Chapter 73: Mifune's Resolve, Naraku's Haki Gains, and the Hashirama Cell Experiment
Safe back at his residence, Mifune couldn't help but admire Naraku's divine foresight—he really had survived under Hanzo's hand. But after facing a demigod head-on, Mifune still felt a bit lost: could he truly defeat such a terrifyingly powerful ninja in the future?
Mifune knew clearly that in this battle, Hanzo hadn't used his full strength at all.
Seeing Mifune silent, Naraku thought he was a little depressed from the loss. So he comforted: "Mifune, don't be lost because of this battle's failure. As long as your Observation Haki and Armament Haki both reach advanced level, you might be able to fight a full-powered Hanzo head-on. And if both reach top level, even the demigod of the ninja world—you could defeat him!"
As Naraku's words fell, the trace of confusion in Mifune's heart was swept away. Yes—he already had an almost invincible path beneath his feet.
Perhaps one day, through his own effort, he really could become the number one swordsman in the ninja world! And at that time, he would be able to help his lord even more!
After giving a few more instructions, Naraku left the Land of Iron.
Because on the way here he had placed many spatial markers, the return trip was very fast.
...
With Hanzo's propaganda, the entire ninja world began to know of Mifune—the strongest swordsman of the Land of Iron. And because during his fight with Hanzo, the black blade in his hand severed Hanzo's weapon multiple times, Mifune ultimately gained the title "Black Blade"!
Relying on the immense prestige from the Battle to Protect the Country and his strength as the Land of Iron's strongest swordsman, Mifune began recruiting subordinates on a wider scale and eliminating enemies.
...
A figure suddenly appeared in Naraku's forging room—it was Naraku himself, who had rushed back quickly using Dimension Square. Just back in the forging room, Naraku hurriedly sat down to rest for a bit.
Dimension Square's sensing marks had a maximum distance of 5 km, and long-distance teleportation consumed far more chakra than short-distance. But the effect was obvious: a journey that should have taken more than half a day only took him 1 hour, and that still included time spent transferring and resting.
After resting a while, Naraku opened the new weapon rewards.
Ding...
[Mifune has reached Intermediate utilization of Tōya Lake. Talent Replication activated: Intermediate Observation Haki!]
Ding...
[Mifune has reached Intermediate utilization of Haki Seed. Talent Replication activated: Intermediate Armament Haki!]
Naraku once again experienced the pleasure of Armament Haki entering his body. Looking again at his now even harder and blacker "giant thing," a sense of satisfaction welled up in his heart.
And with the infusion of Intermediate Observation Haki, Naraku felt his five senses seemed to become even sharper.
After all, Observation Haki's essence is to make a person's five senses extremely keen, giving rise to extrasensory perception. It can detect the presence and emotional changes of surrounding living beings and can also be used to predict and evade danger.
And when Naraku activated his Sharingan, he discovered that with Observation Haki, his Sharingan's insight ability seemed to become even stronger.
Naraku fantasized: perhaps one day, combining his Sharingan with Observation Haki could achieve the terrifying effect of seeing the future.
After calming down a bit, Naraku remembered the task Danzō had given him before—he needed to use Senju Hashirama cells to forge a weapon for Danzō.
Naraku first thought of his own interests—he planned to skim some off the top.
The weapons he could forge immediately right now were only Stone Ghost Face and Myriad Miles Flight [Mostima]. Stone Ghost Face seemed somewhat compatible with Hashirama cells—after all, both involved immortality.
Originally Naraku had considered combining Stone Ghost Face with Orochimaru's Ghost Bud Technique to create a mask that could infinitely devour kekkei genkai. But during his earlier chat with Tsunade, he learned Orochimaru had already defected long ago and was now somewhere doing research.
Although Naraku didn't know exactly when Orochimaru defected, he did know when Orochimaru caused trouble—he was killed by Naruto's Rasenshuriken.
So without extra help, it would be unknown how long it would take Orochimaru to fully develop the Ghost Bud Technique.
Naraku had no time to wait, so he decided to quickly forge Stone Ghost Face Plus.
He'd just add some Hashirama cells and Sharingan to Stone Ghost Face! Let's see what beautiful effects the new Stone Ghost Face would have.
Now he had Hashirama cells, but no Sharingan. He couldn't exactly gouge out his own eyes for forging, and he wasn't willing to kill Uchiha clan members for it.
After thinking it over, Naraku felt this matter still had to rely on Lord Danzō!
One had to admit—looking at the entire Naruto series, Shimura Danzō was absolutely a resounding angel investor. Need money? Here's money. Need equipment? Here's equipment. Need data? Here's data. Doing research under Danzō, he could get any forbidden item, and even use half-finished products to experiment on Danzō himself.
That one arm full of Sharingan was definitely Orochimaru experimenting on Danzō—otherwise why didn't Orochimaru do it on himself? Clearly he felt the technology wasn't mature yet and used it to fool the investor.
Naraku arrived at the research-cum-forging room Danzō had specially prepared for him. He looked at the Hashirama cells in front of him—or more precisely, what was in front of him was second-generation Hashirama cells cultured from the original.
After thinking for a moment, Naraku decided on the forging method. Since this material wasn't particularly precious, he could completely use this forging as an experiment.
He also didn't want to waste too much Oriharukon. This time his goal was to forge something close to a Teigu but actually a vassal weapon—mainly because he didn't have any other special dangerous species that particularly matched second-generation Hashirama cells, so he'd just casually use a wood-attribute dangerous species to test.
In this situation, even if he invested a large amount of Oriharukon, he might only end up with a particularly trash Teigu—or even just a vassal weapon.
Now Naraku had consciously begun avoiding wasting Oriharukon. He felt that if he could forge an S-grade weapon, it might greatly enhance his strength—and perhaps even upgrade the system.
He was still only a beginner member right now!
He planned to later obtain the original Hashirama cells and go all-out to forge a full-body armor. This time, just a chestplate.
With Observation Haki, Naraku sensed around and indeed detected a spying presence on the ceiling.
So Naraku pretended to take out a wood-attribute ordinary dangerous species from his sealing scroll, then directly inserted the Hashirama cells into the dangerous species' body.
Using a microscope, Naraku observed the tissue wrapping the Hashirama cells in the dangerous species. He discovered that the Hashirama cells seemed to particularly like this dangerous species' flesh—slowly proliferating using it as an excellent culture medium while continuously eroding the dangerous species.
It was foreseeable that this process would require a certain amount of time.
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