After returning to the Sand Village, Yuji immediately threw himself into work.
The first order of business was continuing the Sharingan transplant program, distributing the eyes collected from Madara's storage to the village's most reliable core fighters, specifically the Sand Village's elite Jonin.
The actual haul, however, had been more modest than he had anticipated.
From the original story's perspective, Madara's personal collection had always been limited. Only a handful of pairs. Nothing like the vast stockpile Obito had assembled after the Uchiha clan massacre. In practice, this proved true. Madara's collection amounted to only three pairs of Sharingan, six eyes total. All of them had awakened the three-tomoe stage at minimum.
"To acquire Sharingan in truly large numbers, I will still need to wait for the Uchiha clan massacre. With Obito dead, that particular event will now depend on Danzo to set in motion," Yuji thought to himself.
He was not particularly disappointed. Because acquiring Sharingan, for him at this stage, was as simple as reaching into a pocket. As long as the Uchiha bloodline survivors living within the Sand Village continued to develop, he could draw on them whenever needed.
After successfully transplanting eyes into several more Sand Village Jonin, Yuji immediately shifted his focus to leading the next phase of research, helping Saori complete the bone cell study and produce the gene-modifying medicine capable of eliminating the harmful side effects of the Kaguya clan's bloodline limit.
The development had drawn on two sources simultaneously. The first was Mei's cellular properties. The second was Hashirama's cells extracted from the White Zetsu bodies.
When this gene-modifying medicine was injected into Kaguya clan children during their early years, it would gradually produce a partial Wood Release ability or Uzumaki clan-adjacent physical enhancement as they matured. However, neither could be fully controlled, and the effective level would be relatively modest.
This was because the medicine had been developed using the bone cells as its foundational substrate, specifically calibrated for the Kaguya clan's physiology. It was not the same as simply using Uzumaki cells or Hashirama's cells as a direct base to engineer entirely new cellular structures.
Looking further ahead, once the Land of Rain had been secured, Yuji planned to personally begin cultivating Hashirama's cells in a controlled environment. The simplified version of what he envisioned was creating large quantities of a weakened variant capable of granting Wood Release ability to recipients who were not naturally suited to it.
Uzumaki clan cells could also be explored along similar lines.
The single greatest complication was that Hashirama's cells were extraordinarily powerful. Even if the side effects on recipients could be managed, finding people whose bodies could genuinely accept and fully integrate those cells without rejection was extraordinarily rare.
The only viable path was a painstaking process of weakening the cells' intensity through experimentation until a level was reached that the average body could tolerate without damage.
If the experiments succeeded, the resulting medicine could artificially produce a weakened Wood Release, though the output would be nowhere near comparable to true Wood Release in combat terms. But for enriching the village's broader fighting force at a foundational level, it would be more than sufficient.
After pharmaceutical resources, this was the Sand Village's next industry. Already confirmed.
Injectable gene-modifying medicine.
Like the pharmaceutical resources, this would also function as a form of strategic asset. Not primarily an economic driver, but a direct enhancement to military capability.
There were three categories of medicine in development.
The first was the Kaguya clan bone cell medicine. The Sand Village's research on this front was already well advanced and would likely be ready for deployment within approximately another year.
For ordinary bodies that could adapt to it, it would not grant the Kaguya bloodline limit itself. But it would produce a meaningful strengthening of bone density and physical durability. The side effects and recipient requirements were the lowest of the three, making it the most widely applicable.
The second was the Uzumaki clan cellular medicine, designed similarly to enhance physical vitality and resilience. The compatibility threshold was somewhat higher. Not every recipient could fully absorb it.
The third and most advanced was the medicine using Hashirama's cells as its basis. After successful injection, the recipient's physical body would become extraordinarily powerful, and under ideal conditions a degree of Wood Release capability might emerge. The requirements and restrictions were the highest of all three.
Regardless of which category, for an ordinary ninja's physiology, even with the most refined and mature research outcomes, a person could only receive a single type of injection once. Introducing too many gene-modifying substances simultaneously was something no body could withstand. The result would be genetic mutation leading to death through any number of cascading failures.
By Yuji's calculations, the bone cell medicine would be ready for wider release in approximately one more year. The Uzumaki medicine would take longer. The Hashirama cell medicine was the most difficult of all. But if it succeeded, the returns would be extraordinary.
His reason for pursuing this line of research had a very specific purpose beyond general military enhancement. The Sand Village now had Uchiha bloodline descendants within its walls. And he now held both Hashirama's cells and Uzumaki clan cells in his possession.
Given that combination, was it theoretically possible to artificially cultivate the conditions for a Rinnegan awakening?
He wanted to test the possibility.
It all depended on whether the Uchiha bloodline children growing up within the Sand Village's next generation would produce the kind of extraordinary talent such an outcome would require.
...
One day, inside the Kazekage's office.
Yuji held a container of liquid in his hand. Submerged within it was a single eye.
Uchiha Obito's Sharingan.
But because this eye had been used to activate Izanagi, it now existed in a spent and non-functional state.
Yuji had not discarded it.
Because it was a Mangekyo Sharingan. If the eye could somehow be restored to a functional state, its value would be anything but ordinary.
"Why not transplant it yourself?" Black Zetsu said, standing behind him. "Using Hashirama's cells to facilitate a Sharingan transplant would allow you to activate the eye technique without the usual limitations. There is no question it would take your strength a step further."
Since officially entering the Sand Village, Black Zetsu had observed that many people within the village, including Shimizu, had received Sharingan transplants. Yet Yuji had distributed every eye to others without showing the slightest personal desire to use one himself.
"I have no need for something like that at this stage," Yuji said lightly, catching the probing quality beneath Black Zetsu's suggestion and allowing a quiet smile.
"Put this on. From this point forward, when dealing with the outside world, you are a Sand Village member."
He withdrew the container and tossed something toward Black Zetsu in the same motion.
It was a headband. A Sand Village headband.
Black Zetsu reached out and caught it. After a brief hesitation, it put the headband on.
Black Zetsu understood perfectly what this was. It was a leash the Fourth Kazekage was placing around its neck. A way of binding it symbolically as much as practically. It had no choice but to accept it. It could only accept it.
Knock, knock.
A knock sounded at the office door.
"Come in," Yuji said quietly.
The door opened and Shimizu entered.
Thanks to Shimizu's work over the past year, returning to the position of Kazekage no longer carried the crushing weight of administrative burden it once had. The village had entered a steady operational rhythm long ago, leaving behind the frantic pace of those earlier years. Minor matters could be delegated to subordinates and handled without requiring Yuji's direct attention.
"Lord Kazekage," Shimizu said, casting a brief glance at the strange-looking figure standing to one side before delivering his report. "Our forces have reached the Land of Rain's border."
Regarding this oddly-shaped newcomer, Yuji had not offered the village's senior leadership any detailed explanation. He had simply stated that the figure was henceforth a member of the Sand Village. To Shimizu and the others, the impression was simply that the Kazekage had found himself an unusual attendant from somewhere.
Black Zetsu, for its part, had not wanted to be exposed before strangers at all. It had no desire to be known by outsiders. But Yuji had not permitted it to remain hidden. He had insisted it present itself openly and conduct itself in plain sight rather than operating from the shadows. And so the Sand Village's senior leadership now all knew of the existence of the figure called Black Zetsu.
"Good," Yuji nodded once. "We depart as well."
Akatsuki and the Hidden Rain Village were on the verge of beginning their negotiations. Yuji had learned of this development even before the Sand Village's own intelligence network had confirmed it, through White Zetsu's ongoing surveillance.
Even with Madara's plan destroyed, White Zetsu had continued monitoring Akatsuki's every movement without interruption.
Whatever else could be said about the tools the old man had left behind, they were genuinely useful.
"Understood," Shimizu nodded.
Yuji rose slowly from his chair and walked to the window, looking out at the bustling streets below, the sight of people moving through a prosperous and living city.
What came next was the harvest of the Land of Rain.
And the first step toward reshaping the ninja world.
...
STONES 💎
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