"You brat, your brain works pretty fast."
Kiyohara shrugged.
"After all, Kirigakure specializes in ambushes and infiltration."
Tsunade pondered for a moment before turning toward Shizune and giving an order.
"Notify every patrol squad to expand their reconnaissance range. Pay special attention to the inland river routes. Have the Hyuga Clan dispatch three additional scouting teams and search westward along the riverbanks. The Byakugan's visual advantage shouldn't be wasted."
"Understood!"
Shizune hurried away at once.
Tsunade then looked back at Kiyohara.
"What about the Executioner's Blade?"
"It's sealed inside a scroll. I thought Samehada was more interesting, so I took it out instead."
Kiyohara answered casually.
Previously, he had already used a fragment from the Executioner's Blade to create a "flying shuttle."
Because of that, he already had some understanding of its material and structure.
Only a living weapon like Samehada was something the previous Kiyohara had never truly come into contact with.
"This sword... are you really planning to keep using it?"
"What else would I do?"
Kiyohara patted Samehada's hilt. Beneath the wrappings, the living greatsword let out a comfortable humming vibration.
"It likes my chakra quite a bit."
The corner of Tsunade's mouth twitched.
Of course she knew Samehada was a living weapon with a primitive consciousness.
But seeing a blade from Kiri betray its owner this quickly still left her speechless.
"Be careful of backlash. The loyalty of living weapons has never been reliable."
"I know."
Kiyohara nodded.
As for Samehada, he did not intend to keep using it forever anyway.
What if the thing saw Killer B one day and suddenly defected?
Or worse, what if it could not bring itself to attack Killer B seriously?
Kiyohara had no intention of tolerating a weapon with even the slightest possibility of betrayal.
What he truly wanted was to clone a newborn version of Samehada and use it as the foundation for developing more types of living weapons.
And the forms of those weapons did not necessarily have to remain giant swords.
They could evolve into countless other shapes.
"Besides, I used a little trick on it."
Kiyohara said.
He loosened part of the bandages, exposing Samehada's hilt.
Several black curse seal markings could be seen coiling around the grip, slowly seeping into the blade itself.
"A curse seal?"
Tsunade raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah. A binding curse seal. If it doesn't behave, it'll hurt a little."
Kiyohara spoke in an extremely calm tone, but Tsunade could easily imagine what that "little" pain truly meant.
This brat was becoming more and more like Orochimaru when it came to control methods.
Still, she said nothing.
The shinobi world had always been cruel. There was no need to show mercy to enemies, especially not to an enemy's weapon.
And Tsunade certainly did not want Kiyohara getting himself killed. An extra layer of protection was always a good thing.
"Oh right."
Kiyohara suddenly remembered something.
"Sensei, help me with something."
"Speak."
"I want to reforge the Executioner's Blade."
Tsunade froze for a moment.
"Reforge it? Why? That sword may look ugly, but the material is excellent. Its ability to absorb blood and repair itself is extremely practical."
"That's exactly because it's too ugly."
Kiyohara answered with complete confidence.
"And I don't like using giant swords. I want a straight blade, something similar to the Kusanagi Sword. Thin, sharp, suitable for high speed slashing."
He paused before continuing.
"The Executioner's Blade is a mutated form of chakra metal. It can absorb blood and chakra. I want to melt it down, extract the essence, and fuse it into my current shinobi blade."
"And then add in that chunk of chakra metal Asuma gave me. That should be enough to forge a pretty good sword."
Tsunade rubbed her temples.
Using one of the Seven Ninja Swords as raw material to forge a personal weapon...
This brat's style was truly arrogant beyond reason.
But after thinking about it again, she realized Kiyohara had the qualifications to act this way.
"I'll find the best swordsmith available. But..."
She looked at Kiyohara.
"Reforging the Executioner's Blade will take time. At least a month."
"No problem."
Kiyohara nodded.
That amount of time was not long at all.
And it was perfect, because during this period, he wanted to conduct an experiment.
The Samehada Cloning Project.
....
Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.
Five hundred meters east of the camp stood a mountain cave.
From the outside, its entrance was concealed by thick layers of vines.
But once someone pushed through the vines and ventured deeper inside, the narrow tunnel would suddenly open into a spacious chamber after a dozen meters.
This cave had been excavated by Kiyohara using Earth Release techniques and converted into a laboratory. Torches burned steadily along the stone walls.
More than a dozen transparent water tanks lined the walls inside.
The larger tanks were half the height of a person, while the smaller ones were only the size of washbasins.
Every tank was layered with fine sand and pebbles at the bottom, simulating different aquatic environments.
Strange looking fish swam within some of the tanks. These were members of the Binding Fish Clan that Kiyohara had acquired through the black market and summoning beast traders.
This was a special type of creature.
If the Monkey King Enma's Clan could transform into the Adamantine Staff, then the Binding Fish Clan could transform into a puddle of soft mud that hardened permanently once cooled.
Shinobis usually signed contracts with them and used them to restrain enemies.
That was why they were classified as restraint type summoning beasts and known as the Binding Fish Clan.
Kiyohara had not only collected adult Binding Fish, but also obtained a large number of fish eggs.
Those eggs were currently stored inside the tanks.
Besides the water tanks, there was also a long wooden workbench.
Microscopes, culture dishes, syringes, scalpels, and various instruments were neatly arranged across its surface.
Some of the equipment had been directly taken from the medical tents, while the rest had been purchased after Kiyohara sold off part of his placer gold reserves.
At this moment, it was already evening.
There were also two women inside the cave.
They were none other than Rin and Shizune.
In order to speed up the pace of research, Kiyohara had recruited the two women to help him and outsourced part of the work to them.
After all, one had personally received Tsunade's teachings, while the other possessed extraordinary talent. Both were far superior to ordinary medical shinobis.
"Fell asleep?"
Kiyohara slightly raised an eyebrow.
"Tch. Your laboratory really is shabby."
The silent Yotsuki Kiyohara finally emerged from the urn for the first time in more than half a month.
He glanced around the cave, scratching his head.
To be honest, he had absolutely no interest in scientific research or experiments.
The only thing capable of attracting Yotsuki Kiyohara was the thrill of battle.
Every time he stepped onto the battlefield, he never needed to know what the mission actually was.
He only knew one thing.
Massacre everything in sight.
Kiyohara could naturally sense the boredom on Yotsuki Kiyohara's face, but he said nothing.
His schedule was carefully divided. Conducting these experiments had never interfered with his own training.
Besides, if the Samehada research succeeded, it would be extremely useful for training subordinates in the future.
He himself was basically a cheat character. His growth speed was like riding a rocket.
But other people were not like that.
To avoid the embarrassing situation of handling everything personally, Kiyohara intended to train a group of capable subordinates.
Right now, his most reliable people were Kakashi and Might Guy.
If he could develop a Samehada clone capable of absorbing Lightning Release chakra and gift it to Kakashi, then Kakashi might truly be able to restore the glory of the Hatake kenjutsu.
After all, Samehada could absorb chakra, making up for Kakashi's poor stamina.
Kiyohara could even create a battery pack style Samehada for himself.
Whenever he ran low on chakra, he could simply let Samehada absorb some energy and feed it back into him.
"I'm going back to sleep."
Yotsuki Kiyohara's spirit body immediately turned into a streak of light and dove back into Kiyohara's mind.
He opened the lid of the urn and lay down inside like a vampire returning to its coffin.
Kiyohara shook his head before turning toward the two women sleeping beside the stone table.
Rin and Shizune were both dressed in shinobi outfits suitable for movement, with white lab coats worn over them.
Rin was lying on her side, her short brown hair slightly messy as it clung to her cheeks. Her eyelashes trembled softly with each breath.
Her body curled slightly inward. Her legs, wrapped in dark red over the knee stockings, overlapped naturally, while her shinobi sandals remained on her feet, exposing crescent shaped pale toes.
Shizune's sleeping posture was much more proper.
She lay flat on her back with both hands folded neatly over her abdomen.
When Kiyohara pushed aside the disguised stone slab at the cave entrance and entered, this was the scene that greeted him.
He deliberately lightened his footsteps and leaned Samehada, still wrapped in bandages, against the wall.
The living sword's barbs wriggled slightly beneath the wrappings as if complaining about being neglected.
Kiyohara merely glanced at it once.
Samehada instantly became obediently quiet.
He then walked toward the stone table and picked up the two thin blankets hanging over the backs of the chairs.
Those were blankets he had brought from the camp a few days earlier.
He first covered Shizune with a blanket, his movements so light that he barely disturbed her sleep at all.
When it was Rin's turn, she unconsciously shifted a little and let out a vague murmur in her sleep. Kiyohara paused briefly, waiting until she settled back into deeper sleep before carefully draping the blanket over her as well.
After finishing that, Kiyohara sent a stream of Yang Release chakra into both Shizune and Rin, easing their fatigue and soothing the soreness in their bodies before finally standing up.
He then walked toward the innermost workstation of the laboratory.
Ten specially made miniature incubators were arranged there, each only about the size of a palm. Their shells were constructed from transparent chakra conductive material, while the interiors were filled with pale green nutrient fluid.
Through the walls of the containers, tiny milky white eggs no larger than grains of rice could be seen floating quietly within.
These were unfertilized eggs from the Binding Fish Clan.
Kiyohara had used certain methods to keep them in a manipulable state.
Pulling over a stone stool, he sat down and slowly closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, his pupils had already turned scarlet as three tomoe rotated slowly within.
The Sharingan.
The world before Kiyohara's eyes instantly magnified.
The membrane of the egg cell, the cytoplasm, the nucleus... every structure became as clear as the lines on a palm.
A fully developed three tomoe Sharingan could even perceive viruses when sufficiently focused, so for Kiyohara, using the Sharingan as a microscope made experiments incredibly convenient.
He raised his right hand, pressing his index and middle fingers together. Pale blue chakra condensed at his fingertips into threads thinner than human hair.
It was the Chakra Scalpel.
Under the precise guidance of the Sharingan, he carefully extracted the original nucleus intact.
This process required absolute precision. Even the slightest mistake would cause the cell to die instantly.
The removed nucleus was placed into a disposal dish beside him, while the now hollow egg cell was temporarily kept alive as it waited for a new core.
Next came the extraction of somatic cells from Samehada.
Kiyohara stood and walked toward the wall, unwrapping part of Samehada's bandages.
Samehada seemed to understand what was about to happen. The blade trembled slightly as the barbs unwillingly spread apart.
Kiyohara pressed his hand against the junction between the hilt and the blade.
That area was essentially Samehada's torso, the region where cellular activity was strongest.
"Don't move."
Kiyohara spoke quietly as green medical chakra glowed from his palm.
Samehada immediately froze.
It was not afraid of pain, but Kiyohara's medical chakra carried a trace of warm fire nature energy within it, causing the living blade to instinctively feel comfortable.
A few seconds later, Kiyohara withdrew his hand.
At his fingertips was a nearly invisible clump of transparent gelatinous material.
Those were Samehada's somatic cells.
Returning to the workbench, he repeated the same procedure.
Within the Sharingan's enhanced vision, Samehada's nucleus appeared significantly larger than the original nucleus of the Binding Fish egg.
Kiyohara wrapped it carefully in chakra threads before gently inserting it into the emptied egg cell.
The fusion process began.
The egg cell's cytoplasm started fluctuating violently, instinctively attempting to reject the foreign invader. Kiyohara continuously infused Yang Release chakra into it, carefully mediating the conflict between the two forms of life.
This process could not be rushed.
Samehada's nucleus needed to slowly adapt to the new environment while preserving its original characteristics.
The first reconstructed cell was complete.
Kiyohara returned it to the incubator, where the chakra infused nutrient fluid automatically began nourishing the newborn lifeform.
He flexed his fingers slightly before looking toward the hundred remaining eggs on the table.
This was the work Kiyohara had been repeating tirelessly for the past half month.
After completing several more, Rin finally woke up.
The first thing she noticed was the warmth of the blanket covering her.
Then, through her lingering drowsiness, she vaguely remembered that while she slept, a gentle stream of chakra seemed to have flowed slowly through her body, relieving the soreness in her muscles.
Opening her eyes, she discovered that Kiyohara had already arrived at some unknown point.
"Kiyohara kun... when did you get here?"
Rin asked sleepily, her cheeks slightly flushed from just waking up.
"Two hours ago."
Kiyohara withdrew his hand.
"You two were sleeping pretty deeply, so I didn't wake you."
Shizune also woke at that moment, rubbing her eyes as she sat up. The blanket slid off her body.
She glanced at Kiyohara, then at Samehada leaning against the wall as her consciousness gradually cleared.
"How's the experiment progressing?"
"I completed several nucleus transplants."
Kiyohara pointed toward the incubators on the workbench.
"Next comes the incubation phase. It'll probably take three to five days."
Rin stood and walked over to the incubators for a closer look.
"These little guys... their chakra fluctuations are really weak."
She spoke softly.
"They're artificially created lifeforms. The fact that they can survive at all is already impressive."
Kiyohara also walked over as his Sharingan activated once more, scanning all ten incubators.
"Shizune, help me record everything."
Kiyohara spoke.
Perhaps because he possessed Orochimaru's research materials, Kiyohara's Samehada cloning experiments progressed surprisingly smoothly.
After all, Orochimaru had even managed to clone the Sharingan.
Compared to that, cloning Samehada was not actually that difficult.
In the shinobi world, the Sharingan itself was practically the core technology.
Without the Sharingan, there would be no Rinnegan.
Without the Rinnegan, controlling the Ten Tails would be impossible.
If Madara and Obito had not possessed the Rinnegan to control the Ten Tails, then the very first step of the Eye of the Moon Plan would have collapsed immediately.
"Alright."
Shizune nodded.
Back when Kiyohara first explained this experiment, Rin had honestly thought he was indulging in wild fantasy.
But as time passed, she realized that Kiyohara's progress was astonishingly smooth.
Kiyohara... was terrifying even in the field of scientific research.
At this point, Shizune finally understood the enormous difference between a genius and ordinary people.
Soon, she began organizing the experiment records, carefully writing down the dates, operational steps, and preliminary results onto scrolls.
Her handwriting was elegant and meticulous, completely different from Tsunade's bold and unrestrained style.
During the following days, aside from handling the camp's routine duties, the three of them spent almost all their time inside the laboratory.
Occasionally, Kurenai would come over noisily to observe the experiments as well.
Even Tsunade herself visited several times.
She felt Kiyohara's work was genuinely impressive and even gave him several pointers, further accelerating the pace of his research.
Over the next week, Kiyohara dramatically increased the scale of the experiments.
Finally, one day, the first true breakthrough appeared.
Inside the smallest incubator, tiny cracks formed across the milky white eggshell.
Crack.
The fissures spread wider.
A black creature smaller than a fingernail squeezed itself out from within the shell.
It resembled a newly hatched fish fry. Its entire body was pitch black, but instead of scales, its surface was covered by a gelatinous membrane.
"It succeeded..."
Shizune stared at the scene in disbelief.
Rin extended a finger, condensing a thread of pale blue water natured chakra at her fingertip.
The tiny black fish immediately sensed it and awkwardly turned within the nutrient fluid, slowly swimming toward the chakra source.
Its movements were extremely clumsy. The body swayed unsteadily as though it had not yet learned how to control its new form.
Kiyohara opened the incubator and carefully lifted the tiny black fish out using chakra threads before placing it into a prepared miniature aquarium.
Fine sand lined the bottom of the tank while several aquatic plants swayed gently with the water current.
The successful hatching greatly excited all three of them, but even heavier workloads soon followed.
Kiyohara named it Number One.
He removed Number One from the aquarium and placed it onto an observation platform lined with soft padding.
Once separated from water, the tiny black fish became visibly agitated, constantly writhing its body.
Kiyohara raised his right hand above it as chakra began flowing from his palm.
Number One immediately quieted down.
Then its body started changing.
The black gelatinous body softened and stretched as though heated.
From a tiny fish, it gradually elongated into a slender rod roughly twenty centimeters long.
Fine patterns appeared across its surface while one end expanded slightly, forming something resembling a grip.
"This is... a staff?"
Rin leaned closer to inspect it.
Kiyohara did not answer. He continued pouring chakra into it.
The rod transformed further.
Its middle section bent while both ends extended outward, eventually stabilizing into the shape of a miniature longbow.
The bow was completely black. It lacked a string, yet grooves suitable for gripping automatically formed along the handle.
"A bow?"
Rin blinked in surprise.
Kiyohara reached out and grasped the miniature black bow.
Perhaps because Samehada's cells had been integrated into it, these Binding Fish Clan creatures actually began instinctively evolving into specific shapes.
Martial Soul True Body?
Kiyohara found the phenomenon strangely fascinating.
If someone else's chakra had been infused instead of his own, or if another experimental subject had been used, would it still have transformed into a bow?
Or would it have become something entirely different?
And what would happen if different chakra natures were used?
Then Kiyohara suddenly remembered Enma's staff, which could freely lengthen and shorten at will, and immediately felt that such transformations were actually not particularly extraordinary in the shinobi world.
After all, during the Fourth Shinobi War, Hiruzen had used Enma's staff to smash apart massive branches of the Divine Tree and even shove the Nine Tails out of Konoha with a single strike.
Merely transforming into a bow was still somewhat ordinary in comparison.
Kiyohara then attempted to inject chakra into the bow itself.
Buzz.
The bow limbs trembled lightly as translucent chakra strings automatically extended between both ends.
Kiyohara mimed drawing the string with his other hand, and a pale blue water natured chakra arrow gradually condensed upon it.
He aimed toward the rocky wall of the laboratory and released.
Whoosh!
The water arrow shot forward and exploded against the stone wall in a small burst of water, leaving behind a wet mark.
Its power was weak, only slightly stronger than an E Rank ninjutsu.
But the important thing was that this bow was alive.
Just like Samehada, it could transform and alter its shape.
Maybe it could even merge with its wielder somehow.
At that moment, however, the black bow formed from Number One suddenly began trembling violently.
Fine cracks spread across its surface as the black gelatinous material started writhing uncontrollably, as though it were melting apart.
Kiyohara immediately sensed Number One's life force rapidly fading away.
His left hand continued holding the black bow while his right hand spread open. Dense green medical chakra surged outward, enveloping the entire weapon.
Unfortunately, Kiyohara's first successful experimental subject still died in the end.
"Still, I'd say this is a good start."
Kiyohara shook his head lightly.
With this beginning established, the following stages of the project would proceed far more smoothly.
"What a shame."
Rin looked at the little black fish in Kiyohara's hands and gently poked it, only to discover that it no longer moved at all.
"With Number One's sacrifice, Number Two can be improved."
Kiyohara replied calmly.
That was the nature of experimentation.
It required endless repetition.
Kiyohara had merely replaced laboratory mice with fish.
For some reason, Kiyohara suddenly thought about nuns and fish.
Fortunately, he definitely did not possess the sort of fetish that involved using fish as tools to vent desire.
Humans could not... and at the very least, should not.
"Kiyohara."
Just as Rin and Shizune were both staring at the dead little fish, Kurenai walked in from outside.
"Kurenai."
Kiyohara looked toward her.
This place was not far from the camp..
If Kurenai had come personally, then she probably had something important to report.
"Lady Tsunade said there seems to be new movement on Kumogakure's side."
The moment Kiyohara heard that, he nodded slightly.
Over the past half month, he had already expressed to Tsunade his desire to support the Kumogakure frontlines.
But as vice captain, he could not simply leave his current post.
So the only option was to temporarily transfer under the pretext of carrying out missions.
Tsunade had also said she would help him keep an eye out for opportunities.
Now, that opportunity had likely arrived.
For Kiyohara, the priority of completing "Last Wills" was still above everything else.
Even the Samehada Cloning Project had to be ranked beneath it.
(End of Chapter)