Soaked Through with Sweat

She looked as though she had just been pulled from the water. Dressed only in a black shinobi outfit, she was already completely soaked through with sweat.

Her first fusion with senjutsu chakra had drained all her strength. She collapsed onto the floor, panting heavily, without even a shred of energy left.

Not only was she drenched in sweat, but she was also covered in dust, making her look utterly disheveled.

So this is exhausting... I really want to just lie here forever... As soon as this thought arose in Rin Nohara's mind, a powerful wave of fatigue washed over her, and she quickly drifted into sleep.

"She's asleep?" Hiruko noticed that Rin Nohara's breathing had gradually steadied. He then quietly approached and examined her carefully.

As one of the roots of the Fourth Shinobi World War,

who would have thought that this girl before him, aside from being pretty, youthful, and lively, bore no trace of bloodshed and was merely an ordinary person?

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Hiruko slowly reached out and placed another seal beside the Sage Curse Mark on the back of Rin Nohara's neck.

After reinforcing the seal, Hiruko also left something near Rin Nohara's heart.

It was quite some time before Rin Nohara slowly woke up.

She found a blanket draped over her, while Hiruko sat in a chair beside her.

Rin Nohara hurriedly got up and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, Lord Hiruko. I actually fell asleep just now. That was terribly disrespectful."

Hiruko shook his head and said, "It's fine. Since you're awake, get some proper rest.

We'll conduct the second session three days from now.

Starting tomorrow, I'll put you through special taijutsu training."

With that, Hiruko's Shadow Clone dispersed immediately.

Seeing this, Rin Nohara could not help thinking, Lord Hiruko is really considerate. Not only did he cover me with a blanket, but he even left behind a Shadow Clone to monitor my condition.

But Kakashi... Thinking of Kakashi, Rin Nohara felt a wave of sadness.

Because of Obito, Kakashi could no longer feel that way about her.

Back when they had been surrounded by enemies, Rin Nohara had already realized that Kakashi did not feel that way about her.

Even when faced with danger, he had helped Obito convey his feelings.

At that thought, Rin Nohara could not help sighing. She then folded the blanket and held it tightly in her hands, lost in thought.

Time flew by like a white colt flashing past a crack, and leisurely days always passed quickly.

During the day, Hiruko went to the Research Department and carried out his research as usual.

Recently, Hiruko had been focusing on the mutation traits of plants and jellyfish, hoping to achieve some worthwhile results.

Especially in his plant research.

He had successfully cultivated a combat plant similar to the First Hokage's Wood Release. This plant could continuously absorb chakra and was perfectly suited for the battlefield.

When the time came, Hiruko would only need to toss several dozen such saplings into the enemy army. Within a dozen or so minutes, they would rapidly expand to the scale of Deep Forest Emergence.

Then they would frantically absorb the enemy's chakra, with remarkably effective results.

However, these research results did not provide much direct help to Hiruko himself.

There was one hard-to-overcome flaw—the plants themselves were far too fragile.

By comparison, the immortal traits of the immortal jellyfish were highly enviable, and its ability to divide without damaging the individual was practically a devastating weapon.

But in the end, both organisms only possessed advantages in certain areas.

Plants were still plants, and they feared fire greatly.

The immortal jellyfish, meanwhile, could only live in water. Its flesh was fragile as well; one careless step could crush it into a pulp, leaving it with very limited practical value.

Still, after such a long period of research, Hiruko was not without solutions.

The invasive nature of Hashirama Cells was simply too powerful.

After being injected with Hashirama Cells, organisms underwent all kinds of bizarre mutations.

At that moment, all sorts of strangely shaped creatures were being cultivated inside Hiruko's enormous culture tanks.

For example, sparrows with three heads, mice with six hearts, and bizarre insects that looked as though they had crawled out of a fantasy world.

Of course, some mutated specimens looked relatively normal.

Hiruko did not choose to destroy these mutated specimens. Instead, he continuously preserved them here.

Looking at everything before him, Hiruko could not help remarking, "Chakra in this world is truly convenient."

No wonder Orochimaru alone could accomplish everything a mad scientist was supposed to do.

This convenient power could replace the observations of all kinds of sophisticated scientific instruments, as well as every type of delicate operation.

Chakra truly was an omnipotent power. It made all of this possible.

At times, Hiruko could not help looking down on the Uchiha Clan and the Hyuga Clan.

Though the Byakugan and Sharingan possessed absurdly powerful abilities, how many people could truly develop them to their fullest extent?

But as long as one or two people like Orochimaru appeared, the perceptive abilities of the Byakugan and Sharingan would make playing Resident Evil as easy as child's play.

Why would anyone still need to bother with the farce of main and branch families, let alone resort to extreme measures like exterminating an entire clan?

By then, if they simply cultivated tens of thousands of Umbrella biological weapons, they could crush countless factions and sweep across the shinobi world.

In this brief period, Hiruko had already cultivated a pile of grotesque aberrations.

Some of them possessed combat strength that could not be underestimated.

Most of these beasts had no individual consciousness, or only an extremely weak one, and could be cultivated entirely as tools.

It was simply that Hiruko had no need for such power at the moment.

So he had not cultivated them according to conventional methods.

In fact, Hiruko had done only two things over the past few months: cultivated massive quantities of samples, then damaged specific genetic codes.

He used high-density chakra and natural energy to continuously alter the traits of living organisms.

This approach was even more unorthodox than the research of amateur scientists.

In his previous life, even pooling technological resources to complete the genetic coding of a species required at least years.

For one person to thoroughly understand a single organism was neither realistic nor necessary.

By destroying specific genetic codes, Hiruko observed which traits an organism failed to display after a given section was damaged, thereby locating the special point.

He then reversed that damaged genetic code, extracted the corresponding protein bioenzymes, injected them into other organisms, and observed whether they could produce any effect.

The grotesque creatures in the culture tanks earlier had been created this way.

Hiruko had even conducted some hybridization experiments. One example was a leopard beast with bird heads, and its appearance was truly bizarre.

Several hundred bird heads had grown directly from its body, making it rather nauseating to look at.

Hiruko sealed it away at the very bottom.

For now, the life serum Hiruko had initially developed—a vitality serum extracted from the First Hokage's cells—could effectively prevent all kinds of organisms from dying.

As long as they had not died on the spot, the serum Hiruko developed naturally...