Uchiha Mikoto: "Sasuke! Hoshi, what on earth are you trying to do?"
Herrscher of Reason - Uchiha Hoshi: "Nothing in particular. You only need to know that what I am doing has no downsides for them."
Uchiha Fugaku: "How are we supposed to believe those words?"
[Looking at Sasuke, whose eyes were filled with killing intent, Mr. Crow did not waste words and pulled out a syringe filled with a bright red liquid.
"What is this?" Sasuke asked curiously, eyeing the object the crow had produced.
"You are too impatient," Mr. Crow glanced at Sasuke, then calmly explained. "Inside this syringe are highly concentrated Hashirama Cells. It can drastically enhance your vitality and chakra. Of course, most importantly, it can generate a special kind of Yang Release Chakra."
"This special Yang Release Chakra will fuse with the Yin Release Chakra produced by your Sharingan, significantly increasing your Sharingan's eye power. It will allow you to obtain the Mangekyo Sharingan you have been unable to reach—the legendary eyes once possessed by Uchiha Madara."
"I don't understand anything about Hashirama Cells or Yang and Yin Release Chakra, but as long as I inject this, I'll become stronger, right?" Sasuke skipped the unimportant details and grasped the main point.
"...From the perspective of the result, yes. The benefits to you are beyond your imagination."
"None of that matters. How can I trust you? A fellow hiding his head and showing his tail? Do you dare let your original body appear before me?" Although Sasuke craved power, he wasn't stupid enough to use something of unknown origin.
"The one appearing before you is my original body."
"???"
"What are you talking about? A crow? The original body?"
"I don't think you would be interested in the details of that." Mr. Crow was too lazy to explain his state. He used a wing to point at the syringe, which was floating before him under a mysterious power. "This—do you want it or not?"
"...Then, what do I need to pay?"
"Your hair and blood."
Sasuke fell silent for a moment. In that instant, he thought of many things, but because he had too little information, he couldn't analyze anything at all. But... it was just hair and blood. Sasuke pulled out a kunai and cut a lock of hair, but when he wanted to draw blood, he found he had nothing to hold it in.
At that moment, a test tube appeared in front of him. Though he didn't know where it came from, it didn't stop him from pouring his blood into it until it was mostly full. After obtaining what he wanted, Mr. Crow tossed the syringe to Sasuke.
"A friendly tip: after injecting this, your constitution will undergo a massive change, and this change won't happen overnight. Also, this change cannot be hidden from the First Hokage, who perceives everything happening in New Konoha. So, if you don't want to draw too much attention, you can wait a bit. It won't be long before a suitable opportunity appears before you."
"Wait, what do you mean by that?"
Hearing Mr. Crow's cryptic words, Sasuke's expression turned grim. Why wouldn't he speak clearly? Why? But by then, Mr. Crow had already flown far away. As he had said, Sasuke, not wanting to draw attention, did not shout out.
Looking at the uniquely shaped syringe in his hand, Sasuke turned it over and over, finally figure out how to use it. The structure was simple enough to understand at a glance. It was a special cylindrical syringe without a common needle; he only needed to place one end against his arm and press the button on the other end to inject the liquid into his body.
Sasuke tucked the item away close to his person.
"An opportunity? What exactly does that mean?"
Outside New Konoha, Mr. Crow landed on a tall tree, gazing at the distant New Konoha. Not long after he landed, a white cat jumped out from nowhere and sat down beside the crow. One bird and one cat sat together, watching the night lights of New Konoha in the distance.
"It's truly impressive. To create such a vast forest and rebuild an entire village single-handedly... he truly is the legendary God of Shinobi."
"I'm actually a bit curious about what kind of sacrifice he used and how much of his original body's power he can exert."
"That is not important. Did you get the items?"
"I got them all."
Upon hearing that the items had been obtained, the white cat visibly relaxed.
"I wonder if they've noticed that the Honkai Energy in New Konoha is rising abnormally."
"Perhaps they have. After all, both Orochimaru and Senju Tobirama are exceptional scientists. In eight years, they must have researched devices capable of detecting Honkai Energy."
"Whether they can detect Honkai Energy isn't important; what matters is whether they can manipulate it."
"That will depend on their luck."
With that, they stopped watching and left the tree to return.
Meanwhile, deep underground in New Konoha, in a laboratory with a very high security clearance, Senju Tobirama and Orochimaru were performing human experimentation. Regarding how to manipulate Honkai Energy, they might not understand it fully.
However, the moment they captured Zombies and Honkai Beasts, they immediately thought of experiments to transplant their body tissues into humans. Just like their previous Wood Style experiments. But with the development of technology and the progress of their techniques, after learning about modern science, Senju Tobirama and Orochimaru had discovered things like genes.
Only then did they realize that their previous fusion experiments were so crude; no wonder the success rate was nearly zero. The reason it was "nearly" was entirely due to Yamato pulling the success rate up. It was like losing only one match against bots in League of Legends and then winning ten thousand matches; your win rate against bots is 99% and can never become 100%.
Under the tireless research of Senju Tobirama and Orochimaru, New Konoha had achieved many results over the years. Especially after Orochimaru produced some of his private stash of Hashirama Cells, Senju Tobirama found this junior more and more agreeable. Through these Hashirama Cells, they researched a potion capable of significantly increasing a ninja's vitality and chakra. This raised the overall strength of New Konoha by a level.
But that was secondary. The key was that their research on Honkai Beasts had reached a new breakthrough. Originally, they had researched Zombies more since they were closer to human form. But they eventually found that there was almost no essential difference between Zombies and Honkai Beasts; the two only differed in form.
"This should be considered a success, right?" Looking at the test subject on the operating table, who was so mutated that he no longer looked human, the expression on Orochimaru's face was very subtle. After all, this was their only surviving individual after years of work.
After several years of research, they could finally proceed to the step of gene fusion. However, in the previous two months, due to technical and equipment reasons, the test subjects had essentially all died on the operating table.
"Correct. Although the test subject has lost control, as long as he survives, it is considered a success. The rest is to understand the cause of the loss of control and then eliminate it." Senju Tobirama looked at the mutated test subject, his crack-filled face showing little emotion.
Orochimaru's face, on the contrary, was full of excitement! He couldn't be blamed for such a loss of composure; this was simply too important. As long as this technology matured, ordinary Honkai Beasts would no longer be a threat to them! And most importantly, through research, as long as the genes of a Honkai Beast were fused, the test subject could obtain an incredibly long lifespan. This was what Orochimaru valued most!
Compared to frequently changing bodies, an immortal body was clearly more to Orochimaru's liking.]
Uchiha Izuna: "Hahahahaha! Senju Tobirama, you sanctimonious hypocrite, you finally can't hide it anymore!"
Senju Tobirama: "Those were just criminals seized from Kusagakure, not people from our own village used for experiments. What are you shouting about?"
Uchiha Izuna: "So what? Look at the person you transformed—can he even be called a human anymore? You naturally evil fellow, you truly have no humanity!"
Senju Hashirama: "Tobirama, even I think you've gone a bit too far. We shouldn't cross the line."
Orochimaru: "Lord First, you are mistaken. Clearly, the power of ninjas is no longer enough to deal with future disasters. To allow more people to survive, we must harness greater power. This is a necessary sacrifice."
Jiraiya: "Then how can you guarantee that when this technology is used on our own people, there won't be accidents?"
Orochimaru: "As long as the success rate is higher than a certain ratio, even if there is a possibility of failure, it is worth it."
Senju Tobirama: "Correct."
Compared to the cruel human experimentation, more people were actually concerned with whether this technology would have side effects when used on humans and how high the success rate was. After all, while human experimentation was cruel, were ninjas not cruel? Their moral baseline was not as high as that of normal people.
As for the ordinary people who had no voice, they trembled as they looked at the monster on the operating table that no longer looked human. Is this a ninja? For ordinary people, they might fear the Herrschers and Honkai Beasts on the Sky Screen, but their fear of ninjas was just as great, if not greater!