After testing various techniques with his new body, Gen Takuya's satisfaction only deepened.
Not only could he cast more times—
Even the power of each jutsu rose dramatically.
It was like the difference between Six Paths Naruto and Six Paths Sasuke.
Six Paths Naruto didn't necessarily have endless "mechanics," yet his damage output was absurdly high.
A kind of brutal beauty in raw numbers.
Gen Takuya didn't find it strange.
Same technique. Same proficiency.
If more chakra could be poured into it, then naturally, it hit harder.
The only pity was that every jutsu had a ceiling—past that point, adding more chakra stopped mattering.
Once the testing ended, he walked to another set of tanks and stared at the bloodlines he'd collected during the Second and Third Shinobi World Wars.
If he had time, he would've preferred to complete more fusions before returning to Konoha.
But he couldn't.
If he lingered too long, he might miss the moment Nohara Rin was captured.
To be safe, he needed to test each new fusion thoroughly—ensure stability—then fuse it into himself.
And the more bloodlines you added, the harder fusion became.
By the time you reached the fifth, Hiruko had waited years for the right "Heaven, Earth, and Man" conditions.
That alone proved how sharply the difficulty rose.
Which meant safely testing a second bloodline would take even longer.
Gen Takuya likely didn't have that kind of time.
His gaze settled on his most important material—
An Uchiha body, with a one-tomoe Sharingan.
Yes.
His planned second bloodline was Uchiha.
This corpse was the only Uchiha he'd ever managed to obtain who could awaken the Sharingan—
And even then, it was only one tomoe.
He'd collected plenty of Uchiha bodies without Sharingan. Those weren't difficult.
His official specialization was sealing logistics. When bloodline users died on the battlefield, their bodies were supposed to be sealed and recovered.
Gen Takuya simply used a "狸猫换太子" swap—crafted fake Uchiha remains and turned those in, while quietly taking the real material for himself.
But obtaining a Sharingan bearer?
That was extremely difficult.
Even those with only a one-tomoe Sharingan were recorded. No matter how careless the Uchiha might appear, they still checked.
So anyone officially recorded was never an option.
This one-tomoe Sharingan corpse…
Gen Takuya only secured it because he was certain the Sharingan had awakened at the very end—right before death.
Everyone knew the Sharingan awakened through intense emotional shock.
And the shock of dying certainly qualified.
Even so…
Awakening at the brink of death was still rare.
To be honest, Gen Takuya could accept fusing Uchiha blood without an awakened Sharingan.
The Sharingan wasn't like other kekkei genkai—it could awaken later.
And even if he never awakened it, he could still obtain Sharingan through transplantation.
Still…
Awakening his own would always be better.
Suddenly, a thought surfaced.
If he didn't fuse Uchiha blood at all, and only had Uzumaki blood—
Could he freely toggle a transplanted Sharingan on and off?
After all, while Uzumaki blood couldn't awaken the Sharingan, it shared a distant origin with Uchiha blood.
Maybe—just maybe—he could control it.
But the original history offered no proof.
Shimura Danzō had transplanted Sharingan and also implanted Hashirama's cells…
And yet he still couldn't freely toggle them.
Which suggested Uzumaki blood—being a branch of Senju—wouldn't solve it either.
So…
Would it be worth experimenting later?
If it worked, could he save a fusion slot?
Gen Takuya considered it, then shook his head.
Uchiha blood was still necessary.
The Sage of Six Paths' legacy had split into the Sage's Body and the Sage's Eyes.
Only when both were reunited could the state be "complete."
Just like Uchiha Madara fusing Hashirama's cells—surely one of the conditions for awakening the Rinnegan.
So both bloodlines were mandatory.
In that case, there was no point in gambling on early transplantation.
Gen Takuya then looked to another set of materials—
Hyūga bloodline.
But he hesitated.
Because everything he could obtain was from the branch family.
In terms of pure bloodline, branch and main were not truly "inferior"—the Hyūga were notorious for marrying within the clan.
But the Caged Bird Seal…
Gen Takuya didn't know if it remained after death.
In the original history, Neji's Caged Bird Seal vanished after he died.
Yet Hyūga Hizashi, revived via Edo Tensei, still bore the seal on his forehead.
Hiashi hadn't activated it then—but that didn't prove the seal was fake. It could've simply been brotherly reluctance.
And yes—Hiashi had used the seal on Hizashi in the past.
But even that wasn't unreasonable.
Hizashi had harbored killing intent toward his own niece. Being punished with the seal was already lenient by clan standards.
Still…
If Gen Takuya fused Hyūga blood and inherited the Caged Bird Seal, that would be a nightmare.
But abandoning Hyūga blood entirely?
That was hard to accept.
Because it was tied to the possibility of the Tenseigan.
A dōjutsu said to rival even the Rinnegan.
Gen Takuya stared at the corpse's forehead—free of any seal—and weighed his options.
Main family blood was impossible.
The Hyūga protected it like madness. Main family deaths on the battlefield weren't unheard of—but the Hyūga never allowed outsiders to approach those bodies.
So what could he do?
Use the materials he already had to experiment. See whether fused subjects manifested the Caged Bird Seal over time.
Or, once his technique matured, change the placement of the seal—he didn't need the Byakugan itself, only the Hyūga blood.
And in any case, there was no Byakugan to harvest.
At the moment of death, the Caged Bird Seal destroyed the brain and eyes.
Either method required time to verify.
But the second…
He could begin that immediately.
Gen Takuya's eyes flickered.
He used Chimera Technique again, fusing several Hyūga-blood subjects, sealing and restraining them, then returning them into the tanks.
If none of them manifested the Caged Bird Seal over time…
That would be proof enough.
He wasn't in a rush.
The fourth and fifth bloodlines he truly wanted would take a long time to obtain.
There would be plenty of time to test.
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