The prosthetics Hikuro had developed for ordinary shinobi were proof enough of his burning Will of Fire.
Yet he also had one obvious weakness: his fondness for beautiful women.
Perhaps due to the painful memories of his childhood, Hikuro’s personality had grown somewhat extreme.
But in the eyes of the Uchiha, such flaws were trivial.
Fugaku remembered how he had once sent one of the clan’s most beautiful women to Hikuro, only to be completely ignored.
Though Hikuro was certainly drawn to beauty, it seemed he was only interested in female shinobi who had earned fame and renown on the battlefield—hence his relentless pursuit of Tsunade.
When Danzō had gifted him Yagura, the Blaze Release user, Hikuro had been so captivated that he did not return to his beloved laboratory for ten full days.
And when he finally did, he presented Danzō with a set of extraordinary mechanical enhancements.
According to Hikuro, anyone equipped with them could fight on par with a Kage-level shinobi for up to thirty minutes.
The only downsides were that they would break down after only three uses, and the materials required were so rare and costly that even the village could not afford to produce them in large quantities.
Fugaku thought long and hard, but could not think of a single female shinobi from the Uchiha who was widely known across the nations.
Until—his gaze drifted toward his own wife, Mikoto Uchiha.
In her youth, Mikoto had been one of the most talented and powerful shinobi in the clan.
After marrying him, however, she had stepped back from active duty, and her name had gradually faded from the world’s memory.
Fugaku quickly pushed such inappropriate thoughts aside, then turned back to Shisui with a serious expression.
“Please tell Lord Orochimaru that I will be waiting to receive him at my home.”
Fugaku was naturally cautious and indecisive, but that did not mean he was blind to the shifting tides of power.
Supporting Minato Namikaze during the war had been the smartest decision of his life.
Ever since becoming clan head, his greatest wish had been to help the Uchiha fully integrate into Konoha.
His ultimate dream—and that of every member of the clan—was to one day see an Uchiha rise to become Hokage.
He only hoped to achieve this through peaceful means, but many within the clan were far more radical, even threatening to seize power by force if the village refused.
Now, with Minato as Hokage, and Hiruzen and the advisors growing older and less influential, the path ahead was clearer.
If the Uchiha played their cards right, it was not impossible to see a Fifth or Sixth Hokage from their ranks.
Unfortunately, the clan had made many missteps in the past.
Looking at Shisui, Fugaku sighed inwardly.
The younger generation of Uchiha seemed to be drifting further and further away from the possibility of holding the highest office.
If only you had not died so young, old friend Kagami…
Back at his home, Hikuro had finally released all the frustration and anger that had built up over recent days, leaving him feeling much lighter and more at ease.
He knew full well that the main reason he could not break through to the Kage level was the deep cracks and instability within his own heart.
They say the Sharingan is the mirror of the soul, but in Hikuro’s view, chakra itself was the true reflection of one’s inner self.
It was a near-universal power, bound closely to the mind and spirit.
For those with unshakable will, breaking through their limits in the heat of battle was a common occurrence.
Hikuro turned his gaze toward the flower pots on the balcony, where several rather unremarkable-looking plants were growing.
He had brought them back from the Forest of Death during his experiments—originally nothing more than ordinary flora.
But after several days of testing and nourishment, they had begun to change in subtle ways.
At first, his research had focused solely on the human body, with the goal of boosting his own power.
Now, however, the Third Great Ninja War had just ended, and no large-scale conflict was expected to break out anytime soon.
This gave him plenty of time to delve deeper into the true nature of chakra.
One pot held a type of fern, known for its rapid reproduction and commonly used as a mild medicinal herb.
Yet under the steady infusion of Hikuro’s chakra, it had developed astonishing vitality.
Even if it was chopped into several pieces, new growth would spread across the soil within just a few days.
Beside it grew a carnivorous plant similar to a pitcher plant, which had grown noticeably larger over the past week.
Small creatures like sparrows or mice that wandered too close were quickly lured in and consumed.
Other plants—an orange tree that grew far faster than normal, and a resilient herb known as Flow-Grass, which could be dried into hay and still spring back to life when watered—were also undergoing strange and wonderful changes within this chakra-rich environment.
Of course, these transformations were not accidental.
Yet even these results were not the most important part of his work.
Slowly, he walked over to the largest glass tank in the living room, which held a collection of nearly transparent creatures.
If one did not look closely, they would have been impossible to see.
They drifted slowly through the water, waving long, delicate tentacles.
The only sign that they were alive was the faint, cold blue light flickering between their clustered bodies.
These were rare aquatic creatures found only in the deepest oceans, which Hikuro had asked Danzō to capture and bring back.
The moment he first saw them, he had been filled with excitement, and immediately placed them in his home to observe closely.
He kept them constantly surrounded by dense chakra and even fed them regular doses of shinobi blood.
Eventually, he made a thrilling discovery—these creatures shared many of the same characteristics as the Turritopsis dohrnii, or “immortal jellyfish,” from his previous world.
In a sense, that jellyfish was the only known organism capable of true biological immortality.
If conditions were favorable, it could live indefinitely.
It possessed a unique ability: once it reached full maturity, it could revert back to its earliest polyp stage, then grow and mature all over again in an endless cycle—unless it was eaten by a predator.
For centuries, the pursuit of eternal life had been Orochimaru’s greatest obsession, and Hikuro shared that same ambition.
Even though he believed he was already walking the right path, he remained curious about every possible method of achieving immortality.
Besides, he had gathered many women around him, and not all of them possessed the potential to reach the godlike power of the Six Paths.
Therefore, he needed a technique that could grant longevity to anyone, regardless of their natural talent.
Orochimaru had spent decades studying the subject, yet the methods he had developed were still incomplete.
His so-called reincarnation technique was deeply flawed, existing only as a theoretical possibility.
Even his Living Corpse Reincarnation was nothing more than a false form of immortality.
Hikuro found such methods unacceptable—but did he truly have the ability to develop a technique that could work for ordinary people?
“Monday to Friday – Update 3 Chapters a Day”
“Saturday and Sunday – Off”