Chapter 302: Secret Base
They chatted idly for a while.
The film Kazahana Koyuki was shooting this year was called "Resident Evil: The Evil Castle." The script idea had been provided by Haruno Sakura, and the filming location was also the underground bounty station that Haruno Sakura had once raided. They had even hired ninja to use Earth Style to add a complex underground section.
However, the script had been magically modified by them... It was about a certain evil rogue-nin organization secretly developing a forbidden jutsu, and then something had gone wrong. The zombies inside could spew fireballs and spit water dragons. Sakura was simply speechless.
It was hard to say whether the movie audiences of the Naruto world could accept this kind of setting. However, just having the beautiful Kazahana Koyuki acting cool in the movie was already enough to attract a large audience...
"This theme is very novel. I really don't know how you thought of it! It will definitely be a big hit!" Kazahana Koyuki said with emotion.
After finishing this topic, she had a sudden idea and asked, "Can I go visit your base?"
Haruno Sakura hesitated for a moment, then nodded and agreed to her request.
"Alright, I'll satisfy all your curiosity at once! Anyway, I'm going to use a genjutsu on you to block your memory..."
"Hmph, can't you just not use genjutsu?" Koyuki pouted, dissatisfied.
"Wait until the world is at peace! Otherwise, the more you know, the more dangerous it is for you!" Sakura said, making a helpless expression and spreading her hands. "I don't want to do this either, but... for your safety, I can only do this. Hold on tight."
She held Koyuki in a princess carry and left the Daimyo's office with a Body Flicker.
About two hours later.
Deep in the Land of Snow, in a place even more remote and inaccessible than the Snow Ninja castle, in a deep mountain rock wall.
About half a year ago, when Haruno Sakura had come to the Land of Snow for the second time, she had cut open the rock with a water blade and had established a hidden base here.
Just as she had planned: the Snow Ninja castle over there was just a cover. This base was her real base for secret experiments.
This location was too remote and treacherous. It was impossible for ordinary people to come here, so there was no need to use genjutsu to cover it up. The base, which was embedded in the rock formation and extended deep into the mountain, was perfectly concealed on the outside. Even if one were to search for it intentionally, it could not be seen from the outside.
And on the inside, she had even used Ice Style to seal the base tightly. Apart from the necessary ventilation openings, the entire base was like a hollowed-out iceberg, concealing her secrets in the thick ice. This arrangement was also to prevent people from using Earth Style to enter. Ever since she had discovered that strange person hiding in the earth during the battle with Sasori, Sakura had paid special attention to this work.
At the entrance of the secret base.
"This place of yours... is really hard to find. I can't see any sign of a base at all," Koyuki said, jumping down from Sakura's arms and watching as she used her Monstrous Strength to move away the giant rock that was blocking the entrance. She secretly clicked her tongue: Her strength is really great!
She followed Sakura in. Then the girl moved the rock back to block the entrance, held up a fireball to illuminate the surroundings. The vertical stone walls on all sides showed that this was clearly a man-made passage.
Following the long passage down, they reached the main body of the base. Haruno Sakura had gone all out and had dug out a huge cave. Walking out of the passage, there was an extremely large and empty hall. The dim fireball in Sakura's hand could only vaguely illuminate the outline of the hall.
She flicked her fingers a few times, and the fireball in her hand scattered into several small flames, which shot to the torches on the wall. The bright firelight immediately lit up the base.
Kazahana Koyuki finally saw the full view of the base: the hall was filled with all kinds of instruments, and the tables and shelves were full of various containers filled with liquids of unknown use.
On the left was a series of windowless rooms with closed doors, occupying the other half of the cave.
On the right was a wide training ground, separated by a thick ice wall. Through the transparent ice wall, several targets and wooden stakes could be vaguely seen.
The surroundings were wrapped in a thick layer of ice. Outside the ice layer was the hard rock that had been cut by the water blade.
"This place, its secrecy is still not bad!" Haruno Sakura said with some satisfaction, dusting off her hands. "I built this whole place by myself!"
Because it concerned her ninjutsu secrets, Haruno Sakura had tried her best to make it perfect.
However, her pride could only be expressed to Koyuki. This level of base, if the Land of Snow were to mobilize the entire nation's power to build it, it would probably take decades—just cutting open the stone would be difficult enough for them. But if it were left to Orochimaru, who was proficient in Earth Style, he could probably finish a pile of such bases in minutes.
"The secrecy is quite good," Kazahana Koyuki said, walking around. "But it's a bit stuffy in the cave. I thought it would be another castle or a bungalow..."
"Yeah, after living here for a long time, I feel a bit like a gopher. And it's not convenient to supply power here. I can only use my own generator, and the power is a bit low..." Sakura said with a dry laugh, scratching the back of her head.
"What are these rooms on this side?" Koyuki asked, walking to the front of the rooms on the left.
"Hn... it's my personal rest area, like my bedroom, bathroom, and such," Sakura said, walking over and opening the door.
A 100-square-meter bedroom could also be considered as fulfilling her wish from her previous life of not having lived in a mansion...
"The other side is the warehouse. I bought a lot of supplies from the Land of Fire. It's enough for my experiments and daily life for a long time. It's all piled up in there," she said, then gave a mysterious smile. "The few rooms at the very back are the secret laboratory and the storage room for experimental supplies. The things inside are my real secrets..."
"Want to go in and take a look?"
Kazahana Koyuki was stunned for a moment, but still nodded. "We've already come all this way. Of course I want to see!"
Haruno Sakura opened the door. It was pitch black behind the door, like a giant beast opening its bloody maw, about to swallow the person who entered.
The sound of the door closing startled Koyuki. Without a light source, the room immediately became extremely dark.
She almost screamed, but then Haruno Sakura turned on the light, and the room suddenly lit up. From extreme darkness to extreme brightness, the dazzling light made Kazahana Koyuki's eyes unable to open for a moment.
After a good while, she saw clearly the contents of the room and her eyes widened.
"What is this?"
In front of her was one after another of tall, upright, cylindrical containers, each a full two meters in diameter, neatly arranged in a huge array of ten rows and ten columns.
Haruno Sakura took a step forward and lifted the black cloth that was tightly covering the container.
The container was filled with a yellowish-orange liquid, and a naked human figure was floating in the water.
"This is... you?" Kazahana Koyuki's heart trembled, and she said in disbelief.
"I told you about cloning last time. You should still remember, right?" Sakura said faintly.
"That heart cloning last time?" Kazahana Koyuki nodded. "Hn... I can remember it after you undo the genjutsu."
She took a step closer, pressed her face against the transparent container wall, and carefully sized up the human body in the container.
Koyuki quickly reacted. "So, this is also a clone? The object of the copy is not a heart, but your entire body!"
After figuring this out, she suddenly took a step back and asked, a little uncertainly, "Is... she... alive?"
"That's not the right question to ask..." Haruno Sakura also walked up, placed her hand on the container, and said slowly, "It is a complete physical body and has activity, but it does not have a spirit inside."
Koyuki went around to the front of the clone, squatted down, and saw that her head was hanging down, her eyes were tightly closed, her chest was sunken, and her chest cavity was rising and falling faintly, as if she were breathing.
"She's breathing?" Kazahana Koyuki asked.
"No, that's just the heart beating... The first breath hasn't started yet."
"Look."
Haruno Sakura raised her hand, and a blue, slender rod extended from her palm. Like a phantom, it passed through the glass wall of the container and inserted into the clone in the container.
The girl in the container's eyes suddenly snapped open!
Kazahana Koyuki was so scared that she suddenly took a step back. She watched as the girl in the container moved her body. The flowing water supported her as she left the container and stepped onto the floor.
The stark-naked girl lay on the floor, took a few deep breaths. Her curled-up lungs expanded with the entry of air, and she let out a cry like a newborn baby—that was the sound of air entering her respiratory tract for the first time.
"This is the first breath," the soaking wet girl said, controlling her throat with difficulty. She had been a little unsteady just now, but in just a few short seconds, she had adapted to this body and was now able to stand up.
She moved her palms. Her fingers nimbly formed hand seals, and she transformed the water flow into clothes and put them on.
"Who are you?" Kazahana Koyuki took a step back, her expression so shocked it was on the verge of panic. "Are you a clone? Or the clone body?"
"No, I am the original."
The girl standing in front of Koyuki said faintly, while moving her body. Her throat control was already quite good, and her voice was natural, no different from her original voice.
"Look."
Sakura pointed to the blue, slender rod on her body. The blue rod was still connecting the two Haruno Sakuras. Kazahana Koyuki followed the slender rod and looked over, only to find that the Sakura who had brought her here was now lying on the ground, her eyes closed, as if asleep.
Koyuki carefully placed her hand under her nose. She was still breathing. Only then did she let out a sigh of relief.
Then she asked again, with a lingering fear, "Then which one of you is the clone, or the original?"
"Have you become stupid from filming movies?" Haruno Sakura sighed. "This jutsu, there's no such thing as a clone or an original. I'm just temporarily using this body to do some dangerous or even fatal experiments. In the end, I still have to return to my original body."
She walked over and picked up her own body.
"You mean your soul is temporarily living in this body?" Kazahana Koyuki said, biting her finger, her mind a little confused. "Then what about the original spirit and soul of this body?"
"It hasn't had time to be born yet. It only took eight weeks for them to develop from an embryo to a complete body. Such a short period of time is not enough to nurture a new soul and spirit. Even a baby only has a hazy consciousness after several months," Haruno Sakura said, carrying her own body and walking out of the room, while turning her head to signal for Koyuki to follow. "But, over time, after receiving enough external stimulation, it will naturally produce sentience and become a real human."
"Are you still not leaving? Are you trying to stimulate their souls into existence?"
Kazahana Koyuki ran out of the room in a panic. Haruno Sakura closed the light and the door and said with a smile, "I was just scaring you. It's not that easy to be born with a new soul!"
"Don't you think it's particularly creepy and terrifying in there?" Koyuki shook her head vigorously, and then stared at Sakura. "And what are you doing this kind of thing for?"
"Because there are a few new ninjutsu that must be developed with a real human body, and their danger is extremely high. I can't joke with my own body, and I can't use other living people for experiments, so I can only use my own clones!" Sakura said with a shrug, helplessly.
"What on earth is this new ninjutsu?" Koyuki frowned.
"One is to try to convert electrical energy into energy that can be used in the Yin Seal. The other is a ninjutsu that tries to overclock the brain and speed up reaction speed. Both of these are ninjutsu that can be fatal with just a moment of carelessness!"
The two walked into the main hall. Haruno Sakura placed her original body to the side and walked to the other side. "Alright, I'll demonstrate it for you, to satisfy your curiosity!"
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