Chapter 264: The First Pair of Rinnegan, Mishirugane!
After leaving the Hokage's office, Sarutobi Asuma accompanied Tsunade for a stroll around Konoha Hospital before returning to the Sage Domain.
Suddenly, the system, which had been silent for several years, gave a notification.
It finally upgraded!
Character: Sarutobi Asuma
Level: 47
Age: 27
Affiliation: Konohagakure, Land of Fire
Experience: 0.1k/7M
Achievements: [Savior (8/10)][Konoha Ninja Academy Top Graduate][First Kill][Created S-Rank Ninjutsu Without Hand Seals at Age 9][Ninja World's First Genin with a bounty exceeding 30 million][Hundred-Man Killer][Self Created Bloodline Limit][Konoha's Purple Flash][Commander Buster][Created Kekkei Tōta][Super Kage][Ninja Demigod][Ninja World's Biggest Eater][Sage]
Available Attribute Points: 1
Available Skill Points: 9
After a quick glance at the system, Sarutobi Asuma received a telepathic message from a Shadow Clone in the underground research base.
Uka, who had been away, had returned!
Sarutobi Asuma's face lit up with joy. With a flash, he appeared in a laboratory within the underground research base.
Uka was already waiting there.
As Sarutobi Asuma appeared, Uka turned around, revealing a pair of golden Rinnegan that met Sarutobi Asuma's gaze.
Rinnegan!
Clone Uka's Mangekyo had finally evolved into the Rinnegan!
The current year was April, Konoha Year 61.
Sarutobi Asuma had predicted five years for the evolution, which would have been Konoha Year 60.
He hadn't expected it to be delayed until now.
Furthermore, Uka was currently the only clone to have completed the evolution.
Not bad!
Sarutobi Asuma smiled at Uka and asked, "What is the unique ocular jutsu of the Rinnegan?"
He had been studying the regular abilities of the Rinnegan for a long time, but each pair of Rinnegan possessed a unique ocular jutsu, so he was very curious and expectant.
"It's the ocular jutsu you've been anticipating!"
Uka replied with a mysterious smile.
"Oh?"
"The one I've been anticipating?"
Sarutobi Asuma raised an eyebrow. "Does it involve time?"
"It seems the surprise is quite significant!"
Uka nodded.
The next moment.
Sarutobi Asuma found himself back at the exact moment he had entered the laboratory.
"Time reversal?"
"Is it similar to Ōtsutsuki Urashiki's ocular jutsu?"
Sarutobi Asuma's eyes twitched, but he quickly realized it seemed different.
"It's different."
Uka shook his head and explained, "Although both are time reversals, there are significant differences."
"Ōtsutsuki Urashiki's time reversal cannot alter his own time. His time reversal can be seen as freezing time and then repeatedly returning himself to a point a few seconds prior, experiencing that segment multiple times to find the optimal response."
"Simply put, after Ōtsutsuki Urashiki activates the jutsu, he is like an outsider, able to rewatch segments of the past few seconds as if watching a movie, analyzing the enemy's moves."
"My ocular jutsu, however, is called Mishirugane."
"While it also reverts to a past point in time, it brings both the enemy and myself back to the past, to a point in time that is advantageous to me."
Sarutobi Asuma nodded in understanding. "This means even one's own time is altered? Equivalent to returning to the past?"
"Then the range of the jutsu's influence is limited to the individuals affected by the ocular jutsu. Hmm... should I say it's a space-time jump? No, perhaps our timelines have been pushed back?"
Uka listened and nodded with a smile. "That's right, exactly."
"Only you and I are changed; the space-time of the outside world and others is unaffected."
Sarutobi Asuma frowned. "This ocular jutsu doesn't create a time paradox. Meaning, when we returned to the past, we didn't encounter our past selves, so it's not a simple travel to a specific point in time."
"Instead, time itself has flowed backward, and we've brought our current memories with us relative to that past."
"In other words, if I were to sustain a fatal injury in a battle, I could activate this technique and return to the moment before I received that fatal injury, thereby avoiding that fatal blow?"
Uka nodded.
Sarutobi Asuma was startled. This ability was a bit too overpowered!
It was practically equivalent to altering the past.
"There must be some details I haven't noticed yet..."
After a moment of thought, Sarutobi Asuma said, "Let's go. We'll test this ability on a deserted island overseas."
Uka nodded.
Instantly, the two figures vanished. When they reappeared, they were already on the deserted island overseas, frequently used for testing ninjutsu.
"Let's spar a few rounds first!"
Sarutobi Asuma suggested.
Uka nodded and didn't hold back. He exerted force with his feet, causing the ground to collapse. With a boom, his body broke the sound barrier as he lunged at Sarutobi Asuma.
Sarutobi Asuma didn't hold back either, lifting his leg and delivering a downward chop like a blade.
Legs met hands, and explosions rang out. The air detonated, and a blast of wind and flying stones ensued.
The two separated upon contact, then engaged in a rapid exchange. Though it was merely a simple clash of fists and feet, the power was astonishing, creating numerous craters everywhere they fought.
"That's enough!"
Sarutobi Asuma suddenly called out a warning.
The next moment, Uka activated his Rinnegan's dojutsu.
Instantly.
As if rewinding a tape, Sarutobi Asuma and Uka's figures moved backward along the timeline, returning to three seconds prior, the moment they were about to clash.
Time froze. Sarutobi Asuma discovered that the chakra he had consumed had been restored, but the craters on the ground from their previous exchange were continuously reappearing as time flowed backward.
It was a peculiar sensation.
This meant that Uka's time reversal did not alter the impact already made by their brief fight in those three seconds.
The dojutsu had only changed Uka and himself.
"Interesting..."
Sarutobi Asuma smiled and then asked, "Can it affect a third person?"
"Of course."
Uka nodded. "However, the more people affected, the more chakra consumed."
"Then let's try again."
With that, Sarutobi Asuma vanished.
In less than a second, he returned, bringing another person with him.
Senju Tobirama.
Sarutobi Asuma offered a brief explanation, and Senju Tobirama nodded, also showing great interest. "I am indeed an excellent test subject. Come on!"
Sarutobi Asuma nodded, then raised his hand. Storm Style chakra condensed into an electric blade, and he slashed it at Senju Tobirama, severing his right arm at the shoulder.
Immediately after, Uka activated his dojutsu, Mishirugane, once more.
This time, the dojutsu also affected Senju Tobirama.
Instantly, the three of them rewound time, returning to three seconds earlier.
This point in time was when Senju Tobirama was speaking.
At this moment, Senju Tobirama, whose right arm had been severed, had fully recovered.
As time ticked by, Three seconds later, time returned to the moment Senju Tobirama's left arm was severed.
Then, his severed left arm appeared, transforming into wisps of fragments that were about to return to his body. However, the current Senju Tobirama had a complete right arm, seemingly missing its target.
Those fragments scattered instantly, revealing an arm.
It was the arm of the sacrificial clone!
"Good!"
Sarutobi Asuma couldn't help but praise.
This meant that the Mishirugane dojutsu possessed the ability to bring the dead back to life!
"But the cost is too high!"
Uka was drenched in sweat. The consumption was immense, and he said with a wry smile, "Affecting a third person with my current chakra almost completely depleted it."
"My spirit body can barely maintain itself, and my Rinnegan..."
Before he could finish speaking, his golden Rinnegan regressed into a Mangekyo.
The first time, Uka performed it with relative ease.
But this time, the consumption was unexpectedly high.
Senju Tobirama said, "It shouldn't just be because of one extra person, but also because I was injured earlier."
"If it affects a dead person, the consumption will definitely be greater, as it's almost equivalent to reviving someone."
Sarutobi Asuma nodded, he thought the same.
"Let's dismiss it first!"
Sarutobi Asuma said.
Uka nodded, and then the spirit body shot out from within him, returning into Sarutobi Asuma.
However, Sarutobi Asuma immediately created a spirit clone to control the clone again, and brought a vast amount of chakra with it.
As expected, the pupil power recovered, and Uka's golden Rinnegan reappeared.
Sarutobi Asuma said, "Perhaps we can try to develop it further."
Uka instantly understood the main body's intention. Ōtsutsuki Urashiki's time reversal, that kind of dojutsu, consumed relatively less.
He immediately nodded.
After the dojutsu experiment, the three of them returned to the research base together.
Uka didn't linger and left the research base soon after.
He was now a member of the Akatsuki Organization.
Of course, he hadn't shown his true face yet.
However, with the Rinnegan that Uka had activated.
Mito and Henmei, the two clones who possessed the Mangekyo, would also be activated soon.
After separating from Senju Tobirama, Sarutobi Asuma returned to the Sage Tree on the surface.
He opened the system again.
This time, he allocated his newly obtained free attribute points to the Intelligence Stat.
Then he opened his status screen.
Constitution: 222
Agility: 190
Intelligence: 200
Charisma: 123
Over several years, his charisma had improved very little; his constitution had seen a relatively larger increase.
This was also due to becoming a Sage.
Although he had already reached adulthood, his body was still in a state of "growth."
"It gets harder and harder as time goes on. The next level requires 7 million experience points, and even trading with Kekkei Mōra would take seven..."
Sarutobi Asuma shook his head inwardly.
He was now very glad that he had saved some skill points before.
If he couldn't level up for a long time, if progress became difficult for a long time.
Then he could use skill points to break through limits, thereby acquiring new, higher-level knowledge, and finding higher-level directions.
He closed the status screen.
Sarutobi Asuma opened his skill screen again.
Level 14 Chakra Control (Extraction, Manipulation)
Level 12 Substitution Technique 89%
Level 10 Scorch Release Bloodline Limit, Level 9 Storm Style, Level 9 Lava Style, Level 9 Lava Style, Level 9 Boil Release, Level 9 Ice Release, Level 9 Dream Eye, Level 8 Explosion Release, Level 8 Shikotsumyaku, Level 8 Transparent Release, Level 8 Heavenly Water Life Creation.
Level 9 Rinnegan!
Level 9 Dust Release Kekkei Tōta!
Level 9 Ion Release Kekkei Tōta!
Level 9 Electromagnetic Release Kekkei Tōta!
Level 10 Wood Style Kekkei Mora!
Level 10 Nuclear Release Bloodline Net!
A collection of bloodline powers so magnificent they could drive one mad.
But in reality, for Sarutobi Asuma, bloodline limits of the same tier, like Storm Style and Boil Release, only increased his options, diversifying his methods, without raising his ceiling.
Of course, each of these bloodline limits represented a path towards a Kekkei Mōra.
It just depended on whether he could achieve it!
He pondered for a moment.
Sarutobi Asuma's gaze fell upon the Level 12 Substitution Technique and the Level 12 Flying Thunder God Technique.
He had never used Skill Points to upgrade the Flying Thunder God Technique; his current mastery was solely due to his own efforts.
Of course, during this process, he had drawn significant nourishment from the Substitution Technique and Uchiha Obito's Kamui.
Namikaze Minato's contribution was also a factor.
However, he had reached his limit.
The Flying Thunder God Technique had not advanced at all in two years.
As for the Substitution Technique, it had lost direction after reaching Level 12.
At Level 12, the Substitution Technique allowed him to swap positions with any material within his perception range, as long as his perception and Chakra were sufficient, disregarding distance.
This Substitution Technique was already more formidable than Sasuke's Six-Tomoe Rinnegan's Amatejikarā, as far as Sarutobi Asuma knew.
With this technique alone, unless one could destroy the entire Earth in a single strike, he could not be killed.
However, Sarutobi Asuma had an intuition.
The Substitution Technique shouldn't be just a pure Space-Time Ninjutsu like this.
It was a pity that he didn't know in which direction to delve further.
He felt completely lost.
"I'll wait a little longer. When the day comes that I have absolutely no possibility of further progress, I'll try again..."
He secretly shook his head and closed the system.
"It's time to develop the third Kekkei Mōra..."
Sarutobi Asuma pondered for a moment and finally decided to focus on Dust Release.
He had previously envisioned a path from Dust Release to Kekkei Mōra.
...
Time flowed by.
In the blink of an eye, it was May of Konoha Year 61.
After the Akatsuki Organization seized the One-Tail, they fell silent. They didn't even bother with the defected Four-Tails Jinchuriki, causing the vigilance of the major ninja villages to continuously decrease.
This signal led the Stone Ninja and Cloud Ninja to believe that the capture of the One-Tail was merely an isolated incident.
Even Onoki thought that Konoha might be colluding with the Akatsuki Organization to deliberately weaken Sunagakure, forcing Sunagakure to completely align with Konoha and become its vassal.
By now, the facts seemed to bear this out.
In last year's One-Tail capture incident, besides the Akatsuki Organization obtaining the One-Tail, Konoha benefited the most.
The Fourth Kazekage of Sunagakure died, and his son, Gaara of the Sand, who had been saved by Konoha, took over. Sunagakure had effectively become Konoha's vassal, with everything revolving around Konoha.
This year's Chunin Exams were to be held in Sunagakure.
As a result.
The major ninja villages lifted the strict ban on their Jinchuriki.
After all, if such measures were sustained for too long, it could also lead to the Jinchuriki's rampage.
In the entire Ninja World, only Killer B was a perfect Jinchuriki who wouldn't go berserk.
Beneath the Sage Tree.
After just seeing Naruto and the others off, Sarutobi Asuma raised an eyebrow slightly.
The Two-Tails Jinchuriki had emerged from its lair!
Sarutobi Asuma smiled, stood up, and then disappeared from beneath the tree.
It was time to collect the Two-Tails!
With that, he would possess the Chakra of six Tailed Beasts.
This would greatly aid his research on the God Tree.
His small Ten-Tails clone would also be closer to completion.
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