After a few cycles of Reverse Cursed Technique, Hii Kōri had mostly recovered.
The unhealthy pallor faded from his face. He gently squeezed Tsunade's and Karura's hands, rubbed Pakura's cheek, then pushed himself up and walked toward Mataza and Shūko.
"Hey~ Did you sleep well?"
He crouched beside them, raised a few fingers before their eyes, and slowly wiggled them. "Come on, tell me how many is this?"
"Uh... how do you have nine fingers on one hand..."
His vision still blurred, Mataza furrowed his brow and answered haltingly.
"Yosh! No hope left. Back to the furnace for a redo~" "Ah~ I think he can still be saved..."
Hearing Hii Kōri's judgment, Shūko on the other side raised her hand with a depressed expression, asking him not to be so hasty.
"How do you feel? Dizzy? Numb in the limbs? Does your body feel unresponsive? Or is your memory a bit confused?"
After lightening the mental load of the two revived individuals to some extent with this banter, Hii Kōri became serious.
"...A bit of everything."
Mataza's voice was still hoarse, but clearer than before. He struggled to move his eyes, staring at Hii Kōri with a furrowed brow.
Their memories still stay at the moment before death. They had no concept of the long years that had passed since. Hii Kōri's significantly changed appearance also made him suspicious.
"And also, a bit thirsty..."
"Mm-hmm. All normal phenomena. They'll adjust after a while."
Hii Kōri flicked his white bangs back, casually formed two water spheres, and placed them by Mataza and Shūko's lips, cutting him off. "We'll explain the details slowly once you're feeling better. Even if we explained now, your minds wouldn't be able to sort it out, right?"
Even as he spoke, Hii Kōri's hands didn't stop. A few hand seals were formed, and two barriers to regulate physical condition and consciousness deviation enveloped Mataza and Shūko.
"...Okay."
Mataza, long accustomed to his adopted brother's barrier techniques, nodded stiffly, then lay back in the barrier, adapting to his body's changes.
Seeing that the two "Slack Kings" had stabilized, Hii Kōri's gaze fell on Sasori, who had been standing silently to the side, unsure of what to say or do.
Four or five years might not seem long to an adult, but to Sasori, now only twelve, it was a third of his life.
Moreover, he had lost his parents during the years when he most needed family companionship the years that shaped his personality.
Even though he had Hii Kōri's company during that time, Sasori—naturally aloof and inarticulate found it hard to imagine how he should react when facing his long-absent parents.
Hii Kōri reached out and ruffled the boy's soft red hair a gesture he had performed countless times over the past several years.
But this time, it was probably more relaxing than ever.
"I remember there are guest rooms on the third floor. Quiet there, and the sunlight is good. Take my brother and sister-in-law there to rest. They need some time to digest their situation."
"Mm."
Sasori nodded, emitting a short breath as a response. Then he extended two chakra threads and lifted the platform where his parents lay onto a prepared cart.
Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan saw this and walked over to help him push the cart toward the lift chair.
Watching the children leave, and then looking at Uchiha Hikari who had wanted to help but couldn't find an opening Hii Kōri raised his hand to rub his brow, then stretched broadly.
His joints cracked softly. The fatigue on his face seemed to dissipate somewhat with the motion.
Then he raised his hand, and Rashōmon spit out several scrolls, which fell into his palm.
"Here. You've all seen it. I'll give you a copy of this technique too. In case you ever need it."
With a flick of his wrist, three scrolls flew toward the Third Kazekage, Chiyo, and Tsunade.
They reached out and caught them. The Third Kazekage, the most non-chalant, opened his scroll first. He glanced at it cursorily, then his face scrunched up into a wrinkled "pickled plum" expression.
"Hey, Kōri. Almost no one can actually use this technique, can they?"
Indifferently tossing the "Reincarnation Technique" instructions into his storage scroll, the Third Kazekage complained in a "just as expected" dejected tone.
He had suspected as much when watching Hii Kōri's demonstration earlier, which was why he hadn't eagerly asked for details. But who could have guessed that the kid wouldn't even leave him room for "fantasy," immediately tossing out a "discouragement guide"?
"Leaving aside the need for high-level Yang Release, just the requirement of creating a simulated 'realm of the dead' would already stymie over ninety percent of the ninja world's jōnin. And then there's the requirement that the revived person's physical body be well-preserved... Not only is it related to the user's chakra, but the subject's physical condition also matters... Aren't there way too many restrictions?"
"Well, it's a reincarnation technique. It's only natural for the requirements to be strict."
Hii Kōri smoothhly took the sleeping Hii Ren from Pakura's arms using his Spirit Thread Nerves, completely unconcerned about the Third Kazekage's "bad review." "Troublesome as it is, it's still better than 'one life for another,' right?"
"...That's true."
"Mm-hmm. It's precisely to avoid that kind of problem that this technique is so tedious. Compared to transferring one's own vitality, it's more convenient to rely on the ritual's effect to cut corners. And if you're just reviving someone who just died, a simulated realm of the dead can be created by simply sealing off a cemetery with a barrier. The user's vitality consumption and computational load won't be too high either."
"Ha. You're not mentioning the learning difficulty at all, are you, brat?"
Chiyo, who had also roughly finished reading the scroll, carefully tucked this supreme technique for reversing life and death into her robes and joined the complaint.
Clearly, her son and daughter-in-law's successful revival had lightened her mood considerably.
Hii Kōri shrugged, giving the same answer. "It's a reincarnation technique. Like mathematics, it should have some barriers to entry."
With such an understated answer, a major event in Hii Kōri and Chiyo's lives concluded as simply as that.
He rolled his shoulders and walked toward the passage leading to "Yomi," waving to the group as he spoke easily. "Alright, alright. You've seen the good stuff. Everyone go rest. I still have some cleanup work to do~"
Tsunade and Karura weren't surprised at all. As the ones who had helped Hii Kōri set up that barrier, they were deeply aware of the power of those "Visions of Hell."
Even in its freshly completed, not-yet-activated state, the death energy of that simulated Yomi had already impacted their minds, making them uneasy.
The same applied to Hii Kōri.
Compared to the "living world," which could readily draw on the power of the Dragon Vein's remnants in the environment, the simulated Yomi constructed from the Nine Phases and Sixty-four Causes of Death—was quite difficult to deal with. Of course, it was also very precious, not to be wasted.
But in this regard, Hii Kōri was also very experienced.
"Born of darkness, to darkness go. All foul impurities, be exorcised."
Forming hand seals, he placed a Curtain outside the room—purely to block inside from outside. Then, in an instant, Domain Expansion.
All possible selves overlapped. His field of vision became as gorgeous and mottled as stained glass.
"I don't need the other results."
The declaration that had once turned Hyakki Kūbō the possibility of swallowing the entire universe into a cursed object rang out again. Hii Kōri swept his hands through the empty air. The fragment he desired rapidly floated up, spread, and replaced all other colors.
Then, further replacing reality.
The entire barrier was compressed in that instant, further materialized, transforming into a skull permeated with bloodstains.
The second Special Grade cursed object—Visions of Hell—acquired.
"Phew... done... what was I supposed to do next..."
Picking up the bloodstained skull that had fallen to the ground, Hii Kōri muttered to himself, sequentially reviewing his subsequent plans.
The civilians from the kekkei genkai clans brought back from Kirigakure... hmm, they could be settled in Rōran. Sunagakure was still the place he trusted most, but having citizens of the Land of Water come to live directly in Sunagakure would be somewhat like abuse or murder.
Next best thing: Rōran.
Ah... speaking of which, I'll also have to make time to deal with the Land of Wind's daimyō.
Recently, that big shot's relationship with the Red Hot Sand has been getting increasingly stiff.
The rulers of small countries generally don't care, as long as they themselves live well, even if the guild takes away their influence. After all, under their own governance, neither the country nor their own lives are particularly good.
But the Land of Wind's daimyō could never accept that.
Although they had used the Second War as a pretext to clear many redundant populations and push through land improvement projects, the harsh land environment still made life quite difficult for the people.
As one of the five great nations, the Land of Wind's daimyō would absolutely never allow the guild's influence to surpass his own.
What a shame he'll have to suffer the same fate as the Land of Water's daimyō and become a captive of the Sharingan.
Ah... speaking of which, I'll have to reward Hikari properly later.
"And then... these kids... maybe send them to Rōran too."
Speaking of children, Hii Kōri also decided to send the ones he had saved from the curse's erosion to Rōlan.
Under the Dragon Vein's influence, their physical adjustment should be faster.
Then there were the routine tasks: contacting Orochimaru, recruiting more outstanding researchers to join the society, digging through ruins elsewhere, etc.
As for the guild—that was actually the least of his worries.
People often have misconceptions about the "arms" business, thinking that controlling all weapons allows control of a country or even the world. But in reality, this industry is practically a roadside operation in a nation's economy.
For example, the United States' annual arms sales amount to only about 1% of its total GDP. Most other countries fluctuate around that figure, often even lower.
In comparison, real estate, finance, and manufacturing are the real big numbers.
That's just how business works: use advanced technology and business methods to bring advanced productivity and welfare benefits, turning everyone into parasites who depend on you to survive.
As long as you don't go crazy and squeeze everyone to the point where they all want to kill you, the Red Hot Sand will always be safe.
This was also why the Land of Wind's daimyō felt a sense of crisis but couldn't easily make a move.
"Well, but now that the Golden Crow Jade Rabbit Shaka Palm has been retrieved... I can also try that thing..."
Surveying the room that had just served as the carrier for the simulated "Yomi," now eroded By rich death energy, Hii Kōri instead thought of another inspiration that had occurred to him while researching the reincarnation technique.
Self-replication.
Or rather, creating something "identical to oneself."
This concept wasn't particularly rare in various manga and games.
For example, in another work, the one who shared Hii Kōri's title—the "Grand Puppeteer"—had reached the ultimate secret of puppetry. She surpassed the absolute law that "even if you create a humanoid doll that surpasses humans, you cannot create something identical to a human," and, in the pursuit of the "prototype of the body," accidentally discovered the technique to create a doll completely identical to herself.
The so-called "Soul Prototype."
Keep a dormant version of yourself ready at all times. When the living self dies, your memories transfer into the preparation body, awakening. After awakening, you create another body for activity, then go back into hibernation.
Even if you yourself can no longer determine which was the original, because they are completely identical and only one self is active at any given time, it can be considered that—though each self might be manufactured—since there is no way to distinguish them, each self is real.
But in this world, the boundary between soul and body is more blurry.
Previously, Hii Kōri had already mastered the technique of refining physical data into "marrow fluid" that could grant people some of the abilities of specific bloodlines.
Drawing on the principles of Impure World Reincarnation, if he prepared a body that was completely blank—or had enough "redundancy"—and then injected marrow fluid containing all of someone's physical data, he might be able to create a physical backup of that person.
If the original individual then died, could that physical backup achieve an effect similar to the "Soul Prototype"?
And even more radical—among the techniques he had mastered was Divided Thinking.
If he placed a split thought into the physical backup, could he create two simultaneous "selves"?
Compared to Shadow Clones (which split chakra) and other derivative techniques, this kind of true "split entity" would be far superior.
"Hmm... worth a try—"
Revealing his signature "mad" grin, Hii Kōri did not hesitate to activate the second cursed technique—the one he had retrieved in Kirigakure—
"Golden Crow Jade Rabbit Shaka Palm!"
"GU—"