Like a Turd in the Wind

(The og draft of chapter 26. didn't like the hollow one, so gonna use the og instead)

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[Your new arm status will now be displayed...]

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[Name: Symbiote Arm]

[Details: A brand new arm constructed and regenerated from a damaged stump using parts of the physical form of a Symbiote or Klyntar]

-[Regeneration]

-[Super Strength]

-[Symbiotic Bond]

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A symbiote, huh? I guess something like this with regenerative properties and a host bond was to be expected.

But I was still curious in regard to a couple of things; 1. Do I have an entirety of a symbiote bonded to my whole body or just my arm? And 2. Does this symbiote of mine have a mind of its own?

The first case being true would be the best-case scenario for the future, and the second case being true would be... something depending on its personality.

'Hey system, mind answering my questions about the symbiote that replaced my arm?' I inquired as a notification appeared before me.

[You were at the border of death due to your injuries and a full symbiote was created by the system to bond to you, thereby saving you from death. It is a complete symbiote but your arm was simply reconstructed using a small part of the symbiote's biomass]

Oh shit, so I was really about to die back then? If not for the system saving me, I would've died from tearing off my own arm.

That would've been a pathetic way to go out.

Alright, so my new arm is simply the symbiote's physical biomass in the exact shape of my arm, except more symbiote-like.

But I still want to know whether or not this symbiote can think for itself or if it has any form of sentience. System?

[Your symbiote has sentience. It is a newborn symbiote however and is still learning.]

I see. So the symbiote inside me is currently thinking and hearing everything I'm saying.

'Hey, you there, symbiote?' I questioned within my mind as I waited for a response for a moment.

Unfortunately, I was met by nothing but silence in the face of my questions-- An unexpected response.

Looks like this symbiote would probably prove to be quite the challenge if it remains silent and continues to avoid contact with me.

But then again, the symbiote not communicating could also just not matter at all since I would just have full control over my arm.

Both circumstances have their benefits but if things get to a certain point, I'm sure I could force the symbiote to talk.

Unless the symbiote still has sentience but just hasn't been nurtured or grown enough to speak.

Suddenly, as I was thinking about the new arm, I felt a strange pulse within my soul that sucked the life out of me.

Immediately realizing that it must've come from my secret customization, I delved inside for a moment and visualized my soul.

The moment my sight landed on the strange organism, I gained a surprised look and smiled slightly in anticipation.

Before, the organism was bright gold and silver colour with several little hints of green, but now the silver had become a blueish-purplish shade of black, the golden lines had become grayish-white and light gray, and the green parts turned a shade of red.

Not to mention that the entirety of its composition seemed to have essentially enwrapped itself around my soul and became a part of it.

It had become a mirror reflection of my soul that was also entirely a part of it. As evidenced by how I could intrinsically feel everything it was feeling.

Which means that it should awaken soon.

It would seem that the symbiote had affected my secret project in some way or another. Don't know how, but it happened.

Either way, this was just truly incredible.

Who knew a day of horror, agony, and despair would end off being one of the most productive days yet?

"Man, it turns out tearing off your own arm can lead to great things. Words to live by right there," I spoke, pointing comically at Mitsuki as I slowly stood up.

As I rose from the ground tiredly, I took a moment to stretch my body and especially get used to my arm.

I used my other hand to feel my new arm and shuddered surprisingly as my hand felt a cold, ever so slightly slimy yet solid, surface.

"If I'm not being rude, may I ask what exactly happened to your arm? It looks... odd to say the least..." She stared curiously at my arm as my attention shifted over to my shirt.

"It's um... I'm doing Black-arm..." I stuttered out distractedly, taking notice of my clothing.

"What?"

"I'm like super duper racist..." I spoke dismissively as I pulled at my shredded shirt in annoyance.

She blinked in confusion and turned away from me without any more questions.

'My clothes are all fucked up which is a bit annoying...' I thought to myself as I pulled at my shredded shirt.

Should I make myself a new pair of clothes or just deal with this filthy pair of garments?

"Yo, Mitsuki, do you have some clothes I can borrow or something?" I asked curiously as she nodded.

"Yes. But I'm afraid they'd be small on your body," She stated, staring at me curiously as I shrugged my shoulders.

"It's fine. Any clothes are better than this mess. Hand them over," I walked over to the girl as she pulled a long kimono out of a seal.

I quickly peeled the damaged shirt off my body and grabbed the blue kimono from the surprised girl.

'Fuckin' hell, this feels comfortable as shit,' I thought to myself, feeling the inside of the cloth before finally putting it on.

I opened the camera of the system and gazed at myself with an amused expression.

It looked absolutely ridiculous. The long sleeves of the kimono robe only reached my lower elbow, the loose top part of the kimono wrapped tightly around my shoulders, effectively shortening the lower part which only reached my abdomen.

Thinking that the outfit would look more presentable if it were looser, I opened up the middle part, folded up the sleeves and collar, and let the kimono serve as a kind of small jacket that left most of my torso visible.

It may only cover about 40% of my body and it may only reach down to my abdomen, but it at least managed to look presentable rather than like I'd just murdered a horse from the inside.

Though, this new arm of mine is beginning to look like it'll be quite an irritating thing to keep hidden.

With a sigh of annoyance, I sat back down next to Mitsuki and began thinking about my next course of action.

"Curious how you're so toned in spite of your age..." She spoke suddenly as she ran her hand down the front of my torso in admiration.

I turned to her in confusion, watching patiently as her curious eyes stared at my body and her finger traced my muscles.

"Your Kekkai Genkai must be very strong to have amplified your physique this much," She noted curiously before pulling her hand away and going back to what she was doing.

I looked at her in confusion for a minute or so before looking away and shaking my head.

The amount of borderline-naive obliviousness concentrated within this girl's uncaring mind was continuously astonishing.

I would pursue this, but I was much too excited to try out my new arm.

"I'll be back in a second, I'm gonna test something..." I told the girl as I stood up and made my way out of the cave.

I caught her waving goodbye as I left the cave and spent a couple of minutes walking through the forest before stopping at a nearby lake.

Alright, then. I was currently intending to test out the powers of this new arm of mine and see what limitations there were.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on activating the Eclipse Rasengan in my right hand as chakra flooded through my arm.

Suddenly, I felt a jolt of pain in my arm that caused me to fall to my knees while clenching my arm in pain.

I turned to my arm in confusion and watched as it writhed in an alien manner with a slight screech.

"Fuck...! Ugh, what the hell!?" I shouted in pain, staring at my right arm as it vibrated wildly, a slight growl emanating within my mind.

Damnit, my arm keeps going out of control anytime I try to channel chakra through the symbiote arm.

Is my new arm rejecting the chakra within my own body? Is chakra volatile to symbiotes?

But that still wouldn't make much sense since chakra is just energy and shouldn't cause a symbiote too much harm--

*Fire... Hurt...*

A sudden rumbling voice spoke in a deep baritone, a tone of pain evident in its voice as I stared at my arm.

Fire? Oh, fire! I was channelling fire chakra to make the Eclipse Rasengan. I would've hurt the symbiote badly if I kept going.

Wait, was that the symbiote talking just now?

Silence.

Alright then. If you can speak... Uh, sorry about hurting you with the fire chakra.

My apology was not accepted, nothing but a growl being heard within my mind as I closed my eyes and concentrated.

I focused on my chakra and began the process of channelling it once again. However, this time I filtered out everything except for pure chakra.

Then I channelled the chakra through my right arm and formed a normal, pure chakra, Rasengan.

Okay then. So I can still use my chakra with my right arm, which works due to the adaptability of a symbiote, it's just that fire chakra is a no-go with it.

"Come to think of it... I should probably check out its other parts..." I muttered to myself as I walked up to a nearby cliff.

I took an offensive stance and hit the cliffside with a punch from the symbiote arm, causing a loud noise to echo out.

As the smoke cleared from the impact, I was greeted by the sight of my arm halfway through the wall with cracks spreading from the impact point.

Meanwhile, my new arm looked to have hardened slightly with a few tentacles going from the arm to my shoulder in a strengthening manner.

"Damn, that's a lot of-- Damn, that's really strong..." I muttered to myself with a whistle of appreciation as I watched the tentacles on my shoulder retract back into my arm.

It would seem that the arm itself was entirely stronger and the tentacles from it acted as reinforcement, essentially increasing the strength even more.

Wait, the tentacles just reminded me of something. Since my arm is symbiote biomass, I could also control its physical form to morph into anything else.

"Think of a hook... a hook... a hook..." I mumbled as I concentrated on my arm and watched as it morphed into a pirate-like hook.

Now this would absolutely come in handy. My arm having a completely prehensile physical form is incredibly useful for a fight.

Speaking of my arm's physical form, I just recalled that I pulled off my own arm which held some powers of mine inside. Is this new arm separate from those?

And if this arm is completely separate from the abilities present within my original arm then wouldn't that mean...

"Are my webs, electricity, and stingers gone from my right arm...?" I muttered to myself as I attempted to bring out my stingers and shoot some web.

Thankfully, my hypothesis was entirely disproven.

I flexed a muscle in my arm and sighed in relief when I saw a spike eject from my wrist.

And then I focused on making a web and was surprised to notice that the webbing shot from the top of my hand instead of my wrist and was black instead of white.

I wasn't going to test the bio-electricity since that would obviously cause a lot of harm to the symbiote.

But it was incredibly fortunate that the arm was a perfect replica of my arm. It also made sense since the symbiote has genetic memory.

Not to mention the incredible thing that is the powers of a symbiote.

There were just so many different things I could do and potential uses that I could enact with a symbiote bonded to my body.

From an augmented regenerative healing factor stacked on my own Uzumaki healing factor to manipulation of my arm's biomass.

Though it still came with its fair share of losses; namely a newfound weakness in fire and sonics.

It's unfortunate, but with losses, there are also gains and I'd argue that I've gained a lot from this experience of mine.

Not just in physical might, but also just experience as a whole.

No matter how much I keep getting stronger, there will always be someone stronger or someone with the ability to take me by surprise.

I was naive again. I keep doing that.

Every time after going through a big event, I constantly tell myself that I'll no longer be naive and I'll get stronger.

Only to be satisfied with my strength and end up ripping my own arm off.

I can't keep letting myself get safe and comfortable in my own strength and peace. No, I need to endlessly get stronger.

The more I keep thinking about it, the more clear it becomes that going through that fight and getting this new arm was a great occurrence.

In the future, I'll be stronger, more prepared, and even more dangerous to any threat that may come my way.

In fact, I already have a lot of ideas to utilize the symbiote currently in my possession.

Actually, that reminded me of something that I forgot to do a bit ago.

A bit after I woke up, I remember telling myself to check what happened in my sleep but I seemed to have forgotten due to the distraction of my new arm

However, now I had enough time to check up on everything that I missed while knocked out.

'Hey, system, show me all the notifications I missed while I was passed out.'

The moment I gave my order, I heard multiple ding sounds before a flood of messages appeared before me.

[Class: [Symbiote Host] Acquired!]

[Symbiote Skill: [Symbiosis] Acquired!]

[Symbiote Skill: [Parasitic Inheritance] Acquired!]

[Symbiote Skill: [Physical Augmentation] Acquired!]

[Symbiote Skill: [Bio Manipulation] Acquired!]

[...]

[Status has been updated]

|][]===========[][|

|]Status[|

Class: Symbiote Host, Mutate (Spider)

Bloodline(s): [Uzumaki Bloodline] [Hyuga Bloodline]

Age: 11

[]Akuto Uzumaki[]

Strength: [50] (100)

Dexterity: [45] ---> [50]

Vitality: [55] ---> [70]

Defense: [48] ---> [55]

Intelligence: [55]

Charm: [48]

Sense: [43] ---> [60]

Luck: [40]

Symbiote Skills: [Symbiosis] [Parasitic Inheritance] [Physical Augmentation] [Bio Manipulation] [Body Storage] [Camouflage]

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[Symbiotic Bond: 30%]

|][]===========[][|

My face instantly shifted into a grin at the sight of my status screen before going back to confusion.

I know that Vitality and defense and dexterity most likely increased due to the suffering I endured back then, and sense was most likely boosted by shattering the genjutsu.

But I was currently just confused about the bracketed numbers next to my stats. System?

[The (100) next to Strength is your right arm's stats]

I see, then that means my right arm will always be stronger than my left.

And also, it would seem that I didn't experience any of the pain of a sudden stat boost 'cause I was sleeping. Lucky me.

'Also, system, tell me why my symbiotic bond is 30%... and also what does that entail...?' I thought confusedly.

[The system customized your body to be the perfect biological match for the symbiote but both of you aren't in perfect symbiosis on a mental level. Hence the lack of cooperativity in the young symbiote]

And that's essentially weakening the symbiote powers then. So all I have to do is become friends with the symbiote?

[In essentiality]

It's not that much of a limitation since we ARE the perfect biological match. But I was still limited in my uses of the symbiote since at the moment, it was an "it and me" situation and not a "we" situation.

This would logically mean that the symbiote doesn't want to work with me and also makes it so I can't bring out the symbiote suit.

As I stated before; loss and gain. I need to befriend the symbiote to get stronger but I have the potential to do so and I already have some of the full strength.

Overall, this is all fantastic. I keep getting gradually stronger and I couldn't be more excited.

If we're counting just my right arm then I'm closing in on Naruko's stats. I only have one triple-digit, but I will get even stronger.

"Fuck yeah!" I suddenly shouted joyfully, wrenching my arm out of the cliff as I sat down with my back against a tree.

If there's one thing I can say, it's that things were looking up.