Chapter 43

"You are finally done?" I let out as Gengetsu joined me with Samehada in his hand

Because Samehada didn't acknowledge him, it kept using its sharp scales and ended up destroying Gengetsu's hand over and over.

It was a funny sight to behold because he was forced to juggle with the sword to temporize the reconstruction of his body.

He nodded and dropped Samehada as he wasn't able to give it to me properly.

The sword smelled my chakra for sure as I saw it wiggle toward me, swinging its handle while saying 'Pick me up! Pick me up!'

'Wait, I can understand it?' I thought as I decided to approach it

"So you want to taste my chakra huh, Samehada?" I said as it was even more wiggling at me

"This won't be free though." I said as it appeared disappointed

"You see..." I first said as Masamune was in my left hand "I already have a weapon and one that I won't stop using." I added as I planted Masamune in front of Samehada

I could feel fighting spirit rising from Samehada as it 'glared' at Masamune.

'The life force I'm sensing from it may be the strongest of any weapons' I thought with a smirk

"I will give you a choice. I can either seal you away forever which will starve you..." I said as it trembled and waited for the next option "Or I extract your entire life force and have you struggle against Masamune, it will either end with the win of one of you or maybe with an agreement."

It didn't move for a second as it looked at Masamune and then 'gazed' back at me before crawling to my feet.

"I'm glad you choose the second option." I said with a smile before putting my hand on it

It didn't try to absorb my chakra, not willing to anger me maybe, so I used Suijin, and unlike with Shibuki, Samehada completely transformed into an amalgam of energy that fluttered in my palm.

I then brought this energy ball in front of Masamune, and when both had contact, the ball merged with it before engulfing Masamune in the same energy.

With my eyes, I could see both swords fighting to decide who will be victorious, as both life forces struggled to overpower the other.

I expected this to take some minutes at best, but after more than half an hour, the two life forces seemed to have unified instead of getting absorbed by the other.

After that, what was in front of me was the same Masamune I knew, with the same blade, but the guard which was a simple gold square now had under it some blue scales that covered the top of the hilt, and the pommel now had a small skull.

[Here]

"So... Are you Samehada or Masamune?" I asked as the sword vibrated to answer me

"Oh? Interesting." I said as I picked up the sword

Samehada merged with Masamune, no, Kusanagi, as it was the name of this sword but I gave it a new one when I allowed it to take the form of a katana.

This sword I had in my hand agreed to be called Masamune because it was the name I, the wielder, gave it instead of the two names they previously had been given by their respective blacksmiths.

The kanji for Masamune was still marked on the hilt which means that they did acknowledge the name.

Without saying anything, I allowed the sword to swallow my chakra and it started to vibrate strongly before the scales spread across the blade, a mouth swallowing it, and Masamune transformed into Samehada but with the hilt of Masamune.

It sure was heavy for a sword, not that it hindered me, and the length was 3 meters (~10 feet) which is the same as the normal-sized Masamune.

'So I can use Samehada's power without changing weapons, perfect' I thought as I started swinging Masamune and could use it as a flail

Now I could use it to absorb my foe's chakra or produce a bloody mist that will do it in a large area from their open wounds.

I could also make it grow even larger and knowing that I could already make the sword longer, it could become the biggest weapon in the world.

I just needed to think of it and it reverted into Masamune's base form.

"You were more useful than I expected Gengetsu!" I said with a smile to the Second Mizukage before sending him back.

'Time to talk again with Hirotaka' I thought as I sheathed my sword and vanished

I was instantly inside his office and surprised the Third Mizukage as well as a middle-aged man with short auburn hair.

"You ar-" the middle-aged man blurted out but was interrupted by the Mizukage "Don't worry Teika, he didn't appear to fight us."

"Thanks, man! I just came to say that everyone who wished for war in your village is now dead." I announced with a smile

"..." the two of them stayed silent after my statement and gazed weirdly at each other

"You may think it was too much right? Well, first things first, I came here to do the same thing I did with Kumo and damage your entire village while reducing the number of your shinobi, to the point of being incapable of being called a great shinobi village..." I revealed while my expression became cold again and both did feel pressured by me

"...But like I said before, we ended up having an agreement, so I 'only' took care of the nuisances." I added as I knew that the middle-aged man was a member of the Terumi Clan

"You did exterminate three whole noble clans and even more, you used my predecessor to do it..." the Mizukage said as if what I did was too much

I looked coldly at him again and declared "If I didn't do this, you would have been reduced to nothingness and replaced by a Fourth Mizukage that would have continued what the Second did because they would have held more power than your side."

Both couldn't refute my words as they knew that the chance for it to happen was almost certain.

"I did this in the hope that you won't try and start a conflict against Konoha... Am I clear?" I said to which he replied "I will keep this promise and as long as I am the leader, you can be sure nothing will be done against Konoha."

I smiled and let out "Oh that's right! As I am not someone cruel, I will give you back these." I said as Kiba, Kabutowori, Shibuki, and Hiramekarei appeared on the ground between us making a huge thud sound

I already absorbed most of their life force which allowed me to get their abilities on Masamune.

Shibuki gave it the ability to make explosions with the sword.

Kabutowari allowed the blade to flatten, making it blunt and capable of breaking things like a hammer.

Kiba allows it to work as a lightning rod and send amplified lightning back at my foes, and I can also make the sword spin extremely fast.

Lastly, Hiramekarei only allowed me to split the sword in two as I could already shape it using the meteorite chakra.

'I want to try and absorb the Treasured Tools when I go back to Konoha' I thought

"These are..." Teika muttered as he looked at the four swords that appeared

"Well, I killed their users and I don't need them... I'm lending them to you and shall be wielded only by people that aren't crazy murderers and that you can trust." I explained as I heard the Mizukage think {What does he mean by 'lending'! They are from Kirigakure...}

"If I find the wielders of Nuibari and Kubikiribōchō I will also lend them, as for Samehada... I can't." I added

He raised an eyebrow and asked "May I know why?"

I unsheathed Masamune and made it change into Samehada's form before saying "It merged with my blade to become a new one which can't be wielded by anyone else."

They had a shocked expression but because Samehada was the only known Sentient Swords, they didn't really found the possibility unbelievable.

I then looked at Teika and asked "You, you are the current leader of the Terumi clan right?"

He nodded to my question so I continued "Great then, I hope that the future Mizukage will be someone from your clan so both of our villages will keep a peaceful relationship with each other."

As I said that we heard a commotion in the corridor and the door opened "Please young miss don't inter-"

The three of us looked at the now opened door and saw a small child with long auburn hair and green eyes who looked around the office and saw me with my sword unsheathed in front of Teika.

"Don't hurt my father!" the young child said before running at me with her fist ready to strike

"Mei don-" Teika, who I now understood was her father, shouted

But it was too late as she punched me in the knee.

I obviously didn't bulge at all, the punch being extremely weak.

She looked up and saw my gaze which was still cold making her flinch before her father appeared to her side, bowed, and said "Please forgive her! She is but a child and didn't know what she did!"

I sensed the Mizukage tense a bit too, but I simply sheathed Masamune, sighed, crouched to near her size, and with a warm smile and a soothing voice, I said "I didn't intend to do anything to your father you know? But you did something courageous and admirable."

She relaxed and muttered a simple "Hn." as both her father and the Mizukage looked dumbfounded at me

'What did they think? That I had no mercy?' I thought as I mentally rolled my eyes

"You will become a strong and respected kunoichi, I'm sure of it." I declared before getting back up

"And who knows... You may even become the next Mizukage." I mumbled which was heard by Teika and Mei

I shifted my gaze to the Mizukage and said "Anyway, I hope you will give these to trusty people."

"Don't worry, I also wish for our villages to stay on good terms." he replied while sweating a little

"Then I am done with your village." I said before moving toward a window "See you later, maybe!" I added with a smirk before disappearing

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*Many months later*

Before rushing where the Three-Tails was resting, I took my time to digest Ice Release from the elder of the Yuki Clan and find a way to absorb the man who had Frostbite Release.

I didn't want to let the body naturally lose its coldness because I didn't know how long it would take and how much I wouldn't be able to absorb because of the time that would have passed.

I thought about covering my hand with a type of chakra that could at least resist the cold but fire would be too weak and the others would simply get frozen as well.

I had two hypothesized solutions.

The first would be Lava Release, by cloaking my body in lava armor but still risky as it is only a Kekkei Genkai, so it would be better to find a Release that is hot enough, on par with a Kekkei Tōta and one that can be used as a cloak.

Sadly, I didn't know if one existed.

The second would be to use Steel Release and coat my arm with specific stainless steel that is capable of resisting cold temperature lower than -196° Celcius (-320° Fahrenheit), and somewhat even absolute zero which I guessed was possible to accomplish with the Frostbite Release.

Even if Steel Release is only a Kekkei Genkai, the scientific knowledge I had could allow me to make it work.

And so, because the last Release I learned myself thanks to my wish was mastered, I could learn a new one myself.

The first time was with Wood, then Crystal which I had to guess its combination, and finally Magnet Release.

So I decided to learn Steel Release by guessing its composition as it could allow me to learn Frostbite Release.

Thankfully, it was said to be a Kekkei Genkai and I had a theory that made it impossible for two Release to share the same combination.

Every Kekkei Genkai with Earth Release was known except with Yin and Yang.

But, I got Bone Release from the Shikotsumyaku which combined Earth and Yang.

This meant that Steel should be Earth+Yin and when I did try to combine both, I obtained Steel Release some months ago.

Because I barely learned it, it took me months to achieve the steel I was aiming for which was my only motive with this Release for now.

I then had to find two specific metals which were Nickel and Chromium.

The first one wasn't hard at all to find but the latter was surprisingly difficult to find on this planet as it took me months before finding some, deep under a volcano.

But when I got my hand on those two I was able, after some tries, to make the perfect steel alloy by using 25% of Chromium and 20% of Nickel.

And right now, I unsealed the body of the Frostbite Release's user and was ready to try my luck.

I coated my entire arm with it and said "Here goes nothing." before laying my hand on the corpse

I instantly activated Suijin to shorten the time of contact and the body transformed into the usual amalgam of energy before getting absorbed by my eye.

My hand felt cold, extremely cold, and it was already covered in a layer of frost so I made a choice and had to peel the layer of steel from my hand.

This layer was stuck on my skin up to half of my arm but only my hand had a sign of freezing, I could stop the technique on my arm but not on my hand or it would freeze.

So I took a scalpel to cut my skin right below the metal that was still coating me to detach it from my hand.

Like that, my coated skin fell on the ground and the steel disappeared, making the peeled skin freeze and thus becoming unusable.

Steel Release wasn't changing your skin but rather attached a layer on top of it.

It did make me resistant to cold but the moment I would stop using it, I would end up frostbitten.

I healed my bloody hand to recover my skin and got ready to digest the Frostbite Release.

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*Some weeks later*

"It can generate a temperature nearing absolute zero!" I exclaimed as I learned more about the Release

It was a combination of Wind, Water, and Yin Releases that made this freezing Kekkei Tōta.

But I didn't dwell too much on it as I already 'wasted' many months to find a way to absorb it.

'I can learn more anytime now' I thought as I was nearing a large lake that was well hidden within the Land of Water's main island.

Once I was at the lake, I closed my eyes and tried to find the Three-Tails within the water.

'Found him' I thought as he was extremely deep down below the surface

This lake was surprisingly several kilometers deep and he was sleeping on the bottom floor.

"Time to get wet." I said as I changed my body into normal water and dived into the lake

I quickly swam toward him and even when I was right in front of him, he didn't detect me and was still asleep.

He may be a giant turtle but compared to the one that served as an island, he was far smaller.

To wake him up without being hostile, I decided to generate some of Matatabi's chakra and send it to tickle him.

The moment I did so, he opened his left eye and locked his gaze with mine.

"Nice to meet you." I said as he seemed to be yawning

"S-so you are the human Matatabi talked about?" he asked with a surprisingly timid voice

"I think so, I came in the hope that you could give me a part of your chakra." I explained

'I feel like I'm asking them chakra like a beggar asking for money' I thought with a small chuckle

"W-well, we already agreed to your idea so you can have it." he said as he generated chakra in a medium-sized ball and made it float in front of me

"Thank you..?" I replied before he confessed "I'm Isobu!" as he understood what I wanted to know

"Isobu it is then, much better than calling you Three-Tails. I'm Yuichi Senju, though you already know." I said as I absorbed his chakra

"You really are a weird human." he said as he saw me interact with him without being scared or thinking of him as a tool

"Pft, I will take that as a compliment I guess." I said with a small chuckle before adding "Oh right, could you tell me if, except for Matatabi, are all your other siblings male?"

He didn't understand why I would ask such a thing but replied anyway "I have three sisters, except Matatabi, there is Saiken and Chōmei."

'So the Six-Tails and the Seven-Tails uh' I thought before replying "Thank you. With that, you just put at ease the mind of thousands of people."

"You're welcome?" Isobu replied, not understanding who I was referring to

We talked a bit more and I ended up suggesting that he can come with me if he wanted to.

But he refused as he liked it here, even if he knew he would be sealed later.

I bid him farewell and swam to the surface.

I now had five different tailed beasts chakra in my possession.

I still had to reproduce the same amount of chakra that the tailed beasts had, which takes a lot of time.

The Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails were soon done, but I had yet to do the last three I collected.

I had yet to use their power too. I know that I could produce Coral with Isobu and use Bubble Ninjutsu, and secrete corrosive alkali with Saiken if I want to.

I emerged from the water, changed back into my physical self, and left the place.

It was time for me to go back to Konoha after almost a year out of the village taking care of two Great Shinobi Villages alone.

'I wonder how they are doing at the frontline' I thought as I was propelling myself out of the Land of Water

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[A/N: I write in the Author's Thoughts every chapter, which is most of the time skipped, so I will tell you this here:

I revamped the Status Page to make it easier to search for certain things by dividing them into parts.]