"Hoo… hoo…"
Uchiha Raizen took a deep breath to keep himself absolutely calm. He slowly brought the two items in his hands closer, mixing them together gently and stirring lightly.
Sweat from his forehead dripped down his cheeks onto the table.
His heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was in his throat.
At one moment,
A silly smile appeared on Uchiha Raizen's blank face, and then that silly smile turned into the classic Uchiha mad laughter.
"Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha!! Ha ha ha ha ha!!!"
"I did it! I finally did it!"
"Azure Dragon Curse Seal, let me truly feel the taste of becoming strong!"
Uchiha Raizen couldn't be blamed for being so excited.
Anyone else in his place would be just as thrilled after pouring five whole years of effort and spending all their family fortune, finally getting what they wanted.
His wild laughter echoed through the dark basement.
Luckily, this place had long been abandoned. If someone had come in, they would have definitely thought they'd found a madman.
After a long while, the laughter slowly died down.
Uchiha Raizen took off his glasses. He wasn't nearsighted; he wore them mainly for convenience during experiments.
"Although all the steps and procedures succeeded, the real effect still depends on the actual results."
He took a clean syringe from a nearby stand and drew in the strange blood that combined the Mythical Zoan Azure Dragon fruit and the Cursed Seal technique.
Then he aimed the thin needle at the artery on his wrist.
Biting his lip slightly, Uchiha Raizen pushed the needle in.
The moment the strange blood entered his body, he felt his blood boiling. It was like being inside a furnace—his skin burned, and his chest felt especially hot.
"Hiss~"
He gasped sharply, enduring the burning pain.
He didn't know if people in the pirate world felt this much pain when eating Devil Fruits, but he guessed probably not.
A full fifteen minutes passed.
The burning pain inside his body slowly began to fade.
Uchiha Raizen clenched his fist.
Power!
He felt a surging strength he had never experienced before.
He punched the wall in front of him hard.
Bang!
The wall broke open, leaving a big hole.
Uchiha Raizen's eyes showed surprise and delight.
He didn't use chakra in that punch — it was pure physical strength.
Breaking through the wall so easily without any pain in his fist meant his body had become at least ten times stronger than before!
This was the power of the Azure Dragon Curse Mark. Even before fully unlocking it, his physical strength had greatly increased.
It was worth it. Five years of hard work and ninety million ryō — all worth it!
Uchiha Raizen wanted to laugh loudly again but held back with great effort.
"No, not yet. It's too early to get cocky. I'm still not familiar with this power at all."
He closed his eyes and carefully felt how the Azure Dragon Curse Mark affected him.
Suddenly, Uchiha Raizen sensed something. He pulled apart the collar of his shirt, revealing his strong chest.
On his chest was a small dragon-shaped mark.
"This is the pattern of the successful fusion of the Azure Dragon Curse Mark," Uchiha Raizen said thoughtfully.
Like Orochimaru's Heaven and Earth Curse Marks, those who get a curse mark also leave behind some special signs.
Shaking his head, the marks themselves didn't matter much. What was important was how strong the power they represented really was.
"Transform!"
Uchiha Raizen shouted sharply, trying his best to activate the power of the Azure Dragon Curse Mark inside him, imagining transforming like Kaido of the Beasts in the Pirate World into an Azure Dragon form.
But unfortunately, nothing happened.
He didn't give up and kept trying.
The dragon-shaped mark on his chest began to heat up, and suddenly a patch of Azure Dragon scales appeared on his right arm.
Then, more and more scales spread quickly until his entire right arm was covered, and Uchiha Raizen's hand turned into sharp dragon claws.
His eyes flashed with red light, and his pupils changed instantly into two tomoe Sharingan as he examined his right arm.
"This is beast transformation. It feels like my power has increased."
Although he was a little disappointed that he couldn't fully control the Azure Dragon Curse Mark power all at once, Uchiha Raizen was still quite satisfied.
At this moment, with just his physical strength and beast transformation defense, he could fight against a Konoha Jonin.
Not to mention the super strong vitality and regeneration added by the mythical Azure Dragon, which could not yet be measured.
Especially the regeneration—it greatly helped with using the Sharingan.
Before, he used the Sharingan like a microscope. Using it for too long would give him a terrible headache, and his whole body would feel weak and drained.
But now, when he activated his two tomoe Sharingan, he clearly felt much less burden. Even the chakra consumption had dropped a lot.
"Five years ago, I awakened one tomoe after obtaining a Devil Fruit I couldn't consume. Two years ago, after repeated failed experiments, my mind broke, and I awakened the two tomoe. I wonder when I'll be able to awaken the three tomoe."
Uchiha Raizen thought the Sharingan was such a pain. It required intense mental stimulation to evolve.
And that mental pressure easily drove a person crazy.
No wonder the Uchiha clan was often feared or even hated.
This clan had a much higher chance of going insane and taking extreme paths than other clans, and the more extreme they became, the stronger they were.
Uchiha Raizen pondered that if he couldn't figure out the Azure Dragon Curse Seal soon, he might go crazy too.
This damn bloodline effect!
Just think about Uchiha Madara, Uchiha Itachi, Uchiha Obito — how extreme they all were.
Sigh, the future of the ninja world looked so dark.
Even with the help of the Azure Dragon Curse Seal, he couldn't afford to relax.
Uchiha Raizen immediately decided to test if he had developed a new weakness to seawater.
Even though he didn't eat the Devil Fruit directly, what if he had the same weaknesses as a Devil Fruit user?
He had to be careful.
Before leaving, he glanced at the remaining Azure Dragon fruit slices and saw they had all turned to ash.
This probably meant that once someone successfully fused the Devil Fruit power, that fruit would be useless.
In other words, one fruit could only create one curse seal.
The basement connected to an upward tunnel.
At the end of the tunnel was none other than Uchiha Raizen's and his sister's home.
Yes, this secret laboratory left by Orochimaru was located underground, not far from the Uchiha clan's territory.
After the Nine-Tails Incident, it was Shimura Danzo who pushed the Uchiha clan to the village's outskirts.
Danzo was deeply involved with Orochimaru.
Even after the Third Hokage ordered to stop researching Hashirama cells, they continued to capture innocent children everywhere and conducted cruel human experiments.
Danzo was especially interested in the Sharingan.
This underground lab was probably made for the Sharingan in his arm.
At first, when Uchiha Raizen discovered this lab, he was very nervous, worried Danzo would find out.
Later, when he confirmed it was abandoned, he felt safe to use it for research and even built a tunnel leading to his home.
When he entered the house, his sister Uchiha Hikari was out on a mission and wasn't home.
Raizen carefully covered the tunnel entrance and stepped outside.
He walked toward the small pond unique to the Uchiha clan territory.
On the way, he met many Uchiha civilians.
These civilians were not ninja, just ordinary people.
Seeing Uchiha Raizen, they all smiled and greeted him warmly.
In reality, the Uchiha were a loving clan.
Ordinary Uchiha civilians were actually kinder and friendlier than the common villagers of Konoha.
An elderly grandmother, kind and gentle, called Raizen over and said he had grown taller again.
She said his parents, watching from heaven, would definitely be proud of him.
For some reason, when Uchiha Raizen heard those words, his eyes felt a little sore.
He was clearly a traveler from another world and didn't have much feeling for Konoha or the Uchiha clan.
But when he thought about the kind old grandmother in front of him, who would be brutally killed two years later on that night, his heart felt very heavy.
After all, he was still human, not an animal.
Uchiha Raizen silently walked to the edge of the pond and put his hand into the cold water.
There was no sign of losing strength.
It seemed the owner of the Devil Fruit curse mark did not have the usual weakness to seawater.
Uchiha Raizen stared blankly at his reflection in the water, but he couldn't feel happy.
Suddenly, a delicate little head appeared next to the reflection, accompanied by a lively and sweet voice like a lark:
"Raizen-kun, why are you here? You haven't eaten yet, right? I made you a lunchbox."
Uchiha Raizen turned around to look.
Golden hair tied in a high ponytail, a round face with two small dimples when she smiled. She wore a tight purple ninja outfit, and her curves showed she was at least a C cup.
Yamanaka Inori saw Uchiha Raizen staring at her and blushed slightly. A shy look flashed in her eyes, but she didn't avoid him. Instead, she confidently held out the heart-shaped lunchbox and sweetly asked,
"Do you want to eat?"
It was like a ray of sunshine shining down, clearing away most of the dark clouds in Uchiha Raizen's heart.
**********
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