Inside the waterfall of the Hidden Mist, a silver-haired youth trod elegantly upon the lake's surface. Shrouded in telekinetic energy, he was surrounded by countless fluttering silver butterfly shadows.
On the dark, quiet lake, the boy moved to the center and slowly sat cross-legged in mid-air. Under his control, the surrounding water flowed in unique, pulsating ripples.
Wearing the traditional robes of the Shinobi and holding a white Crystal ruler, a youthful face was revealed beneath his messy silver hair. Despite his adolescent appearance, Suikazan Fuguki did not dare to look down on him.
Fuguki had long speculated about the boy's identity but could never pinpoint his true origins. However, as the liaison sent by the Hidden Sand, Fuguki dutifully reported the latest intelligence.
As the elder detailed the recent string of political upheavals within the Mist, the boy's eyes sparkled with a different kind of brilliance.
After a long silence, the youth stepped off the water. "The Mizukage may be under the influence of a controlling technique. Otherwise, he wouldn't govern the village in such a manner."
On the surface, this silver-haired youth was Hozuki Kaigetsu, a member of the Hozuki clan. According to the official story backed by the Mist's Intelligence Department, he was an orphan of the Hozuki clan recovered from the outskirts of the Land of Water.
Since the Hozuki clan was nearly extinct, the addition of a few distant relatives drew little suspicion, especially since he demonstrated a mastery of the clan's secret techniques.
Kaigetsu possessed the trademark silver hair of his lineage. Though only sixteen, he had mastered most of the Hozuki secret arts and many incredible Water Release techniques.
Unlike the main body, Shiraishi, who dabbled in every field, Kaigetsu focused purely on Water Release and water-based skills, developing various specialized combination ninjutsu. Recently, he had been using Natural Energy primarily to enhance his hydrokinesis.
In Fuguki's eyes, this identity was a fabrication of the Fifth Kazekage, with Fuguki himself serving as the guarantor. But in reality, the physical body did belong to a member of the Hozuki clan—one who, while lacking the genius of Mangetsu or Suigetsu, possessed a high degree of compatibility with the soul fragment Shiraishi had split off a year ago.
Hozuki Kaigetsu was not like Shiraishi's other puppet clones; he was a living being of flesh and blood with his own independent thoughts and consciousness.
The Regeneration Core in his eyes allowed him to stay connected to Shiraishi's central thought network.
For a long time, Shiraishi's development of Ghost-type "Curse" skills from his system had remained stagnant. As a unique type of incantation, it had two distinct applications, but Shiraishi struggled to unlock its true potential.
However, during a recent test, Shiraishi accidentally combined Curse Arts with Yin-Yang Chakra. The result was the forced separation of a portion of his soul.
After absorbing a massive amount of resentment, this soul fragment possessed the body of a recently deceased Hozuki orphan.
The soul seeks its own host; when a high-compatibility match is found, the seal of the Heavenly Curse of the Five Phantoms appears on the body of the deceased youth.
This was the origin of Kaigetsu. The severed soul remained a part of the original, but this accidental application gave Shiraishi a deeper understanding of the Ghost-type skills in his system. The total amount of soul remains constant; while splitting it weakened Shiraishi's main body, the strategic advantages were enormous.
The upper limit of this technique is five cursed souls, corresponding to the five chakra natures. Kaigetsu was the first: the Water-attribute Possession Clone.
Theoretically, he can split into five, but practically, he can only maintain four. A fifth split would likely cause Shiraishi's main soul to enter a state of dormant self-sealing until the five souls returned.
These separated souls can train and grow independently; once they return to the main body, Shiraishi's own soul will become significantly more powerful and profound.
Conversely, even if the main body is destroyed, as long as a split soul exists, he has a chance to be resurrected.
While Orochimaru's Reincarnation and Shiraishi's Five Phantoms both deal with the soul, Shiraishi's method involves a "destruction and reconstruction" approach to strengthen himself.
The pain of splitting the soul is immense; the technique can only be used once a year, or the soul will collapse. Its true power lies in the fact that each split soul grows without an upper limit.
If a clone dies, all the power and experience it accumulated returns to Shiraishi instantly via a Summoning-like mechanism.
It is an upgraded version of Shadow Clone training. This is the forbidden jutsu: Heavenly Curse of the Five Phantoms!
The Uchiha's New Ghost
News of the awakening of Uchiha Zhan's son spread quickly through the Leaf and the Uchiha compound. However, due to the awkward political status of Uchiha Kagami's lineage, the clan merely sent a few observers before ignoring him.
As for the Leaf high command, Tan's son's talent was considered far inferior to that of his cousin, Shisui.
Having "saved" the boy was seen as settling the village's debt of guilt toward the deceased Tan. Since the boy—Uchiha Kaede—was considered mediocre, the interest in him cooled rapidly.
"I'm finished with my meal."
In Zhan's home, facing his mother's care, Kaede calmly set down his chopsticks.
"Kaede, are you going out?"
Looking at his mother's eyes, the "new" Kaede was in a state of chaotic mental flux. Although he possessed Shiraishi's consciousness, he was an independent personality, and receiving the original Kaede's massive amount of memories left him in a state of confusion.
"Yes. I need to train."
The Five Phantoms technique exists somewhere between corpse control and possession, yet functions like a specialized clone jutsu.
Currently, Kaede was indistinguishable from a normal person; his cells showed signs of activation rather than the stagnant aura of a corpse.
His surging vitality was actually produced by the reversal of the massive amounts of resentment he had absorbed—a truly unique application of a curse.
Unlike the accidental creation of Kaigetsu, Shiraishi had made full preparations for Kaede's birth. He had even inscribed the power of Cyan Flame into the soul fragment to enhance his control over Fire Release.
"But your body has only just recovered..."
"I need to take on missions to earn money. We cannot rely on the clan to take care of us forever."
Though Kaede's mother was a Uchiha, she was not a ninja. The household depended on Kaede, a Chunin, to take on missions to survive. Hearing her son's words, his mother's expression darkened, and she began to sob quietly.
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