Chapter 410: Alliance Ceremony

Chapter 410: Chapter 410: Alliance Ceremony

As his horizons broadened, his experience accumulated, and his data gradually became more complete, Hyuga Kagami discovered that the Water Release clone and Fire Release clone he had already completed still had room for further improvement.

For example, the Water Release clone could train in the Hōzuki Clan’s secret Water Style techniques from Kirigakure, thereby increasing its affinity with Water-nature chakra. As for the Fire Release clone, it could take advantage of the greatly enhanced ocular power of its Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan to further develop the Blaze Release Kekkei Genkai, strengthening the Fire Release clone’s affinity with Fire-nature chakra.

However, these were all things that required slow, steady effort. As long as he made the proper arrangements, progress would naturally follow, so there was no need to worry too much about them.

Resting his chin on one hand, Hyuga Kagami murmured to himself, "Which elemental clone should I develop next?"

At present, Hyuga Kagami was still missing four clones of different attributes: an Earth Release clone, a Wind Release clone, a Lightning Release clone, and a Yang Release clone corresponding to his Yin Release true body.

Since his cell-fusion technology was still immature, the Yang Release clone could be set aside for the time being.

Thus, the only choices before Hyuga Kagami were the Earth Release clone, Wind Release clone, and Lightning Release clone.

Comparatively speaking, Earth-nature chakra was the most stable in terms of its nature transformation. Therefore, creating an Earth Release clone should be easier than creating either a Wind Release clone or a Lightning Release clone. However, choosing a suitable Kekkei Genkai involving Earth-nature chakra was another matter entirely.

In Hyuga Kagami’s memory, the Kekkei Genkai associated with Earth-nature chakra included Wood Release, Lava Release, and Explosion Release, as well as the Kekkei Tōta that surpassed ordinary Kekkei Genkai—Dust Release.

In truth, Wood Release could also be regarded as a type of Kekkei Tōta, as it required a special constitution to cultivate. Although Lava Release and Explosion Release were both quite powerful, they were too one-dimensional in terms of functionality. They had their strengths, but their weaknesses were equally obvious.

Hyuga Kagami pondered the matter for a long while, but still couldn’t make up his mind.

Actually, among the bloodline abilities related to Earth-nature chakra, the only one that truly interested him was the Kekkei Tōta, Dust Release. But if he made Dust Release the development goal, he was worried that the Earth Release clone might end up surpassing his previous Water Release and Fire Release clones in strength, thereby disrupting the balance between his various clones.

Moreover, in the current shinobi world, the only person who possessed the Dust Release Kekkei Tōta was the Third Tsuchikage, ōnoki. Obtaining both cell samples and the secrets of Dust Release from him would be anything but easy.

After all, more than ten years later, during the Fourth Shinobi World War, even an elderly and physically declining ōnoki had still been one of the Five Kage’s primary offensive forces. One could easily imagine just how powerful ōnoki was now, when he had only just begun to pass his prime.

Unable to reach a decision, the utterly exhausted Hyuga Kagami simply collapsed face-first onto his bed and fell into a deep sleep.

A few days later, the village held a grand alliance ceremony. As ANBU directly subordinate to the Hokage, Hyuga Kagami’s Team 7 was also assigned to the ceremony’s security detail.

Standing atop a large tree with one hand resting on her hip, Kurenai watched the shinobi from other villages coming and going through the streets below. Her delicate brows furrowed slightly. "Is it really a good idea to let so many outsiders into the village?"

Beside her, Hayate coughed twice before slowly answering, "The whole point of holding this alliance ceremony is to deter both Akatsuki and Kamigami. Naturally, the grander the ceremony, the better. Having this many people around is unavoidable."

Yūgao chimed in as well. "Yeah. As long as this alliance ceremony is successfully completed, the territories northwest and southwest of the Land of Fire will all be occupied by our allies. We won’t need to station so many sentries and patrol squads along those borders anymore."

Kurenai curled her lips, clearly unconvinced. "Hmph. What use can these little shinobi villages possibly be? Especially that Otogakure or whatever it’s called. I heard it was only founded recently. Their entire village probably doesn’t even have more than a handful of shinobi."

Hyuga Kagami didn’t join his subordinates’ discussion. He merely leaned against the trunk of the tree, silently observing the surrounding streets.

A total of five shinobi villages were participating in this alliance.

Aside from the host, Konoha, there were Sunagakure, Kusagakure, Takigakure, and the newly established Otogakure.

Hyuga Kagami wasn’t surprised by this.

In the original timeline, during the Chūnin Exams held for Naruto’s generation, shinobi from these very villages had participated, and every village that sent shinobi to Konoha for the Chūnin Exams was one of Konoha’s allies.

In other words, even without the threat posed by Akatsuki and Kamigami, the Third Hokage would still have sought to draw the smaller shinobi villages surrounding the Land of Fire into Konoha’s camp.

After all, the lesson Konoha had learned from being besieged on all sides during the Third Shinobi World War had been far too painful. If someone like the Fourth Hokage hadn’t emerged and turned the tide for Konoha, it was impossible to say what kind of state the village would have ended up in.

Suddenly, Hyuga Kagami’s gaze sharpened.

A group of familiar figures had slowly entered his field of vision.

At their head was a young Otogakure shinobi who appeared to be in his twenties. His hair was tied into a ponytail, and a faint smile constantly lingered at the corners of his mouth. His features were clearly delicate and refined, yet there was always a faintly sinister charm about him.

"Orochimaru came personally? He’s got some nerve!"

Such a disguise might have fooled others, but it couldn’t fool Hyuga Kagami. With a single glance, he recognized the shinobi leading Otogakure’s delegation as none other than Konoha’s missing-nin, Orochimaru.

Immediately afterward, Hyuga Kagami’s gaze swept across the four Otogakure shinobi following behind Orochimaru as he silently identified them one by one.

"Yamato, Haku, Jūgo, Kimimaro..."

Hyuga Kagami recognized every single one of them, which genuinely surprised him. He hadn’t expected Orochimaru to be bold enough to bring Yamato back into the village as well.

But after thinking about it for a moment, Hyuga Kagami understood.

The Yamato of his childhood looked completely different from the Yamato of the present.

As a child, Yamato had long hair. Although his eyes already had that somewhat dull look to them, his features were delicate and refined. At first glance, one might even mistake him for a girl.

But the older Yamato became, the more prominent those dull, dead-fish eyes grew. On top of that, he had cut his hair short. Compared to his childhood appearance, both his looks and overall demeanor had undergone a complete transformation.

Even if the village still possessed records of what Yamato had looked like as a child, they probably wouldn’t recognize the Yamato standing before them now.

Immediately afterward, Hyuga Kagami’s gaze shifted to Kimimaro at the very back of the group, and a thought suddenly flashed through his mind.

After gaining control of the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi, Hyuga Kagami had gone through many classified documents in Kirigakure’s archives, particularly those concerning the Kaguya Clan and their Shikotsumyaku.

Those classified records repeatedly mentioned that the history of this shinobi clan was extremely ancient, stretching all the way back to the era when Ninshū was first founded.

And according to Hyuga Kagami’s memories from his previous life, Kaguya ōtsutsuki possessed a technique called All-Killing Ash Bones that bore a striking resemblance to the Shikotsumyaku. Combined with the clan’s very name—Kaguya—Hyuga Kagami had good reason to believe that the Kaguya Clan, who possessed the Shikotsumyaku, was very likely another bloodline descended from Kaguya ōtsutsuki.

As Kaguya ōtsutsuki’s eldest son, the Sage of Six Paths, Hagoromo ōtsutsuki, had a very clear line of descendants: the Senju, Uchiha, and Uzumaki Clans.

Among them, the Senju and Uzumaki Clans were closely related and had inherited Hagoromo ōtsutsuki’s Sage Body, while the Uchiha Clan had inherited Hagoromo ōtsutsuki’s Sage Eyes.

Therefore, if the Kaguya Clan was indeed descended from Kaguya ōtsutsuki, then just like the Hyuga Clan, they were very likely descended from Kaguya ōtsutsuki’s second son—Hamura ōtsutsuki.

And if he were to make an even bolder hypothesis...

If the Hyuga Clan had inherited Hamura ōtsutsuki’s Sage Eyes, then perhaps the Kaguya Clan had inherited Hamura ōtsutsuki’s Sage Body...