In the blink of an eye, another half year had passed.
Night.
Zenin Grounds.
Toji raised his hand and thrust out black threads. "Secret Technique: Earth Grudge Parasite!"
Pitch-black tendrils burrowed into Experiment Subject No. 13's body.
Experiment Subject No. 13 was a beautiful, voluptuous female Chunin, but Toji's gaze held not the slightest ripple. He merely controlled Earth Grudge Fear with cold indifference, planting a Parasite Mark in her heart.
He held his hands before his lips and began frantically extracting the female ninja's physical and spiritual energy.
Struggling, twisting, convulsing...
The female ninja was tightly bound by restraint straps. Though her body thrashed violently, it was all futile.
After half a year of refinement, Toji's extraction technique had become proficient.
A moment later, Experiment Subject No. 13 stopped struggling, her eyes gradually turning vacant. Another ten minutes passed, yet the various instruments connected to her body showed no abnormal reactions.
"Success."
Toji and the parasitized Experiment Subject No. 13 spoke in unison.
Toji did not possess the Byakugan.
If he had, he would have been able to directly see the "flame" rising from Experiment Subject No. 13's heart. That was chakra!
Through Earth Grudge Fear's tendrils, he had successfully extracted spiritual energy from the host's heart, then mixed it with physical energy to complete the full chakra extraction process.
Because he was extracting chakra through a puppet body under his control, the efficiency was not especially high, but it was still a breakthrough from zero to one.
What he needed to do next was simply practice until it became second nature.
Until its speed rivaled his own chakra extraction.
Successfully controlling a host to extract chakra also meant that from now on, he could not only make hosts perform simple physical movements, but directly control them in battle as well.
Chakra's local deployment had such a broad range of applications!
Toji turned his gaze toward Experiment Subject No. 14.
He repeated the process, parasitizing its heart with Earth Grudge Fear and extracting chakra.
Dividing his mind three ways...
Even Toji, with Innate Twin Soul Power, found it somewhat overwhelming.
If Earth Grudge Parasite were considered a chip, then Toji's Innate Twin Soul Power was two cores. Once the number of hosts he needed to process exceeded two, his efficiency would drop sharply.
"While maintaining my own consciousness, I can currently control at most one host at relatively full combat strength. Any more, and my divided attention will prevent me from fully controlling them."
"Earth Grudge Fear itself possesses intelligence. If I hand everything over to it and do not interfere, it can only maintain basic activity and instinctive combat awareness. Its strength would be greatly reduced..."
"At present, I can plant Parasite Marks in at most five targets simultaneously. Each target corresponds to one of my hearts."
Earth Grudge Fear, whose true body was a mass of black threads, had completed its "incarnation" and gained a humanoid form.
Toji made an assessment of his own situation.
Biting off more than he could chew would only lead to indigestion.
Rather than divide his attention among multiple incomplete puppets, it was better to focus on allowing one host to display strength close to its original level.
And if he wanted a host to unleash all of its strength, his true body had to cast aside all distractions, remain in a meditative state, and connect with Earth Grudge Fear wholeheartedly. He could not afford to be distracted.
"My Yin Release chakra will not improve any further in the short term. If I want to improve my control, I can only work on proficiency."
If core performance could not change, he could only increase task-processing efficiency by adding more threads.
For Toji, those threads were his proficiency with Earth Grudge Fear. The human experiments for Earth Grudge Parasite could not stop. He had to train day and night with unwavering persistence.
"Or, once I develop a method to increase the amount of Yin Release chakra, this limitation will also be broken."
He looked at the two controlled Chunin beside him. They were the first and second successful experimental subjects. Calling them No. 13 and No. 14 was too perfunctory, and made the puppets seem redundant, so he spoke flatly.
"I'll call you Type Zero and Type One."
Toji swept his gaze over the light-purple ninja uniforms on their bodies, then casually tossed over organization uniforms and masks he had designed long ago.
"Now, serve as my eyes and go to the Land of Rice Fields."
"Secretly support Uchiha Yan."
"Yes, sir!"
Type Zero and Type One answered in stiff tones, without the slightest excess emotion.
Uchiha Yan sent at least one Chunin every month, making Chunin seem as though they were everywhere. But in truth, at any time, Chunin were the backbone of the Shinobi World, possessing enough power to easily destroy an entire village.
If these two Chunin announced the formation of a rogue ninja group at the Underground Gold Exchange, they would be enough to stir up considerable trouble throughout the Land of Rice Fields.
Uchiha Yan had been pursued for so long.
Toji also wanted to see just what kind of strength she had accumulated in the Land of Rice Fields.
"The organization's name will be..." Toji thought for a moment, then said,
"Passion."
The next day.
Toji stood before a mirror and began changing clothes.
At the same time, he began his daily routine of "examining himself thrice."
Examining himself thrice meant reviewing the progress of his current research projects and planning out each day.
His current research projects were as follows.
Earth Grudge Parasite had made breakthrough progress.
As for Impure World Reincarnation, Toji could now summon ten sheets of Summoning Talisman Paper at once. He had taken another step toward his goal of one hundred sheets needed to summon the dead.
Yin Seal, meanwhile, was progressing relatively slowly. Redesigning it would likely take years.
Mito Uzumaki had been right. When this Yin Seal technique was first designed, it probably had not considered male ninja at all. The entire sealing formula structure had been designed completely around women's bodily pathways and chakra circulation characteristics.
If the human body were likewise compared to an Android motherboard, then Yin Seal was an Apple chip. Its core function was to store chakra and preserve one's appearance.
The issue was that an Android motherboard and an Apple chip were incompatible.
Toji had to alter the framework that only suited women and redesign a set of technique pathways compatible with the male body before he could break the restriction that "men cannot use it."
But saying there had been no progress at all would be underestimating Toji's research abilities.
Toji stood before the mirror, holding two fingers before his lips.
"Yin Seal: Release!"
As soon as the words fell,
black markings emerged from Toji's chest, spreading along his torso and limbs.
With a thought from him, symmetrical markings gradually appeared on his cheeks as well.
Looking at himself in the mirror, Toji revealed a satisfied expression.
For now, the Yin Seal lacked any energy-storage function and could only be admired as a decorative piece.
Unlike the Yin Seal: Release markings on Tsunade's face in the future, which resembled a ○ symbol, Toji had deliberately designed the markings of the New Yin Seal to resemble Ryomen Sukuna's. They looked far better.
Especially on the face...
Toji believed that telling others he had released the Yin Seal and entered a second stage during battle was not a particularly clever thing to do. Having the markings appear on the torso, even the lower abdomen, was much more sinister and would also make it easier for him to use Yin Seal on hosts in the future.
Thus, he designed the facial markings with a switchable mode.
Only when he held an absolute advantage in battle and victory was assured would the markings on his face be activated.
In essence, it was—if he did not don this cassock, how would the masses know that he had severed all worldly ties and drained the golden sea dry?
The era of colored contacts had not yet arrived, but Toji had already entered the tattoo version ahead of schedule.
Before you continue