Chapter – 64: Trapping Hiruko

[Rei POV]

Ever since the day I awakened my mangekyo, I have been seeing improvements in my practice daily. Therefore, to let my body adapt to these changes, I haven't yet used the Seal Of Ouroboros again. Basically, I am letting my strength plateau before casting it again. This way I will be able to reap maximum benefits.

But that doesn't mean I am not doing anything. Aside from my regular practice, I have started to direct my focus on two fronts. One is customizing the cloning process for Fugaku's cells; as I previously mentioned, every Uchiha cell is unique, the parameters I have fine-tuned according to my cells might not necessarily work with Fugaku's. Hence, I had to recompute and recalibrate them again. However, my previous experience should come in handy.

Second, I am gathering as much information about my next target as possible so that I can efficiently execute my plans. What if someone he usually hangs out with suddenly decides to visit? there could be many similar variables that could potentially mess up my plan. So, I am not willing to overlook even the tiniest of details.

For now, Hiruko is out of Konoha on some mission. But there is no hurry as I know his experiments will be found only past the third shinobi war and he will defect soon after that. Also, cloning will take some more time anyway.

There is one thing that I have not decided on yet, should I just use Fugaku's clone directly or copy his mangekyo and do it using my clone? There are advantages and disadvantages to both of them, so I am not entirely sure yet.

…

Two months have passed and today is a special day. It's my Birthday; my Ninth Birthday in the shinobi world and what a journey it's been so far.

Even though my blood clone started off as a loner type in the academy, soon after I started learning medical ninjutsu, Takuma-sensei started preaching about the importance of having friends and the trust between fellow shinobi, etc. Since I don't want to be perceived as someone who doesn't listen to his sensei, I started helping out my classmates just like Rin would and quickly became friends with a lot of them.

Today they even threw me a birthday party at the Akimichi Chow! I just finished having dinner with them and I am now walking back home. Of course, it's the clone I started sending to the academy a few months ago who went to the party too.

'In a few months, I will graduate from the academy together with Rin and Obito and start my genin days. I wonder who my teammates and Jonin sensei will be? I just hope it's not someone like Minato…' I ponder.

Minato might be a super powerful shinobi, but from what I have seen, he is just as bad at teaching someone as his sensei is. Even though I might not care much about it, I don't want my teammates to be killed early as that would lead to a lot of inconveniences.

…

Back in the Origin space.

'Well, I got used to it because I was the one who was controlling my bodies… but… I don't know how Fugaku would feel if he sees someone exactly like him walking around and not in any kind of transformation jutsu… will he doubt his father?' I snicker looking at the copy of Fugaku floating inside a nutrition chamber.

I haven't tried the Soul Descent Technique on it yet, so I am not entirely sure what his mangekyo abilities are. I am waiting for my clone to return before doing it.

As I can only control five clones currently, if I want to control Fugaku's clone, I have to stop controlling one of my own. It cannot be the one I am sending to the academy and I don't want to touch the one I am going to use as its guardian too. And excluding the two in Iwa and Kumo, only the one doing the mercenary work is left. Therefore, I have called it back.

It is around midnight when the clone returns and as soon as it comes back, I disperse my technique and send the clone to storage along with my older clones upon which I have grafted my tissues and kept so I can awaken Mangekyo in them too. This way, I can reduce the need for cloning again if my current ones are destroyed.

Next, I bring Fugaku's clone to the experiment table and start to cast my Soul Descent Technique. After the soul clone descends, instantly I know what the mangekyo abilities of this clone are even without actually activating it!

'This is just perfect…' I smile.

This clone, just like any other Uchiha with mangekyo, has two abilities. The ability of the clone's right eye is Amaterasu; igniting whatever I look at with black flames that would burn anything, including fire itself. Whereas its left eye has the ability to create a world of illusions, much like Tsukuyomi but fundamentally different at the same time. Tsukuyomi is invasive as it forcefully drags the target to an illusionary world, however, this ability is much more subtle. It can also create a world of illusions but it lures the target in without them ever being able to realize they are in a genjutsu!

The point is, the target would know if he was hit with Tsukuyomi after the genjutsu ends, but this ability is different, the target would forever be unable to realize it; unless I want them to of course.

Hence, I said this is perfect for my use! If the ability was like Tsukuyomi, Hiruko would have realized someone has targeted him and would become cautious in the future, and the events after that might change because of it. But now, I have the tool to do it in a more subtle way where I will have completed my work but he would forever remain oblivious to it…

'Since this ability is similar to Tsukuyomi, let's just keep calling it like that for now…'

…

[Hiruko POV]

'What a tiring mission that was…'

'However, dammit! even that fool Jirayia has overtaken me and become so powerful… I am not born gifted like them… what should I do? am I destined to stay like this forever?'

'No,' I shake my head vehemently, 'I refuse to be like this… if I don't have talent, I will find a way to get one for myself…'

'But what about the village? what about my friends? am I going to turn into a missing-nin?' I think with a bit of fear. However, I don't know from where, but I find some twisted reason to justify it, 'It's okay, once I find out how to turn talentless people like me into powerful shinobi, it will be very beneficial to the village. So, they will definitely be happy and they might even reward me for it…'

'Kekkei Genkai users are considered great talents, why don't I start with finding ways to become one myself?'

'Mmm… That's a good idea…' I smile, 'I am so tired… let me get some rest… I can start on it from tomorrow…'

With that, I freshen up and go to bed.

The next morning when I wake up, I find myself still in my mission uniform. Confused, I think with a frown, 'Didn't I freshen up and then sleep yesterday night? Was I so tired that I immediately fell asleep and everything after that was just a dream? Whatever… minor things… no need to fret…'

…

[Rei POV]

Of course, that wasn't just a dream, when one of my clones noticed Hiruko returning from the mission outside the village, I rushed to his house with one of my clones and started waiting for him; yes, one of mine, not Fugaku's and the reason is I want the clone to use the Eye of Truth when I am casting the Parasite. So, I had one of my clones use Eye of Nothingness to copy Tsukuyomi!

As soon as he enters, I cast Tsukuyomi on him bringing him into a dream world where he did everything he thought he did but, in reality, he just stood there frozen; like a statue!

And injecting the parasite after that was a piece of cake, or at least the first part of it was. Just like I predicted, as I grow stronger, the pain of splitting a piece of my soul is also increasing exponentially! But thankfully I have one of my clones waiting beside me using the Eye of Truth, and hopefully the A.I chip will be able to optimize it later.

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Hi guys, tomorrow is the last chapter for Volume 1! Yay! And, I will be taking a break from writing for the weekend to finalize my blueprint for Volume 2. So, there will be NO chapters on Saturday and Sunday this week.

Also, for some time now, I have received comments asking if I could make the chapters longer. So, I wanted to take some time to talk about it. And don't get me wrong, I appreciate comments like those; I really do. Hence, I wanted to give you guys a bit of an explanation, because I think you deserve it. If you are not looking for it, you are free to skip the next part...

First of all, I am employed full time. Whereas writing is just my hobby and honestly, I don't want to mix these two. That's why you will not see any patreon links or anything like that in this novel. Also, because of it, there is not much time in my day to write long chapters! I usually write around 1000 words a day and publish it the next day. I mean that's what I have been doing for the last two months. Yesterday, just to try, I wrote this chapter which is about 1500 words long, but I don't think this is sustainable for a daily release for me. So, we have two options now...

1. Continue with what I have been doing and release 1000 words chapter each day

2. Release 5 days a week with 1500 words.

Honestly, both are the same for me. So, I will leave it up to you guys. Please choose whichever one you like and I will start on it from Volume 2.

Thanks for listening to my banter and see you guys next time... bye :)

- Silver