Inside the brightly lit room, Orochimaru slowly peeled off his rubber gloves. His white lab coat reflected the light as he turned toward Naruto-kun, who sat not far away.
A crisp snap echoed as the gloves were discarded.
"Have they left?"
He did not walk Sasuke to the door. Orochimaru understood all too well—goodbyes were unnecessary pain, and truth was the only thing that mattered.
"They left…," Naruto murmured, a faint bitterness tugging at his lips. "I didn't expect the future to be even harsher than we imagined."
"We imagined it clearly enough from the very start," Orochimaru replied. "Ever since Kaguya."
He brewed tea with deliberate calm—something he never cared for originally, but Naruto did. Over time, Orochimaru discovered its taste resembled an experiment: bitter at first, unexpectedly pleasant afterward.
He had grown to enjoy it.
From the beginning, both Naruto and Orochimaru knew the truth:
Future Sasuke merely altered the past. He did not change the future.
Only the Sasuke of this timeline could do that.
Yet none of them spoke of it. Even Future Sasuke avoided the topic.
To rewrite a cruel destiny—even if only a dream—for Future Sasuke, that was already a comfort worth pursuing.
Naruto let out a soft sigh. He knew from the start that confronting that terrifying power would be hellishly difficult. But having witnessed the devastation of the future firsthand, his heart still churned.
At least, he was grateful. If Future Sasuke had not come, he would never have paid the price necessary to awaken and condense the Divine Ability Seed within him—a feat requiring tremendous sacrifice.
Orochimaru placed a cup before him. "Naruto-kun, what do you need this time?"
Naruto would never visit him without purpose. A simple call would've sufficed otherwise.
"There is something I need your help with."
He spoke without concealment.
"Do you have any method to increase the innate talent of the people of the Ninja World? The gap between the Ninja World and the Ōtsutsuki Clan is still far too large."
"Most people are stuck at the Super-Kage level. Only a handful can break past it."
Naruto had been thinking about this problem for a long time. Although the world seemed to be progressing rapidly, he knew the truth—everyone was merely tapping into their existing limits. Their potential would soon plateau.
And they no longer had the luxury of waiting for rare geniuses to appear.
If they wanted to survive, the overall talent of the entire Ninja World needed to rise.
Orochimaru's expression didn't change. "Abandon that idea. Even if I had a method, there aren't enough resources to apply it universally. The Ninja World cannot sustain such an overhaul."
As expected, their perspectives differed. Their roles shaped their priorities.
"Right now," Orochimaru continued, "the ways to strengthen our warriors are limited. Improving innate talent is only one path. We can also optimize Chakra Refining Techniques, refine Martial Arts Guidance Methods, use higher-efficiency resources, or improve combat formations—allowing many to combine strength to produce disproportionate power."
Naruto nodded. But all of this required time—too much time.
Even with Future Sasuke's help, they had only updated the cultivation system twice, and even then, there was no groundbreaking shift.
He fell silent, deep in thought. Orochimaru did not interrupt. Naruto was a top-tier genius; sometimes brilliance surfaced in a single moment of clarity.
"…That's it," Naruto suddenly muttered. "I've been thinking too rigidly."
"The process of cultivation is transformation. So why not make transformation itself the path? Let change occur during the cultivation process."
A spark flashed across his mind—an explosion of new thought and possibility.
Orochimaru's golden eyes brightened. "Naruto-kun… what are you thinking?"
"I have a concept. I call it the Internal Cultivation Method."
"The idea is to circulate Chakra—no, energy—within the body endlessly. During that process, we construct a miniature Spirit-Gathering Array inside the body itself. Treat the body as a treasure. Treat its refinement as the forging of a tool."
"Martial arts strengthen the body through blood and qi, leading to gradual transformation. Ultimately, all of it leads to one place—Natural Energy."
Natural Energy was a type of Heaven and Earth Energy. In the Ninja World, Chakra was also a form of Heaven and Earth Energy.
Naruto looked up, eyes sharp with newfound resolve.
"If cultivating Chakra is the foundation, then Internal Cultivation will be the evolution. A path that lets even ordinary shinobi break their limits… and one day stand against the Ōtsutsuki."
Orochimaru smiled—quiet, serpentine, intrigued.
"Now this," he whispered, "sounds like the beginning of a brand new era."
"The physique of a martial artist is astonishing—their qi and blood burn like a scorching sun. Their spirit undergoes transformation, allowing them to comprehend the true intent of martial arts and open their acupoints like a miniature heaven and earth."
Naruto-kun's gaze sharpened. Martial Arts Guidance Techniques and martial arts realms were only the foundational methods. Transformation came from training—but why not devise a more efficient method of training itself? A complete cultivation technique. After all, special and powerful cultivation techniques often allowed practitioners to grow stronger during the act of cultivation.
"Ninja," Naruto continued, "fuse life force and spirit, refine Chakra, and manipulate the power of heaven and earth. Chakra can transform endlessly. Understanding its changes is essentially understanding the application of rules."
In simple terms:
Martial artists are warriors.
Ninja are mages.
Martial arts temper the self.
Ninjutsu governs heaven and earth.
"Chakra, Ninjutsu, secret arts, training systems—they're all methods to make people stronger," Naruto said. "Powerful Ninjutsu and forbidden techniques produce miraculous results. So why don't we research a cultivation art that's efficient and applicable to every stage?"
He paused, then began outlining the concept forming in his mind.
Orochimaru listened quietly, interest gleaming in his serpent-like eyes.
A technique that could continuously strengthen the practitioner, like a foundational cultivation method… such a concept felt revolutionary. Perhaps it could even push his own research further.
He was already thinking about finding suitable volunteers—not guinea pigs, of course—for experimentation.
Soon after, the organization initiated formal research into Naruto-kun's proposal, and Naruto himself joined the development. The idea came from a distant, instinctive memory buried deep inside him—something he had always felt was incomplete in the Ninja World's system.
The Chakra Refining Technique was merely the beginning. Beyond that, there should exist a sequence of cultivation techniques, each improving upon the last.
Only then could it be called a complete cultivation path.
The next challenge was clear:
How to maximize the strength of the current Ninja World once again.
They had not fully displayed their potential at all.
Many shinobi were held back by the lack of suitable Ninjutsu, proper experience, and the countless detours they took on their path. Most people cultivated blindly, without guidance. Even those with teachers often learned very little—after all, not every village had the privileged structure of the Konoha 12, who were taught by elite Jōnin.
Most people were taught by ordinary Chūnin, and sometimes not even that.
Now was the time to gather people capable of training the entire Ninja World, elevating everyone together.
A new system of cultivation was about to begin.