Chapter 73: Chapter 71 – A Daunting Project

Hiruzen Sarutobi slowly put his pipe on a corner of his desk. The gesture served less to clear his mouth than to gain time. Koharu and Homura looked equally flabbergasted. In front of them, Jun Uchiha just raised an eyebrow, as if he really didn't see what shocked them so much.

About a year had passed since the massacre of the Uchiha clan. A year as clan leader, and already he was shaking the system like a tornado.

Jun Uchiha had never deserved special attention before his mother's death. Of course, he was a good shinobi. Not of the caliber of some geniuses, but… he was a talented ninja, one of the most promising jonin in the village, and probably their best candidate to succeed Jiraiya as Konoha Fuinjutsu master.

The fact that his mother was kicked out of the Uchiha clan was well known. And then there was the death of his mother. The confrontation in the Hokage's office, where he had revealed his Sharingan. Hiruzen knew this Dojutsu was activated with intense emotions and that it might have been the argument with Fugaku that had caused it... But he couldn't help thinking that Jun had awakened his Sharingan long before.

Hiruzen was suspicious because he bested Itachi eight hours later, and no one could beat Itachi without being exceptionally well prepared.

Everything had spiraled out of his control from the murder of Hazuki Uchiha, Hiruzen thought with a hint of resentment. He had offered Jun a chance at retribution, hoping that he would demand that the Uchiha Clan lose police management or at least have Fugaku removed from his position. It would certainly have helped to defuse the situation while placing the blame for the decision on Jun's shoulders and not his. Jun would have been the scapegoat.

But no, he had refused to take revenge. Honorable, certainly, but that had left the situation at an impasse. Hiruzen had to resolve to disarm the police himself at the risk of increasing their resentment. But that had required a long meeting with the clan chiefs, a lot of discussions where the tone quickly rose, and... That had given Danzo time to order a purge. Hiruzen should have seen it coming. He knew that Danzo was terribly suspicious of the Uchihas, but he had believed… He never would have thought…

And immediately afterward, Danzo was dead. He was defending his idea to Hiruzen, trying to justify ordering Itachi to eliminate his clan. They were both livid with fury when his head exploded. Like that, boom, without warning. Hiruzen still remembered the blood and pieces of his friend’s brain splashing his face and clothes. At the time, He had felt shock, dread, horror, and anger toward the one who had dared to assassinate one of his former comrades. Was he angry with the murderer or with Danzo himself, who had betrayed him? He did not know.

He still didn't have the answer the next day when Jun Uchiha, who had protected his family, defeated Itachi, and whom he had just made clan leader, looked him straight in the eyes and confessed to the murder.

Danzo had stolen Shisui's eye, and Jun had gifted a seal to Shisui before his death. It was as simple as that. Danzo stole a Sharingan and lied about it. He told Hiruzen he didn't know what happened to Shisui and that his death was tragic. It was all lies … And he had paid the price.

Jun couldn't be blamed for anything. The trap had been created to protect a Konoha’s Dojutsu from enemies, and the theft of Shisui's eye had undoubtedly been the work of someone with bad intentions. Did Danzo attempt to use the Shisui’s Mangekyo Sharingan on his Hokage? Hiruzen didn't know that. Or rather he knew it; he simply refused to believe it. It was bad enough to have lost his friend in the middle of an argument, in the middle of realizing that he had already lost him and probably for years. He didn't want to admit to himself how blind he had been.

But he would never make the mistake of underestimating Jun Uchiha again.

He couldn't blame him for giving his Raging Rupture seal to Shisui, who had been his friend. But the Sandaime’s attitude toward Jun had changed. The teenager was no longer, in his eyes, someone favored by luck who had survived many tragedies. He was a mature, competent, and dangerous shinobi, who had achieved the feat of eliminating the greatest threat to his family, Danzo, without even setting eyes on that person. Therefore, Hiruzen couldn’t afford to underestimate Jun.

He had kept an eye on him when he had adopted Sasuke at his request. He had kept an eye on him when he had participated in the clans’ meetings. He had kept an eye on him when he had temporarily joined the unit led by Shiba Arata to reconstitute a police force worthy of the name. But he found nothing to reprimand him for.

Jun Uchiha truly had the best interests of the village at heart. He was involved in the matters of clans but remained in the background. He had given useful suggestions to Shiba and was in no way trying to usurp his place. He treated Sasuke with respect and affection, taking the time to pick him up from the Academy with the rest of his other kids. Hiruzen asked himself how did little Neji Hyuga find himself integrated into that family. He hadn’t the slightest idea.

Of course, even if Hiruzen remained in the background, his advisers did not do the same. Hiruzen was ashamed of Danzo's death, ashamed that his friend had put himself in such a position, ashamed that he had been killed by a mechanism so clearly intended to protect a Konoha weapon against village enemies. But Koharu and Homura didn't see that. They simply saw Jun as a shinobi who had killed their friend and showed no remorse. They knew Danzo had been stupid, reckless, and traitorous, that he had stolen Shisui's Sharingan. They weren't foolish enough to blame Jun for creating a working seal. No, they were angry with him for not being sorry.

But how could Jun have been sorry? That was what they didn't seem to realize. Jun did not see Danzo as a loved one whose loss needed to be mourned, despite his dishonor. Jun saw Danzo as Shisui's murderer, as the one responsible for the Uchiha massacre. And it was chilling to realize that someone knew or at least suspected that Itachi was not the mastermind behind it, that it was the administration of Konoha who had pushed him and given him the green light. It was those to whom the village had entrusted its security who had organized the massacre. Jun saw Danzo as someone whose death had been justified, and whose murder he should even celebrate.

So, for a year, Koharu and Homura had multiplied the pikes at the teenager. They had criticized Jun's placement in the Division but clashed with Shikaku. They had then sought to criticize his temporary position in the police force, to which Jun had responded by leading the recruiting efforts so well that Shiba demanded that he be given compensation for it.

Undeterred, Koharu and Homura had tried to break into the Clan Council to find fault with his way of doing things there, but Jun seemed to have a strong alliance with the Inuzuka, as well as the implicit support of the Nara and the Yamanakas. In addition, his conduct was exemplary. Koharu and Homura then criticized his sister, Izumi, arguing that an Uchiha was wasted in a medic role. It was the only time Jun had gotten angry, and he had taken the whole medical ninjutsu department to side with him.

No medic-nin had taken well to the fact that the counselors thought their path was a waste of talent. Koharu and Homura had never retreated so quickly. They had learned their lesson and no longer tried to attack Jun's family. Their new angle of attack had been to imply, quite heavily, that Jun must probably retire to marry and repopulate the clan. Their reasoning? The Uchiha clan must quickly rise in numbers to be a true asset to the village.

Koharu had said that in the middle of assigning a mission. The chunin on duty at the mission distribution office, the other three teams in the room, and Kotetsu and Izumo, Jun's partners for that mission, had all heard it. And Hiruzen had seen them all hold their breath because everyone knew that one of the biggest points of contention between Jun and his late grandparents had been them trying to tell him how he should live his life.

Jun, very calmly, replied that if Koharu was that worried about the low number of Uchiha, she should ask the hospital if they had the means to do what he called natural cloning.

The silence that had fallen over the room had all the delicacy of a concrete block. It was heavy.

And so Hiruzen was there, trying to save time with a few mechanical gestures, while his brain raced because … How could Jun have heard of cloning? The last one to have tried it was Orochimaru. Was he seriously talking about cloning Uchiha? Was he crazy, was he under a Genjutsu?! And why the hell did Koharu give him the opportunity to bring this up?! Hiruzen was sure it wasn’t something Jun thought of in the spur of the moment. He was probably been reflected on it and was waiting on the perfect opportunity to bring it up.

“Natural cloning,” The Sandaime repeated weakly.

“Indeed,” Jun answered without blinking.

No one in the room had yet spoken. Everyone seemed to be going about their business, but they were all paying attention. Homura coughed.

“Hmm… Cloning is, by nature, unnatural.”

“Not exactly,” Jun countered without flinching. “Identical monozygotic twins could be seen, to a certain extent, as an example of what I call natural cloning.”

"And what do you have in mind?" Koharu blurted.

Jun sighed.

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“I know that, for some strange reason, when talking about cloning to shinobi, the first thing that comes to mind is the brutal implantation of foreign DNA into the body of a baby in the hope that he develops the Kekkei Genkai specific to this DNA. But it's not cloning, it's the irrational stupidity of a mental patient tweaking the laws of nature without any inhibition.”

Everyone was very careful not to look at Hiruzen. Hiruzen himself stopped breathing for a second. Everyone knew, but no one gave a name. However, the venom in Jun’s voice did not hide his disdain for Orochimaru. Hiruzen should have felt reassured: it proved that he had no intention of following the same path. But he was too pissed off for that.

“I'm talking about natural growth here,” Jun continued without pausing. “Technically, all we would need to create a clone would be the DNA of the person to be cloned and a surrogate mother with a functioning uterus.

Hiruzen suddenly realized that he was going to explain to them how to clone a human being and that in his mind it was an S-rank technique… and he damned the fact that there were several people in the room. The Hokage raised his hand abruptly. Jun immediately fell silent, and the Sandaime looked around the room.

“Leave us.”

Everyone quickly cleared off. But Kotetsu and Izumo didn't move an inch. When Hiruzen's gaze returned to them, Jun crossed his arms.

“They already know.”

Obviously. Jun Uchiha had a vast entourage, with whom he shared everything. No less than fifteen different shinobi seemed to have an open invitation to his house. Fugaku hadn't let more than three strangers set foot in his home in the last ten years of his life, but Jun had nothing to do with Fugaku. The Sandaime rubbed his forehead and asked resignedly:

“How many people know?”

“Susumu, my former teammate from the Intelligence Section… Rio, my little sister's jonin-sensei, who is also a medic… My sister Izumi and probably her teammates. Anko, Genma, Kotetsu, and Izumo, who were there when I told Anko about it… Iruka, although I don't think he understood everything when I mentioned it to him… And the rest of my family, of course, we discussed it before.

Hiruzen calmly put his pipe back into his mouth. He needed a little help with this conversation.

“Describe this natural cloning to me.”

Jun narrowed his eyes.

“A viable fetus starts from an embryo, and the embryo is formed by an egg cell. Natural cloning would consist in replacing the nucleus of the ovum with that of a differentiated cell… containing the DNA of the person you are trying to recreate. Thus, the embryo which will develop will not be made up of a mixture of the DNA of the father and that of the mother, but of a preselected DNA.

"Replacing a cell nucleus isn't natural either," Hiruzen argued.

"No," Jun readily admitted. “But it is far from being barbaric. It's a little manipulation in the lab that doesn't hurt anyone. Then the egg is implanted into the surrogate mother's uterus, and we just let nature take its course.”

There was a short silence. It was… so simple. And logical. Orochimaru had never tried that; Hiruzen was sure of it… But… He suddenly realized that it was because Orochimaru would never have had the patience to care for a surrogate mother for nine months, then a baby whose abilities would not appear for several years. He wanted immediate results. But Jun wasn't talking about making a perfect clone, he was talking about giving birth to a child, to a member of his clan...

“The baby won't be identical to the person whose DNA was used for the cloning,” Izumo pointed sharply, looking nervous.

“Yes, yes,” Kotetsu added who looked as uncomfortable as him. “In the end, the kid would only be half-Uchiha.”

Jun sketched an amused smile.

“It's not really an obstacle to awakening the Sharingan, though.”

Yes, he was the living proof of it.

“Half-Uchiha? While the DNA used would be entirely Uchiha?” Koharu questioned.

She was already contemplating the idea. She wanted to approve the cloning. Hiruzen made a mental note to throw her out the window as soon as this meeting was over. Jun didn't need to be encouraged in his crazy ideas.

"The surrogate mother," Jun explained with a vague wave of his arm. The baby only develops its own chakra after birth. Throughout pregnancy, it will be supplied with chakra by the mother, and we all know that chakra can impact the genome.

The Inuzuka and their animal chakra gave them sharp canines. The Aburame and their chakra favor the development of insects… the Uchiha and their chakra predispose us to handle the Katon… Hiruzen understood his point.

“But the mother's chakra won't completely change the baby's DNA,” Jun added, nodding.“The kid would probably be…two-thirds Uchiha in reality.”

He turned to Hiruzen. Everyone turned to Hiruzen. He realized that it was up to him to authorize the project. And he couldn't dismiss it, since it was Koharu and Homura who had insisted on expanding the Uchiha clan, and Jun had just offered them a viable, humane solution that interested his advisors. If he refused without giving them a good reason, he would look bad. He would look like an idiot whose advisors were making plans behind his back. And apparently, that was what he was these days, but he still have to save face.

“I want a report on the viability of the project within the week,” he said calmly. “But let us first deal with the mission for which I have brought you here today…”

And once he gave them this mission, he was going to have a good talk with his advisers. Because if Jun Uchiha reintroduced cloning to Konoha because Koharu nitpicked about the clan's small size, he didn't want to know what he was going to come up with next. This stupid war of provocation had to stop immediately before Jun pulled some other completely insane thing out of his hat.

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