Puppet

Meruem's idea was good, but the Uchiha Clan was not as easy to control as others. They were a proud and arrogant clan. More importantly, Meruem did not know how to perform the Chimera Ants' human-body modifications. Those had previously been carried out by Chimera Ant doctors, Pouf, and Pitou.

But that did not mean Meruem had no solution. Do not forget one of Meruem's Nen abilities—Voodoo.

One effect of the Golden Silkworm Gu was to enhance the target's Nen, maximizing the development of their Nen ability. In practical terms, although it could push them to their limits—

—it was ultimately a kind of potential overdraft. Human potential was limitless. That saying applied equally well to Chimera Ants. Raising one's Nen to an unbelievable level in an extremely short period came at the price of never improving again for the rest of one's life. That was why Meruem had not used the Golden Silkworm Gu on every Chimera Ant. It simply was not worth it.

Of course, besides overdrawing potential, the Golden Silkworm Gu had two other abilities. First, once someone consumed it, their life and death would be controlled by Meruem. The Golden Silkworm Gu's true form was a Nen Beast, and the target had to swallow it for it to take effect. As for the third ability, it could turn someone into something like a puppet. In other words, it was somewhat like an external incarnation that Meruem could control remotely. However, this required one condition: when the target first consumed the Golden Silkworm Gu, their consciousness had to be erased immediately. Erasing their consciousness could also develop their potential to its limit—in other words, the first effect, potential overdraft.

So for now, Voodoo was perfectly suited to Meruem's needs. The only flaw was that the Golden Silkworm Gu could not be used without limit. In the past, Meruem could conjure at most ⑨ Golden Silkworm Gu at once. ⑨ was already his limit. No matter how much stronger he became, he could only have nine at most. Unless one Golden Silkworm Gu disappeared, he could not exceed that limit of ⑨.

Now, Meruem could conjure only one Golden Silkworm Gu at most. But one was enough to deal with the current situation. As for the Golden Silkworm Gu he had previously given to Aureole, Zazan, and Gudo, Gudo had ignored orders and been personally killed by Meruem, while Aureole and Zazan were in the system space. That did not prevent Meruem from conjuring a new Golden Silkworm Gu.

As for the reason? Meruem himself did not know.

Since he did not know the exact timing of the Uchiha Clan massacre, Meruem decided to act as soon as possible.

While Ruiko was asleep at night, Meruem quietly left the house on the outskirts of the Uchiha Clan district.

Meruem did not particularly care about the candidate. Anyone from the Uchiha Clan would do. As for whether they could awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan, or whether the Golden Silkworm Gu's potential development would work on ninjas from the Naruto World, he truly did not know.

But would he not find out only after trying?

As for why he wanted control? After experiencing the Chama incident in the Hunter World, Meruem no longer wanted to expose himself in public. Especially while his strength had yet to recover. Of course, once his strength fully returned, whether he would go challenge Madara one-on-one or solo Kaguya's dungeon—

—that would depend entirely on his mood.

Uchiha Suzuki. Not only was Suzuki a common name, he was also an ordinary background character within the Uchiha Clan. He was twenty years old this year. At nineteen, he awakened his Sharingan during a mission. However, unlike Sasuke, Itachi, or even Obito, he had awakened only a single tomoe in his left eye.

His talent was as ordinary as could be among the Uchiha Clan. After all, geniuses who awakened their eyes at six or seven years old, immediately opening Two Tomoe Sharingan, or awakening with one or two tomoe in both eyes, were rare even in the Uchiha Clan's history.

Those who awakened their eyes only in their teens or twenties and could develop them to Two Tomoe at most were already considered fairly decent in the Uchiha Clan. As for those who reached Three Tomoe in their twenties, they could only be called geniuses. They were elites wherever they went, and even in the present-day Uchiha Clan, there were only a handful of them.

There were fewer than ten people in the entire Uchiha Clan who had awakened Three Tomoe. Every one of them possessed strength sufficient to contend with an Elite Jonin. What level was an Elite Jonin? Simply put, they were reserve candidates for Kage-level powerhouses and could potentially advance to become Kage-level experts. That strength was no joke. To ninjas, a Bloodline Limit was practically a cheat code, and the Sharingan bloodline of Son of the Six Paths Indra was one of the best among them.

Elite Jonin without a Bloodline Limit or secret techniques did exist in the ninja world, but they were even rarer than Kage-level powerhouses. It was easy to see that the Naruto World, like the Hunter World, was a world where talent, ancestors, and background determined everything. Of course, every world was like that. As for grassroots rises like Son Goku from the Dragon Ball world, who had a starting battle power of only 2 but later gained strength comparable to a God of Destruction, such super freaks were incredibly rare.

Modern society required having a powerful father, and the same applied in Naruto. The difference was that one could rely on a godfather, while the other could only rely on one's biological father.

"Who are you?" Suzuki watched the green-skinned little boy before him with a wary expression. He did not underestimate his opponent because of his age. This was the heart of the Uchiha Clan's territory. How could anyone outside the Uchiha Clan appear here? Especially a child—it was even more impossible.

Meruem could not be bothered to answer. He had deliberately let the other man discover him. Yet the man's reaction disappointed him somewhat. Still, he was only looking for a puppet. Nothing else mattered.

He vanished from Suzuki's sight in an instant. Before Suzuki could react, Meruem delivered a heavy blow to his head. Then, dragging the unconscious Suzuki behind him, he disappeared into the silent night.

As an aside, the genes of Son of the Six Paths Indra seemed to be somewhat better than Asura's. After all, as long as someone in the Uchiha Clan could awaken their eyes, none of them looked bad. They were all handsome, and more than half had that cold, aloof type of appearance. That was probably what they called recessive genetic inheritance.

Meruem dragged Suzuki into an uninhabited forest, perhaps the Forest of Death. In any case, Meruem had checked with En. Other than some wild beasts, there was not a single living person there. The Nen ability En was practically comparable to a sensory ninja, and its error rate was nearly zero. Naturally, it had its drawbacks: only super experts could spread En over a great distance. Ordinary experts could cover only around three hundred meters.

Meruem's arrival caused quite a disturbance among the animals in the Forest of Death. Since he did not want to be bothered by animals that failed to recognize their place, he did not suppress his aura much. The magical beasts of the Hunter World were countless times stronger than the animals of the Naruto World, which were merely somewhat larger than ordinary animals from other worlds. Even those magical beasts could not withstand even a trace of Meruem's aura, much less these creatures.

In short, there was not a single animal within two or three hundred meters of Meruem, insects included.

He brutally pried Suzuki's mouth open and controlled the Golden Silkworm Gu as it slowly crawled into Suzuki's mouth.

"Mm, so this is what being a puppet feels like? It's a little unfamiliar. I feel dizzy." The Golden Silkworm Gu's method of turning someone into a puppet was very similar to how the Parasytes in an eighties manga called "Parasyte" controlled humans. They ate the target's brain and thereby controlled the body. The difference was that the Golden Silkworm Gu was not so savage.

Meruem slowly controlled Suzuki into standing up. The feeling was extremely strange, as if two perspectives had suddenly appeared. Meruem had once thought this ability was useless, so he had never used it. This was his first attempt. But Meruem possessed terrifying talent, after all. Apart from some initial discomfort, he became familiar with it after merely two hours.

"All right, let me see how much potential you have." Like an insect spinning a cocoon, layer after layer of fine threads appeared over Suzuki's body, wrapping him tightly. In the end, they formed a genuine large yellow cocoon.

"Mm, this is different from Aureole and the others. Aureole and the others only took two hours, but this looks like it will take more than twelve. Well, they are not Nen Users. It is already good enough that it works on ninjas from this world. A slower development speed is not much of a problem. But how far it can develop him is another question. If he only reaches the level of an Elite Jonin, he probably will not be much help with the clan massacre. Itachi alone could wipe out a whole group, and with Root's elites added in, he would probably need to be Kage-level. More importantly, how much of my strength can this puppet display? And I really have no good way to deal with techniques like genjutsu. After all, I have not faced one yet."

There were two things in the Naruto World that Meruem was wary of: genjutsu and Sealing Techniques. As for taijutsu, ninjutsu, and the like, Meruem truly did not fear them much. Since he had never faced genjutsu head-on, he could not help being somewhat concerned. The same went for Sealing Techniques. Meruem's understanding of Sealing Techniques was almost zero. Who knew whether there was some Sealing Technique capable of sealing him away, or whether eighty or a hundred people might suddenly lose their minds and launch a collective Reaper Death Seal at him? Meruem truly had no idea whether he could withstand it. After all, he had not studied souls much.

That was also one of the reasons Meruem wanted to leave the Hunter World as quickly as possible. That world seemed to have quite a few things similar to soul attacks. There were countless strange phenomena, and the Five Great Calamities later on already touched upon the realm of unsolvable horrors like Junji Ito's horror stories. So-called unsolvable horror could also be called inexplicable horror—like the world of "Final Destination."

Meruem let the large cocoon slowly incubate on its own, then set off back home. He was not bored enough to wait there. Meruem would naturally know when the enhancement was complete. Besides, it was originally meant to be a remotely controlled puppet.

There were plenty of giant insects around there anyway. Even if other ninjas discovered it, they would only assume it was some insect's cocoon.

Meruem gently pushed open the window and slipped through it with a sideways motion.

Meruem did not keep En active at all times. After all, he did not know whether anyone in this world could sense Nen. Besides, he had subconsciously believed Ruiko's home was safe.

Yet to his surprise, the moment he entered, he saw Ruiko alone in her pajamas, barefoot and crouched on the floor, her head buried deeply between her knees as she sobbed.

Ruiko's home was very small, with only two tiny rooms and a living room. The kitchen was also in the living room, and Meruem had entered through the living room window.

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