Inside the control room, Shinno gazed at the "tamed" Zero-Tails with a hint of smugness in his eyes. "Hmph! Learned to fear me now, haven't you?"
The Zero-Tails simply fell into slumber, otherwise it feared it might burst out laughing.
Seeing the Zero-Tails had seemingly become "afraid," Shinno nodded in satisfaction.
Then the suggestion implanted into his subconscious by Seiki began to take effect. "This time I interacted with Cloud Village under the identity of 'Shinno.' But for future outside operations, I should really switch identities again. Hmm, 'Amaterasu' will do."
"There's also that branch base I previously established for contacting Cloud Village—it must be destroyed soon. We need to consolidate our forces and go into hiding once more until the next war begins, when the Zero-Tails can truly revive. Hmph! This world will ultimately bow before this old man's ambition… Mwahahaha…"
Outside.
Seiki stood deep in thought, staring at this underground ruins.
"This airborne fortress should really be made even more elegant and refined!"
Seiki knew very clearly—the sole purpose of acquiring this airborne fortress was to show off during some grand moment in the future, as part of fabricating an elaborate lie.
He actually didn't care about the fortress's raw power all that much.
"Besides this airborne fortress, obtaining part of the Zero-Tails' body has been today's pleasant surprise." Seiki idly toyed with the chunk of flesh in his hand while pondering deeply.
Battlefields were naturally the easiest sources of negative emotional energy. With this chakra converter, he probably wouldn't face any shortages of chakra before the war ended.
Still, he did feel curious about how exactly this chakra conversion worked.
Chakra itself was just a mix of physical and spiritual energy. Negative emotions could essentially be considered spiritual energy—but where exactly did this physical energy come from?
"Could it be," he mused, "that just a small piece of flesh alone is nearly capable of providing infinite physical energy?" Thinking further, Seiki recalled one of his earlier suspicions—that everyone inherently contained chakra within their bodies, possibly even vast quantities of it!
Ordinary humans who couldn't perform jutsu could still fall under the Infinite Tsukuyomi, being affected by genjutsu techniques. This proved that even untrained people had untapped chakra within them.
Even after Deidara used up all his chakra, his Self-Destruction technique could still unleash power far beyond what he could normally achieve. And then there was the Eight Gates technique, which allowed its user to momentarily generate dozens of times their normal strength.
All these examples supported one fact—untapped chakra inside the human body was vastly greater than what one could actually extract.
The difference here was kind of like comparing crude oil from a well to processed gasoline.
The former was abundant yet difficult to utilize effectively, while the latter was scarce but highly efficient.
From Seiki's perspective, even the so-called infinite chakra granted through Impure World Reincarnation was only relative to normal circumstances. Given the "oil fields" of chakra potential within sacrifice bodies compared to normally extracted chakra, this was indeed practically infinite.
Otherwise, if real infinite chakra existed, the Fourth Great Ninja War wouldn't have lasted long—just keep sending Patrick to self-destruct repeatedly.
Whether human potential could truly be this immense wasn't something Seiki considered impossible either. One kilogram of uranium-238 undergoing complete fission could release 20,000 megawatt-hours of energy. Perhaps human cells themselves held the possibility of unleashing seemingly infinite power.
"In that case, I might be able to study the secrets of chakra through this fragment of the Zero-Tails' body..."
Back at the Main Camp.
"Great! Master Seiki has returned!"
"Rather, our hero has returned!"
Everyone looked at Seiki with nearly fanatical eyes; they had already learned the rough details from Natsuhoshi.
He not only gave them an early warning that helped avert the crisis, but also led the Sky Ninja forces in retaliation against the Cloud Village. Finally, he even infiltrated alone into the enemy's main base and destroyed it.
These deeds were nothing short of legendary!
No, rather, they were legends!
After receiving everyone's admiration, Seiki briefly met with other high-ranking officials in the meeting room.
The Third chuckled happily, "You should've seen it—he was going on about how Konoha was finally getting what it deserved, but then the Sky Ninjas went and bombed their own Cloud Village, making him absolutely furious!"
Jiraiya rubbed his chin regretfully, "I can't believe I missed such a scene!"
Orochimaru smiled, saying, "This time I benefited from Seiki-kun's insight—it was just trusting his judgment, yet I ended up being praised as a wise general known for quick decisions!"
Jiraiya sourly muttered under his breath, "Wise general? More like a lucky guesser to me!"
Amidst the cheerful atmosphere, Seiki cut in with a serious tone, "Actually, there were some issues during my mission. What I destroyed might have only been a branch base."
"I see," the Third nodded, immediately comforting him, "Don't worry. You've done more than enough!"
"Without support from the Cloud Village, with their own limited resources, it'll be difficult for them to organize another large-scale operation like this."
Orochimaru also smiled, "Seiki-kun's still the same perfectionist as ever!"
The Third tapped the table, turning serious again, "Seiki, you might need to head over and reinforce the Western Front soon."
"The Western Front?"
"Yes, the situation there isn't great."
Jiraiya wore a strange expression, "We're holding off two enemies just fine here—how come they can't manage one when they've got the upper hand?"
The Third took a puff from his pipe, "The situation there is quite complicated. For one, Hanzo from Rain Country has maintained an ambiguous stance..."
"Hanzo?" Jiraiya's expression grew heavy; indeed, he was a powerful ninja capable of shifting the tide of battle single-handedly, especially with Sanshouo's poison mist, which was a formidable weapon on the battlefield.
"He always harbors ambitions of developing Amegakure into the Sixth Great Ninja Village, often playing both sides during conflicts to preserve strength while watching Konoha and Iwagakure weaken each other. Danzo and Onoki understand this very well, so naturally they don't want Amegakure gaining any advantage."
Orochimaru's eyes darkened. The title of Sannin granted by Hanzo wasn't an honor—it was merely because he feared Konoha and hesitated to go too far. Otherwise, they wouldn't have lived to tell the tale.
"On top of that," the Third continued, "there's Sunagakure's attitude! Sand cited weakness in power and overextended fronts as reasons, refusing to cooperate with us in launching offensive actions—only defending when Iwagakure attacks."
Seiki paused thoughtfully before speaking. "Is Elder Danzo worried that Sunagakure might hold back their strength and betray us at the last moment?"
The Third acknowledged with a nod. "Exactly. An alliance is only as strong as both parties want it to be."
"And precisely because of this mutual restraint," the Hokage excused his close friend, then turned serious again, "Your main mission this time, Seiki, is to win Sunagakure's cooperation in our operation!"
"Fire Shadow, you're giving me too much credit, don't you think? I don't think I can make an entire ninja village change its stance just because of me!" Seiki sighed.
"Don't worry, there's actually a good opportunity right now!" The Hokage smiled. "A monster that uses poison has appeared in the central region shared by the Land of Fire, the Land of Earth, and the Land of Wind. Ninja from all three nations have fallen into comas after being poisoned. Sunagakure has already sent us a request for help..."
"A poison-wielding creature—could it be Sasori? That makes sense enough. After all, battlefields are the perfect hunting ground for him to gather 'materials'!"
After a moment of thought, Seiki asked again, "Even if I manage to rescue their people, changing Sunagakure's position won't be easy, will it?"
The Hokage gave a slight nod. He didn't expect that rescuing just a few dozen ninja would change Sunagakure's stance—they'd probably need ten times that number before it even made a dent.
"While convincing them may not be likely," he continued, "this still gives us an opening. Perhaps we can find the key to breaking this deadlock within Sunagakure."
Taking a deep breath, Seiki said, "I understand. I'll do my best to accomplish this task!"
<><><><><><><><>
Thank you for reading! Your support will keep me updating!
~ Every 50 Powerstones = **4 Bonus Chapters** this weekend!
<><><><><><><><>
~ 100+ Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon!
~ More *Free* Chapters and Books Available on Patreon!
patreon.com/Tansnovel
<><><><><><><><>