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Garaga had coiled its enormous body into a massive barricade, completely sealing off the entrance to the cave.
For the entire past week, Midorima had not emerged even once. The thick, metallic scent of blood had at times drifted out beyond the cave's entrance, so potent that Garaga had nearly begun to salivate.
But the moment it remembered that this was Midorima's blood, Garaga immediately sobered and cooled its instincts. This was not a master it could afford to provoke.
Over this stretch of time, the task it had performed most frequently was patrolling the perimeter, ensuring that no irrelevant parties came close. At times, it had even forgotten to eat.
It wasn't particularly worried about the others. The only one it truly feared might cause trouble was that little black snake.
Although all of them had entered into summoning contracts with Midorima, that didn't mean they all got along harmoniously. In truth, their relationships with one another were merely passable at best.
The most perilous moment for Midorima had likely been the fifth day.
On that day, the scent of blood had been overwhelmingly thick, and Midorima's life force had grown terrifyingly faint.
Just as Garaga had genuinely begun to believe that Midorima might not pull through, starting from the sixth day, the cave had once again ignited with the unmistakable aura of life. Moreover, this vital energy was like a wildfire tossed onto dry grassland—it caught swiftly and blazed fiercely, growing in intensity at an astonishing rate.
In just a single day, Midorima's life force had not only completely compensated for the previous "deficit," but it was still surging forward with such explosive momentum that even Garaga felt a twinge of genuine fear creep into its heart.
It was no longer worried about whether Midorima would survive. Instead, it was now worried that it might get "accidentally" obliterated by the young man once he emerged.
Still, it should be fine... right?
After all, it hadn't done anything to harm Midorima's interests.
A slight unease churned in Garaga's gut.
Well, just a tiny bit.
...
The past week had been, without any exaggeration, the most agonizing and perilous period Midorima had endured since crossing over into this world.
Having withstood the unrelenting, continuous onslaught of the Six-Tails' chakra, his muscles and skin had been torn apart and knitted back together in a ceaseless, brutal cycle. Even his internal organs had sustained damage to varying degrees—and by "varying degrees," the spectrum ran not from "light" to "heavy," but strictly from "severe" to "catastrophic."
His Cell Laboratory had operated at full capacity, repairing the destroyed cells and damaged tissue structures without pause. The formidable regenerative power of the First Hokage's cells had, over these several days, played an utterly irreplaceable role. It accelerated the high-speed restoration of his own cellular matrix while simultaneously enhancing the sheer durability and strength of those cells.
Yet even with the dual support of the Cell Laboratory and the First Hokage's cells, within that brief span of seven days—or, more precisely, within the first five days—he had, unprecedentedly, triggered the Last Stand safeguard twice.
This was the first time he had ever encountered such a situation.
It signified that on two separate occasions, he had brushed infinitely close to the boundary of death itself.
And it was precisely after that second activation of the Last Stand that the rate of his cellular regeneration had skyrocketed. His spiritual energy had also undergone a massive surge, practically doubling in magnitude. After all, he had faced the genuine, visceral threat of true death twice within such a compressed timeframe.
Moreover, the process of repairing his cells had consumed a staggering amount of chakra.
The reason he had been able to recover so rapidly despite his chakra reserves being driven to the point of extreme depletion was twofold. On one hand, his Overload capacity contained a reserve of twenty percent of his chakra. On the other, the continuous infusion of the Six-Tails' chakra had granted him the very capital he needed for rapid restoration.
As for his experiences over the course of this week, the Six-Tails, Saiken, offered a single-word appraisal: "Insanity!"
"I have never encountered a jinchuriki like you before. You were genuinely, in the truest sense of the word, completely defenseless. You trusted me utterly, with no conditions whatsoever," Saiken said, settling its massive form into a seated position before Midorima. "I could feel the sheer intensity of your determination, but I could not comprehend the source from which such resolve was born."
"It was in order to survive," Midorima replied. "Ever since my parents passed away, I have been fighting tooth and nail just to stay alive. The most stable and contented period of my life was probably my time in the Hidden Mist Village. Though it was grueling, I never had to worry about simply surviving day to day. After that, through a series of accidents and twists of fate, I became a rogue ninja. I never knew what fate the next day would hold. Under those circumstances, I struggled simply to 'live.' Later, by sheer luck, my name was cleared. But then I inadvertently stumbled upon the true secret of the Akatsuki. The real mastermind behind the Akatsuki is not Pain or Nagato. It is Obito."
"His goal is not merely to borrow the power of the Ten-Tails to develop more fearsome forbidden techniques or to bring an end to warfare. What he truly desires is to awaken the Divine Tree... Not just you, or the other tailed beasts—every single person in this world will be unable to escape its grasp. Therefore, becoming a perfect jinchuriki became the only viable solution. What I need isn't merely a Six-Tails Mode. What I need is the Saiken Sage Mode. I need your help, Saiken," Midorima declared.
"What do you need me to do?" Saiken asked.
Midorima cleared his throat lightly. "I need you to help me enter that mode."
He had thought this through with absolute clarity.
The moment Madara was successfully resurrected and achieved his Six Paths Sage Mode, the situation would become unthinkably dire.
Ordinary ninjutsu would be almost entirely incapable of inflicting any meaningful damage upon Madara Uchiha. The only reliable avenues of attack would be taijutsu and senjutsu.
Midorima's own taijutsu would be hard-pressed to contend with Madara Uchiha. And while Might Guy at this point in time might possess the necessary fiery spirit, his experience was undoubtedly insufficient. Whether he could successfully unleash techniques like the Evening Elephant or Night Guy was something Midorima simply could not be certain of.
Consequently, Midorima's optimal solution was senjutsu. And the more overwhelmingly powerful the senjutsu, the better its effectiveness would be.
A truly colossal-scale senjutsu technique would require a monstrous amount of senjutsu chakra. Therefore, the Saiken Sage Mode was an absolute necessity.
However, Saiken had only come into his possession later in life, a situation entirely different from Naruto, who had grown up alongside the Nine-Tails since infancy and had cultivated an incredibly deep bond with the beast over many years.
Time was short, and the stakes were immeasurably high.
To achieve an equivalent result, he had no choice but to take a desperate, reckless gamble. There was simply no second path.
Saiken perceived the profound sincerity radiating from the depths of Midorima's heart. It lowered the front of its massive body, minimizing the distance between them. "I have sensed the truth of your conviction. You have earned my full acknowledgment. Your mission shall henceforth be my mission. On this point, I will never waver. This is my solemn promise to you."
Once he had confirmed that the barriers separating them had been completely dismantled, Midorima did not waste a single moment on sentimentality.
The truth was, after Saiken had acknowledged Midorima from the very depths of its being, Midorima's true plan was only just beginning.
After all, he was not the First Hokage, nor did he possess Asura's chakra as Naruto did. Therefore, if he wanted to maintain Sage Mode, he had to resolve a critical problem: how to execute Sage Mode while simultaneously maintaining the Six-Tails Chakra Mode.
With the newly introduced natural energy added into the mix, the precise allocation and balancing of chakra became an exceedingly complex challenge.
According to the established conditions required to successfully form and maintain Sage Mode, Midorima knew he absolutely had to maintain both a "dynamic" and a "static" state in perfect equilibrium.
He would inevitably have to engage his opponent in active combat, so maintaining a purely "static" state was out of the question. To do so would simply mean subjecting himself to a one-sided beating. He would have to rely on an external force to maintain that "static" element.
For Jiraiya, that role had been fulfilled by Fukasaku and Shima, who helped him maintain the stillness needed to gather natural energy. By the same principle, when Naruto faced the Deva Path, the two Great Toad Sages had served the identical function.
Thus, according to Midorima's theoretical framework, Saiken would assume the role that Tagitsuhime had previously played. In this way, when the time came to confront Madara, he wouldn't have to summon Tagitsuhime onto the battlefield at all. In a confrontation of that magnitude, Tagitsuhime would be nothing more than a helpless target.
However, in his planning, he had overlooked one crucial fact: tailed beasts were not sage masters.
When he laid out his concept to Saiken, the slug's answer was brutally direct: "I don't know how."
"I have never once attempted such a thing," Saiken stated plainly.