Chapter 30: Home Grown

I tiredly stood on top of the Shodaime's stone head as I waited for Tsunade. The day I'd just had was extremely grueling. Even with Jiraiya's advice, the progress I'd made with the Hiraishin had been slow at best. I now understood the baser mechanics of the Jutsu, but that didn't mean it wasn't incredibly complicated.

From what I understood, the Hiraishin was a form of summoning contract that you signed with yourself. That in itself didn't sound too complicated, the complicated part was that I pretty much had to make my own condensed version of a summoning contract with each marker.

On the brighter side, I now knew what I was working with. Space time Ninjutsu, while extremely difficult wasn't as impossible as it had once felt. My clone's just needed to keep studying Fuinjutsu, Jutsu Shiki and Juinjutsu and I would soon be able to use the Hiraishin.

"You're early," Tsunade said, snapping me out of my thought.

"I am," I blinked. I'd check the time now, but it's not like I had a watch. I was still a bit mentally tired from the feedback from all of the scrolls my clones had spent the day memorizing. "Sorry… If you want, I'll head over to one of the other heads and come back when you call me."

"…What do you think we're going to be doing here today, Naruto?" Tsunade asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Well, it's either a romantic date," I yawned. "Or something else that I'm too tired to think about… It's probably the second one now that I think about it."

I grumbled lightly at Tsunade's laughter. I'd invested too much energy into learning the Hiraishin, damnit. I didn't have much thought process left to figure out what Tsunade had called me here for.

"A romantic date?" Tsunade sniggered, doing nothing to hide her amusement. "Oh my poor, cute boyfriend. No, that's not what we're doing here tonight. I called you here to show you what I've been up to since becoming Hokage."

What she's been up to? I looked around the mountain top. There wasn't really anything here except for some dirt… and the civilian shelter built into the mountain. What would she want to show me there?

"Follow me," Tsunade said and left, leading me off the Shodaime's head. We walked for about a minute, traveling to the far end of the mountain where we could view the valley of trees behind Konoha before she suddenly came to a stop and placed her hands together in the snake seal. The ground rumbled and a hole opened up with a dim light flickering at the bottom. "After you."

I shot her an incredulous look, before sighing. You know what, fine. I was way too tired to argue right now.

I'd never been warned against jumping into dark holes on mountains in the middle of the night, but then again, that was probably just common sense. I landed in a low crouch and immediately took stock of my surroundings.

The chute was narrow and there was a small doorway, stepping through it, I found a small dark room with only a single candle burning atop an old rickety wooden desk and some old paper that seemed to have something hastily written on it.

I shook my exhaustion off and looked around nervously. I was getting some serious horror vibes right about now. Seriously, all this place needed now was some kind of creepy ghost crawling out of the walls to complete it.

There was a soft thump as Tsunade landed behind me, before there was a second sound of stone shifting, sealing the chute that we had both jumped down.

"Tsunade, what the hell is this place?" I asked nervously. Everything about this room made my senses scream wrong and danger.

"I'll tell you about this place in a minute. We just need to leave this room before it decides we're intruders and tries to kill us." Tsunade formed several seals before placing her hands on a stone wall.

Wait, what now?! I had so many questions, but decided I'd ask them when I was out of this creepy murder room.

The wall in front of Tsunade shifted open and she walked in with me following behind, eager to get out of the previous room. I swear, if I see some sort of mutated monsters or anything else, I was leaving this place as a large crater in the mountain.

We stepped out of the small hallway into a brightly lit room. The walls were white, the floors were properly tiled and there was a sterile smell that distinctly reminded me of a hospital.

"When my granduncle Tobirama became Hokage, he built this place for himself and for those he trusted. He used it as a place to study and create new forms of Ninjutsu," Tsunade explained as we walked further down the hallway. "He showed his most trusted student, Sarutobi Hiruzen this bunker who in turn showed Jiraiya, Orochimaru and I."

"What are you using it for?" I asked as I peeked into one of the many rooms, only to see several of Tsunade's clones, wearing lab coats and working with equipment that I couldn't recognize… in fact, the only thing I did recognize in that room was a microscope which was currently being operated by one of her clones.

"Studying and experimenting," Tsunade replied. "I've been looking over all the research that you've been retrieving from Orochimaru's bases and have been trying to figure out a way to fix my shortened lifespan. It shouldn't be too long before I'm successful. Orochimaru has done horrible things, but I should be able to put his research to good use."

This was amazing. I'd briefly discussed the problem of her shortened lifespan back when Orochimaru was still alive and I knew that she would eventually try and figure out a way to fix it, but I didn't think she'd already be this far along. In fact, I hadn't even known that she was working on this to begin with.

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Naruto," Tsunade began, cupping my cheek. "You don't need to push yourself so far. I showed you this in the hopes that you would understand that you don't need to do everything. You're already working as hard as you can to learn the Hiraishin."

I sighed and held the hand that was cupping my face. "I know, it's just… this is important and I want to help. Things are changing rapidly and I'm no longer able to predict what's going to happen next. I want the people I love to be ready for what's coming."

I won't always be around to help, even with the Hiraishin and Shadow Clones. The stronger everyone else became, the less I worry about them.

"We will be, Naruto," Tsunade reassured me. "But you don't need to over encumber yourself. It seems that you've already hit your limit for training with Shadow Clones. How many have you used today?"

That was a good question that I didn't really have an answer to. I'd initially started off with only a hand full of clones studying the numerous scrolls in the room while I overlooked the Hiraishin. Once they completed a scroll, I had them replaced and dispersed.

With the sheer bulk of information that was funneled through my head today, I was unable to know the exact number of how many clones had been formed.

"It's really not that hard to work out," Kurama grunted. "You had thirty six clones active in that room and each one of them took a half an hour in order to properly complete a scroll before they dispersed, leaving you to have studied two scrolls per hour for each one of the clones."

Just what I needed at this time of night while I was mentally exhausted, a math problem. Pushing through my haze, I began to calculate the answer… If I was right, I'd only had a little over nine hundred clones active throughout the day… That didn't sound right. Back when I was learning the five elements, I'd had somewhere between one and two thousand clones active at any given moment. Why was I this tired?

"Because of the complexity of the subject and the exponential increase of information when you disperse your clones one at a time. The five elements were just that, five with only two steps to fully master them. Fuinjutsu on the other hand… it's got hundreds of seals that all interact with each other in different ways," Kurama explained. "You're tired because you've just subjected yourself to years worth of studying a complex subject within a single day."

"Naruto?" Tsunade said, bringing my attention outwards.

"Sorry, I was trying to remember how many clones I've used today and apparently Kurama gets so bored that he's resorted to math."

"The question was meant to be rhetorical," Tsunade sighed, shaking her head. "Did the two of you figure out how many clones you've used?"

"Enough that I've experienced years of study in a day," I replied.

Tsunade blinked. "That doesn't sound pleasant. Maybe you should take it a bit easier tomorrow. There's no point in all of this training if you end up hurting yourself in some unforeseen way."

"Yeah," I muttered tiredly. "I think I will."

"Good," Tsunade patted me on the cheek, before turning around and pausing. "You know… It's not easy being the Hokage and I'm not just talking about the paperwork. Being Hokage means being the pillar that supports this village, handling reports that are top secret, sending Shinobi out on missions that could kill them. All of those things I can manage… but…" She turned back to me with a strained look on her face. "There is one thing I cannot handle and that is watching you destroying yourself in an attempt to grow stronger."

Pushing myself this hard did seem a little self destructive. My body could take it, it even thrived under the pressure, but my mind on the other hand was a whole other story. I've been pushing myself harder and harder to ensure that I came back alive, thinking that's all that matters, but it wasn't enough anymore. I couldn't just be alive, I needed to live as well.

"Tsunade," I began softly. "How about the two of us spend a little time together when we're both not busy, we could schedule a break. It doesn't need to be a restaurant, it could even be instant ramen for all I care, but so long as we both take a break and spend time together?"

"That sounds nice," Tsunade smiled prettily. It was a gentler side to her that few others had ever seen.

The Key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering, I'd been blindsided by everything that was going on and forgotten about that. There's no point in saving the world if it leaves me a shell of a person in the process.

"So, why don't you show me more of your lab, I probably won't understand a thing about it, but I'm interested to see what you've done."

Tsunade smiled and gestured for me to follow her down the hallway. "Fine then. I'll try and use smaller, more understandable words for you. You of course understand that the process of aging is caused by cells splitting, a process which thins the cell walls?"

"I might have watched a few documentaries on that," I replied, following after her.

"More than a few, if you applied the knowledge that you've got at your disposal, you could revolutionize the world," Kurama commented.

'Really?' I raised an eyebrow. I know that I'd watched more than a few documentaries on things that I'd found interesting, but I couldn't currently see how they could improve the worlds right now.

"Maybe not now, unless you want to introduce more modern weaponry, like things to allow a person to fly," Kurama replied. "But you could definitely introduce methods for international travel later on after the Akatsuki have been dealt with. This world isn't that far away from introducing things that allows instant communication over any distance. Such a thing could easily improve how the nations interact with one another."

That was an interesting thought, but it would have to wait until after the Akatsuki have been dealt with, as Kurama said… Although, such a thing might come in handy when the leaders of the different major villages needed to communicate… I suppose I could look into creating something like that once… After I'd mastered the Hiraishin.

"You done with your little conversation?" Tsunade asked slightly impatiently.

"Um… Yeah, sorry about that. Kurama and I might have gotten a bit carried away thinking about the future. You were talking about how we age because our cell walls become thinner each time they split," I reminded her. I'd gone off on a bit of a tangent there.

"Yes," Tsunade hummed, continuing on from where she'd left off. "The methods for rejuvenating those cells are few and far between. With samples for Jugo, I can see that Senjutsu does slow the aging process to a great degree while bringing out latent abilities in the body, but it doesn't reverse any damage that's already been done to the cells, so it's not a viable route to fixing the damage done by my Creation Rebirth."

"Can't Jugo drink people and use their cells to replace his damaged parts?" I asked. So long as he had a fresh source of cells, he should be able to live indefinitely.

"Yes, but that's only treating the symptom, not the cause. I would need to give myself his bloodline to be able to do that and I haven't quite gotten to that point in my research. His body is volatile and his cells are hostile to those that are incompatible, I haven't found a way to safely integrate them," Tsunade explained. "There is however another sample that I've found that's cells can split an infinite amount of times without degrading… Senju Hashirama's cells, my grandfather."

My eyes widened slightly. I'd already guessed that Hashirama's cells could do that, but I hadn't thought that Tsunade would be experimenting with them. When I'd first mentioned them, she wasn't exactly receptive of the idea of using them.

"There's really not much to say," Tsunade sighed. "My grandfathers body was unique. He had an incredible healing factor and a titanic amount of vitality, but that vitality is also the reason why it's so hard to work with his cells. If the regular cells are incompatible, they'll be filled with so much vitality that they'll explode or mutate. Using Orochimaru's research, I'm able to slow the rate at which Hashirama's cells radiate vitality, but it's not the answer I'm looking for. I want to figure out how to give a person Hashirama's full vitality without any issues, not make it weaker so it'll work."

That is a problem, but why do I feel the answer is right in front of me. "What about my cells? I also have a healing factor that's boosted by Kurama and I'm a transmigrant of Ashura just like Hashirama"

"It is one of the things I want to test while you're down here," Tsunade admitted. "But anything I learn from it will only be applicable to you."

Meaning that Tsunade won't be able to use it on herself and fix the damage done to her body by the Creation Rebirth.

On the other hand, I'll no longer have to worry about accidentally shortening my lifespan, not that it's been an issue so far, I didn't really have any Jutsu that were capable of doing that. Hashirama's body was… strange, no, unique.

My full Chakra merged with half of Kurama's while using sage mode only brought us close to Hashirama's full Chakra capacity and his regeneration factor was stronger than mine as he could shrug off fatal wounds while I would need a small amount of Kurama's Chakra to kick start that process.

It could be that I'd just not grown into my abilities yet and that I would gain that in the future, but if I could have that now, it would be incredibly useful.

"So, how are we going to do this?"

"Eager, are you?" Tsunade smirked as she came to a stop in front of a door.

Entering the room, I immediately noticed how cold it was. This one hadn't been filled with huge machines that I couldn't even begin to understand. No, this room had several glass door freezers filled with test tubes that were labeled with different names. The closest ones being labeled Hashirama and Jugo while the ones further back had the names of the members of the sound five.

Looking through the various names, my eyes widened in realization. Tsunade was having trouble integrating Hashirama's cells into others because of their vitality. It was a problem both Orochimaru and Kabuto likely had, but Kabuto had been able to overcome that and grant his body several different Kekkei Genkai.

"Sakon and Ukon," I said suddenly, turning towards Tsunade. "They're capable of merging their bodies with others. Kabuto originally used it to give himself the Dead Bone Pulse and Jugo's ability to absorb natural energy. If you could figure out how to do the same thing, you'd be able to safely absorb Hashirama's cells."

"I've already considered that," Tsunade replied. "And while the idea does have some merit, it also has many faults. There is a distinct chance that even with Sakon and Ukon's bloodline, Hashirama's cells would simply overwhelm my body. Besides, Kabuto's work was shoddy at best, what I'm aiming for is a perfect balance, not some half assed combination that's held together by a few stitches… If I wanted a body like that, I'd already have one."

True enough, I suppose. Kabuto did look a little messed up from the combination of all those different bodies. "Well what about Jugo's bloodline?" I asked. "Can't you use his bloodline to safely balance out Hashirama's?"

"That too has its problems," Tsunade sighed. "From my tests, Jugo's bloodline conflicts with Hashirama's. They reject each other and both cells are destroyed, I lost an entire room from the results of mixing their cells together. Even if it did work, there is also the problem that Jugo's bloodline grants Senjutsu, something I currently have no experience with. You don't have to stress with this, Naruto. I'll figure it out eventually."

I really did want to help Tsunade, but she was right. I had neither the expertise nor the time to help her with this. I still need to learn the Hiraishin and then there was the whole 'conflict' with Kumo that was going to need to be addressed sooner or later… hopefully sooner so I could turn my attention to other pressing matters.

"Wait… did you just say that you lost an entire room when you used Jugo's and Hashirama's cells?" I asked. I must have misheard her, because that sounded a little crazy.

"I did," Tsunade nodded slowly. "It would likely be more controllable if they were combined in a person, that way the person could actively control the influx of Natural Energy. In a petri dish, however… It led to an interesting… if disgusting reaction."

"Disgusting?" I asked, almost not wanting to know what happened.

"It grew a fleshy tree," Tsunade deadpanned. "Jugo's cells tried to consume Hashirama's cells which in turn supercharged Jugo's with vitality. Natural Energy mixed with the small amounts of Chakra in the samples, creating an unbalanced Sage Chakra which in turn activated the Mokuton bloodline."

"That… I'm really not sure what to say about that," I replied. The process sounded interesting, but when I imagined what it would look like, all I could think about was some kind of eldritch abomination. "How did that destroy a room?"

"It didn't, my clones destroyed the room out of necessity," Tsunade explained. "The… tree was growing slowly and searching for more biomass to absorb in order to bolster itself. My clones sealed the room and then proceeded to set it on fire. One it was finished burning, the air was sealed away, leaving it in a vacuum for a full week until the room was cautiously unsealed and filled with concrete."

"That seems a bit extreme," I hummed.

"I accidentally created a flesh tree that wanted to eat people," Tsunade shot back. "I think that whatever measures I took to contain and dispose of it were warranted."

"Alright… I wouldn't even know where to begin, you can handle it on your own," I surrendered. If that was the kind of thing that could be accidentally created by a medical expert, then I'd probably do something just as bad on my first attempt at helping. "It's a pity though, I really would have liked spending time with out while we figured this thing out."

"Even if you did have the knowledge to help me, it's unlikely that we would be working together here," Tsunade said and jabbed a needle into my arm to collect blood. "This lab is entirely run by my clones. I'm way too busy with my Hokage duties to oversee it personally."

Well that made me feel a little better. At least this way I knew that I wasn't missing out on spending quality time with Tsunade. Once the syringe was full, Tsunade emptied the majority of it into a vial and placed it inside the freezer, right next to Hashirama and Jugo's vial's that sat at the front.

"This should be an adequate amount to begin testing," Tsunade said, looking at the small amount of my blood in the needle.

"Wait, if you only need that little, what's the rest of my blood for?"

"This is only to begin testing," Tsunade replied, gesturing for me to follow her. "I have a few hundred tests that I want to run initially, so I'm likely going to need more blood from you by the end of the week."

Tsunade led me to another room that was empty this time. It was filled with beakers, surgical equipment and a massive microscope sitting in the center of the room.

Creating a clone, Tsunade grabbed a petri dish and emptied the rest of the syringe containing my blood in it, which happened to only be a few drops, before she placed it under the microscope and climbed into it.

"Unfortunately, our technology is nowhere near as advanced as yours, thus the microscope that I'm using is much bulkier than the ones from your world," Tsunade explained. Shifting to the side of her chair, Tsunade patted the spot next to her.

Climbing up, I squeezed into the seat with Tsunade and took a peak through the telescope. The first thing I noticed was that the blood cells were a light red verging on pink and that they were moving around in a slow, random manner.

"So those are my blood cells," I said aloud. "Neat."

"Yes, neat," Tsunade repeated in an amused fashion. "Now, if you let me observe, we can begin the next part of this small test."

"Right, sorry," I replied, shifting back.

Tsunade shot me a smirk and leaned forward to look through the telescope. "Begin the process of adding Hashirama's cells!"

The clone moved forward, under the telescope, doing something that I couldn't see. There was a clicking sound as Tsunade adjusted the telescope and watched intently, before she sighed and leaned back in the chair.

"It's just as I thought," She sighed.

"What? Am I not compatible with Hashirama's cells?" I asked. That was odd. Madara himself said that he and Sasuke shared a bond deeper than blood, so he could Sasuke's Rinnegan would work perfectly for him. Surely the same should apply to Hashirama and me?!

"No, it's not that. You're a perfect match for Hashirama's cells. There are no issues whatsoever. When I tried to combine his cells with anyone else, there was always a problem with his vitality overwhelming the other cells, causing them to mutate and break down, while with your cells there is no such issue, they're in harmony with each other," Tsunade explained. "It's frustrating. I can't tell why your cells accept each other… other than knowing you're both transmigrants of Ashura."

"Does it really need an explanation outside of that?" I asked.

"If I want to be able to fix the damage done by my Creation Rebirth… Yes," Tsunade replied.

Well damn. That was an issue… But at the same time, maybe it was an opportunity. "If I could force my cells to react with Hashirama's, would that be able to help you?"

Tsunade shot me a questioning look, before nodding. "It might be of some use."

"Good," I said and hopped off the chair. "You might want to keep your eye on those cells, Tsunade."

"What are you doing?"

"Forcing a reaction the only way I know how," I replied.

Crouching underneath the telescope, I came to a stop in front of the petri dish that sat at its base. Placing my finger against the petri dish, I let a small amount of Kurama's Chakra flow into it.

"You're using Kurama's Chakra?!" Tsunade noted with some apprehension. "It's… doing something. Your cells are accepting the Chakra while Hashirama's seem to be absorbing a small amount of it. Give it some more Chakra."

The Chakra on my hand began to bubble as it condensed into the version 1 cloak and was funneled into the petri dish. I blinked when I realized that I was beginning to see it react without even needing to use a telescope. My blood that was surrounded by Hashirama's cells began to bubble and mix together, forming a pink paste like substance.

"Something's happening. Your cells are no longer simply existing with Hashirama's, they're being absorbed into each other," Tsunade announced.

The Pink paste began to bulge outwards and grow, pressing heavily on the petri dish, it began to crack. I cut the flow of Kurama's Chakra and snatched the petri dish out from under the microscope to prevent it from being damaged and quickly placed it on one of the tables holding all of the beakers.

The petri dish broke and the combination of cells grew rapidly, stretching, one end of it splitting into five pieces, before it's growth began to slow down. It wasn't long before I realized what I was looking at. The cells had grown into an arm… and by the looks of it, my arm.

"What the fuck?" I muttered softly. Walking forward, I reached down to touch it, but was stopped by a tight grip on my hand.

"Don't. We don't know how it will react, especially to the one who contains the Chakra that just made it grow into that," Tsunade said, before locking eyes with her clone.

The clone nodded and gave the arm a quick nudge with her finger. "So far, it doesn't seem like there are any issues," The clone said as she picked the newly grown arm up. "The flesh is warm due to its rapid growth, but it is cooling. There doesn't seem to be any blood pumping through it and the muscles underneath seem to be in perfect condition."

Grabbing a scalpel, the clone cut a small portion of the arms flesh off before placing it into a new petri dish and handing it to Tsunade who placed it back under the microscope. It didn't take much longer for her to be seated and once again examining the combination of cells.

Sitting back, Tsunade rubbed her eyes and looked through the telescope again, before letting out a sound halfway between satisfied and annoyed. "It would seem that the test has been a complete success. Your cells have perfectly merged with Hashirama's. Once we implant Hashirama's cells into your body, you'll likely gain a regeneration factor that's scarcely been seen, being able to regrow entire limbs."

"That's great," I cheered. "So how do we do this? Do you just inject me with some of Hashirama's cells and I use Kurama's Chakra?" I asked eagerly.

"What, are you crazy? I'm not doing that yet. There's still far too much testing to do in order to make sure this is safe and that there are no issues," Tsunade replied. "If we do that now, you could just grow a bunch of my Grandfathers faces all over your body. We need to be cautious with this."

"Right, sorry. I guess I got a little ahead of myself," I apologized. "So what's the next step now?"

"Now," Tsunade began. "Now, we leave and get some rest," She finished, climbing out of the chair.

"Wait, what?" I began, a little dumbfounded. "We literally just grew an arm and you want to stop here?"

"That's what the clones are for! They'll continue testing for me while I take a break" Tsunade yawned as she stretched her arms over her head. "I think I'm up for a movie, how about you, Naruto, Kurama?"

"You can tell Tsunade that I wouldn't mind watching something," Kurama said.

My brain took several seconds to process what I was hearing. "You know what, fuck it. It's been a long day, I could use a little break. In fact, I've got the perfect movie in mind after all the things I've heard and seen here."

"Oh," Tsunade hummed. "That sounds ominous. I wonder what you could be planning on showing me."

"Just a little movie by the name of The Thing, trust me, you'll love it," I grinned, thinking about the flesh tree that Tsunade had accidentally created. Yeah, that movie would pair perfectly with Tsunade's own accidental Eldritch Abomination.

"The name doesn't exactly inspire horror," Tsunade replied. "But the look on your face promises that it'll at the very least be entertaining."

Oh, it'll be entertaining alright, especially for Kurama and myself.

And that's chapter 30.

We get to see what Tsunade's been up to and as it turns out, she nearly created an abomination... Fun.

It's been a bit of a tiring day for me and its technically only begun. I just got over Jetlag and now got off a 12 hour flight to more jetlag... even more fun... and I've got a 2-4 hour car drive back home now. Most fun ever.

Anyways I'm up to chapter 37 on the spooky P word website.

P
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I go by the name of ThatKircguy. Just copy the name and paste it in the Patty Rio On search bar. It'd help me out immensely, but don't worry if that's not your style. I will be uploading weekly, so it's not going to be stuck there permanently.

Also, I post my original stuff there as well. It's nothing much, just two short stories for now, but I'll post more as I write them.

Next chapter will be posted on the 26th of July.
See you all then dudes and dudettes.