Chapter – 38: Initial attempts at cloning

[Rei POV]

It's been two months since the kidnapping incident. There has been no major development since then. Yesterday, I have completed activating the tenth gene and have to cast Seal of Ouroboros again.

There hasn't been too much of an improvement per se; only my Sharingan's powers and range increased a bit including its genjutsu prowess. Maybe the increase in powers is exponential?

After getting the research data from Hiruzen, I started my initial attempts at cloning. From Tsunade's memories, I know that she didn't delve deeper into this topic at all as she was more interested in healing existing people instead of creating new ones.

There has been only one true goal for me ever since I started this journey, 'Immortality!' I know that it will be a very long journey, but I am not going to risk dying before even taking a step towards that goal just because of being too weak to protect myself. Hence the need for a substitute body for me to walk around in, as dying without even knowing why is not going to be on my to-do list.

Some might think it as cowardly, but I know or rather I realized after looking at death once right in the eye that power, wealth, glory, happiness, etc., all of these only exist as long as you are alive. Even if you are a god, once you die, everything becomes meaningless. Although everyone might revere Hashirama, Madara, or even Hagoromo himself for their prowess, they all died in the end! So, for me, staying alive is the foremost priority.

Until now I have been going around in the body of my clones using the dream control technique, but this has two major flaws.

The first being the body itself! Even if the clones created by ninjutsu are almost exactly the same as my real body, at the end of the day they are just clones; not real bodies. First of all, they cannot regenerate chakra which limits their usage in the long term. In addition, after graduating from the academy and becoming a genin, I will have to join a three-man cell and go on missions with my Jonin sensei. Sending out clones will no longer be an option then as getting hurt during missions is a common occurrence and I can't have my body disappearing in the middle of a mission. And I for sure am not gonna risk sending my real body there.

The second is the control technique I use to take control of the body. Although the environment simulated by the A. I chip is good and there is no delay between my actions and the clones, it's still not actual control. There is this nonintuitive gap between me and the clone that I am trying to eliminate and create a true control technique! The idea is to take dream control as the base and have my consciousness directly descend onto the clone instead of a virtual environment and eliminate the need for a dream environment entirely while retaining the ability to operate in long distances.

I have been thinking of ways to solve these two problems for almost a year now. The issue with the body was actually simple to solve, create a new body for myself; a meat shield to be exact. But the problem with the control technique stumped me for quite some time. Then it occurred to me, I don't have to create a brand new technique from scratch myself, I could search for similar techniques and improve them to match my needs. There are such techniques close to me, and that too here in Konoha! The Yamanaka Mind Body Switch Technique and Mind Clone Switch Technique!

They are hidden jutsus so my Sharingan couldn't copy them and as the Yamanaka will not just hand them over, I have been making some other plans for getting them. On the other hand, the kidnappings gave me an opportunity to get my hands on Konoha's cloning research, which will help me greatly in creating a perfect body for me to use.

Inside the Origin space.

I sigh looking at the blob of mess inside the huge cylindrical glass container.

'Nineteenth failure! what is it that I am doing wrong?' I ponder.

Currently, I am using my own cells to create the clone as that is what I will be needing in the near future. I have identified and fixed numerous parameters during these trials to create a clone body, but I have yet to succeed even once! Forget about the internal organs, the clones I have created till now didn't even have the distinct shape of a human being, they were just a blob of flesh.

'A. I chip, analyze and identify reasons for failure!'

[Beep! New task established. Begining analysis…]

[Beep! Analysis complete. Identified 9 possible reasons. 1. During the first step… 2… ]

'I still have a long way to go!' I sigh looking at the long list of reasons for failure, 'There is no need to rush this as I still have three more years at the academy. In the meantime, I need to once again concentrate on finding the missing active genes and also plan to get the Yamanaka clan jutsus.'

'A. I chip, bring up my stats,'

[Name: Uchiha Rei (Chunin). Strength: 31, Agility: 28, Vitality: 32, Spirit: 27, Chakra: 387, Status: Soul injury (slight).]

[Bloodline: Uchiha (Three tomoe), Active genes: 10(limit), Bloodline activation: 37.037%]

'Show me the status of my soul injury,'

[Soul injury: caused by splitting soul when creating Ghost-I Parasite. Estimated days for recovery: 1 year 2 months. Note: growth in chakra is reducing the time required to completely heal the injury.]

'That's good news, I thought I had to wait till my graduation to use it again.'

'A. I chip, establish a new task to simulate the method create a permanent parasite!'

[Beep! New task established. Initiating simulation… 1… 2… 3… Done! Estimated time for completion: 1 year 9 months]

'Great!' I think as I carefully start my twentieth attempt at cloning.