"What strange currency...", Orochimaru thought, rummaging through someone else's wallet, which he had recently stolen from a hapless passerby.
"Ten, twenty, fifty... That makes fifty-three units of unknown to me... pounds", Orochimaru suddenly remembered, stopping in the middle of the sparsely populated street. "Apparently, some of the neuron groups haven't had time to reorganize yet", he thought, pulling out a plastic card from the side compartment.
"Apparently an ID card", Orochimaru guessed, looking at the picture of the young blond whose face he didn't get to see as he remotely picked up the wallet with the same chakra thread.
"Ha, I've never seen that before", Surprised Orochimaru, examining the writing. "Writing that is based entirely on the romaji, which was invented exclusively for writing code words... Where did I end up?"
"Ree-chard Nel-son. Stupid name", He read. "Drive... Driver's license?", Orochimaru thought, wondering what vehicle it was for.
But the small metal unit on wheels that suddenly drove past him at genin speed quickly put everything in its place.
"Judging by the smell, it uses oil as fuel. Perhaps the principle of the engine is somewhat similar to that of a steam locomotive from the Land of Iron, but in a miniature version", He thought.
Though Orochimaru had never been particularly attracted to mechanisms, but sometimes he was interested in understanding how this or that invention worked.
"If it weren't for the warm climate, I'd think I was in some provincial town in the Land of Iron. That would explain the lack of shinobi, but it wouldn't explain the lack of samurai, which must be in every city in Iron Country."
Turning into a blind alleyway, Orochimaru walked up to a brick wall and stood a short distance away from it.
"Well, it's been nice wandering around new terrain, but I have to get to my lab right away. I need to refine my insertion technique, as well as find some test subjects somewhere to test it. Besides, I have to deal with this body", Orochimaru pondered, biting the pad of his finger and folding the seals for the Summoning Technique.
Slamming on the concrete floor, the familiar black writing began to sprawl beneath his palm, while Orochimaru himself felt his chakra slip dramatically by half.
But instead of white smoke, a sad nothing appeared before his eyes.
After standing in a half-sitting pose for about ten seconds, Orochimaru stood up calmly, and stared stupidly at the summoning seal, which began to slowly melt away before his eyes.
"No, the chakra should have been enough...", Rejected the most obvious thought Orochimaru had. "So what's the big deal?", He said aloud, looking at his bloody palm.
"Where did I always go when I was a student at the academy when I couldn't find the answer to my question? That's right, the library!" - Orochimaru guessed as he walked out of the dark alley.
"Except where is it?"
After an hour of wandering all over the city, and actively asking around the locals, Orochimaru still managed to find the small city library, which was located on the outskirts of downtown.
"Not a familiar mainland", Orochimaru thought, looking at the world map on the wall. "Another world, then?"
Orochimaru wasn't too surprised by this sudden discovery. After all, he had long since guessed that the same Ryuchi Cave was in a separate fold of space that was tied to his world. Yes, and about the different dimensions of Kaguya, he had already heard from Sasuke.
The only thing that bothered him was the fact that he would never be able to find his way to his dimension again, or would stay here for an unacceptably long time.
"I wouldn't mind staying here for a few years to explore a new world", The thought flashed through his mind. "But Mitsuki project is already halfway to completion, and I must be present for the early stages of his personality formation."
Regretfully looking out the window, Orochimaru decided:
"At the very least, Kabuto-kun should take care of that"", He sighed. ""But I shouldn't linger either."
Taking a few pre-selected books under his armpit, Orochimaru walked over to the front desk, holding out the driver's license of the man under whose henge he was now.
"Deadline: two weeks. And a pound fine for every day overdue!", a grumpy woman behind the counter rattled, putting wet stamps on the bases of each of the books.
"It's like being back in the academy...", It flashed through his mind.
"Underground tunnel technique", played in Orochimaru head as he held up a hand stamped bull.
Over the years of dungeon-building practice, Orochimaru had become well versed in earth techniques, and therefore, in most cases of doton use, he did not need to stack more than one hand seal.
After another advance a few more meters into the ground, Orochimaru stopped to recover his chakra from the seal again.
After a moment, Orochimaru folded the bull's seal again to continue trampling the ground on his sides, with further advancement into the depths.
"I think fifteen meters should be enough", Orochimaru thought, letting go of the technique.
"We need to make one east tunnel, and a second northwest tunnel", He pondered. "I'll use the first one as a study, and make a storage room there for things that aren't too important. On the second, I'll apply genjutsu, and set up a bedroom with an operating room there. That's all I'm strong enough for now", He thought, feeling his chakra through already starting to ache a bit from using too much chakra too intensely, like from a long workout.
"I'll put a temporary genjutsu on the entrance for now, and go to town for groceries. Oh, and I should get a calligraphy kit", He decided, walking up the slope of the tunnel. "I should make some more steps. But that's for when I get back."
"Tsk, ouch!", Orochimaru proclaimed, burning another piece of paper with a small burst of katon.
For an hour now, he had been trying to draw a enclosing seal on a simple piece of paper. Expectedly, he couldn't find any chakra-conducting paper in any of the stores. What surprised him most was the lack of calligraphy kits in all the stationery stores he visited. So he had to improvise by buying drawing brushes and ink separately.
But what frustrated him the most was that the local ink was totally unsuitable for drawing seal. This, too, he expected, but thought adding his own blood would fix the situation. But it didn't work. "Apparently, the chemicals in the ink completely strip the blood of its chakra-conducting properties", He thought at the time.
So he had to draw with his own blood from and through, which he was not happy about, to say the least.
"There wasn't much blood in this body to waste so actively", He grumbled to himself as he took out another sheet of paper.
"I should have practiced on regular ink first before I cut my fingers", He thought, dipping the brush into a small container of his own blood. "This body's muscle memory is completely unaccustomed to drawing with a brush."
Making himself comfortable on his customary stone throne, only smaller in size, Orochimaru set to painting again.
"Legilimens!", The pale, greasy-haired man proclaimed angrily, pointing his wand in the direction of the woman tied to a chair.
After standing in the same pose for a dozen seconds, the man turned toward the long-haired old man with the big gray beard and the colorful robe, who had been standing at the entrance to the living room with a serious expression on his face the whole time.
He looked anxiously at the black-haired man, as if awaiting a verdict.
"Alive", he said briefly, hiding his wand in the sleeve of his robe.
The old man suddenly perked up, and seemed a dozen years younger.
"Do you know where he is?", He asked him hopefully.
"I have no idea", he said grimly, "but there's something you need to see."
The old man, emerging from the giant wooden bowl, was in the deepest thoughtfulness.
"What do you think, Dumbledore?", Asked the same man in a black robe who was now standing practically at the other end of the large office.
"First of all", he began, after thinking for a moment, "get in touch with my Muggle-born friends at the English Department of Children's Rights. I'll give you the contacts."
"Shall I put him in charge of finding the boy?"
"No," he answered at once, "better call an inspector, and tell them about the conditions in which he found himself. Show them some of the memories, and they'll sort it out. But tell them not to put too much pressure on Petunia. After all, her husband's sudden death is already a serious punishment."
"And what about the Potter offspring?"
"Severus", he said sternly, "stop it. I may wear glasses, but I'm far from blind. I can see that you're on edge right now, too."
Named Severus could only grin his face unhappily at these words.
"So, what's the second thing?"
"Well, what about Harry himself," he sighed as he sat down wearily at his desk, "I'm afraid this is far from the Harry we all expected..."