Chapter 90: 10.1546142?
Seeing that the few of them didn't intend to say anything,
Kakuzu spoke nonchalantly: "Pain, my teammate is dead."
Everyone present froze for a moment, then Sasori and the others showed expressions of being unsurprised.
"Puhaha... Mm! Sorry, sorry~"
Zetsu suddenly burst out laughing, but immediately stopped after Pain glanced at him, saying in a somewhat strange tone: "It's just that thinking of another unlucky fellow being killed by his own teammate to be exchanged for bounty money is quite amusing."
This clearly wasn't Kakuzu's first teammate.
The cause of death each time was being "accidentally killed" by Kakuzu; even a fool would understand the real reason by now.
Kakuzu spread his hands: "You can't blame me for this. Blame that guy for being too weak, always failing to dodge in time during battles!"
Pain retracted his gaze, looking at Kakuzu: "This is already your third teammate. Although they were weak, they were still members of Akatsuki. If there's a next time, don't blame me for not showing mercy."
Kakuzu frowned, his expression clearly showing some dissatisfaction.
However, after pondering for a moment, Kakuzu's eyes lit up: "Then, Leader, can you assign me a teammate with stronger survival skills?"
As he spoke, his gaze shifted towards Orochimaru nearby.
At this moment, Orochimaru in Kakuzu's eyes had transformed from an organization member into a large pile of banknotes.
A Konoha S-rank missing-nin.
Should be worth a few hundred million, right?
Sensing Kakuzu's gaze, Orochimaru couldn't help but feel a chill.
"My head is indeed worth quite a bit."
Orochimaru decisively refused: "I don't want to be ambushed by a teammate from behind, then have my head taken to a money exchange station for bounty."
Finished speaking, he then looked at Yakushi Kabuto, licking his lips: "Why not pair Sasori with Kakuzu, and I'll team up with Kabuto?"
Pain fell silent for a moment upon hearing this, then turned to look at Sasori.
"I have no objections."
Sensing Pain's gaze, Sasori didn't refuse, instead snorting lightly: "If he dares to make a move on me, I'll turn him into a puppet."
"Since that's the case, let's assign them like this for now. New members will join in a few days."
Seeing he had no objections, Pain also nodded and retracted his gaze.
He paid no mind to the thoughts of Yakushi Kabuto, this reserve member.
In Pain's view, Yakushi Kabuto joining Akatsuki was already his honor and good fortune.
If the organization wasn't currently short on manpower, if he didn't have a large summoned beast,
Yakushi Kabuto, with only Jōnin-level strength, wouldn't even be qualified to become Akatsuki's reserve member.
Yakushi Kabuto, having been assigned, also said nothing, merely looking again at Orochimaru.
"Then, Lord Orochimaru, please take good care of me."
"Heehee~ I quite admire you, Kabuto."
The two, each harboring their own sinister designs, smiled at each other.
"If there's nothing else, then this time..."
"Wait a moment, Leader."
Pain was just about to deactivate the Magic Lantern Body Technique when Orochimaru suddenly spoke up to stop him.
"Almost forgot."
Seeing everyone look towards him, Orochimaru said with a serious expression: "I encountered that masked man who defeated the AB Combo and killed Shisui of the Body Flicker."
Instantly, Sasori, Kakuzu, and the others who had some understanding of the masked man looked at Orochimaru with strange expressions.
The smile on Yakushi Kabuto's face remained unchanged, but he understood inwardly.
"Seems that underground base Lord Master took me to was taken from Orochimaru's hands."
So, those inhuman, non-ghostly products in the lab were also modified by this guy Orochimaru?
Truly a disgusting interest.
Kakuzu also took the initiative to speak: "I remember that masked man's strength is considerable, right? The Fourth Raikage hasn't appeared much in the outside world these past few years, constantly recuperating from injuries."
"So, how did you manage to escape from his hands, and you still look alive and kicking?"
Orochimaru's lip twitched.
Now that I think about it, that guy didn't seem to be trying to kill me.
Could he really have intended to recruit me?
Then why did I rush to escape to Ryūchi Cave, almost dying in there?
Orochimaru shook his head, banishing the unnecessary thoughts.
"Heehee, don't underestimate me. I have my trump cards too."
He straightened his expression, saying seriously: "I bring this up because I hope you will all be vigilant towards him."
"Oh?"
Zetsu beside him blinked, saying with great interest: "Regarding that masked man's abilities, do you have any intelligence?"
Some time ago, it had thoroughly searched for that masked man.
But found no trace whatsoever.
Unexpectedly, now that it had given up the search, he proactively surfaced.
"That masked man's strength is very high."
Orochimaru emphasized his tone: "Really strong. At least stronger than most people present here."
Hearing him say this, the others present became interested.
"Taijutsu comparable to Princess Tsunade's, genjutsu ability capable of manipulating the five senses, and ninjutsu with versatile power and an upper limit comparable to a Tailed Beast Bomb. Uncertain if he has other trump cards..."
Orochimaru said in a low tone: "Perhaps your taijutsu is stronger than his, perhaps your ninjutsu is stronger, perhaps your genjutsu is stronger. But I don't think any of you can be stronger than him in all aspects, right?"
"Regarding that masked man, I actually also know some details~"
Just then, Yakushi Kabuto spoke with a slight smile: "I heard his codename is Ame-no-Minakanushi, from an organization called Crimson Moon. Specific members are unknown."
The members looked at each other, their previously flippant and amused expressions turning somewhat more formal.
"Oh my my, looks like we've met a fellow organization then~"
Only Zetsu still maintained his usual flippant demeanor.
The group didn't doubt the authenticity of Yakushi Kabuto's intelligence.
Although they didn't know where Kabuto got the information, it must have been through some special channels.
His account was detailed and coherent; its credibility was indeed very high.
And this was precisely the effect Yakushi Kabuto wanted.
Similarly, it was also the effect "Lord Master" Menma wanted.
"A behind-the-scenes organization with an unknown purpose?"
Pain remained silent for a moment, then said calmly: "No matter who he is, if he dares to stand in Akatsuki's way, before the might of a god, he is utterly fragile."
...
Click!
After Menma left Nonō's room, he turned and went back to his own secret laboratory.
It was already fully equipped with powered devices, illuminating the lab as bright as day.
The center was an open space for movement; detection electronics and an operating table were also in place.
Floor-to-ceiling transparent cylindrical tubes filled with green solution contained various parts extracted from animals and humans.
And the experimental equipment "gifted" by Orochimaru was now already arranged in his laboratory.
"Orochimaru truly is a treasure trove. He directly allowed me to transition from the cellular level to the genetic level." A delighted expression Menma couldn't hide appeared on his face.
The laboratory Hyūga Hizashi prepared for him earlier was merely one focused on cell observation.
Although Menma had also made some modifications, he had only added some small petri dishes and simple equipment for gene extraction.
The entire lab still lacked the conditions for large-scale gene experiments.
But with this new equipment, he could now conduct experiments at the genetic level.
Thinking this, Menma took out the sealed Hashirama arm.
"Orochimaru clearly delved into genetic experiments, yet he was still fooling Danzō with organ transplants. This is really..."
Thinking of Danzō treasuring this arm, Menma couldn't help but shake his head with a sneer.
This entire right arm embedded with Sharingan, although severed from Danzō, didn't actually belong to him at all.
His transplantation method was extremely crude: directly implanting Hashirama's flesh and Sharingan into Shin's arm, then grafting it.
From beginning to end, it only involved organ-level transplantation and fusion, not even cellular-level transplantation.
It could be called the lowest grade, most unstable type of fusion method.
Even if successful by a fluke, the body would constantly be under the threat of rejection and rampage.
This could be seen from Danzō's battle with Sasuke, where Danzō, due to excessive chakra consumption, lost the balance of Yin and Yang within his body, causing the implanted Hashirama flesh to instantly rampage.
The surgery Menma performed for Naruto earlier involved cellular-level fusion regarding the Hashirama cells.
Of course, the Mangekyō Sharingan was still a simple and crude organ transplant.
Uchiha Madara's and Obito's transplants were also cellular-level.
This type of cellular-level transplant tends towards stability after success.
But in Menma's view, cellular-level transplantation was still not perfect.
For example, Uchiha Madara's Hashirama face on his chest, and Obito's half-white body.
Truly perfect transplantation should be at the genetic level, followed by cellular, and lastly, organ level.
Madara, Obito, and Naruto's transplants were all between the cellular and organ levels, belonging to imperfect cellular-level transplantation.
Danzō's transplant, clearly, was organ-level.
Menma needed genetic-level transplantation.
Although the difficulty is great and the possibility of failure high, once successful, it will be very stable, and its plasticity will also be very strong.
Moreover, after completing the surgery, physical features wouldn't change at all; bodily changes would be contained at the cellular or even genetic level.
"I'm not used to using others' eyes, nor do I want to have my best buddy on my chest like Uchiha Madara."
Sighing with emotion, Menma then looked at Uchiha Shin, still unconscious nearby.
Unsure if it was due to excessive consumption from awakening the three-tomoe, or if the blow was too great, this guy hadn't woken up yet.
"But it's good he hasn't woken up. Saves him the suffering."
Menma took out a large dose of anesthetic and injected Uchiha Shin directly.
Ensuring this guy wouldn't wake up during the experiment and interfere with his process.
Next, Menma placed Shin's cell tissue, Hashirama cells, and Zetsu's cells separately into small petri dishes, then filtered them through a centrifuge filtering instrument.
After observation under a high-precision microscope, Menma confirmed the cell tissues in the remaining ten petri dishes still retained activity.
Although all cell tissues were damaged to some extent, the degree of damage was within acceptable limits.
Next was to set aside the White Zetsu cells, then place Shin's cells, Hashirama cells, and Sharingan cells together to form a control group.
After injecting the three cell tissue samples into petri dishes at different ratios,
Menma stood quietly aside, observing the results.
Before long, the cell tissue in the first petri dish rampaged due to an excessively high proportion of Hashirama cells, turning into a sapling.
Menma, as if having anticipated this, showed no change in expression, removing it from the incubator.
Then he calmly observed the situation in the other petri dishes.
Soon, reactions successively appeared in the other petri dishes.
Two more petri dishes' cell tissues either rampaged or lost activity, then were removed by Menma from the incubator.
This experiment continued until sunset, then persisted until the next day's sunrise.
Such a long, uninterrupted experiment made even Menma's spirit feel somewhat unable to hold on.
However, he had already managed to deduce the "All Creation Formula" to a basically stable degree.
But Menma looked at the cell tissue sprouting green shoots, still frowning deeply.
"Let's try again. The more stable it is, the more beneficial for my later development."
Thinking this, Menma recorded the experimental results on a computer, then started a new experimental group again.
Unsure how much time passed, unsure how much experimental material was wasted.
This time, among the ten petri dishes, the cell tissues in three of them survived for three hours and showed no adverse reactions.
"Between 10.154614 and 10.154615?"
Menma looked at the ratios of these three experimental groups, his tightly furrowed brow finally relaxing considerably.
After eliminating the petri dishes that showed abnormal changes, Menma transferred the cell tissues from these three petri dishes separately into three nutrient tanks, simultaneously inducing cell tissue proliferation.
As nutrients were continuously supplied, the cell tissues also grew continuously.
Saplings gradually grew on two of the cell tissues, leaving only one piece of cell tissue still standing firm.
"10.1546142?"
Menma let out a long breath.
He recorded the detailed data again in a paper file, then placed it into a sealing scroll.
Looking at the very stable piece of flesh, Menma pondered for a moment, then turned and walked out of the laboratory.
He once again arrived at the Kurama clan grounds.
"Lord Master!"
"Teacher!"
Looking at Kurama Unkai and Yakumo kneeling on one knee before him,
Menma waved his hand: "You two come with me now. I need to perform surgery on you."
"Unkai, this surgery can restore your physical constitution to its peak period. As for Yakumo..."
Menma rubbed his chin, finally saying: "Besides greatly improving your physical constitution, this surgery might even make your Kekkei Genkai ability stronger."
The All Creation Formula had now been deduced to an extremely precise degree.
Based on the current formula, Menma could create something like a "gene fusion liquid".
Although for ordinary people, the possibility of awakening Sharingan and Wood Release is very low, not even one in ten thousand,
It can at least strengthen various bodily functions.
And with this successful case, perhaps in the future, things like "Shikotsumyaku Gene Fusion Liquid" or "Byakugan Gene Fusion Liquid" could be created.
Although the success rate of awakening Kekkei Genkai isn't high, it's safe enough, beneficial without harm.
Hearing this, Yakumo and Unkai exchanged glances, joy evident in both their eyes.
"Yes!"
The two bowed their heads respectfully in acknowledgment, then followed Menma out of the room.
(End of Chapter)
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