The world before Menma spun as the leader used the power of the Sharingan to 'invade' his mental space.
"Hmph! This is the Sharingan bestowed upon me by Orochimaru-sama! Let me show you its true power!"
The leader sneered, already picturing in his mind the scene of torturing this arrogant brat.
Suddenly-
A thick, metallic scent of blood mixed with the pungent smell of gunpowder assaulted his nostrils, overwhelming his senses and making him stagger backward.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself standing in the middle of a horrifying battlefield!
It was a massive crater spanning over ten kilometers, littered with severed limbs and the corpses of Ninjas. The forehead protectors of Ninjas from various villages glinted coldly amidst the pools of blood.
The sheer number of bodies was staggering… easily over ten thousand!
The nightmarish scene of mountains of corpses and rivers of blood sent chills down the leader's spine, his entire body trembling uncontrollably!
He jerked his head up and saw, at the center of the crater, beneath a crimson blood moon, a dark red fox coiled atop a mountain of corpses piled high with the bodies of countless shinobi.
Nine tails swayed gently under the moonlight.
The fox's coiled form resembled a throne, while the piled corpses served as its steps.
Upon that throne, a spiky-haired boy slowly raised his gaze, his Three-Tomoe Sharingan swirling with an indifference that looked down upon all living things.
"Scram." A single word, uttered softly, yet it exploded like thunder inside the leader's mind.
"Pfft-"
Back in the real world, the leader bleed from all seven orifices, his chest convulsing violently as if his lungs were about to burst.
Gasping for breath, he struggled to lift his head, only to find that his two subordinates were already dead. The masked figure stood before him, looking down at him with cold detachment.
"I'll be taking Orochimaru's gift for myself." Before the words even finished, two fingers dug into the leader's right eye, plucking out the Two-Tomoe Sharingan straight from its socket.
"Arrggg…!" The scream did not last long.
Menma examined the bloodied eyeball in his hand. Then, a small red-haired girl in a black hat timidly stepped out from the shadows, trembling.
"S-Sir... Orochimaru-sama invites you inside." The girl looked no older than four or five. In her hands, she held a glass container filled with a faint green liquid that shimmered slightly.
"Orochimaru is quite thoughtful, isn't he?" Menma took the container and dropped the Sharingan into the preserving fluid.
"Let's go, lead the way." Then, Menma turned his gaze to the little girl.
'Judging by her hair color and age, if I wasn't mistaken, she is likely Tayuya, one of the future Sound Five.'
'But right now, she was just a little girl who hadn't even learned to refine Chakra.'
"Y-Yes, sir." Tayuya bowed respectfully before turning to guide him forward.
The entrance to Orochimaru's hideout was located in a stone house at the very center of the village.
'It seems that this should be the future Otogakure.'
'But for now, it was merely one of Orochimaru's bases. He wouldn't officially establish Otogakure until after defecting from the Akatsuki.'
The two of them descended down a narrow passageway inside the stone house, soon arriving at a second-floor corridor overlooking a vast underground plaza.
In the center of the plaza, several test subjects were engaged in brutal combat. The surrounding cells were packed with all kinds of experimental subjects… some with grotesquely mutated limbs, others who had lost their minds, slamming themselves against the bars in madness.
On the second-floor corridor, a long-haired woman stood silently, observing the battling test subjects below.
Hearing footsteps behind her, she slowly turned her head. Her pale face, illuminated by the dim lighting of the room, looked eerily sinister.
"Orochimaru, since when did you become an orphanage director?" Menma's mocking voice came from behind the mask.
"As expected, you saw right through me." The woman smiled faintly, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear.
"You may leave now." Orochimaru dismissed Tayuya with a wave of a hand.
"Y-Yes."
After Tayuya left, Menma walked over to Orochimaru's side and stood beside him, or rather her, watching the two 'test subjects' fighting in the center of the plaza below. (T/N: I'll still regard Orochimaru as male, so he'll still be a he.)
"I searched for a long time before finding a Ninja compatible with the Sharingan. Unfortunately, he was too weak, and his talent was lacking." Orochimaru's voice had also softened, carrying a more delicate tone.
"It's normal for ordinary people to struggle with bearing such a Kekkei Genkai." Menma knew that Orochimaru had already conducted live experiments on Ninja back in Konoha and had likely realized the importance of Kekkei Genkai.
"This batch of test subjects is also quite flawed." Orochimaru's snake eyes coldly observed the test subjects fighting to the death below to please him, his gaze as indifferent as if he were looking at trash.
Then, Orochimaru spoke casually, "I heard that in the Land of Water, there's a village where the villagers have been infected by something, granting them power far beyond ordinary people, but they also easily lose control and go berserk. I plan to investigate."
"You actually want to check out Kirigakure, don't you?" Menma saw right through Orochimaru's lie.
Although he had already guessed that the village Orochimaru mentioned was likely the home of Jugo's clan, where the natural energy was so dense that it caused mutations among the villagers, granting them extraordinary abilities at the cost of frequent berserk episodes, Jugo himself, born with the ability to absorb natural energy, often lost control and killed people.
But an unstable village like that wouldn't be enough to draw Orochimaru, who had just performed the Living Corpse Reincarnation, to personally investigate.
Therefore, Orochimaru's real goal was probably to visit Kirigakure, which is now known as the [Village of the Bloody Mist], and see if he could snatch a few children with Kekkei Genkai.
"As expected, I can't fool you." Orochimaru licked his lips. He never thought that he could deceive this Shura, who came from the future.
"The power of bloodline is important, but I suggest you also put some effort into cloning technology." Menma shook the glass container slightly, causing the Sharingan inside to float gently in the liquid.
"Cloning technology?" Orochimaru stared at the Sharingan, deep in thought.
Orochimaru attaches great importance to every word spoken by Shura, as there might be hints of 'future knowledge' hidden within.
Like now, when Shura brought up cloning technology.
"I've attempted to clone the Sharingan before, but those clones... could never awaken it." Orochimaru couldn't help but recall his past experiments.
This precious Two-Tomoe Sharingan had been obtained from Danzo.
Ever since founding Root, Danzo had been collecting the corpses of Uchiha Clan's members. During the Third Great Ninja War, he had managed to acquire quite a few Sharingan.
However, his biggest haul was during the Uchiha Massacre, when Root's members gathered at least two-thirds of the clan's Sharingan… many of which were Three-Tomoe, enough for Danzo to recklessly spam Izanagi.
"The Sharingan is the ultimate external manifestation of Yin Release and spiritual energy. Whether it awakens or not is related to Yin Release." Since Orochimaru had given him this Sharingan, Menma decided to share some secrets.
"You mean... it's possible to clone Three-Tomoe Sharingan?" Orochimaru's interest was piqued. If even Three-Tomoe Sharingan could be cloned, that would mean he could mass-produce Ninja with the strength of Special Jonin!
Moreover, he had always been fascinated by the Sharingan, which is hailed as the strongest Kekkei Genkai in the Ninja World. But ordinary Sharingan no longer satisfied him.
At the very least, Three-Tomoe Sharingan were needed to spark his desire for research.
Menma didn't tell Orochimaru about the evolutions beyond the Three-Tomoe Sharingan. Instead, his eyes under the mask scanned the experimental subjects in the hall.
Most of them had Chakra levels barely reaching Genin, and many were already physically deteriorating, unlikely to live much longer.
"Now then, let's talk. What kind of deal did you come here for this time?"
Perhaps because he was currently in a woman's body, Orochimaru's tone carried a hint of coquettishness.
This made Menma feel a slight, instinctive disgust.