Very quickly, the meteorite in Natsuhi's hands was transferred smoothly into Kurogane Ren's possession.
Kurogane Ren dispelled his shadow clones.
"Well then, pleasant transaction~" he said, then seemed to recall something and added, "Don't think about trying to take it back later. Otherwise, I just happen to have a few techniques that need test subjects."
With that, he turned and left, leaving the group staring at one another.
After a long while…
"Let's go back. It seems fate has decided that we should no longer use the power of the star," the Third Hoshikage said, sounding both regretful and oddly relieved.
"Mm." Natsuhi nodded. Without the star, there was no longer any need for them to leave the village.
Still, she couldn't help but glance at her husband. Kurogane Ren's words echoed in her mind. She desperately wanted them to be lies, but when their eyes met, the truth was undeniable—his body really was failing.
He pulled her into an embrace and said softly, "It's alright. There's still a year or two, isn't there? That's enough. And who knows? Maybe I'll outlive that guy's prediction."
In the end, the group returned to Hoshigakure. Several years later, the Peacock Mystical Method completely disappeared from the village.
Meanwhile, Kurogane Ren glanced behind him. No one had followed. It seemed they had truly given up on the meteorite.
He recalled his brief clash with Natsuhi. Even the Rasengan hadn't gained much advantage against the Peacock Mystical Method. It had only managed to disperse the Bear construct, ending in what was essentially a draw.
However, if the fight had continued, the winner could only have been him.
No matter what, the lack of mobility in the Peacock Mystical Method was a fatal flaw. With her allies present, Natsuhi couldn't even use it to form wings and escape.
But he had no intention of fighting to the end.
First, his goal was only the meteorite. There was no need for unnecessary killing.
Second… the meteorite wasn't exactly durable. If he pushed too hard and forced them into desperation, they might destroy it outright.
In the original story, the meteorite had been destroyed by Naruto's Rasengan. While that might have been because its chakra had been drained, making it fragile, Kurogane Ren had no intention of gambling on that possibility.
That was why the battle had been brief.
As for the shadow clones, they had already been lying in wait underground using Earth Release long before he approached.
Kurogane Ren looked at his palm. What he had said to Natsuhi at the end was also true—he did have a technique he wanted to test, inspired by Konan.
More precisely, it was an idea that had come to him while trapping her in the Water Prison Technique.
It seemed he would have to test its power another time.
With that thought, he summoned his crows and used the Summoning Technique to return to his laboratory.
Now that all the materials were ready, he retrieved the scroll sealing the Demonic Statue's arm and the meteorite, then entered a vast, empty room.
The space was large enough to house not just the arm, but even the entire Demonic Statue.
Since he had planned this long ago, he had naturally prepared the room in advance.
He placed the arm of the Demonic Statue into a massive cultivation tank, then extracted a small amount of its fragments. After that, he scraped off a bit of debris from the hollow meteorite.
Once collected, he thought for a moment before tossing the meteorite directly into the tank as well. After all, there was no way the meteorite could devour the Demonic Statue, right?
Several days later…
Kurogane Ren remained highly energized, filled with excitement.
What amazed him was that even the severed arm of the Demonic Statue, which looked like nothing more than a lifeless object, was still… alive.
At one point, he fed it a small amount of Three-Tails chakra. The fragments reacted like wolves spotting prey, instantly devouring it.
Only then did he finally relax. If even the fragments had such properties, then the entire arm would definitely be sufficient.
Tailed beast chakra could be cultivated, but the essence of the Demonic Statue was the God Tree. Cultivating something like that would be incredibly difficult, likely requiring natural energy. Without a Sage Body, where was he supposed to obtain natural energy?
As for the meteorite fragments, their nature was almost identical to that of the Ten-Tails fragments, except they possessed an additional form of externalized activity—the so-called "radiation" used by the Star ninja.
This activity could be transferred into chakra, turning it into something similar to tailed beast chakra. It allowed the Star ninja to release chakra externally for attacks, but at the cost of overloading their bodies.
Worse, this activity clung like a parasite. Once acquired, it couldn't be removed.
All of this strongly suggested that the meteorite was indeed part of the God Tree. It had fallen from the sky two hundred years ago—perhaps even from the moon.
After all, the Demonic Statue had once been sealed there.
Of course, it might also be a fragment of another God Tree.
Regardless, the meteorite and the Demonic Statue should be able to merge. Even if they couldn't, there would likely be no negative interaction.
As for the meteorite's inherent side effects, that "activity" was deadly poison to ordinary people. But to descendants of the Sage of Six Paths, it wasn't something impossible to endure.
And for someone with Uzumaki bloodline, even if it was toxic, it wouldn't be nearly as fatal as it was to the Star ninja. He could likely endure it for decades—and decades were more than enough for him.
At this point, a new thought entered Kurogane Ren's mind—one he hadn't considered before.
Should he use the meteorite to enhance the quality of his chakra?
The Peacock Mystical Method itself wasn't his main interest. Even if he studied it later, he would modify it so the user could move while attacking, instead of remaining stationary like the Star ninja.
A technique that immobilized its user during attacks was a fatal flaw, no matter how powerful it was.
However, the flight capability of the Peacock Mystical Method was extremely valuable.
In the entire ninja world, flight was a rare ability.
Among ordinary ninja, the only ones he could think of were the Iwagakure shinobi who mastered the Light-Weight Rock Technique. Others relied on external means—Sai's Super Beast Scroll, Deidara's clay, Konan's paper techniques.
All of this led him to a decision.
He would learn it.
With that in mind, Kurogane Ren returned to the large chamber housing the Ten-Tails arm.
But when he looked at the cultivation tank, he froze.
The form of the Demonic Statue's arm… had changed.
It now resembled a structure with stars orbiting a central core—and at the center was the meteorite.
It was clear that given enough time, the arm would eventually reconstruct itself into a complete living organism.
This was something Kurogane Ren hadn't anticipated, but it saved him a great deal of effort.
Even without the meteorite, he had methods to transform it into a living entity. But something that formed naturally was always preferable.