Lower the Bar a Little

At the Ichiraku Ramen shop in Konoha.

Sasuke, Yu, and Naruto sat side by side, each with a bowl of delicious-looking ramen set in front of him.

A middle-aged man with narrowed eyes stood behind the counter, smiling as he watched the three enjoy the food he'd made. But whenever his gaze shifted to Yu, his expression soured a little.

Ichiraku Ramen was the most famous food in Naruto. A transmigrator who came to Konoha and didn't try a bowl of Ichiraku Ramen wasn't a proper transmigrator, so Yu naturally had to check in.

A lot of people on the forums used to joke about "Ōtsutsuki Ichiraku." They'd even come up with all sorts of convincing evidence to prove that the kind-faced Teuchi was the most deeply hidden boss in the entire Naruto world, known as "Ōtsutsuki Ichiraku."

But after actually visiting Ichiraku Ramen and meeting Teuchi, that idea had vanished. Teuchi was really just an ordinary person.

Still, Ichiraku Ramen truly lived up to its reputation. It was delicious. And Ayame was genuinely beautiful, too.

After finishing their ramen, the three little ones left together.

"See you, big sister Ayame! You're even prettier today!"

As he left, Yu cheerfully called out to Ayame.

Ayame smiled back. "See you next time, Yu."

Teuchi, standing nearby, was a little annoyed. Yu had never said goodbye to him, and he was always chatting and laughing with his daughter. Yu was only eight, but Teuchi couldn't help feeling that his little cabbage might be in danger.

Yu had no idea what Teuchi was thinking. He only admired Ayame. After all, a gentleman naturally admired a beautiful woman!

Liking beautiful women was proof enough that Yu was a normal man.

Sasuke and Naruto had become friends so early because of Yu's presence, but the two of them really did share a bond. Neither could stand the other, yet they didn't actually dislike one another or mind eating together again.

Especially when Sasuke and Naruto sat facing each other. They would glare at each other with "death rays." Yu had once asked why they couldn't get along.

"Seeing a dead last just annoys me." That was Sasuke's answer.

"His smug face makes me mad." That was Naruto's.

At any rate, Yu was now certain that Sasuke and Naruto really did share a bond. It probably came from their past lives as Indra and Ashura, the sons of the Sage of Six Paths, though no one could say for sure.

In a clearing in the woods, Sasuke and Naruto were sparring. At first, Naruto was always the one getting beaten down, but as time passed, he gradually began holding his own against Sasuke.

Of course, Sasuke hadn't used the power of his Sharingan during their matches. Even so, Naruto's progress was astonishingly fast. Sasuke, meanwhile, trained even harder so Naruto wouldn't catch up.

Of the three of them, Yu was currently the weakest. He was the true dead last.

Yu never joined Sasuke and Naruto's sparring. He had no desire to get beaten up. Unless they were fighting for their lives, the two of them would absolutely crush him, and he wouldn't be able to fight back at all.

Yu sat on a dead tree stump, writing steadily in a notebook. Its pages were filled with ideas for future research.

He felt he shouldn't set his experimental goals too high. He should start with simpler experiments, such as fusing more ordinary bloodlines.

So, over this period, he'd collected tissue samples from many Ninja Beasts.

Next, he would have the little slimes fuse with the bloodlines of these Ninja Beasts. He'd only move on to advanced bloodlines after he'd gained some experience.

As for the [Metal Skeleton] plan, he'd already found the perfect solution: make the bones out of a special metal, [Chakra Conductive Metal].

Chakra Conductive Metal had several powerful properties:

First, it could absorb its user's Chakra and release Chakra blades, giving it tremendous offensive power. The more Chakra the user infused into it, the stronger the blades and the wider their range.

Second, Chakra Conductive Metal could act as an extension of the body and could even be used to perform ninjutsu.

Third, it was extremely hard, making it suitable for crafting weapons.

Very little information about Chakra Metal had been recorded. Since so little of it existed, information about it was scarce.

As far as Yu could remember, Sarutobi Asuma was the only one who owned a pair of "Flying Swallow" finger blades made from Chakra Conductive Metal, and they were quite small.

But getting Chakra Conductive Metal wouldn't be a problem for Yu. There was a whole chunk of raw Chakra Conductive Metal in the Uchiha storehouse. According to the records, Uchiha ninja had "obtained" it while on a mission. The whole piece weighed about five jin.

The Uchiha had originally planned to use the metal to make several powerful weapons, but they hadn't found a suitable Ninja Tool craftsman.

The place with the most Ninja Tool craftsmen in the Shinobi World was the Artisan Ninja Village. However, the village and the Uchiha had a deep grudge. The Uchiha had taken this Chakra Conductive Metal from the people of the Artisan Ninja Village, so they couldn't possibly return something they'd worked so hard to get. And the village wouldn't craft Ninja Tools for its enemies.

Under these circumstances, the Chakra Conductive Metal now belonged to Yu.

Of course, he'd asked Sasuke about it first. Sasuke was the Uchiha clan head now, after all, and Yu respected him.

When Sasuke heard about it, he agreed without a moment's hesitation.

"From now on, if there's anything at home you want to use, just take it. You don't need to ask me. We're family," Sasuke told Yu.

"Thanks, Sasuke."

Before, Yu had thought of Sasuke as just a character from a manga.

After spending so much time together, Yu understood Sasuke's feelings clearly. In Sasuke's heart, Yu was the only family he had in this world.

And in Yu's heart, Sasuke was just as important.

Once he'd prepared the experimental materials, he began his second bloodline-fusion experiment.

Wearing a white lab coat, Yu placed six little slimes into separate glass containers.

This time, he'd prepared cells from two Ninja Beasts: the Overlord Ninja Tiger and the Four-Tusk Wild Boar King.

Both Ninja Beasts came from the Great Forest of Death on Konoha's outskirts, and both were kings of their kind. The Four-Tusk Wild Boar King was especially huge, standing as tall as a five- or six-story building. The Overlord Ninja Tiger was no slouch either, reaching three stories in height.

Their overall strength should have been comparable to that of an elite jōnin, and they could use Earth Release and Wind Release.

Of course, Yu wasn't interested in their strength. What he wanted was their enormous reserves of Chakra.

These two Ninja Beasts weren't wild. They'd been artificially created, apparently as part of an artificial Tailed Beast project. After all, the Tailed Beasts' power was so great that countless people coveted it, though the project had ultimately failed.

Konoha had released these two Ninja Beasts into the Great Forest of Death. One reason was to keep the wild Ninja Beasts there in check; the other was that they could help defend against outside enemies.

He'd paid a great deal to get tissue from these two Ninja Beasts, but if his experiment succeeded, it would all be worth it.