"So it can work like this too..."

Hikaru watched the chakra flowing inside Saya and Ayame, then felt the response from the chakra being drawn through his own body. A faint, intrigued smile touched his lips.

He had discovered that he could use his own chakra to stir the chakra inside both Saya and Ayame.

He truly had not expected that.

But after thinking it over, it did not seem that impossible to understand.

After all, Hikaru’s power had indeed been granted by the system. He had never denied that.

That was why he had never once tried to call himself some kind of genius.

He had always admitted it openly—

he was a cheat-user.

Sure, admitting something like that was a little embarrassing.

But facts were facts.

And really, there was nothing wrong with having a cheat.

In Hikaru’s view, the strongest thing in the Naruto world had never been ninjutsu, dōjutsu, or even bloodlines.

The strongest thing—

was always the cheat.

Just look at Naruto and Sasuke. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Before getting their "cheats," even after reaching Eternal Mangekyō and the second stage of Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, they had still been beaten senseless by Uchiha Madara and pushed to the brink of death. If the Sage of Six Paths had not stepped in and handed them power, their story would have ended right there.

Once they got theirpower-up, they skipped the entire phase of adapting to and mastering their new strength. In the space of a moment, they had leapt straight into the realm where they could contend with Madara.

That kind of transformation was absurd.

Of course, it was also something no one else could hope to replicate.

Honestly, even Madara himself counted as a cheat-user in Hikaru’s eyes.

No one could deny Madara’s own talent and effort, but at the end of the day, he was Indra’s reincarnation. That alone was already an enormous cheat.

Then later, he also gained Asura’s power.

That completed the set.

In a sense, Madara was Naruto and Sasuke combined into one person.

Then he piled the Ten-Tails on top of that—an even more terrifying cheat—and that was why Naruto and Sasuke, even after receiving their own power-ups, had still looked so miserable against him.

If Madara had not grown too arrogant and believed he controlled everything, only for Black Zetsu to stab him through the heart and have a nice little chat with him, no one could say how it all would have ended.

Cheat power was just that terrifying.

Compared to all that, Hikaru’s own cheat was nowhere near as outrageous.

Even if he could instantly grasp whatever power he obtained, he still had to go through the process in his mind—familiarizing himself with it, understanding how it changed, and then honing it through real combat until he could truly wield it with ease.

And before he could even get that power, he first had to spend a long time planting and nurturing it.

Without that, he could obtain nothing.

The fruit was simply the physical manifestation of that power.

Even if the fruit itself was a presentation method created by the system, it still only came into being after being cultivated by Hikaru and nourished by his chakra.

In other words, that fruit contained the essence of Hikaru’s chakra.

It belonged to him.

And when he gave those fruits to other people, what he was really doing was leaving a trace of himself inside them.

The chakra contained in the fruit would fuse into their own chakra while helping them grow stronger.

And Hikaru’s chakra was not something that could be handled lightly.

Whether it was a unique trait that came with reaching his current level of strength, or whether the system was still helping him in the background, Hikaru could not say.

But even after that chakra left his body, he could still control it.

Or rather—

as long as he could sense it, he could influence it.

"If that’s really the case, then a lot of problems just solved themselves."

The smile at the corner of Hikaru’s mouth deepened.

If he could control that chakra, then he no longer needed to worry about the people who received his power betraying him.

The moment someone developed dangerous intentions and tried to act on them—so long as Hikaru noticed—it would be easy for him to cut off the support and replenishment from the chakra he had given them.

And once that happened, they would likely lose the power Hikaru had granted them.

Of course, that was only the simplest application.

If the other side was strong enough to endure that kind of restriction, then the method would not amount to much.

But Hikaru did not think he was limited to that.

Take the Shadow Clone detonation technique he already knew, for example.

If he studied it a bit further, he might be able to directly detonate the chakra he had planted inside someone else’s body.

And if that chakra exploded from the inside—

then even if the target noticed and tried to suppress it, the result was practically guaranteed.

It was a lot like the "Life and Death Talisman" from the stories he remembered from his previous life.

Except his version was far more terrifying.

He would be burying an actual landmine inside someone’s body.

"I really didn’t expect it to have an effect like this."

Even Hikaru felt a little stunned.

He had simply wanted to use the fruit to strengthen people he trusted.

In the end, it turned out to be a two-way mechanism.

The goal of strengthening them had been achieved.

The ability to cut off that power if they betrayed him had also been achieved.

And beyond that, it had even given him something far more frightening—

a method that could directly kill them.

"If that’s the case... then if I quietly gave something like this to Danzo or Hiruzen, wouldn’t I be able to assassinate them without anyone noticing?"

The thought flashed through his mind.

Then he immediately discarded it.

Assassination had never been the best way to achieve political goals.

Once he mastered Flying Thunder God, he could already have used the lizards to do things like that.

But he never had.

Because he knew that playing those kinds of games meant breaking the rules.

And he refused to turn himself into Danzo.

Even if, in some ways, he knew the two of them were not all that different, Hikaru still spent most of his time following the rules.

He had no intention of ruling through fear and overwhelming force.

And if that was the path he had chosen, then there were certain lines he could not allow himself to cross.

Knock, knock, knock...

Just then, someone knocked on the office door again, pulling Hikaru out of his thoughts.

He glanced once more at Saya and Ayame.

Neither of them looked ready to wake up anytime soon, so he simply got up and walked out himself.

"What is it, Phoenix?"

One look at the person outside, and Hikaru knew who it was.

Ye Cang.

Her codename now was Phoenix.

The name suited her abilities, but more than that, it symbolized rebirth—a complete severing of ties with the Ye Cang of Sunagakure.

"Minister..." Ye Cang lowered her head slightly and spoke in a quiet voice. "Someone wants to see you."

"At this hour? Someone from the Hokage’s side?" Hikaru frowned faintly. He had not expected Hiruzen to come looking for him.

But Ye Cang shook her head at once.

"No. It’s Aburame Shibi."

"Oh?" Hikaru’s eyes flickered. "Him?"

"Yes, Minister. He snuck in. He seemed very worried that someone else might notice."

"I see. Bring him in, then."

"Yes, Minister. To your office?"

"No. The meeting room."

...

In one of ANBU’s smaller conference rooms, Aburame Shibi sat there, tense and uneasy.

After being discovered, he had been detained outside the ANBU perimeter. Only after someone higher up was consulted had he been brought here.

He could tell at a glance that this was a meeting room, and that realization only made him more uneasy.

A meeting room.

Not even a major one—just a small one.

That meant the ANBU Minister did not think highly of him at all.

If the man truly valued him, then they should have met in the Minister’s office.

Thinking of that, Shibi could only sigh inwardly.

If he had not gone through all of this, he never would have imagined that the Aburame Clan would one day end up in such a miserable position.

Still, whatever he felt inside, he kept himself calm and restrained.

Maybe... that newly appointed Senju Minister assumes I’m on the Third Hokage’s side. Maybe that’s why he chose to treat me like this.

With that thought, he forced himself to wait quietly.

The waiting was agonizing.

Still, he endured it.

He had no idea how much time had passed when suddenly he heard footsteps outside the door.

At once, his spirits lifted.

Someone was coming.

He did not care who it was.

He straightened himself immediately and made sure his posture showed the utmost seriousness.

In his current situation, he could not afford to act proud.

And that attitude was not wasted.

Because the moment he saw a young man without a mask walk into the room, he knew the person he had been waiting for had finally arrived.

He had never seen Hikaru before.

That much was certain.

Even though Hikaru had never exactly kept a low profile, ANBU’s secrecy still cloaked his public identity in a thin veil.

For the truly great clans, that veil barely mattered.

But for a clan like the Aburame, it was enough to leave him shrouded in mystery.

Still, mystery did not stop him from being recognized.

After all, there was only one person in ANBU who could go around maskless so openly.

"Minister."

Aburame Shibi rose at once and bowed respectfully.

"There’s no need for that, Clan Head."

Hikaru was genuinely a little taken aback by how deferential he was, but he quickly shook his head with a smile.

"I do owe you an apology, Clan Head. I arranged for us to meet here because there are people in my office right now drafting some... documents. So I hope you’ll forgive the discourtesy."

"No, no, not at all, Minister. You’re too kind."

Hearing that explanation, Shibi hurriedly shook his head, almost flattered.

And more than that, he realized Hikaru’s attitude was far better than he had expected.

He did not really understand how ANBU operated, but what Hikaru said sounded reasonable enough.

More importantly, Hikaru’s manner was just too gentle.

He really was the sort of person whose calm warmth could deceive almost anyone.

Very few people, especially on a first meeting, would ever guess what was truly going on beneath that smile.

Maybe ANBU really does like gathering people together in one place so they can discuss problems and handle things efficiently.

Having found an explanation that satisfied him, Shibi settled down and waited obediently for Hikaru to start asking questions.

The moment Hikaru saw how silently he stood there, he understood exactly what the man was thinking, and it almost made him laugh.

Honestly, Hikaru had not met that many clan heads.

But he had certainly met enough.

And someone as humble as Aburame Shibi—

that was a first.

Still, he understood.

Although Ye Cang had only given him fragments of the situation, Hikaru had already pieced together most of the story.

His analytical ability had always been sharp, and in Konoha, there were only a few people capable of terrifying a clan head to this degree.

The Third Hokage.

And the leader of Root.

Those two together cast a shadow more than deep enough.

And in all of Konoha, probably only those two could make a clan like the Aburame feel such suffocating pressure.

Of course, "together" was partly just how Shibi himself saw them.

But that was natural.

Some people and some matters could only be understood when considered as a pair.

No one would willingly separate Danzo from Hiruzen in their minds.

No one dared to.

And that meant that whatever Danzo did would automatically be seen as something Hiruzen had approved.

That had indeed been true in the past.

But now things were different.

The only reason Hiruzen had not dealt with Danzo lately was simply because he no longer had the spare attention.

Still, Hikaru had no intention of clarifying any of that.

If anything, he wanted that misunderstanding to grow deeper.

He did not know what Danzo had or had not reported to Hiruzen.

But one thing he did know—

he himself had never once reported Danzo’s actions to Hiruzen.

"All right, Clan Head. Let’s talk business."

Hikaru walked to his seat and sat down at last.

"You snuck into ANBU to meet me. What exactly do you want? Because let’s be honest—your method makes it very easy for certain misunderstandings to occur. This is ANBU, not a playground or a private garden."

"You’re right, Minister. I was rash."

Aburame Shibi sighed softly, then clenched his teeth and looked Hikaru straight in the eye.

"If circumstances hadn’t forced my hand, I would never have done something like this. I came because I wanted to have a proper conversation with you."

"Oh? And what does the Clan Head wish to discuss?"

"Cooperation. Deeper cooperation. More detailed cooperation."

"Is that so?" Hikaru smiled faintly. "Then you’ve piqued my interest. Please, go on."

...

Back in the Minister’s office, Saya and Ayame opened their eyes one after the other.

At first, they still looked dazed.

There was also a trace of pain on their faces.

But very quickly, clarity returned to their gaze.

They were fully awake now.

And fully recovered.

What had happened earlier still felt dreamlike to them.

When Hikaru had first taken out that strange fruit, neither of them had any idea what it was.

Then he had calmly explained that the fruit could strengthen them and deepen their understanding of chakra.

At the time, both of them had found it unbelievable.

Honestly, if the one saying it had not been Hikaru, they might have thought he had gone mad.

What kind of world had fruit that could strengthen a person and improve their understanding of chakra?

Even so, because they trusted Hikaru, neither of them voiced any objection.

Still, when faced with such a bizarre thing, both had naturally been skeptical.

But Hikaru’s expression and tone made it sound as if he truly believed every word.

Just try it. Maybe it really is something extraordinary. And Hikaru probably wouldn’t lie to us.

That thought had surfaced in both their minds.

So in the end, neither objected.

They accepted the fruit.

Only to regret it the instant they bit down.

It tasted awful.

Absolutely awful.

They swore that in all their lives, they had never eaten anything so disgusting.

The taste was so bad they had almost spat the rest of it out on the spot.

But because they trusted Hikaru, they forced themselves to swallow every last piece, even though their faces had gone pale from the effort.

Trust could blind people.

It could even let someone with bad intentions take advantage of them.

But Hikaru had never meant to deceive them.

Because trust was something precious.

Even Hikaru, for all that he was, treasured it deeply.

Then, once the fruit settled in their stomachs, they immediately felt it begin to dissolve.

And not only dissolve—

it started to draw out their chakra.

That change alone would already have stunned them.

But what came next shocked them even more.

The fruit transformed into a torrent of power and surged straight into their meridians.

"This is...?"

Each of them felt the changes in her chakra.

Felt that strange power stirring inside her—both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

For a moment, neither knew what to say.

Then words ceased to matter.

Because as that power spread deeper and deeper through their bodies, a flood of information surged into their minds.

The amount of information was enormous.

But it was not chaotic.

It simply taught them how to understand the power, how it changed, how it worked—

and most importantly, how to use it.

No wonder Hikaru was so serious about this. Something like this...

That had been their final clear thought.

After that, both had sunk fully into that flood of information, learning, adapting, mastering.

They did not know how much time had passed before they finally woke up.

To them, time had felt frozen.

As though they had spent ages immersed in study.

Yet the sunlight filtering through the office window, and the sun still hanging high outside, seemed to insist that not much time had passed at all.

The contradiction left them momentarily disoriented.

But that disorientation quickly faded in the face of the power now coursing through their bodies.

Strictly speaking, their total chakra had not increased by much.

But one specific chakra attribute inside them had become incomparably pure.

Not only that, they found they could control that chakra with astonishing ease, shaping and transforming it far better than before.

Unbelievable...

Both women thought the same thing.

Neither could be called especially powerful, but both were more than competent shinobi.

They naturally understood what such a transformation meant.

This was something some people could spend years chasing without ever reaching.

And yet the two of them had achieved it just by eating a fruit.

At last, they fully understood why Hikaru had been so grave about it.

Anyone who possessed something like this would guard it with absolute secrecy.

They would never leak even the smallest hint of it.

And yet... Hikaru gave it to us...

For some reason, that thought hit both of them hard.

If they put themselves in his shoes—

if they had obtained something like this—

would they have shared it?

Even after seriously thinking it through, the answer was obvious.

No.

Whether it benefited them directly or not, they would almost certainly have kept it to themselves.

But Hikaru had shown no such hesitation.

His tone had been harsh enough to frighten them.

And yet he had handed them unimaginable power.

"If you ever leak this, then even if Hikaru can’t bear to deal with you, I will."

Suddenly, Ayame lifted her head and stared at Saya with absolute seriousness.

There was unmistakable killing intent in her expression.

"My mouth isn’t that loose. And my clan isn’t exactly on the verge of collapse. You’d be better off worrying about yourself."

Saya raised her chin slightly.

Gone was her usual gentleness.

At that moment, the cold pride of the Uchiha showed plainly in her face.

"Even if you’re Hikaru’s fiancée—even if Hikaru doesn’t have the heart to touch you—I’ll still kill you if I have to. Because between the two of us, you’re the more dangerous one."

The two women stared at each other coldly.

Only after a long while did they finally look away.

Their positions had been made clear.

That was enough.

But now, another question surfaced in both their minds.

Where had Hikaru gone?

...

"I really didn’t expect Danzo to become this brazen. The Third Hokage has indulged him too much. Looks like the lesson we gave him before wasn’t nearly deep enough."

In ANBU’s small conference room, Hikaru frowned and muttered quietly to himself.

His voice was neither loud nor soft, yet it was perfectly clear to Aburame Shibi.

And hearing that, Shibi visibly relaxed.

If they were going to cooperate, then both sides needed to understand each other’s circumstances.

He had long since prepared himself for that.

At this point, with things already this bad, there was no point worrying about washing dirty linen in public.

So he had told Hikaru everything.

Everything between him and Danzo.

That included Aburame Shikuro, who had been taken away by Danzo before Shibi even became clan head.

It included Aburame Ryūma, who had later been forcibly taken as well after Shibi inherited leadership.

And it included the threat Danzo had delivered that very morning.

He had laid it all out.

And he believed Hikaru would understand exactly why he had come here.

Especially the meaning behind his words about "deeper" and "more detailed" cooperation.

And now, hearing Hikaru’s muttered thoughts and seeing his attitude, Shibi felt his spirits rise.

He already knew ANBU could oppose Root.

But until he actually received protection—or saw something concrete—he had no way to judge just how far that opposition truly went.

Now, though, he felt he had his answer.

The ANBU under Hikaru’s command really did not fear Root.

In fact, Hikaru’s side had clearly clashed with them before.

"Minister... have you had conflicts with Root before?"

The question slipped out before he could stop himself.

Then he hurried to add, "If it’s classified, then forget I asked. And please forgive my rudeness."

"It’s not that secret. ANBU has indeed clashed with Root."

Hikaru lightly shook his head, then let out a faint sigh, as though remembering something unpleasant.

"Come to think of it, your clan was involved in one of those incidents. A little over a year ago, ANBU found someone special and brought them back as one of our own. Root, being what they are, came straight into ANBU and tried to take that person by force. The one leading them was Aburame Ryūma."

"What?" Shibi’s body trembled slightly. "Then... what happened?"

"That ANBU operative was one of my subordinates. At the time, I was already a captain. There was no way I was going to let Root run wild inside ANBU, especially without a Hokage order."

Hikaru shook his head again, and Shibi already knew what was coming.

Sure enough, Hikaru’s next words made him close his eyes.

"So I acted. I killed them all and had their heads sent back to Danzo. That included your clansman, Aburame Ryūma. My apologies, Clan Head."

"That has nothing to do with you, Minister. Why would you apologize?"

Shibi shook his head and forced a smile onto his face.

But behind that smile was naked hatred.

"If anything, I should thank you for telling me the truth. And I know perfectly well that this wasn’t your fault. What you did was right. If I have to blame anyone, I’ll blame that bastard Danzo. If he hadn’t taken Ryūma away... if he hadn’t issued that order... Ryūma would never have ended up like that. He wouldn’t have met such a miserable end, vanished without even a body left behind. All of this is Danzo’s doing. Root’s doing. And—"

He cut himself off abruptly.

Hikaru, meanwhile, looked at him with faint amusement.

He knew exactly who Shibi had almost cursed just now.

The one who had let Danzo run wild.

The Third Hokage.

And that result pleased Hikaru immensely.

Throughout the conversation, he had deliberately pretended not to know too much about the full picture.

Because he wanted to see just how deeply this textbook victim of Danzo’s persecution resented the people above him.

And now he had his answer.

The hatred ran deep.

Which meant Hikaru’s original decision to leave Danzo in place had already begun paying off.

"You still need to be careful with your words, Clan Head."

Hikaru smiled and tapped the table lightly, his tone as gentle as ever.

"Inside ANBU, nothing will happen. But outside these walls, it’s not nearly so safe."

"I understand, Minister."

Shibi nodded immediately.

He knew he had lost control of himself for a moment.

"I understand now how we can cooperate. If the Minister is willing, then I can send the people Root wants into ANBU."

Hikaru tapped the table again, and Shibi straightened at once.

"While I’ll still assign them missions, I won’t go too far. And when the time comes, they’ll have the option to retire. ANBU is not Root. That distinction is very real, and it won’t change."

"That was already my thought. Now that I’ve heard the Minister say it himself, I’m far more at ease."

Shibi nodded.

That had been part of his purpose in coming here from the beginning.

Send the people Root wanted into ANBU.

Seek protection that way.

Not just protection for those gifted clan members—

but protection for the Aburame Clan itself.

"Good. But that only solves the problem for now."

Hikaru nodded slightly, then continued with a quiet smile.

"Danzo is still there. Or rather, the Third Hokage’s continued protection of him will make things difficult for all of us."

"...Hm?"

Shibi froze for a second, then seemed to realize where this was going.

"Minister... you mean..."

"Some things need to be dealt with properly. Otherwise they’ll remain a massive problem—one no one can afford to ignore."

Hikaru tapped the table once more.

The crisp sound slid into Shibi’s ears and sank deep into his heart.

It was almost like a genjutsu.

Every word Hikaru spoke lodged itself firmly in his mind, leaving him unable to calm down.

"Some voices need to be heard. Some truths need to be known.

"And Konoha’s Hokage should be the Fourth—not an old man who lets an assassin run wild and, through misplaced sentiment, has become unfit to remain in that seat any longer.

"We should unite everyone Danzo has ’visited’... and then find a way to let our voices be heard."

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