Orochimaru agonizes in pain at his hideout, now requiring level-ten medications just to sustain his body. Even with excruciating pain Orochimaru is preparing for his transference ritual, and Kabuto can feel Orochimaru's further potential. Meanwhile Sasuke also senses the time is coming when he will have to face his mentor...

Sasuke has defeated Orochimaru. He then frees Suigetsu, a man trapped inside a water tank, and tells the man to join him. But Suigetsu does not immediately take up Sasuke's offer…