Nara Hideyuki was an unexpected addition. He had just been dispatched from the Nara clan to the Firefly Organization, and he immediately stumbled upon a great opportunity.
Truth be told, even for the sake of the Nara clan's interests, he had no real reason to hesitate in the face of such a chance. Why wouldn't he seize the opportunity to become stronger?
But as everyone knows, the Nara clan has sharp minds, so Nara Hideyuki's concern was that accepting the Firefly Organization's benefits would essentially bind him even more tightly to them. Could that lead to problems?
People don't want to burn their bridges unless absolutely necessary.
But after thinking it over, Nara Hideyuki still decided to accept the Earth Grudge Fear secret technique. Even if the two shinobi forces ended up in a conflict of interests, at worst, he'd be the sacrifice that benefited both sides... There was no point in overthinking it.
In fact, the Earth Grudge Fear secret technique had a synergistic relationship with the Nara clan's shadow secret techniques, capable of producing an effect where one plus one was greater than two. This wasn't hard to see.
By accepting the Earth Grudge Fear secret technique and then acquiring enemies' hearts to gain chakra strength and multiple affinities, combined with the shadow secret techniques and high-level combat intelligence, Nara Hideyuki could leap to become one of the top elite shinobi.
With such promising prospects and such vast potential, there was no way Nara Hideyuki could refuse.
After confirming the willingness of several candidates, the transplant experiments were put on the schedule. The first one to "take the risk" was Fuma Satoshi from the Fuma clan... Those in the know understood; he was indeed the most suitable to be the initial guinea pig.
After all, the primary overseer of this project was Fuma Goro, so his clansman naturally had to support him without regard for the consequences.
Since preparations had been underway for nearly a year, under sufficiently careful and cautious conditions, this transplant achieved complete success. After a week of observation to confirm that Fuma Satoshi had no issues and adapted well to the secret technique, the other transplant experiments began one after another.
In this way, besides the already capable Nara Hideyuki, the Firefly Organization gained three more elite jonin-level combatants within a month... More accurately, shinobi with the potential to reach elite jonin level.
Secret technique transplants weren't like feeding some miracle fertilizer that instantly turned into "nutrition." A shinobi's theoretical combat power and actual combat power were two different things. Those who received the secret technique not only needed to practice and adapt to its usage but also had to constantly experiment on the battlefield to develop the most optimal habits.
To be honest, Genma didn't expect all of them to fully unleash 100% of the power of a native Earth Grudge Fear user. An average of 50-60% would already be sufficient.
After all, Genma had no intention of going to war with the major shinobi clans for the time being.
Some people might not be able to bring out the secret technique's abilities, while others were the exact opposite... It was easy to imagine that someone like Nara Hideyuki would definitely play the Earth Grudge Fear secret technique to its fullest.
With Genma, Nanami, Fuma Goro, the three Akimichi brothers, a Ino-Shika-Cho team, Nara Hideyuki, and the other three young shinobi who received the secret technique as the core, a rough estimate showed that the Firefly Organization could now assemble ten shinobi squads with considerable combat strength.
The current situation was worlds apart from when Genma led his clansmen out of the forest. Calculating the time, they had only been developing for barely a year.
So, was this all thanks to Genma's far-sighted vision and brilliant leadership?
It could be said that it was related to the development path Genma had set, but not by much... The organization's growth to this point owed the most gratitude to White Zetsu's selfless contributions.
Without White Zetsu, how could Genma increase his strength? And without his strength growing, how could the organization talk about expanding?
If an organization's leader lacked sufficient strength, then everything the organization possessed was just a mirage—fragile and easily shattered.
The Earth Grudge Fear transplant technology had achieved phased results. If they wanted to continue "mass-producing" such secret technique shinobi, they either needed the organization's overall scale to expand rapidly or to keep iterating and developing it further.
The former wasn't very feasible, and the latter's progress wouldn't be quick.
In any case, research on it still had to continue—take it slow, and who knows, there might be major breakthroughs?
But Genma had always been someone who knew when to quit while ahead. For this research project, he wouldn't pay excessive attention to it like before.
The benefits brought by the Earth Grudge Fear were obvious, allowing Genma to witness an alternative way of organizational development. Naturally, he began considering whether he could replicate this development method.
He still had several Hagoromo clan corpses in hand. If he could utilize these experimental materials as well, wouldn't the Firefly Organization's development become unstoppable?
However, replicating the previous success was difficult. On one hand, the excellent cultivation medium "White Zetsu" in Genma's possession had been nearly depleted—three out of four used up, with no immediate replenishment, making raw materials scarce.
On the other hand, the Hagoromo clan's shinobi trait was a chakra fusion kekkei genkai, which was completely different from the Earth Grudge Fear secret technique with its tangible fleshy tendrils. How could something intangible be transplanted?
Mix White Zetsu and the Hagoromo corpses together and finely chop them into mincemeat?
Genma scratched his head a bit.
But soon, he realized his thinking had gone off track. Even if the kekkei genkai couldn't be transplanted, that didn't mean the Hagoromo shinobi corpses were useless—why transplant at all? If these corpses could "come back to life," wouldn't they be ready-made combat power?
The question was, how to make corpses come back to life?
This was the shinobi world, after all—corpses could certainly come back to life. Think about the Third Kazekage later on; after death, didn't he continue to shine under the Scorpion of the Red Sand's control?
That's right—Genma had thought of the Puppet Technique. It was clearly a high-tech method that could turn waste into treasure.
"Was the Puppet Technique created by the First Kazekage or the Second?" Genma couldn't quite remember for a moment.
But he knew that at this point, he had never heard of the Puppet Technique in the shinobi world, nor had he ever heard of puppet masters as a special type of shinobi from the knowledgeable Nanami or Senju Tobirama.
In other words, the Puppet Technique might not exist in the current shinobi world.
His assumption was correct, because the Puppet Technique originated from the Second Kazekage, Shamon. At this time, this future Kazekage might have already been born, but his age was likely younger than Genma's.
That meant if Genma started developing the Puppet Technique now, he would become the founding ancestor of all future puppet masters.
"The question is, how to develop the Puppet Technique..."
"Chakra threads—that's the most important part."
For some reason, Genma immediately associated it with the Nara clan's Shadow Imitation Technique.
"The puppet itself doesn't matter, but if I want to turn kekkei genkai shinobi into puppets... the heart must be preserved."
Genma headed to his private laboratory and took out a Hagoromo shinobi's corpse from his storage scroll.
"The heart needs to be preserved... How to handle the corpse? Which has a longer shelf life—smoking or air-drying?"
Genma thought back briefly, and images from a documentary he saw in his previous life about desert peoples making mummies flashed in his mind. Hmm, was the principle similar?
But wasn't this kind of operation a bit too specialized for him?
In a certain prosperous village located in the somewhat northeastern territory of the future Land of Fire.
As one could imagine, this prosperity had an expiration date—temporary. It wouldn't take many years for this place to become a ruin, turning into a "historical site" with little research value.
Because this was the Hagoromo clan's village.
Clans like Uchiha, Hagoromo, Senju, Hyuga, Sarutobi, and others were all powerful shinobi clans active within the "Land of Fire" at this time, but if one had to pick the one that didn't fit in, which would it be?
The answer was the Hagoromo clan, because only they didn't survive the Warring States Period.
In the Hagoromo clan's village committee office, several shinobi who ranked among the top in clan status were gathered.
"The ambush operation against the Senju shinobi failed again? We lost quite a few excellent clansmen because of it—they should have had better opportunities to grow."
"Damn Senju clan."
"Senju Butsuma's second son... He's called Senju Tobirama, right? As the rumors say, he's an extremely cunning shinobi. I suspect he used himself as bait, and our ambush fell right into his trap."
"Being toyed with by a young man—doesn't that feel shameful?"
"Our Hagoromo clan..."
"Enough. If our skills and strategies are inferior, what more is there to say!"
Someone spoke up to stop their argument.
"But Clan Head, setting Senju Tobirama aside, we can't ignore Senju Butsuma's eldest son, Senju Hashirama. That shinobi's strength growth curve is too abnormal—it could even be described as advancing a thousand miles in a day."
Since no one from the ambush operation survived, they subconsciously assumed the Senju's response was using Senju Tobirama as bait, with Senju Hashirama fishing from behind... electrocuting the fish.
So if it was electrocuting fish, did the bait even matter?
Senju Tobirama was cunning indeed.
"He is a Wood Release shinobi we haven't seen in a long time, so he does deserve attention. But in our Hagoromo clan's thousand-year history, we've dealt with powerful Wood Release shinobi before. Senju Hashirama isn't without weaknesses."
They hadn't yet realized that this Wood Release shinobi, Senju Hashirama, was different from others who had appeared in history. After all, Senju Hashirama would be the one to put a period on the Hagoromo clan's thousand-year history.
The Hagoromo clan head tapped the table lightly with his index finger knuckle, drawing everyone's attention back before speaking:
"Put the Senju clan matter aside. Next, we need to discuss something even more important... regarding certain matters with the Uchiha clan."
"The Uchiha clan? Our relations are good right now. Are we planning another joint operation between the two clans?"
"No. According to reliable intelligence, my informant discovered that the Uchiha clan has been hiding a peculiar shinobi all along. He's called Nameless and possesses an extremely exaggerated Sharingan."
"Sharingan? The Sharingan does have unique aspects. Is it an exaggerated genjutsu type?"
The Hagoromo clan head shook his head and said:
"It's more than that. Apparently, Nameless can use his Sharingan to apply some kind of mark on enemies. Those affected by the mark turn into his puppets, completely under his control from mind to body..."
"The Sharingan's line of sight is the range of his ocular jutsu's influence. It's an area-of-effect ocular jutsu—whether one person or a hundred, as long as they enter the range, they'll be controlled... I've heard this control is nearly unstoppable."
"This... How is that possible? Even a Mangekyo Sharingan couldn't have such overpowered ocular power."
"And that's not all. I've also heard the Uchiha clan is secretly protecting him to find a way to further expand this ocular jutsu's range... The Uchiha clan sees it as the ultimate means to settle the chaotic era and achieve peace."
To be reasonable, such detailed intelligence far exceeded what a so-called informant could provide. It was as if an invisible black hand was manipulating everything from behind.
The Sharingan this clan head described seemed incredibly powerful, but the flaw was that "Nameless" was isolated in terms of close blood relatives—he lacked a crucial brother or sister. That meant his eyes would only stop at the Mangekyo Sharingan... Based on that alone, no matter how strong, he couldn't surpass the Uchiha Madara brothers.
Perhaps these eyes weren't entirely without further evolution potential, and their latent abilities hadn't been fully unlocked yet. But Black Zetsu urgently wanted a pair of Eternal Mangekyo, so he couldn't allow the Uchiha to grow stronger. Instead, he needed to keep pruning their wings.
Black Zetsu had to find a suitable burial ground for Uchiha Izuna.
"Peace? I just wonder if our Hagoromo clan will have the chance to enjoy the peace created by the Uchiha."
"The threat from these eyes is too great. Imagine if the Uchiha clan wanted to use them to dominate certain forces—who would be a more suitable target than us, standing right beside them? Allies are ultimately not as good as slaves."
This statement carried a bit of the vibe of "the first strike after coming ashore is to cut down the one you love."
But this wasn't paranoia about persecution. Balanced strength was the prerequisite for maintaining an alliance. If one side became too strong and caused an imbalance, the other side could easily fall into the abyss.
"Under these Sharingan, unguarded trust would only evolve into endless crisis."
"It's an obstacle to our relationship with the Uchiha clan."
The Hagoromo clan head knocked on the table again, his gaze sweeping over everyone as he prepared to set the tone for the matter:
"We shouldn't be too extreme. Maintaining relations with the Uchiha clan is the premise of everything, but we also can't allow such a pair of eyes to exist in the world. So we have no choice but to take targeted action..."
"In short, either obtain them or destroy them."
"Clan Head... I say that's a wise view, Clan Head."
"Clan Head, what should we do?"
This clan head's judgment was still on point, but his approach seemed to want "both," carrying a suspicion of being overly optimistic.
But no matter what, cracks were torn open bit by bit like this.
Destroy the relationship, make an effort to restore a little, then destroy it again—and the job would be done.
However, as for how many sides this pair of Sharingan would ultimately draw into contention, before it happened, no one could say... Some conspiracies and schemes could easily become more and more complicated the more they were stirred.
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