_________ POV Narration _________

The Database of Bloodlines had been an experiment that Saburo had worked on quite half-heartedly.

He still put the bare minimum of effort in, as it was a direct request of Ken, who was his boss.

Progress was slow, and creating a machine to test samples against the database was a difficult and laborious process.

Of course, a brilliant mind like Saburo's could do it, but he was simply not that invested in it... At least not at first.

His interest grew exponentially around the time he received a specific DNA sample. One from a very obscure clan known as the 'Mo Clan'.

What exactly was so particular about this clan's bloodline? Well, nothing really. They were not strong, they were not even average they were incredibly weak.

Not one notable figure in their entire clan's existence, at least not any documented ones.

But one fact about them stood out... They were extinct.

That's right, that small insignificant clan which had gone extinct during the Warring States Period was what finally sparked Saburo's interest.

It seemed that the Merchant Association that Ken had contracted to gather the DNA samples was going far beyond the original intended scope, seeking to fulfil his request to the fullest extent possible.

Ichiraku was nothing if not a completionist, and improving his relationship with Ken seemed like a natural progression to keep his businesses and deals safe.

Through that small insignificant clan, Saburo realized the true potential of a thorough Bloodline Database.

A place containing information on all clans that ever existed, containing DNA samples of every clan which could even allow one to clone them and possibly bring back disappeared clans and bloodline limits!

Of course, creating a body from scratch using just a faded DNA sample was impossible with their current technology. But in the future? Oh, the future held a lot of surprises, and Saburo was sure that it would be done eventually.

And eventually, as well, someone would be able to artificially mix those bloodlines... Being able to mix the strongest bloodlines to create a perfect vessel... The perfect clone.

Saburo was almost getting aroused at the idea.

Sure, he had no way of knowing if mixing more than 2 bloodlines was even possible, but what if it was in the future?

Essentially, the more bloodlines came in, the more excited Saburo became as he started theorizing more about the possibilities and potential of the Database's future uses.

Despite his brilliant mind, his general disinterest had led to him being a bit slow on the uptake, as Ken had already been thinking of those possibilities for a while now.

Of course, he was more one to worry about the Database getting into the wrong hands, but as long as it was under his protection it would be fine.

Ken did consider outright deleting it from existence after it served its purpose in finding his biological family and clans of origin, but he decided against that.

The potential for good with such an invention was almost too good to pass up.

At the end of the day, bad actors in the future could simply go and collect DNA samples in the wild and play the mixing game with them. Having a pristine and clinical database would just make things much easier for them.

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The possibility of documenting old extinct clans was one of the many uses of the database. Ichiraku had gone ahead and told his people to bring in old DNA samples they could find too, to look for people with interesting family names in graveyards.

Dug-up battlefields in the Warring States were also able to tell a story of its own. They now had knowledge of clans that had managed to wipe each other out, clans that had petered out and broken off into smaller clans as their bloodlines diluted.

So much history had been buried in those DNA markers, and it was all unwinding in front of Saburo.

The Strawman was not as interested in the history of it as he was in the practical applications of the project, but he still found everything at least mildly interesting now.

The most exhilarating moment was when Saburo actually used the Bloodline Database for the first time, with his own blood.

With that, he found that he was closely linked with one clan that was currently mostly extinct and that his roots stretched far back, older unnamed clans that they had very little information on.

Still, Saburo was pleased with the results, which meant that he could now go on with the task that had been assigned to him...

Running Ken's beastly blood through the DNA Database was not as laborious a process as previously thought, but the results were certainly not within Saburo's expectations.

'What the hell is this...?'

The most prevalent markers said that Ken's parents were part of a reclusive clan, the Ashura Clan.

It was a remote place somewhere off in the Land of Keys, a small village which housed all of the members of the clan.

There were plenty of stories about them being uncontrollable demons, banished from the nearby hidden village and closing themselves off there to prevent hurting any outsiders.

They were documented to be able to transform their bodies completely, presumably by absorbing the natural energy around them and allowing it to alter their bodies.

In a sense, it was very similar to Ken's ability, but again, they were not able to control their emotions whilst transforming, going into a berserk state.

They had been mostly unheard of since the Warring States Period, the Land of Keyes had all but forgotten about them, and only some local merchants knew about them which made it easy for the Merchant's Guild to get information on the clan.

But Ken being part of the Ashura Clan did not seem that surprising when Saburo read about their Bloodline Limit and affinity for Nature Energy, where it became interesting was when Saburo looked into other markers present in the blood...

'4.56% Senju Clan, 5.25% Uchiha Clan, 3.34% Hyuga Clan... Sarutobi Clan, Kurama Clan, Uzumaki Clan... What the hell...'

Saburo looked through the markers, and for some reason, dozens of notable bloodlines mixed in Ken's history. The Warring States Period had a lot of blank spots and undocumented moments, but Ken's ties to many clans extended beyond that most likely.

Where the anomaly and mutation of Ken most likely originated from was the fact that those ancient mixed bloodlines had somehow become more prevalent within Ken's DNA.

If the Strawman didn't know any better, then he would've assumed that Ken was created artificially within a lab. But the fact that Ken had memories from shortly after his birth certainly disproved that.

That still left the Strawman with quite a lot of questions.

What exactly were the chances for so many bloodlines to come together, for many ancestors across history to come from these reputable clans?

Well, there were a few explanations...

'It's possible that the Ashura Clan was a punching bag in the past. And that they have been raided and plundered by all of these other clans in history...'

After all, during the Warring States Period lust-related crimes were not only not uncommon, but expected.

Whenever a clan won over the other, the women and children would suffer most not just from having their fathers die...

The establishment of the Hidden Villages by the First Hokage put a stop to that, although the trend somewhat continued on a smaller scale during the many Shinobi Wars across history.

So, it was technically possible for a bloodline like Ken's to appear. Still, Saburo was now curious about testing other living residents of the Ashura Clan.

If that turned out true, then it was very likely that all of the descendants of the Ashura clan were similar to Ken, but their bloodline mixing granted them no benefits.

After all... 'If there actually were more people like Ken in the world, it's highly unlikely that they'd remain unknown...'

But there was also another explanation that Saburo saw as equally possible.

'One of Ken's Grandparents, or maybe even parents, was or is an experiment...'

It was plausible to think that, someone in Ken's biological family specifically had been a living result of an experiment.

'So, either someone tried to play god in the past, likely resulting in a failed experiment containing the dormant DNA markers of a lot of renowned clans which went on to have kids with someone from the Ashura Clan.

Or complete coincidence caused by war atrocities, with Ken just happening to be the only member of the Ashura Clan that has active bloodline markers from all of them...'

The existence of the Ashura Clan raised many questions, questions that Saburo had no real answers for now.

Of course, Saburo made sure to include all of his findings within the report he drafted and sent to Ken.

And now that the Blind Assassin had some free time, he made the rather sudden decision to go on a trip to the Land of Keys.