Chapter 243

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The immense life force energy made the area around Yoichi bloom as if it were midsummer. The trees seemed to return to life, and the once withered grass sprouted fresh green shoots, quickly growing over half a meter high.

Mina and Kushina, who were chatting inside the house, also sensed the powerful chakra coming from the garden and hurried outside.

Even Gates, who had been disturbed by Sasuke's noise and had found it hard to sleep, lifted his bear head. But upon noticing that the source was Yoichi, he shook his head and lay back down, casually knocking Sasuke off his neck, causing him to fall on his backside.

"Naruto?!"

Upon arriving in the backyard, Kushina immediately noticed Naruto lying beside Yoichi. She quickly rushed over to pick him up.

"What happened to Naruto?"

Mina also hurried over. At that moment, Yoichi spoke up, "Naruto is fine. He just lost something that didn't belong to him. He'll wake up soon."

As soon as Yoichi finished speaking, Naruto, who was in Kushina's arms, opened his eyes. Seeing Kushina, he rubbed his eyes and said, "Mom, why are you here?"

"Naruto, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Did I fall asleep just now?"

Naruto struggled to jump down, looked around, but couldn't remember what had happened. He only recalled Yoichi calling him over, and then everything went blank.

Yoichi's decision to extract the Asura chakra was to evolve his Rinnegan. Later, he would also extract the Indra chakra from Sasuke. Why should his son be a vessel for someone else's chakra?

Kushina checked Naruto over and then asked Mina to take another look. She gave Yoichi a fierce glare, but when Yoichi noticed Kushina's glare, he made a gesture, causing her to feel embarrassed and angry, worried that Mina might suddenly turn around and see.

After confirming that Naruto was okay, it was nearly lunchtime. However, Yoichi had no appetite. He headed straight to the basement, ready to absorb Asura's chakra.

The Asura chakra extracted from Naruto was significantly more substantial than what was present in Hashirama's cells.

Once in the basement, Yoichi began to refine the Asura chakra.

However, Asura's chakra resisted him continuously. This chakra contained Asura's will, a will passed down since the time of the Sage of the Six Paths.

"It's useless."

Yoichi had trained in spiritual techniques and absorbed chakra that might have belonged to the Ten-Tails. His spiritual power and chakra were far beyond that of Asura's chakra.

Ignoring the resistance within his body, Yoichi gradually split the Asura chakra and used spiritual techniques to erase Asura's will from the Yang Release chakra.

Slowly but surely, like cutting flesh with a dull knife, Yoichi was making this third-generation Ōtsutsuki disappear from the ninja world.

At Mount Myoboku, Gamamaru suddenly awoke, shaking his toad head in confusion. "What's going on with Hagoromo now..."

As the only sage in the ninja world who mastered Yin-Yang Release, Gamamaru could communicate with people in the Pure Land through dreams. He had just been speaking with Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo, but the latter had abruptly cut off the connection, waking him from his dream-state.

"Something serious in the ninja world must have happened to concern Hagoromo so much. Shima, come here."

Gamamaru called out to Shima, another of the Toad Sages. As a toad that had lived for over a thousand years, Gamamaru mastered many secret techniques, most of which exceeded the realm of ordinary ninjutsu.

Shima arrived after receiving the message and asked the Great Toad Sage, "You're awake, Lord Gamamaru. What's the matter?"

"Shima, when you have time, ask little Jiraiya to come to Mount Myoboku. There's something I need his help with."

"Little Jiraiya? He hasn't visited much lately. Seems like he's been on missions all the time. I'll ask him."

"Is there anything else, Lord Gamamaru?" Shima asked.

Gamamaru shook his head. "No, just that. It's best if little Jiraiya comes quickly."

If something could make Hagoromo look so grim, it could only be related to the Child of Prophecy. According to Gamamaru's prophetic dreams, even the Child of Prophecy had to accept Hagoromo's gift to save the ninja world.

Initially, he had supported Hagoromo's hold over the Pure Land to accumulate power to deal with possible future changes in the ninja world.

In the Pure Land, Hagoromo looked at the fading mark of Yang Release in his hand. If this continued, the Yang Release mark would disappear altogether.

Once it completely vanished, Asura's chakra would entirely disappear from the ninja world.

"Asura…"

Hagoromo murmured softly. He could sense the situation, but there was no suitable vessel in the ninja world to channel his chakra through. If he tried to descend into an Edo Tensei body, his chakra might destroy it instantly, making it impossible to use.

"I'm sorry, Asura."

Although Hagoromo was anxious, there was nothing he could do. His only option was to safeguard the Six Paths chakra, preventing whoever had stolen Asura's chakra from gaining the power to unlock the Rinnegan.

Theoretically, combining Asura and Indra's chakra could indeed evolve into a pair of Rinnegan, but it required a qualitative change, a key.

The Six Paths and the world below it were entirely different. One needed to touch a bit of the Six Paths chakra, also referred to as the chakra of the God Tree.

Last time, he had been careless, allowing the previous incarnation of Indra to come into contact with the Six Paths chakra and evolve a pair of Rinnegan.

This time, he would guard against any leakage of the Six Paths chakra with utmost vigilance.

As for the being in the ninja world left behind by his mother, it shouldn't have a second chakra to assist in awakening the Rinnegan.

"Kurenai, has Yoichi not come by all day?"

When Tsunade, along with Hashirama and Tobirama, returned to the office and did not see Yoichi, she asked Kurenai, who was standing nearby.

"No, Tsunade-sama," Kurenai replied. "Even if Yoichi-sensei has something to attend to, he usually sends a clone. But today, there hasn't been anyone here."

"What could he be doing? I hope nothing's happened…" Tsunade murmured, biting her nail in concern. Deciding not to care about running into Mina and Mikoto, she said to her grandfather and great-uncle, "I'm going to check the Uchiha compound."

Tsunade generally avoided clashing with Mina and Mikoto because she was technically the newcomer and always felt awkward about it.

"Tsuna, it's probably nothing serious. There was a surge of powerful chakra at the Uchiha compound this morning. Maybe the Fifth is training," Hashirama reassured her.

"That's right. And that chakra was similar to my brother's. Although it's not as strong now, there's no sign of any disturbances in the Uchiha compound, so everything should be fine," Tobirama added, helping to ease Tsunade's worries. However, she still asked Shizune to check things out, just in case, so she could be at ease.

...

Meanwhile, at the Uchiha compound.

Yoichi had been in the basement since noon and had not come out even by late night.

Asura's chakra was vast, and each time he separated a portion, he had to slowly wear down Asura's will using spiritual techniques.

This will had been fortified by Hagoromo's gifts. Even after reincarnating for over a thousand years, it remained exceptionally resilient and difficult to erase.

Fortunately, no matter how difficult it was to erase, it was still like water with no source. After spending the entire afternoon gradually wearing it down, less than a third of Asura's chakra remained.

As another portion of Asura's will in the Yang Release chakra was worn away and absorbed using the Spirit Transformation Technique, Yoichi suddenly felt a change in his chakra.

The Asura chakra he had consumed was now roughly equal to his own. With the balance achieved, his chakra began to evolve.

The Yin Release chakra of his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, upon gaining an equivalent amount of chakra, started to integrate and complement each other, evolving into a higher quality of chakra.

His eyes reflected this transformation, as the pattern of his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan changed into the purple rings of the Rinnegan.

"It's already transformed into the Rinnegan?"

Though his mind was filled with knowledge of the Rinnegan's abilities, Yoichi still found it hard to believe it had been this easy to evolve his eyes.

"Bansho Ten'in," he murmured, raising his hand toward a distant experiment table, activating one of the Rinnegan's abilities.

A powerful gravitational pull caused the experiment table to fly toward him. Yoichi then used Shinra Tensei, unleashing a repulsive force that caused the ground to form a spherical depression.

Fortunately, he reacted in time and retracted the force, only shattering the experiment table. His house was directly above; had he not pulled back, the shockwave might have caused the basement ceiling and the house above to collapse.

"I got a bit excited. I need to be more careful next time."

Having acquired the Rinnegan lifted Yoichi's spirits. He began exploring the abilities of the Rinnegan. The evolution of his chakra had also elevated his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, granting him numerous powers.

The Six Paths abilities were fundamental Rinnegan powers, usable as long as one had chakra. More advanced techniques included the Rinne Tensei for reviving the dead and Chibaku Tensei, a formidable sealing technique.

Moreover, there was a unique ocular ability resulting from the fusion of his Mangekyo Sharingan techniques upon evolving into the Rinnegan—a unique Rinnegan jutsu born from combining two Mangekyo Sharingan abilities.

Kōrin Jinzūya!

A domain controlling life and death, this ocular jutsu allowed Yoichi to govern all life and death within a kilometer. Within this realm, he was the god.

"Let's test it outside," Yoichi decided, leaving the basement. However, upon emerging, he saw Mikoto and Mina sitting in the living room, seemingly waiting and chatting.

"Yoichi-sama."

"Yoichi, are you okay? Do you want something to eat?" Mikoto and Mina asked in quick succession. Their concern made Yoichi smile. "No, I was just training. I'm going outside to test a jutsu. You two rest; don't wait up for me."

"Alright, then," Mina responded, a little disappointed. Recently, the three of them had been sleeping together. If Yoichi wasn't there, she wondered if she could sleep.

After Yoichi left, Mina hugged Mikoto's arm, nuzzling it as she said, "Mikoto, let's go rest."

"I should check on Sasuke, Mina. Don't mess around," Mikoto replied.

"Sasuke's three already; he doesn't need his mom to put him to sleep. Mikoto, spend the night with me."

Mina laughed playfully, not letting go of Mikoto's arm. Despite Mikoto's flushed face, Mina held on, pulling Mikoto toward the room.

After leaving his home, Yoichi headed to a dense forest area outside the village.

"This will do."

Upon gaining the Rinnegan, Yoichi discovered he could discern the strength of a life force and even predict its longevity.

For example, the surrounding trees had roughly ten to fifteen years left before they would die.

Kōrin Jinzūya.

With a slight opening of his Rinnegan, an invisible domain spread outwards, stopping at a kilometer radius.

Within this domain, Yoichi's sensitivity to life force increased dramatically. He felt like he could control everything with a simple gesture.

"What a miraculous feeling, like a creator… Extract."

As Yoichi activated the ability, the life energy from all plants within a kilometer radius was forcibly drawn toward him. Even the underground mice couldn't escape; after running around for a bit, they collapsed and died, life force drained.

All the plants withered almost instantly. Leaves turned yellow and fell, and tree trunks cracked and dried.

"What a powerful ocular jutsu. It's almost like the Chakra God Tree… No, maybe it's even stronger."

Yoichi gazed at the green energy in his hand. This was the life energy of all the living beings within a kilometer, now forcibly extracted.

He could consume it himself or bestow it upon others.

Yoichi experimented by infusing the energy into a nearby dead tree. As he did, the tree immediately returned to life, rapidly growing to three times its original size within seconds, becoming an anomaly in the forest.

"By continuously absorbing life energy, I might achieve immortality, and the people around me might never die either."

Yoichi smiled in satisfaction, moving to another location to test Kōrin Jinzūya several more times. He even absorbed the life energy himself.

However, the life energy from plants within a kilometer was too sparse, only slightly replenishing his chakra.

"If there's an enemy, I could try extracting their life energy. I wonder if this would work on opponents at the Six Paths level."

After several tests, Yoichi felt he had understood the jutsu's capabilities and started making his way back to the village.

(End of Chapter)