An Extremely Special Clone Technique

"I think you should understand the most basic concept of genes, right?"

Before explaining this, Sakura has a question. The Ninja Academy teaches a lot of basic common sense, but for more in-depth content, you'll need to learn it on your own.

However, Sasuke was once a top student who got perfect scores in all subjects, just like Sakura, so this advanced knowledge was no challenge for him.

"Of course I know that. Just say what you mean, no need to beat around the bush," Sasuke, sounding a little impatient.

He loathed anything related to Orochimaru, and if it weren't for Sakura Haruno, he would have stormed off long ago and wouldn't have had the patience to listen to anyone's explanation.

Sakura didn't say much more and went straight to the point, "So you also know the process of how sperm and egg each carry half of the mother's genes, and then combine to form a fertilized egg?"

"Uh!" Sasuke choked on the girl's academic terminology, and the words he was about to say suddenly stopped.

The skill level is still too low.

Compared to her, a seasoned veteran who had been exposed to vulgarity online for many years in her previous life, he was still too naive. Even a purely academic question stumped him.

Sakura pursed her lips and continued, "Normal humans reproduce through sexual reproduction. Cloning technology, simply put, is asexual reproduction technology, which means that the father and mother of a newborn are the same person. There's actually nothing bloody or inhumane about it..."

This statement might be debatable in her previous life, but in the Hokage world... by the moral standards of this world, the ethical issues of cloning are hardly a problem. People here live hand to mouth and don't have time to think about such trivial matters!

Therefore, the truly bloody part is what happens after successful cloning, when the clones are used for human experiments...

Sasuke quickly realized this as well. He jumped off the table, sneered, and said, "Avoiding the important and focusing on the trivial!"

"I admit, there's nothing wrong with cloning technology itself, but you've created a clone," he said, pointing to the scrolls and books on the ground still stained with blood, "Are you going to raise her as if she were your own daughter?"

A pointed rhetorical question.

This is the biggest problem with Sakura's planned human experiments.

She created the clones, of course, to use them in place of her to conduct some dangerous experiments.

For example, Cherry Blossom Impact: Stage Three, which could burn out nerves at any moment, or the Hokuto Shinken, which could strike a fatal point at any moment.

Or perhaps they are used as human batteries for the Yin Seal; as spare bodies and organ banks after one suffers severe disability or injury...

And her treatment of clones would inevitably be bloody...

Sasuke's ability to raise such a question indicates that he has touched upon the core of the problem.

Using a pig or cow for experiments is obviously not bloody or cruel, after all, there are no animal rights cults in this world.

So the key question is, are clones considered human?

"Sasuke, what's your definition of 'human'?" Sakura Haruno shifted her position on the table, leaning back slightly, and calmly asked, "If something has a human body but not a human soul and thoughts, would it be considered a person?"

The girl was naturally prepared for Sasuke's question...

Or, if she doesn't first convince herself of the problem, how can she possibly continue?

To act against one's conscience? That wouldn't be the real her...

Without waiting for Sasuke's reply, she unleashed her Ninjutsu: "Ice Release: Ice Clone!"

Sakura Haruno created was a medical Ice Clone that was a complete replica of her original self.

However, she did not complete all the hand seals. The Ice Release only completed the Shape Transformation, replicating the girl's physical body, but not her spirit, just like the Ninjutsu she had used on Yugao before.

The clone lay on the low table where she and Hinata had previously used for their Cherry Blossom Impact experiments. Sasuke knew about this technique, glanced at the clone on the table, and shook his head, saying, "A clone certainly doesn't count as a person."

"Yeah?"

Sakura Haruno smiled mysteriously, walked over, lifted her clone's clothes to reveal her abdomen, and conjured a sharp ice blade in her hand.

"How about this?"

She gently cut open the clone's flat abdomen, the ice blade slicing through the skin and severing the muscles, dark red blood gradually flowing out. Sakura applied a little force, tearing the wound open, revealing the clone's perfectly replicated internal organs and intestines inside the abdominal cavity.

Sasuke's face turned grim.

"Alright, stop doing this." He said, his face ashen.

It's not that he can't stand bloodshed, but killing an opponent and torturing an opponent are two different things. In battle, he can be ruthless towards enemies; but disemboweling a living person challenges his moral compass—even though it's just a clone. The clone is too realistically replicated, and the bloody scene of organs being dug out while the person is still alive always gives him a sense of guilt for torturing living beings.

"Did you see that?" Yingyi stopped what she was doing, threw the ice skate aside, clapped her hands, and said, "From beginning to end, apart from instinctive actions, she didn't have any human reaction. She didn't cry out in pain, didn't cry, didn't beg, and didn't speak."

"Because apart from resembling a human in appearance, this clone has no thoughts or emotions, and therefore does not exhibit any 'human' reactions. Under these circumstances, do you still consider her a person?"

Sasuke shook his head vigorously, dispelling the strange nausea in his mind, and only after regaining his composure did he say:

"This is just a clone."

"No, the difference between the clone and this doppelganger is that the clone doesn't turn into ice like the doppelganger after it dies." Sakura shook her head and waved her hand to disperse the Ice Clone on the low table.

Seeing this, Sasuke breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"Clones are real, living beings with flesh and blood... Don't they scream and cry when you hurt them?" Sasuke asked. "They are intelligent, thinking, real human beings!"

"Does having a brain mean you can think?" Sakura waved her hand, dismissing Sasuke's idea.

Sakura wasn't being sarcastic about those brainless idiots; she was being serious.

She explained it to Sasuke.

If we consider the brain as the hardware of a computer, then human thought and emotion are the software. The latter, as the software of a 'human,' is not something one is born with—except for Sakura Haruno, who is a time traveler—but rather something that is continuously absorbed into the brain and developed over the next ten years through receiving external information and interacting with the outside world, thus forming one's own thought patterns.

Therefore, although the clones created by Sakura have brains from birth, they are completely blank slates in terms of thinking and emotions, even blanker than newborn babies, equivalent to embryos still in the womb—after all, newborn babies have at least heard their mothers' voices for a few months.

Even in that peaceful country of my previous life, unborn fetuses did not enjoy human rights protections...

In short, whether clones are considered human beings and enjoy human rights in the Hokage world is a matter of opinion.

Sakura Haruno believes that what truly determines whether a person is "human" is whether they possess human thought, spirit, and soul. This isn't an excuse for conducting such experiments or a self-deception, but rather, as a time traveler, her personal experiences genuinely give her reason to believe that, compared to the physical body, the soul is the more essential element representing a person's existence...

In short, Sakura would never allow the clones she created to develop self-awareness; instead, she would leave them as empty shells of flesh.

Her planned base won't be too large—after all, she hasn't taken many instruments and materials from Orochimaru's base yet. After a breakthrough in cloning technology, she will cultivate a small number of clones based on herself. After being induced by Ninjutsu, these clones will become living beings with only biological instincts and no consciousness, for her own experiments.

This clone is essentially no different from the Ice Clone she just created, except that the latter is Chakra body and will dissipate once the Chakra supply stops, while the former is a physical body and will decay once the nutrient supply stops. Aside from that, there is no fundamental difference...

What she needs to do next is to project her spirit into the clone and manipulate that body to develop those dangerous Ninjutsu.

This is a clever application of the Clone Technique.

All Clone Technique can be divided into two steps: the first step is to construct a physical form by replicating one's own image, and the second step is to copy one's spirit and project it onto the physical form.

The difference lies primarily in the method of constructing the form—is it Chakra phantom or Chakra entity, or is it formed using a medium such as water, ice, or wood? This determines whether they become ordinary clones, Shadow Clone, Water Clone, Ice Clone, Wood Clone, and so on...

Secondly, after the mental projection goes there, is the mental connection with the original body maintained, or is it in a "disconnected" state? This is the difference between a medical Ice Clone and a combat Ice Clone...

The Ice Clone that Sakura just created was only the first step. Her plan is to treat the clone as a special clone that has already completed the first step, and then use Ninjutsu on this special clone for the second step.

In short, from this perspective, cloning is nothing more than a special kind of Clone Technique, similar to Ninjutsu such as Ice Clone, and could perhaps be called Clone Duplicate or something similar.

So Sakura doesn't think there's anything inhumane about what she's doing. What's the difference between abusing a normal body and a clone?

After discussing this topic, the issue has risen to a philosophical level.

Sasuke discovered that no matter how he considered the problem, it would ultimately come back to that philosophical question.

Can a clone that only has a physical body but no spirit be considered a "person"?

For a moment, he didn't know how to answer.

(/.)

(A new volume, a new week, please recommend!!! Please subscribe!! Give me some votes, at least let Water Release stay on the weekly recommendation list in the world of anime~)