"What were you and Ōnoki talking about? I could hear you two from outside — sounded like you were about to throw punches. That poor guy, Kurotsuchi, looked so nervous she almost barged in."
Jiraiya chuckled, obviously enjoying the thought.
Watching that stubborn old fossil Ōnoki get flustered was deliciously satisfying. So, the moment they left, he went straight to Kyoichi, eager to get the full story and chew on the gossip.
Kyoichi didn't hide anything.
He gave Jiraiya a brief rundown of their "conversation."
By the time he finished, Jiraiya's eyebrows were up.
"So Ōnoki doesn't seem that interested in his Jinchūriki, huh? Looks like Iwagakure handles that kind of thing differently from the other villages."
"Mm. Iwagakure only cares about making sure no one else gets them."
Kyoichi nodded.
Ōnoki's logic was simple:
Iwagakure didn't need Jinchūriki — but neither did they want anyone else to have them. As for what Rōshi and Han did outside the village? Not his problem, as long as it didn't harm Iwagakure.
Of course…
If someone tried to take those two, then Iwagakure would never tolerate it.
That kind of half-detached, half-possessive stance was the perfect definition of "ambiguous." And this time, when Ōnoki brought it up, it wasn't really to ask questions — more like to sound Kyoichi out.
Kyoichi had understood that much immediately.
Hence his answer.
"Jinchūriki themselves go against the natural order," Jiraiya said quietly. "If you ask me, once the world finds some kind of peace, there'll be no reason for them to exist. The Nine Tailed Beasts — they were never meant to bring chaos. We should set them free someday."
Kyoichi stayed silent for several seconds before replying,
"From our point of view, that doesn't sound wrong. But there are villages that still depend on the power of their Jinchūriki. And besides…"
He looked up.
"…There are still the ones above us."
"The Ōtsutsuki," Jiraiya murmured.
Kyoichi had mentioned them before.
The Ōtsutsuki Clan — and their connection to the God Tree. From Kyoichi's experiments with his replica "God Tree," he'd confirmed that the real one drew on the earth's leylines, consuming its very lifeforce.
And from that power… came the chakra of the Ten-Tails.
But that raised another question:
Was the God Tree only absorbing energy to form the Ten-Tails' chakra?
Obviously not.
If the ancient Ōtsutsuki truly were as powerful as Kyoichi suspected, they would never covet something as limited as Ten-Tails chakra alone.
That meant the God Tree's harvest had a greater purpose — perhaps even more frightening.
Like… the fruit.
A tree bears flowers and fruit — that much was natural reasoning.
Kyoichi had hypothesized this long ago.
To confirm, Jiraiya had even gone to Mount Myōboku to ask the Great Toad Sage.
The Great Toad, of course, had forgotten.
But Fukasaku had mentioned something — that long ago, the Great Toad had spoken of the ancient God Tree bearing a single flower.
That was enough.
Jiraiya nodded slowly.
"You're probably right. Even if the branch of the Ōtsutsuki up there were once allied with the Sage of Six Paths to seal her away… time changes everything. Who can say what their descendants are planning now?"
He sighed.
The problem wasn't the Tailed Beasts running loose — it was what others might do with them.
There was no way to stop that forever.
You could catch a thief a thousand times, but you could never guard against him every day.
"So, what's next? What do we do now?"
"The Iwagakure forces have taken position," Kyoichi replied. "With that, most of the outer defenses are covered. We'll stay here on the front line and wait for the others to arrive."
He spoke calmly.
Black Zetsu could make his move at any moment.
As for Madara… that was harder to predict.
The man's mind was impossible to read. He might show up for an all-out duel, or he might hole up underground for the rest of his life.
Still—without the Gedo Statue, Kyoichi was betting on the first option.
Madara wasn't the type to sit quietly and die of old age.
Especially not now, when Kyoichi had already exposed him, countered his schemes, and dismantled his networks. Running was no longer in Madara's nature.
Which meant…
A battle was inevitable.
Black Zetsu, however — that one was a different story. He would never die alongside Madara.
Finding a way to trap him would be the real challenge.
Kyoichi sat cross-legged at the edge of the snowy plain.
They were now dangerously close to Madara's base; any further and their risk of exposure would multiply.
Time passed slowly.
Meanwhile, his shadow clone back in Konoha had reduced its chakra consumption to the bare minimum.
That clone's duties were many — not just monitoring the artificial God Tree, but also preparing to extract the Ten-Tails' chakra at the decisive moment. Through the Flying Thunder God and the clone's dissolution, the chakra would be instantly transferred to Kyoichi's true body.
And there was something else it was waiting for.
Nagato.
He had already undergone the transplantation of Hashirama's cells and had been unconscious ever since. But according to Oriri's last report, he had finally awakened today.
The Hashirama cells had healed him astonishingly fast.
Originally, Kyoichi thought Nagato would need another day or two to fully adapt.
But by afternoon, Nagato was already standing in the lab — accompanied by Tsunade herself.
He looked up, eyes wide, at the towering artificial tree.
The sight stunned him.
An artificial God Tree — and yet it radiated the same awe, the same pull, as the true one. He could feel his Rinnegan stirring restlessly, resonating with it.
Of course… it wasn't the real thing.
"Are you fully recovered?" Kyoichi asked.
"Yes," Nagato said, smiling faintly. "Though I must admit, my progress with yang-nature chakra has been slow. That's why I had to trouble Tsunade-hime to transplant Hashirama's cells for me. Now I can grasp its nature much faster."
Just as he expected.
With the cells' power, Nagato had not only learned the essence of yang chakra, but could also feel that the burden on his Rinnegan had lessened dramatically.
Even large-scale techniques like Chibaku Tensei would no longer strain his body the way they used to.
Such was the power of Hashirama's cells.
It showed clearly that — even as a member of the Uzumaki clan — Nagato's body was still far from the legendary Sage's.
Kyoichi, of course, understood why.
The Sage's body carried the true Asura chakra — the divine vitality of the Six Paths itself. The Uzumaki bloodline was extraordinary, but compared to the Sage's "Sage Body," it was still a step below.
Even Kyoichi's own physique and cellular structure now surpassed Nagato's by far.
"Then begin absorbing the Ten-Tails' chakra," Kyoichi said. "You've mastered the Yin Seal. You can store it there safely, without losing any to overflow. My main body has already located Madara's position."
Nagato nodded.
He could sense it too — the growing intensity in Kyoichi's movements.
The final confrontation was near.
Now it was his turn to contribute.
He took a deep breath and stepped forward, placing his hand against the trunk of the artificial God Tree.
Kyoichi lifted the seal that bound it.
From within the dark fissure of the trunk, the Ten-Tails' chakra began to rise — thick, heavy, and ancient — like the slow exhale of a god waking from its sleep.
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