Biting cold winds, laden with snowflakes, swirled around this forgotten corner of the Land of Snow.
Here, a solitary laboratory stood on the boundless snowy plains, in a location where even the people of the Land of Snow never ventured.
Inside the laboratory, Takuno leaned against a lounge chair with his eyes closed. His physical body was in a deep slumber here, but his spirit had long since left its shell.
At this moment, he was using the Spirit Transformation Jutsu to anchor his core consciousness within a foreign body.
Inside the "vessel" carrying his will, his spiritual phantom maintained a cross-legged sitting posture, appearing as calm as the deep sea on the surface.
However, subtle, strange noises echoed in the quiet laboratory, coming from the body being controlled.
Looking closely, a thread-like blue-white electric arc, like a playful lightning sprite, would occasionally jump and flicker across the skin, emitting a faint "sizzle" sound.
Yes, Takuno was repeatedly attempting to reconstruct the core secret technique of Kumogakure in this laboratory: the Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
Compared to the complex and ever-changing Kekkei Genkai involving fusion, analyzing this secret technique, renowned for its powerful enhancement, seemed to have a clearer path in Takuno's view.
He was not without support: his innate Chakra control, polished to perfection, should have been his trump card for learning any Ninjutsu.
This should have been a massive advantage—
However, the reality was quite the opposite.
It wasn't that his control over Chakra was insufficient, nor was it that the control requirements for this secret technique were unreachable.
The root of the obstacle lay in the fact that this body was not Takuno's own.
The Spirit Transformation Jutsu itself maintains a fragile link between spirit and flesh, requiring extremely exquisite Chakra control to stabilize the framework.
An even more arduous task was that he also had to constantly use his own spiritual will to suppress the host's instinctive, subconscious resistance, which was a persistent and massive mental burden.
Under such demanding double consumption, it was already not easy for the Chakra control ability he projected onto this strange body to reach an "excellent" level of smooth operation.
But for the research on the bonuses of the Lightning Release Chakra Mode, this "excellent" level of Chakra control appeared pale and weak.
His true reliance was not that control ability, which was weakened to the extreme by the environment, but rather the vast sea of human anatomical knowledge and profound Medical Ninjutsu expertise in his mind, especially his thorough understanding of the human body.
This was his foundation to begin with. Moreover, his Shadow Clones were constantly studying the precious medical scrolls obtained from Tsunade, continuously funneling new knowledge and insights into his main body, causing his medical understanding to deepen further.
At this moment, his mind was operating at high speed, calling upon all knowledge regarding muscle structure, neural pathways, and energy nodes.
The essence of the Lightning Release Chakra Mode is to use Lightning Chakra that has undergone nature transformation to precisely and intensely stimulate the entire body, forcibly increasing physiological activity to burst forth with extraordinary strength and speed.
The more one understands the texture of every muscle, the conduction of every nerve bundle, and the key points of every energy convergence, the more precisely one can grasp when and where the "stimulation" should occur, as well as how to regulate and guide the intensity to achieve optimal directional enhancement.
Countless days and nights of immersive research were finally beginning to bear fruit.
Recalling the beginning, the experiments were full of uncertainty, and it took consuming several precious "materials" just to barely forge a path.
But this accumulation of technique and perfection of knowledge was inevitable.
Now, he had long since bid farewell to that chaotic early period, and every step of his research was on a mature and stable track.
He had successfully mastered how to use Lightning Release Chakra to provide efficient, independent, and targeted strength or speed bonuses to specific parts of this body, such as the limbs, chest, abdomen, and back.
Takuno sighed silently, "Now, I'm only missing that critical step: integrating the scattered local enhancement schemes into a coordinated, functioning overall system."
He knew that once he crossed this threshold, it would mean his analysis of the Lightning Release Chakra Mode had finally taken a landmark step toward preliminary success.
Accompanied by a mental "humming," the spiritual core hidden deep within the foreign body was finally withdrawn.
Takuno slowly opened the eyes of his original body. The cool air touched his real skin, bringing a long-awaited sense of reality.
He moved his somewhat stiff neck, then raised his hand, his slender fingers massaging his temples. Forcing his mind to drive someone else's body through high-intensity Chakra operation trials caused mental fatigue to spread deep within his consciousness like a water stain, even for him.
The round of experiments that had just ended was highly effective. Under the drive of his will, any part of the possessed vessel had undoubtedly been successfully enhanced by Lightning Release Chakra according to the settings.
At this moment, the grounded feeling of his spirit returning to his original body was mixed with a hint of excitement for the unknown.
He needed a short rest. Once his spirit recovered, he would no longer rely on the bodies of others; instead, he would practice those Lightning Release enhancement techniques, earned through countless risks and knowledge, on his own body for the first time.
Takuno leaned back in a quiet spot to rest, but his thoughts did not stop.
Various recent events also surfaced in his mind, particularly the situation at the orphanage and the transformation of Zabuza, which became the core of his considerations.
Yakushi Nono's dedication to taking in and caring for the orphans was confirmed by what he had heard and seen, proving that her compliance and emotional investment were genuine.
All of this was within Takuno's expectations; he knew Nono's temperament all too well.
A person who was kind and soft-hearted at their core would not slacken in her meticulous care for the children, even if she perhaps realized that Takuno might have ulterior motives for this move.
Those young lives, regardless of their circumstances, were innocent in her eyes and worthy of protecting with everything she had.
This was Yakushi Nono's creed, almost as if it were firmly etched into her bones.
Regarding this, Takuno felt no ripple of emotion in his heart, let alone guilt.
What did it matter if his motives for taking in these children were complex? In the end, weren't those little lives, who were originally struggling on the brink of death and could have withered at any moment, able to breathe and find shelter because of the hand he extended?
Without his intervention, this orphanage might not even exist, and the more likely outcome for these children would have been to freeze to death on the streets or die of illness in back alleys without a sound.
It was he who gave these orphans the right and possibility to survive, so what was there to feel guilty about?
On the contrary, the dramatic transformation of Zabuza had somewhat exceeded his projections.
What was originally just an attempt had actually catalyzed results far exceeding expectations in a short period.
Once he realized that the root of this change was tied to Haku, Takuno understood instantly.
Between these two, there seemed to exist a magical bond nurtured after the fact; as long as they were placed under the same sky, it could catalyze an unexpected chemical reaction.
Takuno's thoughts then turned toward these two scarred souls.
Zabuza was once an iron-blooded tool determined to restore the glory of the Hidden Mist. He had dedicated all his loyalty and strength to the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi, burning only for that "correct" goal in his heart.
However, reality gave him the heaviest backstab. The Fourth Mizukage's policies changed overnight, and his methods of bloody suppression were even worse than those of the Third Mizukage, pushing the village, already deep in the Blood Mist, into an even more terrifying abyss.
His faith collapsed instantly, and the unbearable Zabuza resolutely launched an assassination, the result of which was also predestined.
From then on, the Hidden Mist lost a loyal Shinobi, and the world gained a rogue Shinobi who had lost his homeland, his direction, and his dreams.
He drifted numbly through the cruel trade of bounty hunting, the meaning of his life long since hollowed out, leaving only an empty shell walking the earth.
Haku also once had an ordinary, warm little family.
A sudden nightmare easily crushed her happiness when the Ice Release Kekkei Genkai hidden within her body was exposed.
This talent brought no glory; instead, under the sway of ignorant panic and violence, it instantly pushed her into hell.
Her mother was brutally killed by the villagers while trying to protect her. The immense grief and anger triggered her out-of-control power, and the rampaging Ice Release froze the entire village.
From that moment on, her world fell completely into endless darkness. She became a monster utterly abandoned by the world, with no one casting a direct gaze at her, let alone seeing a glimmer of light for the future.
Survival itself became a form of torture, until Takuno extended a hand to her, only then casting the first ray of warm sun into her frozen heart.
Precisely because Haku had truly sunk into that nightmare named despair, and the taste of being rejected by the entire world was unforgettable, she could more accurately touch the equally cold, hollow bottom of Zabuza's soul.
This shared pain and mutual understanding became the bridge connecting them.
So, when Haku took the initiative to walk toward that lost Demon, wanting to reach out and pull him a little bit, then a little bit more, from his state as a walking corpse, Takuno could also objectively understand this mutual sympathy.
Some pains can only be truly touched by those who have experienced them, and only they know how to reach out and try to heal them.
Furthermore, nothing major had happened over in Konoha.
Thanks to the high-level Wood Clone technique he had mastered over these days, he had solved his previous biggest concern.
Every time he returned to Konoha, he would infuse a sufficiently abundant amount of Chakra into the Wood Clone double.
This power was enough to maintain the Wood Clone's lifelike activities for several days, completely getting rid of the tedious process of having to rely on ordinary Shadow Clones, returning to Konoha in person every night, and performing the replacement the next day.
Even if some unexpected events occasionally occurred, the Wood Clone could have his crow summoned beast notify him, allowing him to return early to replenish Chakra.
So now, the time dimension for replacing the clones had been quietly lengthened, which also made him much more relaxed.
As his thoughts flowed, Takuno began to deliberate on the next step of his plan.
The foundation of the connection between Yakushi Nono and that target orphanage had already been initially solidified.
It was also time to scatter some carefully prepared bait to lure that long-hidden fish, Yakushi Kabuto.
This thought surfaced clearly in his mind, and he subconsciously raised his hand, pressing his knuckles against his slightly throbbing temples to massage them gently.
Although this matter could already be started, there was still no need to be in such a hurry. After all, the top priority was the barrier that could isolate the disturbing Natural Energy.
"Once it is successful, I will start setting this trap," Takuno already had a plan in mind.
Regarding the development of this barrier, the results from his Shadow Clones' research over the past few days had been remarkable.
A basic barrier to isolate energy was not considered difficult for an existence like him, who already stood at the peak of the Shinobi World's Sealing Jutsu field.
If not for the fact that the characteristics of Natural Energy itself were too eerie and capturing its perception was fraught with difficulties, he could have designed a completely new shielding scheme with a wave of his hand on the first day he started the research.
Now, with the Cursed Seal and Jugo's cells assisting on the side, even if his perception of Natural Energy was not clear, he was still progressing methodically.
To this day, the framework of that hard-earned isolation barrier has finally been completed, and the entire research and development process has officially entered the critical testing and verification phase!
He only needed to pass the next few rigorous practical verifications to confirm its stable and reliable performance, and this barrier for studying Sage Mode could be put into practical application.
A continuous stream of ideas and verification scenarios flashed through his mind, bringing with it a slight tide of fatigue.
As his consciousness gradually sank, Takuno gave up resistance, allowing himself to be embraced by the gentle darkness.
No matter what extraordinary realm one's own strength reaches, a hearty sleep is always the most primitive and effective nourishment for the spiritual source.
The light inside the laboratory had long been diluted by the falling twilight outside the window, leaving only the cold silhouettes of the instruments whispering in the gloom.
Time was like hourglass sand, quietly leaking away without a sound.
Finally, Takuno opened his eyes, which were full of spirit. There was not a hint of fatigue in those eyes; instead, they flickered with a sharp light like an eagle's.
The accumulation of several days had reached the moment of testing.
He took a deep breath, adjusted his posture, and that familiar, obedient Chakra within his body, which responded to his every whim, began to flow according to his will.
"One's own Chakra is still the best," a sigh of praise crossed Takuno's mind. That sense of control was pure and direct, requiring no Barriers or the need to divert his mind to suppress the spirit of the material.
At first, his operations still carried a few points of cautious experimentation, for fear of repeating the obstructions from when he previously possessed the materials.
However—
No accident occurred. That slight sense of sluggishness that occasionally appeared in the foreign bodies completely melted away like ice and snow before his extraordinary Chakra control, where his spiritual barrier and body were in perfect harmony.
Not only that, but this body, forged through his thousand-fold tempering, possessed strength and potential that were far beyond what those temporarily used "materials" could compare to.
Driving those weak shells before was no different from driving a wobbly, near-scrapped mobility scooter to participate in a race on a professional track.
Even if his skills were superb and he managed to finish the race and get a passing grade purely by relying on his control, only he himself knew the strain and discomfort involved.
But at this moment, having returned to his own peak vehicle, this blood-linked original body, it was like sitting in a custom-made top-tier racing car!
Driving it forward now was more than just handy; it was so easy that he could achieve a perfect score even while driving with his eyes closed!