"Can't it really be done?"
Hane Genma felt a pang of regret.
"It really can't," Uchiha Nanami shook her head. "Even a genjutsu-type Sharingan is only strong at invasion and control, not direct brain reading."
Nanami dismissed the idea, clearly indicating she wasn't suited to play the role of an interrogation ninja. For living targets, she might occasionally step into that role, but with the dead, the difference was stark.
"Fine, I'll think of other ways," Genma said, disappointment lingering in his voice. But he wasn't ready to give up. As the saying goes, you don't realize the cost of necessities until you're in charge. Even for the sake of the organization's greater good, he couldn't so easily abandon such a powerful secret technique.
"Just toss it," Nanami said coldly. "Don't waste your time."
Only someone born into privilege could speak so callously.
"Throw it out once it's past its expiration date," Genma muttered, his frugality betraying the mindset of someone who'd endured hard times, like a thrifty old mother. He'd say he'd toss it when it expired, but in truth, he wouldn't.
Nanami, finding herself useless in this context, soon left, leaving Genma alone to wrestle with his thoughts, wasting time in contemplation.
Though he clung to the principle of not wasting resources, Genma had no practical ideas for what to do next. With no better options, he decided to go all-in, pursuing the simplest, most brute-force approach: an "experiment."
The black tendrils of the Jiongu technique were like real hair, their fleshy roots growing inside the user's body, much like hair follicles. Genma began by extracting a portion of the tendrils, along with their roots, from a corpse, placing them carefully to the side. His experimental skills were rudimentary at best—he didn't even bother with proper tools, using a kunai as a makeshift scalpel.
After a moment's thought, he pulled out another scroll and unsealed the corpse of a White Zetsu. Channeling his chakra into it, he sensed a faint spark of vitality. White Zetsu, a strange, wood-like species capable of surviving for millennia, wasn't entirely dead even in this state. This phenomenon didn't surprise Genma.
With these basic conditions confirmed, he transformed into a makeshift botanist and genetic engineer, embarking on a crude "cultivation" project. He made a small incision in the arm of the White Zetsu corpse and planted some Jiongu roots into it, then continued to channel chakra into the site.
Genma's scientific approach was laughably simplistic, akin to "apple + pen = applepen." He had a Jiongu corpse and a few White Zetsu bodies on hand. Individually, they were useless, so why not combine them? Perhaps this way, he could turn trash into treasure.
His method wasn't entirely baseless, though. After all, he'd successfully fused a bloodline limit using a White Zetsu body before. Maybe the Jiongu roots could regain vitality through the same medium.
After grafting the roots and infusing a significant amount of chakra, Genma had done all he could. Now, it was up to fate. He stored the Jiongu corpse in a sealing scroll, which preserved it in a stasis-like state, preventing decay. The White Zetsu body, used as the grafting base, remained on the autopsy table. White Zetsu corpses were naturally preserved, almost as if soaked in formalin, with an inherently long shelf life.
With everything secured, Genma left the lab. He wasn't worried about being discovered—his tent was pitched right outside this makeshift "laboratory," and his limited sensory abilities covered the entire building. If anyone took an interest in his secret lab, he'd know immediately.
Such an intrusion was unlikely, though. People might be curious about a laboratory, but a morgue? Hardly. As for the masterminds lurking in the shinobi world? A dead White Zetsu wouldn't emit signals to attract its kind. Why would those scheming villains bother with a backwater place like this?
Shouldn't they be focused on Uchiha Madara instead? His White Zetsu army had been wiped out—wouldn't that warrant investigation? Wouldn't it raise suspicions?
Quietly, Madara had slipped away, taking the attention of the White Zetsu horde with him.
If you paid close attention, you'd realize the shinobi world was full of good people.
While conducting his plant-animal grafting experiments, Genma worked diligently to recover his body. Every day, he injected chakra into the White Zetsu corpse with clockwork precision, more reliable than some web novel authors' update schedules.
Yet, after seven days, his experiments yielded no positive results. The Jiongu roots grafted onto the White Zetsu remained as wilted as ever. It seemed all his chakra had gone to waste.
Another day passed, and Genma's body, heavily injured from a Lightning Release attack, finally recovered fully. Even his arm, once pale as fresh-cut wood, regained its functionality, with no lingering impairments.
Genma was back at full combat strength, every cell in his body buzzing with vitality. And the good news didn't stop there. When he returned to his lab, he noticed a change in the Jiongu grafted onto the White Zetsu.
The Jiongu tendrils, previously resembling dry, brittle hair, had regained their resilience. They gleamed as if treated with a bottle of conditioner. Leaning closer, Genma examined the roots and discovered a small new segment of growth. Unlike the original black, this new section was a milky white, standing out starkly.
To be honest, the white Jiongu tendrils were far more unsettling than the black roots, but Genma felt only joy. The chakra he'd conserved during his recovery hadn't been wasted.
White Zetsu truly was a breeding ground for calamity—capable of nurturing even the most grotesque things.
"This actually worked?" Genma muttered, incredulous at first, then breaking into a reflective sigh. "Bloodline awakening… truly something else."
He wasn't marveling at the White Zetsu's role but at the awakening of some latent gene within himself.
A farmer's bloodline—terrifyingly potent!
Next, he gathered some bamboo poles from outside, tying them into a "人"-shaped frame and setting them up on either side of the White Zetsu corpse. Anyone who'd grown cucumbers or loofahs would recognize what he was doing: building a trellis for vines.
With this initial success, Genma didn't bother planning the next step. For now, he planted more Jiongu roots into the corpse. His so-called laboratory began to resemble a grisly workshop from a horror flick, exuding a perverse aura from top to bottom.
Once the tendrils and roots had fully entwined the trellis…
Jiongu?
This was practically a scene from a cursed horror movie.
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