Naruto deactivated the Mangekyo, and his scarlet pupils returned to blue. He stretched his limbs and used Absolute Control to scan the situation inside his body once again.
After fusing with Sasuke's genes, although his body didn't undergo a complete transformation like when he fused with Karin's genes, his Chakra volume still jumped up significantly.
Excluding Nine-Tails Chakra, his own Chakra alone had increased by one hundred units. Adding the previous three hundred units, he now had a full four hundred units of Chakra. That is, four hundred times Kakashi's Chakra.
If he added Nine-Tails Chakra reserves...
Subsequently, Naruto turned his gaze to the Hashirama cells obtained from Orochimaru. He picked up the scroll and thought for a moment, before putting it away.
Now was not the best time to fuse with Hashirama cells. The Mangekyo was still gestating a dōjutsu. If he rashly introduced Hashirama's genetic code, the two different genetic systems acting in his body simultaneously might cause unpredictable adverse reactions, and if it interfered with the gestation process of the dōjutsu, the loss would outweigh the gain.
With Naruto's current strength, there were already very few existences in the Ninja World that could pose a substantial threat to him, so there was no need to rush. He could take it one step at a time.
However, looking at Hashirama cells, he remembered something.
The Indra Chakra obtained from Sasuke was already being nourished by Nine-Tails Chakra. He already had Indra Chakra, so shouldn't Asura Chakra be put on the agenda?
The key to Rinnegan evolution does not lie in how frequently the Mangekyo itself is used, but in possessing both Indra and Asura Chakra simultaneously. Only by blending the two powers could the Mangekyo be pushed to the level of the Rinnegan.
The previous generation's Indra reincarnation was Madara, and the Asura reincarnation was Hashirama.
During the battle at the Valley of the End, Madara bit off a piece of flesh from Hashirama and fused it into his body, only awakening the Rinnegan in his old age.
This generation's Indra reincarnation was Sasuke, and the Asura reincarnation was himself.
Indra Chakra had already been obtained from Sasuke's blood and fusion was complete. The Mangekyo had also taken root in his eye sockets.
As the Asura reincarnation of this generation, Asura Chakra should be within his own body.
Thinking of this, Naruto sat down and closed his eyes.
Under Absolute Control, his consciousness swept through his internal organs, chakra pathways, and the edge of the Sealing Space.
On the way, passing by the location of Kāma, he glanced at Urashiki who was currently wallowing in self-isolation inside. He did not stop and continued to probe deeper.
The Chakra pathways were scanned, but nothing was found.
The cellular level was scanned, but he still found nothing.
'That's not right.' Naruto frowned slightly, then realized that his direction might be wrong.
'It's not that it doesn't exist, it's that I was looking in the wrong direction. Reincarnation must be related to the soul, but Asura's reincarnation isn't a reincarnation of the soul, it's a reincarnation of Chakra.'
'The essence of Chakra is the fusion of Physical Energy and Spiritual Energy. Since I can't find it on the physical level, I should look on the spiritual level.'
Thinking of this, Naruto closed his eyes again. This time, he switched the investigative direction of his Absolute Control from the physical level to the spiritual level.
This feeling was very strange. He was using Spiritual Energy to drive Absolute Control, while simultaneously using Absolute Control to investigate the Spiritual Energy itself. His consciousness was folded over on a certain level, and the observer and the observed were strangely one and the same.
After an unknown amount of time, deep within the spiritual world.
Naruto captured a very inconspicuous mass of special energy. This energy mass was almost completely fused within his Spiritual Energy, participating in the Chakra Fusion process along with the Spiritual Energy. If he hadn't specifically come to the spiritual world to look for it, it would have been impossible to discover its existence.
This energy was the exact opposite of Indra's cold nature. It was inclusive and carried a sense of powerful vitality.
"Come here."
Naruto activated Absolute Control, locking onto this energy mass and pulling it out from the spiritual world.
The energy instinctively resisted, desperately trying to shrink inward, but in the face of Absolute Control, such a struggle was meaningless. It was dragged completely out of the spiritual world, and presented before Naruto's consciousness.
"Is this Asura's Chakra?" Naruto examined it carefully.
Rather than calling it Chakra, it was more like a very special Chakra seed, containing Asura's core power imprint. There was no soul, no consciousness, just a mass of pure Chakra.
"Since that's the case, then fuse with me completely."
Naruto didn't hesitate any longer, activating Absolute Control to completely fuse this mass of Asura Chakra with himself. The Asura Chakra struggled a few times, but under the suppression of Absolute Control, it gradually ceased its resistance.
The next second, it erupted with an amount of energy far exceeding Naruto's expectations. His entire circulatory system boiled at this moment, and the genetic sequences at the cellular level were rapidly reorganizing and optimizing.
A layer of sweat seeped out onto his skin, only to instantly evaporate into white mist under the high heat. His muscles trembled and Chakra spilled out of his body uncontrollably.
Naruto activated the Flying Thunder God Technique and his body vanished from the training room.
With a flash of golden light, he appeared on the uninhabited island he had previously used to practice Tailed Beast Transformation.
As soon as his feet touched the ground, he used Mind's Eye of the Kagura and several abnormal Chakra signals immediately entered his perception range.
'White Zetsu?' Naruto frowned, then immediately realized what was happening.
It must have been that the commotion when he was testing Light Release here earlier was too great, alerting some White Zetsu wandering nearby, and then it called over a few companions to stake out the place.
'Since we've run into each other, I might as well clean them up.'
Thinking this, Naruto temporarily suppressed the energy still surging within his body. His body turned into a streak of golden light as he shuttled across the island at high speed.
A moment later, three White Zetsu were dragged out of their hiding spots.
"Impossible, how could you possibly have found us?"
"Even Kage-level sensory ninjas can't detect our Mayfly Technique!" One of the White Zetsu struggled frantically.
"Are you the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki? How could the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki have this kind of strength? The speed is completely on a different level!" The smile on another White Zetsu's face vanished.
Naruto looked expressionlessly at the three White Zetsu. Several golden chains surged from his palm and bound the three White Zetsu tightly from top to bottom, and the sealing power instantly locked all their Chakra, preventing them from even activating the Mayfly Technique.
The three White Zetsu twitched a few times on the ground, then stopped moving.
"Is this the Adamantine Sealing Chains? The Kekkei Genkai of the Uzumaki clan!" One White Zetsu recognized the chains, its voice changing pitch.
"The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki is going to seal us!"
"We can't break free from the Adamantine Sealing Chains at all, we're done for!"
Throughout the whole process, Naruto ignored the noisy chatter of the three White Zetsu, taking out three sealing scrolls and performing hand seals.
The bodies of the three White Zetsu were pulled into white lines by the Fuinjutsu and rolled into the three scrolls respectively.
After finishing all this, he stood up and scanned his surroundings. This island had already been discovered by White Zetsu, he couldn't afford any more negligence.
He performed hand seals and slammed the Adamantine Sealing Chains onto the ground around him. Several golden chains extended from his palms, nailing themselves into the periphery of the island to form an Adamantine Sealing Chains barrier. Immediately afterward, he set up a Sensory Suppression Barrier outside this layer of the barrier.
Then, he created ten Shadow Clones and spread them out in all directions on the island to act as sentries.
After finishing all this, Naruto sat in the center of the island and focused all his attention on the drastic changes within his body.
Under the monitoring of Absolute Control, he clearly saw his genetic sequences being further reorganized and perfected during this fusion, beginning to revert to an ancient state.
His Chakra was growing crazily at a terrifying speed, and his physical strength, reaction speed, sensory abilities, and vitality were all being pushed upward by this power. His bones were hardening, muscle fibers were being rewoven, and the width and resilience of his Chakra pathways were expanding synchronously.
Naruto felt as if he had been thrown into a red-hot furnace, his entire body being repeatedly tempered from the inside out by the high heat.