Chapter 40.1- Gamer of the Desert

“So now that you’ve figured it out, what do you want to do?” Chiyo asked as we both stared at the specimen in front of us. A floating mass in a vat that had bones sticking out of it. It was, all things considered, quite a disgusting sight. Just a massive lump of flesh with white bones poking out of it. But it was proof of concept. I ignored the notice that I’d gained five levels in Wet Tinketing from finally completing the project. My Wet Tinkering skill worked a bit differently than all the others. In stead of getting better on a daily, ore even hourly scale as I continuoly practiced, it was more like the skill leveled up with completed projects. I couldn’t intuitively do anything that was out of the range of my existing skills, but that also wasn’t a hard cap. Not when it came to this skill. I couldn’t do it intuitively, but with studying, experiments, and even by leaning on other people’s skills like I did with Chiyo. This was as much her project as it was mine even if it was only the Wet Tinkering skill that finally gave us the starting point to work things through from. 

“Obviously move on to human trials.” I answered, only to get a resigned sigh from the woman. 

“I knew this was coming” She said as I felt her fingers move with the sand that always floated in the air around me. 

Puppets sprung into action, moving for my body at once. I did an excellent job of pretending to be startled, in my own opinion. Eyes wide, mouth slightly ajar, and taking a few seconds to react. 

Of course, when I did, it was with maximum brutality. Sand, sharpened with wind release energy, floated around me in concentric circles, slicing every puppet that dared attempt to lay a hand on me to pieces. 

“Wh-what are you doing Chiyo?” I asked, adding hesitation and shock to my voice

“You know precisely what. You think I’ll just sit by and watch you turn into Orochimaru? You think I’d let you kill dozens of children for you to accomplish your goals?”

“The fuck are you talking about?”

“The clinical trials”

 I burst into laughter. Full blown laughter. Doubled over, holding my stomach kind of laugher. 

“You think I intend to experiment on children? What kind of idiot psychopath do you take me for? The wolves are at the door. Konoha is coming. Iwa is stirring, and Kumo waits patiently for a chance to strike at us. With all this to consider, do you think I would spend the majority of my time. Hours upon hours, day after day for weeks on a project that would see no return for years on end?” I asked, looking at her like she had an extra head. I saw the betrayal and attack coming, but the rationale behind it was just ridiculous. 

“But how would you do it then?”

“Easily. Why do you think we’ve been experimenting on dead cells? We’ve been perfecting the process for integrating the kekkei genkai into an already existing body. All we need to do is perfect the process so chakra rejection is not a problem, and we will have no difficulty integrating it into teenage subjects at the very least. Adults might be far off with the fact that their chakra systems are fully developed and such things do not take kindly to change.” I said, explaining to her. I could see where she was coming from, even if I was fine with making her sound stupid. To be completely honest, if I hadn’t just gained seven levels to the Wet Tinkering skills, I’d actually have been forced to use infant test subjects for at least the earliest part of the project. 

But seven levels up, and I could see ways to skirt around the body’s refusal to be changed. I could see ways to force the kekkei genkai in. Sure, with what I had now the best I could do was with someone whose chakra network was so terribly mutilated that it would have no power to reject the imputed kekkei Genkai. Even better, I could heal the chakra network with the kekkai genkai. Transplant Kimimaro’s entire fucking chakra network along with the base genes for the Dead Bone Pulse. It was ambitious. Ambitious and slightly stupid. Just the kind of project I’d love to undertaker and thankfully I had the perfect specimen. 

XXXXX

“Is the subject prepped and ready to go?” I asked Chiyo who was serving as my second set of hands for this surgery. Normally, there would be an entire team of medics attached to an experiment of this scale, but the truth was the team was small for a reason. I could not trust most of the village. Even those who were ostensibly on my side could be coaxed and cajoled into revealing something that they ought not to. No, no one would know what I was trying to do until I perfected it. 

When I finally figured out Kekkei Genkai transplanting, things could finally begin to move. The last two months had been a tense affair on the borders. We had both Iwa and Konoha nin at their respective borders itching and raring to go. War would come sooner or later, but while Danzo cemented his rule, he would not strike. Doubly so for whoever ended up in the Tsuchikage seat at the end of the day. Almost three months since the death of Onoki the Fence Sitter, and the best that the grumpy rock heads had been able to do was narrow down the list of potential replacements to two. A father-daughter conflict it was to be. Kurotsuchi was the one chosen by Onoki. She was the one that the Kage who had led them for decades trusted to lead them to the future. Kitsuchi, on the other hand, was the undisputed greatest ninja of Iwa who didn’t have a tailed beast in his belly. He wasn’t S-ranked. But he was so high among there A-ranks that the distinction might have simply been academic. I didn’t have much of an idea as to his precise strength level, but what history had shown was that people could oftentimes grow into the seat. The secret techniques of the Kage who came before was a hell of a level up for any newcomer to the seat. 

Kitsuchi was the easy choice. The safe choice. But still there were those who spoke that it was not Onoki’s will. And when you add Kitsch’s reluctance to take up the seat himself, you had a conundrum on your hands. One candidate with no desire for the position, and another with all the desire in the world but very little in terms of support. 

I was proof of concept that a young Kage could work, but the fact that I’d not just beaten her Grandfather, but also captured her and her bodyguard so thoroughly that it was only through the help of an outsider that she was able to escape, was a black mark on her record. And it was a stain that did not wash off easily. She was supposed to be the Tsuchikage’s bodyguard at the end of the day. Letting him get killed was a failure on her part. I was not so blind that I did not see the similarities between her situation and mine. 

“Yes he is. Sedated and prepared for the surgery. The needed damage has been inflicted. Shall we begin?” Chiyo asked me in return as we walked into the room. 

I kept my eyes on the specimen on the operating table. A young man. A boy, really. He could have been no older than 16. He was a Genin from Iwagakure. When the need for test subjects became apparent, I’d sent a clone across the border to do some hunting and of all of the captured ninja, he was by far the least promising. That was why he got the rare pleasure of getting to go first. 

A/N; In progress. Working on it. How’s it going?