"Now this is interesting."
Sasuke's original plan had been straightforward.
After transplanting the First Hokage's cells and successfully merging with them to gain extraordinary vitality and an unending supply of dojutsu power, and perhaps even acquire the Wood Release Kekkei Genkai, the nature of the original divine tree, the next step would be to transplant Uzumaki Naruto's somatic cells.
He intended to merge with both the First Hokage's cells and Naruto's cells.
He already had Naruto's cells in his possession.
As for how he had obtained them, that was a secret.
Although both the Senju and the Uzumaki clans had inherited the Sage Body from the Otsutsuki's Asura, the two were not identical in nature and couldn't be considered close to the original Otsutsuki Sage Body.
The Senju and Uzumaki were related clans sharing common ancestry. Only by combining both would something approach the true Otsutsuki Sage Body.
More importantly, the First Hokage had been the previous generation's reincarnation of Asura, while Uzumaki Naruto was this generation's.
Sasuke wasn't certain whether merging only the previous generation's Asura cells would be sufficient to awaken the Rinnegan. To be safe, he chose to incorporate Naruto's cells alongside them, maximizing his chances of awakening it.
Beyond the powerful Yang Release attribute present in both the First Hokage's and Naruto's cells, there was another consideration.
One carried strong Earth and Water Release chakra. The other carried strong Wind Release chakra.
Sasuke's own natural affinities were limited to Lightning and Fire. By incorporating both, he would complete his elemental range across all five natures.
Years ago, when Sasuke and Naruto had made their rivalry pact, there had been another purpose behind it beyond simply having a training partner.
Encouraging Naruto to focus on taijutsu was partly because Naruto's constitution genuinely suited it, but also because physically demanding training was the most effective way to fundamentally strengthen a person's body.
Nothing in genjutsu, ninjutsu, or sealing techniques came close to what dedicated physical training could achieve in terms of raw cellular development.
After years of that kind of training, the somatic cells in Naruto's body had been tempered to a level most people could only look at from a distance.
They still couldn't compare to Hashirama Senju at the height of his power. But Sasuke also had the Hero Water in his possession, a substance capable of enhancing the strength of human cells.
... I'll need to get my hands on the Gold and Silver Brothers' cells as well.
Sasuke was thinking this through carefully.
Originally he had believed that by merging the First Hokage's cells and Naruto's cells with his own Uchiha bloodline, the combined heritage would already be a near-complete return to something approaching the original Sage of Six Paths.
But if the Hagoromo clan were also descendants of the Sage, then his genetic makeup would still be missing a small piece.
The Senju's Wood Release could suppress Tailed Beasts. The Uzumaki's sealing arts could contain them. The Uchiha's Sharingan could control them.
Sasuke turned these bloodline traits over in his mind, tracing the three great lineages of the Sage's descendants.
... Which would mean the Hagoromo clan's bloodline characteristic was the ability to consume the flesh and chakra of a Tailed Beast.
In the original timeline, the Gold and Silver Brothers had consumed the Nine-Tails' flesh and absorbed its chakra as their own. That was something neither Senju, nor Uzumaki, nor Uchiha could do.
The three clans could each draw on Tailed Beast power in their own ways, but directly absorbing a Tailed Beast's chakra and converting it into personal chakra was not something any of them could accomplish.
The only unknown was whether the Hagoromo bloodline descended from the Yang lineage or the Yin lineage.
Or perhaps neither.
After all, neither Asura nor Indra had ever displayed that particular trait.
Which raised the question.
So, children, how many sons did Grandfather Sage of Six Paths actually have?
Ahem.
In any case, the Gold and Silver Brothers' graves were going to need to be dug.
He didn't have any Hagoromo clan cells at the moment, but that wasn't a serious obstacle. He had the shinobi world's finest tomb raider in his service in the form of Kabuto.
Getting hold of their remains shouldn't be much of a challenge.
Browsing through Orochimaru's memories a little further, Sasuke came across another interesting existence he hadn't expected.
Uchiha Shin.
Who the hell is this?
Why had he never seen this person in his previous life?
And Danzo's arm was taken from him?
Wait, Danzo was already gone. How was that still his problem?
That was Sasuke's first reaction. After the brief complaint, genuine curiosity followed.
Uchiha Shin had apparently been able to perfectly integrate foreign tissue. That alone was extraordinary. But somehow he had also been able to cause the transplanted Sharingan in his own body to evolve.
The thing was, only those with Uchiha blood could evolve the Sharingan. Others could use transplanted eyes, but not advance them.
Kakashi was the same way. He had believed at the time that he was the one who had evolved his Sharingan, but in reality it had been because of Obito.
Two Sharingan from the same person had resonated with each other, and that resonance had driven the evolution in Kakashi's eye.
"Interesting fellow."
Sasuke gave a quiet laugh, got into bed, and prepared to rest.
Orochimaru's memories contained information on Uchiha Shin's whereabouts.
Sasuke intended to go retrieve him at some point, though he wasn't in any rush. First, he needed to prepare for the First Hokage cell transplant.
---
A few days later. Underground base. A vast research laboratory.
This laboratory was furnished with every manner of experimental equipment imaginable. Some of the more advanced pieces were things Sasuke was seeing for the first time.
He had thought the facilities in the Root headquarters' laboratory were impressive enough.
But compared to a research fanatic like Orochimaru's base, they were nothing.
At the center of the laboratory, lying horizontally across the floor, was a curved horn that stood as tall as a small hill, occupying nearly half the room's total space.
The Eight-Tails' Horn.
The Eight-Tails originally had two horns. The left one had been severed by the Fourth Raikage, A, and since then only one remained.
The severed horn had been stolen by Orochimaru during the Third Great Ninja War, when he had been commanding a combined Konoha and Cloud front as a field leader, having infiltrated the Hidden Cloud Village and caused the Eight-Tails to go on a rampage.
It was just a horn, but the chakra contained within it was staggering.
Sasuke's attention at this moment wasn't on the horn, however. He was buried in a pile of research documents and records.
The material was all focused on the First Hokage's cells: what he had taken from the Root headquarters, and what Orochimaru himself had accumulated through years of study.
The Root research was less thorough than Orochimaru's but had its own insights. Sasuke intended to combine the two as the basis for his own transplant.
After a long stretch of reading, Sasuke lifted his head from the thick stacks of material and created five Shadow Clones.
Four of them moved to the four corners of the room and established the Four Violet Flames Formation, ensuring no one would be able to enter while he was undergoing the procedure.
The remaining clone retrieved the First Hokage cell solution, carried it to one of the instruments, and set it in place.
Sasuke removed his shirt and stepped into a pale green nutrient solution tank, lying down in it.
"When you're ready, I'll begin the transplant," the clone seated at the instrument said.
"Yes."
Sasuke's eyes shifted to the Eternal Mangekyou pattern, then slowly closed. He said in a steady voice. "Begin."
"Understood."
The clone nodded and activated the instrument.
A sharp steel needle suspended above Sasuke's back by an injection tube connected to the device began moving toward his lumbar spine.
Sasuke had chosen to follow the same method used with Yamato: injecting the First Hokage's cells directly into his bone marrow, allowing his own cells and the First Hokage's cells to merge and form entirely new Sasuke-specific cells that would gradually replace and differentiate his original body cells.
For a medical ninjutsu practitioner like Sasuke, this was the most complete and scientifically sound approach available.
___
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