According to the plot of *Naruto*, Orochimaru was exceptionally obsessed with the Sharingan in the early stages.
While in the Hidden Leaf Village, he coveted the young Uchiha Itachi.
After defecting from the village and joining the Akatsuki, he targeted Itachi again, attempting to seize his body.
Unfortunately, Orochimaru was outmatched and defeated by Itachi's "Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Technique," losing a hand in the process.
After his failure, Orochimaru left the Akatsuki and bribed the daimyo of the Land of Sound to establish the Sound Village.
Even then, he did not give up on the Sharingan. Unable to defeat Itachi, he set his sights on the young Uchiha Sasuke.
However, history often repeats itself.
When Orochimaru meticulously prepared to take over Sasuke's body, he once again encountered Itachi. Orochimaru was defeated again and sealed within the Totsuka Blade.
It was only when Sasuke sought the truth about the Uchiha that he used the curse mark on Anko Mitarashi to resurrect Orochimaru.
One could say that Orochimaru suffered greatly in his pursuit of the Sharingan.
It wasn't that he only admired the Sharingan; he simply believed that, among all kekkei genkai, the Uchiha's eye-based bloodline limit was the best.
Shigeo Aburame was well aware of this, so he used Nagato's Rinnegan as bait to lure Orochimaru into joining him.
Orochimaru, with his vast knowledge, immediately recognized the value of the Rinnegan and took the bait, promptly asking for the Akatsuki's location.
Shigeo Aburame straightforwardly gave him the location of the Akatsuki base and invited him to go there together in two months.
But Orochimaru found two months too long to wait. Impatient, he quickly packed and departed for the Land of Rain.
His eagerness made it clear he saw Nagato as prey.
Shigeo Aburame, of course, did not reveal Nagato's true strength to Orochimaru. Even if he had, Orochimaru likely wouldn't have believed him or given up so easily.
After all, Orochimaru was someone who never gave up until he hit a dead end.
Shigeo Aburame silently wished him luck and then returned to synthesizing a new batch of parasitic insects.
He first synthesized a bloodworm using hair from Nagato, which Konan had brought him. Then, he retrieved some Hashirama cells to combine with the bloodworm.
To test the synthesis limits of the bloodworm, he used a fist-sized piece of Hashirama cells for the experiment.
"Synthesize!"
With a thought, the bloodworm disappeared, but the fist-sized Hashirama cells remained unchanged.
"Did it fail?"
Frowning, Shigeo Aburame felt a twinge of disappointment.
Before he could act further, he noticed the Hashirama cells twitching slightly.
Upon closer inspection, it wasn't the cells moving but a parasitic insect crawling on the white Hashirama cells!
Shigeo Aburame's eyes lit up immediately.
This was the first time he had synthesized a parasitic insect of this color.
Previously synthesized insects were typically yellow-brown, resembling wood, and any Hashirama cells used would be completely consumed.
"Could it have succeeded?"
Shigeo Aburame's face brightened with joy as he carefully placed the newly synthesized insect in his palm for closer inspection.
The insect was pure white, the same color as the Hashirama cells, with fine red patterns on its body.
Driven by curiosity, Shigeo Aburame absorbed the white insect into his body.
The moment the insect entered, his expression changed drastically.
A surge of chakra, distinct from that of the bloodworm, flooded his body, killing off his other parasitic insects.
The ordinary insects died first, followed by a mass death of his chakra storage insects.
Shigeo Aburame quickly opened his chakra pathways to release all the insects except the white one.
But it was futile.
Within seconds, every released insect died and turned into wood, leaving behind a pile of yellow-brown corpses at his feet.
Looking at the mound of insect corpses, Shigeo Aburame couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache.
Ordinary parasitic insects were easy to reproduce as long as there was sufficient chakra.
But the chakra storage insects had taken considerable effort to cultivate, making their loss particularly painful.
Yet, this feeling quickly faded.
He discovered that the white insect's unique chakra not only caused the death of other insects but also had remarkable healing properties!
When he left the Hidden Leaf, he had sustained injuries in a fierce fight with Orochimaru to fake his death and "gain mutual understanding."
While Orochimaru's injuries were more severe, he used his "shedding" technique to rapidly recover at the cost of significant chakra.
Shigeo Aburame, though less injured, had anticipated it would take over a month to fully heal without a medical ninja.
But with the white insect's chakra, his injuries were fully healed within minutes!
If he had hundreds of such white insects, he could potentially heal instantly in any situation.
This level of regeneration was comparable to the First Hokage Hashirama Senju's legendary self-healing abilities.
"Hashirama Senju?"
Something clicked in Shigeo Aburame's mind, and he retrieved a scroll given to him by Orochimaru.
Aside from data on Hashirama cell experiments, the scroll contained instructions for basic Wood Release techniques.
He selected a simple one and began performing the hand seals.
"Horse—Dog—Snake… Wood Clone!"
With two creaks, a wooden clone separated from his body and stood before him, identical in appearance.
This was not an illusion but a solid clone with a decent chakra reserve.
Unlike shadow clones, which were mainly used for reconnaissance, the wood clone was a battle-ready entity.
Staring at the clone, Shigeo Aburame's eyes gleamed.
He confirmed that the white insect's chakra was indeed Wood Release chakra, akin to Hashirama Senju's.
This meant that with enough white insects, he could gain Hashirama's self-healing powers and even perform advanced Wood Release techniques.
Techniques like the battlefield-dominating "Deep Forest Emergence" or the tailed beast-suppressing "Wood Golem Jutsu."
The only uncertainty was the lifespan of these white insects.
From experience, the lifespan of parasitic insects was proportional to the chakra consumed during synthesis.
For example, bloodworms consumed ten times the chakra of storage insects and lived for over a year.
The white insect consumed roughly ten times the chakra of a bloodworm, suggesting a lifespan of about ten years.
"Not only long-lived, but each individual provides a massive amount of Wood Release chakra. If storage insects are like power banks and bloodworms like generators, then these white Wood Release insects are full-on power plants!"
With his excitement soaring, Shigeo Aburame took out all his Hashirama cells and began synthesizing more Wood Release insects.
"Synthesize! Synthesize! Synthesize! Hahaha…"
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End of Chapter