Journey to the West: Life Simulation of Sun Wukong

The term "soul" seems a bit too abstract.

Perhaps a more appropriate term would be "will."

Chakra can carry will.

This once led Orochimaru, after his defection, to set his sights on the tailed-beasts, but unfortunately, the tailed-beasts were impossible to study; their massive size was enough to deter Orochimaru.

As for the remains of some tailed-beasts, their research value was limited because they were merely clusters of chakra.

Gathering his thoughts, Orochimaru preserved the cell tissues of Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji, devoting all his energy to cloning Sakura and researching Naruto's cells.

"The cells of a Jinchuriki are indeed different from normal people, more vital, but Naruto's cells are perhaps too active?" Orochimaru, through the microscope, observed that Naruto's cell tissues retained the same vitality as a normal person, constantly rubbing against each other and devouring the substances and energy in the nutrient solution, dividing on their own.

"Similar to Hashirama cells but the only problem is, unlike Hashirama cells that can be cultivated indefinitely given proper conditions, Naruto's cells still have a limit to how many times they can divide... perhaps it's related to Naruto not being fully grown."

As far as Orochimaru knew, once the human body grows to a certain extent, aside from cell division and death, it's very difficult for anything else to happen to the cells.

The transformation of Jinchuriki cells also occurs slowly only when they are able to wield the power of the tailed-beasts and use the chakra of the tailed-beasts.

Ordinarily, a Jinchuriki can only control the power of a tailed-beast upon reaching adulthood, but Naruto, who should only be eight years old and still has room to grow, was already able to use the power of the tailed-beast. So, would his cells undergo even more thorough transformations in the future?

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes, "This is indeed something to look forward to, it's just the status of a Jinchuriki..."

This point made Orochimaru somewhat less enthusiastic.

Unless during times of war, a Jinchuriki is a deterrent for a village.

Other ninja, upon learning of a Jinchuriki's identity, even if their missions clash and the villages are hostile towards each other, generally won't resort to killing, unless they are rogue ninja who are already living as outlaws or specifically wish to target the tailed-beasts.

For example: the Akatsuki Organization.

"If there's a chance in the future, I'll just need to take some body cells from Naruto. And Haruno Sakura, I must also acquire her cells," Orochimaru secretly planned. After all, compared to Naruto Uzumaki, whose cells were changing under the influence of the tailed-beast as a Jinchuriki, Haruno Sakura, suspected to have awakened the Senju bloodline, was even more desirable to him.

"It's just unknown if Haruno Sakura has awakened the ability to use Wood Release..."

In the following three months, Orochimaru focused on cultivating Haruno Sakura's clone, which had formed into a baby with cherry blossom-colored hair inside the giant, green, cylindrical cultivation vessel.

But Orochimaru frowned.

According to the intelligence from Danzo, Haruno Sakura was a girl, yet the baby that was cloned turned out to be a real boy, with the obvious difference.

"Where did the problem arise?"

Orochimaru reviewed the test tube Danzo had given him and didn't find anything amiss, "Could it be that I damaged part of the genetic information during the operation?"

It wasn't beyond the realm of possibility.

In Orochimaru's past cloning experiments, various issues occurred due to improper operation, leading to the destruction of genetic information.

However, Orochimaru also discovered a pattern: if the person providing the cells had a family heritage of bloodlines, the cloning experiments became much more stable.

The stronger the bloodline, the more stable the genetic information.

The genetic information of the young Haruno Sakura was so unstable that the cloned body started with a gender mistake... this was not a good sign.

Indeed!

Orochimaru's conjecture was confirmed.

Another three months passed, and the body of Haruno Sakura's clone lost all vitality, with every cell in the body dying, turning into a heap of dead flesh.

Orochimaru did not lose heart and once again took out Haruno Sakura's cells for cloning. This time, he successfully cloned the expected gender, but six months later, the clone collapsed again, losing all vitality.

"It seems that to successfully clone, I must obtain Haruno Sakura's cells from this exact moment. These ordinary cells, their genetic information is too fragile and prone to collapse."

In fact, the reason why Orochimaru could not clone successfully was simple: he lacked a proper experimental environment.

Despite not lacking in various experimental equipment, insufficient funds often led to the experiments being destroyed by all sorts of accidents.

A tiny variable might cause the experiment to fail.

In short, there was only one problem Orochimaru encountered: poverty!

"I can't waste energy on the cells of the young Sakura, I'll report the results to Danzo and let him deal with it." Orochimaru decided to shift his focus to the research on the Living Corpse Reincarnation.

He wanted to perfect the jutsu, at least to ensure that each reincarnation did not lose too much of the soul, otherwise, he would become an idiot...

...

Meanwhile, in Konoha Village, Haruno Sakura woke from a nightmare after another six months, glanced at her own hands, breathed a sigh of relief, and then immersed her will in the space of her spirit, asking Sun Wukong, "Master, I had a nightmare again, after six months... It felt like I was trapped in a green container, turned into an infant, and the first time, it seemed I even turned into a boy."

"It felt like I could breathe without my mouth and nose, but that feeling... cold, uncomfortable... even bizarre, made my head spin."

"Master, do you know what's happening?" Thanks for reading—brought to you by M|VL|EMPYR.

When she first had this nightmare, Sakura thought it was a fluke, but after it occurred again six months later, it didn't seem right.

In response to Sakura's panic, Sun Wukong appeared completely calm, "Chakra is refined from physical and spiritual energy, and your chakra is wholly your own, marked with your imprint. If your spiritual energy and physical energy were used to form chakra elsewhere, your will could sense it in the universe."

"My physical energy exists somewhere else?" Sakura was slightly startled before quickly realizing, "Master, you mean, someone is cloning my body?"

The thought turned Sakura's expression dark, filled with immeasurable anger.

Someone dared to clone her body?!

That was outrageous!

After her anger subsided, Sakura calmed down and began to ponder who it could be?

Firstly, anyone outside the village could be eliminated, since she had never left Konoha. Other mad scientists of the ninja world should not have access to her genes, which left only Konoha.

Could it be that the village's higher-ups were secretly researching her clone?

"Master, what do you think?" Sakura asked.

"This is your own problem," Sun Wukong said with a light smile, "However, I can give you a hint, the world is not just black and white, even the most towering figures have darkness in their hearts."

"It must be the village's higher-ups!" Trusting Sun Wukong deeply, Sakura exclaimed, "I can't believe the village actually cloned my body, that's too much! Was it the Third Hokage, that old man?"

After learning that her body had been cloned, Sakura no longer referred to Sarutobi Hiruzen as "Hokage-sama" or "Grandpa Hokage," but rather bluntly as "Old Man."

It shows that the kind-hearted Third had been tagged as a "bad guy" by Sakura.

"You, who have studied the history of the ninja world, should know what deeds Hiruzen has done, recognized as a great ninja leader, and how even the strongest people tend to become more timid with age," Sun Wukong spoke indirectly, "In your era, as Hokage, he barely passes as qualified."

Yet Sakura heard the underlying message.

It wasn't the Third Hokage's doing, and it was even likely that Hiruzen didn't know about it!

Even so, it surely had to be someone the Third Hokage knew; otherwise, who would dare to conduct such experiments under the Hokage's nose in a village where human experimentation was expressly forbidden?

It had to be someone connected to Hiruzen...