Chapter 37: The New Nine-Tails Jinchūriki
Opening the Gate of Death in the Eight Gates Formation meant death.
And… if the chakra acupoints were similar in function to the Eight Gates, then chakra stored in them couldn't be used.
Li Yao quickly attempted to manipulate the chakra in the acupoint at the Gate of Death and move it out.
As expected, he failed.
No matter how he tried, the chakra in the acupoint remained sealed in, as if locked inside a sealed chamber with not even the tiniest crack to leak through.
The acupoint was tightly bound by an invisible force, completely restricting chakra flow.
Only physical and mental energy could pass in and out freely.
Li Yao then tried to control chakra from other acupoints—only to discover the same thing. The chakra was locked in and couldn't be drawn out.
"This is a real problem now!"
It would be fine if it were just the Gate of Death. He could simply switch to another acupoint.
But if none of the acupoints could release chakra, then no matter how much he accumulated, it was useless!
It was no different from still being sealed by the Eight Trigrams Seal.
Perhaps it was precisely because of this inherent self-sealing trait of acupoints that the developers of techniques like the Eight Trigrams Seal hadn't considered them relevant at all.
Li Yao considered this but didn't panic.
After a while, he calmed down.
Chakra in the acupoints wasn't permanently locked away.
The Eight Gates Formation proved that these chakra acupoints could indeed be opened.
Li Yao simply didn't know how to open them yet.
But now that he was certain it was possible, all he had to do was figure it out.
After all, someone developed the Eight Gates in the first place.
Given his absolute control over chakra and his unique chakra-sensing ability, Li Yao believed that with effort, he would definitely find a way to unlock the acupoints.
Over the days that followed, Li Yao began accumulating chakra in the other seven acupoints outside the Gate of Death. At the same time, he moved the chakra inside those acupoints while focusing his sensory ability on them, studying the invisible forces that bound the chakra.
Time passed.
Half a year flew by, and the calendar turned to spring of Konoha Year 34.
It had been a year and a half since Li Yao came to this world.
He remained sealed and undisturbed in Lab No.2—no one studying him, no one monitoring him. It was as if he had been forgotten.
And indeed, he had. At the ninja academy, aside from his "friend" Namikaze Minato, everyone else had forgotten about Li Yao.
That day—
At Konoha's Ninja Academy, a girl with long, fiery red hair entered Minato's class.
From that moment, the gears of fate began to turn.
Whether it was destiny or Minato's strong chakra-sensing ability, he would always appear quietly nearby whenever the red-haired girl was bullied. He never intervened—just watched.
Gradually, the image of the red-haired girl became more and more vivid in Minato's heart.
And the memory of his former friend Kimura Yao began to fade.
Meanwhile, that same day—
On the far side of the shinobi world—
Land of Earth.
Iwagakure.
In the Tsuchikage's office tower—
Third Tsuchikage Ōnoki, barely over a meter tall, sat atop a specially-made high chair, frowning as he listened to a report from an ANBU shinobi.
"So, Konoha already has a new Nine-Tails Jinchūriki?"
"Yes, Lord Tsuchikage," said the ANBU, named Tsumoku, lowering his head in shame. "It's my fault for failing to gather intelligence in time. Please punish me."
Tsumoku had long been responsible for observing the Uzumaki clan and reporting on any member who might inherit the Nine-Tails.
But not only had he failed to detect and eliminate the girl in time—
By the time he confirmed that Uzumaki Kushina possessed abnormally strong sealing chakra capable of suppressing the Nine-Tails, she had already been sent to Konoha.
His mission had completely failed.
"Tsumoku, no need to blame yourself. The Uzumaki clan has always been difficult to monitor."
Ōnoki waved a hand to comfort him—Tsumoku was his own nephew, after all.
And what he said was true. The Uzumaki clan was born with massive chakra reserves and excelled at sealing and medical ninjutsu. Their precise chakra control made them extremely adept at chakra sensing.
As a result, the Uzumaki clan had the highest number of chakra-sensing shinobi in the entire world.
Even adding up all the chakra sensors from every other village wouldn't match the Uzumaki's numbers.
Monitoring such a family, densely populated with chakra sensors, was extremely difficult.
Tsumoku had been outmaneuvered, and Ōnoki understood.
As long as they knew a new Nine-Tails Jinchūriki had been born, the mission wasn't a total failure.
But now came the real problem—Konoha once again had a host for the Nine-Tails.
Ōnoki knew all too well how terrifying the Nine-Tails was.
It stood far above the other eight tailed beasts in terms of raw power.
To seal the Nine-Tails required an Uzumaki with even more chakra than the average Uzumaki—a true genius of the clan.
Anyone else would be devoured by the beast's immense, malevolent chakra.
That's how powerful the Nine-Tails was.
And anyone capable of safely hosting it without being corrupted—someone like a perfect Jinchūriki—would be unimaginably powerful.
During the last Great Ninja War, everyone thought with the First and Second Hokage dead, the other villages could finally carve off pieces of the Land of Fire.
But the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki at the time—Mito Uzumaki, wife of the God of Shinobi—intervened only once, and that was enough to show the world what true power looked like.
Even Ōnoki, who possessed Dust Release, acknowledged that he couldn't defeat Mito.
She was from a clan with enormous chakra reserves, and the Nine-Tails made her a force of nature.
Ōnoki couldn't even describe how vast her chakra was.
Mito also excelled in sealing, medical ninjutsu, barrier techniques, and had immense battle experience from the Warring States Era.
Every combat scenario Ōnoki envisioned ended in his loss. He could at best fight her to a draw for a short time—but if the fight dragged on, he'd lose.
Her presence during the war had stabilized the frontlines and enabled the Third Hokage's generation to shift the tide back in Konoha's favor. Other nations gave up hope of taking Land of Fire territory.
As long as Mito was alive, no village dared to declare war on Konoha.
Fortunately, Mito was old, and her chakra was diminishing. Sealing the Nine-Tails was getting harder.
Ōnoki estimated she had ten years at most.
In ten years, she would no longer be able to suppress the Nine-Tails and would die.
Once that happened and the Nine-Tails was unsealed, chaos would erupt in Konoha.
Even without chaos, a Konoha without a Nine-Tails Jinchūriki wouldn't pose a threat to him or Iwagakure.
Ōnoki firmly believed that after years of buildup, Iwa had surpassed Konoha.
With Mito gone, he would lead Iwa to victory and claim Land of Fire territory.
But now…
With the appearance of a new Nine-Tails Jinchūriki, his plans were disrupted.
If Konoha's new host was another Uzumaki, who could say she wouldn't become the next Mito?
Even if not as strong, she would still be formidable.
And if there was a second Jinchūriki, there might be a third, then a fourth…
Ultimately, it was the Uzumaki clan that was the root of the problem.
If only they could be… eliminated.
Yes!
Ōnoki suddenly had a thought—
What if they wiped out the Uzumaki clan?
Without the Uzumaki and their sealing chakra, the Nine-Tails would never have another host.
The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea.
But Iwagakure alone couldn't do it fast enough to prevent Konoha from responding. They'd need the help of other villages.
"I'm sure Kumogakure and Kirigakure would love to help wipe out the Uzumaki."
Ōnoki smirked.
The Uzumaki, longtime allies of Konoha, had always been thorns in the side of other villages. Their unrivaled sealing techniques provoked both fear and jealousy.
Eliminating them would remove a threat and possibly allow them to steal those powerful jutsu.
Maybe then their own Jinchūriki could become perfect hosts like Mito.
Currently, all other villages' Jinchūriki were incomplete and unable to control their tailed beasts.
They weren't stronger—only liabilities, always at risk of losing control.
Only Mito could extract and wield the Nine-Tails' power at will.
If they could gain the Uzumaki's sealing techniques, maybe they too could create perfect Jinchūriki.
The more Ōnoki considered it, the more he was convinced.
Soon, he secretly sent agents to contact Kumo and Kiri about forming an alliance to destroy the Uzumaki.
Unexpectedly, both responded immediately.
They too had received intel about Konoha's new Nine-Tails Jinchūriki, and they recognized the Uzumaki clan's threat—and the benefits of eliminating them.
With Iwagakure leading the way, Kumogakure and Kirigakure quickly joined the plan.
Thus, a plan to annihilate the Uzumaki clan began to unfold.
But what did all of this… have to do with Li Yao?
(END CHAPTER)
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