"The Hokage's seat… it's mine!"
Sensing Minato's gaze, Seisui turned his head and gave him a faint smile.
I'm the one who will become Hokage, Minato!
Meanwhile, within the house, Uzumaki Mito could feel the ambition burning in Seisui's heart.
She didn't quite understand his full intentions, but when her eyes fell on that thin, slender line on the ground, she subconsciously touched her belly and whispered softly:
"Hashirama… it seems someone doesn't quite agree with your shinobi village system."
Mito murmured to herself, but a moment later, she smiled gently as her gaze returned to Seisui.
"But it feels nice… seeing this kind of youthful energy again."
"The matters of the young… we old ones should just let them be."
With that, she turned her attention inward—to the Nine-Tails sealed within her.
"Tell me, Kurama, do you prefer boys or girls?"
The Nine-Tails froze for a second, then exploded in rage.
"Damn you, human!!!"
ROAR!!!
Even while sealed, it could still sense what was happening outside.
After spending decades with Mito, Kurama knew exactly why she asked that absurd question.
But does he—Kurama, the great Nine-Tails—have a choice?!
No!
Then why the hell ask me?!
Its mind drifted back to the past.
There was a time when it had been a carefree fox—beating up Shukaku every now and then, then napping the rest of the day.
Life had been peaceful… until one day, that damned Senju Hashirama appeared and said it was "too powerful to roam free" and needed to be restrained.
Then, just like that, the man reached out, grabbed it by the head as if it were a kitten, and sealed it away.
You humans can't possibly understand the pain of a Tailed Beast!
"Damn Uzumaki Mito! Once I get out of here, I'll make you all feel true pain!"
Kurama continued to roar in fury, but Mito simply shook her head.
"You're still as short-tempered as ever, Kurama."
"Looks like Hashirama was right…"
"You do need to be restrained."
Kurama's fury spiked even higher. Why am I angry, you ask?! You people really have no self-awareness, do you?!
"FEEL MY WRATH!!!"
"Behave yourself."
Mito withdrew from the seal space and looked once more toward Seisui.
"He's grown…"
"Well, that's good."
Before passing on, she was at least able to see her Uzumaki clan prosper again—that was enough to fulfill her final wish.
With a peaceful smile, Mito slowly closed her eyes.
The aura of death deepened around her.
Seisui, meanwhile, was staring at Minato, lost in thought.
Should I move here?
This house was way bigger than his current one and there was even enough land to build another beside it.
Plus, it was in the heart of Konoha—not far from the Uchiha compound.
Close to Haru, too.
Prime real estate.
Back then, the Uchiha still lived near the village center; they hadn't yet been pushed to the outskirts.
Their land was central—but ironically, not one of them held a high-ranking position in the village.
Only the Konoha Military Police remained their domain.
It was Tobirama's way of "integrating" the Uchiha into the village—using civic duties to build trust.
Truly worthy of the title 'kind-hearted Senju old man.'
But he'd miscalculated.
The Uchiha were a proud clan.
In handling such affairs, that pride often turned into arrogance, which only widened the rift between them and the rest of the villagers.
Yet despite that, they refused to give up their Konoha Military Police authority.
And so the conflict endured—dragging on to this very day.
Thinking this far, Seisui sighed and shook his head.
"I've got something to do, so I'll head off first," he said to the group.
"You guys keep training."
He'd already mastered Adamantine Sealing Chains—now it was just a matter of practice.
Besides, there was that Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tag technique waiting for him to improve.
Just thinking about the Mutually Mutual Multiplying Explosive Clay Formation got him excited.
After saying a few polite words to Uzumaki Mito, Seisui went home then immediately reverse-summoned himself to the Land of Pandas.
Before he could even speak, Panda Ming's voice echoed around him.
"Seisui! Can you not keep summoning Kuma all the time?!"
Seisui blinked in confusion.
When did I summon Kuma?
Then he realized—it must've been Haru's doing.
"She's still growing!" Panda Ming huffed. "Every time she's about to eat bamboo, she gets summoned away! How's she supposed to get proper nutrition like that?!"
Watching the flustered panda, Seisui's mouth twitched.
"Alright, alright. Next time I won't summon her."
"I came to see Panda Wu about something, gotta go!"
He took off immediately.
Panda Ming was becoming more and more of a nagging housewife he really couldn't stand it.
Panda Wu's clay workshop had been relocated several times by the Panda Sage and now sat far from the bamboo forest.
But the good thing was that the soil there was perfect for making explosive clay—basically, every patch of ground could be used.
When Seisui arrived, Panda Wu tilted his head.
"Seisui? What brings you here?"
Surrounded by bouncing little clay pandas, Seisui twitched his lips, then pulled out a scroll.
"I got a new jutsu."
"Oh?" Panda Wu scratched his head. "And?"
Seeing the panda's lack of interest, Seisui flicked off some dirt from his shoe and continued,
"It's called the Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tag Array."
"You stick one tag onto the enemy—when it explodes, it summons two more. When those explode, they summon four, then eight, then sixteen… continuous pinpoint detonations."
Hearing that, Panda Wu's eyes lit up.
"That's brilliant!"
"I get it—you wanna adapt it using clay, right?"
He glanced at the tiny clay pandas hopping at his feet.
"One becomes two, two become four, four become eight, eight become sixteen—"
"That way, I'll have tons of clay pandas!"
At first, Seisui nodded enthusiastically—then froze, a cold sweat trickling down his cheek.
"Not… not exactly like that."
"The tags summon pre-prepared explosives; it's not infinite."
Panda Wu's shoulders slumped in disappointment.
"A jutsu that can't summon infinitely? Lame."
"The beauty of a massive explosion—its fleeting brilliance—that's true art!"
Seisui chuckled.
Just wait. One day, Deidara's gonna come begging to be your student.
Thinking of Deidara made him sigh.
You could've been the Tsuchikage, yet you chose to chase the 'art of explosion' and play with clay…
Artists, huh.
He'd thought improving the jutsu would be tricky, but it turned out all he had to do was replace the summoning medium with clay.
Not even "modification," really—just a medium swap.
Simpler the better. He didn't want to waste too much time on it anyway.
Once he was done, he found a place far away from Panda Wu's workshop, especially one without any explosive clay lying around.
If one of his Mutually Mutual Multiplying Explosive Clay Formations accidentally set off a chain reaction, the entire panda territory might go up in flames.
So he crossed the bamboo forest to the opposite side, where a great waterfall thundered down.
"This should do." He rubbed his chin, then tossed out a ball-sized lump of clay.
Forming a hand seal, his expression grew solemn.
"Mutually Mutual Multiplying Explosive Clay Formation Array!"
The clay instantly turned red-hot, flashing violently—
and within a second—BOOM!!!
The explosion was like a key unlocking a new dimension of chaos—
two more lumps appeared, then detonated in sequence, producing four more—
then eight, then sixteen—each blast overlapping the last.
As Seisui's chakra drained, the number of explosions grew, shaking the ground.
But since the area was remote and the waterfall high, no pandas were in danger.
He stayed to observe calmly.
Feeling the residual chakra flow, Seisui frowned and muttered,
"The power's not enough…"
In his vision, the technique was supposed to unleash countless clay bombs in rapid succession—a continuous, devastating bombardment.
But at this rate? Far from it.
After thinking for a moment, he gritted his teeth, pressed his palms together—and poured half his chakra into the jutsu.
High atop the cliff—two hundred meters up a massive clay mound, seventy to eighty meters across, appeared out of thin air.
The next instant, it turned red-hot and detonated with a sky-shattering roar.
A tremendous shockwave blasted Seisui backward; he tumbled across the ground, rolling over and over.
After a long moment, he staggered to his feet, wiping cold sweat from his forehead.
"Damn… that was way too close!"
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