Leaving the Land of Artisans, Yagami Light arrived at the northern border of the Land of Hot Springs.
With his mental energy fully unleashed, it took him one day to locate this Evil God Cult stronghold.
The reason he was frowning was that he had discovered a problem that required the main body to resolve.
Although he had been assimilating the Jashin fragments and energy within his body during this time, the progress was too slow; it required massive amounts of Chakra or Natural Energy.
Natural Energy was out of the question; he couldn't manipulate it yet. The only ones who could were likely the Sages of the Three Great Sage Regions, but he felt those three were even more devious than the Six Paths Sage and couldn't be trusted.
Yagami Light felt that if he went to find them, he might be utilized without even realizing it.
From the distant Six Paths Sage to the closer Jiraiya, people believed their words implicitly.
The other option was Chakra; this was achievable, but also very troublesome.
Although Samehada could absorb Chakra and feed it back to the main body, the amount of Chakra possessed by ordinary Ninja was limited; the combined Chakra of thousands or tens of thousands of ordinary Ninja didn't even equal that of a single Tailed Beast.
He couldn't just go around absorbing them one by one with Samehada; that would take forever. Moreover, doing so would cause too much of a stir, which conflicted with his current philosophy of lying low.
Absorbing the Chakra of a Tailed Beast was possible, but the moment he made a move, he would immediately be hunted down by the Five Great Ninja Villages.
Even if he targeted the weakest, the Village Hidden by Waterfalls, it would be no exception; every major village had spies watching the Seven-Tails Chōmei, fearing it would be snatched by another village and disrupt the balance.
"Forget it. I'll just contact the main body and let him worry about this."
...
After a long while, Aoki Yoru, having finished receiving the memories from his clone, opened his eyes, a thoughtful expression on his face.
Sitting in his chair, he tapped his index finger unconsciously against the tabletop, contemplating a countermeasure.
The Tailed Beasts were definitely off-limits; they were not only the prized possessions of the Five Great Ninja Villages, but the Akatsuki Organization and Obito were also constantly eyeing them.
If he dared to make a move, he would immediately become a target for everyone, facing joint strikes from all sides.
And that didn't even account for the Six Paths Sage, who was watching the Ninja World from the Underworld.
His core purpose in splitting the Tailed Beasts was to prevent the Ten-Tails from being utilized by the Ōtsutsuki Clan, thereby causing a catastrophe.
Furthermore, he had given the Tailed Beasts names and connections to one another, prophesying that they would eventually reunite and wait for someone who could correctly guide their power to appear.
This candidate was destined to be one of his two sons; no one else could even get close.
Therefore, while Madara could do it, he, Aoki Yoru, could not.
If he dared to touch the Tailed Beasts, he would immediately be exposed to the Six Paths Sage's vision, and all his future schemes would be seen clearly by those eyes.
Excluding the Tailed Beasts, he didn't have many options left; he could only think of two.
The first was the Leyline of the ancient Kingdom of Loulan. According to the original setting, it was the source of life for the earth and the core of the land's veins.
The Leyline was hidden beneath the ancient Kingdom of Loulan, a nearly infinite torrent of purple Chakra.
The other was the Stone of Gelel that appeared in the theatrical movie.
It was a type of naturally glowing blue crystalline mineral, sealing massive amounts of Chakra and life energy within.
In ancient times, it had been mined by a super-ancient civilization to create prosperity, research immortality, and manufacture weapons. It was said that if the entire mineral vein went out of control, it would be enough to destroy half the continent.
After a long time, Aoki Yoru suddenly looked up, his eyes becoming resolute. "Children make choices; adults want everything."
Since his clone needed massive amounts of Chakra, he had to find a way to get his hands on both of these things and see if he could use them to push his progress one step further.
Time was running out. Naruto would soon be leaving the village with Jiraiya to train. There were two years left until the start of Shippuden, and about three years until the Fourth Shinobi World War.
He had to reach the Super Kage level before Naruto returned and strive to enter the Six Paths Level before the war began.
He already had an inkling of the path to the Super Kage level and was confident he could reach it within a year; as for the Six Paths Level, he still had absolutely no clue.
Therefore, he had to accelerate the Wood Clone's assimilation of the Jashin energy. If the Leyline and the Stone of Gelel were not enough, he would have no choice but to take the risk of collecting the Chakra of the nine Tailed Beasts.
If he really had no other options in the end, he would see if he could synthesize the Chakra of the nine Tailed Beasts into a mini-Ten-Tails and become a Jinchuriki himself.
By then, he could just find a place to hide, and even if hit by a Ten-Tails Tailed Beast Ball, he would be able to protect himself.
"Right, the Leyline doesn't seem to be native to the Ninja World; it's suspected to be an extraterrestrial energy body that fell from space, bound to the bloodline of the Loulan royal family."
"Then, how many extraterrestrial energy bodies like the Leyline are there in this universe? Are there similar existences in the star systems near this Ninja World?"
Aoki Yoru looked up, his eyes flickering with light and shadow. His gaze seemed to pierce through the ceiling of the basement, stabbing directly into the night sky. His eyes were deep and dark, and no one could understand what he was thinking.
Suddenly, as if remembering something, Aoki Yoru stood up abruptly.
The plot of the Stone of Gelel seemed to take place after Sasuke defected and before Naruto left the village with Jiraiya; it was executed by Naruto, Sakura, and Shikamaru together.
Thinking of this, he immediately returned home. After making arrangements for Nao, he rushed towards the Hokage Office.
Although Naruto had not yet left the village to train with Jiraiya, who knew if he had already gone out to execute this mission? What if he had already completed it?
If he remembered correctly, the Stone of Gelel mine was ultimately sucked away by a space-time rift. Where would he find it then? He hoped the mine was still there.
"What? You want to leave the village to execute a mission?" Tsunade looked at Aoki Yoru with disbelief.
This man in front of her had barged into her office late at night, saying he wanted to go out on a mission—had the sun risen in the west?
Since she succeeded as the Fifth Hokage, this man had only accepted those few S-rank and A-rank missions with Kakashi at the very beginning, and he had even exceeded the deadline by 3 days.
After returning to the village, he only accepted the minimum required missions. No matter how she tried to persuade him, he refused to do more, spending his days taking that little Uzumaki girl to catch cats and walk dogs, like an idle loafer.
Those two old geezers, Homura Mitokado and Utatane Koharu, even said that Teacher Sarutobi had always praised Aoki Yoru during his lifetime, saying he possessed a strong will of fire and was the future of Konoha.
Is the future of Konoha like this?
It seems Teacher Sarutobi was indeed old. Not only could he not see his own partners clearly, nor the hearts of the people in the village, but he couldn't even see the true nature of this brat.
Hmph! That evil Aoki brat.
Coming to her late at night to ask for a mission—it didn't look normal no matter how she looked at it.
"What exactly are you trying to do?" Tsunade looked at him suspiciously, always feeling that he had ill intentions.
Aoki Yoru ignored her thoughts and said directly: "I don't know why, but seeing the thousands of lights in Konoha at night, the will of fire within me becomes particularly intense, surging upwards. I want to make my own contribution to Konoha."
As he spoke, Aoki Yoru straightened his chest and said proudly: "That's right, I am the successor of the will of fire."