The few hundred miles from the Land of Whirlpools back to Konoha's eastern-line camp passed slowly for Uchiha Chen. The journey took seven or eight days.
During that time, he taught Uchiha Hikari most of the Shinobi World's current common knowledge. In turn, he learned some things from her about the Uchiha of the Warring States Period.
For example:
"What kind of Uchiha laughed after awakening the Mangekyō? Those with siblings laughed. Those without siblings didn't."
"What are the Uchiha's most formidable weapons? The Six Paths Stone Tablet kept by the clan—and the Uchiha's mouths."
"These are all cultural treasures of the Uchiha!"
Uchiha Chen glanced sideways at Uchiha Hikari's utterly innocent expression, not sure whether to laugh or cry.
Hikari's era had been the Uchiha's golden age, a dozen or so years before the chaos of the Uchiha's "Izanagi." The Uchiha had lorded it over the Shinobi World as a clan, while their internal conflicts were still limited to trading barbs—
And so, many jokes had sprung up in which Uchiha mocked one another.
"We're here!"
Seeing the front-line camp faintly in the distance, Uchiha Chen took the Konoha Forehead Protector he'd been wearing around his arm and handed it to Hikari.
"Put this on and walk in with me openly. If anyone questions you, glare at them with your Sharingan, but don't start a fight."
This outpost was the Uchiha Clan's main base on the eastern front. Most of the guards were Uchiha, and plenty of Uchiha came and went. With the Sharingan to clear the way, there was no need for ninja serial numbers, coded messages, or anything else to prove their identities.
"Okay!"
Hikari took the Forehead Protector, untied its band, and fastened it around her head.
The two of them headed straight for the outpost.
"Brother Chen!"
A guard standing at the camp gate waved excitedly at Uchiha Chen.
The guard on duty was none other than Uchiha Tekka, one of Chen's biggest fans. Getting into the camp would be even easier now.
"Tekka, anything big happening on the battlefield lately?"
After casually writing his name in the register, Uchiha Chen flipped to the next page and started chatting with Tekka.
"Isn't the biggest news that you discovered Kirigakure was capturing the Three-Tails?
"I heard the clan members saying that Suikazan Fuguki died at your hands, too. Your bounty in the underworld is up to forty million ryo!"
"Fake news!"
Uchiha Chen waved a hand. "Fuguki was killed by his own people in Kirigakure."
Though I gave the order, and Samehada's still in my Sealing Scroll, it was Yagura's men who did the deed.
After chatting with Tekka for a few more minutes, Uchiha Chen led Hikari into the camp.
"Are you popular with your clan?"
Hikari kept her head down and followed close behind Uchiha Chen, her tone a little strange.
Uchiha Chen turned to look at Hikari and thought, Oh no. He chose his words carefully. "I think you should let go of everything in the past and embrace the world anew, with a new identity. What do you think?"
"I'm not as petty as you think."
Hikari rolled her eyes at Uchiha Chen. She was becoming more and more like a person rather than a "weapon," and her emotions were showing more and more often.
"I won't blame the clan members a hundred years from now for what those people did to me. It's just... Never mind!"
Hikari shook her head.
She was just a little envious, that was all.
What was she supposed to do now that they were back on the battlefield?
Kill a few more Kirigakure Ninja for fun? No, forget it.
Uchiha Chen went straight to the laboratory Orochimaru had left behind.
Yagura was sponsoring his other self, but buying and commissioning the lab equipment would take a long time. For now, he'd have to make do with Orochimaru's laboratory.
"Hashirama Cells are incredible!"
In the culture medium, Hashirama Cells extracted from White Zetsu—after who knew how many generations—displayed a terrifying capacity to consume and an astonishing vitality. After absorbing just a little nutrient solution, they began dividing frantically, turning into a "flesh tree" so grotesque that even looking at it cost sanity.
Uchiha Chen activated the lab's sterilization program. The flesh tree, its gnarled, blood-red branches waving wildly, was soon reduced to ash in flames hotter than a thousand degrees.
Hashirama Cells were far more terrifying than Uchiha Chen had imagined.
Even cells that had degraded over who knew how many generations had such vigorous vitality.
What about the original cells? What about when Hashirama was alive? What about when he entered Sage Mode?
"Could someone with such powerful vitality really have died because his reserves were drained in a great battle? Or did he die years after the Battle of the Valley of the End?"
Uchiha Chen stared solemnly at the ashes left behind by the flames and murmured to himself:
"Or did he choose to end his own life to keep from truly becoming a 'tree'—a 'little God Tree' that could consume Chakra and all living things?"
Uchiha Chen had no way of knowing.
But Senju Hashirama was undoubtedly the most unusual of all Asura's reincarnations.
He was the only Asura reincarnation to defeat Indra's reincarnation, and the only one with the Wood Release Kekkei Genkai.
"Forget it. These aren't things I should be worrying about right now. I'm in no hurry to implant Hashirama Cells, either."
Uchiha Chen shook his head and turned his attention to another large tank in the laboratory.
A huge, purple-black fish with spikes covering its body swam leisurely inside. Every now and then, it stuck out its long tongue and licked the glass.
"Samehada, it's time to take a sample!"
"Gurgle, gurgle!"
Samehada was quite displeased, but after Uchiha Chen fed it some of his Chakra, it obediently let him take a few somatic cells from its body.
Uchiha Chen quickly stored the cells, pleased with his success, then wheeled over a large tank from the other side of the laboratory.
At the bottom of the tank lay a pile of translucent little pearls. Each was about three or four centimeters in diameter, a pretty whitish yellow, like cooked sago pearls.
They were the eggs of a large saltwater fish known in the Shinobi World as the Spiked Sharkfish.
The fish mostly lived in the seas south of the Land of Fire. Adults could grow to between 1.5 and 3 meters long, with spikes all over their backs. Uchiha Chen had chosen them carefully because their outward features most resembled Samehada's.
More importantly, these fish released their eggs and were fertilized outside the body. Unfertilized eggs were eaten as food in the southern Land of Fire, so they were easy to obtain.
Both the Spiked Sharkfish egg cells and Samehada's somatic cells were much larger than human cells, making the nuclear transfer procedure less demanding in terms of precision.
Remove the nucleus from a Spiked Sharkfish egg cell, replace it with the nucleus from a Samehada somatic cell, and a cloned Samehada could be created.
He could even implant the previously discovered "Kekkei Genkai Chimera" and "Attribute Body" to try cloning Samehada with different natures and Kekkei Genkai!
Uchiha Chen's eyes took on the pattern of the Mangekyō. His scarlet gaze sharpened to its limit, and one hand gripped an extremely fine glass tube.
Now his eyes were a ruler and his hands were machinery—he was many times more precise than a master craftsman who could spot a hundredth-of-a-millimeter error with the naked eye and handcraft millimeter-scale parts.
The Samehada cloning experiment was beginning!
Those who've been following my work know that this is where the story really starts to pick up.
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