After that, he abandoned the absurd idea. This little slime could only be considered a clone of his.
Next, he stepped up his efforts to raise the little slimes. He took some more tissue from himself, hoping to cultivate a few more, but in the end, only one of the ten samples grew into a little slime. The others were just pieces of living flesh that showed no change at all.
The two little slimes grew especially fast under his care. The larger one was already the size of an apple, and it even actively searched for food. It looked like a completely new life-form.
However, Yu knew that neither little slime had any self-awareness. Their life activities were merely instinctive reactions.
The tissue samples from Naruto and Sasuke were still fresh. He had originally planned to experiment directly on himself, but now that he had two little slimes, he no longer intended to do that. After all, this kind of experiment was quite dangerous.
Just like in the anime, Root had joined forces with Orochimaru to conduct countless experiments in an effort to obtain Hashirama Senju's power. Countless people had died before just one person successfully acquired the Wood Release Kekkei Genkai. Even then, Yamato's Wood Release Kekkei Genkai was nowhere near Hashirama Senju's.
His own life was definitely the most important thing. Now that he had something else to use, he couldn't very well make himself the first test subject.
Extracting cells was simple, and he had a complete set of laboratory equipment. After practicing the procedure a few times, he successfully extracted cells from Naruto and Sasuke.
Numbers One and Two were currently lying in the incubator, eating nutrient solution. Wearing a white lab coat, Yu took Number One out.
Number One didn't move at all in his hands. As it grew, he also discovered that he could control its movements. The more it grew, the stronger his control over it became.
By now, he could make Number One move around a little.
He placed Number One on the lab table, then carefully took out the syringe containing Naruto's cells from the refrigerated cabinet.
"Everything depends on this one attempt."
Yu spoke, then inserted the needle into Number One's body.
He watched as the pale-red cellular fluid entered Number One's body.
Now all that remained was to wait. He had also asked Sasuke to get him a few days off. During that time, he would have to keep a close eye on the experiment. From the moment it began, he had been continually taking notes in his notebook.
"One minute after Naruto's cells were injected into Number One's body: no unusual phenomena observed."
"Ten minutes after Naruto's cells were injected into Number One's body: Number One's color began to change, turning pale red."
"...Thirty minutes: Number One's body had completely turned red and transparent, but its vital signs showed no significant change."
"One hour..."
"Five hours..."
"Seven hours, sixteen minutes, and thirty-seven seconds: Number One began to change. Its physiological activity intensified, and its body started transforming."
This process continued for about another five hours.
"Thirteen hours, thirty-three minutes: Number One's body began changing rapidly, with sharp, thorn-like growths protruding from it..."
"Fifteen hours, thirty-six minutes: Number One's body suddenly stopped changing and dissolved into pale-red liquid within one minute."
"Experiment failed."
After writing those words in his notebook, Yu felt hollow inside. He hadn't expected to succeed on the first try, but failure still felt awful.
The notes in his notebook were written in the language of his previous life, which would keep his research from being exposed. He had also written in a wild, cursive hand, giving him a second layer of protection. Only he could read his handwriting. His teachers had scolded him countless times for it.
"Failure is the mother of success. Organize the data and begin the next experiment." After a brief moment of sadness, Yu began preparing for the next attempt.
But first, he needed to cultivate more little slimes. If he could use several test subjects at once, perhaps he would succeed.
While cultivating the slimes, he was also working on something else.
The [Metal Skeleton] project was still in its preliminary stages.
Making a metal skeleton wasn't difficult, and since he wasn't afraid of pain, installing one inside his body was easy enough.
However, although he could successfully install the metal skeleton and it did increase his physical strength, it also reduced his reaction speed. Even making normal movements became inconvenient.
He first installed a metal arm skeleton in his right arm. To allow it to move freely, each section of the metal arm skeleton was separate.
Probably only Yu would dare to do something like this in the entire world. Cutting open an arm and replacing the bones with metal would make anyone else tremble just thinking about it, let alone actually doing it.
After cutting open his arm, he saw muscle tissue, veins, bones, and everything else, all exactly like a normal person's—except there wasn't much blood. As long as Yu didn't want to bleed, not a single drop would come out, even if his arm was cut open.
He directly removed the bone and set it aside to use for cultivating little slimes later. Before long, the bones in his right arm had been replaced with metal.
He had made the metal skeleton to match his own bones, one-to-one, so it fit perfectly and was quick to install.
Once his arm had returned to normal, he raised his right hand. But it felt extremely heavy, and even moving a finger was like working a rusty machine.
In that condition, he couldn't fight, and he couldn't even pick up a bottle of water. There was another problem, too: the metal skeleton shifted easily under external force, just like a broken bone.
So the first experiment with the metal skeleton also ended in failure, and this time, the problem wasn't easy to solve.
Making a complete metal skeleton and connecting every section would largely prevent it from shifting under external force, solving one small problem.
But even if he used the lightest metal, a full metal skeleton would weigh dozens of pounds. And as his body grew, the metal skeleton would need to be larger and heavier. So the [Metal Skeleton] didn't seem all that useful in practice.
Besides, there were plenty of ways to increase physical strength. Take the Third Raikage's technique, [Lightning Release Armor], which was said to be the strongest defense in the Shinobi World. Its general principle was to concentrate Lightning Release Chakra throughout the body, coating it in Chakra and lightning. This could activate the body, allow the user to perform Lightning Body Flicker, and greatly increase their defense. The lightning surging through the body could also improve nerve conduction speed. As the amount of Lightning Release Chakra increased, so would the user's defense and speed. This was another style of Nintaijutsu.
Although he didn't know Nintaijutsu yet, perhaps he would learn it someday.
Wasn't [Nintaijutsu] much better than a metal skeleton? Until he came up with a perfect solution, his [Metal Skeleton] idea could only remain a fantasy.
"Looks like I'll never become Wolverine the Second."
Yu swept a pile of metal bones into the recycling bin.
Before you continue