AS HALF AN HOUR PASSED, the sparks thickened and grew angrier.
Each time he used it, it made his muscles twitch. Lightning in general was truly overpowered in this world. He could see why many fans favoured it.
When he let it loose again, a sharp crack shot out and shattered a rock clean in two. By late afternoon, he had it—more or less. Black Lightning was just darker electricity at a higher voltage. The real power came in executing a technique with it.
And what better technique than the one written of in Kaguya's Legacy?
Upon closing his eyes, Arthur began to gather natural energy into his core. Slowly, carefully, he formed the Black Lightning in his palm again—but this time, it spun and began to drill so loud that the animals far away raised their heads in his direction.
Then, in one flick of his wrist, it reinforced into a ball of electricity. This was it; this was the Hagoromo's "Drilling Hand of Sage Lightning" technique. Essentially the Chidori, but better since it used Black Lightning and Sage Chakra.
As Arthur gazed at his electric-induced palm, the technique quickly died out. No surprise there since it was his first time trying this highly advanced ninjutsu.
It seemed pleasing to have in his arsenal. The main issue lay in control; the technique was extremely loud, much louder than he remembered from that filler arc. More training needed to be done for it to be perfect.
The rest of the day was spent practicing. Trial after error, bruised fingers, and a burn on his forearm.
But by the end, he had succeeded. It still needed polish, yet it was potent enough to use in combat now. And it was his to do as he pleased with.
As he prepared to leave the area, his senses caught something. At first, he thought it was just some other distant wildlife. But it was someone—or rather, multiple someones—headed his way. It was a cluster of small figures moving across the terrain.
As they drew closer, he identified them as children—young, no older than ten or eleven—and they were heading toward the open field where he had been training.
This didn't surprise him. The technique he was practicing was quite loud due to the high-voltage crackling. He had only just managed to keep it controlled enough to prevent his own hand from burning or exploding.
Who would have guessed children would have wanted to investigate the noise this far out from civilization?
Arthur watched quietly as they entered the field. They looked around with curiosity. Yet none of them saw a thing. Not even a ripple in the land. The area was untouched, as if nothing had happened there.
One of the children, a boy with a scruffy face, cried out in disappointment, "Ah man!"
"You said you heard the noise here, right?" another child asked.
"I thought I did," he quietly said. "Guys, you have to believe me. The noise definitely came from here."
Unbeknownst to them, they were already trapped in Arthur's genjutsu. He was standing directly in front of them, invisible to their senses. Even the land had been subtly altered to ensure that no further attention was drawn.
He kept a close eye on the children as they debated whether to stay or head back.
'Children meant parents,' he thought, 'and parents meant homes.'
The children seemed to be convinced there was nothing here. So Arthur followed them at a close distance as they turned around.
He was close enough that he could hear their conversations clearly, yet they remained oblivious to his presence. They didn't realize that they were walking alongside one of the deadliest shinobi this world had ever seen.
The advantage of knowing how to manipulate chakra versus not knowing had very great perks.
As they continued their journey, Arthur eventually rose to the sky to get a better view of things. He kept track of their direction before noting that they seemed to be heading toward a settlement nearby. And from this height, the settlement appeared small—perhaps a cluster of huts and simple homes, surrounded by fields and patches of forest. It was a modest community that likely relied on farming or hunting.
He estimated that from his position, it was at least a three-hour walk. To think these children managed to hear his technique from that great of a distance.
Descending a little further down, Arthur focused on sensing for any signs of chakra activity within the settlement. There was nothing notable, such as a strong concentration of chakra that indicated skilled fighters or ninja.
The highest chakra level he detected was comparable to someone who might become a Chūnin with training but no more. These were ordinary individuals.
He continued to scan the land and search for anything useful. Interestingly enough, the settlement had a small storage area where they kept books and scrolls, but most of them were fiction. Poorly written stories, if anything.
Nothing there seemed to hold the kind of knowledge he was seeking. Then, unexpectedly, he overheard a conversation that caught his attention.
"Did ya hear how the town by the borders upset the horse idol?"
"Yeah, they should really be careful unless they want to be destroyed."
The phrase "horse idol" was a clear clue. Certainly that had to be a nickname given to the Five-Tails in this era.
As he listened in, the conversation indicated that this supposed idol was near the western borders of the country. Without hesitation, he headed straight in that direction.
'I'll have to approach it differently,' he reasoned to himself in the air.
It took him roughly four hours to reach the western border. As he approached, he observed the area—flat, open land, much like the other borders he had crossed. There was no sign of guards or any kind of security.
What he was seeking was the nearest shrine, so his eyes swept over the landscape from above and scanned carefully for any signs of recent activity. The terrain was mostly open grasslands with patches of sparse trees, making it easier to spot disturbances.
For an entire hour, he searched the area. Despite his thorough scan, however, he came up empty. No signs of the Four-Tails' presence, no footprints, no displaced earth, and no residual chakra traces. The creature was not here.
Rather than feel frustrated, he instead decided to check south. Maybe the beast had moved during his time traveling here. So he descended to ground level and shifted from aerial surveillance to ground tracking.
The terrain was dry, with loose dirt and patches of grass. It didn't take long before he spotted gigantic hooves pressed into the earth. The footprints were enormous, easily recognizable as belonging to a creature of immense size.
He knelt to examine them closely before determining that the tracks were headed further west. So he followed the hoofprints in that direction. There was no need for him to hurry since the time was being spent to continue recovering his chakra.
The trail eventually led him to a massive lake, and the tracks abruptly ended at the water's edge. The creature had crossed the lake, then.
So he took to the skies once more and hovered in his smoke form to scan the lake. His Tamashii swept across the surface first but found nothing significant. It was as if the beast had simply jumped across the water and disappeared.
He therefore analyzed the terrain around the lake to narrow down where the creature might have landed. The ground was thick and uneven in some areas, with patches of dense vegetation and large rocks.
'There,' he thought.
His eyes focused on a particular clearing that looked as if it had been disturbed recently. The soil was churned up, and broken branches littered the ground. That meant something large had moved through there.
From this vantage point, he deduced that the beast was headed north. The tracks showed no signs of slowing down or turning back, so he was confident that he was getting closer.
The wind brushed past his form as he accelerated his pace toward the north.
In just thirty minutes, the creature's massive form was seen as a looming shadow in the distance. And from what he could tell, it was galloping across the plains.
There was no mistaking it for another Tailed Beast. The Five-Tails, after all, was more majestic than the other beasts; it was the only horse-like beast with clean fur that made it identifiable.
Arthur's speed increased as he tried to close the distance. Yet the creature was swift and darted through the terrain. Eventually, he saw the beast stop to rest. It slowed, lowered its head, and relaxed in a patch of grass.
Arthur, high above, kept his position and observed silently. Perhaps it had already sensed him, or perhaps not. Either way, he didn't bother with disguise or transformation; he knew exactly what to do.
"Fww," he whistled.
The beast's head lifted at the sound as its large eyes fixed on the source. When the creature saw him in his true form, it paused for a moment. Then it tilted its head in a gesture that seemed almost human.
"Nice to meet you, Kokuō…"
The beast's head now tilted to the other side as it studied him. "And just who might you be?"
"You can call me Arthur."
"Arthur?" it repeated. "Have we met before, Mr. Arthur?"
"Something like that."
The beast's eyes studied him as it waited for more. Arthur himself knew better than to show hostility or fear. Unlike the Four-Tails, which was wild and unpredictable, this beast was far less aggressive toward men.
When Arthur remained silent, the beast asked, "What can I do for you then?"
"Not much, but there's plenty I can do for you. Tell me first, Kokuō, what do you think of me?"
"We've never met, so I don't know what to think of you. Though you speak differently than those around my shrine, you're still a stranger to me like they are."
"Ah, but what if I told you that you and I will most certainly meet again about a thousand years from now?"
Kokuō let out a low, rumbling laugh. "Then I would think you're as interesting as they come. No man can live that long from what I've seen. You fleshly creatures die quick."
"So you don't believe me?"
The beast shook its massive head, replying, "No. I think you're joking, or you're trying to trick me."
"Let's make an agreement then. If a thousand years pass and we meet again, then you should do something for me."
The beast's eyes narrowed, and it said, "You must take me for a fool, Mr. Arthur. I do not gamble like you men do."
"Is it gambling when the other party knows he's right?"
The beast paused to consider those words. It was intrigued now, more than before. "Who are you, then? How do you know these things will happen?"
Because Arthur remembered what Killer B rapped about, he answered in layers, "Consider me a reincarnated version of myself. But in a thousand years, you'll see me as a man named Hoshikaze, who is truly I, Arthur Bennett. Yet I won't remember you when we should meet again."
Then the beast let out smoke from its nostrils and said, "You're wasting my time with this nonsense… Go away, or you'll regret having followed me here."
Now Arthur furrowed his brows. He hadn't expected this Tailed Beast to be stubborn. Then again, he was less than six feet tall, talking to a creature almost fifty times his height.
"What will it take to convince you?" he asked in a comely tone.
"You leaving me alone would help…"