"Whew… it's been a long time since I've slept that well."
Inside the laboratory, Gen Takuya stretched lazily. For so many years, his life had been nothing but training ninjutsu and experimenting with ninjutsu—rest was something he only forced himself to take when his body truly couldn't hold out any longer. The results weren't bad, but the time was never enough.
Humming a tune under his breath, Gen Takuya walked over to the Uzumaki-bloodline corpse he'd chosen. Heat burned in his eyes.
At last.
The body that had soaked in a cultivation tank for years was removed, wiped down, and laid onto a massive scroll covered in intricate formulae.
This scroll was an auxiliary array—designed to prevent most "accidents."
Standing before it, Gen Takuya drew a deep breath, then began forming hand seals.
This time… he was using it on himself.
"Ninja Art—Chimera Technique!"
When the final seals snapped into place, Gen Takuya slammed both palms down onto the scroll.
In an instant, the corpse on the scroll dissolved into a black fluid that surged toward him like a living tide. Gen Takuya sat cross-legged atop the scroll, staring at the onrushing darkness with unwavering resolve.
Beneath him, the formulae carved into the scroll seemed to come alive, crawling up toward his body.
Finally—
The moment every last formula vanished from the scroll, Gen Takuya opened his eyes.
His bare skin was marked with thin black traces—alongside sealing script clustered around them. But those marks weren't an accident.
He washed again, then took the white bandages he'd prepared long ago and began wrapping them around his body—slowly, layer by layer.
Hiruko probably hadn't wrapped himself head to toe for the sake of style.
If he didn't bind himself up, those marks were far too conspicuous.
And this was only the result of fusing a single bloodline. If Hiruko had already fused four…
God knew what his body looked like now.
Once he finished wrapping the bandages, Gen Takuya looked into the mirror.
Since he'd only fused one bloodline, the black traces weren't too many. He still looked… relatively normal.
Still, with a body like this, finding a suitable wife in Konoha was probably impossible.
From this moment on, his body carried a secret.
And that secret wasn't something he could ever reveal—even to a spouse.
Not that it mattered.
He wasn't uninterested in women, but that interest would never outweigh his thirst for strength.
Beauty only slowed your ascent.
That rule applied to everyone.
After dressing, Gen Takuya's eyes gleamed with barely contained excitement.
Fusion was complete.
Now came the proof.
Truthfully, he didn't even need to test it to feel it.
He hadn't deliberately begun extracting chakra yet, but even the instinctive amount his body produced was already beyond anything he'd ever dared to imagine before.
Gen Takuya quickly entered a training room, sat down cross-legged, and focused inward.
Chakra = physical energy + spiritual energy.
He'd never lacked spiritual energy.
He'd lacked physical energy—pure and simple.
In the past, every time he extracted chakra, he could feel it clearly: his spiritual energy was like a long, steady river, while his physical energy was nothing more than a narrow ditch. One slip, one moment of carelessness, and he'd squeeze himself dry.
Now…
He felt his physical energy rise—not surpassing the river of his spiritual energy, but broad enough to run alongside it.
Compared to before, it had increased by an immeasurable amount.
Gen Takuya's eyes snapped open.
He couldn't hold it in anymore.
Laughter tore from his chest—loud, raw, unrestrained.
At last.
The flaw that had shackled him ever since he'd first started training in the academy…
Was gone.
He didn't know how long he laughed before he finally calmed, breathing hard, and thinking back over what he'd felt.
Uzumaki bloodline was powerful—of course it was.
But what surprised him was that his spiritual energy could actually keep pace.
He'd always known his spiritual energy wasn't weak.
He just hadn't realized it could stand shoulder to shoulder with an Uzumaki constitution.
Maybe that was the one "special" thing about him—
A soul that had lived twice.
Now that his chakra reserves were solved, it was time to think ahead.
Because what the Uzumaki bloodline offered wasn't limited to chakra volume.
At minimum, it carried three special traits.
First: the bloodline sealing art—Adamantine Sealing Chains.
Second: sensory perception that surpassed even the Byakugan—Kagura's Mind Eye.
Third: a regenerative constitution—those who drank their blood could recover injuries and chakra.
The third?
No need to dream.
Not every Uzumaki had that ability. Gen Takuya had already tested it.
The Uzumaki he fused did not possess it.
And Gen Takuya didn't want that trait anyway.
He could use medical ninjutsu.
That ability healed, yes—but it was like tearing down the wall to patch the roof. Taken too far, it accelerated death.
And it also made you a target.
Kagura's Mind Eye, on the other hand…
Its range was enormous, and it could "roughly" read a person's intent by sensing their chakra—good and evil, lies and truth.
In that regard, it was even stronger than the Byakugan.
The Byakugan's edge lay elsewhere: it could see the precise flow of chakra within the body.
But in overall sensing?
Kagura's Mind Eye was terrifying.
Of course, not every Uzumaki had it either.
It required natural sensing talent.
Gen Takuya was already convinced he needed to develop his own sensing further. If he could awaken Kagura's Mind Eye, he wouldn't need to learn other sensory techniques again.
As for Adamantine Sealing Chains…
That one wasn't hard.
Gen Takuya had become a Tokubetsu Jōnin in Konoha because of sealing techniques. Every formula carved into his scrolls had been drawn by his own hand.
So when he fused the Uzumaki bloodline, he sensed the sealing power in it almost immediately.
He tried to call on that power.
And soon—
Golden chains erupted from his back, weaving and dancing through the training room like living light.
This… was Adamantine Sealing Chains.
The sealing power unique to Uzumaki blood.
And unlike complex fuinjutsu, it didn't require written formulae to use.
Just as Karin—despite lacking Uzumaki teachings—could unleash Adamantine Sealing Chains in a crisis.
The problem was—
It was far too conspicuous.
Use it once, and people would immediately realize he carried Uzumaki blood.
Unless absolutely necessary…
He should avoid it.
Gen Takuya considered it.
Even if it was exposed, he could still explain it away.
He was a Konoha shinobi, after all, and Konoha's relationship with the Uzumaki had been close enough for intermarriage. Even if Konoha had his records, this era wasn't like his previous life—no one maintained exhaustive archives of every citizen's lineage.
So possessing Uzumaki blood wouldn't be impossible to believe.
It could even explain his sudden spike in chakra reserves—
A long-dormant bloodline awakening.
As he thought, Gen Takuya smiled, stretched, and let the matter settle.
If exposure came…
He'd handle it when it happened.
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