need sleep. He only needed results.
Hiruzen Sarutobi sat behind the desk, wearing the Hokage hat and a white Hokage Ceremonial Robe. He was not looking at Orochimaru. He was looking at the report. Its cover had no title, only a red stamp-"Top secret." Orochimaru had stamped it himself.
"What is this?" Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice was calm.
"Military rations." Orochimaru's voice was equally calm.
Hiruzen Sarutobi opened the report. The first page contained experimental data-temperature, pressure, time, pH, particle size, moisture content, salt content, fat content, protein content, carbohydrate content. He could not understand these, but he could understand the conclusion.
"Using human tissue as raw material?" His voice was flat.
"Yes." Orochimaru's voice was flat as well.
Hiruzen Sarutobi turned to the second page. This page was a process flowchart-raw material pretreatment, high-temperature and high-pressure decomposition, sterilization and drying, grinding and sieving, neutralization and seasoning, pressing and molding. Every step had detailed instructions. Every step was supported by data. He could not understand the techniques, but he could understand the process.
"Medical waste?" His brows furrowed slightly.
"We used medical waste during the experimental stage," Orochimaru said calmly. "For mass production, we can use corpses from the battlefield. Enemy corpses."
Hiruzen Sarutobi turned to the third page. This page contained photographs of the finished products-grayish-white powder and pale gray rice balls. The rice balls were shaped exactly like the military rations Konoha soldiers ate. He stared at that photograph for a long time.
"What about the taste?"