On the night of the Nine-Tails, I shattered the Tailed Beast Ball with a single punch.

When Shisui mentioned training, Itachi thought of Kabuto. With Kabuto sparring with him, his strength improved even faster.

Itachi thought for a moment and then said, "Not bad."

"That's good. How about a long-awaited battle to see how much you've improved, Itachi?" Shisui challenged Itachi.

Although the current Itachi would be instantly defeated if he faced Shisui when he got serious.

However, when fighting Itachi, Shisui would deliberately suppress his strength, serving as a sparring partner.

Shisui felt that Itachi was a lot like him. Although he was young, he was good at thinking and could think about many questions that adults would not.

"Okay." Itachi nodded and assumed an attack stance.

call out!call out!

Two kunai flew toward Shisui.

Shisui didn't even activate his Sharingan; he simply shifted his body slightly and easily dodged the two kunai.

Boom!

The bitterwood was firmly planted into the tree.

However, Itachi didn't expect to defeat Shisui with just two kunai.

In his previous battle with Shisui, Itachi realized that Shisui was a ninja without any weaknesses, and the only way to defeat him was through sheer strength.

Itachi swiftly launched three more shuriken. However, this time the shuriken were not as simple as the kunai from before. The three shuriken clashed together and finally stabbed towards Shisui at an odd angle.

Shisui smiled slightly. This was something he had taught Itachi. Itachi was still too green to use this against him.

Shisui swiftly pulled a shuriken from his ninja tool pouch, narrowed his eyes, calculated the trajectory of the collision, and then unleashed a burst of chakra, violently throwing the shuriken.

Dangdang! !

Three consecutive metallic clanging sounds rang out.

Shisui's shuriken deflected the shuriken that was about to hit him.

The shuriken that was deflected then deflected two more shuriken, and in the final collision, it sent Shisui's original shuriken flying toward Itachi's position.

Itachi's chakra surged from his feet, and he retreated sharply, dodging the strange shuriken.

Itachi had to admit that he had just shown off his limited skills; compared to Shisui, his shuriken throwing was far inferior.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball!" Itachi quickly formed hand seals and soon spat out a fireball two or three times larger than himself, which hurtled towards Shisui.

Shisui smiled slightly and formed the exact same hand seal as Itachi.

Fire Release: Great Fireball!

Shisui also spat out a large fireball, pressing it down on Itachi.

Although Shisui held back a lot, he was still a powerful figure who had made a name for himself in war. When the two fireballs collided, Itachi's fireball was instantly suppressed.

Itachi was not surprised that his ninjutsu was ineffective. He withdrew his chakra and quickly flashed into the water.

Zizi!

A powerful fire-style attack exploded on the river surface, generating a large amount of water vapor that obscured visibility.

Whoosh!

The moment the white mist appeared, three running sounds suddenly rang out.

Three Itachi Uchiha attacked Shisui from different directions.

However, Shisui easily recognized Itachi's true form, grabbed the attacking Itachi with his right hand, and with a forceful swing, shattered the two shadow clones of Itachi.

"How did you find me, Shisui?" Itachi asked curiously as he got up from the ground.

Shisui pointed to Itachi's wet clothes and said, "Itachi, you used Shadow Clones after coming out of the water, right? Apart from your real body, the Shadow Clones' clothes are all dry."

Itachi was stunned. It wasn't that he hadn't thought about the problem of his clothes getting wet, but at that moment there should have been a white mist obscuring his view, so only his general shape should have been visible.

How come they even noticed whether my clothes were dry or wet?

Seeing through Itachi's confusion, Shisui pointed to his blood-red eyes.

It turns out that, at some point, Shisui had already awakened his three-tomoe Sharingan.

"Under the power of the Sharingan, your weaknesses will be magnified infinitely, so when fighting me, you must not reveal the slightest weakness," Shisui gently reminded him.

Itachi nodded, remembering the lesson he had learned: when dealing with enemies with Sharingan, one should not try to use smoke to obscure their vision.

Shisui pulled out a wakizashi from his back, went into the forest to cut some wood, brought it to Itachi's side, and then lit it with Fire Release.

The two sat down in front of the fire and began to chat.

"Shisui, what have you been busy with lately?" Itachi asked curiously.

Although Shisui was busy, he still managed to find time to guide him in his practice and have heart-to-heart talks.

Shisui thought for a moment, then said, "It's a confidential project, so I can't tell you, but it's a very meaningful project."

"Very meaningful?" Itachi became even more curious, but since Shisui had said it was a confidential matter, he didn't ask for more details.

Shisui nodded and said, "It's very meaningful. If it succeeds, the relationship between the village and the family will improve."

“That is indeed very meaningful.” Itachi nodded.

Although he was very young, he could sense the conflicts within his clan and village; something seemed off about the atmosphere of the Uchiha clan.

Sometimes, he would hear his Uchiha clan members coming to his father, Uchiha Fugaku, to complain about the village.

"Shisui, will you still be so busy in the future?" Itachi asked.

"This week will be relatively easy, but things will get busy later." Shisui nodded.

Seeing Itachi's silence, Shisui smiled, ruffled Itachi's hair, and said with a smile, "To borrow a phrase from Captain Nagasawa, a ninja should do what he is supposed to do, not what he wants to do."

"This time, I finally have the chance to do what I want and what I should do, and I want to do my best to do it."

"Captain Nagasawa? Who is he?" Itachi asked curiously. Shisui actually quoted Captain Nagasawa's words, which meant that person was definitely recognized by Shisui.

“He was one of my seniors, a true inheritor of the Will of Fire. There is so much I can learn from him,” Shisui remarked.

"..." Itachi didn't speak, silently memorizing the name Nagasawa.

This was no longer just Shisui's approval; Shisui held him in high esteem.

Itachi was very curious: what kind of person could someone be so highly regarded by Shisui?

"Actually, I recently met a nice person..." Itachi thought for a moment and started talking about his encounter with Kabuto.

Chapter 135 Secondary Interstitial Cells

Orochimaru's laboratory.

Nagasawa was watching Orochimaru conduct human experiments.

That's right. After studying Hashirama's cells and Sharingan for a period of time, Nagasawa and Orochimaru resumed human trials.

"I didn't expect that the Hashirama cells would undergo such changes in him. However, even if the experiment is successful, the upper limit will be much lower."

Orochimaru looked at the Root ninja lying on the operating table and discussed the experiment with Nagasawa.

After Orochimaru's research, Yamato's experiment could not actually be considered a success.

But it can't be called a failure either.

It can only be said that it was a success, but not a complete success.

For some unknown reason, the Hashirama cells in Yamato's body are not complete Hashirama cells, but rather incomplete and youthful versions.

However, because of this, its corrosive power was greatly reduced, which is why Yamato was able to survive.

Orochimaru named that cell the Secondary Hashirama Cell.

Orochimaru originally did not want to research secondary Hashirama cells, as he felt that they could not satisfy his desire for vitality, nor could they significantly enhance his strength.

However, Nagasawa had a different idea. He believed that secondary interstitial cells should be more effective than interstitial cells, which were more likely to cause the experimental subjects to die suddenly.

In order to max out Whitebeard's power before the Nine-Tails' Night, and even unlock the third panel, he needs Konoha to quickly increase its prosperity level.

Therefore, he needs the research results of secondary Hashirama cells. If he can use this result to create a Jonin-level Wood Release team, it would be a significant help to Konoha.

Who knows how long it will take for Orochimaru to fully master the real Hashirama cells?

And there's no guarantee that it will yield any results.

To truly balance the power of Hashirama's cells, one needs the spiritual energy of a Sharingan at the Mangekyou level.

Obito was unharmed because, strictly speaking, Madara didn't use the original Hashirama cells, but rather White Zetsu cultivated using the Gedo Mazo and Hashirama cells.

Currently, the only person in Konoha with the Mangekyou Sharingan is Fugaku Uchiha, the current head of the Uchiha clan, and even then, it's only a possibility, not a certainty.

Therefore, Nagasawa strongly suggested that Orochimaru first study the secondary Hashirama cells, saying that research should proceed step by step, which might be faster.

Perhaps Orochimaru was impressed by Nagasawa's previous performance, because this time he didn't stick to his own ideas, but instead followed Nagasawa's suggestion and began researching secondary Hashirama cells.

Thanks to previous experience in studying interstitial cells, research on secondary interstitial cells progressed very quickly, soon reaching the stage of human trials.

The Root members that the two had captured during their raid on the Root organization's base also came in handy.

The one lying on the operating table right now is the same Root Base leader from before.

In their calculations, he was the strongest of the captured Root members and the most likely to succeed.

At this point, Orochimaru had gouged out his eyes and replaced them with Sharingan obtained from the Root base, and his body had also been injected with secondary Hashirama cells.

Nagasawa and Orochimaru didn't know this Root member's code name, but that didn't matter. In Orochimaru's laboratory, he had a new name.

Secondary Experiment Subject 1

The secondary cells are secondary intercolumnar cells, and the first experimental subject was chosen because he was the first to be tested.

The secondary cyborg cells have been in the first experimental subject for some time now, and this is the moment that will determine success or failure, so Orochimaru and Nagasawa are watching closely together.

Under their watchful eyes, Subject Number One's body convulsed violently, his face contorted in agony, and his three-tomoe Sharingan eyes spun incessantly, seemingly on the verge of merging together.

However, the last test subject eventually calmed down, and the two looked at the laboratory's display screen.

At this moment, all of the data of the first test subject were stable, and the heartbeat was normal. Unlike before, when it was sometimes so fast that it felt like it was about to burst out of the chest, and sometimes it would suddenly stop moving, as if it was repeatedly jumping on the edge of death.

Nagasawa sighed, feeling slightly disappointed.