The next day, Itachi Uchiha, wearing an expression of firm resolve, stepped alone into the library where Rei Kaguya's History Restoration and Research course group was based.
There, he saw Jiraiya frowning bitterly as he sorted and categorized documentary scrolls, and Kakashi Hatake flipping through the notes Rei Kaguya had left behind, his brows sometimes tightening, sometimes relaxing.
As for Tsunade, under Hashirama Senju's comforting encouragement, she brought the Yin Seal technique inside her head and walked through the doors of Kirigakure's Ninjutsu Development Department. After coordinating with Kirigakure's side, she successfully obtained an independent office of her own inside the department, as well as a laboratory whose scale and facilities were both fairly impressive.
The remaining Konoha students, instructors, and guards each returned to the positions Kirigakure had arranged for them, beginning to experience the differences between Kirigakure and Konoha in daily life and study with even greater seriousness and depth.
As for Hashirama Senju, who had been brought back through Edo Tensei?
After wandering through every public area of Kirigakure and very earnestly observing and asking passing residents about their production and daily lives, he plunged straight into Orochimaru's laboratory. Then, with abnormal interest, he began participating in experiments related to his own cells.
"Oh my, this really is unexpected… I myself clearly already died, yet just a portion of the cells from my body were able to keep existing in such an excessively healthy state until now. They even grew into something that looks exactly like me…"
Through culture vessels whose various parameters had all been meticulously configured, the reanimated Hashirama Senju gazed at the bodies inside that looked identical to him and sighed from the bottom of his heart.
"If I had not been brought back this time, I would never have known that something so bizarre could exist in the world."
"To be honest, compared to the strange vitality displayed by the cells you left behind, I think your current attitude is even more bizarre."
Kabuto Yakushi, who had come over to assist Orochimaru after finishing his teaching work at the Ninja Academy, pushed up his glasses and quietly retorted,
"Who sees their body after death being used like this and still laughs so cheerfully…?"
"That is true. But if you really want me to stay serious in front of a face that looks almost exactly like my own sleeping face, that is not something easy to do either…"
Hashirama Senju shrugged. Then he turned his head toward a large opaque culture vessel specially isolated inside the laboratory and asked curiously,
"What is inside that container? I remember when I came here two days ago, that container was not in operation yet, was it?"
"That is the Fourth Hokage's wife. Someone extracted the Nine-Tails from her body, leaving her in a near-death state. Although Lord Orochimaru temporarily suppressed the continuous weakening of her vitality by transplanting your cells into her, because your cells possess an equally uncontrollable invasive nature, she has to come here every so often to have the transplanted Hashirama cells removed and replaced with new ones. This prevents your cells from over-eroding her body while making up for the life force she lost."
Kabuto Yakushi walked beside the large culture vessel, checked the parameters and experimental records set on it, then skillfully pressed the button to drain the nutrient solution. Turning to Hashirama Senju, whose face was full of surprise, he said,
"Please step aside for a moment. Her treatment this time is already finished…"
"Oh, oh. All right."
Hashirama Senju decisively flashed away to an area where he could no longer see this side.
Kabuto Yakushi, meanwhile, took a clean set of patient clothing and walked to the front of the large culture vessel. As he casually drew down the surrounding privacy curtains, he asked Kushina Uzumaki, who had just slid out of the vessel,
"How does it feel this time, Madam Kushina? Is it a little better than before?"
"For now… I suppose it is a bit better."
Kushina Uzumaki's complexion was still not particularly healthy, but at least some color had finally returned to her face. She cleaned the nutrient solution from her body while changing into the patient clothes Kabuto Yakushi had handed her, then said helplessly,
"But can you people think of some way to stop the Hashirama cells transplanted into my body from growing into the First Hokage's appearance after they develop? Do you know how mentally devastating it is to see the First Hokage's face on my back every time I look in the mirror?"
"Well, it is not as if there is no solution…"
Kabuto busied himself observing the Hashirama cells extracted from Kushina Uzumaki's body, recording their various tested parameters as he spoke without looking back.
"But Madam Kushina, your body probably has not recovered to the point where it can withstand that method yet…"
"What method is it?" Kushina Uzumaki asked, unwilling to give up.
"Use Lord Fourth's cells to erode the First Hokage's Hashirama cells. Without external interference, as long as the ratio is controlled properly, they can form a relative balance between them. Before Lord Fourth's cells completely wither, the Hashirama cells will no longer grow in the direction of condensing into the First Hokage."
Kabuto Yakushi shrugged and gave an answer Kushina Uzumaki absolutely could not accept.
"…You… You are so young, so why have you already become like Orochimaru, able to treat the human body as a simple container without caring at all?"
Kushina Uzumaki hugged her arms tightly. Whether it was fear or something else, she looked at Kabuto Yakushi with a complicated expression and asked.
"Because the human body truly is only a container and outer shell. Replacing and strengthening organs and limbs that humans have lost, that have mutated, or that were insufficient from birth is a research direction medical ninjutsu will inevitably move toward in the future."
Kabuto Yakushi calmly put away the experimental data he had already written, then turned and made an inviting gesture toward Kushina Uzumaki.
"According to Lord Orochimaru's and my calculations, after this treatment ends, you should recover to the point where you can move on your own. The interval before your next Hashirama cell replacement will also be extended to around one month… Go out and walk around first. See whether there are any mistakes in the calculation results we derived by analyzing the cells of two Uzumaki clan members."
"One month…?"
Hearing that number, Kushina Uzumaki, who had been tormented by the symptoms of lost vitality for a very, very long time, could not help having her eyes light up. She took a deep breath, then strode out vigorously, wanting to experience the feeling of walking and moving freely again while her body had not yet begun showing weakness.
Then, after walking past a culture vessel filled with Hashirama cells, she saw a black-haired man wearing ancient armor from the Warring States Period, whose appearance looked somewhat—no, extremely familiar.
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