Chapter 549: Whose Cells to Choose?

Chapter 549: Chapter 549: Whose Cells to Choose?

"Become Hokage?"

Beneath the flame-patterned mask, Kagami’s expression darkened slightly.

Over the past few days, he had been entirely focused on improving the Chimera Technique, paying little attention to anything else. As a result, he wasn’t particularly familiar with Danzo’s recent movements.

Only after hearing Orochimaru’s words did he realize that Danzo was probably preparing to force the Third Hokage out of office in the near future.

However, whether Danzo intended to launch a military coup or employ political means to initiate a vote of no confidence and remove the Third Hokage was something Kagami had no way of knowing at present.

Judging by common sense, though, the likelihood of Danzo resorting to force against the Third Hokage was rather low. After all, Jiraiya and Tsunade, two of the Legendary Sannin, were both still in the village. In terms of high-level combat strength, the Third Hokage held an overwhelming advantage.

After pondering for a moment, Kagami warned Orochimaru, "The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and the eldest daughter of the Hyuga main family are both in your hands, aren’t they? Konoha and the Hyuga clan have already commissioned our Kamigami to rescue them. I don’t care what agreement you’ve made with Danzo. In any case, you must guarantee their safety. Otherwise, Kamigami will have to consider intervening."

To improve the Chimera Technique as quickly as possible, Kagami needed to maintain his fragile cooperative relationship with Orochimaru and Danzo. Therefore, he had not attempted to forcibly rescue Naruto and Hinata from Orochimaru.

Orochimaru smiled. "Rest assured. Those two are important bargaining chips for Danzo’s ascension to the position of Hokage."

"So Danzo really is planning to stage a little performance where he personally rescues the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and the eldest daughter of the Hyuga main family..."

After grumbling inwardly, Kagami said nothing more and left the laboratory.

Once he reached a secluded location, Kagami switched back to his Yin Release true body.

As he made his way toward the village, he began contemplating the next step of his plan.

During this period, he had found time to return to his aerial fortress several times, repeatedly confirming that after replacing all the blood in the Type-A Wind Release clone, the bloodline disease within its body had been temporarily suppressed and was no longer deteriorating.

With that, he officially renamed the Type-A Wind Release clone his ’Wind Release clone.’

However, because this Wind Release clone was exceptionally powerful, it had raised the overall standard considerably. As a result, the Water Release and Fire Release clones he had previously completed now showed rather obvious deficiencies in strength and required further enhancement.

But none of these were Kagami’s most pressing concerns.

For Kagami, the truly urgent question was which type of clone he should develop next, now that the Wind Release clone was complete.

Akatsuki was like a vicious dog snapping at his heels, leaving him unable to relax for even a moment. He had no idea when Nagato would strike again, so he could only race against time!

And now, the only options remaining before him were three types of clones: Earth Release, Lightning Release, and Yang Release.

After a brief moment of consideration, Kagami made his decision.

The Yang Release clone involved far too many technical difficulties, so it would be best to leave it for last. Meanwhile, Lightning Release chakra was the most unstable in terms of its nature and properties, making cellular fusion more difficult than with any of the other five basic chakra natures.

Therefore, following the principle of tackling the easier challenges before the harder ones, the Earth Release clone was undoubtedly the best choice at present.

"Whose cells should I choose this time?"

Having decided to develop an Earth Release clone, Kagami began pondering his options.

The first candidate that came to mind was naturally the Third Tsuchikage, Onoki.

As the most widely recognized Kekkei Tota in the shinobi world, Dust Release could be considered the strongest representative of Earth-nature bloodline abilities in the current era.

However, Kagami quickly dismissed the idea.

It wasn’t that he was worried about being unable to obtain the Third Tsuchikage’s cellular tissue. Rather, the Third Tsuchikage was simply too old, and the vitality of his cells had long since declined.

Furthermore, the Third Tsuchikage was not an exceptional individual like the First Hokage, who possessed an unparalleled Sage Body. Therefore, his cellular tissue was not Kagami’s best choice.

After ruling out the Third Tsuchikage, Kagami thought it over and realized that he didn’t have many candidates left to choose from. After all, among bloodline abilities primarily based on Earth Release, the most representative were Dust Release and Wood Release.

Suddenly, someone came to mind, and the corners of Kagami’s mouth curled upward.

The person he had thought of was none other than Deidara, a member of Akatsuki in the original timeline and one half of the artistic duo.

As the disciple of the Third Tsuchikage of Iwagakure, Deidara’s talent was beyond question. His age was also ideal, with his cellular tissue currently at its most vigorous stage.

Coupled with his Explosion Release Kekkei Genkai, which primarily utilized Earth-nature chakra with Fire-nature chakra as its secondary component, he could be said to perfectly satisfy Kagami’s requirements for developing an Earth Release clone in every respect.

Moreover, once he mastered Explosion Release, independently learning Dust Release would not be entirely impossible.

After all, in theory, as long as he added Wind-nature chakra to the Earth and Fire natures of Explosion Release and perfectly fused all three chakra natures—Earth, Fire, and Wind—he would be able to perform Dust Release, a Kekkei Tota.

Of course, that was only in theory.

In actual practice, there would inevitably be numerous difficulties to overcome. Otherwise, Onoki, the Third Tsuchikage, wouldn’t be the only person in Iwagakure currently capable of wielding Dust Release.

Lost in thought along the way, Kagami quietly returned to the village.

Upon arriving home, he discovered an unfamiliar scroll inside his house.

He opened it and found that it contained nothing but a set of coordinates.

Putting the scroll away, Kagami chuckled.

"Contact from Akatsuki, huh? It’s only been a few days, and Obito is already getting impatient!"

Kagami was not surprised by the scroll that had suddenly appeared in his house, because he had already informed Obito of the frequency of the village’s new sensory barrier. As a result, Zetsu and his clones could once again freely enter and leave Konoha.

The reason Kagami had done this was that even if he hadn’t told Obito, the latter could easily abduct a Konoha ANBU and use genjutsu to interrogate them for whatever information he wanted.

After all, for an expert of Obito’s caliber, intelligence of this level was practically within arm’s reach. Rather than allowing Obito to victimize other ANBU members, Kagami figured he might as well tell him directly.

Before long, Kagami arrived at the coordinates recorded on the scroll. It was a dense forest outside the village.

Finding no one around, Kagami understood that since this was their first contact, Akatsuki still couldn’t completely trust him.

Therefore, he simply left his intelligence scroll behind and departed from the forest.

Quite some time later, a white figure emerged from underground.

After looking around for a while, the figure finally picked up the intelligence scroll Kagami had left on the ground and sank back into the earth.

Meanwhile, in another dense forest on the opposite side of the village, Itachi, who had also received a message from Akatsuki, placed an intelligence scroll on the ground.

Then, just like Kagami, he quietly departed...