Boom!
Smoke swirled in his palm, and two uniquely shaped long blades materialized out of thin air.
The blades were sleek and elongated, adorned with barbed, branch-like protrusions. As they moved, faint blue-purple arcs of electricity danced along the barbs. These were none other than the twin blades of the Mist Village's Lightning Blade: Fang!
Sasuke's eyes lit up with excitement as the ninja blades he'd been dreaming of finally appeared before him.
Ever since the Land of Waves mission, he'd been obsessed with getting his hands on these Lightning Blades. After all that effort, they were finally his.
With these blades in his possession, he was certain he'd breeze through the advanced Chunin Exams and take one step closer to his ultimate goal: avenging himself against Itachi Uchiha!
Noticing Sasuke's growing eagerness, Hikari smiled and handed the twin blades over to him.
"They're yours now," she said.
"Thanks," Sasuke replied, barely containing his excitement as he eagerly grabbed the blades, like a kid unwrapping a long-awaited toy.
The handles were still slightly warm from Hikari's touch, but Sasuke didn't care. He gripped them tightly, channeling his lightning-natured chakra into the blades without hesitation.
Zzzzt!
A sound like the mournful cry of birds echoed through the hall.
Kakashi's Chidori was named for the same reason—when lightning chakra is pushed to its extreme, the raging thunder produces a piercing wail, like a thousand birds chirping in unison.
But this sound wasn't exclusive to Chidori. Any lightning technique condensed to its peak would produce a similar noise.
Sasuke had only infused a tiny amount of chakra, barely altering its nature, yet the blades erupted with blinding electric sparks, emitting that same bird-like wail.
Crackling lightning surged wildly across the blades. Sasuke could feel that with just a single swing, he could unleash a devastating thunderstrike!
"These are incredible!"
Shocked by the blades' amplifying effect, Sasuke's lips curved into a grin, revealing a flash of white teeth. Paired with his eerie Sharingan, he looked like he was on the verge of an Uchiha-style maniacal laugh.
"This is the council hall," Hikari interrupted, cutting him off. "If you want to test your new tools, head to the training grounds. Torune, take Sasuke to Tsumehime to get registered."
Hikari had already dealt with three of the four infamous Uchiha cacklers, and no one was going to lose it in front of her. Besides, her time was limited—she still had to handle matters with Anko and Morino Ibiki.
"Yes, ma'am!"
Torune Aburame nodded in acknowledgment, giving Sasuke a quick glance before heading toward the side staircase, leaving only his back visible as he walked away.
"He doesn't seem to like me much," Sasuke muttered to Hikari as he sealed the Lightning Blades into the bandage on his arm.
Even though Hikari had somehow risen to become the mysterious leader of this secretive organization—and his boss, no less—he still saw her as the same frustrated girl from New Year's, her face covered in paper strips from a lost game.
"Nah, it's probably just your imagination. Torune's actually pretty chill!" Hikari replied, glancing at the retreating figure of Torune Aburame without noticing anything off.
Torune had been lucky. He hadn't endured much of the brutal training under Panzuma before Hikari took over the Root organization from Danzo in secret, so he still retained some of his humanity.
Hikari quite liked the shy, quiet boy. His strength and loyalty made him someone worth investing in. His parasitic bugs, capable of destroying cells on contact, were deadly—especially against taijutsu specialists like Might Guy.
Of course, they posed no threat to her. Her barrier's defensive abilities aside, her transformed physique meant any invading bugs would be incinerated by her extreme body heat and immune system. If any survived, her blood-flesh curse seal, infused with wind and lightning, would purge her body of foreign entities.
With Sasuke now on board as the team's frontline fighter, Torune handling critical one-shot kills, and Sai providing all-around support, they formed a perfect covert ops squad. Sai's Super Beast Scroll could summon giant eagles, compensating for Sasuke's lack of flight. Plus, with Karin arriving for the Chunin Exams, Sasuke could use his charm to recruit her—a super healer with reconnaissance and control abilities.
The Root's "Hawk Squad" was about to take shape.
"Maybe," Sasuke said with a shrug. Seeing Torune getting farther away, he skipped the stairs, leapt off the platform, and quickly caught up. The two exited the council hall, one trailing the other.
Fate sure is strange, Hikari thought as she watched Sasuke's figure disappear into the distance. Everything seemed to be falling into a cycle.
She'd been drawn in by Hashirama's cells, just as Sasuke was lured by the Lightning Blades. Both had joined Root under the watchful eyes of the organization, and both were led by an Aburame ninja to the equipment department to meet Tsumehime.
Soon, Sasuke would receive a mask, a codename, and a chakra signature chart, just as she had. One day, he might even sit in her seat, recruiting the next generation of Root members, with Torune standing silently by his side.
The vast council hall fell quiet.
Morino Ibiki and the others, who had been attending the Root meeting, grew anxious. They glanced up at the woman seated on the throne-like chair, unsure whether to speak.
Hikari didn't even need to lift a finger. From the moment Sasuke intercepted them at the base entrance, to the intimidation of Panzuma's squad, to the imposing aura of the "Dark King" in the council hall, surrounded by Root's formidable ninja—their defiance had been thoroughly crushed.
"Now it's your turn," Hikari said, her fingers lightly tapping the armrest of her chair, finally acknowledging Anko and the others.
"Yes, Lady Yato!"
Clearing his throat, Morino Ibiki unrolled a scroll, now slightly crumpled from his sweaty grip, and slipped naturally into the role of a subordinate.
"This is the first written test for the Chunin Exams. It focuses on intelligence gathering, teamwork, and, most importantly, courage—"
"Hand it over," Hikari interrupted.
Ibiki froze mid-sentence, about to comply, when he noticed the shadows on the floor of the dimly lit hall begin to writhe and twist.
"What the—?"
Anko gasped, instinctively stepping back. Under the faint starlight filtering into the room, every shadow—on the walls, the ceiling—began to shift violently, flickering with indistinct shapes.
Genma Shiranui, who had been leaning against the wall, felt an icy chill from the moving shadows behind him. He grimaced and stepped forward to stand beside Anko.
Moments later, a strange black hand emerged from the writhing shadows at Ibiki's feet.
The hand, pure black and as deep as a void, looked like a piece of folded paper shaped into a human palm.
Swallowing hard, Ibiki placed the scroll in the hand, watching as it sank back into the shadows.
Looking up, he saw the mysterious woman on the throne retrieve the scroll from a shadowy hand in front of her. She flipped through it silently, two distorted, ghostly figures looming behind her, their blood-red eyes faintly glowing.
She doesn't exactly scream "good guy," Ibiki thought, his scarred face betraying his wariness.
Time flew by, and half a month passed in the blink of an eye.
The Chunin Exams were about to begin. Some smaller ninja villages, located close to the Land of Fire, had already arrived in the Hidden Leaf.
To accommodate these foreign examinees, the Anbu had built rows of dormitories in remote areas. Rumor had it an elite ninja codenamed "Kou" had played a big role in the effort.
Root ninja were also deployed, setting up visible and hidden sentries around the dorms, along with barrier specialists. If a fight broke out, not even a fly would escape.
This wasn't an empty promise—the Uchiha clan could attest to that.
All the procedures for the Chunin Exams had been finalized by "Yang Release Hikari," and the information was fully integrated into the mind of examinee Hikari.
The official written test hadn't even been printed yet, but as the chief examiner, she'd already "stolen" all the questions.
Ibiki's original test was too simple for the advanced Chunin Exams, so most of the questions were crafted by Yang Release Hikari herself. The moment they were written, the answers automatically appeared in her mind.
Not that it mattered much.
As the examiner, judge, and grader, she could hand in a blank test and still get a perfect score. While Yang Release Hikari and her clones were busy, the real Hikari wasn't slacking off either.
Deep in Root's underground training chamber, orange-red firelight flickered in the dim corridor. The Nara brothers stood guard in the shadows by the door. They were only average Jonin-level ninja, but their shadow techniques were incredibly effective in Root's low-light environment.
Hikari's body had grown too heavy, making movement cumbersome, so she delegated many tasks to her shadow guards.
Inside the stone chamber, a pool embedded with countless lightning crystals glowed. Liquid electricity crackled and churned like molten lava, filling the air with a burnt scent.
Hikari lay in the center of the pool, her silver hair fanning out like a metal fan. Her eyes were closed, her body bare, her skin glowing with a crystalline, jade-like sheen.
Though her figure was curvaceous, it didn't evoke sensuality or desire. She seemed like a higher form of life, her body radiating a glow akin to rare minerals or metals. Even lying naked in the pool, she was unlikely to stir lust.
Zzzzt. The liquid lightning flowed through the grooves of her skin. Thunder that could reduce an ordinary person to ash glided over her like gentle water, leaving no visible damage.
Two years ago, she'd mastered her Lightning Release chakra mode. Pure lightning chakra could no longer harm her—only natural lightning could pose a threat.
To push further, she'd built a pool forged entirely from the purest lightning stones, with countless cables connecting to the Hidden Leaf's main power grid. The cost was astronomical.
The electricity bills alone were staggering, burning through funds faster than even Might Guy's training expenses.
If she weren't in charge of Root, skimming funds from Sarutobi Hiruzen and the Hidden Leaf while sending operatives to eliminate wealthy merchants and nobles for profit, she couldn't have afforded it.
The warehouse's lightning crystal reserves weren't enough either, so she stationed Root ninja at Thunder Drum Mountain. Whenever the Cloud Village mined stones, she sent shadow clones to steal them and capture Cloud ninja for experiments.
Her frequent trips between the two nations had carved a wide road through the northern forests of the Land of Fire, now used by merchants for trade.
She'd faced several Cloud Village ambushes, staining Thunder Drum Mountain red with blood. Eventually, the Cloud gave up mining the stones, and she gathered enough to build her lightning pool.
Thump. Thump.
A slow, heavy heartbeat pulsed with power, sending ripples through the pool. Hikari turned her focus inward.
Three viscous green orbs of light contracted slightly. Cells destroyed by the lightning sprouted milky-white tendrils, absorbing energy and regenerating under an endless well of vitality.
Though her body consumed energy to repair itself, her chakra reserves didn't decrease—they grew.
Her heart beat faster, synthesizing chakra at an incredible rate. In moments, a purple sun seemed to rise within her chest!
Her Reverse Eight Gates had faced challenges over the years. After absorbing the entire Death Forest, her vitality grew so immense that her cells struggled to contain and absorb the excess life force.
She didn't want her ash-bone abilities to progress too quickly, as they were prone to going out of control. Suppressing them caused her life energy to overflow. Channeling that energy into her "gates" was like inflating an already full tire—slow and laborious.
The lightning pool not only aided her Lightning Release chakra mode but also damaged her body, accelerating metabolism. Her evolving cells grew more capable of absorbing the surplus life force at an increasing rate.
This rapid absorption sped up her physical evolution, enhancing her compatibility with Lightning Release. It was like stepping on her own foot to propel herself forward.
The life force in her three gates, once thick and tangible, had been reduced to faint glimmers. After this session, it might vanish entirely.
Zing!
Hikari opened her eyes, and the dim chamber seemed to light up with two radiant stars. Her pupils and irises were deep gray, forming a unique pattern. Her Byakugan was on the verge of its final transformation, ready to be reborn.
But that wasn't her main goal this time.
Before the Land of Waves mission, under Yang Release Hikari's guidance, she'd synthesized Wood Release chakra. The chakra seed triggered a strange transformation, as if devouring a tailed beast.
Her Wood Release bloodline limit began reshaping her body. Her cells mutated, their membranes forming structures like plant cell walls, sprouting milky-white tendrils resembling plant roots.
Recently, the mutations had intensified, aligning more with Hashirama's cells. She could feel her capacity for life force growing stronger, her absorption rate increasing daily. She was evolving into something akin to a "plant person."
She'd thought the Sage Body would only manifest after the Chunin Exams, but after over a month of mutations, she'd reached a critical threshold.
Gurgle…
The plasma twisted and churned, as if ionizing the air itself. Hikari's chest rose and fell, her slow, heavy heartbeat quickening.
Her body temperature soared, wisps of steam escaping her nose and mouth, only to be disintegrated by the pool's plasma before reaching the air.
Boom! Boom!
The searing current ignited hydrogen in the air, causing explosions of light and heat above the pool. To Hikari, it felt like a gentle breeze. She breathed the scalding air as the oxygen in the room grew thin.
Yet she felt no discomfort. The blistering air entered her body like water sinking into sand. A second energy conversion system seemed to be forming within her cells, independent of mitochondrial oxidation.
Whoosh.
A strange wind stirred in the sealed chamber, whistling through the gap under the door, as if announcing to the world that she was about to enter the Sage Body's third stage.
She was on the verge of becoming the second Ninja God since Hashirama Senju!