Land of Rice Fields.
Otogakure.
After learning about the situation in Konoha,
Uchiha Ao
didn't take any immediate action.
Instead, he quickly got to work, sorting out the state of the entire Otogakure base.
He put the various tasks he had planned in order and assigned them without a hitch.
He dealt with several troublesome rogue ninja and collected a few bounties.
After firmly taking control of Otogakure,
he immediately began several important experiments.
The most urgent of these was Kimimaro's Shikotsumyaku bloodline disease.
Kimimaro was only five years old,
but he had already begun showing some signs of the illness.
On the sixth underground floor of Otogakure's laboratory,
inside a sealed laboratory,
the experimental subject was named Shin.
This was one of the experimental projects Orochimaru had left behind.
Ao had made a few minor changes to its direction.
"How severe is the bone mutation? Is there any blockage in the Chakra circulation?"
Uchiha Ao asked, his gaze appraising Shin with an air of authority.
He touched Shin's arm, his fingers passing over the area where Shikotsumyaku had been transplanted. A strange cluster of bony spikes jutted out from it.
Kimimaro's spinal fluid had brought about an earth-shattering change in Shin.
First, his frail body was no more.
His bones had become exceptionally sturdy.
His Chakra reserves had increased considerably.
Before, he had barely been able to train in Chakra; now, he was at a normal level.
Shin knelt on the floor and said respectfully, "Thank you, Lord Ao, for giving me a new life! I feel great, and I can use Shikotsumyaku normally now!"
He twitched his hand, and the bones that had jutted out quickly returned to normal.
After having Shikotsumyaku transplanted, Shin had only gained the ability to control bone growth and proliferation.
"Without you, I