Chapter 28

My shifts at work changed.

I went from having three shifts every two weeks to ten shifts every two weeks...

So, don't expect two chapters a week from now on...

Anyway...

This chapter is a tad dark.

...

...

...

Half a year passed.

Not much changed, I got a Jonin jacket that stayed tucked away in my closet.

My promotion came with an increase in mission level, we now sometimes did A-ranked missions.

Which wasn't so bad, as I enjoyed fighting stronger enemies.

I had dropped Nature Release for the most part, as I seemed to lack talent in it.

I'd still keep learning new Lightning Releases and improving old ones but that was as far as I'd go.

Even with three clones working on Lightning Release every day for nearly a year I made little progress.

I couldn't imagine how long it'd take for me to learn a nature release that I didn't have an affinity for.

I wasn't sure if I'd regret this in the future as almost every strong ninja knew more then one nature release.

But I could always come back to it in the future.

...

Emergency Rations was whole and hale, though he had all of his organs replaced and many rabbit stem cell transplants.

And two hearts...

He was doing pretty well all things considered.

I was torn between trying to give him the Byakugan or trying to increase his intelligence.

Both were things I was interested in, and both had the potential to go wrong.

I eyed Emergency Rations.

Perhaps I should let him go free for his services...

Hmm.

I wanted to see how long he would live if I consistently gave him stem cell transplants.

Rabbits live for a year or two in the wild but can live for as long as a cat or dog when kept as a pet.

Perhaps I should get an animal with a shorter lifespan?

A mouse then...

They only live for a year or two...

Sigh...

I was already trying to pick up a new project...

I didn't need to do this myself...

This was now a project for my clones

...

"Can we do a mission?"

I was bored and wanted some change, all I had been doing lately was experimenting, practicing Fuinjutsu and training.

"I thought you hated missions..."

That hasn't changed.

"I do, but I'm bored."

I had hit a bit of a block, most of the experiments I wanted to conduct involved humans and thus couldn't be done in the village.

"Let's not change our schedule."

Meaning she wasn't interested.

"Can I do a mission myself?"

She nodded.

"Yes, you're a Jonin now."

Ok...

"But try to stay within the Land Of Fire, skirmishes have been happening along the borders."

It seems tensions are growing...

"What been happening?"

This is the downfall of having few friends and not speaking to people, I was out of the loop.

"There have always been skirmishes along the borders but recently things are heating up."

I motioned her to continue.

"More then a year ago Ame assassinated the leader of Tanigakure and now the Land of Rivers and the Land Of Rain are all but officially at war."

Oops...

That certainly wasn't my intention.

"Anything else?"

Hopefully not.

"Yes, Iwa and Kiri have gotten more aggressive, Iwa is provoking us and Suna. And Kiri is provoking us and Kumo."

She paused for a moment.

"And the smaller villages are getting cocky and attacking shinobi from other villages."

I might have started the third Shinobi war a tad bit early...

"And who are we provoking?"

Or my timeline was off...

"Konoha is allied with Kusa and we are mainly fighting with Iwa along the border Iwa and Kusa share."

Oh boy...

War was coming...

I felt part excited and part nervous.

"Up your training."

I stared at my mom in the eyes, trying to convey my seriousness.

"You as well."

I nodded.

I looked at our clock.

"Alright I'll see you around, I promised Gai we'd run around the village today."

Mom nodded with a small smile.

"Have fun."

Will do.

...

A day passed and now it was time to choose a mission.

I needed some sort of combat mission so I could test my chakra drill.

As of now, it was unnamed.

I also wanted to do some experimentation.

So, I ideally needed a bandit extermination mission.

And sadly, there weren't any of those...

Looking at the B-ranks there were a lot of spying and assassination missions, most of which I wasn't interested in.

There were no A-ranked missions available for casual perusing, those were assigned by the Hokage and contained sensitive matters.

So back to the B-ranked missions.

Spying was out as I wanted combat, so assassination it was.

There were few good assassination missions, most of them would involve a lot of stalking and waiting for the target the leave their village.

I wasn't too interested in those.

Finally, I found something that wasn't total garbage but still sucked for a different reason.

There was an Iwa Jonin that needed assassinating.

Sadly, he also had a Genin team.

So, if I didn't want to have a page in the bingo book, I'd have to kill some kids...

Which could make me look bad.

Though I was a kid myself...

Did that make it excusable?

After all, I was the only one who knew I was mentally 29...

Hmm...

Is it about time I go for that bingo book page?

Possibly...

The mission didn't say anything about killing the Genin...

Alright, it's decided...

I'm going to Grass.

...

I stood at the gate, pondering my plan of action.

I had to get to Grass's border and hunt down one Shiro Renzo.

He had black hair and heterochromatic eyes, one being blue and the other green.

Hopefully, the eyes and hair meant he wasn't total cannon fodder, though I wouldn't get my hopes up.

Regardless of coloring, there could only be one Shiro and that was me...

...

If I Shunshined the whole way there I'd make a three-day trip a one-day trip but I'd also spend a lot of chakra...

But I did have a big ole seal full of chakra...

Alrighty...

Speed over safety...

...

I Shunshined from Konoha to Grass's border with Chikaku no kyōka active.

The chakra drain wasn't as bad as I had anticipated, though I still wasn't fresh enough to fight.

I still had a bit of time, so I'd make my way to Grass's capital and stay there for the night.

...

Oh boy...

There was a lot of action happening in the capital.

Looking around with my Byakugan I could see four people with developed chakra systems bumbling about.

I imagine that they're spies...

Though why they weren't spying on grasses hidden village was beyond me.

Though I guess the nobles were important as well...

I guess it doesn't matter what they're doing... As they were ideal experimental subjects...

A quick Henge and I now looked like I was a nondescript brown-hair and brown-eyed cannon fodder.

...

I took over a family's couch for the night.

Now that I was rested it was time to go on the hunt.

I arrived early so I would have a few days to mess around, I needed to find a place to set-up shop and I needed to have a quick look for other spies.

...

My quick search provided both a place to stay and the location of two more spies.

Both of them were occupying an apartment on the edge of the city near but not in the slums.

One of which was unconscious in front of me.

Short stature, dirty blond hair, and blue eyes.

He didn't look like total cannon fodder.

Though he should have picked a better time to have a nap...

A quick tap to the spine and throat meant he wouldn't be moving or speaking anytime soon.

I watched his eyes fly open and dart around the room, before meeting my own eyes.

I mouthed a 'sorry' at him before setting off to capture the second ninja.

She had bright yellow hair and purple eyes, marking her as not total cannon fodder as well.

She was making some sort of breaded fish and humming a quiet tune at I approached.

A tap to the lower spine and she would walk no more.

She collapsed to her knees bringing her spatula with her.

"Wha...?"

I taped her spine and throat in quick succession stopped her from speaking and moving.

I dragged her into the room the man was occupying, before going back to finish cooking that fish.

Food shouldn't be wasted after all...

...

I now had a full stomach and was ready to experiment.

I moved the woman onto their shared bed and stared at them lost in thought.

So, flesh transplant or Byakugan growth?

They didn't have similar cells so there would be rejection.

But I couldn't discount the possibility that chakra would somehow stop cell rejection.

Madara did successfully transplant some of Hashirama's cells onto himself.

Though that could be because they were spiritual brothers.

Orochimaru and Kabuto also did lots of transplants.

Or at least I thought so, I currently had no idea how Kabuto had mixed all those genes into his body.

Hmmm...

Other spies were running around the city...

Meaning I had more than one try...

So, transplant first and some Byakugan shenanigans later.

Or both I guess it depends and how it goes...

...

It's been a day and things are were alright?

The flesh graph went alright, there was little rejection.

Though it seemed the higher the transplantee's chakra the lower the cell rejection rate.

The man had much less chakra then the woman and had more cell rejection making the transplant almost useless.

Almost...

Though this could just be a unique trait that the woman possessed.

I'd find out after some more tests.

The flesh transplant seemed to provide an additional chakra nature.

I'd transplant some of my cells into the man and woman and see if this held.

Currently, the woman had a Water and Wind affinity, and possibly she would have a Lightning affinity.

Maybe there would be some problems if their affinities countered each other?

I guess I'll see.

...

I came back with another test subject only to find my test subjects trying to escape.

I dropped the guy I was carrying and made eye contact with the woman.

She was dragging her still unconscious partner towards the door where I had just entered.

Her recovery marked her as a medical-nin or someone with a bloodline that provided regeneration of some kind.

With the bright hair and purple eyes, I'd bet it was the latter.

"Hello, I see you are trying to escape."

She looked at the guy I had dropped and she pushed her lips together forming a thin line.

"A friend of yours?"

I vaguely gestured to the body I dropped.

I again received no answer, though I'd guess that she didn't know him.

I activated my Byakugan and Shunshined behind the woman and closed off the tenketsu in her legs and arms rendering her immobile.

She hit the floor with a grunt.

"Ugh!"

Though she remained silent afterwards.

Hmmm...

I walked back and threw my newest test subject over my shoulder and started towards the bedroom.

...

I now had the men sharing a room and the woman occupying the couch I had been using as a bed.

I had to reinjure the man as he had started healing, something I theorized came from the transplant.

Though he had very little of the woman's cells it seems that the transplant was still somewhat of a success

Now I was seated on a chair and was staring at the woman while I checked her over again looking for whatever mechanism her healing operated on.

"So, where are you from?"

I got no answer, the woman just stared blankly at the ceiling.

Her healing factor operated on a different mechanism then mine and Kushina's.

Her healing seemed to be chakra based.

Though originally there was no mix of elements indicating a Kekai Gankai or Kekai Mora.

It seemed like she could 'burn' her chakra to heal.

Though this seemed to be a non-conscious process.

The downfall to her healing was that it ate up chakra pretty quickly.

Though it wasn't much of a downfall if it could heal crippling internal injuries.

"So what clan are you from?"

Again, I got no answer.

"How about this..."

I got up and left the room for a few minutes and returned with a severed hand that was still dripping blood.

"Since you wouldn't talk, I decided that I needed a hand."

I gave her a little wave with my acquired appendage.

She only spared the hand a glance before looking away.

Alrighty...

I guess she didn't care about her partner's safety as much as I had thought.

I walked away again heading off to return the hand to its owner.

...

After a few more attempts I gave up on making the woman talk.

I instead returned to the transplants after taking some stem cell samples from her with my bone senbon and sealing them away.

The woman's body easily accepted cells and had a high success rate for transplants.

The men fared worse, only accepting the woman's cells and my own and rejecting the cells of each other.

Meaning cell rejection had less to do with chakra amount and more to do with whatever bloodlines the woman and I had...

She now had three chakra natures, and with the addition of a good amount of my cells, her chakra density increased.

Hmmm...

I think I'll need more test subjects...

I crippled everyone again and slapped a chakra restraining seal on the woman's forehead before setting off to capture the remaining three spies.

...

It seems that being a spy didn't require a lot of combat power, you just needed to look nondescript.

I now had six bodies occupying the apartment and it was getting a little hot.

The purple-eyed woman integrated with cells extremely well and now had four chakra natures only missing Earth.

Perhaps her healing 'healed' the cells and integrated them into herself?

I wasn't quite sure...

Would my body do the same?

Hmmm...

All five of the spies integrated with the woman's cells extremely well regardless of blood type, chakra nature, or chakra amount.

My cells had varying success sometimes being completely rejected and sometimes being completely accepted.

I figured that it had something to do with our healing factors.

Cell rejection was just an immune response.

Meaning the body recognizes the cells as foreign and attempts to kill or eject them.

Maybe the body didn't reject the cells if they were beneficial?

Hmm...

Or maybe it had something to do with the body's chakra?

Though I didn't see any evidence of chakra nature impacting the results...

...

Two days had passed since I had arrived, meaning I had only a few more days before I had to get the show on the road.

I had aged the woman's cells a lot as I had to speed up her cell division to get and integrate cells quickly.

So, I guess this was an opportune time to test stem cell transplants?

I didn't need most if not all of the people here after all.

I grabbed a scroll from my kunai pouch and unfurled it.

It was a storage scroll containing different types of bone senbon.

I unsealed the hollow ones and prepared to get to work.

I'd drain two of the men of stem cells and give them to the woman and see how it goes.

...

The stem cell transplant was a success, though it took me a whole day to replace a good portion of her cells.

The stem cells took on the characteristics of her old cells and started producing the same healing chakra she produced by herself.

Both neat and weird.

Why would someone else's cells produce the woman's chakra?

Maybe her cells had a unique structure?

Hmm...

I extracted some more samples and prepared for the second round of stem cell transplants.

...

I couldn't find anything different about her cells, which was saddening.

I was running out of things to do and wanted to get on with the mission.

I wanted to ask her some questions so I took the chakra restraining seal off her and woke her with a quick tap to the forehead.

"So, want to answer some questions now?"

I wasn't too interested in torturing her, I didn't want to start torturing and become unable to stop.

I didn't want torture to become a thing for me.

The woman didn't answer she just continued to send the ceiling a faraway look.

...

I sat in silence for a while, contemplating trying to integrate the woman's cells into myself.

"What have you done to me?"

Finally, she spoke, her voice horse and raspy.

I remembered at that moment that I had forgotten to feed my captives.

Oops, I need to take better care of my captives...

I made a clone and sent him off to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

"Hmmm... what do you mean?"

She was probably wondering if I had raped her or something similar.

She again fell into silence and my clone returned with the water.

...

The woman was watered by the clone while I started to pack my things, the other spies had provided me with some loot they had hidden in their residences so I wouldn't be needing a trip to a weapon shop anytime soon.

This trip seemed to have proved fruitful, I got a mystery healing bloodline and valuable experience with transplants.

Though I had forgotten to try 'growing' a Byakugan in my excitement.

I was finished with my packing so I returned to the woman who the clone had been tending to.

We stared at each other for a while in silence, her with hate and me with apathy.

My clone was making kissy faces at me from across the room ruining the mood.

I sighed and dispelled it.

"So, what clan do you come from?"

She continued sending me a hateful stare.

Alright...

...

I was seated and staring at the woman.

I was debating letting her and the other surviving test subjects free to see what happened to them later on.

The surviving test subject's male and female respectively both had three chakra natures both from my own and the woman's cells.

So, they were quite valuable, I'd like to see what happens to them in the future.

They didn't see my real face or any defining ability's so it should be fine...

Though they did have my cells all throughout them, which could be a problem later...

I leaned back and poked the woman in the side with the tip of my foot.

"Any interest in talking?"

I gave her two more pokes for emphasis.

"What have you done to me?"

I poked her again as it seemed to be working.

"What do you mean?"

Her eye rolled over and made contact with my own.

"What happened to my chakra?"

I sat back and blew out a breath.

How honest should I be...?

"My chakra's not the same!"

Tears started pouring down her face.

Oof...

...