Chapter 95: Shocking! A Beautiful Girl Was Actually Vivisected
"Hehe..." Hinata twitched the corner of her mouth, also understanding Sakura's meaning.
Yes, human experimentation.
Konoha had just been invaded by Orochimaru. The glorious deeds of the culprit were now known to all: in order to develop new jutsu, he had secretly captured villagers to conduct human experiments, and had defected from Konoha after his deeds were exposed. And now, Sakura's ninjutsu had also reached the point where it required human experimentation. If she hadn't developed this ice clone, what would have happened next... was truly hard to imagine!
Hinata gave her a strange look.
"Ahem, why are you looking at me like that? Don't get the wrong idea! I'm not that deranged!" Sakura's face stiffened, and she said with a serious expression.
"Is that so?" Hinata still looked at her. "But a clone is, after all, just a clone..."
Sakura knew what her friend meant. The ice clone was, in the end, just a clone. Even if it could simulate internal organs, nerves, and so on, it was not real. At the very least, it couldn't replicate every single cell—the human body has 50 trillion cells. Even Sakura couldn't achieve such a fine level of detail. Using it to develop new ninjutsu was ultimately not as effective as using a real person, so some things would still have to be done with a real body.
However, there would always be a way. For example, cloning? In any case, there was no need to resort to such forbidden means. Otherwise, even if she were the Fifth's disciple, she would not come to a good end—the only ones in all of Konoha who could do this without any scruples were those few high-ranking officials. Sakura still cherished her current life very much. There was no reason to disregard everything and conduct forbidden human experiments for a little bit of immediate gain. In short, when the cart gets to the mountain, there will be a road. The ice clone was temporarily sufficient. The problems of the future could be left to be solved in the future. After all, this matter was too sensitive.
"Hey... Hinata-chan," Sakura said, a little helplessly, grabbing Hinata's small hand and placing it on her chest. "Trust me, I won't do anything stupid. Why don't you listen? My hot blood is still pounding here!"
Pfft~ The serious look on Hinata's face was instantly broken, and she was amused by Sakura. "Still hot-blooded, you think you're Naruto!"
"Hey—, I'm serious!" Sakura also laughed, her eyes crinkling into a smile like a little fox. "Alright, alright, hmm, let's not talk about this. Let's look at this clone first!"
Ahem. The girl cleared her throat, her smile gone, and put on a serious expression. A faint fluctuation of chakra appeared on her body, a blue light flashed slightly, and in an instant, hard ice condensed, forming a sharp scalpel in her palm.
"Next, according to the plan..." Haruno Sakura pushed up the non-existent glasses on the bridge of her nose. "Dissect myself!"
The blade was aimed at the chest of the clone on the table.
The two girls looked at each other. The atmosphere instantly became serious. For a moment, both of them suddenly felt a sense of tension, holding their breath. Dissecting oneself? It sounded extremely bizarre and horrifying.
So, although both of them had participated in many battles since graduation, had seen blood and even killed people, for some reason, they felt their mouths go a little dry. Was it because they were uneasy about killing outside of a combat state—even if it was just an ice clone? Speaking of which, the temperament of Sakura in battle was indeed worlds apart from the peaceful Sakura of daily life.
"Do you... really have to do this? Um, looking with the Byakugan should be enough, right?" Hinata's long neck moved slightly, as if she had swallowed.
Sakura let out a soft breath. "Although I've already confirmed it with your Byakugan, I still won't be at ease until I see it with my own eyes! But don't worry, just this once is enough."
She lifted the white cloth, exposing the clone's body to the air. She gripped the knife, gradually approaching the girl on the table. The still-chilling blade rested on the fair, soft skin of her chest. The icy blade instantly raised a small patch of goosebumps on the smooth, tender skin. "Do it," Sakura thought silently, applied a little force, and pierced the blade in. A few drops of blood quietly seeped out. Against the dazzling snow-white, the dark red droplets were particularly conspicuous.
Without realizing it, Sakura had already taken a deep breath.
"I've never seen my own heart before... It might hurt a little. Bear with it, dear!" she said softly, looking down at the clone.
The sharp ice blade silently separated the soft flesh and blood, avoiding the blood vessels, bypassing the bones, and lifting a piece of dark red meat. The vigorously beating heart was imprinted in her eyes.
The ultra-high-fidelity ice clone demonstrated its powerful stability. Even after being cut open, as long as it did not suffer a fatal injury, it could still maintain its existence. This was the benefit of a high-fidelity clone. In contrast, ordinary water clones and shadow clones would shatter and disappear with just a slight injury. They were simply incomparable. The ability to endure a damaging ninjutsu and maintain its form for a period of time instead of breaking at the first touch was what Sakura valued most about this jutsu.
Sakura continued to cut calmly, checking the clone's organs while observing its expression. She was still maintaining an ice-mountain-like calmness, only her lips were trembling slightly.
Feeling pain means the nervous system has also been well simulated. The more pain the clone can endure, the more beneficial it is for the development of the new ninjutsu, Sakura thought coldly. Her hand movements were clean and nimble, light and agile. She already had some of the grace of a medical ninja.
The clone's chest was cut open. Sakura immediately released a medical ninjutsu to ensure its survival. The clone lying on the table still didn't make a sound, its face terrifyingly pale.
Hinata looked at the clone, then shifted her gaze to Sakura's face, wanting to say something but holding back.
Sakura knew what she wanted to say.
The ice clone was based on the formula of the shadow clone and would carry its experiences and memories back to the original body. That's why the ice clone could be used for research. However, this meant that after the clone was dispelled in a while, the pain it had felt would all be fed back to the real Sakura. This would be a pain akin to having one's heart and guts ripped out. She would be in for a rough time! It could be said that what Sakura was doing now was, to some extent, a form of self-torture.
However, Sakura's choice was one of utter helplessness. To what extent the clone had replicated the original body, even if Hinata had already seen through it once with her Byakugan, she had to see it with her own eyes to be sure. At least it was just a little pain for a while, not really being cut open and having her heart and liver dissected. It wouldn't cause any real damage. If you can't even take this little bit of hardship, you want to improve your strength? That's undoubtedly a daydream.
And in the end, when it came to actually developing that ninjutsu, experimenting with the clone might also be very painful, maybe even more painful. After all, it was a ninjutsu that involved the nerves... So Sakura said that this was at most an appetizer. Having a taste now could be considered a warm-up and would also mentally prepare her for the full-course meal to come.
After she finished examining the intestines, the ice clone finally couldn't hold on anymore. The bloody, mangled, unidentifiable object that had to be censored to be seen lost its chakra support and immediately returned to its original crystal ice form.
Hinata, who was under great pressure and was on the verge of vomiting, immediately let out a sigh of relief.
Then she saw Sakura's eyes roll back in her head, and with a muffled grunt, she fell softly onto the table.
"Sakura-chan!" she cried out in alarm, quickly reaching out to catch the limp Sakura.
Haruno Sakura had definitely been careless this time.
The danger of a ninjutsu like the Shadow Clone lay in this. The clone would be suddenly hit and then collapse, and then it would return its experiences to the unprepared original body in one go. This was a very large mental burden on the original. Therefore, a shadow clone had to be fragile enough to be defeated in one hit when it was damaged, instead of being able to endure pain without disappearing. Otherwise, when it dissipated, it would have accumulated too much pain to feed back to the original, bringing huge mental pressure to the main body. This was extremely dangerous for a ninja in battle, because you could be killed in that moment of distraction.
The problem with the Multi-Shadow Clone was that due to the huge number, even if each clone only fed back a faint pain stimulus when it dissipated, when dozens or hundreds of them were added up, it could stack into a huge mental burden. This was also why it was called a forbidden jutsu; it was a very dangerous ninjutsu! This huge mental impact, in serious cases, could even directly cause the caster's mind to collapse, turning them into an idiot on the spot—Naruto had almost played himself like this when he used shadow clones to train his wind nature transformation back then.
And now, it was the same with the ice clone: just now it had been ravaged and tormented by Sakura. After the jutsu ended, the huge amount of pain it had accumulated was fed back to the original body in one go. The unprepared Sakura's vision immediately went black. For two seconds, her consciousness almost blanked out, and it took five or six seconds before she came back to her senses.
She had really underestimated the damage the clone had endured and had overestimated her own tolerance. She had thought that she was, after all, a ninja who had been through several life-or-death battles and could endure a little pain. But don't forget, in all the battles she had experienced, when had she ever been seriously injured? Never! In fact, Sakura had never even had a man's medal—a scar—on her entire body! (Actually, most minor injuries won't leave a scar if they are treated with medical ninjutsu.)
Being battle-hardened did not mean being pain-hardened. She was just used to fighting, but as for how painful a fatal injury was, she was undoubtedly a clueless newbie in this regard.
Meanwhile, a dozen streets away, Sakura's father, Kizashi Haruno, was renovating their previously damaged house—
"Sakura, help Dad get a new bucket of paint!... Sakura? Did you hear me?"
He called several times with no response. Only when he turned his head did he find a puddle of water on the ground. The clone that was supposed to have stayed to help with the work had already disappeared.
"The clone was dispelled?" Kizashi Haruno was puzzled. He thought Sakura had gotten impatient with the work and dispelled the clone.
"...This child!" he shook his head. "She said she would help me with the work, but she's run off to play somewhere again!" Sakura's father didn't mind. He just thought it was a child's nature, smiled, and went back to work.
And at the other end of Konoha, in a small training ground.
The one hundred and first duel between a certain yellow-haired boy and a red-eyed boy was nearing its end—
"Lightning Style: Earth Crawl!"
Dazzling lightning passed through the earth, crackling as it rushed in all directions. Then came a series of screams and the sound of clones being destroyed. After the smoke passed, Naruto, whose yellow hair was standing on end from being electrocuted, was lying on the ground, holding up a small white flag.
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