Chapter 169: The Light Badge Has Arrived
The group jumped down from the Wood Golem and arrived at the lakeside.
The entire lake was shrouded in a thin mist, but it did not affect visibility.
"Ninja-sama, when I previously discovered traces of the Three-Tails, it was around here. It should be hiding at the bottom of the lake. Please wait a moment, I'll go find it right away."
Ranmaru volunteered.
Ranmaru possessed the Red Eyes bloodline limit, which shared many similarities with the Byakugan. It could also see through objects, and in terms of sensing and observing chakra, it was said to be even stronger than the Byakugan.
At the same time, it could also create illusions to interfere with the Byakugan, earning it the nickname "Byakugan's Nemesis."
But those who understood, understood.
Just like how the Ketsuryūgan claimed to be the Sharingan's nemesis, these local bloodlines ultimately couldn't compare to the ever-evolving power of the Ōtsutsuki bloodline.
"No need."
Shiromo stopped Ranmaru, who was about to step forward.
The Red Eyes, like the Byakugan, also had a limited range. No matter how powerful they were, they couldn't scout with infinite distance.
"You can leave now. If you don't leave, then after we're done here, we can take you back to Kirigakure."
After leaving these words behind, Shiromo no longer paid attention to the two of them.
"Huh?"
Seeing that Shiromo truly wasn't going to bother with them anymore, Ranmaru hurried over to Kurotsuchi Raiga's side.
"Forget it. Let's go back."
Kurotsuchi Raiga sighed.
If they went back, there was still a small chance he could get the Lightning Blade back. If he didn't go back, then there was absolutely no chance.
Without the Lightning Blade, his strength had plummeted. If an old enemy came looking for him, he would be dead in no time.
On the contrary, returning to Kirigakure, given how desperately short-handed the village was now, even if he couldn't reclaim the Lightning Blade, he wouldn't have to live as a fugitive. It would be much safer.
As for his perverted hobby of holding funerals for people?
It was just a hobby. What hobby was more important than one's life?
With such a perfect dead man like Senju Hashirama right here, Kurotsuchi Raiga's hobby hadn't flared up at all.
On the other side.
"Come on. This is a good place to test it."
Shiromo nodded to Uchiha Hikari.
Senju Hashirama obediently dispelled the Wood Golem and stepped aside.
He resisted the urge to control the Wood Golem and skip stones across such a perfect lake surface.
"Mm."
Uchiha Hikari reached into her collar and took out a necklace. The crystal-clear stone hanging from it was something Shiromo had made for her according to the data after Tsunade completed her experiment.
To activate the Limited Tsukuyomi and turn the tailed beast chakra within it from illusion into reality, Uchiha Hikari had to endure that enormous amount of chakra and skillfully master the amplified power Shiromo granted her.
This place was just right, an open and qualified training ground.
And beneath the lake, there was even a "training target."
Hikari held the "rice"-shaped stone on the necklace, closed her eyes, and placed it against her forehead, beginning to enter her state.
The stone Tsunade had was a heart, something she personally requested.
As for Hikari's stone, the "rice" character shape was something she asked Shiromo to choose for her.
So Shiromo made a design that symbolized light.
Mm…
On Tsunade's side, it was Pokémon. On Hikari's side, it had turned into Digimon.
It was unclear whether it was because the data was more complete and thus less intense, or because different people had different constitutions and triggers.
In any case, Hikari's "rice"-shaped pattern did not, after activation, get directly imprinted onto her abdomen like Tsunade's heart pattern.
Instead, it simply floated above her brow.
"I'm continuing."
Uchiha Hikari opened her eyes. Her Mangekyō Sharingan was already active.
Naturally, there had to be an order to this experiment.
Shiromo was worried that directly enduring the chakra would damage her body, so she first had to enter Shiromo's Sage Mode, and only then absorb chakra.
Hikari could also sense that the amplification from Shiromo's stone was mostly concentrated in her eyes.
This wasn't strange.
Shiromo wasn't a Pokémon designer who randomly gave dozens of special attack points to physical attackers, or dozens of physical attack points to special attackers.
Since the stone was meant for amplification, it naturally had to be used where the effect was best and the efficiency highest.
He wasn't here to balance a game. Was he supposed to play fair with a bunch of Ōtsutsuki who were blatantly cheating?
"Multiple Shadow Clone Technique."
After using Yachihoko to absorb chakra for a few seconds, Uchiha Hikari suddenly thought of something. She formed a hand seal and split into five clones.
The Multiple Shadow Clone Technique was classified as a forbidden technique mainly because of the massive chakra base being evenly divided, combined with the mental load, which could cause fatal damage to ordinary ninja.
From the Second Hokage using shadow clones inside the Four Red Yang Formation, to Boruto using shadow clones in the Boruto era, the fact that neither could predict how many clones they would produce showed that the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique itself had a certain randomness.
Creating a fixed number of shadow clones was controllable.
But trying to create as many clones as possible was unpredictable until the moment it was actually used.
If it suddenly produced too many, one could literally split themselves to death.
In short, for ordinary ninja, this technique was dangerous.
The most dangerous part was that its learning difficulty was actually not that high.
It was promoted to the category of A-rank technique purely because mastering it required the conditions mentioned above.
(Ninjutsu rank does not represent power, but learning difficulty.)
In fact, the difficulty of Multiple Shadow Clone Technique was not much different from the B-rank Shadow Clone Technique.
Naruto could learn it instantly, and what Uchiha Hikari lacked was only chakra. With the Second Hokage casually mentioning it a few times on the road, she had already mastered it.
But why did she only create five clones?
After absorbing chakra from the Gedo Statue, creating hundreds wouldn't have been a problem.
There was only one possibility…
Sure enough.
The five shadow clones, along with Hikari's main body, began to surge with crimson chakra.
This was not tailed beast chakra, but the Susanoo she had just used not long ago.
Starting from the skeletal stage, it began to grow.
There was no sign of the growth stopping.
Six Susanoo in total all grew to their complete forms.
In terms of sheer value, this was even higher than Uchiha Madara's twenty-five Susanoo, since these were practically already complete forms.
Why "practically"?
"Eh?"
Hikari herself noticed it.
The wings behind each Susanoo were all different, growing in different directions.
She had just felt that her limit was maintaining six complete Susanoo, including her main body, but she hadn't expected it to be maintained in this state.
The directions of these six wings corresponded exactly to the "rice"-shaped pattern that Shiromo had left on her stone.
After activating Susanoo, the "rice"-shaped mark floating on Hikari's forehead also appeared synchronously on the Susanoo.
And what felt strange, especially to Senju Hashirama, was that Hikari's complete Susanoo was not the long-nosed crow tengu form, but rather an image wearing a mask.
And it looked pretty good.
Could this be a special privilege of women when activating Susanoo?
Senju Hashirama thought idly.
(End of this chapter)