Chapter 25
Fresh wounds crisscrossed Ando's body, blood oozing sluggishly from the more recent incisions. Yet even as the injuries seeped, his Kekkei Genkai worked in quiet defiance, knitting the flesh back together. Orochimaru's golden eyes gleamed with a twisted mix of fascination and delight.
"Remarkable," he murmured, "Your natural regenerative abilities surpass anything I've encountered. Even Hashirama's fabled cells pale in comparison. But only when you're unconscious… How curious."
The Sannin selected a scalpel from a tray, its blade gleaming under the fluorescent light. He made a shallow cut across Ando's forearm. The boy remained completely unresponsive, blissfully unaware of the horrors being inflicted upon him. Within moments, the wound closed itself, the flesh knitting together as if it had never been touched.
Orochimaru pressed deeper with the next cut, slicing through muscle. Blood flowed freely, soaking the operating table, but once again, the regeneration began—slower this time but unmistakable.
As the days turned into weeks, the tests became more invasive. Broken bones, shredded muscles, ruptured organs—nothing was off-limits. Ando's body bore no scars, yet his mind would have been another story if he'd been awake. The endless cycle of injury and recovery would have frayed the resolve of even the strongest shinobi, but for now, unconsciousness shielded him from the full weight of his nightmare.
"Why does your recovery only trigger in your sleep, why?" Orochimaru mused aloud, his gaze fixed on the boy's slack face. His golden eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "Perhaps it is tied to your subconscious. I'll need to test further."
Orochimaru's experiments were relentless. Most of the time, Ando was kept in a state of induced unconsciousness, his body left to recover from injuries severe enough to kill most shinobi. Yet even as his body healed, the Sannin's curiosity only deepened. By the end of the first month, Ando's regeneration showed no signs of slowing, and Orochimaru's fascination turned to obsession.
******************************************************************************
Ando jolted awake, his breath catching in his throat. The room was dark except for the faint glow of seals etched into the walls. His body ached, his head swimming with a dull pain that never truly left him anymore.
A scream tore through the stillness, raw and filled with terror. It echoed down the corridors, chilling Ando to his core. He sat up, straining to locate the source. Which unluck soul was that? He mused silently. The scream rose again, jagged and desperate, before abruptly cutting off into silence.
Not long after, Ando caught the familiar sound of sandals striking stone echoing faintly, growing louder until a figure appeared in his vision. Orochimaru's silhouette stopped in the doorway, his golden eyes gleaming with twisted amusement. "Awake already?" he said, his tone almost conversational. "I suppose it's hard to sleep through such... vivid demonstrations."
Ando remained silent; his jaw clenched. Inside, his thoughts churned, but the fear that once paralyzed him was now muted.
Orochimaru stepped closer, his presence looming outside the bars holding Ando captive. "You're wondering about the noise, aren't you?" He tilted his head, a mockery of curiosity. "That's the work of my apprentice on a subject who didn't quite meet my expectations. A shame, really. But every failure teaches us something, wouldn't you agree?"
Ando's stomach churned at the casual way in which Orochimaru said those words. He simply stared at the man, unsure of what to say. The silence stretched between them, oppressive and suffocating.
Finally, Orochimaru chuckled. "Don't worry, Ando. Your potential far exceeds theirs. Let's hope you don't disappoint me." He turned and disappeared into the corridor, his footsteps fading into the distance.
Left alone, Ando let out a murky breath. The screams lingered in his mind, a haunting reminder of what could happen to him at any moment. He forced his thoughts back into focus. How do I get out of this?
Ando stared hard at the seals running along the walls, and sighed. "If only I had studied Mizuki's books about seal introduction, maybe I would have a chance."
Truth be told, Ando would still have had no chance even if he learned something from the advanced scrolls. Orochimaru was a master of seals. As a beginner, Ando would have a better chance trying to brute force his way out rather than trying to understand the cage.
And that's exactly what he did. Each day, Ando threw himself at the door made of steel bars with unwavering determination, turning his confinement into something akin to a grueling training regimen. It wasn't just about getting stronger; it was about keeping his mind intact. Humans needed social interaction, distractions, and goals. And Ando was deprived of more than one of those. His isolation gnawed at him in ways he hadn't expected. Training gave him focus, a way to drown out the crushing loneliness.
He struck with fists, shoulders, and feet, alternating between precise strikes and frenzied barrages. Occasionally, he incorporated ninjutsu, testing the limits of his chakra against the unyielding seals. He preferred the clang of fists against steel to the chilling conversations with Orochimaru.
Due to his research, Orochimaru had not deemed it necessary to seal Ando's chakra yet, leaving him with full access to his reserves. It was a small blessing, one that allowed Ando to train and maintain some semblance of control over his body. Compared to the other captives, Ando's situation was far better, though only because of his unique advantage: the Gamer's Body.
In this environment, waking up each day as good as new was a blessing...
As time passed, Orochimaru began testing even more extreme theories.
By the third month, the experiments shifted to endurance. Orochimaru placed Ando in a large chamber filled with artificial terrain, weights strapped to his limbs. He was forced to run endless laps, perform push-ups until collapse, and channel chakra without rest. The exercises extended for days at a time, with only brief moments of reprieve.
The Kekkei Genkai's capabilities became clearer. Not only did it heal physical wounds, but it also replenished chakra reserves—albeit at a slower rate. Orochimaru noted with fascination how Ando could rise again after mere hours of rest, his body knitting itself back together even from the brink of collapse.
Ando's thoughts gradually shifted on the other hand. It was true that Orochimaru's tests were driving him to the brink of collapse every day. But the benefits though, they were equally extreme. He was developing resistance skills, physical stats, and even his chakra reserves were growing by the day.
With whatever the researcher was injecting into Ando's body, his progress was leaps and bounds away from his previous gains.
Though, Ando started having doubts about the scientist's motives. Why was he trying to strengthen Ando's body so much? What kind of experiments would require so much preparations?
By the fifth month, Ando's regenerative abilities had actually grown stronger than day one. He had developed some special skills and perks which boosted his body, all thanks to the relentless regime he was forced to follow.
The same could not be said about his mental health. But that small detail mattered little to the Sannin. Orochimaru observed the progress with unmasked excitement. "This …," he mused. "With a little bit of tweaking, wouldn't this become the perfect vessel?"
*******************************************************************************
The next phase began with venom, marking a new level of torment in Orochimaru's experiments. In the following months, the Sannin introduced poisons designed for purposes both cruel and precise. One injection came from the venom of a serpent Orochimaru claimed could kill a grown man in moments. The mad scientist had the genius idea of injecting both antidote and poison at the same time.
Ando's veins blackened, his body convulsing until unconsciousness overtook him. Another time, a toxic brew distilled from the petals of a crimson nightshade burned through his chakra pathways, leaving him gasping for air as the substance drained his reserves. Perhaps the worst was a chakra-reactive toxin—a liquid that flared with searing pain every time Ando tried to mold chakra, forcing him to endure hours of paralyzing agony to test his limits. Each injection brought a new wave of suffering, his muscles locking, his breathing ragged as the venom worked through his system.
The pain was unbearable, each concoction calibrated to push his body past its limits and study his Kekkei Genkai's response. Often, the sheer intensity forced Ando into unconsciousness, his body collapsing under the strain, only to awaken hours later with the toxins purged and his body eerily restored.
"Your body also treats poison like an injury," Orochimaru remarked, his tone filled with fascination. "You immediately begin purging it when you pass out. Though you still need some external push to fully excel in that field."
By the ninth month, Ando's system had been subjected to dozens of venoms and chakra-based toxins. Recovery times varied—some poisons lingered longer, their effects clinging to his body like shadows. Ando's thoughts often circled back to the same bitter truth:
Being Orochimaru's test subject sucks!
The experience did not kill him, but it slowly numbed him. Little by little, Ando began to disregard his pain and injuries. His once-sharp cries dulled into groans, then to silence. His Pain Tolerance skill finally stepped into the advanced level, a bitter reward for his suffering.
The boy found solace in small victories—enduring longer than Orochimaru expected, feeling the incremental growth of his resistance skills.
*******************************************************************************
In the tenth month, Orochimaru's ambitions turned darker. He sought to merge Ando's abilities with other Kekkei Genkai. Samples of DNA from Hashirama's cells, Uchiha remnants, and artificial constructs lined the laboratory.
"If your body can stabilize these," Orochimaru said, almost reverently, "you could become something truly transcendent."
The first grafts were attempted with precision. Ando, now used to the process, did not react much. But that did not mean that the experiment went smoothly. Ando's body actually rejected the foreign cells. Momentarily halting the scientist's progress.
Orochimaru switched his focus on trying to extract Ando's kekkei genkai in the hopes of creating a clone. Unfortunately for the sanin, anything that was extracted from Ando actually started rotting far faster than the average.
The man tried various mixes of stabilizant, compounds, and even seals. But somehow, they made things worse. Ando felt some sort of sadistic joy as he watched the man struggle. Of course, it was all at his expense. After all, whenever an experiment failed, Orochimaru would just replace the used elements from Ando's body.
Still, seeing as the clone project was getting nowhere, Orochimaru decided to try and merge Ando's abilities into other people. Ando got to witness in person how brutal Orochimaru's experiments looked on others.
Most of his test subjects were kids. It was sickening to watch the man dissect them like guinea pigs. Trying all sorts of grafts, all of which ended in failure. Some of them had such an adverse reaction that they ended up turning into deformed monstrosities.
It was during these times that Ando was finally met with a familiar face.
Enzo Uchiha [LVL 18]
The once arrogant Uchiha, now reduced to a trembling figure strapped onto the cold steel of an operation table, bore an expression of sheer horror. His lips quivered, and his eyes—devoid of the arrogance that once defined him—darted frantically around the room, silently begging the mad scientist for mercy. But in Orochimaru's laboratory, mercy was an alien concept.
Orochimaru worked with cold precision, his scalpel slicing cleanly around Enzo's eye sockets. The Uchiha's screams echoed through the sterile room as he thrashed against his restraints, but the bindings held firm. With steady hands, Orochimaru removed the Sharingan, the bloodied orbs still faintly glowing with power. He placed them into a tube of greenish fluid, sealing it tightly to preserve them. Enzo's cries faded into weak, gasping sobs, but Orochimaru barely acknowledged him, treating the act as routine rather than the horrifying violation it was.
"Prepare him," The scientist ordered.
His assistant moved without hesitation, applying seals along Enzo's body to stabilize his vitals and sustain his chakra during the grafting process. Meanwhile, Orochimaru turned toward another table, where Ando lay restrained.
Ando's gaze met Orochimaru's, devoid of panic. Months of enduring the Sannin's experiments had forged a grim resolve within him, one that neither screams nor threats could shake.
"You should consider yourself fortunate, Ando," Orochimaru drawled, his voice silken with mockery. "Your Kekkei Genkai is proving far more intriguing than I initially imagined. And now, your eyes will serve a greater purpose."
He selected a scalpel, its blade gleaming ominously under the bright lights. Orochimaru began the meticulous process of removing Ando's eyes. The boy flinched but did not scream, a testament to the mental fortitude he had developed.
"Impressive," Orochimaru murmured, tilting his head as he examined the extracted eyes. "You endure well, even without sight. A rare trait, indeed."
Without delay, Orochimaru moved back to Enzo's table, carefully implanting Ando's eyes into the Uchiha's empty sockets. The seals on the Uchiha's body activated, flickering faintly as they worked to integrate the new chakra signature.
Orochimaru watched intently, his fascination evident. "If this succeeds," he muttered to himself, "we will have a Kekkei Genkai capable of rejuvenation combined with the Sharingan's unparalleled abilities. A true breakthrough."
But something was wrong. Enzo's chakra began to fluctuate wildly, his body convulsing against the restraints. The seals pulsed erratically, unable to contain the discord within.
Enzo's screams shattered the tense silence. A guttural, panicked sound tore from his throat as blood gushed from his newly grafted eyes. Streams of crimson flowed from his nose and ears, staining his horrified face.
"This reaction…" Orochimaru muttered, leaning closer to the writhing boy, as though observing a particularly intriguing specimen under a microscope.
Enzo's screams grew weaker, his body trembling violently before going completely still. The erratic pulse of the seals faded, replaced by an eerie silence. Blood pooled beneath the operation table; its metallic scent thick in the air.
Orochimaru stepped back, his expression contemplative as he regarded the lifeless body. "So, the synchronization failed…" he murmured, his voice devoid of disappointment. Instead, it carried the excitement of a scientist uncovering a new mystery.
He turned to the monitors, analyzing the chaotic chakra readings from the moments before Enzo's death. "Not the body, not the chakra… Then it must be the soul."
A slow, sinister smile spread across his face as he retrieved a scroll from a nearby shelf, its contents detailing his earlier work with the body-swap jutsu.
"This isn't the first time I've encountered this," Orochimaru mused aloud. "The soul's resistance. Of course. The essence of one being cannot simply merge with another without consequence."
His gaze shifted to Ando, still restrained on the adjacent table. Though blind, Ando could feel the weight of Orochimaru's piercing stare.
"Your Kekkei Genkai is more than just a physical trait," Orochimaru continued, his voice filled with dark anticipation. "It's tied to your very soul!"
AN: This was one of the most challenging chapters I've ever written, but I'm glad I have managed to push through and complete it!