Kabuto moved inside the laboratory, looking at various blood samples placed on the various shelves, contemplating which one to choose next.
His mind was occupied by complex thoughts. He had lot of work to do, after all. He wasn't even close accomplishing any of his goals. He hadn't even surpassed Orochimaru yet. It would take some time until he fully absorbed cells. But Kabuto looked further into future than that. Edo Tensei was powerful tool, and he was working to make it even stronger. But still, external power wasn't enough. There was far more needed to become perfect being than just one forbidden jutsu. After all, it was just a tool to push him forward, to not only surpass Lord Orochimaru, but to reach the height that no man ever had. Before he did that, though, there was long and arduous road in front of him.
Suddenly, intense pain assaulted his senses. And his entire body was relentlessly attacked by something from within. Struggle for body's ownership begun again. Lord Orochimaru's cells were constantly attempting to take over, attacking him and waiting him to loose control. And sometimes, it became more relentless than usual, like it did just now.
Kabuto didn't mind though. Rather, he welcomed it. This pain, this struggle, it was what made it clear that he was still alive, still himself. It was constant reminder of who he was and what he wished to achieve.
He expected as much moment he decided taking Lord Orochimaru's cells and transfusing into his body. And more the time passed, more relentless assaults became, yet he kept growing stronger. Half of his body had already been adapted and been modified. Yet, as the difficulty to keep the sanity kept increasing, so did his power.
He didn't stop at that though. Sakon, Jugo, Suigetsu. He kept strengthening himself with different vassals of Orochimaru. The man truly had nag for it, didn't he? One after another, he kept discovering interesting individuals with unique talents. And it further helped him traverse the path towards perfection.
After some time, the pain subsided and he regained control again. He felt mentally exhausted, but it wasn't anything he wasn't used to at this point. Feeling he got after he won another battle all but made up for it. Not to mention, he could feel small, but noticeable increase of his chakra.
"Let's see… which one should I choose next? Hmm."
He tapped his finger over table, where bunch of cell samples were placed, absorbed by the various thoughts. He wasn't really concerned about something like this. His mind mostly kept thinking about how to approach Akatsuki and deal with its leader.
"Hmm… It doesn't really matter. I have to just-"
Suddenly, he stopped. Something, or someone had caught his attention.
Interesting. Who could this be. Who did manage to track him down?
He was certain only him and Orochimaru knew about the existence of this particular hideout. It was made specifically for him, after all.
Presence he sensed was murky, as they weren't too close to the island yet. However, that soon changed as he felt sudden alarm after properly getting feel of the opponent's chakra.
Kabuto took out storage seal and crammed inside whatever he considered important. If his opponent was some sort of weakling, killing would be an obvious choice. But that was not case. And he didn't want to reveal his ace yet. Not when he could be observed by enemy.
It was time to ditch this place.
• • •
Kakuzu stepped foot on the rocky terrain of the island housing a special laboratory. He departed almost instantly when he heard the report. This problem was of too priority after all.
If he did manage to kill Kabuto, he would free himself of the huge headache. It significantly reduced things he had to look out for, allowing him to concentrate on the remaining events. Obito Uchiha would be pain to deal with, especially when he was this outclassed in strength, but he had an idea in mind. It wasn't time yet, but for him to have a chance, he had to pay a visit to a certain copy ninja. Before then, though, he would push this bodies potential to the limit.
Not to mention, he was interested in what he could get from Kabuto. He estimated that Kabuto's potential should rank around higher D or lower C, far higher than average jonin would. But that was before Kabuto underwent through some changes. After infusing Orochimaru's cells into himself though, who knew what changes his body underwent? He wondered how much potential Sanins had. He suspected it to be somewhere in the rank B. But power and potential weren't exactly same. And he didn't have reference to strength of individuals who could content with Kages. Only person he had an idea of, was Hashirama. But he was so out of reach compared to others, he wasn't sure he could use that as a reference. He needed to directly come in contact with individual's chakra to have an idea of their potential, but it wasn't necessarily accurate unless he got hold of their heart.
Strongest person he managed to extract a heart from before his reincarnation, would rank around C. It wasn't easy to defeat a truly strong shinobi while keeping their body intact. Especially before his abilities of it went through a boost.
Therefore, if Kabuto's experiment proved to be satisfactory, he might look into the subject and pay visit to Hiroshi after a while. It could unlock a way for his spirits to get stronger. After all, more the power ceiling increased, less useful they became to assist him in fights.
He already planned to see what scientist accomplished after having near-death epiphany and coming up with semi-successful result. Reports he received weren't really helpful, as scientist didn't have ability to properly explain his knowledge. But it seemed he made some progress. At least he would have access to kamikaze squad. Since, after Hiroshi had ingenious idea of feeding one of his spirits the potion, it just blew up. Explosion was massive enough to even arise sense of jealousy from Deidara. Whole laboratory would be blown up if scientist hadn't conducted experiment in a field. Though, he almost died while doing so.
He left the dragon, that used to faster traverse the ocean, underwater.
He had to act fast. He had to get close to the target as close as possible before detected, unless he wanted to face a rather troublesome technique.
The island had few closely constructed buildings where laboratory resided. He wasn't certain which room Kabuto would be in. All he could do was guess from the rough outline of the buildings.
He stepped inside one of the buildings and swiftly advanced towards the main laboratory. He passed few rooms, but there was no sign of movement. He approached the one that seemed to be hausing the laboratory and slowly opened the door.
Inside the room was something similar to the laboratory where he found Hiroshi, although more advanced. Flasks, tubes and numerous materials could be seen placed in the shelves and even in the table. In addition, there was huge machine placed in the middle of the room.
However, his instincts screamed at danger before he could properly observe the place. Rectangular pieces of papers with inscriptions caught his attention. Whole room was riddled with the explosive tags, placed into various parts of the room. And in an instant, whole placed went into flames.
The walls of the room collapsed and rubble fell on top of him, but Kakuzu had no time nor need pay such things attention. He dispelled Diamond Morph technique and jumped out of the building.
There was sound of crashing coming from outside. The moment the explosion went off, the dragon had sent him a signal. Meaning it had detected something. It seemed Kabuto had sensed him and tried to get rid of him. He should have expected as much from him.
Outside, a giant serpent hissed and lunged at the dragon. Which responded in kind and sent firestorm, produced by dozens of fire spirits, at the snake.
While two monsters wrestled with each other, Kakuzu noticed a person nearby, standing on the cliff bordering the sea, draped in the robes. He turned around and noticed Kakuzu approaching him with an alarming speed.
Stood with no other choice, Kabuto clicked in annoyance and slammed his palms together.
"Summoning Jutsu: Impure World Reincarnation!"
Jutsu was casted, and several coffins begun to rise from the ground one after another.
Moment the coffins appeared, alarm bells began ringing inside Kakuzu's mind and his instinct screamed of imminent danger. And when one of the coffins opened, his promotion turned true, revealing person inside that radiated distinctly dangerous aura. Aura that, he instantly realized, belonged to Itachi Uchiha.