BXBX NOVEL Chapter 454: A Good Chess Piece
In this regard, Kuroto can also understand that Hokage-sama seems to have no intention of creating conflict with Otogakure, however small the newly created Shinobi Village Otogakure may seem, Sandaime does not have any intention to create any conflict with Otogakure either way.
The attack on Kakashi has already proved that Akatsuki Organization is showing signs of making their move again, so the more difficult the situation, the more calm and collected Sandaime will have to be else it would be too devastating for the village.
So, after receiving the intelligence on Kaguya Takashi, the matter was not pursued any further.
Early next morning, Kuroto left a Shadow Clone of his in the Village to act as his replacement, then quietly sneaked out of Konoha with the newly obtained samples of Kimimaro’s cells.
Flying all the way, Kuroto soon arrived at the air fortress flying on the east side of the Land of Fire.
During this period of time, under the control of Sandaime Kazekage, the air fortress has been hidden inside the cover of dense rain clouds and drifting over the Sea. Because it has been hidden fairly well inside the rain clouds, and because there are hundreds of seal enchantments covering the air fortress, therefore, no one has been able to see or locate Ancor Vantian as of yet.
Of course, this is not without its own disadvantages, the long-term hiding inside the rain clouds has caused continuous exposure to moisture; which further results in corrosion of the outer structure of the air fortress. The defensive enchantments that have been active 24×7 have prevented the corrosion quite a lot, but there is only so much that can be prevented.
The defensive enchantments that remain active 24×7 cause a lot of Chakar consumption; and it’s only because of the existence of Moryo that has been sealed in the energy room that such high Chakra requirements are met, otherwise, not only the Air Fortress would have been detected long ago it would have even fallen down.
After arriving at the air fortress, Kuroto first checked the current status of Chimera Buds he had planted a while ago (Chapter 329 – 330).
And as he expected, among all the Chimera buds he had planted, two Buds successfully combined with his cells; thus, making them suitable to be transplanted into his body for the Chimera Jutsu.
Looking at the two successful buds, although Kuroto is happy that he is a step closer to the Fusion Ceremony, Kuroto knows that he can’t be as reckless as Hiruko was because these Buds have a tendency to even swallow the host.
‘I will have to be cautious when dealing with them.’ Thought Kuroto.
The immature Chimera Buds may seem harmless at first or second sight, but Kuroto knows better than anyone that these buds are actually monsters that are capable of truly fusing the flesh and blood of several people into the host. Once such a monster gets out of control, it is difficult to imagine how disastrous the consequences will be.
Kuroto has gained a deeper level of understanding of Chimera Buds after research and development for the past few months, no matter what he has been doing, the matter of Chimera Buds has never once left his mind.
The approach that Hiruko used in dealing with the Chimera Buds was clearly seen and then repeatedly postulated by Kuroto. According to Hiruko’s approach, he relaxed the restrictions on Chimera Buds to enhance the fusion ability of flesh and blood to increase the success rate of the Ceremony.
Of course, from a certain perspective, there is nothing wrong with Hiruko’s approach, after all, in the field of science, the success rate matters most. After all, if the experiment itself results in a failure, then what’s the point?
That is to say, if Hiruko’s existence itself would have been erased, then what would have been the point of there being hidden dangers present or not in his experiment, they would have been meaningless, right?
Therefore, first, the experiment is carried with keeping the highest success rate in mind, which Hiruko did. Afterward, the subsequent improvements in various parameters are made to eliminate the hidden dangers while keeping the same success rate in mind, and later the success rate is further increased.
Hiruko followed the first step, but unfortunately for him, he won’t be able to proceed to the second step or the third step, because once a subject is tested, then there is no going back for that particular subject.
So, the state Hiruko is in is fixed, and even if Hiruko may have estimated the hidden dangers of the Chimera Buds, he obviously underestimates them.
The Chimera Buds are monsters, they are true Chimera-like creatures that are capable of fusing flesh and blood, but the problem is that their ability to fuse flesh and blood is too strong and sort of instinctual, at the same time they have independent consciousness.
This independent consciousness normally helps the host in healing the injuries and protects the host while he is unconscious, but they are also capable of forcibly taking control of the host’s body and consciousness, which can be extremely harmful.
And it might become difficult at some point to judge whether it is the original host that is controlling the Chimera Buds in his bodies, or the Chimera Buds controlling the host.
And the stronger the host, the stronger the Chimera Buds will be, therefore, Kuroto knows that he must be extremely cautious when dealing with these seemingly harmless creatures who are not so different from Venom of the Spiderman verse.
Rubbing his chin, Kuroto thought inwardly, ‘It seems that I will need to use someone for step 2, in order to further improve and correct all the parameters to make the experiment safer, at the same time, also improve the rate of success of the operation.’
Kuroto really admires the courage of Hiruko to dare to cross the river by feeling the stones, but on the path to Godhood, there is no return, it’s either success at the end, a partial success that is a dead-end, or simply death.
So, Kuroto can not do what Hiruko did else only death will give him another chance.
Therefore, Kuroto needs a pawn, a sacrificial pawn who hopes to become the king, but completely unaware that a pawn can never become a king in a game of chess.
‘Who can be the most suitable Pawn?’ was the thought in Kuroto’s mind as several candidates appeared in Kuroto’s mind in a flash.
Of course, not just anyone can be a good pawn, he should be a capable person but not capable enough else he will be difficult to control, he should be knowledgeable, at the same time should not be knowledgeable enough else he won’t be a good pawn because he would realize that he is being used, and yes, the pawn must have enough financial power because his pockets will be cut loose in his false hope of becoming the King, what’s most important is that the pawn must be ambitious enough.
In fact, the first three criteria are not that important, what’s most important is ambition.
When Kuroto thinks about it, there is only one person who matches all the four criteria. And when Kuroto thinks of his name, his lips curl into an evil smirk, “It’s time for you to play your part; Shimura Danzo.”
Shimura Danzo is the kind of man who will not hesitate to use the Chimera Jutsu upon himself, Kuroto can be sure about this, after all, the man has no bottom line, he actually dared to transplant Sharingan and Hashirama Cells into his body.
On a side, note, Shimura Danzo is also one of the high-level leaders of Konoha, so he has a lot of political power and financial resources in his hand. He is capable of investing large funds in the further development of Chimera Jutsu.
He is also capable and knowledgeable enough but is not knowledgeable enough as he often relies on Orochimaru and other researchers to achieve his objective.
And what’s more important is that he is an ambitious man, even in the decaying old age, he still dreams to become Hokage and spends all his effort towards it, at the same time, he has no bottom line for it, after all, the man actually dared to issue several missions with the objective of assassinating Sandaime Hokage; so he is definitely the pawn Kuroto is looking for.
Others might be able to resist the temptations of Chimera Jutsu, but Shimura Danzo who has been trying to acquire this Jutsu for such a long time won’t be able to resist the temptations, especially if Kuroto considers the recent restrictions Sandaime has placed on Shimura Danzo and his Root subunit.
With that understood, Kuroto sealed a copy of the scroll of Chimera Jutsu along with the incomplete Chimera Buds that have no cell of his into a storage scroll, and thought, ‘I guess I can sell this to Shimura Danzo for a good price that should be between 150 million Ryo to 200 million Ryo, it is not too expensive and not cheap either.’
After dealing with the matter of Chimera Buds, Kuroto put it aside for now and focused his attention on the Wind Nature Clone, and started to carry out the Cell Fusion process for the Wind Nature Clone.
As always, before carrying out the actual Cell Fusion process, Kimimaro’s cells need to be filtered in order to remove or decrease the potency of other Chakra Natures except for the Wind Chakra Nature. At the same time, because Kimimaro’s cells also contain Orochimaru’s Curse Seal of Earth, therefore, the Cursed Seal of Earth that contains Orochimaru’s Chakra needs to be removed too.
So the whole filtration process took three days in total.
Among the 200 cell samples that Kuroto used, 17 groups successfully survived the filtration process while still maintaining their strong vitality.
In the process of filtration, Kuroto found that Kimimaro’s cells contained very large proportions of Yang Chakra, so despite the repeated filtration a potent Yang Chakra still remained in his cells.
This is also natural, after all, Shikotsumyaku Kekkei Genkai; which is the manipulation of the Skeletal structure of the body, is heavily dependent on the Yang Chakra Nature. And this is also in line with Kuroto’s theory of the Kaguya Clan representing the Yang part of Hamura’s descendants.
And as per Kuroto’s analysis of the Yang Chakra present in Kimimaro’s cells, the physique of Kaguya Clan members is second only to the Senju Clan and Uzumaki Clan.
After obtaining these results, Kuroto continued further, and, since the filtration process went smoothly, then he proceeded to the next step which is the most difficult of all, the cell fusion process.
While creating the Fire Clone, Kuroto encountered too many troubles, and no matter how much effort he put there was no success except for one clone with the female gender, left with no other option, Kuroto had to compromise and chose the Tsukihi Clone.
However, the cell fusion process for the Wind Clone went unexpectedly smooth, too smooth that Kuroto was extremely surprised. Of the 17 samples, ten samples successfully fused and still retained high vitality.
Achieving such a result, even Kuroto was taken aback, because all these ten samples can be used to create the Cloning bud and start the cultivation in order to cultivate the Clone.
‘It seems that my theory was indeed correct, the Hyuga Clan and the Kaguya Clan are indeed distant relatives.’ Was the conclusion in Kuroto’s mind.
There were rumors and speculations before about two great Shinobi Clan, the Hyuga, and the Kaguya to be closely related to each other for generations. But the communication between the two Clans is completely in the hands of the Main Family, and Kuroto who is a member of the Branch Family does not have much knowledge about this.
Moreover, due to the two Clans being part of different nations, the two Clans have become quite distant from one another over the years, especially after the Village System was started.
Not to mention, the impact of the three great Shinobi Wars that have taken place in the past few decades, the two Clans that were once closely related to each other are now completely broken from one another with no communication left whatsoever, so there’s not much one can guess.
But the results of the experimentations in front of him clearly points that the Hyuga Clan and Kaguya Clan are closely related to each other