The vast majority of Kirigakure's shinobi had now undergone injections of a diluted solution derived from Hashirama Senju's cells. Naturally, due to differences in individual constitution and base strength, both the dosage and concentration varied from person to person. Some shinobi reacted strongly after a single injection, making it impossible for them to safely receive a second. Even so, that single dose was still enough to raise their overall combat capability to a noticeable degree.
Those who could endure more, however, reaped far greater benefits.
Chiba quickly discovered a clear pattern: the stronger a shinobi already was, the more dramatic the enhancement they received. This was especially evident in figures such as himself, Kisame Hoshigaki, Mei Terumi, Mangetsu Hōzuki, and Pakura. The same held true for the two jinchūriki, Utakata and Yagura's successor, as well as among the younger generation,Kaguya Kimimaro, Suigetsu Hōzuki, and Chōjūrō all gained significantly more power than their peers.
This outcome aligned perfectly with Chiba's expectations. The shinobi world had always followed a cruel but consistent rule: the strong only grew stronger.
Yet, despite almost every shinobi in Kirigakure having fused with Hashirama's cells to some extent, not a single person had successfully awakened Wood Release. This, too, was something Chiba had anticipated from the beginning. Even Orochimaru's crude and violent method,directly grafting intact Hashirama cells onto ordinary shinobi,had only achieved a success rate of roughly one in sixty or seventy, with an almost absolute mortality rate.
By contrast, Chiba's carefully layered and gradual approach was far gentler.
And its mortality rate was zero.
That difference alone was decisive.
Orochimaru could afford to disregard human life. Chiba could not.
After the fusion process, Kirigakure's overall strength surged explosively. Shinobi who had once been mere chūnin now possessed the power of jōnin. Jōnin ascended to the level of elite jōnin, while elite jōnin found themselves touching the threshold of Kage-class without difficulty. More important than individual breakthroughs, however, was sheer scale. ANBU, regular forces, the elders' council, and even the ninja academy,men and women, young and old alike,had all experienced tremendous improvement.
Chiba was deeply satisfied with these results.
…
Beyond Hashirama's cells, Chiba also devoted considerable effort to studying all of Orochimaru's sealed research materials left behind in Konohagakure. To Hiruzen Sarutobi, these documents had held little value,most were incomplete projects, half-finished experiments that had never yielded true results. To Chiba, however, refining such unfinished work into perfected techniques posed no real difficulty.
These studies encompassed cell transplantation, cloning, genetic modification, and numerous bodily enhancement procedures. They also included Orochimaru's self-modification techniques, such as Snake Limb Hardening, body softening transformations, the Orochimaru-Style Substitution Technique, and various methods of snake summoning and control.
Among all of them, two forbidden techniques drew Chiba's attention above all else.
The first was Living Corpse Reincarnation (Fushi Tensei).
The second was Impure World Reincarnation (Edo Tensei).
One formed the core of Orochimaru's pursuit of immortality. The other was a technique capable of summoning the dead, a mass-force ninjutsu that had once reshaped the entire shinobi world. Chiba fully understood the weight of these techniques and devoted substantial time to analyzing and completing their theoretical frameworks.
Completion, however, did not mean immediate use.
Chiba's current body was incomparably powerful, brimming with vitality and chakra despite his youth. He had no need whatsoever to rely on Living Corpse Reincarnation. Orochimaru, by contrast, had turned to it because age had already begun to limit him; seeking a younger, more suitable vessel was only natural. Moreover, the technique carried inherent drawbacks,most notably, its interference with senjutsu cultivation. Orochimaru's failed attempt to master Sage Mode at Ryūchi Cave was a direct consequence of this limitation.
As for Impure World Reincarnation, Chiba felt no particular moral burden regarding its use. He had little interest in hollow arguments about "desecrating the dead." In the shinobi world, ninjutsu itself held no inherent good or evil,only the intent behind its use mattered. Tobirama Senju had used Edo Tensei to win the First Shinobi World War, and while the other four great nations condemned his methods as despicable, Chiba saw only a leader who protected his village by any means necessary.
Even Orochimaru himself had admitted that the core principles of Edo Tensei were not especially complex. The true difficulties lay in acquiring the biological data of powerful deceased individuals,blood, flesh, or DNA,and in the unavoidable sacrifice of living souls required for each summoning.
Although Chiba had fully mastered the technique, he had no intention of employing it lightly.
In addition to all this, Chiba formally established Kirigakure's own scientific research division. During the era of the Nidaime Mizukage, Gengetsu Hōzuki, ninjutsu research and development had flourished. In fact, nearly every Second Kage across the Five Great Nations had been a prolific innovator, laying the foundations for their villages' signature techniques.
Tobirama Senju had created the Shadow Clone Technique (Kage-Bunshin), Flying Thunder God (Hiraishin), and Impure World Reincarnation (Edo Tensei). Mū, the Nidaime Tsuchikage, had developed Dust Release (Jinton) along with his unique abilities of invisibility and fission. The Nidaime Kazekage had researched Shukaku, giving rise to advanced sand manipulation and puppet techniques. Gengetsu Hōzuki himself had pioneered large-scale genjutsu such as Demonic Illusion: Mirage Steam Fortress (Magen: Kairō Gasu no Jutsu), as well as the terrifying Suiton technique, Steaming Danger Tyranny (Jōki Bōi).
That era had been one of unparalleled creativity.
Yet from Gengetsu's later years through the reigns of the Saindaime and Yondaime Mizukage, Kirigakure's policies had grown increasingly rigid, conservative, and isolated. Cut off from external exchange and ruled internally through blood-soaked oppression, innovation had inevitably withered.
By restoring the research division, Chiba sought to revive Kirigakure's vitality at its core.
The division was placed under the leadership of Pakura of Scorch Release (Shakuton), with Kimimaro Kaguya and other shinobi interested in scientific research, ninjutsu theory, and creative development working beneath her. Pakura herself had developed many of her techniques independently and had once been Sunagakure's most outstanding instructor in ninjutsu theory. Kimimaro, meanwhile, had served as Orochimaru's right hand,assisting both in battle and in research,and his Shikotsumyaku had largely been developed through his own efforts after the annihilation of his clan.
Chiba's policies ushered Kirigakure into yet another period of rapid advancement.
…
As for Chiba himself, beyond perfectly integrating Hashirama's cells and achieving explosive growth in vitality, chakra reserves, and physical power, his true focus lay elsewhere.
The Sharingan.
At present, Chiba possessed over a hundred pairs of ordinary Sharingan, as well as two and a half pairs of Mangekyō Sharingan. These included Uchiha Itachi's pair,granting Tsukuyomi, Amaterasu, and Susanoo,Uchiha Fugaku's Mangekyō awakened on the night of the massacre, whose abilities remained unknown, and a single Mangekyō belonging to Uchiha Shisui, bearing the fearsome Kotoamatsukami.
Such treasures were naturally reserved for Chiba's own use.
His first line of inquiry was whether Mangekyō Sharingan could be fused into an Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. In essence, the Eternal Mangekyō remained a Mangekyō,only with vastly enhanced ocular power and immunity to blindness. According to established theory, its awakening required the transplantation and fusion of another Mangekyō Sharingan belonging to a close blood relative.
Thus, Uchiha Madara had awakened his Eternal Mangekyō after taking Uchiha Izuna's eyes, and Uchiha Sasuke had done the same with Itachi's. While both cases involved brothers, blood relation was not strictly limited to siblings.
After all, Chiba possessed the Mangekyō of both Uchiha Itachi and his father, Uchiha Fugaku.
With that in mind, Chiba began experimenting with the fusion of Mangekyō Sharingan.
He was not a member of the Uchiha clan.
Yet his constitution was extraordinarily unique.
After acquiring the Ice Fruit, his body was no longer merely flesh and blood,it had become the embodiment of "ice" itself as a concept. He could freely alter his form, shifting seamlessly between a physical body and elemental existence at will. On top of that, he was still a shinobi, possessing immense chakra reserves and refined control. When these three aspects were combined, they created a singular existence,one that allowed Chiba to conduct experiments directly upon his own body without restriction.
After transforming into a free-form state, he placed two pairs of Mangekyō Sharingan within himself and began attempting their fusion.
For Chiba, this process posed no real technical difficulty.
First and foremost, however, there was a crucial principle that needed to be clarified: the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan can only be achieved through fusion, not exchange. The idea that two brothers could simply transplant each other's Mangekyō Sharingan and each obtain a pair of Eternal Mangekyō was nothing more than a fantasy. If such a loophole truly existed, the Uchiha clan would never have descended into so much internal strife and bloody plunder throughout its history.
The very appearance of the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan itself was proof of this fact.
Uchiha Madara's Eternal Mangekyō was a fusion of his own Mangekyō pattern and that of his younger brother, Uchiha Izuna. Uchiha Sasuke's was the same,a complete merging of his Mangekyō with Uchiha Itachi's. This made one thing clear: even if two Mangekyō Sharingan were successfully fused, the result would only ever be a single pair of Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
In other words, what fused was not the eyes themselves, but their ocular power.
Once Uchiha Sasuke transplanted and fused Itachi's Mangekyō Sharingan and awakened the Eternal Mangekyō, his original Mangekyō lost all value. Otherwise, Madara could have fused Izuna's eyes to awaken the Eternal Mangekyō, then simply passed his original Mangekyō to another clansman and created yet another top-tier powerhouse. The same logic applied to Sasuke.
To summarize: the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan can only be formed between two individuals with extremely close blood ties, can only be fused rather than exchanged, and involves the fusion of ocular power rather than the physical eyes themselves.
Viewed from this perspective, the fact that Chiba possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan of a father and son actually gave him a significant chance of success.
And yet,
After extensive experimentation, he still ultimately failed.
Of course, this outcome was not entirely unexpected. To begin with, the fusion itself was never guaranteed to succeed. Throughout the long and bloody history of the Uchiha clan, countless attempts had been made through plunder and transplantation, yet only two individuals had ever truly succeeded: Uchiha Madara and Uchiha Sasuke.
Secondly, there was a possibility Chiba had long suspected.
That perhaps only Indra's true reincarnations were capable of achieving a perfect fusion.
After all, among the entire Uchiha clan, only Madara and Sasuke had succeeded,and both of them were reincarnations of Indra. That could not be dismissed as mere coincidence.
Even more telling was a moment during the Fourth Shinobi World War.
When Uchiha Madara saw Sasuke's Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, he uttered a remark that was both subtle and deeply meaningful:
"An Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan identical to mine?"
"It seems that between you and me, there exists a connection beyond mere blood."
Now, that "special connection" was known to be their shared identity as Indra's reincarnations. Madara had sensed it instinctively, long before the truth was revealed. This, in itself, served as further evidence that only Indra's reincarnations could truly awaken the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
That said,
Even though Chiba failed to awaken the Eternal Mangekyō, it was hardly a problem for him.
Because he had already perfectly fused Hashirama Senju's body cells.
Under normal circumstances, Mangekyō Sharingan inevitably led to blindness,but for Chiba, that drawback simply did not exist. As things stood, even without the Eternal Mangekyō, he could freely and safely wield two and a half pairs of Mangekyō Sharingan without consequence.
Thanks to his unique physique, Chiba could store these Mangekyō Sharingan within his body and use them at will. Yet this did not count as full transplantation,he could remove them at any time and even allow others to use them if he so desired. Such a feat might sound outrageous, but both Shimura Danzō and Uchiha Shin had demonstrated similar capabilities before.
Moreover, the Sharingan itself had always been something of a "plug-and-play" power. Uchiha Madara had already proven that beyond any doubt.
Thus, Chiba successfully combined the power of Hashirama's cells with the ocular might of two and a half pairs of Mangekyō Sharingan.
While his vitality, chakra reserves, and raw strength surged dramatically, he also gained access to Tsukuyomi, Amaterasu, Kotoamatsukami, and Susanoo,along with the Mangekyō ocular power of Uchiha Fugaku.
Through further analysis, Chiba discovered that Fugaku's Mangekyō Sharingan was identical in nature to Sasuke's, granting Amaterasu and Kagutsuchi. Although this overlapped somewhat with Itachi's Amaterasu, the fusion of multiple ocular powers elevated the technique's destructive potential severalfold.
More importantly, the combined ocular power of five Mangekyō Sharingan,drawn from three individuals,alongside Hashirama's body cells, allowed Chiba to activate Susanoo freely and without restriction. His Susanoo could even break past the inherent limits imposed by Itachi's and Shisui's Mangekyō.
A complete Fourth-Stage Susanoo.
A fully formed body, complete armor, and fully realized spiritual weapons,standing just one step away from a Perfect Susanoo.
Furthermore, Chiba no longer needed to fuse any additional power to awaken or stabilize his Mangekyō. What he lacked now was not potential, but mastery,refinement and familiarity with his ocular power.
His Fourth-Stage Susanoo could simultaneously wield Itachi's Yata Mirror, Totsuka Blade, and Yasaka Magatama, as well as Shisui's Spiral Sword and Susanoo: Ninety-Nine chakra arrows. Once Fugaku's ocular power fully awakened, it was even possible that entirely new Susanoo weapons would be born.
In short,
This version of Chiba, even without relying on the Ice Fruit, had already reached the absolute pinnacle of combat power in the shinobi world through Hashirama's cells and Mangekyō Sharingan alone.
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