Chapter 434: Grew a Horn

Chapter 434: Chapter 434: Grew a Horn

"No wonder even Orochimaru couldn’t save Kimimaro..."

In the original timeline, it wasn’t as though Orochimaru had never tried to treat Kimimaro. Yet even with his medical expertise and biotechnology, there was still nothing he could do about Kimimaro’s Kekkei Genkai disease.

In truth, the Kaguya clan’s Kekkei Genkai disease was essentially a ’genius disease.’

Those of mediocre talent were largely unaffected, while the more outstanding a clan member’s talent was, the earlier they would die.

Someone as gifted as Kimimaro, in the original timeline, hadn’t even managed to survive long enough to marry and have children, leaving behind one or two descendants before dying.

Over the next few days, Kagami received, via ninja crow, the combat-strengthening plan Itachi had devised for himself under the hypothetical scenario that Kamigami had been completely wiped out.

Taking up his pen, Kagami crossed out several sections of the plan concerning dojutsu and taijutsu training, then drew several large circles around a number of locations listed in the document.

Without exception, every one of these locations had once been a settlement of the Uchiha clan during the Warring States Period.

If these locations were connected together in a line, the migration route of the Uchiha clan’s settlements over the past thousand years could be clearly traced.

"Looks like Itachi plans to explore these Uchiha ruins from the Warring States Period to deepen his understanding of the Sharingan and strengthen himself through other avenues."

There was nothing unreasonable about Itachi’s choice.

When Uchiha Madara left the clan, he took far too many of the Uchiha clan’s precious ancient texts and records with him. If Itachi wanted to further deepen his understanding of the Sharingan and the Uchiha clan itself, his only option was to explore the ruins of the Uchiha clan’s settlements from the Warring States Period.

"Itachi probably did something similar in the original timeline. Could he have discovered clues about the Totsuka Blade and Yata Mirror while exploring these ruins?"

In the original timeline, Itachi died at the age of twenty-one, so the trajectory of his life was fairly straightforward. He awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan at eleven or twelve, massacred his clan and defected from the village at thirteen, and finally died at twenty-one during his battle with Sasuke.

The Totsuka Blade and Yata Mirror were, in all likelihood, divine artifacts that existed in the form of chakra-based spiritual entities and required a special technique such as Susanoo to wield.

Therefore, Itachi most likely obtained the Totsuka Blade and Yata Mirror sometime between awakening his Mangekyo Sharingan at eleven or twelve and his death at twenty-one.

Rubbing his chin, Kagami pondered further.

"Zetsu was watching the battle between Itachi and Sasuke, and when he saw Itachi bring out those two divine artifacts, he was clearly surprised. That means Itachi didn’t obtain the clues about them from within Akatsuki..."

"And if I rule out the possibility of the Sage of Six Paths interfering, then the place where Itachi obtained the clues to those two divine artifacts was very likely one of these numerous Uchiha ruins..."

"But which one?"

Over the course of a thousand years, the Uchiha clan had relocated its settlements many times, leaving behind more than a dozen ruins. Without personally visiting them, there was simply no way to determine which ruin might contain clues to the divine artifacts just by looking at these place names.

After pondering for a long while without reaching any conclusion, Kagami decided to put the matter aside for the time being.

After all, Shisui’s body was still recovering and required Itachi’s constant protection, so Itachi couldn’t get away at all.

Kagami himself also needed to personally oversee the entire cultivation process of the Wind Release clone, leaving him equally unable to spare the time.

For now, the matter could only be postponed.

Besides, just because Itachi might be able to discover clues to the divine artifacts among those ruins didn’t mean anyone else could.

So the safest approach was still to have Itachi personally make the trip.

Therefore, Kagami decided that once Shisui’s body had fully recovered, he would have Shisui and Itachi make the trip together and thoroughly investigate any clues regarding the Totsuka Blade.

With the two of them traveling together, as long as they didn’t run into Nagato or Obito, there shouldn’t be any real danger.

Over the next month or so, Kagami divided his time between cultivating the Wind Release clones and training Gaara and Karin.

Gaara’s talent was already exceptionally high to begin with, and on top of that, he trained extremely hard. Once he became serious, he didn’t act like a six- or seven-year-old child at all, so his improvement was extremely noticeable.

Whether it was his taijutsu or his sand manipulation, compared to a month ago, he was practically a different person.

By Kagami’s estimation, Gaara’s taijutsu alone was probably already evenly matched with Sasuke’s. If his ability to manipulate sand was added into the equation, he should be able to defeat Sasuke decisively.

In comparison, although Karin’s taijutsu had also improved, her progress wasn’t nearly as obvious as Gaara’s.

Karin lacked a certain ruthlessness. During taijutsu sparring, her movements were far too hesitant and indecisive. Meanwhile, Gaara couldn’t bring himself to hurt her, so this bad habit of hers had yet to be corrected.

Fortunately, the high-intensity taijutsu training had at least put a stop to her continuing weight gain, preventing her from expanding any further sideways.

As for her training in fuinjutsu, Kagami hardly needed to worry about it.

She could basically learn the fundamental sealing formulas and hand seals after being taught only once. If it weren’t for her young age and insufficient chakra reserves, she could already have begun attempting some simple fuinjutsu.

Kagami took the training of these two children quite seriously and held almost nothing back.

Outside of training, Kagami would occasionally make time for them as well, taking them out to play in the sea or holding picnics on deserted islands.

For ordinary children, these were nothing more than commonplace childhood experiences.

But for Gaara and Karin, they were moments of happiness they had never experienced before.

As a result, the two children gradually came to trust and depend on Kagami more and more.

As for the experiments—

With Kagami continuously accelerating their growth using Tenseigan chakra, after more than a month of cultivation, both Wind Release clones inside the large nutrient tanks successfully completed their development.

Looking at the two Wind Release clones submerged in the nutrient solution before him, Kagami suddenly felt a strange sense of unreality.

Perhaps the difficulties he’d encountered with the Fire Release clone had left too deep an impression on him, because now he couldn’t help feeling that the cloning of the Wind Release body had gone far too smoothly.

From the project’s inception to its completion, it had taken less than two months.

Collecting himself, Kagami began examining the two Wind Release clones.

The two clones looked extremely similar. Their facial features clearly bore traces of Kagami himself, but their overall demeanor was much colder, with a faintly murderous air between their brows. Their appearances were nowhere near as gentle as his own.

Moreover, the two Wind Release clones didn’t have Kagami’s black hair.

Instead, their hair was the same grayish-white as Kimimaro’s.

Grayish-white hair paired with those cold features gave them an extremely peculiar appearance—an aggressively imposing aura, tinged with madness and more than a hint of arrogance.

After labeling the two Wind Release clones as Type A and Type B respectively, Kagami carefully began comparing the differences between them.

As he examined them more closely, Kagami gradually furrowed his brows.

He had discovered that on the forehead of the Type A clone, there was actually a small, inconspicuous protrusion.

"Is this thing a bump... or some kind of tumor...?"

After a pause, Kagami muttered,

"Or did it grow a horn?!"