Naruto: I, Shikotsumyaku, Byakugan Princess

Chapter 142 Interstitial Cells
By the time the nurse slowly regained consciousness, the surgery was already complete.

His body remained paralyzed; his tongue was curled up in his mouth, unable to utter a complete sentence. His right hand had been reattached, the wound wrapped in gauze with a carefully tied bow, but it was still numb.

"Neural linking is a delicate art, and to be honest, your talent is truly... unparalleled."

Chihaya Toru, now acting as an assistant, wiped the blood-stained workbench and praised Hairi to the side.

His combat talent is impressive, but I didn't expect him to master medical ninjutsu so quickly.

He explained and demonstrated it once, and after a few practice sessions, Hui Li was able to perfectly replicate the movements. His small hand holding the scalpel was even more stable than his blood pressure, and he cut people cleanly and decisively without any psychological burden.

Needless to say, their control over chakra is exceptional.

When he was training Hui Li, he realized that the reason she often made mistakes was because her ability to mobilize life force with chakra was too strong, and she often couldn't do it accurately.

It was only a matter of time before she found the perfect solution. After many attempts, she finally found the exact point.

With his guidance in physiology, and once one's control over the body and chakra catches up, even the most difficult medical ninjutsu becomes commonplace.

Chihaya Toh was in a great mood, wiping the bloodstains from the edge of the operating table with a broad smile.

With Gray Glass's help, both experiments and medical procedures will be much easier in the future. He's had enough of dealing with those idiots outside every day.

"how do you feel?"

Noticing that the nurse had already woken up, Hui Li asked with concern.

Although Bai Yan could clearly see the successful neuronal connection and the generated electrical signals, she still lacked confidence in whether her first surgery would be successful.

"Uh uh..."

Unable to speak due to his tongue being tied, the nurse could only respond by gently hooking her finger with her hand, which she had just regained.

Noticing the other person's actions, Hui Li immediately revealed a warm smile. With the nerves connected, the rest were all minor issues, meaning that her first surgery was a perfect success.

You can definitely learn skills at the root!

Ring!

Chihaya Toru turned off the light on the door that read "Operation in Progress".

A short while later, amidst a flurry of footsteps, several nurses pushed a cart into the operating room.

"Alright, the rest is none of our business. Come on, I'll show you around the environment where you'll be working in the future."

"Will I be working in the experimental department from now on?"

“That’s how it is when there’s no mission. By the way, can I draw a vial of your blood?” Chihaya Toru looked at Hairi with a hopeful expression.

hum!
Invisible wisps of wind gently moved around Gray Glass's body.

"Okay, okay! I was just saying it offhand."

Sensing danger, Chihaya's eyelids twitched, and she instantly raised her hands, striking a French military salute.

Ignoring the other party's exaggerated appearance, Hui Li's expression remained icy:

"If there's a next time, I'll tear you to pieces."

Noticing the seriousness and determination in Hairi's tone, Chihaya Toru silently lowered her hands, her exaggerated expression turning into a cold calm:
"Kill me, and you will suffer a terrible death."

"I am indeed curious." Gray eyes gleamed with killing intent, but Gray Li, merely a shadow clone, was completely unafraid of the other party's threat.

The two looked at each other from a distance.

The atmosphere in the operating room became tense.

"Tsk! He really is just like Orochimaru!"

Seeing that she couldn't scare Hui Li at all, Chihaya clicked her tongue in disappointment, dropped her indifferent attitude, and walked out of the operating room listlessly, ignoring Hui Li following behind her, as if her previous enthusiasm was just an illusion.

Who is Orochimaru? Is he your experimental subject?

Hui Li followed behind, trying to get information out of him.

"If that's the case, that would be great." Chihaya Toru rolled his eyes. Not being allowed to study it, his patience with Gray Glass rapidly decreased. This was reflected in the emotional light above his head. A large part of the inexplicable golden goodwill disappeared, and even the black malice was greatly reduced.

The two passed the beehives and quickly arrived at a dark basement.

The basement walls and doors were covered with various sealing techniques and curses. After activating her Byakugan, Hui Li even found the chakra fluctuations somewhat dazzling.

This is clearly the most important part of the experimental department.

"The Experimentation Department is divided into two parts. The upper honeycomb is mainly for monitoring the condition of the test subjects or treating the injured Root ninjas. The lower part is an important place for storing key materials for human experiments. The piece of meat that gave you that day full of life was a product of the experiment."

Chihaya Toru glanced at Kairi's expression as she finished speaking.

It was Danzo's idea to have Hairi join the Experiment Department, and the plan was completely unoriginal, just like Orochimaru's back then.

Orochimaru went from being a ninja who pursued the ultimate in ninjutsu to being lured into joining Root by Hashirama's cells, then collaborating with him in the Experiment Department to conduct dark and bloody human experiments, and finally becoming addicted to it and turning against Hiruzen Sarutobi. The whole process was orchestrated by Danzo.

Aside from Kotoamatsukami and Danzo's disciple status, the circumstances of Kairi joining Root are almost a replica of what happened back then. Even when Orochimaru registered with Root, the person accompanying him was Aburame Ryoma.

What a bad taste.

Chihaya Toru quickly formed hand seals, her five fingers flashing with light as she pressed down on the barrier around the basement door.

hum!
Hui Li saw the barrier suddenly flash red light. As Chihaya Toru injected his chakra, two special wave-shaped curves formed on its surface, with a huge hole in the middle formed by countless arcs, and inside was a curled symbol similar to ∞.

This unusual pattern... is it a chakra diagram?
Upon seeing the graphic displayed on the barrier, Hui Li immediately thought of her chakra chart. Moreover, the image of Die opening the barrier at the entrance of the sealed base today also quickly surfaced in her mind.

Butterfly channeled her chakra in the same way, creating a maze-like pattern of zigzag lines on the surface of the barrier. At the time, she thought it was a pattern that was already present in the barrier, but now that she thinks about it, wasn't that just Butterfly's chakra map?
hum!
The barrier flashed red light again, and the moment the chakra diagram took shape, as if a secret signal had been given, the barrier quickly dimmed.

So that's how it's used; Hui Li finally understood.

The inscribed seal on the disc is an incomplete version extracted from this sealing barrier. When chakra is injected into the sealing barrier, it will automatically form a pattern, just like the disc itself. Only when it matches the pattern preserved inside can the passage be opened.

"Normally you are not qualified to enter here."

With the seal broken, Chihaya Tohru pushed open the basement door and smiled at Hairi, who was already stunned the moment the door opened:

"You are my experimental assistant, and I will need your help in future experiments. At the very least, I need to explain the experimental topic to you. It will be more intuitive to explain it here. Although I don't know if you can see it, this is the most important asset of the root, without exception."

Gum!

Hui Li swallowed hard, staring blankly at the huge glass pillar in the middle of the basement. Despite having prepared herself mentally, she was still shocked when she saw its enormous size.

Seeing Hui Li's stunned expression, Chihaya smiled understandingly; few people could remain calm when they saw this thing.

"Let's go."

Pushing Hairi's back, Chihaya Toru led her into the basement.

As they approached, the glass pillar in the center of the basement grew increasingly magnificent, and the objects inside were finally revealed in their entirety.

Hui Li tilted her head back with difficulty, unsure of what expression to wear in the face of what was before her.

It was a magnificent tree.

The tree's branches spread out like a green sea, and on its dark brown trunk, countless ferocious human faces gaped open in a pleading gesture.

The roots of the even more terrifying giant tree:
The pale, fleshy mountain rose and fell slowly inside the giant incubation chamber.

Hundreds of human bodies intertwined like molten wax to form a base, with limbs that were not yet fully assimilated protruding abruptly from the surface of the sarcoma. The exposed muscle fibers were a bluish-gray, resembling corpse wax, and the surface was covered with a moss-like biofilm that constantly secreted mucus. *Coo-coo!*

The chunks of meat moved slowly.

That vibrant, emerald-green ocean felt hotter than lava to Gray Glass.

This is too much!
“It’s amazing, isn’t it! The chunk of meat you saw the other day was part of this thing.”

Da da!

Her teeth trembled uncontrollably, Chihaya Toh's voice trembled with involuntary excitement, and her body shook as if she were being electrocuted.

No matter how many times he saw it, he was always awestruck by the enormous creature before him.

Can you feel that amazing vitality?

"Under such great power, human lifespan, illness, disability, everything will, will..." Chihaya Toh was so excited that she couldn't speak. She reached out and stroked the transparent glass in front of her again and again, her eyes filled with an indescribable longing as she looked at the chunks of flesh.

"Calm down, Doctor Chihaya."

"Oh, oh, I'm sorry."

Reminded, Chihaya Toh suppressed her excitement, closed her eyes, and took deep breaths to calm down.

"So, what is our research topic?"

Looking at the raging ocean of chakra before him, Hui Li felt inexplicably listless.

"These are cells extracted from the body of the First Hokage. The research project is to safely and smoothly transplant Hashirama's cells into the human body to obtain the power of the First Hokage," Chihaya Toru said with a helpless expression.

The Root leader decided to use this panacea, which could solve humanity's ultimate problem, to gain temporary power.

Boring and ignorant.

"After several disastrous failures, there were only two results."

Chihaya Toru pointed at the mountain of flesh in front of her: "A source that can produce Hashirama cells almost infinitely, and a failed product that inherited the First Hokage's Wood Release bloodline by having its chakra core corrupted."

"Hasn't this already been a success?"

Hui Li's heart skipped a beat.

Her most important goal in joining Root was to obtain a Sage Mode body by transplanting Hashirama's cells. Moreover, wasn't Danzo's destruction of the Uchiha clan precisely to suppress the erosion of Hashirama's cells with the Sharingan? How could it have failed?

"The reason why Hashirama Senju was so powerful was not because of his Wood Release, but because of his almost limitless life force and chakra core. What use is it to only inherit Wood Release?"

Chihaya Toru's face was full of disdain.

"An infinite chakra core?"

Scratching her head, Hui Li realized she had quite a few blind spots in her knowledge.

Chihaya Toru also noticed this, sighed deeply, and prepared to give Hairi a thorough lesson on the little-known facts about chakra.

"First, you need to know what the chakra core is. The chakra core is the part inside your heart that absorbs physical and mental energy to synthesize chakra."

Hui Li reached out and touched her heart.

dong dong dong...

The purple energy core shimmered with fluorescence, and the body's energy within the cells gathered in the dantian, finally colliding with the mental energy in the brain at the core.

"The body, soul, and energy are fused together by the chakra core, giving birth to the power of all things in the universe."

dong dong!

The core beats slowly in sync with the heart, absorbing the power continuously transported from the meridians and producing a purple power with infinite possibilities.

"Everyone's soul and body are different, their chakra cores are different, and the chakra they produce is also different. The reason why chakra charts can identify a person's identity is based on this principle."

Hui Li nodded.

Aside from the chakra diagrams, this knowledge was common knowledge taught at the Ninja Academy, and she was already familiar with it.

Seeing that Hairi seemed to have a solid foundation in basic knowledge, Chihaya Toru smiled with satisfaction and continued:
"All the power and information of a ninja are contained in the chakra core, including the legendary bloodline limit. Theoretically speaking, as long as the chakra core is copied, an individual exactly like you can be created."

"Shadow clone?"

'Yang Dun Hui Li' seemed to be deep in thought.

"That's right. The principle of Shadow Clone is to use the mimicry ability of chakra to create a fake chakra core that contains all the information of the original body, so it can use the same power as the original body."

"They have neither bodies nor souls; they are shadows created by chakra based on information from the original body, capable of mimicking the actions and thought processes of the original body." Chihaya Toru succinctly revealed the essence of shadow clones.

"So what does this have to do with Hashirama cells?" Not wanting him to continue talking nonsense, Hui Li quickly changed the subject.

"Don't worry."

Chihaya Toru, oblivious to Hairi's thoughts, waved her hand and continued the previous topic:
"Generally speaking, everyone's chakra core goes through six cycles: seed, germination, development, flowering and fruiting, aging and decay."

After it withers away, the chakra core can no longer generate power.

However, the original purpose was completely different.

For some reason, his cells could devour the physical and mental energy of living beings and grow indefinitely. When they reached a certain point, they could automatically condense a chakra core to generate chakra.

At this point, Chihaya Toru turned her head and stared at the huge tree trunk with fascination, looking like she was about to have another episode.

"Cough cough!"

Clenching her fist and placing it near her mouth, Hui Li coughed twice to interrupt the other person's episode.

"Oh, sorry!"

Chihaya Toh patted her forehead, snapping out of her reverie, and continued her story:
"You need to know that human life force has a limit, and so does the chakra core. According to the formula of each person's life limit and the growth cycle of the chakra core, the total amount of chakra that can be produced in a lifetime can be accurately calculated."

The greatest thing about Hashirama cells is that they break this limit. As long as there are living organisms that can generate energy, they can endlessly devour energy to generate life force. Even if a chakra core withers, it can automatically condense a new chakra core. It's simply..."

"Let's get straight to the point! Why did it fail?"

Hui Li asked directly.

"Because we found that the intercolumnar cells were not in an normal state; it was a pathological cell structure."

Chihaya Tohru's face was full of regret when the transplant surgery failed.

"The history books of Konoha do not explain the cause of Hashirama Senju's death."

Some speculate that he died from severe injuries, but... as you can see, even decades after his death, Hashirama Senju's cells are still active and full of life. No one would believe he died from severe injuries.

Therefore, after years of experimental research, we discovered that Hashirama Senju did not die from severe injuries, nor was he nearing the end of his life; rather, he died of illness!

"What disease?"

Hui Li frowned, sensing that the other person was about to get to the crucial point.

Looking at the giant tree brimming with life inside the glass pillar, Chihaya Toru extended a finger:
"A disease that only genius ninjas can possibly suffer from, one that ordinary people don't even have the right to dream of—bloodline disease!"

(End of this chapter)