Chapter 276: Warning and Inspiration

Chapter 276: Chapter 276: Warning and Inspiration

Hyuga Kagami had deliberately provoked and humiliated Orochimaru earlier precisely for this.

Right now, Kagami desperately needed the cell-fusion technology in Orochimaru’s possession, but he had nothing suitable to offer in exchange. After all, anything Orochimaru wanted was either equally important to Kagami himself or risked exposing the secret of his Tenseigan.

So, as far as Kagami was concerned, the most profitable option was to sell Orochimaru some intelligence in exchange for his cell-fusion technology.

Once he understood what Orochimaru wanted, naturally, he could calmly prepare the bait.

And that "bait" was none other than Kagami himself—or, more accurately, "Uchiha En," the temporary identity Kagami had created.

Kagami was absolutely certain that Orochimaru would investigate Uchiha En and try every possible means to seize her body.

After Danzo’s previous purge, Orochimaru might still have other spies remaining in the village, but among the ANBU directly under the Hokage, Kagami was probably the only one left.

Therefore, if Orochimaru wanted to uncover Uchiha En’s background as quickly as possible, he had no other choice but to go through Kagami.

And with that, Kagami could sell information about "Uchiha En" to Orochimaru in exchange for his cell-fusion technology.

The only thing that caught Kagami somewhat by surprise was just how impatient Orochimaru had become.

Kagami had barely arrived home when Orochimaru’s message came right on his heels.

On the scroll, Kagami wrote that he would investigate Uchiha En. He then added his own condition—the cell-fusion technology he wanted—before sending the one-eyed viper on its way.

After dismissing Orochimaru’s messenger, Kagami immediately cleared his thoughts and focused entirely on summarizing what he had gained from observing Hiruko’s Kekkei Genkai fusion ritual.

First and foremost, Hiruko’s ritual had given Kagami several warnings.

The first was that recklessly absorbing and fusing bloodlines carried enormous risks. Hiruko’s success this time had involved a great deal of luck. It could be said that Hiruko had taken several trips to death’s door and had nearly stepped through it for good.

Especially at the final moment—if the celestial phenomenon had ended even slightly earlier, if his body had failed to withstand its disintegration, or if his will had been unable to endure the agony of his body breaking apart, any one of those things could have plunged him into an irreversible catastrophe in an instant.

The second warning was that, for a fusion ritual to achieve perfection, the seven chakra natures—Yin, Yang, and the Five Elements—had to remain in absolute balance. None could be too strong, and none could be too weak.

The moment that balance was broken, perfection would cease to exist.

The third—and most important—warning was that the fusion ritual had to use one’s original body as its core.

Hiruko’s fusion ritual had clearly overlooked this point.

Hiruko had placed the focus of his ritual on devouring. He had swallowed five Kekkei Genkai shinobi whole in one fell swoop, allowing his original body—which should have served as the core—to continuously disintegrate and reconstruct itself.

In doing so, he had unknowingly and severely weakened the power of his original body, planting an unpredictable hidden danger that could emerge in the future.

That was precisely why Kagami had dared to state with certainty to Shinichi that there had to be some kind of hidden flaw within Hiruko’s body.

At the same time that he gained these warnings, Kagami also drew several important insights from Hiruko’s Kekkei Genkai fusion ritual.

The greatest inspiration of all was Hiruko’s use of the celestial phenomenon.

The reason Hiruko’s Kekkei Genkai fusion ritual had succeeded this time was undoubtedly more than fifty percent due to the celestial phenomenon. Without its assistance, with Hiruko’s own level of strength, there was simply no way he could have swallowed five Kekkei Genkai shinobi whole in a single go.

This also gave Kagami the idea of studying celestial phenomena.

In his view, borrowing the power of nature to make the final push toward the ultimate Kekkei Mōra was perfectly reasonable.

After all, even Kaguya Otsutsuki, hailed as the "Progenitor of Chakra," only obtained the Kekkei Mōra after consuming the Divine Tree’s fruit, which contained the source power of the planet itself.

As he recalled scene after scene from the ritual, Kagami thought of another issue that had been bothering him.

Logically speaking, with Hiruko’s rather mediocre personal strength, even with the Chimera Technique assisting him, there was no way he should have been able to withstand such an extreme degree of bodily disintegration.

Because of this strange discrepancy, Kagami had pushed the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan to its limit during the ritual to observe Hiruko closely.

However, when it came to observation, even after evolving to the level of the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, the Sharingan still could not compare to Kagami’s own Tenseigan.

As a result, Kagami had only barely managed to detect traces of some kind of medical ninjutsu on Hiruko’s body.

As for exactly what medical ninjutsu it was, or how that medical ninjutsu had helped Hiruko resist the disintegration of his body, Kagami had no way of knowing the finer details.

"Could it have been Tsunade’s medical ninjutsu?"

Resting his chin on his hand, Kagami pondered silently.

Back during their Academy days, Hiruko had been friends with the Legendary Sannin, so his relationship with Tsunade must have been quite good as well.

It wouldn’t be strange at all if he had picked up a medical ninjutsu technique or two from Tsunade.

"Looks like medical ninjutsu is also indispensable if I want to ensure the safety of the fusion ritual."

After a brief pause, Kagami furrowed his brow again.

"But ever since Tsunade left the village, the development of medical ninjutsu in Konoha has practically ground to a halt. Most of the techniques we have now are still products of the Second Shinobi World War. Can technology that outdated really be of any use?"

In the shinobi world, technological advancement often required one or two geniuses to drive it forward.

In the field of medical ninjutsu, Tsunade was precisely that kind of genius.

While she was still in the village, Konoha’s medical ninjutsu advanced almost by the day. But the moment she left, its development immediately stagnated.

As for ordinary people, forget pushing medical ninjutsu forward—even fully absorbing everything Tsunade had already left behind was an extremely difficult task.

After all, medical ninjutsu was a completely different system from ordinary ninjutsu. It placed extraordinarily demanding requirements on chakra control.

Forget ordinary chunin and genin—even some jonin lacked the aptitude necessary to learn medical ninjutsu.

That was also why, in the original timeline, the entire village had been helpless when faced with the injuries of Kakashi and Rock Lee, yet the moment Tsunade returned, the two of them were soon back on their feet again.

With a soft sigh, Kagami walked over to the window.

"Hm...?"

Watching the snowflakes drifting down outside the window, Kagami couldn’t help but let out a small sound of surprise.

He had no idea when it had started, but heavy snow was already falling outside. At this rate, it might not even take a single night before the entire village was blanketed in pristine white.

Kagami sighed with emotion.

"Heh... Another year passed before I even realized it."

Counting the years, this was already his seventeenth year since arriving in the shinobi world.

Once this winter passed, he would turn eighteen next year...