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The underground space was dark and damp, the passage twisting and turning, different areas stacked on top of each other in layers. Konoha had a vast and complex vertical space, like a maze.
Finding something in this maze was no easy feat.
But Haori, as if following a clear path, walked towards a predetermined location.
The sound of his footsteps, "tap, tap, tap," echoed one after another. Haori didn't try to conceal his arrival.
He only paused slightly when he reached a certain door, then he directly reached out and pushed it open.
The room behind the door was dimly lit. It was hard to tell what was going on at a glance, but the black, straight hair at the back of the head could only belong to Orochimaru.
Orochimaru, as if unaware of the person behind him, continued his work. He only turned around after his work was finished, taking a look at who had arrived, interrupting him, yet seemingly not interrupting him.
"So it's Haori. I didn't expect you to be the first one to find me. I thought it would be the Third Hokage..."
Things had reached a point where Orochimaru knew that his actions being discovered was only a matter of time. So, he wasn't surprised. He even seemed quite composed.
"Could you hand me that scalpel over there? It's next to you."
"Which one?"
"Number 3, the longer one."
There was a row of scalpels on a shelf near the entrance. As soon as Orochimaru finished speaking, the scalpel he wanted trembled twice on the shelf, then shot out in a perfect parabola, landing precisely in Orochimaru's hand.
"Heh, Magnet Release."
Orochimaru chuckled, the meaning clear… He no longer believed Haori's explanation of his power.
If "Raiden Jūkoku" of Lightning Release was barely acceptable, then "Ookami Raiden Jūkoku·Roshomon" was definitely beyond the scope of a jutsu. Orochimaru couldn't accept this unreasonable explanation anymore.
He felt, instinctively, that it wasn't the power of a ninja.
After all, Haori's ultimate move was far more ferocious than the Tailed Beast Ball.
Months had passed. The destruction caused by the Nine-Tails had been repaired. The only things that hadn't been repaired were caused by Haori. To put it simply, Haori had dug an artificial river in an instant, dozens of meters deep, hundreds of meters wide, and fifty kilometers long. And that was just the aftereffects of the attack.
Orochimaru was naturally curious about the secrets hidden in the person behind him. He had tried to investigate, but he couldn't find anything.
"You don't seem very surprised?" Haori asked.
Orochimaru was too calm about his arrival. When a little secret is discovered, shouldn't you at least show a little nervousness to give the person some face?
"You don't seem surprised either?" Orochimaru retorted.
Under Orochimaru's scalpel was a ninja's corpse.
A Konoha ninja's corpse.
"Should I be surprised by a corpse?" Haori didn't answer the question directly. The question wasn't whether or not it was a corpse, but rather Orochimaru dissecting a Konoha ninja.
"Heh, so I'm still safe for now. I don't need to flee in disgrace."
Orochimaru was smart. You could tell Haori's attitude from this one sentence.
He naturally knew that a considerable number of ninjas were investigating the ninja disappearance case, and Haori was one of them. But looking at the other side's current attitude, he didn't seem to have any intention of reporting it.
Orochimaru's guess was right. Haori wouldn't report him as the result of the mission. Otherwise, he would have said this guess in front of the Third Hokage before.
Now, he didn't have any intention of capturing Orochimaru himself. Otherwise, he would have already made a move. And to capture Orochimaru alive would mean he would have to go all out again.
But now, the gourd boy didn't even have a gourd.
As for advising Orochimaru to turn over a new leaf? That's not how you play jokes.
"That's right. I have no intention of completing the mission the Hokage gave me. As for the dead ninja…" Haori didn't continue.
The dead ninja had nothing to do with Haori. Actually, Danzō was truly responsible for this, at least half of it. Orochimaru and Danzō were now in cahoots. The latter was helping the former with his experiments.
Orochimaru was mainly working on plant-human grafting experiments… Cough, I mean, First Hokage's Wood Release cell transplantation experiments. This kind of power was something Danzō coveted very much.
Shimura Danzō had reached the limit of an ordinary ninja. So, if he wanted to increase his strength, he needed external equipment.
Like Wood Release, like the Sharingan.
Orochimaru could do these things, and he was willing to do them.
"So, what's your purpose? The electrotherapy you mentioned last time?" Orochimaru asked.
Haori was hiding something. He naturally had his own purpose. This was a matter of whether to talk about feelings or interests. Orochimaru wouldn't be naive enough to think that Haori was just concealing this because he liked him.
And Haori did have his own purpose.
Let's put it this way. If it were about cell engineering, Tsunade could probably do it too. Even the First Hokage's cell experiment that Orochimaru was doing now, Tsunade seemed to have more talent for it.
But Tsunade has her own bottom line. There are some things she wouldn't do.
But if it were about genetic engineering, no one in the ninja world would be more suitable than Orochimaru. He might even be the only one who could do this.
"What are you doing now? Forbidden jutsu? Human transformation? Immortality jutsu?" Haori asked back, not answering Orochimaru's question directly.
"First Hokage's cell transplantation experiment." Orochimaru had no need to conceal anything.
Haori shook his head and said, "If you're talking about increasing the physical abilities of ninjas, this is indeed one way. But the success rate and the risks, I can guess without you saying anything..."
Great power comes with great risk. The First Hokage's cells aren't something you can control easily.
"There are some ninjas, or rather, ninja clan members, whose power comes from the same ancestor. But as generations pass, this power is constantly being lost. For example, Tsunade doesn't have the First Hokage's power. So… is there any way to awaken the inherited power that's dormant in a ninja's body?"
"Like through some kind of cell stimulation method…"
"Not just simple electrocution, but a deeper level of restoring genetic information. Then, you get the power that you should have, but which is dormant in the ninja's blood. Then, the Senju become Senju again."
Actually, what Haori was saying was…
To make the Senju regain the Senju's power, or even the Otsutsuki's power.
To make the Uchiha regain the Uchiha's power, or even the Otsutsuki's power.
To make the Uzumaki regain the Uzumaki's power, or even… the Otsutsuki's power.
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P@TREON
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