When Arima first sat alone by the beach, a vague heaviness settled over him. Scenes from his past began to replay in his mind, prompting him to reflect deeply on his life.
Yet this time, his thoughts felt completely different from before, so different, they seemed like the opposite of what he once believed.
He recalled the events of the Great Ninja War ten years ago.
Looking back now, he felt that if only he'd acted decisively during the period of weakness following the war between Iwagakure and Kirigakure, he could've crushed them once and for all, broken their spines permanently.
Then, years later, when the Second Kazekage was assassinated, he could've taken advantage of the chaos to strike Sunagakure as well.
If he'd done all that, wouldn't the entire shinobi world now be under the rule of the Land of Fire?
It was because he'd hesitated for the sake of the weak in the village, because he couldn't bear to see ordinary families torn apart, that he'd let those golden opportunities slip away for nothing!
Now, Arima felt that he should have been more ruthless, and made everyone submit to his absolute power. Then peace in the shinobi world would already be within reach.
He believed that the reason he'd abandoned the most efficient and direct path back then was because of his own cowardice and indecision!
What he once thought of as justice and righteousness now seemed, in hindsight, foolish. Abandoning the most logical course of action, what kind of fool did that make him?
The ideals he had once held firm in his heart were beginning to waver.
When Tsunade appeared by his side, her warmth made the last string of vigilance in his heart relax completely, unconsciously.
In that moment, his self-doubt and self-denial surged like a tidal wave.
Suddenly, Arima's awareness was pulled into a dark, shadowy space. He felt himself falling, deeper and deeper, as if the darkness had opened its jaws to completely devour him.
That utter darkness brought with it a stifling, indescribable fear. He struggled with all his might, desperate to escape, but there was nothing to grasp.
His body was weightless and helpless, plunging endlessly into the bottomless abyss.
As hopelessness took over, he heard a distant, ethereal voice calling his name. He felt like he knew that voice intimately, and beneath it, he could faintly hear the sound of dripping water.
Following that sound, he gradually moved through the gloom. The darkness began to thin, little by little.
Eventually, he found himself before a massive door. The voice was coming from the other side.
He pushed on the door with all his strength, but it didn't budge. He knocked again and again, relentlessly, but the door remained unmoved.
Finally, Arima gave up struggling. He leaned back against the door, sat down quietly, closed his eyes, and listened to the melodies from his memories.
He began to hum along softly. And in doing so, he finally remembered, the voice calling him was Tsunade's.
She sounded like she was crying, heartbroken. Her sorrow and despair pierced him like a blade.
Thinking of Tsunade, Arima's spirit ignited with determination. No matter what, he had to escape this place, someone was waiting for him out there.
In that moment, the door behind him vanished into thin air. His body tipped backward,
Arima's eyes snapped open.
Tsunade was holding him tightly in her arms. He realized he had safely escaped the abyss of darkness.
She was weeping uncontrollably, tears streaming down her face and falling onto his cheeks, his lips. Her tears were salty, painfully so.
Gently, Arima reached up and wiped her tears away, his voice full of tenderness.
"Why is my Tsunade crying? Who made you so sad?"
Tsunade began to cry and laugh at the same time. Then she lowered her head, and kissed him.
Arima felt the warmth of her cherry blossom-soft lips, and her faint fragrance filled his breath. His mind slowly went blank.
That kiss was what truly elevated their relationship to the next level. As their eyes met, the emotion between them flowed silently, so deep it couldn't be put into words.
The next morning, the sun was already high in the sky when Arima finally awoke from his deep sleep.
He looked out the window. The clouds drifted gently across a vast blue sky, and a soft sea breeze floated through the air. Today, it seemed, would be a beautiful day.
Arima was never one to laze in bed. Last night, he and Tsunade had stayed at the beach until late.
Not wanting to disturb anyone back in the village, he had used Wood Release to build a three-story villa by the shore as their temporary residence.
Watching Tsunade's peaceful sleeping face, he recalled her passionate kiss from the night before. His heart swelled with boundless affection.
He gently wrapped his arms around her. Sensing his touch, she instinctively rested her head on his arm, murmured a few sleepy words, and drifted back to sleep.
Arima felt a rare peace settle over him. He recalled the dark and extreme thoughts he'd had the day before, and found himself instinctively rejecting them.
He now understood that while in Sage Mode, he had indeed sensed a foreign energy invading his body. Looking back, it had to be the work of the Zero-Tails.
That invasive energy must have been a fragment of the Zero-Tails' core essence. Ordinary negative chakra wouldn't have had such a corrosive effect.
His mood turned solemn. Whoever had orchestrated this seemed to have predicted his use of Sage Mode with uncanny precision, and laid a massive trap in advance.
It reminded him too much of that shadowy figure who had once ensnared him with such tricks in the past.
Silently, Arima made a mental note to settle that debt one day.
He shifted slightly toward Tsunade and brought his hands together in a seal.
Entering Sage Mode once again, he began a meticulous inspection of every chakra point and meridian in his body. Yet after a thorough search, he found nothing unusual.
Then inspiration struck.
Activating his Mangekyo Sharingan, he conducted the inspection once more, and this time, he found a faint clue.
In the depths of his brain, traces of dark chakra were clinging to the neural pathways, subtly feeding on his chakra to grow stronger.
A cold chill ran down Arima's spine. Thankfully, Tsunade had been there.
Without her, that dark essence might have slowly consumed him entirely, altering his very nature, and the ones hurt most would have been those closest to him.
Carefully, he withdrew his arm from under Tsunade's neck and quietly got out of bed.
He rushed to the beach and activated his Mangekyo Sharingan again.
Using his eye technique, he sealed the remnants of the dark chakra within the isolated space that resided inside his eyes.
Once it was done, a wave of relief swept through him. The chaotic thoughts clouding his mind vanished as well.
Re-entering Sage Mode, he scanned the area around Uzushiogakure with his heightened senses.
Thankfully, there were no further traces of the dark essence. He could finally relax.
He took out a sealing scroll and drew a portion of the sealed dark core from the pocket dimension, locking it away inside the scroll.
Then, using his Sage sensory powers, he cautiously began reverse-tracking the Zero-Tails through this fragment.
As expected, the trace led somewhere.
Through the link, he now shared vision with the Zero-Tails. In its eyes, he saw endless dunes and towering spires!
Realizing it was being tracked, the Zero-Tails swiftly severed its connection to the portion of its essence within Arima. The shared vision went dark.
Just then, a voice from Arima's system chimed in his mind.
"High-purity unknown essence detected. Exchange function unlocked. Would you like to proceed?"
Ecstatic at the news, Arima immediately chose to exchange the discarded core. The system responded: the fragment yielded over 10,000 virtue points.
His imagination ran wild. If he could capture the Zero-Tails and exchange it entirely, he might finally have enough points to redeem a pair of Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
At the same time, Arima deduced the Zero-Tails was currently hovering over the Land of Wind, closely watching every move made by Roran.
He stood up from the sand and returned to the wooden villa, ready to wake Tsunade.
Next on his agenda: gather his three-person squad, and head straight for Roran to make the Zero-Tails pay.
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