In less than a minute, Misaka Sister 0002 had gone from a state with missing limbs to a girl who looked exactly like Mikoto.
The clothes she wore were missing the parts that covered her limbs, leaving her looking as though she were wearing hot pants and a sleeveless T-shirt.
After dealing with the main target, White Zetsu, they couldn't leave behind its severed limbs or the Root ninja's remains.
Fucheng stored the bodies in a scroll, then used Lightning Release Ninjutsu to neutralize the traces of blood on the ground.
"Fall back! Leave this Root base alone for now. We won't deal with it yet."
Fucheng carefully picked up the mysterious box. The two of them and the two Zetsu quickly left the woods.
The newly created Misaka Sister 0002 was now wearing a spare outfit of Mikoto's that was a little too big for her.
This made Mikoto suddenly realize that the Misaka Sisters transformed from White Zetsu only resembled her in appearance. Their heights and weights, for instance, seemed to vary.
Fucheng thought about the Misaka Sisters in A Certain Magical Index. Their figures seemed to vary, too.
Some had larger breasts, others smaller.
Some were taller, others had longer legs.
It seemed these Misaka Sisters transformed from White Zetsu followed the same pattern.
Three days later, Black Zetsu led the new White Zetsu to Konoha.
They first appeared underground beneath Naka Shrine.
This underground chamber was supposed to house the Stone Tablet left behind by the Sage of Six Paths.
Every reincarnation of Indra would see the tablet. So Black Zetsu had altered its misleading inscriptions in every era.
That was the only way Black Zetsu could more easily convince Indra's reincarnations to believe what he told them.
The Stone Tablet was practically an "old friend" of Black Zetsu's.
But every reincarnation of Indra had ultimately failed for one reason or another.
It wasn't until Uchiha Madara's era that Black Zetsu finally saw a turning point.
Uchiha Madara obtained Hashirama Cells and awakened the Rinnegan.
At that point, Black Zetsu's plan was more than halfway complete.
In theory, after Uchiha Madara awakened the Rinnegan, the Stone Tablet beneath Naka Shrine no longer served any purpose.
But the tablet had been Black Zetsu's important "tool of deception" all along, so its sudden disappearance still left him looking somewhat agitated.
Fortunately, Black Zetsu had brought ten White Zetsu this time.
At least he could step up the surveillance of Konoha.
"Go. Send out the signal!"
Black Zetsu ordered the White Zetsu to use the Spore Technique.
A unique cloud of smoke carrying plant spores and pheromones spread rapidly on the northwesterly wind.
In less than two hours, the whole of Konoha should have received Black Zetsu's signal.
The White Zetsu who received it would meet beneath Naka Shrine.
An hour passed.
Then two.
Not a single hair from a White Zetsu appeared.
"Impossible. Apart from the one that died at the training ground outside the village, there should be at least three White Zetsu in Konoha.
"Even if the one watching the Uchiha is dead, there are still the ones watching Root and the Hokage Building!"
Black Zetsu's pitch-black face gave nothing away, but anyone could tell he wasn't in a good mood.
After waiting another hour, Black Zetsu reluctantly accepted that all three White Zetsu in Konoha had probably gone missing.
Black Zetsu had no idea that, at that very moment, Mikoto was playing cards with four Misaka Sisters in the Uchiha Clan Head's residence.
All five girls had white strips of paper stuck to their faces as punishment.
To avoid attracting attention, the Misaka Sisters wore masks like the Anbu.
The paper strips were stuck to their masks, too.
Mikoto, however, had her face uncovered, from forehead to chin covered in paper.
Even if Black Zetsu appeared in the Uchiha Clan Compound right now, he probably wouldn't recognize the White Zetsu he had sent out. They had turned into adorable girls.
As for these four Misaka Sisters 0001–0004, they all looked alike, but their figures were worlds apart.
Number 1 had a curvy pear-shaped figure, number 2 was a petite little girl, number 3 was tall and long-legged, most like the original Mikoto, and number 4 had an exaggerated hourglass figure with an extremely slim waist.
They had retained some of White Zetsu's Wood Release and regenerative abilities. They had lost the Spore Technique that came with being plant people, but gained less than a third of Mikoto's Electro Master level 3 lightning abilities.
They could all learn the Three Body Techniques and Taijutsu.
But they were basically hopeless at other Fire, Wind, Earth, and Lightning Release Ninjutsu.
Fucheng even suspected that the Misaka Sisters' aptitude for learning ninjutsu rivaled that of Might Guy, the ninjutsu dropout.
After gaining four Misaka Sisters, Fucheng and Mikoto searched the village again and again, but still found no other hidden White Zetsu.
It seemed they were the only surveillance agents Uchiha Madara had in Konoha.
As the number of Misaka Sisters grew, the Misaka Network began to show results.
As long as a Misaka Sister was within a hundred kilometers of Mikoto, she could boost Mikoto's power.
The Sisters themselves also gained a certain boost to their lightning abilities within the Misaka Network's range.
In particular, when Mikoto used Electromagnetic Wave Perception, having four Misaka Sisters amplify her abilities increased her original detection range more than sixfold.
With the four Misaka Sisters positioned in different directions, as long as none of them was more than one kilometer from Mikoto, her electromagnetic perception range could expand from its original 500 meters to "a three-kilometer radius centered on her."
The range was astonishing!
Even the Byakugan, renowned for its reconnaissance abilities, could only provide visual surveillance within a one-kilometer radius in good weather.
Fucheng joked that if they added a few more Misaka Sister nodes to the Misaka Network, Mikoto would become a human radar.
As the atmosphere of war in the Land of Rain grew more intense, Konoha began mobilizing for war against the Land of Rain as well.
Within three days, the prices of Konoha's ninja tools, medicine, food, and other supplies had all risen sharply.
Fortunately, ever since the Clan Industry Management Center was established, Fucheng had firmly impressed upon the clan's ninjas that war in the Land of Rain was inevitable.
This had prompted the Uchiha Clan to start stockpiling supplies early.
In particular, the internal regulation provided by Uchiha Points meant that soaring market prices hadn't affected the Uchiha ninjas' preparations for war.
Fucheng couldn't handle this war the way Fugaku had handled the last one.
Back then, Jonin, Chunin, and Genin had been thrown together in a chaotic mess, and the village had split the Uchiha Clan into several completely independent factions.
The radicals, conservatives, and clan head's faction had all been thrown into disarray.
The Uchiha Jonin and Chunin hadn't been properly deployed.
The village had even forced many Uchiha Genin who shouldn't have been on the battlefield to take part in the war.
If a battlefield in the Land of Rain opened this time, the first thing Uchiha Fucheng would do was establish a combat unit under his sole command.
Then he would assign only a small number of Uchiha Jonin to a special-operations unit, providing strategic support to the other Konoha ninja.
The Chunin who would gain experience on the battlefield and the elite Genin who needed help to grow would have to be carefully protected under his wing.
As for ordinary Uchiha Genin, Fucheng saw no need for them to take part in the Land of Rain campaign.
They could stay home and train in peace. There was no hurry to consider sending them to war until they had built up a solid foundation in ninjutsu.
If Konoha tried to force the ordinary Uchiha Genin into service again, Fucheng wouldn't even need to speak. A united crowd of elite Uchiha Jonin would make the Third Hokage think twice.
Finally, after seeing baby Kakashi, Uchiha Fucheng unexpectedly thought of another way to use the Copy Ninja.
[Uchiha Multiplier Copy + Ninjutsu Master Plan]!
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