Chapter 171 - Tobirama Smiles
Inside the dimly lit underground laboratory, a man in a white prison uniform lay restrained on a cold steel operating table. His eyes were vacant, his limbs tightly bound by chakra-reinforced restraints. On the adjacent table, a wild boar was similarly immobilized, its body twitching ever so slightly as if sensing the unnatural energy in the air.
Several eerie, serpentine wires connected the two of them—thin, glimmering threads of chakra, linked directly from their foreheads and spinal cords, humming with unstable energy.
Orochimaru stood beside them, his golden eyes glowing with anticipation. With a flick of his fingers, he activated the control panel before him, guiding the chakra like puppet strings to manipulate the prisoner's stiff hands into a complex sequence of hand seals. The prisoner, barely conscious, was reduced to a conduit—his body moving not by will but by Orochimaru's mastery of forbidden arts.
Snap! Snap! Crackle!
As the final seal was forced into position, the entire chamber lit up in an electric burst. Arcs of violet and blue lightning danced across the metal tables, crackling wildly as the machine discharged its built-up chakra.
Both man and boar convulsed violently under the current. Their limbs jerked, eyes rolled back, mouths open in silent screams.
It looked like something out of a nightmare. And yet, if someone were to add pulsing neon lights and some disco music to the scene, they might've mistaken it for a grotesque throwback to an old-school dance floor.
~
Roughly ten to fifteen seconds later, the heavy lab doors creaked open.
Kazane stepped inside, following the strange noise, his expression unreadable as he took in the spectacle before him. Just as he arrived, both test subjects finished their synchronized seizure. The room fell silent. Aside from an occasional twitch or muscle spasm, they lay limp and motionless—like corpses.
Orochimaru caught Kazane's presence from the corner of his eye, but didn't acknowledge him with words. The experiment was entering a critical phase—any distraction now could compromise years of research.
He merely raised one pale, slender finger to his lips in a quiet gesture, then returned his full attention to the boar and the man on the table.
Life itself is a miracle, Orochimaru thought. But immortality... that is a privilege of the divine.
To him, mortality was an insult to the potential of intellect. Why should human beings, with their limitless curiosity and ingenuity, bow before the arbitrary limits of death?
No—he would bend the laws of nature. He would shatter the boundaries between man and god.
And this experiment—this grotesque fusion of soul and flesh—was the key.
If it succeeded, it would prove that his lifelong obsession was justified.
And if it failed?
Heh.
Then hundreds—thousands—more would be added to the list of test subjects. Sacrifices in pursuit of a vision far beyond ordinary comprehension.
Seconds passed. Then minutes.
Neither the man nor the boar stirred. They lay as still as the dead.
Orochimaru's eyes narrowed. A flicker of irritation passed through his gaze. Another failure, perhaps. With an absent motion, he summoned a large serpent from Ryūchi Cave to dispose of the corpses.
"Hissss..."
The snake slithered forward, its thick body gliding smoothly over the tiled floor. It flicked its tongue eagerly, its eyes already locked on the boar.
It had learned from past experience—between human flesh and boar meat, the latter was far more palatable.
But just as it neared the lifeless boar, something unexpected happened.
Whoosh!
The boar jerked upright with startling speed, its limbs flailing in a panic. It rolled off the table and dashed clumsily toward the lab's exit, squealing and stumbling like a man running from his own funeral.
Kazane raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "Well, well... even wild boars know how to play dead these days."
But Orochimaru didn't share the amusement.
Nor did the silent figure standing in the shadows—Tobirama Senju.
The two exchanged a look.
Not of surprise.
But of triumph.
Gone was the apathy of failed experiments. In its place burned a glimmer of madness—a shared fire, ignited by discovery. The boar was no longer just an animal. It was a vessel. A proof of concept.
Orochimaru's hand moved with elegance and precision, weaving a jutsu with casual ease.
Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!
In an instant, the large snake that had slithered in was dismissed, recalled to Ryūchi Cave in a flash of smoke. Orochimaru's arm morphed into a writhing mass of serpents, which shot forward with frightening speed and coiled tightly around the fleeing boar.
To Kazane's mild astonishment, the boar dropped to its knees, its body shivering uncontrollably. Its front hooves pressed against the floor in a strangely human-like kowtow, as if pleading for mercy, as if aware of what was happening to it.
But Orochimaru remained unmoved.
He didn't respond to the begging, nor acknowledge the desperation in the boar's cries.
His golden eyes simply met Tobirama's.
In that moment, no words were needed.
They had done it.
The forbidden technique had worked.
The soul transfer—the miracle of consciousness migrating from one vessel to another—had been realized.
All that remained now was to determine whether there were any long-term side effects. If none emerged...
Then the gateway to true immortality had been opened.
Of the two, it was Tobirama who felt the greater thrill.
Originally, his collaboration with Orochimaru had been little more than a distraction—an amusement to pass the endless gray of the Pure Land. A chance to tinker with forbidden techniques, to chase theoretical impossibilities without consequence.
But now? Now he had a purpose.
If this technique succeeded, he could reincarnate—not through Edo Tensei, not as a hollow puppet—but as a living, breathing human once more. One with a heart, with blood, with will.
He would need to retrain, of course. Power was not so easily reclaimed.
But the potential...
The potential was staggering.
He clenched his fist slowly, eyes gleaming beneath heavy brows.
If I can return... then I'll see for myself.
I'll find out whether the Uchiha have truly become what Fugaku claimed.
And if they had... then the time for reckoning would come.
He would confront Sarutobi Hiruzen.
He would challenge everything that had become of the village he once led.
One by one, he would settle the old scores.
～
By now, Kazane had already figured out what Orochimaru and Tobirama were doing.
But he felt little emotion about it.
After all, this world was inherently cruel.
If he didn't have his current power, he would've been just another slab of meat on someone's cutting board.
As long as the people he loved—and those who loved him—remained safe, that was all that mattered.
If you really wanted to fix something, you might as well change the whole world. Make it prosperous, democratic...
But Kazane hadn't come here to watch experiments. Being able to tolerate it was one thing—enjoying it was another.
So he got straight to the point.
"Orochimaru-sensei, why did you call for me?"
Orochimaru, thrilled by his experimental breakthrough, no longer cared about trivial matters like Obito.
Besides, now that Kazane had returned to the village—even if everything Obito said was true, even if Uchiha Makoto was alive, had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, and even mastered Wood Release—so what?
No one knew Kazane's strength better than Orochimaru.
Forget Makoto. Even if Uchiha Madara himself came back to life, Orochimaru didn't believe he could defeat Kazane.
So he briefly explained the situation to Kazane, then told him he could handle it however he liked.
With that, Orochimaru and the now-fired-up Tobirama placed the boar back on the operating table and began running diagnostics, paying no further attention to Kazane.
Upon hearing about Uchiha Makoto, Kazane immediately understood the truth.
Obito had remained safely in the village all this time, and there'd been no signs of Uchiha Madara's presence.
Kazane had assumed his butterfly effect had been too strong, and that Madara, unable to find Obito, had died early due to poor health or lack of nourishment.
Even during the Chūnin Exams, Kazane had used Observation Haki to thoroughly scan Yagura but hadn't sensed any signs of mind control.
Turns out... Madara had simply swapped targets. Without Obito, he'd found Makoto instead.
Still, Obito was a mystery.
Kazane remembered that before leaving, Obito was just a Chūnin. Barely half a month had passed, and he had already awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan?
Even in a novel, that'd be pushing it.
Top-tier shinobi usually required a mix of luck and relentless effort. Kazane himself had suffered countless hardships to achieve breakthroughs between life and death.
Could Obito be the true Child of Destiny?
Kazane chuckled to himself and shook his head.
Whatever. No point in overthinking it. Might as well go see how that idiot's doing now.
---
Meanwhile…
In the vast starry sky, a warship the size of a small island drifted in silence.
A grotesque-looking man sat on something akin to a throne, his eyes locked onto the endless expanse of space through a screen.
Suddenly, a small point near the screen's edge began to blink, catching the man's attention.
"Another lifeform triggered the code of life?"
Thinking of that lord's command—and his terrifying methods—the man couldn't help but shiver.
That supreme being had forbidden the emergence of any other immortal species in this galaxy.
The man immediately slammed the alarm button, summoned the guards, and pointed his long spear at the blinking light on the screen.
He declared the fleet's next target.
A new war was about to begin.