"Prepare the anesthesia," Makoto instructed Nonou Yakushi.
"Huh? Do I need anesthesia?" Rin asked in confusion, having not yet lain down.
"Edo Tensei bodies don't feel pain, but the moment you cross the threshold from death to life, you won't be an Edo Tensei anymore. Are you sure you don't want it?"
"Sorry, I'm an idiot."
Hearing Makoto's logic, Rin lowered her head and apologized.
This was the first true resurrection surgery.
No one knew exactly when the boundary between life and death would shatter. If she entered a living state halfway through the procedure, Rin would experience the agony of death by a thousand cuts.
"Understood." Nonou Yakushi took out a few syringes and placed them aside, ready on standby.
"To be safe, we won't use general anesthesia, okay? You need to stay awake to provide real-time sensory feedback."
"Yes, that works. I can handle it."
After the brief exchange, Rin lay down.
Nonou pressed a button on the console.
A partition isolated Rin's head from the rest of her body.
Nonou then injected a special anesthetic through a side tube into the cultivation pod, letting the medicine mix into the nutrient solution surrounding her torso and limbs.
"Since we're ready, let's start with the most crucial part: the head." Makoto stood over Rin and extended a hand toward Nonou.
Naturally, the localized anesthesia had no effect on him.
"Here." Nonou handed a clump of cultivated cells to Makoto.
Makoto carefully applied the cells to Edo Rin's head and began to work.
His request to Orochimaru had been minimal: there was no need to cultivate entire organs, just raw cells.
Makoto had named the life-giving genesis ability he gained from Kaguya's severed hand Gold Experience.
The abilities were similar to the famous stand, but not identical.
If someone was missing an arm or a leg, Makoto could grab a brick, mold it into the corresponding flesh, and heal them.
That aspect should technically be called "Inorganic Reincarnation."
Why mention they were similar, but not identical? Because the original 'Gold Experience' couldn't use this move on living beings.
Missing an eye meant molding an inorganic object into a brand new eye, it couldn't magically mend a ruptured, biological eye and shove it back in.
It was patching, not healing.
But Makoto could do both.
This was why he told Orochimaru to prepare raw cells instead of full organs.
To Makoto, organs and cells were fundamentally the same canvas.
A simple clump of cells was vastly easier to manipulate and shape.
As for why he had to use Rin's original DNA instead of inorganic materials? The reason was simple.
Using Rin's cells as a biological base meant the resurrected girl would have her own soul residing in a cloned, living body that was genetically her own.
If Makoto created her from scratch using inorganic dirt or clay, her soul would be her own, but her physical body would be Makoto's creation.
In that bizarre scenario, Rin would biologically have to call Makoto "Daddy" after resurrecting.
"Done. Feel anything?" Makoto quickly finished molding the cranial section.
Rin's sclera regained their natural, lively color, and the dead, paper-like cracks on her face vanished seamlessly.
"No." Rin blinked, looking bewildered.
This defied basic medical common sense.
The brain was present, and the head was "alive," yet she felt no physical sensations.
But Makoto pondered for a moment and found it unsurprising.
For an Edo Tensei, unless the grafted organs and cells possessed overwhelming special properties, they made no difference to the overall state of the vessel.
Implanting Hashirama Senju's cells into an Edo Tensei body yielded the same result as implanting Hashirama's... well, appendage.
In the original timeline, when the four Hokage were reanimated, the Second Hokage stated that he sensed his vessel was composed nearly entirely of his older brother's cells.
This meant Orochimaru used Zetsu clones to fill Tobirama with Hashirama's DNA.
This proved that no matter how many living cells a Reanimated body contained, it wouldn't spontaneously bring the dead back to life until a specific threshold was crossed.
It likely required reaching a full one hundred percent conversion rate.
As expected, Makoto's theory was correct.
Makoto began molding the torso and limbs, completing the complex anatomy part by part, then meticulously assembling it.
To an outsider, it looked like he was building a life-sized, biological action figure.
When Makoto nearly finished the grand assembly, leaving only one final spot untouched, Rin still reported feeling nothing.
To confirm if Rin remained bound by the Edo Tensei, Makoto controlled his strength and threw a swift, testing punch straight at her pelvis.
The paper-like ash crumpled, but the area quickly regenerated itself in a swirl of dust.
"Is there a need to keep testing? Just mold the final piece and ask Rin if she feels anything." Kushina didn't understand why Makoto stopped his work to test the durability at the very last step.
Lying in the cultivation pod, Rin's face flushed a deep crimson, her eyes darting around in embarrassment and confusion.
Don't ask why she was blushing.
Makoto's ability could convert inorganic matter into flesh, and—unlike the original Gold Experience—mold raw cells into complex organs.
However, it couldn't turn living bodies back into inorganic matter.
Meaning, Makoto couldn't magically mold clothing over the new skin.
Some necessary "actions" had already occurred during the sculpting process.
What actions? Well, Sakura was currently trekking to the Sound Village to acquire an experimental hormone mixture just to catch up to Ino's boobs.
Sakura could've just come to Makoto.
If she endured a little pain, excised her flat chest, and had Makoto mold two massive balloons with his ability, her psychological combat power would skyrocket.
Makoto needed to accurately restore Rin's entire body, he had just performed exactly that delicate, anatomical operation.
Thus, Makoto technically became the second person to touch Rin's chest.
Who was the first? Kakashi, of course.
Who else, Obito?
Kakashi pierced straight through Rin's chest with a Chidori, obliterating her heart.
That "touch" was significantly rougher than Makoto's surgical sculpting.
"I have my reasons," Makoto said slowly, looking up at Kushina to explain his pause.
"If Rin had already shed the Edo Tensei suppression, I wouldn't need to continue manually. I could just have Tsunade inject life force and let her biological regeneration heal the missing parts on its own. But she hasn't broken the Edo Tensei yet. Her new organs and cells are currently dormant, surviving solely on the nutrient liquid in the cultivation pod..."
"So just mold the last piece!" Kushina grew even more confused.
Why bring up Tsunade? If Makoto could effortlessly finish the job himself, why drag the Hokage into the hypothetical?
"If I gave you a lump of clay, could you sculpt Kaguya Ōtsutsuki?" Makoto asked calmly.
Kushina shook her head. "I've never even seen this Kaguya Ōtsutsuki. How would I know how to sculpt her?"
"Exactly. How would you sculpt something you haven't seen?" Makoto echoed.
"Uh..." Kushina's face went blank as she finally understood.
Makoto was currently, with total seriousness, earnestness, and adhering to the strict rigors of medical science and cytology, demanding—to see the final, censored reference material.
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