The power of her eyes pierced through the Hashirama cells.
The chunk of flesh in the bottle instantly turned translucent, like jelly, but it lacked any of the softness you'd expect from jelly. Instead, it seemed brittle, like a crispy biscuit.
Only then did she notice that, centered around her finger bone, Hikari power didn't just coat the surface of the Hashirama cells—it had seeped into the flesh, leaving intricate patterns of spots throughout.
Her vision zoomed in to the cellular level. The pale cells were completely overtaken by a deathly gray hue. The tendrils on the cell surfaces, which usually reached out like jaws snapping at prey, were still. Gone was the frenzy they'd shown when trying to engulf her gray cells earlier.
Silence. Stillness. Serenity.
The gray bone didn't absorb the energy of the Hashirama cells. Instead, it used that deathly force to snuff them out entirely.
She picked up a glass rod from the table and cautiously prodded the Hashirama cells now tainted by the gray bone.
Crack!
She hadn't even applied pressure—just rested the rod on the flesh—and the gray patterns on its surface splintered into countless cracks.
Crack—crunch—snap!
The fissures spread rapidly along the paths of the gray patterns, spawning smaller cracks in their wake. In moments, the entire chunk of flesh disintegrated, collapsing into a slurry of gray powder mixed with the brownish-yellow nutrient solution.
What a terrifying power.
She narrowed her eyes, cautiously observing the mixture in the cup.
This was just an incomplete form of the All-Killing Ash Bones, yet it was ferocious enough to overwhelm even the endlessly dividing, devouring Hashirama cells, reducing them to dust. If her entire skeletal structure evolved to this level, who knew how dangerous it could become?
But something didn't add up.
The power of Hashirama cells was supposed to be near the pinnacle of a Sage's body. If even the strongest Sage body couldn't withstand an incomplete Ash Bone, then what was the point of her developing a reversal of the Eight Gates? No matter how strong her life force was, it couldn't surpass Hashirama's cells.
She turned her gaze inward, examining her own body.
Her speckled bones lay quietly encased in flesh, steadily drawing on her chakra and life force. But they didn't spread those gray patterns to invade her body.
Her bones might be harder than steel, but they were still made of bone cells.
Her cells and Hashirama's cells were fundamentally different—completely incompatible.
Her bone cells couldn't recognize the life force in Hashirama's cells, so they treated them as an enemy, annihilating them with those unique gray patterns.
Perhaps only her own cells, brimming with life force, could make her Corpse Bone Pulse distinguish friend from foe and trigger some unknown transformation?
But then, why could the Nine-Tails' chakra be absorbed so seamlessly?
When her Corpse Bone Pulse had consumed the Nine-Tails' chakra, there was no resistance at all. Logically, that chakra should've been considered "foreign" too.
Was it because her bone pulse hadn't yet evolved into Ash Bones at the time?
As she pondered the connection between the two, her finger bone sank to the bottom of the murky mixture in the glass cup. Before she could react, the gray patterns reappeared, slowly creeping up the transparent glass.
Bang!
The finger bone, heavy as a solid iron ingot, shattered the base of the cup the moment the gray patterns touched it.
The broken glass shards disintegrated into powder mid-air. Even the flowing nutrient solution was tainted by the gray patterns, turning to dust.
The finger bone and gray powder scattered across the floor.
But it didn't stop there.
With the finger bone as the epicenter, the gray patterns began to crawl across the ground, hardened by Earth Release. To her shock, they spread—until they formed a small, coin-sized gray circle and finally stopped.
She turned the now-bottomless glass cup upside down on the table.
Big at the top, small at the bottom—it made a perfect funnel.
Bending down, she gently nudged the finger bone on the ground with her finger. This time, the domineering patterns recognized her as an ally and didn't spread toward her hand.
Her Byakugan revealed that the mysterious gray power within the bone was nearly depleted, reduced to a faint, flickering wisp that seemed ready to vanish at any moment.
Crack!
With a thought, the bone—so indestructible moments ago—shattered into gray dust, just like the objects it had infected.
She'd always had the ability to disintegrate her own bones since awakening the Corpse Bone Pulse. Back then, it hadn't seemed like much. But now, staring at the layer of gray-white dust on the ground, she realized the power of the All-Killing Ash Bones had been showing its potential all along.
She swept the dust clean.
Leaping out of the basement, she sealed the entrance with a barrier.
Creak!
Her shadow clone pushed the bed back into place and asked, "How'd it go?"
"See for yourself."
She tapped her heart, and seven spiraling chakra chains appeared in the air, each carrying its own memories and information.
Six chains were close, one was far—corresponding to the six shadow clones in the room (Wind, Water, Earth, Fire, Yin, and Yang) and one at the Ninja Academy, heading home with a pink bear backpack.
"The Ash Bones' rejection is even stronger than Hashirama's cells!" said Yang-Release Hikari, tapping her forehead where a kaleidoscope pattern spun beneath her black cloak. "Organic or inorganic—anything that touches the Ash Bones is doomed. Only our own cells are recognized, sparing them from the deathly patterns.
As for why the Nine-Tails' chakra was absorbed without issue, it's likely a matter of sequence. Our chakra fused with the Nine-Tails' first, turning our chakra core purple. By then, the Nine-Tails' chakra was close enough to ours in nature, so the Corpse Bone Pulse could absorb it and evolve toward Ash Bones."
Yin-Release Hikari rubbed her temples in frustration. "Forget transplanting Hashirama cells. Our tailed beast chakra can't resist their devouring nature.
I just finished reading Orochimaru's theories on Yin chakra. Combined with the Yin and Yang scrolls Shikamaru's team sent, I think 'Yang'—representing life—is the source of all power, while 'Yin' is the force derived from absorbing and transforming 'Yang.' It's born from Yang but surpasses it. That's why only the Sharingan, the pinnacle of Yin, can barely suppress Hashirama cells."
"What about the Byakugan?" asked another clone.
"The Hyuga guard their Byakugan too fiercely—no one's tested if it can control Hashirama cells. The Byakugan excels at control and balance, so it might have some effect in theory, but it's probably not as effective as the Sharingan."
The Yin and Yang clones debated the basement experiment's results.
The other clones muted their voices, focusing on their books. Their main job was feeding knowledge into the main body's mind. Developing ninjutsu was left to Yin, Yang, and the original Hikari, but since their chakra and information were identical, they could swap roles without issue—it was just a matter of division of labor.
Hikari shook her head, feeling a throbbing pain in her temples.
The flood of information from her clones was overwhelming, jumbling together and making her head ache like crazy.
"No need to dwell on Hashirama cells anymore. The priority now is reversing the Eight Gates."
At her words, the Yin and Yang clones stopped their debate.
"You saw the experiment I did at Root, right?" Yang-Release Hikari asked.
Hikari closed her eyes, sifting through the memory fragments Yang had sent. She quickly found the one in question.
It was a carp experiment.
As Yang-Release Hikari medical ninjutsu improved, aided by her Byakugan, she finally glimpsed the life force inherent in living beings—a force strikingly similar to Yang-Release chakra. It was incredibly hard to control, and the stronger the creature, the more resistant its life force. At first, she couldn't even extract the life force from a carp.
After trying everything—Yang-Release induction, eye power control, anesthesia, and countless incisions—she finally extracted a tiny bit of the carp's life force. She used it to heal a small mouse injured by a Wind-Release attack.
The mouse's wound healed rapidly, but scales—something only fish have—grew on its surface. Within twelve hours, the mouse showed clear signs of rejection: first, it became erratic and aggressive, then it weakened rapidly, and finally, it died within a day.
In a follow-up experiment, she used the carp's life force to heal another carp. The wound healed quickly without growing anything strange, and the carp survived healthily for several days. But just when Yang-Release Hikari thought the experiment was a success, the carp suddenly showed rejection symptoms and died soon after.
"Life force varies between species and individuals," Yang-Release Gray explained. "If you recklessly transfer or absorb it, the best-case scenario is you turn into a carp spirit."
Maybe it was from assisting Chihaya, but Yang-Release Hikari had picked up a knack for bad jokes.
"If I turn into a carp spirit, you're not escaping either," Yin-Release Hikari shot back, closing her book with a snap.
"What a pain!" Hikari groaned, her head pounding. Developing the Eight Gates reversal was one obstacle after another. No wonder it took the genius Fourth Hokage three years to create the Rasengan.
Even with existing medical ninjutsu, secret clan scrolls on Yin and Yang, the foundation of the Eight Gates, her Byakugan and Corpse Bone Pulse, and open access to ninjutsu knowledge from Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo, she still found it insanely difficult.
She couldn't imagine how Tobirama Senju's brain worked.
If she ever got the chance, she'd love to crack it open and study it.
"How did Hashirama cells solve this problem? Any clues?" Hikari asked, rubbing her foggy head.
Her Corpse Bone Pulse could block physical exhaustion, but mental fatigue from processing knowledge and memories was beyond its reach.
Her memories were a mess—sealing techniques, Yin-Yang, medical ninjutsu, all jumbled together. Her brain felt like a rusty machine, too heavy to function properly.
But a good night's sleep would let her subconscious sort it out, so she didn't worry too much. The immediate issue was the Ash Bones.
Seeing her exhaustion, Yang-Release Hikari kept it concise: "Hashirama cells have a special protective layer, like a mix of cell membrane and cell wall, that filters out impurities in foreign life forces. It extends tendrils through that layer, piercing other cells' cytoplasm to absorb energy."
Ugh!
The bed let out a ridiculous creak.
Her foggy brain gave out, and Hikari collapsed onto the bed, resting her neck on Yin-Release Hikari lap, letting her clone massage her temples to ease the fatigue.
"Peel that layer off and use it as a filter," she mumbled.
"I can't do cell-level peeling surgery. Physical or chemical extraction isn't pure enough and risks damaging the structure. If impurities slip through, the consequences could be catastrophic," Yang-Release Hikari explained quickly, resisting the urge to tease her barely-conscious original.
Yin-Release Hikari pressed her thumbs into Hikari temples, offering an idea: "What if you absorbed the chakra of Hashirama cells? Could you inherit their power?"
"Gentler," Hikari murmured.
Feeling the pressure on her temples lighten, she closed her eyes contentedly, savoring the moment.
On the floor, her "subjects" worked tirelessly for her secret technique. On the bed, her "consort" massaged away her stress. She was living like an emperor.
The only downside? Her subjects and consort were all herself. A bit monotonous.
"When I absorbed the Nine-Tails' chakra, it was mixed with Naruto's. Did we inherit any of Asura's power?" Yang-Release Hikari pointed out.
"Good point," Yin-Release Hikari nodded, continuing the massage.
A long sigh escaped from the girl on her lap.
Looking down, silver hair spilled across the bed. Hikari had fallen asleep, head tilted to the side.
The Yin and Yang clones exchanged a helpless smile. Eight times the training intensity didn't sound that bad, but shadow clones didn't need sleep. A month of nonstop, 24-hour training would wear anyone down—even Naruto might not handle it.
Despite sleeping every night, Hikari couldn't fully recover from the accumulating fatigue.
It was starting to disrupt her daily routine. She might pass out from exhaustion at any moment or wake up at odd hours to eat. To develop her secret technique, she'd completely lost a normal lifestyle.
The Yin and Yang clones lowered their voices, continuing their discussion. The other clones flipped through books, the rustle of pages filling the room.
On the bed, Hikari lay motionless, as if in another world.
Two days later
"Aaahhh!"
A man with broken limbs lay on a hospital bed, his bloodshot eyes wide with terror.
He screamed in agony, his body writhing. His bare torso revealed a web of burn scars, but what stood out most were the dense sealing formulas etched across his skin.
"Cloud ninja are tough as nails," Chihaya remarked, lounging in a chair, casually munching on an apple.
Hikari, who'd been her assistant, now took the lead. A purple chakra scalpel coated her hand as she pressed it against the man's chest, sliding downward. Crimson blood trickled along his dark skin.
She pried open his chest cavity.
Reaching for a prepared petri dish, she revealed a small, fist-sized white mass submerged in milky nutrient fluid.
At its core, a glowing chakra nucleus pulsed with life force, flowing gently without its usual aggression.
That was because the mass was embedded with three scarlet, single-tomoe Sharingan eyes. Purple-red nerves, like blood vessels, pierced the flesh, their sinister eye power locking down the Hashirama cells' life force completely.