The road back to the village was uneventful.
Still itchy with impatience from the original's habit of speaking in riddles, the Yang Release clone had no mood to slowly study the core sphere in her hand anymore.
She kept pushing Aburame Ryūma and the others to hurry. They moved even faster than they had on the way out.
Finally, on the evening of the ninth day after leaving the village, everyone returned to Konoha safely.
Whoosh.
An autumn wind swept through, dead leaves spinning in the air.
Under the dusk, Konoha looked like an old photograph, peaceful and quiet, steeped in a tranquil charm. The four massive Hokage Rock faces on the back mountain watched the exhausted Root members approach, their gazes seeming dim and lifeless.
After handing over their passes for inspection, Ryūma stared at the calm village ahead of him, his thoughts drifting.
At one time…
After every mission, they would always pause here for a moment.
Heroes hidden in the dark.
They would look at Konoha's peace, look at the children playing by the roadside, then lift their heads and walk into the village beneath the Hokage Rock's watch.
Back then, those faces should have looked radiant. Their eyes should have shone with approval.
It had once been the proudest moment for both him and Danzō. No matter how many wounds or how much fatigue they carried, it would be soothed in that brief walk.
But now, everything had changed.
With a silent sigh, Ryūma took back his pass and led the group through Konoha's gates.
Human joys and sorrows never truly align.
Ryūma's mood turned heavy, but Konome Taketori, carrying Samehada, was practically buzzing with excitement.
The Dead Bone problem had been solved. The Sharingan was within reach. Research into reversing the Eight Gates might be on the verge of a historic breakthrough. And she had a mountain of resources waiting to be absorbed.
Everything was good news.
Right now, even the stray dogs on Konoha's streets looked adorable to her.
They stormed back to Base No. 3. Ryūma took the Akatsuki intel he had written from memory, along with the Sharingan arm, and went to report to Danzō in detail.
Konome's dead gray ocular power gleamed. Her Byakugan swept over the little notebook in his arms, scanning every line.
Only then did she realize the Raikōsan mission had involved Uchiha Itachi as well.
So in the original storyline, Itachi had not failed to send intelligence back to Konoha. It was just that when the intel was being delivered, Ryūma had run into Obito, and that encounter had led to his death.
Not only his.
Arashi, Iwakuma, and Chō likely would have died at Raikōsan too. That was why none of them appeared later in Root's roster.
With Ryūma dead as a Root captain, the already thin pool of Root jōnin would have been cut nearly in half. Root would be crippled and forced to recruit fresh blood, which was how Aburame Torune and Sai would later become formal members.
There were probably more chain reactions.
Their deaths might have made Danzō lose trust in Itachi. With Kisame's surveillance, Obito and Zetsu lurking everywhere, and Itachi distrusted by both sides, the ground for passing intel would have vanished completely.
Her existence might already have thrown the original plot off course.
Fine. Let it derail.
Konome tightened her grip on Samehada. The blade's heavy, abundant, almost living sensation washed away the unease that came with changing fate.
The primitive accumulation phase was over.
She was no longer the refugee who lived in constant fear.
The original had solved the Dead Bone bloodline illness. Once reversing the Eight Gates was complete, reaching the top of the shinobi world would only be a matter of time.
She had no interest in the mess between Ryūma and Danzō. Konome stripped off her Root uniform and mask and went straight to the research division to demand her Sharingan from Chihaya Tōru.
"We've got as many three tomoe Sharingan as you want now. You were right, Konome. I successfully reproduced the method to cultivate and evolve the Sharingan!"
Chihaya Tōru grabbed her hands and shook them hard. His eyes were red like he had awakened the Sharingan himself. It was obvious he had not slept in days.
Since he handed over the Sharingan without hesitation, Konome only shoved the twitchy, overexcited man aside, took her spoils and the three tomoe eyes soaking in saline, and headed straight for the Forest of Death.
Right now, she only cared about the Dead Bone.
Everything else could wait.
It was the same waterfall where she trained Wind Release.
Roar.
The waterfall crashed down, slamming against boulders in the pool and throwing up mist that caught the evening glow. When the Yang Release clone arrived, all she saw was blazing scarlet.
Compared to before, the pool beneath the falls seemed expanded. Plump carp swam within, and fishnets fenced it off, turning the place into a proper fishpond.
Shing.
The Yang Release clone swept one hand sideways. A compressed vacuum blade sliced the waterfall cleanly in half like paper, revealing a hidden barrier behind it that glowed with pale red light.
Chakra flooded into the barrier, forming a unique pattern.
It was an unclosed circle made from two overlapping wing silhouettes pointing opposite directions. The left wing spiraled, the right wing radiated outward. One forward and one reverse arc crossed into a shape like a half moon and an eclipse ring, with three diamond points decorating the gap.
Somewhere deep inside, she felt this chakra diagram was not just for show. The crescent and eclipse seemed to represent yin and yang, while the three diamonds symbolized water.
Her power felt tightly bound to those markings.
Buzz.
The moment the pattern stabilized, the barrier dimmed, revealing the pitch black cave beyond. With her Byakugan, she could already see the original sitting in the center of the stone chamber.
She stepped inside. The waterfall fell again behind her. The cave, already dim, became nearly lightless, leaving only scattered orange candle flames.
The Yang Release clone froze where she stood.
The original was not wearing the usual blindfold.
Silver hair spilled over her shoulders like silk. Dead gray eyes stared with cold indifference. With the strange curse mark on her forehead, she looked even more mysterious, even more imposing.
But the appearance change alone was not what stunned the clone.
Veins bulged at the corners of her eyes.
One purple and three green chakra lights, along with countless mottled curse markings, drew a complex and eerie map across the original's body.
"Do you understand it now?" the original asked.
The clone's wide eyed shock clearly pleased her. The original's lips curved as she stretched her arms out, letting the clone examine her.
"What… is that?" the clone whispered, Byakugan flashing as she stared, hypnotized by the sheer complexity.
"Flesh Curse Seal."
The original smiled as she answered, her joy plain to see.
After days of seclusion and a spark of insight, she had finally built a seal that could suppress the Dead Bone. The bloodline illness that had haunted her, draining her life day by day, had finally loosened its grip.
Her mood surged like the waterfall outside.
She tossed Samehada aside. The clone dropped onto the ground.
Her gaze locked onto the gray bone wrapped in countless curse markings. It truly was not as active as before, and the gray patterns on it were no larger than they had been when the clone left.
The evolution of the Dead Bone had been forcibly stopped.
That should have been impossible.
"Wasn't it already proven that you can't use seals on the Dead Bone? How did you do it?" the clone asked, stunned.
In the beginning, before they learned fuinjutsu, they had already tested it. The moment chakra touched the Dead Bone, it would be absorbed and turned into fuel for its evolution. Seals could not function normally.
And the Dead Bone itself was impossibly hard. You could not carve seal scripts onto it.
Yet now the curse seal clearly coiled around the bone, and the purple chakra within it was not being devoured.
How had she broken through those restrictions?
"Because these markings never touched the bone in the first place."
The original extended her arm. Her smooth skin split open on its own, revealing the surface of a gray bone membrane underneath.
Countless microscopic tendrils of meridians and fascia covered it. Only then did the clone see the truth.
Those black seal scripts were etched into flesh.
No.
Not etched.
The clone instantly rejected her first conclusion. She zoomed in with the Byakugan, magnifying it a hundred times. The strange seal scripts were moving, pulsing, breathing.
"You built the seal with your own flesh… how did you even think of this?" The clone's voice trembled.
Those black curse scripts were formed from microscopic meridians and blood vessels.
"You finally get it," the original said, proud.
"In this world, the only thing that can touch the Dead Bone without being shredded into dust is my own flesh. And the human body is the perfect vessel for curse seals.
Other people can only carve seals on the skin. The surface area is limited, the precision is poor, and the amount of script you can fit is tiny. That's why most powerful formulas can't be fully engraved.
But we're different.
With Body Control, we can place seals inside the body. They won't be destroyed by natural healing and growth. And we can generate scripts directly from flesh itself, which makes them far more flexible.
Most importantly, with the Byakugan's microscopic vision and the precision of human cells, we can grow complex sealing formulas into flesh like integrated circuits.
In theory, the number of seals the body can carry is almost limitless."
"Incredible."
The clone clapped loudly, offering free emotional support for the invention, then frowned again.
"But I still have a question. Why isn't the chakra in the flesh being absorbed by the bone?
Force works both ways.
To affect bone with a seal, there should be interaction. It shouldn't be completely disconnected.
But once there's interaction, the chakra gets swallowed, and the seal becomes meaningless."
"You're right, which is why I never sealed the Dead Bone itself."
The original lifted her arm again, showing the flesh scripts wrapped around the bone membrane.
"I converted the sealing formula that blocks chakra flow into a curse seal, then used flesh to generate it. The effect isn't to seal the Dead Bone. It's to seal all flesh around it, forming a dense barrier."
"You don't need to seal the Dead Bone. As long as chakra can't get close, it can't easily absorb power."
The clone nodded quickly.
Sealing the Dead Bone was hard. Sealing their own flesh was easy. If the Dead Bone couldn't touch chakra, the result was almost the same.
"But while building that seal, I discovered a new problem," the original said, raising one finger.
"It's related to the seal on your forehead?" the clone asked, staring at the mark there.
The shape wasn't complex. A purple circle in the center, surrounded by an isosceles triangle, each side tangent to the circle. Clean, balanced, oddly satisfying.
"It is."
The original pointed at the three green lights inside her body.
"The Dead Bone suppression isn't perfect, because the seal doesn't target it directly. Once it can't absorb chakra, it instinctively starts drawing life force to make up the difference.
The Dead Bone is inside my body. It's part of my flesh. I can't seal every single cell. That life force drain is almost unsolvable."
"Almost?" the clone repeated, eyes bright.
If the original dared say the problem was solved, she must have found the counter.
"The Eight Gates," the clone blurted, excitement flaring.
"The first three gates, Gate of Opening, Gate of Healing, Gate of Life, don't burn cells. They remove the body's limiter and gather surface life force into the 'gates' for unified control.
You're using the Eight Gates to compete with the Dead Bone for life force inside the body!"
"Correct."
The original closed her eyes. The three green lights from her forehead down to her collarbone flared brilliantly.
Life energy gathered into the gates. The purple circle and triangle on her forehead rotated slowly, and chains sealed three gates swollen with life force.
"The Eight Gates gathers life force into gates. That lets me lock it with fuinjutsu in one place, without sealing individual cells. It also avoids direct interaction between sealing chakra and the Dead Bone."
"This seal is my most important result these past days. I call it the Seal of Yang Lock."
"It's based on the Eight Trigrams Seal in Root and Konoha's sealing manuals, using the Five Elements Seal as a blueprint, supported by medical ninjutsu and Yang Release nature transformation.
Its effect is to lock life force inside the gates completely. Only the 'key' on my forehead can open or close it.
From now on, the first three gates will remain open at all times to counter the Dead Bone's life drain.
This gathered life force can be freely allocated with my key.
I can return it to the source of life, convert it into chakra, or even catalyze flesh recovery, growth, and repair.
Once I solve the filtration problem of absorbing external life force, Reversing the Eight Gates will be preliminarily complete."
Clap clap clap.
Thunderous applause filled the cave. The clone celebrated like a fan.
"So Reversing the Eight Gates isn't just reversing input and output of life force. You're reversing duration too. Turning a brutal moment of brilliance into an eternal blazing sun.
At this point, it feels like an entirely different technique.
Give it a new name."
"Good idea."
The original's eyes lit up, and she nodded in approval.
Then the two of them sat there, thinking hard.
A long time passed.
Mangekyō and Byakugan faced each other as silence spread through the cave.
"Did you think of a good name?" the clone asked.
"If you can't, I can't," the original replied.
"Then… should we just keep calling it Reversing the Eight Gates?"
"Agreed."
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