Inside the Hokage Office,

Hiruzen reads a report as a frown appears on his face. He raises his head and stares at Itachi. ​​

"Itachi Uchiha… you are the only skilled member of Anbu currently available in the village. Kakashi and Shisui are out on another mission. So… you have to carry out this mission with other Anbu team."

Itachi nods his head.

"Yes… Hokage-sama…"

Hmm…

Hiruzen unfolds a scroll and explains the mission.

"Jiraiya has been monitoring the tracks of Orochimaru after the latter left the village.

According to his latest intel, Orochimaru seems to have joined hands with Akatsuki. Akatsuki is a criminal organization with multiple S-Rank rogue ninjas of different villages."

Itachi nods his head in agreement.

'Izuna nii-san has already informed me about the key members and their abilities.'

Hiruzen continues the explanation.

"… Jiraiya found the location of one of the recent hideouts of Orochimaru. I want you to investigate the lab and search for some clues on Orochimaru's research."

Hiruzen hands over the scroll to Itachi. Itachi opens the scroll and notices the location of Orochimaru's lab.

'Hmm… it is in Land of Sound.'

He pockets the scroll and flickers out of the Hokage's office.

Hiruzen takes out his pipe from the drawer. He takes a deep puff of smoke and stares at the departing back of Itachi.

"Sigh… it has been a year since Asuma left the village… Nothing has been going in Konoha's favor recently. The Daimyo has reduced the funding and missions to the village, and he has trust issues with the higher-ups of the village."

Sigh…

Hiruzen takes another puff from his pipe and takes out the crystal ball from his drawer.

---------------------------

At Land of Sound borders,

Itachi and the rest of his anbu team gather around a waterfall.

Itachi opens the map and reads it.

"This is the marked place on the map… the hideout is behind that waterfall."

He signals to an anbu member. The anbu member takes out a fuinjutsu scroll from his pocket and makes some hand signs and slams his palm on the scroll.

A fuinjutsu seal crawls out from the scroll and covers the entire waterfall.

Whoosh…

The seal removes the water curtain to reveal a cave opening.

Itachi activates his Sharingan and inspects the opening.

"There is a trap here…" He signals to another anbu member.

The anbu member takes half an hour to disarm the trap. The group enters inside the cave. They are greeted by three different passages leading to three different places.

One of the anbu members walks in front of the group. He places his hands on the ground and infuses some chakra in it.

Some ants crawl towards the anbu member. He picks up an ant on his finger and brings it near his ear.

"That way… the hideout is inside that passage…"

He points towards the leftmost passage. The team follows his lead and enters inside the passage.

The Anbu members warily inspect every nook and cranny of the tunnel.

'Orochimaru is a sly snake… we have to careful at every corner.'

The group finally enters inside the abandoned laboratory. There are various glass containers with nutritional fluid-filled inside them.

A few glass containers have human test subjects inside them. Itachi inspects them.

"They seem to be civilians of Land of Sound." He signaled to the rest of the team.

Itachi walks deeper into the lab. More and more glass containers inside his vision. Some of them are cracked, and the remaining contains various chimera inside them.

There is a giant glass container in the center of the lab. Itachi walks towards it and inspects the creature inside it.

"White snake…"

Itachi frowns. He approaches the glass and notices a logbook near the table.

He opens the logbook and reads the log.

----Day 765----

Experiment No: 324

Test Subject: 126

The test subject is a civilian with no special trait or Kekkei Genkai.

Test 1:-First dose of the drug had no major effect on the target.

Test 2:- Increasing the concentration of the drug. The test subject's body has a mild tolerance to the concentration. Some snake scales start to grow on various parts of the body… most notably eyes.

Test 3:- Injecting full concentration drug. Major changes start to appear on the subject….

-------------------

Itachi closes the book and pockets it. He lifts his head to stare at the gigantic snake...

'So… that's how it is.'

Swoosh… swoosh…

Multiple white snakes crawl out from various corners and tightly binds Itachi.

"Finally… your body is mine…"

The gigantic snake breaks the glass container and lunges at Itachi.

Itachi emotionlessly stares at the snake and calmy mutters.

"So… you finally decided to show yourself… Orochimaru."

Hisss…

The giant snake hisses at Itachi and opens its mouth wide open.

Swoosh… swoosh…

He swiftly approaches Itachi and tries to bite him.

Ugh…

The snake freezes in the air. Various iron stakes stab in its body.

The snake's bind on Itachi loosens, and he calmly stares at the giant snake.

Ssshinngg…

Itachi's eyes change into Mangekyo Sharingan. Orochimaru's eyes widen as he questions.

"Since when…"

"The moment our eyes meet." Itachi calmly replies to him.

The surrounding atmosphere changes, and the sky turns red. Everything turns into a dichromate of red and black.

Stab… stab…

Itachi stabs multiple stakes through the snake's body. Orochimaru whines in pain. Itachi continues to stab him.

"Orochimaru… you will slowly pay for every dirty deed… you did… You collaborated with Danzo and experimented on my clan members… You will pay for everything by a hundredfold."

Stab… stab…

Itachi continues to stab Orochimaru's snake body.

'What… what kind of technique is this? What a powerful genjutsu? If I… if I possess his body… then this ability will be mine.'

Orochimaru licks his tongue as he completely ignores the pain.

The torture continues for seventy-two hours as only a sec passes in the actual world.

Ugh…

The stakes around Orochimaru vanish as he weakly drops to the ground.

Huff… huff…

The giant snake pants as it viciously stares at Itachi.

Chirp… chii…

'Chidori: Lightning cutter'

Itachi creates Chidori in his right hand as he closes on Orochimaru to finish him off.

Slash…

He slices Orochimaru's lower snake body in half.

Chii…

The lightning blade dissipates and Itachi slowly walks towards Orochimaru.

"Pay for your filthy crimes in the afterlife… Orochimaru."

Itachi infuses lightning in his blade and stabs towards Orochimaru's snake brain.

Haah…

Orochimaru opens his mouth wide, and another snake crawls out of it. The snake agilely moves around and approaches Itachi.

'Amaterasu'

Some blood leaks from Itachi's right eye. Black fire appears in his focal point and shrouds the snake.

Aaahhh….

Orochimaru wreathes in pain as black flames continue to burn his body.

"Farewell… Orochimaru…"

The giant snake turns into ashes. Itachi picks up some more scrolls from the research room and walks out of the hideout.

He regroups with the rest of the anbu group.

"All of you move without me… I have some things to take care of." He orders the group.

"Yes… Captain."

The group moves towards Konoha.

'This information shouldn't fall in hands of our enemy.'

Orange chakra flames appear around Itachi's body and form a chakra rib cage and a gigantic chakra arm.

"Yasaka Magatama"

Itachi forms a giant Orange Magatama and throws it towards the hideout.

BOOM…

The Yasaka Magatama explodes and covers the entire hideout.

'Time to return to Konoha.'

Itachi turns around and walks towards Konoha.

BOOM…. BOOM…

One after another explosion happens behind him as the explosion covers the entire hideout. The explosion demolishes the hideout and buries it underground.

---------------

Inside another hideout,

Bang…

A small snake figure explodes into dust. A round spectacled boy raises his head and looks at the remains of the figure.

"Seems like… Orochimaru Sama's plan failed."

He walks up to a glass container with a test subject inside it. There is a curse seal on the test subject's body.

Slash…. Slash…

He rips out some flesh from a snake in another glass container and places it on top of the seal. He summons a giant scroll. The scroll has a snake figure drawn on it and a kanji symbol for 'Sage' is carved on it. He makes some hand signs and slams his palm on the scroll.

Cyan color nature energy leaks from the scroll and infuses with the flesh and the seal. The body of the test subjects dries up as the flesh absorbs all of his vitality.

The flesh turns into a giant snake figure and continues to expand.

A boy with orange hairs and various strange marks on his body silently stares at this scene from one of the prison cells.

Kuku…

An evil laugh resounds through the hideout.