"Drip."
The glass door slowly opened, and Orochimaru and Hiruko stared at each other blankly, simultaneously stepping inside.
Although they had prepared themselves mentally, everything before them overturned their worldview. The two looked around, their eyes filled with ignorance and curiosity about the unknown.
The central control panel, strangely shaped experimental equipment, petri dishes illuminated by green lights, a hallway filled with a cold atmosphere, various forbidden books, scrolls, and mysterious bottles of medicine—every place was eye-catching enough.
For two teenagers who had grown up in Konohagakure and received traditional ninja education for more than a decade, these things were too bizarre, filled with a strong sense of incongruity everywhere.
Orochimaru was first attracted by a medicine table. He stepped forward, looking at the colorful chemical reagents and test tubes, beakers, and many instruments he couldn't name with a bit of awe, his vertical pupils shining.
Hiruko bypassed a row of glass storage cabinets and walked straight to a culture room in the ecological area. Through the thick glass wall, there was scorching lava inside, and above the lava, clumps of dark purple plants grew haphazardly, a faint black gas drifting upwards.
"Oniyara Grass..." he read the sign at the door of the culture room, muttering to himself.
Suddenly, a sound of rushing water came from a room. Orochimaru instantly entered a state of alert, turning his attention to the restroom.
Hiruko also woke up from his dream, cautiously drawing out a kunai and quietly hiding in the corner.
The restroom door was pushed open, and a middle-aged man with sunglasses hummed a little tune as he walked out. He shook his wet hands and suddenly met eyes with Orochimaru, who was guarding the entrance to the hallway, an eternity in a glance.
"Who are you?"
Orochimaru stared straight at him, his pupils glowing with a dangerous light.
He didn't speak, but drew out a personal short sword with a "swoosh" and walked over step by step.
"Wait, wait!" The uncle was obviously not a ninja, and immediately raised his hands to show his surrender. "I'm just a night-shift lab worker, no threat."
"But you saw me." Orochimaru's tone became eerie.
"I can unsee it!" The uncle said nervously. "I accidentally fell asleep in the toilet tonight and haven't come out. Please, I'm just an ordinary person with a daily wage of 100 ryō, and I don't want to risk my life! If you really have to, you can knock me out!"
Orochimaru's gaze flickered. "There are ninjas guarding outside, what are you doing here?"
"Watching the equipment. There's something wrong with the circuit of the culture tank, and someone needs to keep an eye on it at all times, adjusting the parameters or something..." The uncle with sunglasses answered truthfully.
"So... you know everything about the things here?" Hiruko suddenly appeared from around the corner, and the uncle was startled.
Because he confirmed that there was no threat, Hiruko swaggered in front of the other party, his eyes staring at his name tag. "Tōno Takuto... right, tell me, what's the most valuable thing here?"
Orochimaru narrowed his eyes slightly. It seemed that this guy hadn't forgotten the mission.
"Valuable? There are many valuable things here..." Takuto blurted out subconsciously, but when he caught a glimpse of the kunai in Hiruko's hand, he immediately changed his words. "But if you're talking about the most valuable thing..."
He took a deep breath, rubbed his face, and let out a long breath as if he were going to the battlefield. "I can take you there, but please don't hurt me. Also, I was knocked out by you today, and I don't know anything."
Orochimaru nodded. "Okay."
Immediately, Tōno Takuto led the two through layers of corridors to the most central room in the laboratory and pushed the door open.
Orochimaru was stunned, and Hiruko was dumbfounded on the spot.
The room was dark, with only a few corners flickering with uncertain blue light, and in the depths, there was a huge container tank, with a strong man immersed in a turquoise nutrient solution.
He closed his eyes slightly, his resolute face full of peace, and his seaweed-like long hair floated slightly with the dense bubbles that kept surging upward.
"This... this is..." Hiruko felt like he couldn't breathe.
Orochimaru also rarely showed a shocked expression, because he recognized the man's face at a glance. It was the statue they saw every day, the one that had been on Hokage Rock the longest, the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju!
At this moment, he understood everything.
Why was such an advanced laboratory buried deep beneath the dense forest?
Why did Uchiha Nian possess the power of Wood Release?
"So the village has never given up on the development of Hashirama's cells, never given up on inheriting Wood Release..."
He murmured in a daze, "But even so, only Lord Tobirama succeeded, allowing Mirror Uchiha to transplant this power, and... it was successfully passed on to Nian..."
He looked at Hiruko, who was also immersed in shock, his eyes burning. "I know what we should take!"
"I wasn't here... I wasn't here... I should have fainted..." Tōno Takuto trembled as he left.
A moment later.
Two figures quietly left the underground research facility. Tōno Takuto, as the guide, was also rewarded with a chop to the neck by Orochimaru, and fell asleep.
Taking advantage of the fact that the village's high-level combat power had been attracted, they changed direction and chose to leave the village from the weakly defended west gate.
"Stop!" The two chunin guarding the gate spoke at the same time. "It's an emergency, what are you doing?"
Orochimaru stepped forward silently. His poisonous snakes cooperated with his excellent Wind Release ninjutsu, and he solved the guarding chunin in a few moves, calling Hiruko forward.
The two crossed the gate at the same time, looking at the starry sky, the night wind blowing, dispersing their long hair.
At this moment, as if some shackle that had imprisoned them for decades was broken, they both felt the taste of freedom.
At this time, a breeze stirred, and a young man appeared silently.
His black hair was loose, his eyes bright, and his tall figure was filled with a hazy color under the moonlight.
"Kamihane-sama!!"
The two spoke at the same time, the excitement on their faces hard to hide.
Kamihane smiled faintly. "It seems that you have all found the treasures you think are most valuable?"
"Yes!"
Hiruko raised a scroll, inside which were the Hashirama genetic fluid he had brought from the safe, as well as a can of sufficient Oniyara Solution, and even a few fresh Oniyara Specimens.
Orochimaru also took out a scroll from his arms. He chose the Life-Domain Secret Scroll of Tobirama Senju, Equipment Design Blueprints and their operating rules, and the research report on gene fusion experiments.
"Not bad." Kamihane nodded, reaching out to point at an open space on the side. As the diamond-shaped mark on his palm flashed, the space twisted, and a vortex-like channel slowly opened.
"Go, welcome your new beginning!"
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