The power had originated from the "Chakra Fruit" that Kaguya had consumed all those years ago. It was the source of all the Tailed Beasts and the key to resurrecting the Rabbit Goddess.
Kiyohara rose from the Hokage's chair.
Outside the window, the setting sun had already sunk below the Hokage Rock, and the entire village of Konoha was enveloped in a faint layer of twilight.
He pushed open the office door and made his way to the largest laboratory in Konoha.
The pale light of the fluorescent tubes spilled across the anti-static floor, while the indicator lights of various instruments and pieces of equipment flickered in the darkness.
Rin was standing in front of the central workbench. She held a syringe filled with pale green liquid in her hand and was in the process of injecting it into a cultivation tank.
Her short brown hair was pinned behind her ears with a hair clip, revealing her slender neck.
Hearing the sound of approaching footsteps, she raised her head. When she saw Kiyohara walk in, a gentle smile appeared on her lips.
"Kiyohara-kun. You came at just the right time. The eleventh round of fusion experiments has just been completed."
She put down the syringe and picked up an experimental report from the workbench before handing it to him.
"The strength of the container has increased by nearly twofold. I went back and analyzed the failure data from the previous rounds. The problem was caused by the resonance vibrations produced when the chakra of multiple Tailed Beasts was fused together. The biological materials we used previously could not withstand that high-frequency vibration, so they would crack from the inside."
"The new buffering medium is based on the formula for the cultivation solution containing Hashirama Cells that was obtained from the former Root base. Unexpectedly, it is extremely suitable for use as a vibration-buffering layer."
Kiyohara took the report and flipped through several pages, his gaze finally settling on the data charts on the last page.
The artificial Tailed Beast embryo shown in the chart had successfully maintained a stable state during the experiment in which the chakra of multiple Tailed Beasts was injected into it. Its stable duration was several times longer than the previous record.
"So that is how it is."
Kiyohara was not surprised by this.
After all, Orochimaru and Shinno had been entangled with one another before, so Orochimaru must have secretly conducted research into artificial Tailed Beasts.
Now, all of Orochimaru's research materials that had been left behind at the Root base had effectively fallen into Kiyohara's hands.
"You have worked hard, Rin."
Kiyohara lowered his head and kissed Rin.
"I'll come back to see you later."
After inspecting the progress of the experiment for a while, Kiyohara turned around and left.
Back in the Hokage's office, Kiyohara fell into deep thought.
While adapting to the chakra of the Tailed Beasts, he continued thinking about the situation.
Spread out across the desk in front of him was a scroll. Drawn on it by hand was a genealogy chart of the Otsutsuki Clan.
Kaguya, Isshiki, Momoshiki, Urashiki, Shibai, and the "Ten-Tails," which had been heavily circled.
What Kiyohara was considering at this moment was whether he should fight Kaguya directly or make some other arrangements.
After thinking about it for a while, Kiyohara came to the conclusion that there was actually no need for him to fight Kaguya at all.
The coordinates of the shinobi world had already been exposed to the Otsutsuki Clan beyond the world thousands of years ago, at the very moment Kaguya descended upon this planet.
What Kaguya feared was not her two sons.
What she feared were the members of her own clan who would eventually come looking for her.
That was why she had frantically created an army of White Zetsu.
That was why she had lived like a wounded woman who possessed absolutely no sense of security.
From this perspective, Kaguya was not an enemy.
She was a pitiful, embittered woman who had been hunted by her own clan, betrayed by her sons, sealed away for a thousand years, and left with an extreme lack of security.
When dealing with a group, the simplest and most effective strategy had never been to confront them head-on.
It was to divide them, suppress them, and win some of them over.
The Otsutsuki Clan was not a completely united whole.
The rift between Kaguya and Isshiki was the perfect point of entry.
Otsutsuki Isshiki had regarded Kaguya as a sacrifice, while Kaguya had ambushed Isshiki and nearly killed him.
The two partners had formed a feud that could only end with one of them dead.
If Kiyohara could seize the opportunity to establish a connection with Kaguya and turn her from an enemy into an ally, then when he eventually faced the Otsutsuki from beyond this world, he would no longer be fighting alone.
A goddess who had once consumed a "Chakra Fruit" and possessed the "Rinne Sharingan" and "Infinite Tsukuyomi" was invaluable, whether as an informant within the Otsutsuki Clan or as a powerful combatant on his side.
Most importantly, Kiyohara also wanted to know whether he would be able to adapt if he obtained a portion of Kaguya's chakra.
Moreover, Kiyohara was becoming increasingly curious about what he would eventually become himself.
The chakra of all nine Tailed Beasts had already gathered inside his body, and his rate of adaptation was becoming faster and faster.
Once the final portion of chakra completely merged with his physical body, what would happen when the nine portions of Tailed Beast power finally fused together within him?
Would he also become a humanoid Ten-Tails, just like Kaguya?
The answer to that question was probably something even the Sage of Six Paths would not dare to state with certainty.
"Interesting."
Kiyohara thought to himself.
…
At the secret base of the Akatsuki, in the deepest chamber of the entire facility.
Uchiha Madara sat on a stone chair. The cracks covering his Edo Tensei body reflected a dim glow beneath the flickering candlelight.
Spread out before him was an intelligence scroll that White Zetsu had just collected from various regions. The scroll recorded the movements of the major Tailed Beast jinchūriki over the past year.
The jinchūriki of the One-Tail, Gaara, had now been brought to Konoha by Kiyohara.
The jinchūriki of the Two-Tails, Yugito Nii, had been defeated, and a portion of the Two-Tails' chakra had been extracted.
The jinchūriki of the Three-Tails, Nohara Rin, was a citizen of Konoha, so there was naturally no need to say anything more about her.
The jinchūriki of the Four-Tails, Rōshi, had been defeated by Kiyohara, and his Lava Release had also been copied.
The jinchūriki of the Five-Tails, Han, had likewise been defeated by Kiyohara.
The jinchūriki of the Six-Tails, Utakata, had been involved in a brief battle in the waters surrounding the Land of Waves. Utakata had continued wandering afterward, but a portion of the Six-Tails' chakra had already been taken.
As for the jinchūriki of the Seven-Tails, Fu, high-intensity chakra fluctuations had been detected in the direction of Takigakure.
The jinchūriki of the Eight-Tails, Killer B, had been defeated by Kiyohara even earlier.
As for the Nine-Tails, there was even less to say. Konoha's jinchūriki, Uzumaki Kushina, and Namikaze Minato were both allies of Kiyohara.
As Madara went through the information one piece at a time, his fingers tightened increasingly hard around the armrest of the stone chair.
Kiyohara was collecting the chakra of the Tailed Beasts.
He was not collecting complete Tailed Beasts. He only needed a portion of their flesh and chakra, but none of the nine Tailed Beasts had escaped his grasp.
From the One-Tail all the way to the Nine-Tails, Kiyohara had interfered with every single one of them.
Madara suddenly stood up from the stone chair.
He remembered the path he himself had once taken.
He had faked his death at the Valley of the End, then struggled to survive for decades inside an underground cave. He had implanted Hashirama Cells into his chest and, shortly before his death, had finally awakened the Rinnegan.
Why had he done all of that?
It was all for the sake of gathering the nine Tailed Beasts one day, resurrecting the Ten-Tails, becoming its jinchūriki, and then activating the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Yet now, someone had walked a path extremely similar to his own, except that person had done it far more efficiently.
If Kiyohara's body could truly contain the chakra of all nine Tailed Beasts simultaneously without collapsing, what was he planning to do?
There was only one answer.
Become the Ten-Tails jinchūriki.
Madara's Mangekyō Sharingan suddenly lit up beneath the candlelight.
"Kiyohara, you also want to become the jinchūriki of the Ten-Tails?!"
Madara was utterly shocked!
…
The lights in the Hokage's office remained on until deep into the night.
Kiyohara put all the intelligence scrolls concerning the Otsutsuki Clan back into the drawer and then spread out a blank analysis scroll.
Since he intended to win over Kaguya, he first needed to completely dissect her as a person, or rather, as a goddess, and understand her from the inside out.
Kaguya.
The Rabbit Goddess.
The progenitor of chakra.
On the surface, she was a lofty goddess who stood above all others. Deep down, however, she was an embittered woman who had been tormented by betrayal and loneliness for a thousand years.
In terms of combat power, she was theoretically at the very pinnacle of the shinobi world.
The "Rinne Sharingan," "Infinite Tsukuyomi," "Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack," "All-Killing Ash Bones," "Expansive Truth-Seeking Ball," and more.
Any one of these techniques, taken individually, was enough to crush the entire shinobi world.
But she possessed one fatal weakness.
Kaguya simply did not know how to fight.
It was not that she lacked strength.
She had absolutely no combat intelligence.
In the original story, every one of her attacks looked like someone using brute force to smash a walnut. She clearly possessed countless more efficient ways to eliminate her enemies, yet at the most crucial moments, she always managed to make the most foolish choice possible.
She had been deceived by Naruto's Sexy Jutsu.
She had been interrupted by Sasuke's sneak attack.
She had even been pierced by Kakashi's surprise attack.
Her combat awareness was completely mismatched with the power she possessed. It was like giving a three-year-old child a legendary sword capable of cutting through steel.
Yes, that child could kill someone with it.
But any adult who had practiced swordsmanship for even a few days could simply circle around behind the child and take the sword away.
Why was she like this?
Because her power had been obtained out of nowhere after she consumed the Chakra Fruit. It had not been accumulated through years of cultivation and training.
She had never experienced genuine life-and-death battles.
She had never honed her combat techniques.
During the era when she descended upon the shinobi world, there was no existence on this planet capable of threatening her.
She did not need combat techniques.
She only needed to wave her hand casually, and she could crush everything before her.
But precisely because she had never needed to fight, she was completely helpless when her two sons sealed her away. It was also why she repeatedly made mistakes when facing Naruto and Sasuke.
There was an even deeper reason.
She had an extreme lack of security.
Otsutsuki Isshiki had treated her as a sacrifice, and she had nearly been devoured by the Ten-Tails.
After ambushing Isshiki, she had survived alone, but from that moment onward, she had lived in fear.
She feared that her fellow clan members from beyond this world would eventually come looking for her.
She feared being treated as a traitor and executed.
She feared losing everything she had finally managed to obtain.
That was why she consumed the Chakra Fruit and frantically created an army of White Zetsu.
Everything she did was driven by fear.
And now, a thousand years of imprisonment had probably only intensified that fear.
From beginning to end, she had been alone.
Kiyohara rubbed his chin.
Therefore, trying to reason with Kaguya or persuade her through logic would be completely ineffective.
At her core, she was a deeply wounded, extremely affection-starved, and profoundly insecure emotional being.
There was only one way to move her.
Emotional recognition.
Her entire life had been filled with betrayal.
Her partner, Isshiki, had treated her as a sacrifice.
Her two sons had joined forces to seal her away.
Even Black Zetsu, the only younger son she trusted, had been running around working for her, but in the end, he was merely an extension of her will that she had hastily created before being sealed away.
He was an obsession that had existed for a thousand years solely for the purpose of resurrecting her.
No one had ever truly stood on her side.
No one had understood why she was afraid.
No one had understood why she created the White Zetsu.
No one understood what it felt like to be sealed away alone on a lonely moon.
What she needed was someone who could understand her pain.
Someone who could stand in her position and consider things from her perspective.
Someone who could make her feel, at the moment when she was most afraid, that she was not actually alone.
Based on this judgment, Kiyohara began designing a plan to win over Kaguya.
There was only one core principle.
He had to firmly maintain absolute initiative.
At present, Kiyohara had no intention of creating a complete Kaguya.
Although the strength of the artificial Tailed Beast container had been greatly increased through Kiyohara's modifications, the risk of withstanding the fusion reaction of the complete Ten-Tails chakra was still far too high.
He would first create an incomplete version of Kaguya.
Her consciousness and soul would still belong entirely to Kaguya herself, which would be equivalent to completely resurrecting her.
However, the strength of her physical body would not possess her full power. It would instead be restricted to a controllable range.
In this way, Kaguya would have to carefully weigh the advantages and disadvantages before doing anything.
Did she want to recover the strength she had possessed at her peak?
That was possible, but she would have to rely on Kiyohara.
Did she want revenge against Isshiki?
That was also possible, but she would likewise have to rely on Kiyohara's strength.
Kiyohara could then use the excuse of helping Kaguya restore her power as a means of interacting with her more deeply, gradually gaining her trust step by step.
The process had to be gradual.
On one hand, he needed to make her feel that she could rely on him, allowing her to slowly come to believe that someone finally understood her pain and grievances.
On the other hand, he also needed to constantly demonstrate his strength, making her understand that he was not an existence she could manipulate at will.
Therefore, Kiyohara planned to establish himself as the image of a kind-hearted member of the Otsutsuki Clan.
He would understand her pain, but he would not indulge her selfishness.
Kiyohara leaned back against his chair, the corners of his mouth curving slightly upward.
When that day came, the greatest "traitor" within the Otsutsuki Clan would no longer be Black Zetsu.
It would be the Rabbit Goddess herself.
As for an existence like Kaguya, Kiyohara was naturally quite interested in having her on his side.
After all, in the entire shinobi world, was there really a woman more noble than Kaguya?
Several days passed, and the "Hashirama Cell Vaccine" project was now fully underway.
Konoha Hospital had distributed the first batch of inactivated "Hashirama Cell Vaccines" to the vaccination stations operated by the Anbu, and the vaccination process proceeded much more smoothly than expected.
The Anbu shinobi lined up outside the vaccination room, waiting for their turn. Following the vaccination manual jointly written by Rin and Tsunade, the medical personnel administered a subcutaneous injection to each recipient and then implanted Uchiha Kōsuke's inhibitor-factor cellular curse seal into their arms.
The entire process took less than ten minutes, and the observation period after vaccination was only two days.
Among the first batch of Anbu shinobi to receive the vaccine, several individuals with weaker constitutions developed slight fevers and fluctuations in their chakra levels. However, they recovered on their own after resting for a day.
Even more shinobi began reporting a noticeable increase in their chakra reserves on the second day after vaccination.
Several veteran jonin who had served in the Anbu for many years even reported that their hand-seal speed had increased by nearly ten percent compared to before.
Tsunade personally stationed herself in the command room of Konoha Hospital, carefully monitoring every piece of feedback and every set of experimental data.
Shizune ran back and forth behind her while carrying a thick stack of observation reports, the rapid tapping of her shoes against the floor creating a series of hurried sounds.
After Tsunade finished reading the final report, she slapped it down on the desk.
"That brat really managed to pull it off."
She muttered the words under her breath.
There was five parts pride, three parts helplessness, and two parts tenderness that she herself had not even realized she possessed.
And at this very moment, that brat was sitting inside the Hokage's office.
The afternoon sunlight streamed through the blinds and spilled into the room, casting parallel golden bands across the surface of the desk.
The door was pushed open silently, and a slender figure walked inside.
Tsunade's assistant was not present. Instead, Tagitsuhime had arrived.
Today, Tagitsuhime was not wearing her usual plain white robe. She had changed into a set of light cyan-colored casual clothes, while her long hair was loosely tied behind her head with a hair ribbon, revealing her long, fair neck.
The moment she entered the office, her vertical pupils instinctively turned toward Kiyohara.
In her eyes, the chakra within Kiyohara had already completely exceeded the boundaries of what she could comprehend.
When they had first met, Kiyohara's chakra had been vast, but she could still vaguely perceive its limits.
It had been like a deep and unfathomable lake. Although the lake was enormous, she could at least sense that there was a shoreline somewhere.
But now, that lake had disappeared.
What had replaced it was a genuine ocean.
The chakra of multiple Tailed Beasts flowed and intertwined throughout his meridians, each color representing the complete power of a Tailed Beast capable of bringing destruction to the heavens and earth.
And these forces were currently merging together in a way that she could not understand, gradually evolving toward some higher form.
"Transforming into a dragon!"
Before White Snake Sage had been suppressed, she had greedily spoken those words.
But now, standing in front of Kiyohara, Tagitsuhime could almost confirm that Kiyohara was not merely in the process of "transforming into a dragon."
He had already reached the threshold of that transformation.
The vast ocean of chakra within him, which was currently undergoing fusion, was the best proof.
That familiar aura, combined with the temptation brought about by the enormous amount of chakra within Kiyohara, was more lethal than anything else to a great serpent that had cultivated for hundreds of years.
Tagitsuhime slowly walked to Kiyohara's side. A trace of uncontrollable greed appeared in her dark green vertical pupils.
It was not greed for power.
More precisely, it was greed for the transformation into a dragon, as well as for the increasingly Otsutsuki-like aura emanating from Kiyohara.
She remembered that afternoon in the Hokage's office.
After enduring Kiyohara's perfectly seamless impact that time, she had returned to Ryūchi Cave and secluded herself for several days.
During that period, she discovered that the capacity of the senjutsu chakra within her body had increased somewhat compared to before.
But that increase was almost equivalent to two or three years of cultivation and training for her.
For a great serpent like her, whose cultivation was measured in years, such an increase was practically impossible.
Yet that was precisely what had happened.
There was only one explanation.
The essence and cells within Kiyohara contained a certain kind of chakra and vitality that far exceeded ordinary senjutsu chakra.
After the chakra and vitality were absorbed into her body, they accelerated the transformation of her own chakra.
In other words, it was an indirect form of "dragon transformation."
The White Snake Sage had spent thousands of years cultivating in pursuit of "transforming into a dragon."
But transforming into a dragon did not require an accumulation of time.
What it required was a qualitative transformation.
And Kiyohara was the key to her path toward becoming a dragon.
She remembered a sentence recorded in the ancient texts of Ryūchi Cave.
"The opportunity to become a dragon appears once in a thousand years. If it is obtained and not taken, regret will come too late."
This made Tagitsuhime believe that this was her own path to becoming a dragon.
She began thinking.
Becoming a dragon was the dream of every snake.
And now, the opportunity was right in front of her.
She had to seriously consider whether this might be the only opportunity she would ever have in her entire life.
Tagitsuhime voluntarily crouched down in front of Kiyohara.
Kiyohara reached out his hand and gently placed it on Tagitsuhime's black hair, his fingers passing through the strands that had been loosely gathered by her hair ribbon.
Tagitsuhime, who was being petted on the head by Kiyohara, slightly raised her head and swallowed.
Her eyelashes trembled slightly, and an extremely faint flush appeared at the corners of her eyes. Her usually cold and aloof face had lost some of its restraint, replaced by a barely suppressed eagerness.
"You are being rather proactive today."
Kiyohara spoke lightly.
It seemed that Tagitsuhime, being a member of the serpent race, was indeed extraordinarily perceptive.
The current Kiyohara could already be considered a kind of heavenly treasure.
Another half a month passed.
An encrypted scroll was delivered to Kiyohara's desk.
Kiyohara opened the scroll and quickly scanned through it.
The general content of the intelligence report was that they had finally reached the Gelel Mine.
This ancient mine had recently suffered a collapse. The collapse had exposed an underground ruin deep within the mine that had been sealed away for at least several hundred years.
They had discovered a collection of well-preserved documents and mineral samples. Several of the rare ores appeared to possess effects similar to those Kiyohara had described.
As a result, they had urgently sent people to deliver the samples and experimental data.
"What about Rin's side?"
Kiyohara looked toward Kurenai.
Kurenai placed another report in front of him.
"The pressure test for the strength of the container has just passed. The resonance absorption rate of the buffer layer has reached the upper limit of the expected value."
Kiyohara stood up from the Hokage's chair.
Outside the window, the sky had taken on the deep blue hue characteristic of evening. The Hokage Rock had become nothing more than a vague silhouette beneath the dusk, while several of the brightest stars had already appeared through gaps in the clouds.
The rare ores from the Gelel Mine had filled in the final missing piece.
All of the laboratory data had also met the required standards.
Kiyohara felt that it was time to resurrect Kaguya.
After all, even if the experiment failed, all he would have to do was create another container.
As for chakra, Kiyohara could refine as much of it as he needed at any time.
"It is a pity that I could not find the Spear of Heaven (Ama no Hoko)."
(TN: Not sure if I'm correct here.)
Kiyohara felt somewhat regretful that he had not found any trace of this divine artifact.
This artifact had originated from the theatrical movie and the events of the "Power" arc.
By collecting enough notes, one could activate that miraculous artifact.
Not only could it apparently enable evolution, it also seemed capable of unleashing power comparable to the "Chakra Cannon," perhaps even greater.
"Could it be that it simply does not exist in the shinobi world?"
Kiyohara stroked his chin as he considered this possibility.
In any case, it did not matter anymore.
The "Chakra Cannon" was capable of destroying the moon, which could already be considered Six Paths-level power.
The "Spear of Heaven" might be somewhat stronger at most, but it should not be powerful enough to become a true benchmark for the Six Paths level.
However, all of these things were merely icing on the cake.
True strength still depended on oneself.
After all, these divine artifacts had many restrictions on their use, and once one knew the relevant information about them beforehand, they were much easier to deal with.
…
On the other side of the shinobi world.
Outside Hōzuki Castle, several figures slowly descended through the night wind.
Madara walked at the front.
The cracks across his Edo Tensei body emitted a pale, cold glow beneath the moonlight.
He had already removed the black robe decorated with red clouds and changed back into the red armor he had worn during the Warring States era. The Uchiha Gunbai was strapped to his back, while a chain sickle hung from his waist.
Obito followed behind him.
His tiger-striped mask concealed most of his face, while the single Sharingan visible through it contained a trace of confusion.
"Hōzuki Castle."
Madara stopped in front of the ruins and raised his head to examine the prison fortress that had once struck fear into the hearts of the entire shinobi world.
"The artifact left behind by the Sage of Six Paths, the 'Box of Ultimate Bliss,' was originally sealed here. That box can grant any wish made by the person who opens it. The only price is that it must absorb a sufficient amount of chakra."
Madara stepped across the gate, half of which had already collapsed. Broken stones cracked beneath his feet as he walked forward.
"If Kiyohara has really obtained it already, then our time is even more limited."
However, after Edo Madara and Obito secretly infiltrated the ruins and searched the area, they discovered that the divine artifact was nowhere to be found.
"Could it already have fallen into Kiyohara's hands?"
Obito guessed.
Although White Zetsu's intelligence network was powerful, it was ultimately not omnipotent.
Their intelligence only indicated that Kiyohara had come here.
As for what he had actually done, they had no way of knowing.
They only knew that Kusagakure seemed to have bowed its head and submitted to Konoha.
"Forget it. The 'Box of Ultimate Bliss' is one of the divine artifacts left behind by the Sage of Six Paths, but it is not the strongest."
Madara shook his head.
"In that era, there was another divine artifact called the 'Spear of Heaven.'"
"It can directly absorb natural energy from the planet's ley lines and convert it into pure chakra that can be absorbed by its user."
"More importantly, it also possesses a hidden ability."
"Evolution."
"It can also summon world-destroying lightning and unleash it as an attack."
Madara spoke calmly.
These were actually things Black Zetsu had told him.
Madara was quite satisfied that the will he had created possessed such impressive intelligence-gathering capabilities.
Obito's Sharingan widened slightly.
"You mean to say..."
"Kiyohara is collecting the chakra of the Tailed Beasts because he wants to become the Ten-Tails jinchūriki. In this Edo Tensei body, there is almost nothing I can do. My chakra limit is locked, and I cannot bring out much of the power of the Rinnegan."
Madara turned around.
A cold expression appeared on his sharply defined face.
"I need a new body."
"A body capable of directly confronting that monster."
"And the 'Spear of Heaven' can make me stronger."
(End of Chapter)