Tonight, the darkness over Konohagakure was exceptionally deep, as if steeped in ink. And within the dense blackness of the Forest of Death, outside a stone cave embedded in a fault of a slope, the shadows of snakes slithered and flowed through the undergrowth.
Hiss... Hiss...
As if sensing something, the serpents' heads lifted slightly to look around, their blood-red tongues flicking.
In a distant tree, several masked figures in black appeared as silently as owls, not alerting the swarm of snakes.
"Is this the place?"
At the lead, Hiruzen Sarutobi, clad in light armor, stood on a branch with a grim expression, gazing at the bottomless cave in the distance. The words he muttered to himself were heavy and complex.
"Scatter," Hiruzen commanded in a low voice.
Shhh! Shhh! The black-clad figures behind him instantly dispersed, spreading out like a great black wing, blanketing the area under their sharp beaks and talons.
This was the ANBU, the Anshin-satsujin Butai, renowned for their efficiency, ruthlessness, and composure.
Recently, many Genin, Chunin, and even ANBU shinobi from Konohagakure had gone missing without a trace. It was important to note that any ninja who joined the ANBU was at least a Chunin with a special skill, a pillar of strength even in Konohagakure.
Even with Danzo Shimura's cover-ups in the shadows, it was impossible to erase all traces completely.
And what also angered and puzzled Danzo was that a Main Family elder from the Hyuga Clan had died today, and the director of the Konoha Hospital had suddenly vanished from right under their noses.
Had that lunatic Orochimaru lost his mind?
This matter finally alarmed Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had been busy dealing with the border conflict in the Land of Fire. He instantly recalled the recent reports about Orochimaru's unusual activities...
"Orochimaru..."
After a moment of silence, Hiruzen and two ANBU members vanished, leaving behind only a sigh that seemed to carry both disappointment and regret.
Meanwhile, underground, in the labyrinthine, cold, and damp sewer system connected to the cave.
Drip... Drip...
Only the sound of sewage dripping into stagnant water rippled through the air.
But in a spacious, gloomy area, it had been converted into a secret experimental base.
"No matter how many times I see it, I am always amazed by the exquisiteness and wonder of this body."
Looking at the silent, complete corpse on the operating table, the desire and greed in Orochimaru's heart nearly overflowed.
He had traveled throughout the shinobi world and had seen many well-preserved ancient corpses, but they were either deformed with distorted skulls and bulging eyes or had limbs so swollen they burst through their clothes.
But the corpse before him was completely different. His features were so exquisite they seemed otherworldly, his skin fair, his black hair lustrous. Not even an eyelash had fallen; his eyes were closed as if he had simply drifted off to sleep.
However, the desiccated torso showed signs of dehydration, and the muscles in his limbs had atrophied.
Orochimaru was certain this youth was dead, yet the body possessed a certain vitality.
The feeling it gave Orochimaru was as if the 'soul' had broken free of its bonds, leaving behind nothing but an empty shell of a body...
"So this is the Otsutsuki Clan." Orochimaru's chest heaved slightly as he licked his dry lips with the tip of his tongue.
After all, they were the powerful clan recorded in the ancient texts of the Hyuga Clan as the creators of chakra and ninjutsu. It was only natural for them to possess powerful life force and souls.
However, even a member of the Otsutsuki Clan bled red blood, not the ichor of some noble deity.
According to his hypothesis, if he could transplant all the organs from this body, he could even re-engineer his own constitution and bloodline, gaining unparalleled ninjutsu talent and life force.
This kind of surgery could only be performed by him, a specialist in organ and cell transplantation. Not even Tsunade could do it.
It was as if it were prepared especially for him.
With this in mind, Orochimaru looked at the figure on the other operating table, meeting a pair of white eyes that seemed to tremble with fear and an aged face contorted in anger and shock.
The former was a boy of only fifteen, coincidentally close in age to the corpse. His long, silk-like black hair was splayed out, his youthful face pale and taut. The Swastika Seal on his forehead was particularly jarring.
In all of Konohagakure, and indeed the entire shinobi world, only the Hyuga Clan possessed such pure, snow-white eyes. And only members of the branch family were branded with the unsightly Caged Bird Seal.
Hyuga Kumo.
That was the boy's name.
This corpse of an Otsutsuki clansman, along with the ancient texts detailing the Hyuga Clan's ancient secrets, had been offered to him by Hyuga Kumo himself.
According to the secrets recorded in the ancient texts, the Hyuga Clan were direct descendants of the Otsutsuki Clan. It stood to reason that the transplant would be the most effective, without the risk of rejection or other complications.
"Kumo, only the heart remains. Are you ready?"
Orochimaru wore a gentle, effeminate smile, deliberately omitting the surname and honorifics.
Such a form of address usually implied intimacy or a vast gap in status. It was clear their relationship wasn't intimate; this was the arrogance of a declaration that 'everything you are belongs to me'.
And it was the truth.
As soon as the organ transplant was complete, Orochimaru would place a curse seal on him, develop a Reincarnation Ninjutsu as quickly as possible, then find a way to break the Caged Bird Seal, and finally seize this perfect body.
Orochimaru wasn't worried about things getting out of his control. He was just a boy of fifteen or sixteen, and one known as a "failure" by the Hyuga Clan at that.
"Lord Orochimaru, please begin."
Hyuga Kumo's expression was fearful, but his tone was resolute. His eyes, looking at Orochimaru, were full of adoration and gratitude. "You avenged my parents by killing that old man. I am willing to offer you this body that is not my own."
Hearing this, Orochimaru smiled faintly. Infiltrating the Hyuga compound to kill a Main Family elder had indeed taken some effort. He imagined his good old sensei had probably figured out it was him by now.
It couldn't be helped. Not only did he need to perform the surgery perfectly, but he also had to use a life-sustaining sealing jutsu. He needed to concentrate with all his might, leaving no spare energy to manipulate genjutsu. The subject had to remain fully conscious.
So he could only grant Hyuga Kumo's request to kill the Main Family elder who had driven his parents to their deaths. Only then would the boy cooperate willingly.
But it didn't matter. He had long grown weary of everything in Konohagakure. As long as he could obtain the secrets of the Otsutsuki Clan, even defecting was worth it.
"Lord Orochimaru, what are you trying to do?"
The one who spoke was the other man, an old man in a white coat, the very same missing director of the Konoha Hospital. He was actually a medical specialist trained by Danzo, code-named "Owl."
At this moment, Owl's eyes, looking at Orochimaru, held more fear than anger.
But Orochimaru paid him no mind at all. The old fool would obey乖乖 soon enough anyway.
Thinking this, Orochimaru cast aside the last of his distracting thoughts. After confirming that everything was ready, he activated the complex sealing formula at his feet.
Vmm! The black formula's patterns covered Hyuga Kumo's body, restraining him while supplying him with chakra. At the same time, the established extracorporeal blood circulation system activated; tubes were inserted into his aorta and both the superior and inferior vena cava.
By now, Hyuga Kumo's kidneys, liver, pancreas, gallbladder, and other organs had been replaced with those from the Otsutsuki corpse. All that remained was the most important and dangerous part: the heart.
Pfft!
A Chakra Scalpel formed in Orochimaru's hand. The tip of the blade traced along Hyuga Kumo's bones and flesh, opening the chest cavity to reveal the blood-red internal organs. Then, with intense concentration, he excised the living heart, leaving only a part of the posterior wall of the left atrium and the right atrial tissue.
Turning, he removed the Otsutsuki heart from the corpse. Looking at the heart, which was calm yet still blood-red, Orochimaru's hands held it in a gesture that was almost reverent, but his movements were unflinchingly steady.
The heart of an Otsutsuki clansman was, at this moment, placed inside Hyuga Kumo's body.
"You're actually attempting a heart transplant?" Owl, who had been silent, suddenly spoke with a trembling voice. "Do you think the two of us can possibly handle this?"
"I think you can," Orochimaru said, looking up at the old man, his tone cold. "Because if you can't, what comes next might get a little bloody. What do you think?"
The skin on Owl's old, slack face twitched, but he obediently moved to the side of the operating bed.
Orochimaru began to suture the blood vessels. His methods were extremely primitive and reckless; if a single vessel had a problem, the recipient would be pushed to the brink of death. But under the precise control of Orochimaru and Owl, a large amount of chakra poured into Hyuga Kumo's body, a continuous supply of potent life force that miraculously kept him alive.
Time passed, second by second. Orochimaru's stored chakra gradually depleted.
Fortunately, the blood vessels had begun to heal. Even the cruciform incision on his chest was gradually closing under the power of the Mystical Palm Technique.
"Only the final step remains. I am going to release the Life-Sustaining Barrier."
Owl could barely stand due to excessive chakra consumption. Orochimaru's already pale face had turned ghastly white. He stared intently at Hyuga Kumo's body and whispered, "Kumo, do not disappoint me."
Whether this would succeed now depended on whether Hyuga Kumo could withstand this power.
The power of the Otsutsuki Clan.
THUMP! A dull heartbeat like a war drum resounded. Blue veins crawled over Hyuga Kumo's body, slightly raised and bluish like a dense network of leaf veins.
On the monitor, the vital signs, now without external support, immediately began to fluctuate violently.
"Aaargh!!"
Even though Hyuga Kumo had mentally prepared himself, the pain, so intense it felt like it would tear him apart, still made him let out a hysterical scream in an instant.
The blood pumped by his heart seemed to surge and burn in his veins. On the surface of his exposed skin, countless capillaries ruptured and burst. His body temperature instantly rose to a scorching hot degree, as if what flowed in his veins was no longer blood but molten iron and lava! "Use your chakra! Use your chakra to suppress and control the heart! Calm it down!" Orochimaru commanded in a low voice.
Vmm! A thick network of veins bulged around Hyuga Kumo's eye sockets. The chakra erupting from his body made Orochimaru's pupils shrink.
But soon, Hyuga Kumo's struggling body stiffened. The rapidly climbing vital signs on the monitor suddenly froze, then began to decline at an even more terrifying rate. A piercing alarm blared through the laboratory.
"Damn it!" Orochimaru's expression turned ugly in an instant. "The Hyuga Clan should be the most compatible host! How could he fail to hold on so quickly!"
If even Hyuga Kumo couldn't endure it, his only option would be to abduct someone from the Hyuga Main Family.
There was no choice. He had to excise the heart and preserve it again before it became necrotic.
With this thought, Orochimaru was about to form a scalpel with his remaining chakra.
Thump...
A faint sound reached his ears, causing him to freeze his action. He snapped his head up to look at the boy before him.
THUMP! Hyuga Kumo's eyes remained tightly shut, but a dull thud came from his chest, clearer this time than the first.
The laboratory was terrifyingly silent, with only the heartbeat piercing the quiet.
THUMP! THUMP-THUMP!
Gradually, that dull heartbeat went from the soft patter of rain on banana leaves to the deafening roar of war drums, pounding forcefully in his chest.
"This is..."
An irrepressible joy rose on Orochimaru's face. He stepped slowly toward Hyuga Kumo's body, as if approaching all the truths of the world. His golden, slitted pupils subconsciously glanced at the monitor.
As expected, the vital signs had gradually stabilized. In fact, all the readings were nearly inhuman, incredibly active, terrifyingly so.
Which meant, finally...
"Yes."
Someone answered Orochimaru. The voice was soft, as if narrating a beautiful fairy tale.
"Finally, it's a success," he said.
Stunned by the mix of surprise and joy, Orochimaru saw the figure on the operating table slowly open his eyes.
He met a pair of eyes that were both familiar and alien.
The once pure white pupils, now under the glow of the shadowless lamp, radiated an iridescent, layered light, flowing like molten, colored glass, somewhere between pale cyan and white.
But this wasn't the source of Orochimaru's intense sense of dissonance.
It was the fact that those eyes showed almost no emotional fluctuation, as calm and profound as a bottomless pool of stagnant water.
The flowing blood instantly evaporated from the high heat, and a red mist rose from his body, shrouding his face in a hazy fog.
Blood surged through his veins like a thawing spring river. Every cell breathed freely like a spring bud breaking through stone. An unparalleled power welled up in his limbs.
"You..."
Beside him, Owl, seeing this, his pupils abruptly dilated. He opened his mouth to say something.
But, in the next moment.
Pfft!
The cut was swift. There was no pain as it passed, only cold death.
There was only the sound of a breeze calmer than the night wind, and the sound of flesh being pierced was so light it was silently dissipated by that wind.
Almost by instinct, Orochimaru turned his head aside. With a faint tearing sound, he felt a slight sting on his cheek.
A red line crept across his face, spreading inch by inch until it stopped at his cheekbone. A spray of blood scattered like pampas grass in the wind, and a wetness slid down his cheek.
And Owl, standing beside him in a daze, only felt his vision flip and tumble.
Thud! The headless body knelt on the floor, blood gushing from the severed neck, creating a red rain in the laboratory.
The head fell to the ground with the crisp sound of a watermelon splitting open. It rolled, leaving a trail of blood, a hint of confusion still on its face, its eyes open in death as it settled in a pool of blood.
And from the separated neck, blood bloomed like a fountain, raining down on the two remaining figures.
"I have waited for this day for too long."
Hyuga Kumo sat up. He looked at the hand that had just formed a chakra scalpel, watching the blood roll down his fingertips like spring water over green leaves. He looked up at Orochimaru before him and smiled. "A night such as this should be silent."
Three years, and another three years after that...
He had finally completed the potential of this frail body, obtaining his true Otsutsuki bloodline, and...
[Ding!]
[Your lie [Otsutsuki Corpse and Descendant] has been judged as [Self-Involving Ploy] [Honeyed Words, Hidden Dagger] [Fiction Made Real]. Orochimaru has produced a strong emotional fluctuation, reaching the level of [Unyielding Belief]. You have obtained 10,000 Manifestation Points.]
[Evaluation: A deceptive trick, like a shadow playing on a wall. Even a small person can cast a giant shadow.]
[Remaining Manifestation Points: 10041]
"..."
Orochimaru looked at that youthful face. In his memory, that face always wore a timid and withdrawn expression.
But now, it wore a profound, dark smile.
Like a child who, after pinning an ant for fun, watches it struggle under his fingertip before lightly crushing it.
An evil of absolute purity.