Rows upon rows of culture tanks lined the room, each one containing various misshapen lumps of flesh.
Looking at those grotesque meat masses, looking at those culture tanks, Deidara felt his heart ache.
This was all money he had earned by doing missions, and now it was being wasted just like that.
If you don't manage a household, you don't know how expensive firewood and rice are. If you don't earn money, you don't know how hard it is to make it. Now all the money he had earned was being taken by someone else to spend—this feeling was seriously infuriating.
"Why are you all here?"
Orochimaru, who was in the middle of research, frowned slightly when he saw the people who had entered.
Interrupting his experiments—how annoying.
"Orochimaru, it's been months now, and we've burned through a massive amount of funds. Yet there's zero progress on your research. How do you explain that?" Obito fixed his gaze on Orochimaru, the scarlet Sharingan in his eye radiating an inexplicable authority.
"So, you want to kill me?" Orochimaru looked at Obito and let out a silent chuckle.
The mockery in his smile was unmistakable.
"Before I came, I already told you—research on the tailed beasts is measured in years. It's not even been half a year yet. What kind of progress do you expect? Should I just hand you a fully formed Nine-Tails?"
"I don't want to hear it from you. Kabuto, tell me—how far along is the recent research?" Knowing Orochimaru was not easy to deal with, Obito shifted his target.
Kabuto was engrossed in his work nearby. At the sudden mention of his name, he turned—and immediately locked eyes with a scarlet Sharingan.
The next instant, he lost all control over his body.
"Research on the tailed beasts has already made preliminary progress. The Three-Tails' chakra differs somewhat from that of shinobi. Based on our current attempts, combining chakra with ordinary human flesh in culture tanks only produces monsters that cannot be controlled."
Obito frowned. He didn't understand research matters.
"So does that count as success, or failure?"
Kabuto continued, "It counts as a failure. The goal of an artificial tailed beast is to form a usable individual, not to let it grow randomly. An existence like that cannot be effectively utilized."
Hearing this, Orochimaru smiled silently.
"Don't worry. I already have a plan for tailed beast research. We've had success with replicating tailed beast chakra. The remaining issue is the container for that chakra—it needs careful consideration."
"Kabuto, you explain," Obito said. He didn't want to control Orochimaru, because a researcher like him needed a clear mind to work.
For the sake of the Ten-Tails, Obito didn't want to take risks.
"Orochimaru-sama is right. The secrets of the Three-Tails' chakra have already been deciphered. However, to condense the Three-Tails, we need a shell to serve it—one that can seal its chakra and give it a stable form," Kabuto replied calmly.
Obito turned his gaze to Orochimaru. "Do you have any ideas about the tailed beast shell?"
Orochimaru raised a hand and pointed at the various freaks inside the nearby culture tanks. "These are shells I cultivated using ordinary humans or people with kekkei genkai. Clearly, they're all failures."
Before Obito could ask anything else, Orochimaru continued, "The foundation of experimentation is bold hypotheses and bold verification. I've now ruled out ordinary humans. The next step is much easier—we just need the right materials."
"You came at the perfect time. I plan to use Hashirama's cells to form the shell. Originally, I had some here, but later cultivation requires too much material. You'll need to provide that."
Hashirama's cells?
Hearing that name, Obito was naturally familiar with it.
After inheriting part of Uchiha Madara's legacy, he could be considered one of the people in the shinobi world who best understood the uses of Hashirama's cells.
"I can help you obtain Hashirama's cells. Is there anything else you need?"
Relying solely on Hashirama's cells still felt unreliable to Obito. He needed guaranteed success.
Orochimaru glanced at the composed Obito, wondering what substitutes he might procure. Truthfully, he desperately wanted Sharingan, but one look at Obito's unfriendly gaze told him it was impossible. Better not to mention it.
"Help me obtain cells from another tailed beast jinchūriki. I need to study the chakra of other tailed beasts—and conduct a small experiment with those cells as well."
"What kind of experiment?"
"An experiment to see whether combining human cloning with tailed beast cloning can succeed."
Seeing Obito's confusion, Orochimaru explained, "I want to try merging human cloning with tailed beast cloning to see if we can cultivate a naturally born jinchūriki. Generally speaking, tailed beast chakra corrodes the human body too strongly. A jinchūriki who coexists with a tailed beast for a long time already has a body heavily eroded by that chakra. If we directly replicate jinchūriki cells, perhaps we can create a natural jinchūriki—or a tailed beast container."
Alright.
Obito understood—and then felt a headache coming on.
Looking at all the bottles and jars surrounding Orochimaru, even though he didn't know their exact functions, there was one thing he did understand.
They required money.
A lot of money.
"Jinchūriki cells are easy enough to get. As for money, Deidara will help."
"Why me?! Tobi, you can't exploit me like this—you'll lose me forever!" Deidara protested unwillingly, only to be completely ignored by Obito.
"Orochimaru, there's something else I want to make clear to you."
"You've already consumed a massive amount of Akatsuki resources. If you dare play tricks here, I can guarantee you'll regret it."
Hearing Obito's warning, Orochimaru shrugged, looking completely unconcerned.
"Don't worry. This cooperation is, first, to keep my little life intact. Second, I also want to know what the ultimate power of the tailed beasts truly is."
"Alright. The rest of you can look around. I need to speak with Orochimaru alone." Obito said to the others. Then a transparent ripple appeared, and both Obito and Orochimaru vanished.
"Did those two just elope?" Deidara stared at where Obito had disappeared, feeling strangely empty inside, as if he had been abandoned. It felt like Tobi's favorite wasn't him anymore.
What was so great about a lousy snake?
"Probably."
"By the way, don't you two find this stuff disgusting at all?" Hidan looked at the grotesquely shaped flesh inside the surrounding culture tanks and shuddered uncontrollably.
Killing and arson didn't scare Hidan. Even being chopped into pieces wouldn't faze him.
But seeing these lumps of flesh being toyed with by Orochimaru made him deeply uncomfortable.
It felt like something important was being wantonly manipulated.
It pissed him off.
"There's nothing disgusting about it. When I first started making human puppets, I couldn't stomach it either. But eventually, I realized human puppets are the pinnacle of puppetry. That art... it's my lifelong pursuit."
Sasori's words sounded cold and merciless to Hidan.
Deidara immediately turned his head away. "Let's go outside. Hidan, you're right—this place really is disgusting."
With his opinion validated, Hidan and Deidara happily left the laboratory.
Only Sasori remained, expressionless, staring at the culture tanks around him. Beside him stood Kabuto, wearing a smile.
"Sasori-sama, long time no see..."