Chapter 192: A Private Conversation Between Master and Disciple
After a few turns, they arrived at the treatment room Tsunade had mentioned.
Seeing that Haruno Sakura was preparing to take off her clothes, the Anbu members following behind the Hokage tactfully left, closing the door on their way out.
"Take it all off, lie on the bed. Since you're here, I'll take the opportunity to check your body. Both the Monstrous Strength Technique and Sakura Rush can easily cause hidden injuries to the body. You must take good care of yourself."
Tsunade jutted her chin, signaling her disciple to lie down on a small bed by the wall. A faint blue chakra glow began to gather in her hands.
Although she knew that Sakura's so-called hidden injury was just a front and that coming here for treatment was just an excuse, Tsunade felt that if you were going to put on an act, you should go all the way. She simply conjured some medical ninjutsu chakra, just in case anyone was suspicious.
"The soundproofing here is quite good, so speak," she said, glancing at the foam wallpaper, which was clearly for sound absorption, and placing her hand on the back of the girl's neck. "What did you come to me for?"
As she spoke, she applied pressure with her hands, using a medical ninjutsu technique to massage the back of Sakura's neck and her shoulders, relaxing the tense muscles.
"Master..." Sakura hesitated for a moment, but still said it. "I want to obtain Orochimaru's cloning technology and create clones to conduct experiments."
This matter, she felt, was better to tell Tsunade openly rather than to do it secretly herself.
Developing cloning technology was, at best, a gray area of the ban on human experimentation.
It couldn't be said that it violated the rules, but it wasn't something that could be put on the table either.
However, if Sakura were to do it secretly herself, that gray area would become a direct hit to a vital point. If she were to be discovered, it would be like mud falling into her pants—even if it wasn't shit, it would be treated as shit.
Konoha itself had conducted many such experiments back in the day, even human experiments more outrageous than cloning. Of course, that was mainly Danzo and Orochimaru. Later, after being discovered by the Third, similar experiments had been stopped.
Human experimentation had since become a taboo in Konoha.
Hearing Haruno Sakura's request, Tsunade was stunned. The movement of her hands suddenly became forceful, causing Sakura to suck in a cold breath of air in pain.
She did not answer Sakura's question.
Instead, she said, "The injury caused by the overuse of Sakura Rush last time has already been healed by Yuki Haku. But the Monstrous Strength Technique is too powerful, and it's very easy to cause a backlash, leaving hidden injuries deep in the body. You still have to be careful when you use it."
"Do these places hurt?" Tsunade pressed a few places on her back. Sakura immediately felt a sense of bloating and soreness, and her body reflexively shrank.
"If it hurts a lot, it means you've accumulated a lot of minor injuries. A girl still has to learn to take good care of her own body," Tsunade said, shaking her head as she saw her instinctively flinch. She continued, "But your medical ninjutsu... you haven't learned much of the real skills. You can't heal these injuries on your own. So in the future, you still have to come to me for treatment every once in a while."
She had changed the subject and said a lot.
She just didn't want to respond to her idea directly.
She just focused on dealing with the small problems on Sakura's body, and those tiny traumas were carefully checked out by her. Under the faint glow of the medical ninjutsu, the injured areas showed a faint cyan color, a subtle contrast to the surrounding smooth, jade-like white skin.
However, Sakura had not forgotten her question.
"...Master, is human experimentation not allowed?" the girl on the bed said in a muffled voice, stiffly bringing the topic back.
The movement of Tsunade's hands paused for a moment. She hesitated for a while, but still answered her, "This kind of thing... in principle, I cannot support you."
As a medical ninja, how could Tsunade not know how convenient it would be for them if they could create clones? What doctors lack most is experience practicing on a real body.
And as a ninja, as a master, she also knew very well that Sakura had many ninjutsu to be developed, which required the use of a real, cloned body to be developed.
When Haruno Sakura had submitted the ultimate principles scroll for the Medical Research-type Ice Clone, she had already seen through the girl's ambition.
The ice clone, named as a substitute for a real body, was in fact a stepping stone to human experimentation!
However, the problem was that Konoha's human experimentation back then had caused too many troubles, and the impact had been too terrible—in order to get more data, Danzo and his group had actually kidnapped their own village's ninja and children to experiment on!
The term "human experimentation," in Konoha, already stank up the streets.
Therefore, the opening for human experimentation—even if it was just experiments on clones—was something that the older generation of advisors would absolutely never allow to be reopened.
And Tsunade's foundation was, after all, still shallow. In this atmosphere, it was naturally impossible for her to propose support for human experimentation. That would not only fail to gain the support of those below, but would also cause her prestige to plummet.
Haruno Sakura gritted her teeth, a little unreconciled.
Tsunade looked at the girl's darting eyes and knew that this disciple of hers would not give up this technology so easily.
It was hard to say that she wouldn't just defy her ban and do the experiments herself in secret.
This girl was just that audacious sometimes.
She sighed.
"You're creating clones to continue the research and development of Sakura Rush, right?"
Seeing that Tsunade seemed to be showing signs of softening, Sakura quickly turned her head, looked into her eyes, and said, "Not just that! Besides Sakura Rush, my Yin Seal and Hinata's Fist of the North Star have both reached the point where they need clones for experiments."
"So we really need to use human experimentation," she said, blinking her eyes and looking at Tsunade with the pitiful little eyes of a deer.
Sakura felt that her master was about to be moved by her.
And then she heard this sentence—
"No."
Tsunade said resolutely.
She said seriously, "Konoha does not permit any form of human experimentation. This is an iron law. For at least the next two or three years, don't get any funny ideas."
Uh...! Haruno Sakura was instantly choked, and her expectant expression collapsed.
Didn't her tone just soften? Why did she righteously refuse me again? She was puzzled.
She carefully thought back on what Tsunade had said, mulling over every word.
Konoha does not permit human experimentation...
In other words?
"Then can I... establish a lab in other places within the Land of Fire?" she suddenly asked, her eyes lighting up, realizing Tsunade's true meaning.
"The entire Land of Fire is forbidden!" Tsunade said, shaking her head without hesitation.
"If the Land of Fire is forbidden..." the girl's bright, clear eyes suddenly turned, and she said with a smile, "Then places outside the Land of Fire, Konoha has no reason to control, right!"
"That's right, the Land of Snow!"
Yes... she had just told Kazahana Koyuki a few months ago that it might be necessary to build a base in the Land of Snow.
It was just that when she had said that, she had felt that that matter would probably not be on the table for another one or two years. She had never thought that things would develop so quickly and that a good opportunity would come in less than half a year.
"I didn't say anything else. Don't you misunderstand me..." Tsunade said, shaking her head. At this time, she was treating a hidden injury on Sakura's calf. Seeing the girl's smug look, she added a bit more force to her hands, and in an instant, Sakura was in so much pain that her eyes went straight. She didn't dare to smile foolishly anymore.
"I only said that human experimentation is forbidden within the Land of Fire. How you interpret that is your own business."
Tsunade said with a cold face.
"Got it, got it! I will absolutely not let the laboratory set foot in the Land of Fire!" Haruno Sakura said with a wave of her hand and a smile.
The Fifth Hokage then glared at her and added, "Also, don't even think about getting any information about cloning from the village or from me. And the materials you obtained from Orochimaru's base, you must hand them all over after returning to the village!"
The girl's eyes immediately rolled back. "Master," she complained with a long face, "are you asking me to memorize all the materials in just a few short hours?"
If you think about it carefully, you know it's impossible!
If the materials that Orochimaru had worked hard on for so many years were so simple that they could be memorized overnight, then she wouldn't have this much trouble. She could just go and figure out cloning herself!
Tsunade's expression was still faint, without any hint.
"That is your own business."
She said.
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