Chapter - 42: First success in cloning

[Rei POV]

As in the canon, Kakashi was put under Minato's care after his graduation. Minato doesn't have his own full genin team yet. I believe Kakashi and Minato will be doing some lower-ranked missions for the time being.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with me. After Kakashi's graduation, everything settled down for me too. After getting the cloning research from Hiruzen and collecting the Yamanaka hidden jutsus, I don't have any other things that I am lacking; for now at least. All that is left is to wait for A.I chip to simulate the control technique while I myself continue working on the cloning research.

According to the research data from the Second Hokage, the cloning process can be divided into three important steps. Cell isolation, Embryo creation, and finally Growing the Body.

In any cloning process, the first step is to isolate the cells from the organism that one wants to clone. Ideally, the stem cells are needed to be used but that's not a must-have. Any cells, even ones from the skin can be used!

After isolating the cells, an embryo needs to be created. In my previous world, this step was considered unethical and hence many countries had outright banned this research. But the Second Hokage being a genius as always, found a workaround; a different way of creating the embryo without having to involve human experimentation. Because of the existence of Chakra in this world, there exist many materials that couldn't even have been imagined in my previous world. Basically, Tobirama was able to find a way to create the embryo from naturally occurring materials instead.

Finally, the embryo with the host cell is placed in a Nutritional tank to nurture the embryo and wait for the growth of the clone body. Normally, this process will take from anywhere around two to three months. But filling the tank with expensive nutritional fluids, the time required can be reduced to about one and half to two months.

With the five hundred million Ryo I have, I could act a bit more prodigal and purchase the most expensive of nutritional fluids reducing the time required for step three.

'Even with all my caution, trial #33 failed too…' I sigh.

There are too many uncertainties in the cloning procedures. I have to thank the heavens because, when I asked for the research data, Hiruzen only had a few minutes to complete the deal and didn't have much time to mess it up before handing it over to me. Although they did make some modifications, it wasn't anything the A.I chip couldn't notice and fix. If they had made any more changes or modified some of the key steps, I would have needed to spend way too much time identifying and restoring them.

Even with the actual data, the first few attempts failed before I was even able to complete the embryo successfully. The reason for that is the uniqueness of Uchiha cells. Therefore, I could only use Tobirama's research for reference and I had to find the right parameters by trial and error. After that, when I thought I had successfully created a stable embryo, after allowing it to grow for months, all it could produce was a blob of flesh!

Anyway, after numerous attempts, I have perfected the first two steps and I am really close to perfecting the third step as well. All of it is thanks to the A.I chip, without which I don't even know how long it would have taken. One thing I couldn't understand is why Tobirama gave up on this research. From his research data, I found that after he succeeded in the second step, and was close to finishing the third step too, however, he never truly completed it. Maybe because of the war? Orochimaru must have finished it after getting the initial data from this research. It would have been so much better if I got the finished version instead!

'A.I chip, show me why it failed,'

[Beep! …]

…

Two months later, inside the Origin space.

'A.I chip, start recording!'

[Beep! recording started…]

'Research log, trial 34, Entry #67'

'Internal organs: stable, Brain activity: normal, Heart rate: normal, Breathing: stable…'

[Beep! Recording saved.]

'Finally! finally succeeded!' I have the urge to cry at this point.

In front of me is a huge cylindrical container inside of which is what appears to be an exact copy of me albeit a bit paler. This is the result of nine months of my hard work; my first successful clone. The clone is suspended inside the container filled with a transparent fluid. It had its mouth and nose covered with a ventilator whose pipe was connected to a mechanism at the ceiling of the container that was providing the necessary air for breathing.

'A.I chip, scan, and display the stats for this clone.'

[Beep! scanning…]

[Beep! scanning complete!] [Name: Uchiha Rei [Clone]. Strength: 26, Agility: 22, Vitality: 27, Sprit: 0, Chakra: 0, Status: Healthy.]

[Bloodline: Uchiha (Three tomoe), Active genes: 11(limit), Bloodline activation: 40.74%]

'Mmm, the cells I used are three months old when I just completed activating the eleventh gene, so the bloodline part is no surprise.'

'This is just a husk or a meat shield without a soul, so Spirit and Chakra values makes sense too…'

'But why are the stats lower than mine? It only has close to two-thirds of mine…'

[Beep! The reduction in stats is estimated to be the outcome of the imperfections in cloning technology used.]

[Do you wish to optimize the cloning technology? Yes / No]

'Ah, how can I forget, A.I chip can optimize it for me,' I smile and select Yes without a second thought.

[Optimization initiating, estimated time: 76 hours.]

'Close to three days, ha? I have no plans to create any more clones right away so it's fine,' I ponder, 'A.I chip, show me the progress on control technique!'

[Beep! True Control Technique: progress 96.45%, estimated time: 6 days 13 hours]

'A week, just a week and all my plans can commence…'