Chapter 155: Kawa

Chapter 155: Chapter 155: Kawa

After taking Haku back to the underground residence, Hyuga Kagami returned to his laboratory.

He was quite satisfied with this latest Water Release ninjutsu practice. At the very least, in terms of affinity with Water-natured chakra, this Type-A clone had met his requirements.

As he recorded the various data from the clone, he began planning his next steps.

For reasons even he couldn’t quite explain, cloning the Water Release clone had gone unexpectedly smoothly.

Perhaps it was because Haku’s cellular tissue had a relatively low rejection rate when fused with Kagami’s own cells. Or perhaps it was because Water-natured chakra was inherently more stable in nature, resulting in an astonishingly high success rate both in cellular fusion and in the cloning process itself.

Whatever the reason, the progress of the Water Release clone experiment had far exceeded even Kagami’s most optimistic expectations.

"The compatibility between the clone and my soul is the real key. I absolutely can’t afford to mishandle this part."

After finishing his records, Kagami thoughtfully closed the data logbook in his hands.

In truth, achieving compatibility between the physical body and the soul was something that could only be accomplished gradually over time.

Simply put, Kagami’s soul needed to remain inside this clone for an extended period.

Only through prolonged adaptation could his soul and the physical body eventually achieve perfect compatibility.

This was also why Kagami had transferred the Dragon Vein from his Yin Release original body and resealed it inside the gourd artifact.

Once his soul left his Yin Release original body for an extended period, the Dragon Vein sealed within it would lose the suppression of his Tenseigan chakra.

And without that suppression, the Dragon Vein would become nothing less than a ticking time bomb.

According to Kagami’s preliminary estimate, however, if he wanted to achieve perfect compatibility between body and soul, his soul would have to remain inside the clone for three years—or perhaps even longer.

Such an adaptation period was simply far too long!

At that rate, for Kagami to obtain six perfect clones of different chakra natures—a Water Release clone, Fire Release clone, Earth Release clone, Wind Release clone, Lightning Release clone, and Yang Release clone—it would take him at least eighteen years.

Spending eighteen years in pursuit of the pinnacle of the shinobi world, the Kekkei Mōra, didn’t seem particularly excessive.

But according to his memories from his previous life, the Fourth Shinobi World War would break out roughly fourteen or fifteen years from now.

There simply weren’t eighteen years available for him to slowly adapt to each clone.

And once the butterfly effect was taken into consideration, he might not even have those fourteen or fifteen years.

"I have to find a way to speed up the adaptation process!"

Rubbing his chin, Kagami fell into deep thought.

Aside from slowly accumulating compatibility over time, Kagami believed that intense battles might also be an effective way to increase the compatibility between body and soul.

After all, during a fierce battle, both the physical body and the soul would be operating at extremely high intensity.

And that kind of high-speed operation would undoubtedly accelerate the subtle process of adaptation between body and soul, allowing the two to reach perfect compatibility much faster.

And if there was one thing the shinobi world was never short of, it was fighting!

Having made up his mind, Kagami began revising his plans for what came next.

The fighting style of his Water Release clone was completely different from that of his Yin Release original body, so continuing to use the identity of Yama didn’t seem particularly appropriate.

Thus, he prepared a new black cloak along with a mask painted with a flowing-water pattern.

After putting on the new black cloak and donning the water-patterned mask, Kagami—currently controlling the Type-A clone—stood before a mirror and murmured to himself:

"Since this is my Water Release clone, I’ll call this new identity... Kawa!"

After leaving a shadow clone behind in the village, Kagami secretly slipped out of Konoha under his new identity, Kawa.

...

A week later.

Kagami nudged the corpse lying at his feet with his boot and frowned.

In search of intense battles, he had taken on a seemingly difficult bounty mission from the black market under the identity of Kawa.

But after finally tracking down his target, he discovered that the man was only around chūnin level.

Even though Kagami was currently controlling his Water Release clone, it had still taken him only a few moves to finish the fight.

Kagami clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"Tch. And they called this guy a jōnin? He’s clearly only at the level of a chūnin!"

The bounty mission had explicitly identified the target as a rogue jōnin from Kusagakure.

It seemed that when it came to some of the smaller shinobi villages, the title of "jōnin" could be seriously inflated.

Poof!

At that moment, a cloud of white smoke suddenly erupted nearby.

The familiar orange figure of Shozaimaru appeared before Kagami.

With a lazy expression, the ninja cat extended one front paw toward him.

"Meow. One thousand ryō, please!"

Kagami’s face darkened.

"Can’t you come up with a different opening line?"

Shozaimaru hesitated for a moment. Finally, as though making some great sacrifice, he said:

"Sure... but it’ll cost extra, meow!"

"Never mind. I suddenly realized I actually quite like your usual opening line."

With that, Kagami handed over the money, took the scroll, and opened it.

"We still haven’t found the mysterious person the organization is looking for!"

"Recently, the organization has also set its sights on a bounty ninja called ’Yama’!"

"I heard this guy is incredibly mysterious. Even with the organization’s resources, after investigating him for so long, they still haven’t uncovered a single useful clue."

"But if you ask me, how strong could a bounty ninja possibly be? What genuinely powerful shinobi would go around working as a bounty hunter anyway?"

Kagami, who at that very moment was considering taking the corpse of the rogue Kusa shinobi lying at his feet to the black market to collect the bounty, immediately went stone-faced.

He took a deep breath.

"That bastard... Forget it. I’ll deal with him sooner or later!"

After sending off the money-grubbing Shozaimaru, Kagami sealed the corpse of the rogue Kusa shinobi inside a storage scroll and headed toward the nearest black market.

After handing the corpse over to the person in charge, Kagami said:

"Bring me the bounty ledger."

The black-market boss carefully handed over the ledger while cautiously probing:

"Lord Kawa... what exactly is your relationship with Lord Yama?"

The reason the black-market boss had asked was simple.

Both Yama and Kawa wore identical black cloaks, with the only difference between the two personas being the masks covering their faces.

And lately, Yama had become quite the legendary figure within black-market circles.

Without looking up from the bounty ledger, Kagami casually replied:

"Yama is our leader."

The black-market boss immediately became much more attentive.

A group of powerful, organized shinobi was something even the major shinobi villages wouldn’t dare take lightly, much less a black-market broker who made his living with one foot in the grave.

Moreover, Yama’s strength had already been widely recognized throughout the black-market world.

So when faced with Kawa, someone who apparently belonged to the same organization as Yama, the black-market boss naturally didn’t dare show even the slightest disrespect.

Just then, Kagami suddenly stopped flipping through the bounty ledger.

He could sense a powerful chakra signature approaching his location.

Turning his head, he looked toward the entrance.

At the same time, two shinobi wearing black cloaks patterned with red clouds and conical hats were slowly making their way toward the black market...