Experiment

Unlike Xiao, who was so poor in the cave that she couldn't even afford to light a candle.

Inside the underground base that Sakura Haruno had taken over, the lights were on full display. She had lit a large number of candles, illuminating the entire laboratory with a bright white glow.

Although, the time right now is just white...

"Yes, it's completely finished!"

The young girl carefully took the container full of nutrient solution off the shelf, looked at the heart beating vigorously in the yellow liquid, and smiled.

A few days ago, this pink heart was just an inexplicable lump of flesh, composed of a large number of embryonic stem cells. After cultivating the stem cells to a sufficient number, Sakura began to use Medical Ninjutsu to stimulate the stem cells to undergo the next stage of differentiation.

They are differentiated from stem cells into heart cells, then form cardiac tissue, and finally form the heart.

Unlike the previous stage, where simply providing nutrition from time to time allowed the embryonic cells to grow on their own, this stage is different.

She had to monitor the entire process and operate it herself, so Sakura hadn't left the base for several days in a row.

The task progress naturally slowed down—fortunately, she still had plenty of time left.

Moreover, her main body primarily handles long-distance and difficult tasks; those shorter and easier tasks are handled by her Ice Clone.

Sakura Haruno's Ice Clone's combat power depends on how much Chakra the original body allocates to the clones. The clones cannot use Nintaijutsu, taijutsu, Cherry Blossom Impact, or Yin Seal, and their Chakra manipulation skills are far inferior to the original body's. However, they can use Water Release and Ice Release, and they are quite proficient in Ice Release. They also inherit her Taijutsu experience, so their combat power is not bad.

More importantly, she has now mastered some Yin Release techniques, although only superficially. However, by integrating Yin Release abilities into Ice Release, the strength of her Ice Release Ninjutsu has also increased.

With enough Chakra, her Ice Clone could easily Jonin against a typical Jonin.

In short, the previous approach of having the clones guard the base while the main body went out to carry out missions has been changed to having the main body remain underground while the clones complete the missions.

The experiment progressed quickly and smoothly.

Because of her carefulness, all twenty hearts that Sakura Haruno nurtured this time developed perfectly.

"What a pity. If we had enough materials, we could have cultivated another batch." Sakura took all the containers off the shelf and arranged them neatly in front of her, still feeling unsatisfied.

However, she had no choice. The special biocatalyst that could promote cell dedifferentiation and differentiation was a prohibited substance that could not be accessed in Konoha because it involved human experiments. Sakura could only produce it herself at the main base in the Land of Snow, and the previous production was not large. This round of experiments had already used it all up.

However, twenty hearts might be enough for an emergency.

Since her battle with Sasori, Sakura has been quite busy with many missions, and hasn't accumulated much Chakra, only about the amount she had when she fought Kakuzu.

While fighting Sasori, Sakura squandered the Chakra she had stored up for half a year. Having tasted the exhilarating feeling of not having to worry about running out of Chakra, Sakura was so used to it that she naturally couldn't bear to return to the state of Chakra scarcity she had before.

In the parallel world, she was actually a little apprehensive when fighting the strange man who called himself Madara Uchiha; fortunately, the environment was special at the time, and no one used large-scale Ninjutsu that consumed a lot of Chakra. If they only used those clever tactics, Sakura's Chakra reserves were more than enough.

Sakura submerged her palm in the container, her index finger lightly touching her heart. Chakra surged in her hand, and then tadpole-shaped black spells crawled out from the girl's fingertips, spreading to her heart and quickly covering the entire heart. The complex and dazzling spells completely enveloped the heart.

"Secret Technique: Yin Seal Copying Technique!"

A burst of eerie blue Chakra light flashed. After the blinding blue light subsided, the vine-like patterns that had covered his heart disappeared, leaving only a magnificent purple mark at the center.

A new Sealing Jutsu was thus engraved into the heart of the container.

This Yin Seal Copying Technique is Ninjutsu she developed specifically for the second stage of the Yin Seal. It originates from the Rune Reduction Copying Technique that accompanies the Yin Sealing Jutsu (see Chapter 17), which was originally used to shrink the Yin Seal technique onto the skin.

However, that method can only print the runes one by one. Because the Chakra generated by different users is different, the Yin Seal technique needs to be slightly adjusted, so the entire Yin Sealing Jutsu technique cannot be copied at once.

However, for bodies of the same origin, such fine-tuning is unnecessary. She can simply copy her entire Yin Seal and transfer it to her heart; or, as in the parallel world—when Sakura Haruno left the Haruno Clan in the parallel world, she gave this trick as a blessing to the original Sakura because she didn't bring any gifts.

She was quite cute back then.

Sakura Haruno from both worlds is essentially quite similar; the only difference is that this Sakura has the spiritual core of a transmigrator.

Therefore, the Yin Seal she transmitted easily merged into Loli Sakura's body; then it began to modify her body to adapt to Ice Release.

Here, the girl used the Copying Secret Technique on the hearts in front of her one by one. Soon, all twenty hearts were imprinted with the mysterious and magnificent Yin Seal. Next, she injected Sakura's abundant spiritual power to make the hearts generate Chakra, which was then collected by the Yin Seal and transferred to her forehead.

Sakura took a deep breath.

"Here we go..."

By concentrating her will, or spiritual power, Sakura suddenly produced a pale blue, crystalline rod in her hand—a transformation resulting from the use of spiritual power to create matter from nothing after infusing Yin Release Shape Transformation!

It shares a similarity with the legendary black stick—the willpower stick.

The edges of the thin rod were like smoke and mist, making its outline indistinct. This was because Sakura's mastery of Yin-Yang Release was far from sufficient.

Throughout the entire Shinobi World, there are very few people who have studied Yin-Yang Release, and information about it is extremely scarce.

Konoha is one of the few ninja villages that has preserved the Yin-Yang Release techniques. After all, its two creators were masters of Yin-Yang Release: the First Hokage was skilled in Yang Release and integrated it into Wood Release, gaining incredible power; while Madara Uchiha was skilled in Yin Release, and with the energy of his Sharingan, the power of Yin Release complemented his Kekkei Genkai, making him a super strong person second only to Hashirama Senju.

Sakura Haruno has recently been able to learn a little bit of Yin Release because Sasuke found Madara Uchiha's training notes in their Uchiha warehouse a few Sasuke ago.

Unfortunately, this guy wrote it in an extremely unrestrained style, full of the arrogance of a powerful figure—meaning Sasuke couldn't understand it at all, and in the end, he had to give it to Sakura to study together.

Sakura was fortunate enough to see Madara Uchiha's handwritten notes: apart from purely lyrical reflections on his training, they were just a jumble of nonsensical words piled up with all sorts of inexplicable terms—those terms might not have been Madara's own invention; perhaps at that time, Madara still harbored ambitions to emulate the Sage of Sage of Six Paths and establish his own sect.

In short, the rationalist Sakura was extremely reluctant to accept such notes.

However, Madara Uchiha was still a prodigy. Although his writing was a mess, more like self-indulgent daydreams than formal notes, he did manage to glean some insightful observations in his fragments, which Sakura Haruno seized upon as if they were a treasure.

Yin-Yang Release, independent of the five basic Release Techniques, has now been passed down primarily as a clan Secret Technique and Medical Ninjutsu. It is an attribute with power far exceeding that of ordinary Release Techniques, possessing a variety of miraculous effects; however, since Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, no one has been able to fully master this energy.

With Madara Uchiha's notes, Sakura Haruno's comprehension, and her exceptional mental strength and Chakra control, she finally achieved this result—the ability to condense her mental power into a visible substance, namely, thin blue rods.

Sakura was somewhat surprised that spiritual power could condense into this form; Yin Release was indeed amazing.

In Madara Uchiha's notes, it is mentioned that the legendary Rinnegan can transform spiritual power into thin black rods. Unlike Sakura's, which is incredibly hard and has various amazing functions, Sakura's blue rods are as brittle as cookies—so much so that she never even considered using them for combat; their only function is to conduct Chakra.

The two are completely incomparable.

It seems that without the Rinnegan or other bloodlines passed down from the Six Paths, one cannot master this skill and can only produce such counterfeit products; the world has once again mocked ordinary ninjas like Sakura.

The difference in color between the two is probably because its external form is related to the user's inner spirit—"I really am a very pure person," Sakura thought when she first saw its crystal-clear and shiny form.

Whether it's counterfeit or knock-off, it plays a significant role in providing assistance.

For example, it can be used to transmit spiritual energy into the heart in front of her, which is extremely efficient.

The crystalline blue rod, as clear and beautiful as ice, split off branches, spreading out like a tree trunk, and inserted into the heart, emitting a gentle yet bright fluorescence. As Sakura infused it with spiritual power, the rod shone brightly, the spiritual power flowing through it and merging with the physical power within the heart. A large amount of Chakra surged from the heart before her and was collected by the Yin Seal.

The spiritual power injected in this way is highly condensed, forming a solid-like state that does not easily dissipate. Therefore, it can remain in the heart for a long time, like a fuel rod, without requiring her to re-inject it every time Chakra is formed.

Of all the physical strength of the human body, the heart contributes the most to Chakra. That's why Sasori and Kakuzu valued the heart so much: by preserving the heart, they could preserve most of a ninja's Chakra reserves.

"That adds up to about ten Chakra of my maximum chakra storage. However, I usually expend a lot of energy during missions, so it's impossible for me to store up all my Chakra. Therefore, this saves me at least ten or twenty chakras."

Sakura looked at the somewhat limp heart in front of her and thought to herself.

She broke the thin blue rod in half, activated her Yang Release Medical Ninjutsu, and began to promote the absorption of nutrients by her sluggish heart, helping it to regain its vitality.

"Let them rest, absorb nutrients, and regain their strength. I'll continue to exploit them tomorrow. If we persist for two weeks, we should have enough for about six months. Then we'll store it all in my Yin Seal. Hmm, six months' worth should be enough!"

Sakura's impromptu idea appears to have worked.

Unfortunately, a heart is just a heart. If it were a fully functional body, like a clone, the effect would be much better. At least it wouldn't require such a complicated Medical Ninjutsu to help the heart regain its vitality.

While the experiment is being conducted here...

The clone is currently carrying out a mission.

On a mountain, a couple hundred kilometers away from the laboratory.

This location is quite close for Sakura Haruno; even with her Ice Clone, she could reach here in a very short time.

The mountain was the stronghold of a group of wandering ninjas. Because it was located on the border of the Land of Fire, it was remote and unmanaged. As a result, after recruiting some wandering samurai, fugitives and vagrants, the group became a scourge on the border area.

They became a gang commonly known as mountain bandits.

Sakura Haruno, who appeared here, had the goal of eliminating them and becoming the Mountain Bandit King... oops, I mean, to fulfill a mission entrusted by the border region government of the Land of Fire to eliminate them and clean up this social menace.

(Third update of 600 words, as a bonus chapter to repay the 900 monthly votes received at the end of last month!!)

(This is the fourth update, I'll try for five! I haven't broken my promise in the past few days, and I've already updated 80,000 to 90,000 words in the last six days. The update schedule has been pretty good, even the most difficult parts have been updated on time, so! Please vote for me!! Please subscribe!!!)

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