Akio Was Sick
Very sick.
He had come down with a rare and deeply unsettling condition best described as:
"A mysterious black sphere that ignores personal boundaries and freely phases in and out of my body whenever it feels like it."
Kushina's House
"Great-Granduncle," Kushina asked, staring wide-eyed, "what is that thing? And… are you okay?"
Akio stared blankly at the small black sphere floating calmly in front of his chest.
"I'm fi—ugh!"
The sphere abruptly shot back into his chest, leaving him short of breath.
"…Alright. I might not be fine."
He still had no idea what was going on.
After maxing out Yang Release, nothing dramatic had happened, no instant enlightenment, no cosmic revelation. Instead, this inexplicable black orb had appeared. Roughly every thirty seconds, it phased in and out of his body, completely ignoring all attempts to stop it.
His first thought had been Black Zetsu somehow escaping.
But after checking the seals thoroughly, Black Zetsu was still behaving himself.
The second possibility was obvious: Truth-Seeking Orbs.
But that didn't quite add up.
Everyone else who had them wielded multiple orbs arranged behind them. Akio had exactly one. Worse, he couldn't control it and instead of floating obediently, it kept ramming through his torso like it had a personal vendetta.
That was bad enough, but what truly offended him was the size.
Everyone else got a matching set of elegant spheres.
His?
Barely larger than a thumb.
Akio was deeply dissatisfied.
His third instinct was to check his status interface.
When in doubt, blame the system.
Unfortunately, the system chose this exact moment to be useless.
Yang Release, like Gentle Fist mastery, vanished completely from the interface upon reaching level ten. No new skill tree appeared. No subspace unlocked. Just… a ball.
Even worse, the numeric values for Body and Technique had been replaced with question marks.
"Are they fluctuating?" Akio muttered. "Because I don't feel any ugh!"
The sphere exited his chest again.
Naruto cautiously reached toward it.
Kushina immediately slapped his hand away.
"Don't touch random things that come out of someone's body!"
Akio felt oddly reassured.
She's grown more responsible…
"I mean," Kushina added eagerly, "can I touch it?"
Akio: "..."
After a moment of silence, he frowned.
"The Nine-Tails didn't sense danger?"
Kushina shook her head.
"Then try touching it with Kurama's chakra."
She nodded. A single crimson fox tail emerged behind her and brushed the black sphere.
Nothing happened.
"…So it's really not a Truth-Seeking Orb?" Akio murmured.
Before he could think further, Kushina grabbed the sphere with both hands and started turning it back and forth.
"Hey...ugh!"
Akio recoiled as it reentered his chest. He quickly pushed her hands away.
"Don't do that! Minato's right here!"
Minato could only smile helplessly.
"I just wanted to see if I could hold it," Kushina said innocently.
"You can't," Akio sighed. "I can't even stop it myself."
He started counting.
Thirty seconds, out.
Thirty seconds, in.
Each transition came with a dull pressure in his chest.
After half an hour
"…I can't live like this. When does it stop?"
Kushina looked genuinely sympathetic.
Naruto, on the other hand, was enjoying this far too much.
Akio glared.
"What are you laughing at?! Go repaint Hokage Rock! I'm not feeling well, Hashirama and Tobirama's faces are yours too. Three days. Now!"
Naruto stared, confused.
Minato hesitated.
"Elder… does the sphere look a little bigger to you?"
Akio blinked.
"…Does it?"
Two Days Later
Minato had been right.
The sphere was definitely larger.
And those two days had been miserable.
Hiding in subspace didn't help. Layered defenses didn't help. Nothing stopped the orb from phasing through him and as it grew, the pressure worsened.
"It shatters any defense instantly… Is it really a Truth-Seeking Orb?" Akio muttered.
"Did mine just… take a really long time to finish forming?"
Half a Month Later
Staring at the fist-sized black sphere floating before him, Akio had gone numb.
He retreated into subspace.
"Come and go all you want," he muttered. "I don't care anymore ugh!"
One and a Half Months Later
"Please don't go back in again," Akio begged. "This is actually dangerous now."
The object was no longer a sphere, it was closer to the size of a human head.
"…Ah damn it, why does that sound so awful when I say it out loud?"
Thirty seconds passed.
Nothing happened.
"…It stopped?"
Akio immediately checked his interface.
Body and Technique were back numbers and all.
Body: 30,000
Technique: 100,000 (Switchable)
"Six times the physical strength… over triple the chakra," he exhaled.
"And my rank is still SSS-minus?"
He felt a twinge of disappointment.
"So no qualitative leap… Wait. Where's that cursed sphere?"
At his focus, the black orb emerged smoothly, no resistance this time.
"…Complete integration," Akio murmured.
"So it really was a Truth-Seeking Orb. That whole nightmare was just the formation process."
He reshaped it at will stretching, compressing but couldn't split it.
"Only one orb feels unfair," he sighed.
"Even if it is enormous."
He reviewed his interface again.
No new sections. No upgrades listed.
Then
"Technique: 100,000 (Switchable)"
"…Switchable?" Akio frowned.
"It used to say 'convert.'"
He focused and everything changed.
A New Sage State
This Sage Mode felt completely different.
Natural energy flooded outward, coating his body with perfectly controlled senjutsu chakra.
And with a thought
It flowed behind him, forming a pale, elegant chakra cloak that billowed like a mantle.
Akio froze.
Then smiled.
"So… I've finally joined the cloak club."
Yang Release at level ten hadn't just produced a Truth-Seeking Orb.
It had unlocked a deeper Sage Mode, one based on flawless control rather than borrowed authority.
"It's similar to Six Paths Sage Mode," Akio mused,
"but my power doesn't come from that old hermit."
He smiled faintly.
"Six Paths Sage… Slug Sage… Snake Sage… Toad Sage…"
"From today on," he said quietly,
"I can finally call myself Sage Akio."
He paused.
"…I wonder if anyone else can learn my Sage Arts."
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