That healing ability was probably a trait of the Hagoromo Clan's Sage Body. Anyone else would have been crippled by injuries like these.
Hyuga Lan twirled the Bone Sword in his hand. Since he had never studied the Hagoromo Clan's Taijutsu systematically, he could only use crude methods to test the strength of the Clone Body's Shikotsumyaku.
Lan took out a Kunai, then held it in one hand and the Bone Sword in the other, bringing the two weapons together.
Clang!
With a sharp ring, the Bone Sword formed from Shikotsumyaku snapped, while the Kunai was knocked aside with a chip in its blade.
Tsk, tsk...
The Clone Body's Shikotsumyaku was pitifully weak. Its power couldn't compare to the Kaguya Clan Head's at all.
Lan tried several more Shikotsumyaku techniques. The Clone Body could just about manage simple techniques such as Ten-Finger Drilling Bullets, but it had no chance of performing a major Shikotsumyaku technique like Dance of the Seedling Fern.
The Clone Body's talent was truly abysmal. Even the useless members of the Kaguya Clan probably weren't this bad.
Fortunately, he needed a Clone Body with a weak Shikotsumyaku bloodline. In fact, a Clone Body that hadn't even awakened Shikotsumyaku would be even better for the Blood Exchange Ritual.
For now, he could use this Clone Body to help the Kaguya Clan Head hold on. As his skills improved, he should be able to make Clone Bodies that better suited his needs.
When Lan's spirit returned to his real body, he compared the two and couldn't help thinking how much more comfortable his own body was.
Then Lan began the Blood Exchange Ritual. Once it was complete, he checked the Kaguya Clan Head's condition again.
The results relieved Lan. The Blood Exchange Ritual truly was a secret technique the Hagoromo Clan had developed through painstaking effort.
Now that the Kaguya Clan Head had undergone the ritual, his Kekkei Genkai Disease was under control, and he seemed much more spirited. He could easily last another six months like this.
Although the Clone Body he had just made was now ruined, six more months would be enough time to make other Clone Bodies. And now that he had succeeded once, he was confident he could grow several Clone Bodies at once.
While Lan was hard at work studying cloning techniques, the war between Kumogakure and Konoha had reached a fever pitch.
Both sides were committing more and more troops. Even Lan received a summons.
Before they went to the battlefield, the village arranged a simple Jōnin exam for them, then announced that he was now a Special Jōnin and qualified to take on higher-level missions.
The village wasn't even pretending. It was plainly trying to recruit cannon fodder.
Had the situation at the front really grown this dire? Did they need to send people to fill the line now?
When Lan saw the teammates the village had assigned him, he shook his head helplessly. Anko was among them.
Besides her, there were Gekko Hayate and his girlfriend, Uzuki Yugao.
Seeing how terribly sickly Hayate seemed at such a young age, Lan couldn't help thinking that the guy really had no idea when to practice restraint.
"Ahem..."
Hayate coughed twice, then raised a hand to greet Lan.
"Lan, you're the captain of our Team 8 this time. We'll follow your lead."
Lan glanced over the three of them, then fixed his eyes on Anko and said coldly,
"Now that we're all here, let's go."
The Land of Fire's border.
Lan led Anko and the others into a clash with a Kumogakure squad. After a fierce battle, the entire squad was wiped out within the Land of Fire's borders.
But while Anko and the others rested, they saw Lan cut a piece of tissue from the Kumogakure squad leader's body and store it away.
Watching Lan, Anko couldn't help thinking of her former teacher, Orochimaru.
Orochimaru had been fond of collecting the bodies of shinobi with bloodline abilities because he wanted to use them to uncover the truth of the Ninja World.
Lan was different from Orochimaru. He was collecting information on Kumogakure's shinobi to find the Otsutsuki bloodline hidden within the village.
That's right. Kumogakure was also connected to a branch of the Otsutsuki bloodline.
When he'd been assigned to fight against Kumogakure, Lan had suddenly realized he'd overlooked another branch of the Otsutsuki bloodline.
The brothers Kinkaku and Ginkaku, who came from Kumogakure and had killed the Second Hokage and the Second Raikage, also possessed the Sage of Six Paths' bloodline.
The brothers could merge with Nine-Tails Chakra and wield the Six Paths Tools. They also had horns growing from their foreheads, a visible Otsutsuki trait. Their Otsutsuki bloodline must have been quite strong.
And they clearly had no connection to the Senju, Uzumaki, or Uchiha, the clans that carried the Sage of Six Paths' bloodline. So the brothers had most likely come from the Hagoromo Clan, which had already vanished during the Warring States period.
The Sage of Six Paths' real name was Otsutsuki Hagoromo, so the Hagoromo Clan must have been his descendants.
Lan's plan to restore the Otsutsuki bloodline was naturally better off the more branches he could account for. So, thinking that he might as well kill two birds with one stone, Lan decided to gather information on Kumogakure's shinobi while fighting them and search for traces of the Hagoromo bloodline.
But the Hagoromo Clan had vanished during the Warring States period. So many years later, finding anyone with its bloodline would be unimaginably difficult. This clumsy needle-in-a-haystack approach was his only option.
With Lan leading them, the squad not only completed its missions exceptionally well but also suffered no casualties. Gradually, their team began to draw Kumogakure's attention during the war.
Kumogakure soon made arrangements to deal with them. A squad led by a Jōnin came looking for them.
The Jōnin was named Dekai. He had dark brown skin and face paint, and now he watched Lan and the others with a vicious glare.
"Byakugan? A member of the Hyuga Clan?
Just a kid from the Branch Family. What a shame."
Dekai knew what the Caged Bird Seal did. With the seal in place, the Byakugan of a Hyuga Branch Family member couldn't be removed intact.
That made Lan far less valuable in Dekai's eyes.
He shifted his attention to the other two women and one man. The man kept coughing and looked like a sickly invalid. Dekai had never seen a shinobi like him before. Was Konoha really that short on people?
Why were they sending every last incompetent fool to the front?
The other two kunoichi, each with her own unique charm, caught Dekai's eye.
Seeing the covetous look in his eyes, Anko and Yugao's expressions darkened. They knew he had his sights set on them.
At this dangerous moment, they instinctively looked to Lan.
After spending time with him, each time they thought they understood his strength, Lan would soon reveal yet another power that left them stunned. Over time, he had come to seem unfathomably strong.
Seeing that everyone on the opposing side was focused on Lan, Dekai finally realized that the soul of this squad was the young Byakugan boy.
"Byakugan brat, your luck ran out when you met me."
"You talk too much!"