Chapter 285: Temporary Base
The "Phase Three Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals" that Haruno Sakura had recently developed, just like Naruto's currently banned Rasenshuriken, was a ninjutsu with extremely strong power but also extremely large backlash.
The contradiction was: this kind of dangerous ninjutsu required a lot of practice to become proficient, and only after becoming proficient could the backlash be reduced. But the practice itself would cause a backlash, harming oneself, leading to the ninjutsu's proficiency not improving and the progress being slow.
This formed a vicious cycle.
That was why Naruto had been forbidden from practicing this move. Unless it was an emergency, he couldn't use it when he was free. Only after his body's endurance and chakra control had become stronger could Naruto truly turn this move into his conventional jutsu.
And Sakura's side, she had also been strongly advised by Tsunade to rest for a few months after using it once.
Therefore, even with her control, she could only slowly, little by little, grind it out.
Bit by bit, she had to improve her control over this jutsu and reduce the backlash.
The progress of the Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals was not fast and remained at its current state. On the contrary, on the side of the Yin Seal, there had been some progress and results in the development of Phase Two.
Sakura's current speed of accumulating chakra for the Yin Seal was too slow—after all, she was not a person with a large amount of chakra to begin with. Even if she had surplus chakra every day, it wouldn't be much. It would take a long time to see results after accumulating it.
In the battles with Kimimaro and Kakuzu, her chakra amount had been very tight.
The only time her chakra had been abundant at the end was the battle with Sasori of the Red Sand. But that one time, she had been accumulating chakra for several months!
And even so, she had still used up more than half her blue bar at once.
The slow chakra accumulation speed seriously restricted Sakura's strength. Every time she had a big fight with someone, she would feel particularly insecure—the amount of chakra stored was too small, which was very inconsistent with her "quasi-Kage" and "Kage" level reputation.
What Haruno Sakura was most afraid of was a series of consecutive battles.
The development of the second phase of the Yin Seal was precisely to solve this problem.
However, to develop this, she needed undisturbed time and a laboratory.
The stack of mission sheets that Tsunade had given her had provided exactly this condition.
Near the border of the Land of Fire.
This area, before Sakura's great battle with Kakuzu, had been an active area for Orochimaru.
In some of the lawless zones on the border and in the surrounding small countries and small ninja villages, no one knew how many bad things Orochimaru had done.
The only thing that was clear was that this man had opened up many hidden bases underground here.
As for the exact number, he probably couldn't even remember clearly himself. After all, to create this kind of base, which could be completed just by using chakra and ninjutsu, was as easy as flipping a hand for a powerful ninja like Orochimaru. If the labor cost of a Kage-level powerhouse was not taken into account, the most valuable things in these bases were the experimental equipment inside.
However, Konoha didn't care about these things either. The first time they had searched for Orochimaru's base, Haruno Sakura had still treated them as mission seizures, but they had been regarded as rubbish by Tsunade and directly thrown away.
The second time they had searched, which was the time they had run into Kakuzu, they had no longer cared about these things.
The base, buried deep underground, after losing its value, had not been taken to heart by either Orochimaru or Konoha. That place had been completely forgotten. Probably, unless there was an earthquake, it would never see the light of day again.
But...
An unremarkable underground base opened up by Orochimaru.
A base that should have been plunged into eternal darkness, suddenly, a trace of light appeared.
It was a small, round fireball, being held in the air, blooming with light, illuminating the hall of the underground base.
The fireball floated in the palm of the newcomer, and the orange-yellow firelight reflected on her face.
It was Haruno Sakura.
She found the location of the candles on the wall, lit them, and the underground hall brightened up.
"As expected, no one has been here," Sakura said, looking around. This place had retained the traces left by Squad 14's search that day. Even the footsteps on the ground had not changed. It was clear that this place had been completely abandoned.
"Very good. I'll use this as my temporary base."
The girl snapped her fingers.
A large amount of water gushed out from her side, flowed through the entire base, and under Sakura's control, it was thoroughly cleaned. Then, with a change of Sakura's hand gesture, Ice Style chakra gushed out, turning this clear water into an ice layer, hermetically sealing the entire base.
By the way, she also used Ice Style to repair the damaged parts of the base.
This was to guard against that strange person she had seen last time. His Earth Style had left too deep an impression on Haruno Sakura. Ice Style should be able to prevent him from passing through this base at will.
Next was to create ventilation openings and use Wind Style to disperse the stale air underground.
This base was not large. This whole operation, it didn't take long for Haruno Sakura to completely renovate this underground base.
Then, Haruno Sakura skillfully unfurled a scroll and took out the experimental equipment and raw materials from the sealing formula.
The second phase of the Yin Seal, she had originally planned to use clones as an energy source. But with her current conditions, it was definitely not enough for her to research cloning technology. That would have to wait until she went to the main base in the Land of Snow next year.
But that was okay. She had a simple alternative for the time being: to clone her own heart to provide chakra.
A few months ago, in the Land of Snow, Haruno Sakura had already mastered this technology of cloning organs.
Right now, Sakura was carrying out the preliminary work of cloning with a familiar air.
She plucked a strand of hair, placed it under the microscope, and a faint blue fluorescence of medical ninjutsu lit up on her hand.
The chakra, containing Yang Release power, stimulated the cells. The keratinocytes at the root of the hair, under the effect of this magical power, slowly began to change: the long, slender, melanin-containing keratinocytes gradually shortened, their shape becoming round, and the melanin also gradually disappeared. Some changes, invisible to the naked eye, were firmly and irreversibly taking place under the effect of medical ninjutsu.
After about a few minutes.
Haruno Sakura raised her head and let out a long breath. "It's done!"
Under the lens, at the root of the long pink hair, under the catalysis of the medical ninjutsu containing Yang Release nature transformation, the keratinocytes had been completely transformed into round, yellowish-orange embryonic stem cells.
This was the process of "de-differentiation" of highly differentiated cells.
Her method was, in essence, the same as the treatment that Tsunade and the others had performed on Yūgao's hair in the Konoha medical room.
However, after being supplemented by the materials from Orochimaru and the otherworldly knowledge in her mind, this set of technology had been perfected. The heart that Sakura had cloned would take two weeks to cultivate. Slow work makes fine work. The quality, which had been meticulously carved, was who-knows-how-many-levels higher than the heart that Tsunade had temporarily created.
After Yūgao had had it replaced, she had quickly adapted to the new heart. After a period of training in the future, it was estimated that it would not be worse than the original.
No, it seemed it would be even stronger than the original...
Suddenly thinking of Yūgao's matter, Sakura also let out a laugh. "On Yūgao's side, everything is developing in a good direction. A small, tiny mistake, just let it go!"
She dispersed the mass of embryonic stem cells and put them into twenty petri dishes, nourishing them with Yang Release chakra, slowly promoting the development and division of the stem cells.
Sakura could, of course, also use a large amount of Yang Release nature transformation chakra to directly act on this cluster of embryonic cells, prompting it to grow rapidly, to swell to the size of a fist at a speed visible to the naked eye, and then to differentiate into a heart. But to do so would be meaningless. What would be generated would only be an inferior product.
"Hn, alright! That's about it for this side," Sakura said, nodding with satisfaction and carefully placing these petri dishes on a special shelf.
Next, she just needed to maintain that chakra, and constantly add nutrients to it to ensure its growth.
These things were tedious, without much technical content, but they required someone to be on guard.
"Then I'll leave this place to you," Sakura said, splitting off an ice clone, pouring a large amount of chakra into it.
Because they were the same person, there was no need to say any more. The clone already knew what it had to do: besides maintaining the progress of the experiment, there was another task, which was that when this place was discovered, she would be responsible for destroying all traces of it.
Especially if it's discovered by a Konoha ninja, you must remember to use Wind Style!
"Go on. I've got this!" the ice clone said.
Haruno Sakura nodded, picked up the stack of mission sheets that had been placed on the side, and turned to leave.
This pile of missions that Tsunade had given her, if she rushed them, would take ten days to half a month. If she took her time, it would be no problem to use a month. During this period, she didn't have to return to Konoha, as long as she remembered to send back the mission completion reports.
As for when the missions would be completed, that depended on whether Haruno Sakura would go all out and use a butcher's knife to kill a chicken, or just show the strength of a Jonin-level, or even just use an ice clone to complete the missions...
In any case, as long as she got back before the Jonin combat test in five weeks, it would be fine.
"So, the first target is..." Haruno Sakura, who had appeared in an ice mirror on the surface, took out the first mission sheet and said, while looking at it.
"Hn... because they have to lie low, these peripheral organizations have already been abandoned by the Akatsuki?"
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