Chapter 129: Spoils of War

Yuto flipped the switch. Arcs of electricity leapt, the hum of a small generator filled the air, and the lights in the secret underground base flickered on.

Yuto pinched his nose, his brow furrowing. The Land of Rain was incredibly damp, and while he had used dehumidifying and insect-repelling powders, the smell was still strong.

After a moment of adjustment, he pulled out a sealing scroll and dumped out the mangled remains of Shinosuke's body.

Due to the damage from the "Art of Judgment," the body was barely recognizable. Yuto put on gloves and patiently worked to repair and stitch it up. It took several hours, but he eventually managed.

He immersed Shinosuke's body in a medical preservation tank filled with preservative liquid. Then, using a summoning jutsu, he had a slug bring over Meiko's body.

Compared to Shinosuke, Meiko's condition was much better. To avoid damaging the brain and optic nerves, Yuto had inflicted fatal wounds to her abdomen, making the repairs easier.

Soon, Meiko's body lay on a metal operating table.

"A young woman from the main family," Yuto mused.

This was the first trophy Yuto had acquired from this battle.

It wasn't until Minato had recovered from his injuries that Yuto got a break from his heavy workload as vice-commander, allowing him time to reflect on the outcomes of the battle against the Moon God.

He removed Meiko's Byakugan and infused chakra into them, finding no difference from Shinosuke's eyes.

Afterward, Yuto dissected Meiko's body. After hours of study, he concluded that apart from the kekkei genkai organs, she was just an ordinary young girl.

"The most valuable thing from the main family is those two unsealed Byakugan," he thought.

He sewed Meiko's body back together, filled the gaping hole in her abdomen, and dressed her. She looked as if she were merely sleeping.

Staring at the young girl's body on the operating table, Yuto had a sudden thought.

He pulled open his shirt, exposing his chest.

A black receiver was embedded in the center of his muscular chest.

"I forgot about this..."

Yuto chuckled bitterly. He had been so busy this past month that he barely had time to properly bathe, let alone remove the black receiver from his body.

Though harmless to its creator, the black receiver could interfere with chakra flow during ninjutsu or taijutsu, and leaving it in could eventually draw unwanted attention.

Yuto raised his hand, pinched the edge of the black receiver, and pulled it out of his body with a gruesome squelch sound.

He shook off the blood, hesitated for a moment, then undid his Yin Seal and used Creation Rebirth to heal the wound. This method left no scars and healed within seconds, minimizing the chances of detection.

Using the forbidden jutsu left Yuto pale. He popped a soldier pill into his mouth to recover his energy. Then, he removed Meiko's clothes, placed her beside Shinosuke in the preservation tank, and threw in the glass spheres for good measure.

Yuto stared at Shinosuke and Meiko's bodies, deep in thought.

He had killed Meiko, but no one else knew that.

To the outside world, it looked like the Moon God had taken the main family's girl, and they had both disappeared.

"I need to focus on studying skin tissue repair techniques in the near future," he murmured, sensing he might need two bodies restored to their original appearance.

For now, though, this task wasn't urgent. Yuto turned his attention away from the bodies floating in preservative fluid and pulled out another sealing scroll.

"A strong bait with Uchiha power," he noted.

This was the second trophy Yuto had acquired.

With a puff of smoke, Yuto held the contents of the scroll in his hand.

It was a wooden box, emitting a powerful aura of Uchiha's chakra.

Inside was a complex device, a nutrient and energy supply system surrounding a three-tomoe Sharingan.

Yuto donned sterile gloves and carefully extracted the Sharingan. Deprived of chakra, the tomoe vanished, leaving a pure black pupil.

"Madara Uchiha's? Impossible!" Yuto dismissed his initial thought.

Madara's eyes had evolved into the Rinnegan and were now in Nagato's eye sockets. There was no way these could be here.

Although Madara had transplanted his brother's Sharingan, those would have been carefully guarded, not easily accessible to Konoha.

If not Madara's, then whose?

The strong ocular power suggested a significant Uchiha figure.

Yuto focused, his chakra probing the eye's nerves and muscle tissue.

The nerve endings were well-preserved, and the muscles were strong. This was the eye of a young adult.

'Fugaku's?' Yuto laughed at the thought.

Obviously not. The Uchiha clan would never provide a strong Sharingan as bait, let alone from their current leader.

But if it were from a deceased person, that was a different story.

Yuto withdrew his chakra and stared at the solitary eye, murmuring, "Kagami Uchiha?"

Tobirama Senju's student, a teammate of Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo Shimura!

"Tobirama once said, 'Among the Uchiha, occasionally there are those like Kagami Uchiha who are devoted to Konoha,'" Yuto recalled.

Despite being highly praised by Tobirama, Kagami had vanished after the Kinkaku Incident. Hiruzen succeeded as Hokage, and Kagami was never seen again.

It was said he died young, at twenty-five.

It was said that Shisui was a close descendant of Kagami.

His death, his life, and his power were all mysteries.

Of course, Yuto couldn't confirm his identity with just an eye. More evidence was needed.

"This could be another useful element," he mused, placing the eye in a medicinal solution.

After contemplating for a while, Yuto decided to set the eye aside and pulled out another sealing scroll.

This one bore the character "Wood" in elaborate script.

Yuto retrieved the contents and placed them on a metal table.

It was a large chunk of flesh, pulsating with an overwhelming life force and Wood Release energy. In a nutrient-rich environment, it could grow from a single cell to this massive lump.

This was Hashirama cells, obtained from Orochimaru's lab, now developed to this extent.

(End of Chapter)