"I didn't bring you here to daydream. It's almost noon. Has wasting time become a habit for you?"
Naruto spoke impatiently, seeing that Sasuke was still frozen in place, staring at the clone in the chair without making a move.
He had other things to attend to—just now, a Shadow Clone from another lab had reported an intriguing development in one of the experiments.
Sasuke closed his eyes, exhaled slowly, then opened his Sharingan. He stepped forward and lifted the clone's eyelid.
"…A Byakugan?"
He hesitated for only a moment before casting the genjutsu. Two minutes later, Sasuke turned to Naruto.
"It's done."
This time, the process had taken longer than with the previous memory implant into Lee.
According to the device Naruto had given him, this clone had essentially just been born today—completely blank, like a fresh sheet of paper. Naruto had instructed him to implant a fabricated life: a fake memory of growing from infancy to the age of eight, then falling into a coma due to injury.
But Sasuke knew such memory implants were unstable—clones would eventually begin to question those memories. He was sure Naruto planned to continue reinforcing them to solidify a stable personality.
"Good."
Naruto nodded, then pulled out a scroll and walked to a table. He dipped a brush in ink, wrote quickly, then tossed the scroll backward without even looking.
Whoosh!
The scroll spun through the air and landed neatly in Sasuke's outstretched hand.
"Here's the Water Release training data you asked for."
As Sasuke caught the scroll with ease, he looked up—Naruto was already gone. One of his Shadow Clones stepped forward instead.
"I'll send you back to the Land of Waves."
Sasuke glanced toward the other five Shadow Clones surrounding the clone. After a moment of consideration, he said:
"I want to stay and observe for a while longer."
"Just let us know when you're ready to leave."
The clone nodded and rejoined the others.
Meanwhile…
Naruto's true body stood in a room that looked like a morgue, eyes fixed on a massive electronic screen. The display was paused.
"Are you sure this'll work?"
Another Naruto—expressionless—walked in behind him. After flipping through a few pages of documentation, he nodded.
"It should. This is the recording of the last experiment. We're just about to reach the key moment. Watch closely."
He pulled out a black remote and pressed a button. The video began to play.
On-screen, a wide, well-lit underground chamber came into view. A man with a vicious-looking face knelt on the floor, hands bound, eyes full of fear.
Two Narutos entered the frame.
One walked up to the man and slammed his palm on the ground. In an instant, a one-meter-wide circular ritual platform formed beneath them.
As soon as it was complete, that Naruto walked behind the man. A crackling noise filled the air—lightning surged from his right hand.
"No! Please, don't—!"
The man screamed in desperation.
But Naruto ignored him and glanced over at his counterpart.
The second Naruto nodded and began forming hand seals. The moment the final seal was completed, the pleading man went silent—because the Naruto behind him had already thrust his lightning-charged hand through his chest.
As he pulled his arm back, the man's pupils began to dim. Though clearly dead, he remained kneeling upright.
Just then, a chain-like seal shot out from the foot of the second Naruto, snaking toward the corpse. It coiled around the man several times before vanishing into his body.
Ten minutes passed.
The Naruto standing over the corpse gave the body a light tap on the shoulder. Instantly, the sealing marks reappeared… and something shocking happened.
"Huff… huff…"
The man's eyes twitched. Despite having had his heart crushed, his eyes moved, and he even let out faint, ragged breaths.
But after a few seconds—five heartbeats at most—his pupils lost focus once again.
The recording ended.
"So sealing his chakra at the brink of death… this really does resemble what happened with Chiyo."
Naruto mused quietly. He turned to his clone.
"Only two successes out of fifty test subjects. We can't confirm it's reproducible. How many materials do we have left?"
"None. That was the last test subject,"
the clone replied bluntly, pointing to the Naruto who'd used the sealing jutsu.
"That one came up with the idea on the fly. It worked the first time—but we didn't get footage back then."
"It's fine. We'll have more subjects soon enough."
Naruto formed a seal and created a new Shadow Clone. He handed it two scrolls.
The clone nodded, transformed, took the scrolls, and vanished using Flying Thunder God.
"Earlier, one of your released clones said you found a breakthrough in space-time ninjutsu?"
Naruto turned to another clone.
"We've made progress,"
the clone replied.
"But we're nowhere near practical application. The biggest hurdle is cost—space-time tools require rare materials."
"But Kitajiro's team is still fired up. Snow Country's already applied the latest tech to daily life. With time, we'll be able to upgrade our own equipment. Scrolls are still too limited."
"Kitajiro's not bad. I didn't expect him to have the same kind of space-time aptitude as Tenten."
The clone shook his head.
"He's full of wild ideas. This morning, after watching us seal Shadow Clones into scrolls, he almost sealed one of his colleagues into a dimensional tool."
"Bold, I'll give him that,"
Naruto chuckled.
"But we've already tried that—it's a death sentence for a living person."
"Not necessarily."
The clone flipped through his notes seriously.
"True, humans and most animals can't survive inside dimensional tools. But Kitajiro discovered something odd—when aquatic creatures are sealed inside and later summoned… they survive just fine."
"We told him to work on an automatic recording device. Next time, we'll seal the camera into the space as well. Let's see what really happens in there."
"I'll go check out what he's built so far."
With that, Naruto vanished.
Flash — New Location
Naruto reappeared in a minimalist room, walking toward a window. Outside, a sea of clouds stretched far and wide.
Suddenly, Isobu's voice rang out.
"Naruto, I've found a new sealing technique."
"Oh?"
Naruto's consciousness entered the seal space.
"What'd you get this time—from the Third Hokage?"
Bonk!
Isobu smacked Naruto's head with a claw.
"Not that old man. This one came from Uchiha Itachi."
"Itachi again?"
Naruto was surprised. Just days ago, Kurama had obtained the Izanagi Reversal Technique from Itachi's memory—and now Isobu had picked something up too.
He raised a fist to bump against Isobu's claw.
"Transfer Seal?"
Land of Rivers
Wearing a pitch-black robe and a featureless onyx mask, Naruto entered a bounty exchange office.
The manager, recognizing him instantly, welcomed him into a private room.
"Sir, are you here to place another request?"
The man's tone was enthusiastic—this masked guest had been coming to the Land of Rivers for the past six months, posting lucrative bounties and paying exclusively in large sums of ryo.
Two days ago, he had taken fifty live subjects—worth 100 million ryo—in a single night.
"Same as last time."
Naruto unfurled a scroll, revealing two silver cases.
"Fifty live subjects. One hundred million ryo. Deliver them to the same port within the hour."
"No problem!"
The manager quickly secured the cases and beamed.
"Consider it done, sir! I'll have them ready in thirty minutes. Anything else?"
Minutes later, Naruto left the office.
But as he walked, his brows furrowed beneath his mask.
He sensed ten identical chakra signatures following him. Moments later, they fanned out around him, slowly encircling his position.
"Now this is interesting."
Naruto didn't break stride, but subtly changed direction.
Eventually, he reached a desolate stretch of land.
The ten signatures stopped, then began closing in.
Naruto smirked—his fingers already finished weaving a seal inside his sleeve.
The moment he stepped onto the wasteland, a thick mist began to rise, quickly shrouding everything.
Ssssss…
Far ahead, a patch of grass rustled.
Suddenly, a dozen triangular-headed green vipers, each as thick as a thumb, slithered out—forked tongues flickering.
In an instant, they launched into the mist like black bolts.
But before they could strike, they were zapped by thin arcs of black lightning, dropping dead in midair.
As the mist cleared, Naruto flicked his finger—a thin thread of blue chakra shot out, wrapping the snake corpses together.
"Orochimaru… is he in the Land of Rivers too?"
"But according to the Mirror World's latest data from Kabuto, he's still holed up in his old lair doing experiments."
"If it is Orochimaru, why can't I sense his chakra?"
Meanwhile, inside the bounty office
A figure cloaked in black and blue, hood pulled low, flipped through the mission roster. Their right sleeve hung empty—clearly missing an arm. They turned pages slowly with their left hand.
Suddenly, the figure stiffened.
They slammed the book shut and rushed for the door.
Thirty Minutes Later
At the port, Naruto's Shadow Clone received the cargo.
He summoned a large ship using the scroll Naruto had prepared, loaded the fifty live test subjects, then dispelled himself.
In the next instant, Naruto's true body appeared on the ship in a private chamber.
Knowing the clone had been followed, he split off more clones to sail the ship away from port.
Once at a safe distance, Naruto entered the cargo hold—ready to test the results of his experiment.
"Congratulations! You've successfully harvested an otherworldly soul: Andō Asao."
"Congratulations! You've successfully harvested an otherworldly soul: Toshishige Tsuyoshi."
…
"Warning! Insufficient data. Cannot activate Soul Editor or Soul Rebirth functions. Please complete data profile immediately!"
As the final test subject died, the mechanical voice stopped.
Naruto entered the Mirror World's Soul Prison. As always, he stood above a boundless reflective ocean.
He raised a hand—an interface appeared, showing a number in the corner: "51".
"So I'm stealing resources from the Sage of Six Paths' Pure Land now?"
"I wonder… can I use Edo Tensei to summon these souls?"
"The Rebirth Puppets are nice… but they need to start from scratch—and they don't have infinite chakra."
So many thoughts passed through his mind before he finally left the Mirror World.
That Night
Naruto returned to the lab where Clone No. 5 was housed.
Two hours earlier, a Shadow Clone had escorted Sasuke away. Now, only five clones remained. The clone had already awakened, and the memory implant had apparently been a success.
He now had a name: Minamoto Gi.
"My lord!"
Seeing Naruto appear, Gi bowed respectfully.
"Minamoto Gi, have you successfully extracted chakra?"
Naruto asked with clear satisfaction.
"Yes, my lord!"
Gi beamed.
"The other lords even taught me two jutsu."
"Mind Transfer and Shadow Clone, I assume?"
Naruto asked.
Gi lowered his head, slightly ashamed.
"I've only mastered Mind Transfer Jutsu…"
"That's very good."
Naruto smiled kindly.
"Now, use Mind Transfer Jutsu on me. Let me see what kind of talent you truly have."
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