Outside the Breeding House, the wind swept through the forest with a damp chill.
Shiroishi's gaze fell upon the shadowy woods.
Slowly, he raised his hand, a watery glow shimmering in his palm.
Water Release: Living Bubbles.
Hum!
Chakra surged, and the air instantly filled with countless tiny bubbles.
These bubbles were not mere water spheres—they were energy vessels infused with chakra,
each one shimmering faintly as they intertwined, tumbled, and floated through the rain,
spreading like a silent storm into every corner of the forest.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
A series of dense sounds echoed through the trees.
White Zetsu, half-emerged from the ground, stiffened abruptly, his expression shifting sharply.
Countless bubbles struck his surroundings, trapping him as if in a transparent cage.
"What… is this?"
White Zetsu cursed under his breath, attempting to move,
but suddenly, his body convulsed.
His chakra was being drained.
With each pop, the bubbles emitted a bizarre vibrational frequency,
siphoning away a thread of his chakra with every burst—
subtle, relentless…
Uncanny!
Before long, he could feel the energy draining from his body.
"Tch, this technique…"
Meanwhile, mist churned among the trees.
Shiroishi stepped out of the house, his footsteps echoing softly in the puddles.
Raindrops slid down the side of his face, yet his eyes remained chillingly calm.
"You've been watching me."
His voice was quiet, yet it cut through the rain with thunderous clarity.
He raised his hand and gave a light flick.
The bubbles floating in the air abruptly accelerated, streaking like a shower of light,
Pop! Pop! Pop!
striking the tree trunks and muddy ground around White Zetsu in rapid succession.
Mist billowed, and ripples of chakra spread in layers.
White Zetsu reacted swiftly, preparing to dive and escape,
only to find his movements slowing—
the suction of the bubbles was weakening his ability to merge with the earth.
"Damn it!"
"Eevee!"
A bolt of lightning-like shadow cut through the air.
Eevee's tail flashed with electricity, closing in on White Zetsu's trajectory almost instantly.
Lightning Flash!
White Zetsu, still underground, tried to change direction but sensed an intense aura surging through the soil.
Electricity exploded around him, jolting half his body out of the ground and leaving him rigid.
"What is this…"
At that moment, Shiroishi vanished from his spot.
Using the same Lightning Flash,
he appeared before White Zetsu in the same instant,
their eyes meeting.
White Zetsu's pupils trembled.
In those cold, silver-gray eyes, he saw a profound pressure.
It wasn't ordinary killing intent, nor was it the suppression of a chakra gap.
It was a fear rooted in bloodline.
A suppression born from the deepest layers of genetics.
"You…" White Zetsu's voice quivered.
"Quiet."
Shiroishi's tone was even as he raised his five fingers.
In the next moment, countless bubbles materialized around him like a storm reflecting starlight.
Interwoven with the light of chakra, the bubbles shot forth in unison.
Spreading in a fan shape, they sealed off every escape route around White Zetsu.
Struggling desperately, he found himself enveloped layer by layer in bubbles.
With each pop, a portion of his chakra was stripped away,
absorbed by Shiroishi and channeled as warm energy into his meridians.
The surrounding air was now saturated with moisture.
Water swirled around him, forming a ring-like vortex,
The wind howled, trapping White Zetsu at its center.
White Zetsu struggled desperately, but its body was locked in place by immense water pressure.
The loss of Chakra made its movements increasingly sluggish until finally, its eyes dimmed.
With a thunderous crash, it collapsed to the ground.
Bubbles quietly burst, and the sound of water faded into silence.
Shiroishi withdrew his hand, breathing slightly heavily.
A faint blue glow still flickered at his fingertips.
At his feet, White Zetsu lay completely unconscious, half-sunken in the mud.
The red pupils on its face had dulled, leaving only hollow whiteness.
Shiroishi stepped forward slowly, extending a hand as Chakra condensed into bands in his palm,
gently lifting White Zetsu.
He murmured softly, his eyes gleaming with rationality.
"This is the key specimen needed for the next phase of World Tree research."
Eevee trotted over from the side, nuzzling his leg gently.
Shiroishi looked down and smiled, his tone returning to its usual warmth.
"Well done, Eevee."
He raised his hand, flicking off a few droplets of water from his fingertips,
then turned and walked toward the Breeding House.
The wind blew again, the rain and mist swallowed by the night.
On the ground, only a trail cleansed by bubbles remained.
That night, the lights in the Breeding House were still on.
The night was deep, rain and mist shrouding the entire valley.
In a hidden corner behind the Breeding House, concealed by dense vines and rocky cliffs,
Shiroishi carried the unconscious White Zetsu, stepping silently into the enclosed dense forest.
He stopped at the roots of an ancient giant tree.
A narrow, elongated fissure was faintly visible in the middle of the trunk, like a door sealed by time.
Shiroishi extended his hand, his palm glowing with blue-white Chakra Light.
"Open!"
With his low murmur, the fissure trembled quietly, emitting a dim radiance.
The air twisted abruptly, as if sliced by water ripples, and an entrance to another dimension slowly opened.
Shiroishi stepped inside.
The scenery within transformed in an instant.
Before him was a world resembling a forest floating in the void.
Massive roots intertwined and spread, suspended water droplets condensed into streams of light, and faint glows flowed like a pulsating breath.
This was Shiroishi's alternate dimension—the core domain of the World Tree.
Shiroishi looked down and casually tossed the unconscious White Zetsu onto the damp ground.
The thud echoed through the space, startling White Zetsu awake.
White Zetsu's eyes snapped open, and it looked up!
In an instant, its pupils contracted sharply!
It saw it!
The colossal tree covering the sky.
Its branches coiled throughout the space, bark flowing with intertwined gold and jade light, while an ancient aura faintly emanated from the tree's heart.
That aura was familiar and terrifying—
Ten-Tails!
H-how... how is this possible...
White Zetsu felt as if its throat were being choked.
The aura was too real, trembling deep within its soul.
It wanted to scream, to transmit intelligence through consciousness!
But then, a low resonance suddenly emanated from the center of the World Tree.
The roots of the entire tree awoke as if summoned.
One, two, ten...
Countless vine whips extended from the depths of the roots.
They sliced through the air, hissing like snakes, instantly enveloping White Zetsu.
White Zetsu struggled in terror, its limbs tightly bound.
The next moment, the ends of the vine whips split open, revealing suction-cup-like floral mouths.
It let out a hoarse roar, but the sound lasted only a moment.
Squelch!
Countless vines tightened abruptly, dragging White Zetsu toward the main root of the World Tree.
Strange patterns surfaced on the vines, pulsating rhythmically with the act of consumption.
White Zetsu's body gradually dissolved in the light as its Chakra flow was stripped away, transforming into strands of energy that flowed back into the roots of the World Tree.
The moment White Zetsu's agonized screams completely vanished, the entire space trembled.
The World Tree's radiance grew brighter,
with energy flowing between its branches and leaves converging at its core, forming a massive sphere of light.
[Fusion rate increasing... Energy purity 0.3%...]
[Conversion beginning...]
At the center of the light sphere, a solid form slowly condensed.
It was a pure white, faintly glowing ovoid shape.
After the light sphere dissipated, it gently descended and came to rest steadily on the ground before Shiroishi.
A wave of warm energy emanated from within.
The eggshell surface pulsed like a heartbeat, emitting a soft luster.
Shiroishi quietly observed it,
then slowly extended his hand, his fingertips touching the warm, smooth eggshell.
In that instant, the patterns on the eggshell seemed to come alive.
Streaks of white patterns spread along his fingers, swirling and intertwining, ultimately coalescing into intricate shell patterns as the color transformed.
It had become a purple egg.