Chapter 96: Little Nine-Tails Clone
The Karma on Kei's body came from Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, and Ōtsutsuki Kaguya was none other than the mother of the Sage of Six Paths, Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo.
After being altered by Karma, the aura around Kei now carried a faint resemblance to that of the Sage of Six Paths himself.
That was precisely why the Nine-Tails had been so easy to deal with.
From Kei, it had sensed a strange familiarity. Because of that, it had readily agreed to his request instead of refusing.
Of course, another reason was its own desire to escape this place and gain as much freedom as possible.
"First, I let my consciousness leave this cage. Then, I find a chance to free my real body…"
Inside the cage, thoughts churned through the Nine-Tails' mind.
"When that time comes, I'll make everyone pay the price."
Thinking of the people it had encountered in the past, a terrifying killing intent surfaced in the Nine-Tails' eyes. The hostility there was almost impossible to suppress, like a world-shaking demon whose malice knew no bounds.
After reaching an agreement with the Nine-Tails, Kei withdrew his chakra, and his consciousness returned to his own body.
"It seems you came to an agreement."
Uzumaki Mito looked at Kei curiously.
"A flesh-and-blood clone... how exactly can a method like that be achieved?"
She had naturally heard the conversation between Kei and the Nine-Tails just now.
After all, that had been the sealing space within her own body. With her control over chakra, nothing that happened there could be hidden from her.
"This is a technique created on the basis of the Spirit Transformation Technique and the Mind Body Switch Technique."
Kei had no intention of hiding it.
"In fact, even the most basic Shadow Clone already possesses the ability to transfer consciousness. The reason a Shadow Clone cannot exist for long is simply because of its chakra consumption."
"As long as a body can be created that can contain consciousness and persist for a long time, then transferring consciousness into it is not difficult."
In Kei's previous life, achieving consciousness transfer would have been unimaginably difficult, or perhaps simply impossible.
But in this world, it was much easier.
The Shadow Clone Technique itself already produced clones that carried independent awareness.
The Spirit Transformation Technique could materialize spiritual power for various uses.
The Yamanaka Clan's Mind Body Switch Technique could directly force one's consciousness into another body.
And Orochimaru's later Living Corpse Reincarnation went even further, infecting another person with his own consciousness and forcibly taking over their body.
At its core, chakra itself carried the imprint of individual consciousness. By using that property, transferring consciousness was not difficult.
Compared to those techniques, what Kei was attempting now was only a slight improvement.
A Shadow Clone could already split off a body carrying its own consciousness. The reason it could not last was simply because its chakra reserves were limited, and continuous consumption inevitably led to dissipation.
But if one created a body that could continuously produce and sustain chakra, then keeping a clone active for a long period was not a problem.
However, to properly match the consciousness placed inside it, that body could not simply be someone else's. It had to maintain a high degree of compatibility with the original.
In other words, it had to be specially tailored.
For that kind of operation, Kei already had an idea.
Back in the laboratory, he took out the piece of flesh the Nine-Tails had given him.
Even though it was just a piece of meat, the Nine-Tails had been unexpectedly generous, and the amount was not small.
After all, the Nine-Tails' body was enormous. Even a tiny fragment from it was still huge by human standards.
"So this is Yin-Yang Release... truly incredible…"
Looking at the Nine-Tails' flesh in his hand, Kei smiled faintly, finding it rather remarkable.
The nine Tailed Beasts had originally been split from the chakra of the Ten-Tails. By all logic, they should not have possessed ordinary physical bodies at all.
It was the Sage of Six Paths who used his masterful Yin-Yang Release to shape bodies for them, allowing them to become real living beings with flesh and blood.
And that was also the origin of a Tailed Beast's endlessly regenerating chakra.
Standing in the laboratory, Kei thought for a moment, then carefully extracted a single drop of the Nine-Tails' blood.
He placed it into different culture media, pairing it with various life-form genes.
Those biological samples came from many different creatures of the shinobi world, including both ordinary animals and numerous summoned beasts.
Very quickly, the compatibility results appeared.
Unsurprisingly, the genes that proved most compatible with the Nine-Tails' flesh and blood were those of fox-type summoned beasts.
So the Nine-Tails' fox-like appearance was likely no coincidence after all.
When the Sage of Six Paths used Yin-Yang Release to create the nine Tailed Beasts, he had probably incorporated the genes of many shinobi world creatures into them, shaping the different appearances of each beast.
And among all those possibilities, the one most compatible with the Nine-Tails was clearly the lineage of fox-type summoned beasts.
After thinking for a moment, Kei continued his work.
To be honest, integrating the Nine-Tails' cells perfectly into a human body would not be easy at all. The difficulty would be no less than integrating Hashirama's cells.
But that was not what Kei needed.
He did not require perfect integration, nor did he intend to fuse it into a human body.
He only needed to use the Nine-Tails' genetic material as a sample, screen for genes that could match it, and then use those to manufacture a usable body.
As for how weak that body might be, that was outside the scope of his concern.
As long as it could be used, that was enough.
Working under that standard, the difficulty naturally dropped by a great deal.
Before long, the body of a young fox was successfully cultivated.
"A bit troublesome."
Kei observed the body and could not help shaking his head.
"It's a bit too weak."
If the real Nine-Tails was a calamity-level demonic beast, then the body in front of him was merely an ordinary creature that happened to possess chakra.
Its base had only been that of a common ninja beast.
And perhaps because it had been artificially cloned, the body's natural quality seemed to have been affected. Even among ninja beasts, it could only be considered rather weak.
"Forget it. As long as it's barely usable."
That thought crossed Kei's mind, and soon after, he went to find Uzumaki Mito again.
"You've come."
Inside the familiar dark cage, the Nine-Tails' crimson eyes slowly opened, fixed on Kei standing before it.
"I'm here to fulfill our agreement."
Kei stood calmly and spoke in a soft voice.
"Close your eyes and do not resist."
"Good."
The Nine-Tails nodded, relaxing its entire body, and at that moment, a trace of anticipation could not help but rise in its heart.
After being trapped in this cage for so many years, it had almost begun to forget what the outside world even looked like.
Now that it was finally about to see that world again, even as a Tailed Beast, it could not help but feel a sense of anticipation.
Outside the cage, Kei looked at the Nine-Tails before him as it settled into stillness, then began to move.
Spirit Transformation Technique!
The forbidden technique created by the Second Hokage was cast by his hand.
.....
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