Hearing from Pain that the mission was a failure, 'Madara Uchiha' was disappointed, "Even the identity of the target has not been investigated?"

"Any trace of 'Yama' has disappeared, while the three teams failed to catch 'Suijin,' the only intelligence obtained states that they are part of an organization called 'Amatsukami,' and 'Yama's is their leader!" ​ ​

"Amatsukami?" – muttered 'Madara,' while thinking to himself, 'Is the person I met at the Root base also part of this organization? But if that's the case, why do I feel that I somehow know that person!'

"You have been alive for such a long time 'Madara,' are you sure you have no clue about the Amatsukami?" – asked Pain.

Madara shook his head with a sigh, "Not that I can remember."

"Well fine, from now on, investigating Amatsukami is also part of the objective of all teams."

"That sounds reasonable!" – 'Madara' nodded.

With that discussion completed, Pain added, "Orochimaru has rebelled."

This wasn't surprising to 'Madara' and this time said after pondering over it a little, "It seems that we need more manpower to achieve our objective!"

Tendo Pain was silent and stated flatly after a while, "No one can stop me!"

…

Konoha Village, At the outskirts of the Death Forest, Hyuga Kuroto's Secret Laboratory.

After escaping from the Gokatsuki's clutches, Suijin sneaked into his laboratory and immediately transferred his soul back to the main body.

"Sigh, the damage is really too much!" – Rubbing his chin Kuroto sighed while looking at the State of Suijin body.

He didn't realize it before due to the adrenalin rush, but now that he was back in his main body, and observed the Clone-A's state that was laid on the Test Bench, he discovered that Clone-A was more damaged than he initially thought.

"The right arm is missing…"

"The muscles at the back are ruptured and frozen solid due to being penetrated by Ice needles…"

"Several of the rib bones are also broken…"

While carefully observing the state of the Clone-A, Kuroto recorded the injuries in detail.

Initially thought that losing the arm was the most serious damage, but now he realized that frostbite caused by the Ice Release at the back is the most severe.

This is because the muscle damage caused by the Ice needles has also damaged Chakra Veins and acupuncture points.

"The destructive power of Ice Release on the human body is much higher than I expected!"

Although these injuries may not be very eye-catching when all these small injuries were combined, it made the clone unusable anymore.

After collecting all the data, Kuroto thought a little and finally destroyed the Clone-A, as it has already lost all its function.

The encounter with Akatsuki has made Kuroto understand that simply Water Release wouldn't be enough to deal with the enemies of the level of the members of the Akatsuki. If he wants to ensure his safety of the Water Clone, he must learn Ice Release and master it thoroughly.

With that thought in mind, Kuroto looked at the Clone-B still floating in the nutrition tank and after nodding to himself he brought out that clone to the test bench.

After recording all the basic stats of Clone-B, Kuroto again used the 'Tenseigan Soul Descend' to transfer his soul into the Clone-B body.

It only took some time to get used to the new body with simple auxiliary movements.

While he got used to the Clone-B body, Kuroto also discovered that despite what the test data states about Clone-A and Clone-B having similar stats, that is actually not true.

While his soul is actually present inside the Clone-B, he could feel the obvious differences between the two.

The major difference is that the intensity of the primary Chakra Nature of Clone-A and Clone-B is different compared to the secondary Chakra nature of both the clones, i.e., the Water Chakra nature of Clone-A was extremely dominant over Wind Chakra Nature which is not the case in Clone-B as the ratio is slightly balanced.

This fact did increase the power of Water Release Techniques of Clone-A significantly superior then what Clone-B would perform with the same amount of effort, but Kuroto can be sure that this balanced ratio of the Chakra nature of Clone-B will make it easier for him to learn the Ice Release Kekkei Genkai.

Regardless of whether Clone-A or Clone-B, both of them are the results of the fusion of his and Haku's cells, and since Haku has awakened the Ice Release Kekkei Genkai, therefore, theoretically both the Clone bodies should be able to use the Ice Release Kekkei Genkai because the Ice Release is actually the fusion of Water Release and Wind Release.

It's not like it is only limited to those with special bloodline inheritance like the Sharingan or the Byakugan, therefore awakening Ice Release should be possible as it is more dependent on the Chakra fusion, so the difference is only the amount of effort it would take.

After a while when Kuroto was used to the Clone-B body for a while, he again dressed as 'Hyuga Kuroto' and came to the underground residence where Haku lived.

Bringing Haku to a distant forest from Konohagakure, Kuroto ordered him immediately, "This time I want you to use Ice Release Techniques, take it slowly from how you form ice from the basic level."

Haku nodded and gently stretched out his right hand with the palm facing upside, and slowly a snowflake took shape in Haku's hand.

Kuroto observed the entire process with his Byakugan and observed the direction and method of Chakra flow while Haku formed the small snowflake in his hand.

In his field of vision, he could see that when Haku used Ice Release, the ratio of fusion of Water Chakra Nature and Wind Chakra Nature is 8:2.

Out of which, the major role is of Water Chakra; related to the shape transformation while the Wind Nature is only added for the Nature integration.

After recording this data, Kuroto ordered, "Now show me your Ice Release ninjutsu!"

Haku asked, "Ano, Kuroto-Sama, what kind of Ice ninjutsu do you need me to perform?"

After a little bit of thinking, Kuroto stated, "The strongest!"

Haku nodded and after taking a deep breath he shouted,

"Ice Release Secret Technique: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals!"

Instantly, smooth and clear Ice mirrors appeared one after another around the two out of thin air and a huge ice dome was formed that enclosed Kuroto and Haku inside it.

Looking at the Ice mirrors around him, Kuroto asked curiously, "Haku, can you control these ice mirrors floating in the air?"

"Yes, Kuroto-Sama!" – Haku nodded and after making a leap, he merged inside one of the mirrors.

Immediately afterward, the ice mirrors started circling around Kuroto, giving the dome an optical illusion as if the entire ice dome itself was spinning.

Kuroto was surprised, although he could find Haku's true body if he were to use the Tenseigan, however, solely using the Byakugan, it was quite difficult as Haku's chakra was equally distributed through all the mirrors.

After giving a short demonstration, Haku stopped the rotation of the ice mirrors and leaned out half of his body from one of the ice mirrors, and asked Kuroto while panting lightly, "Kuroto-Sama, w-what else I have to do next?"

Kuroto shook his head stating 'nothing for now,' and carefully recorded the Chakra flow mechanism of this secret technique.

In the puzzled gaze of Haku, after putting away the scroll that he used to record data, Kuroto printed the same series of hand seals that Haku just performed to cast 'The Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals.'

Understanding what Kuroto was doing, Haku asked in a surprised tone, "Y-you can also use Ice Release Kuroto-Sama?"

Kuroto didn't give an answer and just focused on the Chakra Flowing mechanism to control the Water Chakra in his body.

After printing all the hand seals, Kuroto shouted,

"Ice Release Secret Technique: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals!"

With Kuroto's shout, several curtains of water appeared around him instantly.

'The basic shaping is completed, now onto the next step!' – after glancing at the thin water curtains that were very close to Haku's ice mirrors, Kuroto began to infuse Wind Nature Chakra into them.

Splash…

But the moment he manipulated wind Nature Chakra in his body to infuse into the water curtains, the floating water curtains fell apart and collapsed, as a result, splashing on the ground…

...................................................................................................

Read up to chapter - 353 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: p-atreon.com/Milta_translations