Konoha Year 56, night.
Yakushi Kabuto moved through the dark, deep underground passage.
Born from Root and having undergone various training in similar environments since childhood, he should have long adapted to such surroundings.
But at this moment, his still youthful face inadvertently revealed a hint of gravity.
The recent series of events surrounding Orochimaru-sama had made even a young person like him sense something abnormal.
If he thought carefully, the initial variable should have been last year.
At that time, having already been absorbed under Orochimaru-sama's command and prepared to continue lurking in Konoha after his lord's departure, he suddenly received orders to halt the plan for unknown reasons.
Not only was the ongoing base relocation plan stopped, but even he, who had been internally designated as a sleeper agent, was transferred to another project to assist in research for restarting the Wood Release cell project.
However, unlike the difficult research he had previously encountered, this Wood Release cell research progressed very quickly, almost as if they knew the correct answers in advance and were merely reproducing them. It took only half a year to complete all related content.
If this could still be attributed to Orochimaru-sama's genius inspiration, then what happened from this year onward was completely inexplicable.
From the beginning of this year until now, just the large-scale human experiments he knew about had been conducted at least three times, one of which even involved multiple Konoha jounin—so radical that even he felt horrified.
But ANBU and Root acted as if their eyes and ears had been sealed, completely unaware of their actions.
As someone from Root, Yakushi Kabuto knew all too well the extent of these two organizations' surveillance capabilities.
What happened then was simply unreasonable.
Obviously, Orochimaru-sama had also discovered this and felt some enormous pressure from the shadows.
Thus, tonight's operation came to be.
"Clang."
The moment the steel door was pushed open, the hinges made a subtle rusty sound as Yakushi Kabuto stepped into the room.
In this chamber located deep underground, protected by multiple sealing barriers and heavily guarded, directly ahead was a massive multi-angled screen that nearly covered the entire wall.
Below the screen were researchers in white coats busily working at their stations.
"Surveillance Team 1 calibration complete."
"Team 2 calibration complete."
"Field counter-surveillance barrier inspection beginning... recording in progress."
As teams of researchers in the chamber reported, Yakushi Kabuto also took his assigned seat, looking up at the screen on the wall.
Appearing in the center of the screen was Orochimaru's figure.
After multiple previous attempts yielded no results, this time Orochimaru-sama chose to act personally, using himself as bait to hook the big fish hiding in Konoha's shadows.
Yakushi Kabuto recalled the operation summary he had received before the action began, his eyes behind his glasses flickering with a faint fanatical light.
Whether it was this man's strength, status, countless victories, or his wisdom that always stayed one step ahead of everyone else, all made Yakushi Kabuto believe in him almost unconditionally.
'If it's Orochimaru-sama, then there's definitely no problem.'
Yakushi Kabuto thought this subconsciously, issuing commands with meticulous precision.
"Operation begin."
"Yes."
The researchers below responded in unison.
At the same time, Orochimaru in the footage had already arrived at a village located in the dense forest.
...
Under the moonlight.
A man with long black hair and a tall, slender build stood atop giant tree branches, looking down at the village below from his elevated position.
Orochimaru crossed his arms, his snake-like cold pupils examining this predetermined action site.
Located seventy kilometers southeast of Konoha, with a population of three to four hundred, it was one of the trade route nodes where Konoha exchanged messages and goods with the outside world.
The distance and scale were just right.
At this moment, the entire village was under his comprehensive surveillance.
According to the predetermined plan, hidden underground in this village was a batch of bloodline experiment subjects he had obtained from the Land of Grass, and during transport, traces had accidentally been discovered by a Hidden Cloud ANBU unit.
Meanwhile, the Cloud ninja's movement patterns had been leaked by him to Konoha's border forces and Root.
With multiple forces intertwined, tonight's chaos was inevitable.
Naturally, this was also the perfect opportunity to fish in troubled waters.
To catch the big fish that had been secretly guiding him from the shadows, Orochimaru had gone to great lengths.
"Let me see..."
His slippery dark blue tongue licked across his lips, quietly detecting information hidden in the air.
Whether insects, ninja dogs, birds, other summoning beasts, or any spatial and chakra surveillance traces—all would find it extremely difficult to escape the dragnet he had laid.
Orochimaru's vertical pupils grew increasingly deep and quiet.
"...Just who are you."
However, after a long wait, his tongue, which he often used to detect chakra, still hadn't sensed the various faction operatives that should have arrived and been lying in ambush around the area.
Instead, he suddenly tasted a familiar, almost burning stinging sensation.
Orochimaru was first confused, then subconsciously widened his eyes, looking toward the village under the night sky with some disbelief.
This taste was...?
Without a moment's hesitation, his figure shot directly forward.
"Thud!"
The half-closed door was violently pushed open, exposing the scene inside the house.
"Hiss, hiss hiss hiss——"
Continuous white mucus secreted from the middle-aged farmer lying on the ground in an almost gushing manner.
His entire body was constantly convulsing and writhing.
Following that, vigorous and lively tree branches sprouted from the white mucus, growing rapidly as if absorbing everything from him.
The man on the ground had tense muscles, rolled-back eyes, but his fingers still desperately clawed at the ground, trying to crawl toward a certain direction.
But the branches rooting into the ground had already fixed his body there, making movement impossible.
"This is... Wood Release cells?"
Though his expected results were confirmed, Orochimaru's face showed no relief, instead growing heavier. He quickly walked into the room the man had been trying to crawl toward and pushed open the door again.
In the room, the wife and daughter, whose physical constitution was far inferior to the man's, had already undergone major lignification. From their overall appearance, you couldn't even make out human forms—most of their bodies had burst through the walls, becoming a massive tumor-like growth that continued expanding.
How was this possible?
Seeing this scene, Orochimaru's first thought was absurdity.
For the past three days, this entire village had been under his surveillance. Every villager's activity record was quite complete, with no abnormalities whatsoever.
Who could have conducted experiments on this family without his detection?
No, that's not right.
As if thinking of something, Orochimaru suddenly began running toward another room.
One room, two rooms, three rooms...
The village under the quiet moonlight grew increasingly deathly silent, even the insect and bird sounds gradually becoming intermittent.
Orochimaru's expression grew increasingly grim, his pale complexion turning almost pitch black.
Walking down the entire street, all villagers showed traces of Wood Release human experimentation. Several with stronger vitality had even burst through rooftops, becoming giant trees standing beneath the eaves.
The originally peaceful, tranquil village had unknowingly transformed into a towering forest that tore apart houses.
As for the multiple surveillance systems, Cloud ninja, Root, ANBU, and experiment subjects from the original plan—not even a shadow could be seen.
Not only that, he hadn't detected even the slightest trace.
'What exactly happened?'
This completely unexpected situation left even Orochimaru feeling incredulous.
Driven by a final impulse to seek the truth, he measured each step as he walked through the entire district, arriving at the edge between village and dense forest.
Finally, at the boundary between moonlight and forest shadows, a young man wearing the same Konoha uniform stood there leisurely, as if completely oblivious to everything around him, holding a notebook and quietly recording something.
He had shoulder-length brown hair, wore thick black-framed glasses, had gentle facial contours, a faint smile at the corners of his mouth, and a scholarly, refined temperament.
If you ignored everything happening around them.
With his excellent memory, Orochimaru immediately recognized the other's identity.
That should be a young man from the same class as Kakashi.
But precisely because of this, his hoarse voice carried a hint of uncertainty:
"——Aizen Sousuke?"
"Good evening."
Only when his voice rang out did the young man seem to finally notice his arrival, looking up at him.
"Orochimaru-sama."
Moonlight like gauze filtered through forest branches and leaves, falling like scattered silver into the fern undergrowth.
When the night wind passed, tree shadows swayed like ink. Occasionally fireflies drifted between the gaps of light, like stars fallen to earth, adorning the area around that person.
Aizen Sousuke spoke, quietly stopping his pen, closing the notebook in his hands, and politely showing him a slight smile.
That face, always calm and approachable, seemed to casually take on a hint of sentiment, though his gaze passed over Orochimaru before him, falling toward the more distant night sky:
"What beautiful moonlight."
"To be able to see you off under such scenery is indeed a fortunate matter."
"Don't you think so?"