Walking through the dark underground corridors while inspecting the base, Orochimaru watched the researchers working diligently. Seeing that no one was slacking off, a satisfied smile spread across his face as he pulled out an ancient scroll and read it while walking.
...Special eye techniques for the left and right eyes, along with the third power dwelling within them: Susanoo. The Sharingan truly is a miraculous Bloodline Limit. Calculating the time, Makiya should be arriving soon... Hm?
A cold wind gusted past, making Orochimaru look around vigilantly. He found everything in the corridor to be normal.
"Heh, I'm just scaring myself." Orochimaru brushed his long hair behind his head and continued reading the classic in his hand.
Boom!
Before he could take another two steps, the wall beside him suddenly exploded. An Uchiha clansman dressed in hospital robes burst through the rubble into the passage, his blood-stained fist aimed straight for Orochimaru's chin.
The punch connected solidly. Orochimaru's expression contorted into a grotesque, broken mask of pain as his body was sent flying. He crashed hard into the ceiling of the corridor, his head piercing through the tiles as he hung there, swaying back and forth.
Orochimaru's arms and legs flailed for a moment before his hands lost their strength and went limp. The scroll slipped from his grasp and fell to the floor, and one of his purple sandals even came off. He appeared to have been knocked unconscious.
"Huff... huff..."
The Uchiha clansman, who had just been subjected to the torture of experiments, panted heavily. The incomplete Earth Curse Mark was being agitated by a foreign chakra, causing pitch-black patterns to crawl across his body as two sharp little horns grew from his forehead.
Before he could even catch his breath, Orochimaru's body began to writhe. A violent churning started within him, and a massive snake head burst out from his rear, leaving the Uchiha clansman staring in slack-jawed shock, completely forgetting to flee.
Orochimaru's body squeezed out from the snake's mouth, his neck extending infinitely as if he had eaten the Gum-Gum Fruit. His cheeks took on a non-human skeletal structure as he opened his maw wide and bit into the Uchiha. His fangs pierced the skin, injecting venom.
The paralyzing venom raced through the bloodstream, instantly spreading to every corner of the body. The Uchiha clansman collapsed to the ground, his limbs rigid and at Orochimaru's mercy.
"Did it mutate?" Orochimaru retracted his neck and fully emerged from the snake's mouth. Covered in slime, he stood before the Uchiha clansman, scrutinizing his experimental subject. "Horns like these... is it some kind of beastial mutation? Tsk, another failure."
Orochimaru touched the two horns on the Uchiha's forehead, tied him up with a look of disdain, and sent him back to the experimental table.
In truth, he didn't know that the change in the Uchiha clansman wasn't a beastial mutation but a phenomenon of atavism. Those pure white horns originated from the Progenitor of Chakra, the legendary Kaguya Otsutsuki.
This little episode didn't ruin Orochimaru's good mood. He gathered many of his subordinates at the base, including those from Root and ninjas he had secretly cultivated himself, silently waiting for Makiya to show up.
An hour passed, then two...
One day, two days, three days...
Half a month later, Orochimaru was finally certain that Makiya hadn't been delayed by some accident. The boy simply didn't take him seriously at all and never intended to come.
Young people these days really have no respect for their elders!
The experimental subjects in the base had all been used up, and the cloned embryos needed time to grow. After some thought, Orochimaru decided to make a trip himself. If the timing was right, he would simply kidnap Makiya.
Over the past few days, intelligence about Shisui Uchiha's incredible feats on the Hidden Mist battlefield arrived one after another. The Mist village, which had just resolved to rejoin the war, was left utterly bewildered. Whether it was the Yuki Clan, the Kaguya Clan, the Hozuki Clan, or any other... Shisui would glare at them from eight hundred meters away, and the battle would be over. How were they supposed to fight that?
It was said that Fugaku was grinning so wide his gums were showing. His son, Itachi, was also proving his worth, showing extraordinary talent and precocious maturity at a young age. The Clan Leader's prestige had increased significantly, and many fence-sitters were beginning to lean toward his faction.
Danzo was clearly becoming more desperate for the power of the Mangekyo, pressing harder for results.
As Orochimaru looked over the intelligence reports, he felt his own greed stir. More importantly, the more he studied the history of the Uchiha, the more he felt the clan was full of surprises, shrouded in a layer of mystery as if a treasure trove sat there waiting to be excavated.
"Makiya-kun, I hope your body can satisfy me..." Orochimaru made a truly perverse declaration with an expressionless face, packed his gear, and vanished from the base.
Land of Hot Water Base, Field Hospital.
"Dai-senpai, you can only open the Eight Inner Gates up to the fourth gate. Any higher and your entire skeletal structure risks fracturing. Your body is already riddled with holes and old injuries. To put it bluntly, you could become a cripple at any moment," Makiya said as he unwrapped bandages to perform an inspection, looking up at Might Dai.
Ever since the battle against the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, Dai had been lying in the Konoha Hospital like a corpse. Konoha's medical ninjas had been helpless regarding his condition, barely able to keep things from worsening.
After Tsunade returned to the village, Shizune performed surgery under her guidance. It wasn't until half a month ago that Dai could walk again. After a brief period of rehabilitation training, Dai had impatiently applied to come to the front lines to fight alongside his son.
"Don't worry, Makiya-sama! I will maintain self-discipline at all times and only let my youth bloom at the most critical moment!" Might Dai gave Makiya a thumbs-up and a wide grin, the light reflecting off his teeth brightening the field hospital.
"Father!" Might Guy cried out, his eyes filling with tears as he hugged Dai's legs.
"Guy, don't cry! This is what youth is supposed to look like!" Dai pulled Guy up, and the two agreed to walk five hundred laps around the base on their hands, promising to skip dinner if they didn't finish.
Makiya left in a hurry, terrified that the 'green jumpsuit' energy might be contagious.
After a busy day of consultations, Makiya planned to get some food and rest. Just as he was heading to the cafeteria, an Uchiha clansman eagerly brought him a meal prepared by a private chef and secretly handed him a scroll of intelligence.
This was usually internal clan news. Makiya couldn't openly check it in the hospital, so he took the food and intended to eat back at his quarters.
Finding a secluded spot, Makiya activated the Flying Thunder God technique, and his figure vanished on the spot.
In the final second before disappearing, Makiya suddenly felt as if he had forgotten something, but he couldn't quite remember what.
With a faint sense of doubt, Makiya appeared in his room and instantly widened his eyes.
In the natural hot spring pool in the middle of his room, a certain stunning young woman was soaking in the water. Steam rose as Tsunade's pale arms spread out, resting casually on the edge of the pool. Her naked body was partially hidden in the mist, her golden hair damp and clinging to her exquisite cheeks and fragrant shoulders. The heat of the spring gave her fair skin a rosy tint, and her jade-like feet lifted slightly above the water, creating small ripples.
The smell of alcohol hung in the air. Several sake bottles lay scattered behind her. Her beautiful eyes were half-closed, her gaze hazy like a mist-covered autumn pond, resembling the most enchanting stars in the night sky. Her faint laziness and charm were enough to make anyone's heart race.
"Hiss..."
Makiya sucked in a breath of hot steam, realizing his timing was... unfortunate. He suddenly remembered that Tsunade had told him to come back later today. It turned out she was planning to use the hot spring.
Mountains and valleys in a breathtaking landscape, each ridge and peak more dazzling than the last. The deep golden forest was a sight that inspired longing, and the shimmering water reflected the light in a soul-stirring way.
The feeling of impending death snapped Makiya out of it. His expression turned solemn as he held up the scroll and said in a deep voice, "An accident! This is a total accident! I just received some important intel and came back to read it. I didn't expect..."
"
*Gulp, gulp, gulp... burp.* Tsunade let out a breath of alcohol, tossed the bottle behind her, and pulled a white bath towel over her body. Her fists clenched. "Tell me, how far do you want to fly?"
"Wait, this is really a misunderstanding..."
"Go to hell!" Tsunade lunged toward Makiya, water droplets sliding down her perfectly rounded thighs. Chakra flooded her meridians as her fair foot gathered power behind her before kicking upward with explosive force.
Under the gaze of his Three-Tomoe Sharingan, Makiya saw Tsunade's movements clearly. He thought to himself that the Senju princess truly lived up to her name; since Hashirama could use the Gracious Deity Gates to seal a Tailed Beast's movements, it seemed Tsunade had a similar technique. Makiya felt as if he were sealed; though he could see her movements perfectly, he couldn't dodge this rising kick.
The sealing jutsu passed down through the Senju clan really is formidable.
Also, there's no such thing as hyperpigmentation; it's naturally pink!
Bang!
"Aaah... Whoosh!"
Her jade foot slammed into Makiya's chin. He was sent flying through the roof of the tent, turning into a shooting star that vanished over the horizon.
Deep in a forest somewhere in the Land of Hot Water.
Orochimaru's figure darted through the lush trees, his snake-like face pulled long as if someone owed him thirty-five million taels.
Whoosh!
A dark shadow streaked through the air and crashed directly into the ground in front of Orochimaru, creating a massive crater as smoke and dust filled the air.
At the bottom of the pit, Makiya dispelled the chakra from his chin and stood up to examine the scenery.
He didn't plan on going back to sleep there tonight. Since he was the one who got the 'view,' letting Tsunade have the tent for a day was fine. It was the perfect chance to see how Yugito Nii was doing.
He had only told her to build the base before he left, and he didn't know what her aesthetic sense was like.
"Hm?" Makiya looked up and saw Orochimaru standing at the edge of the pit, looking down at him from above.
Orochimaru stared blankly at Makiya in the crater, unsure what kind of entrance style this was. Had he learned it from Jiraiya?
Still, this was fine. This terrain was perfect for battle, and it was deserted. No one would know what happened here.
Orochimaru gave a sinister smile and looked at Makiya. "Makiya-kun, I didn't expect us to meet in such a fashion."
"To be honest, I didn't expect it either." Makiya brushed the dust off his clothes and leaped out of the pit to stand opposite Orochimaru. "No time like the present. Orochimaru, what was that about the Sage Transformation you mentioned before?"
"It's nothing." Orochimaru retreated a short distance, his golden pupils flashing with cold light. "You no longer need to know."
Since you dared to stand me up, Makiya, you have already courted death!
With those words, Orochimaru stopped concealing his aura, revealing a cultivation level at the Shadow rank!
In an instant, the forest fell into a sudden silence. Orochimaru rapidly formed hand signs and slammed his palms against the ground. "Formation of Ten Thousand Snakes!"
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