"A Nine-Tails... jinchūriki?"

Obito stared blankly at Black Zetsu. For a moment, he genuinely wondered if Black Zetsu had lost his mind.

If there was anyone in the world who clearly understood who the Nine-Tails’ jinchūriki were, Obito was definitely one of them.

To put it bluntly, the reason there were now two jinchūriki was entirely because of him.

Minato Namikaze had sealed the Nine-Tails, but Kushina’s condition had been too poor, so Minato chose to split the beast in two—half for him, half for her.

Something had apparently gone wrong with the sealing, forcing the two of them to leave Konoha and recuperate elsewhere.

Obito knew all of that.

Black Zetsu had been the one to tell him.

And now Black Zetsu was suddenly telling him that another Nine-Tails jinchūriki had appeared in Kirigakure?

How was he supposed to believe that?

What—had his former teacher or Kushina somehow mastered the Nine-Tails over the last half year, traced his identity, and then come all the way to the Mist to settle the score?

Obito looked at Black Zetsu with an increasingly strange expression.

Black Zetsu himself felt just as miserable.

If anyone should have refused to believe it, it was him.

As the third and most mysterious "child" of Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, he understood better than anyone where the tailed beasts had come from.

Hadn’t the Ten-Tails been split into nine beasts by Hagoromo?

All nine were already accounted for.

So where had this extra one come from?

The very idea was absurd.

At times, Black Zetsu even found himself wondering—

Could there be another Ten-Tails in this world?

No one could answer that question.

And he certainly did not dare reveal the secrets buried in his own heart.

"It really is a Nine-Tails jinchūriki." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

After forcibly calming himself down, Black Zetsu spoke in a grave tone.

"There’s no mistake. I inherited Madara-sama’s will. I would never misidentify the Nine-Tails’ chakra."

"But the Nine-Tails’ jinchūriki right now are—"

Obito’s expression slowly turned serious.

"They’re not the same people."

Black Zetsu shook his head decisively.

He had been in Konoha together with Obito that night. There was no way he would mistake that.

"It’s someone else. The chakra feels familiar, but also completely different. It’s... strange."

hikaru’s cover story had worked better than expected.

Chakra was the easiest "evidence" to identify a person by.

So hikaru had tampered with the evidence itself.

When he fought Obito before, he had used senjutsu chakra to cover his own.

Now, he was using the Nine-Tails’ chakra to do the same.

That was why the chakra signature felt somewhat similar, yet fundamentally different.

After all, both ultimately used hikaru’s own chakra as a base.

If there had been no resemblance at all, that would have been suspicious.

But because the dominant flavor now came from either senjutsu or Nine-Tails chakra, neither Orochimaru before nor Black Zetsu now had managed to realize the truth.

Still, setting aside hikaru’s true identity, Black Zetsu now had to seriously consider what to do.

Suppose another Ten-Tails really did exist in this world.

Wouldn’t that mean there might also be another being like his mother?

In Black Zetsu’s heart, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya was the supreme and absolute existence.

She was the true goddess.

If another force existed that could challenge her place, then no matter how one looked at it, that was not good news.

Even so, Black Zetsu remained cautious and restrained.

This matter needed proper investigation.

Without enough information, there was no way to make sound judgments or arrange the next step.

"Whatever the truth is, since he came here, we need to give him a proper welcome."

Black Zetsu looked at the silent Obito and spoke after a moment of thought.

"After all, he’s still a Nine-Tails jinchūriki. Dealing with him shouldn’t be too difficult for you.

"But considering how absurdly well he controls the Nine-Tails’ power, we still need to be careful."

"Then I’ll use the Fourth Mizukage’s authority to mobilize the Mist?"

Obito thought for a while before speaking.

"Since he came, we should try to leave him here. It’s the Nine-Tails’ power, after all. We—"

"No!"

Black Zetsu’s expression changed at once, and he immediately cut Obito off.

"Normal deployment is enough. Don’t overdo it. And don’t even think about trying to keep him here."

He paused, then continued in a low voice.

"What we need is his information. And confirmation of certain things. That’s enough.

"Think about it. If there’s one Nine-Tails jinchūriki, then what if there’s also an Eight-Tails, a Seven-Tails..."

He stopped there.

But Obito’s face beneath the mask twitched anyway.

Against one, they might still manage.

Obito’s Kamui was too bizarre, too difficult to counter.

And on top of that, they had the Mangekyō Sharingan.

Against tailed beasts and jinchūriki, those eyes naturally carried a certain restraining effect.

But if nine of them came together?

Then the only thing left to do would be run.

And when that time came, the Land of Water might literally be beaten into the sea.

Obito did hate Kirigakure.

If circumstances allowed, he would have been perfectly happy to watch the whole village and the entire country sink.

But he could not allow that.

At least, not yet.

If those lunatics really fixed their eyes on him, then all his future plans would be ruined.

The Rinnegan—the key to controlling the tailed beasts—was still far from ready.

He needed more time.

Seeing that Obito finally understood, Black Zetsu quietly let out a breath of relief.

In truth, part of him did want Obito to capture that person.

But Black Zetsu had always been deeply cautious and methodical.

Before doing anything, he weighed the pros and cons carefully.

And just as he had just reminded Obito, he too was worried—

What if there really were nine of them?

And beyond that, there were deeper concerns, ones he would never say aloud.

For example...

What if there really was another Ten-Tails?

Then the situation would become far more dangerous.

"Fine. I understand."

Obito sighed in frustration.

"I’ll—"

Before he could finish, someone knocked on the office door.

Obito frowned.

A swirling vortex immediately formed around him, and he vanished.

Black Zetsu also slipped straight down into the floor.

Only after the two of them disappeared did the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi, slowly raise his head.

His gaze was dull and mechanical.

"Come in," he said flatly.

"Lord Mizukage, something has happened."

An ANBU operative entered at once and knelt on one knee.

"The ANBU on the Kaguya Clan’s side got into a conflict with them, and now—"

"A conflict?"

Yagura’s tone remained indifferent, though faint confusion could be heard beneath it.

"They acted?"

"Probably not."

The ANBU shook his head.

"But it’s likely close. Our people are dead. Theirs are dead too."

"They’re all dead..."

Yagura nodded slowly, showing no visible emotion.

In the end, he simply issued an order.

"Then prepare. Once they move, we move."

Meanwhile, hikaru sat cross-legged within a hidden barrier array, carefully sensing the special power flowing through his body.

That strange force had already entered him and begun interacting with his other chakra natures.

For safety’s sake, he had already prepared a shadow clone and arranged Flying Thunder God markers so he could leave instantly if necessary.

This was Kirigakure.

And if Black Zetsu was nearby, even the slightest carelessness could become fatal.

Once all preparations were complete, he finally immersed himself in the feeling of the new power.

The pulling sensation from before had calmed down.

It no longer stirred his chakra violently the way it had at first.

But in return, it allowed him to perceive far more.

He now understood how to control it.

He understood how to use it to fuse chakra natures.

At that thought, hikaru slowly began circulating chakra through his body.

In an instant, Fire Release, Wind Release, and Earth Release all surged to life.

All three belonged to him, so even when activated simultaneously, they did not conflict at first.

But fusing them into one?

That was another matter entirely.

Each chakra nature had its own flow pattern.

Its own traits.

Its own rules.

And the deeper one’s understanding of a single chakra nature became, the more fixed one’s understanding of it also became.

That was exactly why chakra fusion was so difficult.

Once a person’s cognition of a chakra nature became too deeply ingrained, that same deep mastery made it harder to alter.

Without imagination, there could be no creativity.

The more fixed and complete one’s understanding was, the harder it became to reshape.

Of course, the opposite extreme was no better.

If one did not understand a chakra nature deeply enough, how could one possibly control it well enough to fuse it with another?

It was an absurd contradiction.

And it perfectly explained why even ordinary bloodline limits—mere two-nature fusions—were already so rare.

"Still, my situation is different."

hikaru murmured inwardly.

"Fusion is hard, yes. But I happen to have a much more flexible solution."

With that, he guided the newly obtained fusion-type power and let it wrap around the three chakra natures.

That special power was completely silent.

It had no obvious offensive capability at all.

But the moment it fully enclosed the three chakra types, hikaru immediately felt something begin to change.

The change was subtle.

So subtle that if his mastery over elemental chakra had not already reached the advanced level, he might not even have noticed it.

It was hidden.

Deep.

Difficult to detect.

Taking a deep breath, hikaru began trying to bring the three chakra natures into contact.

The instant they touched, he felt a fierce repulsive force explode inside him.

That rejection seemed instinctive.

The shockwaves from their collision made his entire body uncomfortable.

The meridians carrying them began to ache sharply.

Still, pain was one of the things a shinobi was best at ignoring.

Training hurt.

Battle hurt.

Injury hurt.

In truth, what ninja found hardest to endure was rarely physical pain.

It was pain of the heart.

Steadily, carefully, without interruption, hikaru kept guiding the chakra closer together.

Then—

The fusion-type power began to penetrate them.

That strange energy seeped into the three chakra natures at once, searching relentlessly for every tiny "gap" within them.

No matter how small the gap, it found it.

No matter how hidden, it entered it.

And even while penetrating those gaps, it did not sever the original chakra’s connection to itself.

Before long, the process was complete.

In hikaru’s perception, three colors of chakra—yellow, green, and blue—had now been bound together by a transparent, invisible force.

"The first step is complete..."

His eyes narrowed.

"Then next..."

He immediately moved on.

What came now was true fusion.

Inside his body, the chakra surged.

Wrapped in that transparent force, the three chakra natures were gradually forced together.

The moment that happened, the internal turbulence intensified dramatically.

The shock spread into his organs.

The pain in his chakra pathways became sharper.

Yet hikaru’s expression did not change.

What he focused on instead was the chakra itself.

He observed it with complete concentration.

The transparent fusion force was not merely forcing the chakra together.

It was dismantling it.

Breaking it down.

Refining it.

Under its influence, the three chakra natures were shattered into finer and finer structures.

And yet, strangely, they were not truly destroyed.

Each still retained its own internal integrity.

Each still remained connected to itself.

But because they had been broken apart to such a degree, hikaru could now directly perceive far subtler laws within them than ever before.

"Water chakra possesses extreme compatibility..."

He muttered inwardly.

"That compatibility comes from the most obvious applications of Water Release. But beneath that, there’s also softness, adaptability, flexibility..."

"And Wind and Earth each have their own similarly distinct properties."

Some were direct.

Some were deeply hidden.

But they all undeniably existed.

As he sensed these principles more clearly than ever before, hikaru felt as though an entirely new door had opened before him.

He had always thought that reaching the advanced level in a chakra nature already meant he understood it deeply enough.

Now he realized just how shallow that belief had been.

Even a single chakra nature, once broken down, still contained layer upon layer of hidden truth.

And if one then tried to interweave and fuse that nature with others, the secrets multiplied endlessly.

hikaru was not someone who disliked research.

After all, the system gave him power and a simple instruction manual—but how to use that power most effectively still depended on him.

But the deeper, more profound mysteries?

He had never been able to touch those before.

He had lacked equipment.

He had lacked funding.

And more importantly, he had lacked anyone to support or legitimize that kind of work.

Yet now, inside his own body, in the most dangerous and direct way possible, he was seeing it all for himself.

His thirst for knowledge grew stronger and stronger.

And in that moment, he finally understood Orochimaru a little better.

Curiosity toward the unknown had always been part of human nature.

To discover new secrets.

To unravel them.

To master them.

And through them, to strengthen oneself—

That was one of the deepest instincts of any shinobi.

No matter what one studied, once curiosity merged with personal desire, the drive to explore only became stronger.

"And now I think I finally understand why Bloodline Expansion is so terrifying..."

As he felt the chakra inside him becoming more and more interwoven, hikaru gave a bitter smile.

Yes, bloodline limits were already powers beyond ordinary chakra.

But if one used that to describe Bloodline Expansion, it was still an insult.

The fusion of seven fundamental forces was frightening not only because it combined them into one overwhelming whole.

More importantly, once such a power existed, no technique in the world could truly escape the domain it encompassed.

Bloodline Expansion comprehended the laws of all chakra flow, the structure of their power, the nature of their rules.

Faced with such power, ordinary ninjutsu was nearly meaningless.

"Bloodline Expansion..."

The ninja world truly was a world of bloodlines.

A stage dominated by the descendants of the Ōtsutsuki.

Even though heaven had technically left ordinary shinobi a path upward, that path was so narrow it might as well have been a cliff.

Back when hikaru had only guessed how difficult chakra fusion would be, it had already seemed daunting.

Now that he had actually experienced it, he felt a trace of sympathy for all the non-bloodline ninja in the world.

And if he was being honest—

He even felt a little sorry for himself.

If he had not possessed the system...

If he had not acquired this fusion-type seed...

Then forget Bloodline Expansion.

He probably would never even have walked onto this road at all.

"Of course, nothing is absolute."

That thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.

"If I could get my hands on that thing... then even without the system, maybe the future would look very different."

System-users had their way of playing.

And people without systems had their own routes too.

In his previous life, he had once heard a line—

If you have money, rely on technology.

If you don’t have money, rely on mutation.

If you have neither, then rely on hard work.

It had just been a joke back then.

But here, the logic strangely fit.

Whether one walked the path of technology, mutation, systems, or raw effort—

In the end, one still had to work for it.

Even while his thoughts wandered, hikaru never stopped absorbing the understanding blooming within him.

Long years in ANBU had given him another useful habit—

He could focus on multiple things at once.

And now, the violent instability in his body was finally beginning to calm.

The turbulence vanished.

The pain faded.

In its place came an unprecedented sense of clarity and exhilaration.

A new and extraordinary power was taking shape inside him.

And the destructive aura it gave off felt in no way inferior to either the Nine-Tails’ chakra or senjutsu.

"What a terrifying power..."

The little Nine-Tails’ voice echoed in his mind, full of rare solemnity.

"The fusion of three chakra natures... In all my centuries of memory, only a tiny number of people have ever done that.

"Even Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama themselves never truly reached this step."

"Really?"

hikaru smiled faintly.

Then he sighed.

"And yet neither of them would fear this power at all.

"Ōnoki can use something like this. His teacher, the Second Tsuchikage Mū, could too.

"And even then, the two of them still had to come all the way to Konoha in person and beg for peace.

"Later, Madara alone pressed them so hard they could barely lift their heads."

Bloodline Elimination was powerful, yes.

But against the direct inherited might of the Ōtsutsuki line—even if that inheritance had already fragmented and mutated—it was still not enough to dominate.

Still, when one thought about it properly, Madara had been Indra’s reincarnation.

Hashirama had been Asura’s reincarnation.

And later, Ōnoki had still managed to display the terrifying might of Dust Release.

So even if this power could not compare to those monsters, it was undoubtedly among the highest tiers in the world.

At last, the three chakra natures fully fused.

In that instant, a completely new power surged through hikaru’s body.

He slowly raised one hand.

A silver, nearly transparent chakra appeared over it at once.

Beautiful.

Yet impossibly dangerous.

"What’s the name of this Bloodline Elimination?"

The little Nine-Tails could not help asking.

"This power... what is it called?"

"These two are monsters no matter what era they’re placed in."

hikaru shook his head first in response to the earlier remark.

Then he withdrew the silver chakra back into his body.

"As for the name..."

He smiled faintly.

"I haven’t decided yet.

"And honestly, even how to use it will require proper testing.

"But one thing is certain..."

He looked down at his hand, his eyes filled with quiet confidence.

"I doubt it’ll disappoint me."

Disappoint him?

That was the last thing hikaru expected.

Even without any formal technique attached to it yet, this new chakra already felt more than terrifying enough to intimidate anyone.

Its intensity was absurd.

And if he ever combined it with the Nine-Tails’ chakra—or senjutsu—

The result would definitely not be as simple as one plus one.

Of course, there was a downside too.

This power was born from his own fusion.

That meant there was no precedent for it anywhere in ninja history.

So while he now possessed this strength, he had no corresponding jutsu to wield it with.

He could only explore it himself, experimenting step by step to figure out how to use it safely and effectively.

That was merely the minimum requirement.

As for things like creating techniques tailored specifically to it, or minimizing consumption while maximizing output—

Those were even further away.

To be honest, hikaru had to admit something.

He had underestimated the difficulty of this path.

Minato Namikaze had taken inspiration from the Tailed Beast Bomb and, after years of effort, created the Rasengan.

Naruto had later upgraded that technique through countless shadow clones into the Rasenshuriken.

That alone showed how difficult it was to create even one new technique.

And now hikaru had to develop an entire system of jutsu around an entirely new power from scratch.

That was practically nightmare mode.

It gave him a genuine headache.

"Still..."

He let out a long breath.

"There is one good thing.

"At least I can choose the names of the techniques myself."

Over the next few days, hikaru dedicated himself to testing the new power.

The information his shadow clones brought back suggested that, for now, his earlier actions had not caused any major deviations.

Of course, he did not let himself relax completely.

There was a real possibility that his appearance had simply given Obito and the others a convenient excuse.

That might have been why their attention remained focused on the Kaguya Clan instead of on him.

And honestly, that suited hikaru just fine.

The Kaguya Clan’s eventual rebellion was practically inevitable in his memory.

As for why they would end up revolting, he strongly suspected it had to do with Obito’s policies and manipulations.

After all, Obito’s rule had already angered many clans within Kirigakure.

And the Kaguya Clan—violent, proud, ill-suited to political submission, and already distrusted—was the perfect target.

Choosing them as the first example served multiple purposes.

Crush the loudest source of dissent.

Make an example of a bloodline clan.

Intimidate the rest.

And once the other clans began to feel fear and solidarity, any further resistance from them could also be labeled dangerous and wiped out.

Put simply—

Obito’s "governance" was nothing more than revenge wrapped in high-pressure policy.

The more people resisted, the more it suited him.

When hikaru had discovered ANBU watching the Kaguya Clan while searching for Kimimaro, he had already known the clan was doomed.

His own appearance there had simply become another fuse.

And given how Kirigakure had been moving lately, Obito might even owe him thanks for it.

"But that works out well for me too."

Standing by a secluded lakeside corner in the Mist, hikaru slowly gathered chakra in his palm.

"If their attention stays on the Kaguya Clan, then I can use that cover to deal with Obito properly."

Ever since achieving his first real chakra fusion, he had become almost addicted to the feeling.

The gain had not only been a brand-new Bloodline Elimination.

It had also deepened his understanding of all chakra manipulation to a shocking degree.

Unfortunately, he now lacked further materials.

If he wanted to continue, he would need to obtain more.

He stood there, quietly channeling that silver chakra.

Then suddenly, his eyes opened.

At once, a strange pressure radiated from him.

He drew a blade.

That vast silver chakra gathered around it, almost transparent, yet brilliant.

Then—

With a violent burst of chakra, a phantom figure appeared behind him.

It was a silver-haired woman.

If one looked carefully, her outline almost resembled Ōtsutsuki Kaguya.

But not quite.

The same silver hair.

The same pale eyes.

The same overbearing arrogance.

Yet she was still distinct.

Soft petals drifted along hikaru’s blade.

Then, with one clean motion, he swung.

"Ninja Art: Konohanasakuya-hime!"

The blade cleaved through the air.

A silver, invisible slash spread outward.

In that instant, the ground began to shake violently.

A crack split open before him.

It raced off into the distance, widening as it went, like the earth itself was being torn apart.

The small lake in front of him split in two.

Water poured downward like a waterfall into the newly formed chasm.

Within moments, the entire lake vanished.

"Not bad."

hikaru smiled as he observed the destruction.

Then his chakra stirred, and he vanished from the spot without hesitation.

He had no intention of staying there to be found.

That level of movement would inevitably attract attention.

"How flashy."

The little Nine-Tails grumbled in his mind.

"And kind of impractical, don’t you think?"

"It’s called style."

hikaru replied casually.

He really had done it on purpose.

The phantom woman.

The falling petals.

Even the name of the move.

All of it had been deliberate.

The Mangekyō Sharingan’s techniques were named after gods and myths.

Why shouldn’t he do the same?

And besides—

There was one truth he firmly believed.

Being strong was one thing.

Being strong and stylish?

That was forever.

◇ One bonus Chapter will be released for every 150 Power Stones.

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