Orochimaru's voice was hoarse, and he let out two low laughs.
He raised his right hand, hovering it in mid-air, his middle finger pressing down on his thumb.
"Snap."
The crisp snap of fingers seemed to float slightly amidst the low-frequency hum of the air conditioning unit.
In the corner, the small lead door, which was just over a meter wide, moved.
The brass door rollers turned slowly. The hinges, which hadn't been oiled for years, emitted a long, strange creaking sound.
The door was pulled open slightly, letting in a stark white incandescent light.
Cold air rolled out from the threshold, mingling with the white mist outside.
A foot wearing a white sterile rubber shoe stepped out of the threshold.
Tsunade came out.
She was wearing a large white lab coat, buttoned all the way up to the top.
He was holding a glass test tube about the thickness of a thumb in his hand.
She had just completed a vivisection; her hands were still wearing medical rubber gloves.
The gloves were smeared with dark red, semi-dried blood. A few drops of blood, not completely dry, dripped down from the fingertips.
It landed on the smooth lead-plated floor, creating two red flowers.
In the past, seeing so much blood would have made her tremble and cower in a corner, covering her head.
But not now.
Tsunade stepped steadily through the white mist on the ground.
His eyes were clear, yet held a cold, hard quality honed from years spent on the operating table.
She raised her left hand, grabbed the blood-stained edge of her right glove, and pulled it down.
"Clatter."
The rubber gloves were roughly ripped off and carelessly tossed into the nearby yellow medical waste bin.
She stopped two steps away from Shu Shiraishi.
He held up the glass test tube in his hand.
The test tube was filled with a thick, viscous liquid.
The liquid itself emitted a faint green glow.
Under the sodium lamp, the light was a bit dazzling. With a slight flick of Tsunade's wrist, the liquid clung to the tube wall, forming several thick, gel-like strands.
" The First of cells."
Tsunade Gate of Opening, her voice crisp and decisive.
"Those mediocre people in Konoha have been studying my grandfather's cells for decades, causing wave after wave of Anbu to die."
She waved the test tube in mid-air.
"Always trying to replicate Wood Release. They've completely gone astray."
Tsunade walked to a metal workbench next to her.
A silver scalpel used for dissection lay on the table.
She gripped the knife handle with her ungloved right hand.
" The Wood Release Chakra nature is too mixed. Ordinary people can't suppress it; if you get hit, you'll just grow into a tree."
Tsunade said, her left hand flat on the metal table.
Hold the knife in your right hand, with the tip pointing vertically at the back of your left hand.
Slide it downwards with force.
"Hiss."
The blade swiftly sliced through the skin and flesh.
A cut about an inch long instantly rolled open. Blood gushed out, flowing down the curve of the back of his hand and dripping onto the metal sheet.
Her expression didn't change; she didn't even furrow her brow. She put down the knife.
Use your right hand to pull off the cork from the glass test tube.
The test tube was tilted. A drop of viscous green liquid landed precisely on the bleeding wound.
Liquid comes into contact with blood.
It made a soft "sizzle" sound, like cold water dripping into a hot oil pan.
The skin and flesh around the wound suddenly twitched.
The granulation tissue was protruding outwards at a speed visible to the naked eye, intertwining and entangled with each other.
Half a second.
The bleeding stopped. The rolled-up flesh completely closed up.
Not even a whitish scar remained. It was as smooth as ever.
Shu Shiraishi looked at the back of her hand.
"I used Orochimaru's cloning machine to completely erase the Wood Release Chakra nature."
Tsunade put the cork back in.
"Only the most aggressive cellular proliferation instincts of this meat were preserved, and a high concentration of recovery enzymes was extracted."
She held the test tube and turned to look at the three-story-tall black nuclear bomb.
"This medication will be injected intravenously."
Tsunade paused for a moment.
"As long as the brainstem isn't instantly vaporized, even if the skin and flesh are burned to charcoal by nuclear radiation, the underlying clone cells can forcibly divide and regenerate within 0.1 seconds."
She turned around and stared at Shu Shiraishi.
"A human igniter? With this, he could sit on a volcano and be roasted alive, and he wouldn't die."
Beside him, Orochimaru's breathing became completely erratic.
His chest heaved violently like a broken bellows, and his white coat swelled and deflated in sync.
He rushed to the control panel, his eyes fixed on Tsunade's undamaged left hand.
I wasn't paying attention and stepped on a piece of fallen steel pipe.
My shoe slipped.
Orochimaru lurched forward, frantically grabbing the edge of the metal table with both hands.
"Bang!" The table shook violently from the impact.
He didn't even care that he almost fell flat on his face.
He stood up straight, supporting himself on the table, and waved his hands in the air.
"Damn, the regeneration speed is incredible. This stripping method is too perfect."
Orochimaru's voice was completely hoarse. His tone rose, as if he were singing off-key.
He turned around and stumbled to the nuclear bomb's base.
His hands pressed against the cold manganese steel armor.
The cold air from the liquid nitrogen instantly froze the back of his hand, turning it blue and draining the color from his fingernails.
He didn't feel cold; his face was pressed tightly against the cold, hard metal casing.
"What was Konoha before? A bunch of parasites clinging to their ancestors' coattails!"
Orochimaru suddenly turned around, spitting out a few drops of saliva into the cold air.
He stretched out his fingers, red from the cold, and pointed forcefully at the empty space above his head.
" The Hyuga Clan cherishes their Byakugan. The Uchiha Sharingan. Without these, you're destined to be a lowly Genin forever."
"Commoners risk their lives to refine that pitiful amount of Chakra, but on the battlefield they can't even get a complete corpse. They're just sandbags to fill the pits."
He turned around and strode up to Shu Shiraishi.
His hands trembled uncontrollably with excitement, and the hem of his white coat swung wildly like a rag.
" Lord Shu, it's you."
The fanaticism burning in Orochimaru's eyes was terrifying.
"You're the one who stomped this rusty turtle shell to pieces."
He pointed to the nuclear bomb behind him, and then to the test tube in Tsunade's hand.
"Steel, heavy artillery, and bio-cloning."
"What does bloodline even matter!"
Orochimaru screamed until he was hoarse.
"By simply disassembling the cells and using Chakra as fuel to fill the tubes, even an ordinary person could crush Uchiha's Susanoo!"
He bent his knees.
"Thump."
He knelt heavily on one knee on the cold, leaden floor, splashing up a layer of white, cold mist.
Orochimaru tilted his head back and raised his hands high into the sky.
Facing that nuclear bomb capable of wiping out a country, facing Shu Shiraishi standing in its shadow.
"Praise be to Lord Shu!"
Orochimaru roared loudly, his voice echoing throughout the empty basement.
"Science! It is the only true god in this Shinobi World!"
Shu Shiraishi stood still.
He ignored Orochimaru, who was going berserk on the ground.
His gaze passed over Orochimaru's head and landed back on Tsunade.
Tsunade took the test tube and took two steps forward.
Under the stark white light of the sodium lamp, the glass tube gleamed with an eerie green glow.
She stopped in her tracks, her brow furrowing slightly.
" Lord Shu."
Tsunade doesn't have Orochimaru's morbid fanaticism. She's a doctor, and all she sees are cold, hard data.
"The product is finished, but it has a fatal flaw."
She held the test tube up a little higher, looking at the viscous liquid inside.
The activity of the Hashirama Cells was too rampant.
Tsunade's voice turned serious.
"If this high concentration of recovery enzyme were injected into a normal person's vein, the proliferating cells would burst all their blood vessels within the first second."
"The internal organs will grow into a grotesque mass of fleshy growths. Instant death."
She turned her head and glanced at the black nuclear behemoth.
We need a freak.
Tsunade stared into Shu Shiraishi's eyes.
"The body must be as tough as this layer of manganese steel. The bones must be able to withstand the muscle tearing caused by cell overload."
" The Chakra pathways must be extraordinary, wide and robust, capable of withstanding the onslaught of such violent power."
Tsunade.
"Otherwise."
"The combined impact of the drug and nuclear radiation... he wouldn't even last until the ignition switch was pressed; he'd explode into a cloud of blood mist."
Only the hissing sound of liquid nitrogen being sprayed remained in the basement.
Orochimaru was still kneeling on the ground, panting heavily.
After listening, Shu Shiraishi finished speaking.
His gaze shifted away from the tube of green medicine.
He walked to the workbench piled high with blueprints.
On the edge of the platform, there was a black metal walkie-talkie with a microphone.
The outer shell is a rough, black skin.
Shu Shiraishi extends his right hand.
Press and hold the red call button on the base with your index finger, pressing it all the way down.
"Click." The button made a sharp sound.
Two piercing electrical buzzing sounds erupted from the speaker.
"Sizzle."
"I've already prepared the candidate."
Shu Shiraishi spoke into the black microphone mesh.
The sound was steady, without the slightest fluctuation, traveling along the thick cable to the barracks on the ground.
He looked into the microphone.
"Make Might Duy off."