Twin Flowers

—Twin Flowers!

Crackle, pop! A burst of popping sounds came from Chen's body as black material began weaving through his collar.

Rustle! Chen threw off his robe. Aside from his unchanged head, his torso had completely transformed into the Hashirama Clone fused with Madara atop the Demonic Statue. Even the direction of the folds raised in the skin on his chest as the Black Rods retracted was exactly the same!

The wrinkles smoothed out, and the small holes fully closed.

Madara and Obito stared wide-eyed.

"What... what did you do...?"

"Ahem." Chen cleared his throat, adjusted the resonance in his chest, and did his best to make his voice resemble his original one. "Twin Flowers establishes a Life Link with the target, then completely replicates their body, Chakra, and the abilities corresponding to that body and Chakra."

"In other words, I replaced my body with the Hashirama Clone on the Demonic Statue!"

"A complete replication?" Obito said. "But your face didn't change!"

"Not just his head," Madara said. "His eyes too!"

Chen smiled and brushed a palm over his face. Whoosh! His face turned into the dark face of Hashirama on the Demonic Statue. When he brushed his palm over it again, his face changed back.

"The face—or rather, the head—can be freely switched in Twin Flowers, and doing so won't affect any of the replicated powers."

"As for the eyes, there's no way around that. Twin Flowers is ultimately a 'dojutsu.' Both the eyes and Dojutsu Power are things Twin Flowers cannot replicate."

So that was it. Twin Flowers existed to replicate bodies and obtain the abilities connected to them.

Madara quickly absorbed the concept of Twin Flowers and asked, "Can I understand Life Link as sharing one's life condition?"

"For example, if you copied my body and then stabbed yourself, I would be injured as well, correct?"

Chen smiled faintly and answered in an orderly manner, "Uncle Madara, first of all, I can't replicate you. Twin Flowers only works on living beings, while you are a dead man brought back by Impure World Reincarnation. Of course, if you were alive, then what you just described would indeed be possible."

Is it like Hidan's Bloodcurse Death Possession? Impressive. Obito thought.

His train of thought took a peculiar turn. "If you use Twin Flowers to copy someone's body, use Life Link to establish Shared Damage, then release Twin Flowers and return to your own body... wouldn't that create a world where only the enemy gets hurt?"

Chen smiled. "You thought of that quickly, I'll give you that. But Twin Flowers has a limitation: injuries sustained while in the Twin Flowers state are simultaneously reflected onto my original body. Even if I release Twin Flowers, those injuries remain."

"Because of this mechanism, using Twin Flowers to copy an opponent is extremely unwise. Once the opponent sees through it, they can drag me into death with them by committing suicide."

"Of course, if I had intended to perish together with them from the start, that would be another matter."

"Oh, I see." Obito nodded after digesting that. Then something suddenly occurred to him, and he grumbled inwardly, What did he mean by... 'you thought of that quickly'? Does he think I'm not smart enough?

At that moment, Madara noticed a detail Obito had missed. The old injury on Chen's chest had healed.

If it had not been a scar, but a "wound"...

"Chen, if you were injured first, then used Twin Flowers to copy someone else's body, could you overwrite your original wounds?"

As expected of you, Uncle Madara. You instantly analyzed it that deeply.

"Yes. But I have Omodaru, which can reset my condition at any time. Twin Flowers' Injury Replacement Mechanism generally has no use for me."

Then Obito asked, "Chen, is this ability single-use? Meaning, after you copy a body once and release it, if you want to use that same body again, do you need to copy it all over again?"

That's actually quite a substantial question, Obito... I admit I judged you by the databooks. Fool Two is your lower limit, not your upper limit.

"Theoretically, Twin Flowers' replication is single-use, but..."

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

"I have Toyomiketsunomikoto, which can store Twin Flowers' casting state. That turns an Experience Card into a permanent skin."

"Of course, 'permanent' is relative. If it suffers too much battle damage, it shouldn't be stored again."

Bzzz, bzzz. Chen stored his current replicated state through Energy Storage, returned to his own body, and put his God Robe back on.

—Toyomiketsunomikoto!

Crackle, pop...! With a shake of his body, his figure became curvaceous, purple hair flowing around a slim waist.

A mature woman's voice rang out. "Konoha kunoichi, Uzuki Yugao."

Crackle, pop! This time, he transformed into a beautiful woman with blonde hair, pale skin, and a mountainous chest.

"One of the Sannin, Lady Tsunade."

Crackle, pop! Reddish-brown curls cascaded down like a waterfall. Her fiery red lips were bewitching, and the wrinkles on her face did little to diminish her beauty.

"Kirigakure's former Mizukage, Mei Terumi."

Crackle, pop! He became a woman with short hair cut to her ears, exceptionally long and beautiful legs, and an intensely youthful air!

"Iwagakure's Tsuchikage, Kurotsuchi."

Crackle, pop! This time, he became a middle-aged beauty with long silver hair tied back and dark skin.

"The former Raikage's secretary from Kumogakure, Mabui..."

Crackle, pop! This time, he became a graceful, pretty young girl with blue hair.

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

"You really have quite a collection," Obito remarked. "Don't you have any men?"

Jinghua-Chen smiled charmingly. "I look at abilities, not gender~."

Abilities, indeed... Those ninja just now all possessed special abilities. Wait.

"Does Uzuki Yugao count too?"

Chen answered in a clear, bell-like voice, "Her? What I value most is her former Anbu identity. It makes it easier for me to enter and leave Konoha. I learned about the Forbidden Ground from Yugao."

Obito still felt there was something subtly off about this.

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

Mabui! The former Kumogakure secretary! He remembered that she possessed the Heavenly Transfer Technique, capable of transporting objects over long distances. The prewar intelligence compiled by White Zetsu had mentioned that she was stationed at the Allied Forces headquarters. She should have been blasted into the sky by the Ten-Tails' Tailed Beast Bomb that Madara and he had unleashed together.

Yet she had become a living target for Chen's Twin Flowers replication!

That meant she was still alive at this moment!

Could it be that Chen had appeared even under such extreme and terrible circumstances?

Forget it. I'm just being too easily surprised.

Even Konan could survive. Why would Mabui surviving be some miracle?

But there was one thing Obito was clear about.

Mabui's abilities were outstanding, but he did not think she was outstanding enough for Chen to risk the Ten-Tails' bombardment to save her. Chen, was there someone else you wanted to save back then?

"All right, that concludes the review of my abilities for now. You two can be considered fully acquainted with me..."

Chen smiled as he switched back to the "Hashirama-Madara Clone."

After all, Twin Flowers' hidden ability was truly inconvenient to reveal in full here.

Then Madara spoke in a grave tone. "Chen, do you intend to keep acting with Hashirama's body? After we leave this space, our next step is to hunt the Tailed Beasts, correct?"

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

"Furthermore, you can't possibly be unaware of the other necessary condition for awakening the Rinnegan, one even harsher than gathering Indra and Ashura's powers within a single body."

—"Near death."