Twin Flowers

--Twin Flowers!

"Crackle, pop!" A series of snapping sounds came from Chen's body as black material began to weave through his collar.

"Rustle!" Chen threw off his robe. Aside from his head, his torso had completely transformed into the Hashirama Clone fused with Madara on the Demonic Statue—even the direction of the skin folds on his chest as the Black Rods retracted was identical.

The folds smoothed out, and the small holes sealed shut.

Madara and Obito stared wide-eyed.

"You... what did you do..."

"Ahem." Chen cleared his throat, adjusting the resonance in his chest to make his voice sound as close to his original as possible. "Twin Flowers establishes a Life Link with the target, then fully copies their body, Chakra, and the abilities corresponding to that body and Chakra."

"In other words, I've swapped my body for the Hashirama Clone on the Demonic Statue!"

Obito said, "Fully copy? But your face didn't change!"

Madara added, "Not just the head—what about the eyes?"

Chen smiled, brushed his palm over his face, and "shwish"—his face turned into the dark-skinned Hashirama face on the Demonic Statue. When he brushed again, it changed back.

"The face, or rather the head, can be freely switched within Twin Flowers, and it doesn't affect the copied power at all."

"As for the eyes, there's no way around it. Twin Flowers is ultimately a 'Dojutsu'—'eyes' and 'Dojutsu Power' are things it can't copy."

So that's it. Twin Flowers was born solely to copy bodies and gain the abilities tied to them.

Madara quickly digested the concept of Twin Flowers and asked, "Life Link—can I understand it as a shared life state?"

"For example, if you copied my body and then stabbed yourself with a knife, I'd be injured too, right?"

Chen smiled faintly and replied methodically, "Uncle Madara, first of all, I can't copy you. Twin Flowers only works on living beings, and you're a dead man revived by Impure World Reincarnation. Of course, if you were alive, then what you just described would be possible."

Obito thought to himself: It's like Hidan's Bloodcurse Death Possession curse. Impressive.

His train of thought took a strange turn. "You use Twin Flowers to copy the opponent's body, use the Life Link to achieve Shared Damage, then undo Twin Flowers and revert to your own body—wouldn't that create a world where only the opponent gets hurt?"

Chen chuckled. "It's impressive you thought of that so quickly. But Twin Flowers has a limitation: any damage taken while in the Twin Flowers state is synchronously reflected on your own body. Even if you undo Twin Flowers, the injuries remain."

"Based on this mechanism, copying an opponent with Twin Flowers is very unwise. Once they see through it, they can drag me to the grave by killing themselves."

"Of course, if I went in with the intention of mutual destruction from the start, that's another story."

"Oh, I see." Obito digested this and nodded. Suddenly, something struck him, and he grumbled inwardly: What does she mean by... 'it's impressive you thought of that so quickly'? Does she think I'm not smart enough?

Meanwhile, Madara noticed a detail Obito had missed—the old scar on Chen's chest had healed.

If that wasn't a scar, but a 'wound'...

"Chen, if you got injured first and then used Twin Flowers to copy someone else's body, could you overwrite the original wound?"

As expected of you, Uncle Madara—able to analyze it to this depth instantly.

"Yes. But I have Toyomiketsunomikoto, which lets me reset my state at any time, so the Injury Replacement Mechanism of Twin Flowers usually has no use."

At that, Obito asked, "Chen, is this ability one-time use? Meaning, after you copy a body and undo it, if you want the same body again, you'd need to recopy it?"

That question actually has quite a bit of substance, Obito... I admit I judged you by the data book. Your intelligence score of two is your floor, not your ceiling.

"In theory, Twin Flowers' copy is one-time use, but..."

Chen raised his hand and pressed it against his right eye socket.

"I have 'Toyomiketsunomikoto,' which can store the activation state of Twin Flowers, turning an Experience Card into a permanent skin."

"Of course, this 'permanent' is relative. If the battle damage is too severe, it won't be suitable for storage again."

"Zzzzz." Chen stored the current copied state, reverted to his own body, and put the God Robe back on.

--Toyomiketsunomikoto!

"Crackle, pop...!" He transformed, his body becoming curvaceous with a flowing head of purple hair, a slender waist.

A mature female voice came: "Konoha kunoichi, Uzuki Yugao."

"Crackle, pop!" This time, he became a golden-haired, fair-skinned beauty with a figure like a mountain peak.

"One of the Three Ninja, Lady Tsunade."

"Crackle, pop!" Reddish-brown curls cascaded like a waterfall, fiery red lips alluring, the wrinkles on her face not detracting from her charm.

"The former Mizukage of Kirigakure, Mei Terumi."

"Crackle, pop!" A woman with ear-length hair, strikingly long legs, and a very youthful vibe!

"The Tsuchikage of Iwagakure, Kurotsuchi."

"Crackle, pop!" This time, it was a middle-aged beauty with silver hair tied back and dark skin.

"Former Raikage's secretary from Kumogakure, Mabui..."

"Crackle, pop!" This time, it was a blue-haired girl with a graceful figure and delicate features.

"This is... Jinghua, the Zen Master's granddaughter!"

Obito sighed, "You've got quite the collection. No men?"

Jinghua smiled faintly and said, "I look at ability, not gender, you know~."

Ability, indeed... those ninjas just now all had special abilities on them, wait a moment.

"Does that Uzuki Yugao count as well?"

Chen let out a silvery, ethereal voice: "Her~, what I valued most was her former Anbu identity, which makes it convenient for me to enter and leave Konoha and the Forbidden Ground. I learned about that place from Yugao, you see."

Obito still felt there was something else, carrying a subtle sensation.

"Ah!" Thinking of the beautiful woman's face that had flashed by earlier with Jinghua, he suddenly remembered.

Mabui! The former secretary of Kumogakure! I recall she possessed the Heavenly Transfer Technique, capable of long-distance object teleportation. Back then, the pre-war intelligence summary from White Zetsu mentioned she was stationed at the Allied Forces headquarters. She should have been blown to pieces by the Ten-Tails' Tailed Beast Bomb that I and Madara released together.

But she became a target for Chen's Twin Flowers replication of living bodies!

This means she's still alive right now!

Could it be that, under such extreme and dire circumstances, Chen also appeared?

Forget it, I'm just making a fuss over nothing.

If even Konan can survive, Mabui surviving is hardly a miracle.

But on one point, Obito was not confused in his heart.

Mabui's ability is outstanding, but I don't think she's outstanding enough for Chen to risk the Ten-Tails' bombardment to rescue her. Chen, could it be that the person you were trying to save back then was someone else?

"Alright, let's stop the ability rundown here for now. You two should have a pretty good understanding of my background by now..."

Chen smiled brightly as she swapped herself back into the 'Hashirama-Madara Clone'.

After all, the hidden abilities of the Twin Flowers really weren't convenient to fully disclose here.

At this moment, Madara spoke in a serious tone: "Chen, do you plan to keep moving around in Hashirama's body? The next step after we leave this space is to hunt the tailed beasts, right?"

"Once the Ten-Tails is revived, your symbiotic state with this Hashirama Clone, which relies on the Demonic Statue to survive, will also come to an end."

"Furthermore, you can't be unaware of the other necessary condition required to awaken the Rinnegan, can you? One even more demanding than gathering the powers of Indra and Ashura into one body."

"--'Brink of death.'"

If you can't find the book title, try searching for the author. Maybe it just changed its name!