You were just about to activate Flying Thunder God to leave this place...
When you suddenly remembered—the Floating Island had completely vanished during your ascension to an Ōtsutsuki, consumed as nourishment.
Even though you'd already acquired the body of an Ōtsutsuki, you still felt the need to set up a new base before completely wiping out Black Zetsu and his faction.
You'd grown used to living on the Floating Island. It had started to feel like home. Its sudden disappearance left you slightly unsettled.
So, you activated your Magnet Release and flew at high speed to the former location of the island.
With a wave of your hand, four distinct masses of chakra, each different in color and shape, appeared in your palm.
These were the residual chakra of four Tailed Beasts.
You had originally used them to power the Floating Island. But during your ascension to an Ōtsutsuki, they were all shattered by you into pure, neutral chakra, stripped of any special properties—used as fuel in the transformation process.
They could no longer be separated or restored in any meaningful form.
But just before the aggregated chakras collapsed entirely under your destructive absorption, you halted the devouring process, managing to preserve a small portion that still retained the essence of the Tailed Beasts.
With this, the Tailed Beast chakra could, over time, reabsorb chakra diffused throughout the shinobi world and slowly regenerate...
When the time came and you'd gathered all nine Tailed Beasts, you'd retrieve a branch of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path from Nagato, and plant your own miniature God Tree!
This was yet another path toward the Six Paths level.
You've always believed in preparing multiple contingencies in everything you do—it's a habit forged through countless experiences.
After crafting a basic frame for the new Floating Island using Magnet Release and the Shikotsumyaku, you pulled out the Scroll of Seals you'd obtained from Konoha long ago and turned to the page on Wood Release.
With just a few glances, you proficiently created ten Wood Clones.
It's said that the Shadow Clone technique was inspired by the Wood Clone.
Unlike Shadow Clones, which dissipate after a single hit, Wood Clones are far sturdier. Even if they lose limbs, they can still fight—and sometimes are even more durable than the original ninja!
Checking the time…
It was about time for your scheduled meeting with Nagato to capture the second batch of Tailed Beasts.
You decided to leave the Wood Clones behind to continue constructing the Floating Island. Once it was complete, they'd help you research the structure of sealing techniques.
As for your real body, you activated Flying Thunder God, preparing to head to Amegakure to meet Nagato.
However, just as you activated the jutsu—
You gazed into the endless void…
That mysterious gray energy you'd obtained from Zero-Tails reappeared, and just like when you were analyzing bloodlines, it surged into your eyes.
In an instant, the boundless void before you transformed into a sea of runes once again.
But this time, you suddenly felt like you could control it. You extended your hand and gave a gentle wave—
In the next moment, you appeared in a desolate desert a hundred miles outside Amegakure!
"Damn it!"
You cursed under your breath and immediately vanished using stealth.
But just then, the gray energy in your eyes activated once more. A layer of semi-transparent, mysterious runes surfaced across your body.
You had a strong sense—this time, you were completely invisible.
Not like Kamui, where you phase out of space.
Not like your combination of Transparent Escape and Chakra Suppression Technique to turn invisible and erase your chakra signature.
This was… conceptual invisibility!
But this form of concealment came at an extreme cost. In just a few moments, it consumed a full tenth of your chakra.
And you were now an Ōtsutsuki—your chakra reserves were astronomical.
For it to drain so much so quickly… you didn't even dare to guess what sort of entity the origin of that gray energy must be.
It likely far surpassed even the Six Paths level!
Still, there was some good news. After becoming an Ōtsutsuki, you could now drive this gray energy using chakra—instead of before, when it consumed only your Ocular Power and nearly blinded you!
It seemed only after truly reaching the Six Paths tier would you be able to glimpse the origin of this power…
You disabled the conceptual invisibility, then activated Flying Thunder God once more.
This time, you refrained from interacting with those mysterious runes in the void. You simply observed them quietly, trying to memorize as many as you could. Unfortunately, the Flying Thunder God was too fast—even though you could see them, there was no time to remember such complex symbols.
Still, you had a feeling…
That the source of this power was deeply connected to the concepts of space and existence. That's why, despite strengthening all aspects of your being, it only displayed special effects when it came to those two domains.
And compared to the earlier time when you were analyzing your bloodline, its effectiveness in space manipulation and invisibility had become dramatically stronger...
No point dwelling on things you couldn't yet understand.
Once your strength reached the right level, the truth would reveal itself in due time.
Finishing the objective at hand was more important. You pushed aside your speculations and went to meet Nagato.
This time, your targets were Rōshi, the Four-Tails Jinchūriki, and Han, the Five-Tails Jinchūriki.
Both of them were wanderers, making their whereabouts incredibly difficult to pinpoint. Getting accurate information on them could only mean one thing—Zetsu's intelligence network was involved!
After speaking with Nagato, you both agreed: although the early capture of the Tailed Beasts left Black Zetsu with no obvious flaws to exploit, it had definitely raised his suspicions.
The locations of this batch of Jinchūriki had all been passed through Black Zetsu's hands. That meant White Zetsu's information network had already been laid in advance, waiting to spring the trap when you arrived.
But with your current power—
Black Zetsu's pitiful combat ability, even if paired with ten Obitos, wouldn't stand a chance against you.
However, what you wanted was to capture Black Zetsu alive—that was no easy task.
Fortunately, you'd already made preparations!
And this time, you didn't even need to lift a finger. Your job was simply to be on standby in case something unexpected happened.
The first target was Rōshi, spotted near the Land of Rivers in the southern part of the shinobi world. Like the Land of Hot Water, the Land of Rivers was a resort destination—just not as chaotic or unregulated.
Half a day later, Konan arrived with Deva Path Pain at Rōshi's location, where you were already waiting.
Konan casually tossed down a cube made of Explosive Tags.
Originally intended as a countermeasure against Obito, it was being deployed early.
In the massive explosion that followed, even Rōshi—despite being a perfect Jinchūriki, and even with Four-Tails' Lava Release providing strong defenses—was no match for the all-encompassing blast.
Then, with Deva Path Pain himself using Universal Pull, Rōshi had no chance of escape.
He was blasted to the ground and immediately had the Tailed Beast extracted and sealed into a scroll.
You stood in the distance, behind the emerging black-and-white head of Zetsu, staring at the visibly irritated Black Zetsu.
If that slippery bastard weren't so good at running away, you would've crushed him underfoot long ago!
But you still had a mission to complete.
Next, it was time to meet up with Kakuzu near the Land of Hot Water and use wide-range ninjutsu to purge the area—killing off more White Zetsu and capturing the Five-Tails.
After all, Black Zetsu wasn't White Zetsu—he couldn't be in two places at once.
And your ability to kill White Zetsu was much faster than they could relay intel!
...
Author's Note:
I'm mentally prepared for this arc to completely tank the story's stats.
Tomorrow, I'll begin laying out secondary creative settings for the Ōtsutsuki and the shinobi world, to support the plot going forward.
Maybe over a thousand loyal readers who've followed the updates so far won't be able to accept it.
I know saying this isn't exactly fair to all the readers who've been supporting me.
But I've decided to prepare for the worst-case scenario—half the audience dropping the story and spamming bad reviews.
I've pictured that outcome… and honestly, I think I can accept it.
This is my third novel:
The first one didn't get a single good review, got flamed into oblivion, and I rage-quit it.
The second one? Got mass-reported right at launch because the protagonist brushed hands with the dead heroine. Into the penalty box it went.
When it came back out, and just as the book test began, it got reported again and permanently taken down. Broke me all over again.
Then, six months later, I picked myself up and came back stronger. This book was born.
Though people still criticize it nonstop—
Some say the pacing is too fast, others say it's too slow.
Some say I broke the power scale, others say I keep suppressing the protagonist too much.
Some flame me for sticking too close to the original plot, others say I've changed too much and ruined it.
Maybe I've just been yelled at by schizophrenic critics so often that I'm numb to it now.
Or maybe I'm just satisfied, because this book has already outperformed the previous two.
Anyway, this isn't me playing the victim—I just want to fulfill my 1 million word promise.
In the end, I can't stay just a fanfic author forever. I have to build something of my own!
At the very least, writing should make me happy first!
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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