The Windmill Turns Both Ways

Grains of Sand

I Will Become the Wind

Chapter 0: Grains of Sand

Reign of the Godaime Hokage, year one

The gas lantern fizzled to life, and Kabuto snuffed the match on the metal tray below it. He turned around to examine the overburdened bookshelves lining the study. Despite his many years working for Orochimaru, he had yet to enter this room.

Technically, he shouldn't be in here. The seal on the door was designed to respond only to Orochimaru. Kabuto had gotten around that with a minor bit of treachery: stealing some of Orochimaru's blood.

Desperate times, as they say.

He had no idea if anything useful would be among these dusty books and scrolls. But the team sent to escort Sasuke was very late. Too late for him to become the vessel for this iteration. They both knew it.

Still. The failure made Kabuto restless. It chafed at his perfectionist nature. So to stop himself from circling how over and over in his mind, he went exploring.

His hand paused over a thin volume that looked hand bound—some kind of research log or journal. He slipped it from the shelf and leafed through it slowly.

It seemed less like a scientific record, and more like a series of musings. Kabuto's interest waned quickly when he realized it was all theoretical.

Then the words 'Edo Tensei' caught his eye, and he quickly backtracked to the beginning of the entry.

For all its mystery, the essence of living things can be understood as energy .

The only difference between a living soul and a dead one is how malleable they are. Dead souls can never change. Even if they are brought back to the living world, they must stay as they were at the moment of death. That is one of the few ways to defeat the Edo Tensei summoning technique.

On the other hand, no matter what happens to a living soul, it will keep going—growing, adapting —until the body dies. That tenacity is more powerful than anything the Edo Tensei can produce.

My existence, unbound by the limits of one physical form, has already proved that.

But there are even more possibilities, still untapped.

"Well, now. Snooping in sealed rooms while I am stuck in bed?"

Orochimaru leaned heavily on the door frame. His naturally pale face was clammy and taut with barely concealed pain. But he was smiling.

"No." Kabuto lowered the notebook and pushed the bridge of his glasses back. "I thought there might be something else to help improve your condition. That being said, you should rest more. Sasuke-kun will arrive soon."

"For all the good it will do now." Orochimaru chuckled darkly. "You won't find anything like that in here. These projects are all failures. Or to look at it optimistically, problems that don't have solutions yet."

"What is this? The Nidaime's resurrection jutsu?" Kabuto said, turning back to the book with interest.

"It's a prototype based on the Nidaime's theories. The natural conclusion of his research into space-time and energy transference. Or—that is what I would say, if it were possible. There is no vessel that can hold living souls from another plane. Not even a perfect genetic replica of the target. It isn't the same as splitting one's energy horizontally within the same plane, as in the Kage Bunshin jutsu."