Training Ground 46, deep beneath the Black Tower in the Forest of Death.
This location had originally been used as an arena for the Chūnin Exams, occupying a vast area. After the Forest of Death fell under the jurisdiction of the Headquarters, Hyuga Yu renovated it into his private training ground.
To accommodate and flawlessly test his own power, Yu had placed particular emphasis on reinforcing the training ground's defensive structural integrity.
Constructed underground, the training ground relied on the geological strata combined with a multitude of complex barriers to create a fallout shelter capable of enduring impacts at the level of a Tailed Beast Ball.
In the center of the spacious clearing, Yu and Kakuzu walked forward together.
At this moment, Kakuzu wore a look of perplexity on his face. Watching Yu unroll the pitch-black scroll in his hands and release the summoning formula within, he asked in a deep voice:
"You want to cultivate the Secret Technique: Earth Grudge Fear?"
"That's right," Yu nodded.
"Then why bring this old man here? You have already mastered the ability to generate the Earth Grudge Fear threads; Secret Technique: Earth Grudge Fear shouldn't be a difficult jutsu for you to learn."
Yu first nodded in agreement with Kakuzu's assessment, then raised his palm to show Kakuzu the faint blue flame-like pattern of 'Earth Grudge Fear' on the back of his right hand:
"The Earth Grudge Fear I mastered originates from you. Theoretically, our Earth Grudge Fear techniques are interconnected. I can use it to control you, and conversely, you could use this method to control me."
"That is not what this old man senses at all," Kakuzu sneered, his eyes fixating deeply on Yu.
His Earth Grudge Fear was restrained by Yu's Tenseigan chakra, his life and death tied entirely to a single thought from Yu. Yu's statement about controlling him in reverse was predicated on both parties possessing equivalent chakra quality.
However, how could Kakuzu possibly possess top-tier Shinobi World chakra like Tenseigan chakra?
Fortunately, having lived for so many years, Kakuzu possessed a relatively clear self-awareness and had witnessed absolute entities that could never be matched; thus, he was quite open-minded.
Working under Yu allowed him to make money while secretly leveraging Konoha's power to fund Takigakure, so Kakuzu had nothing to be dissatisfied about.
If he truly had to name an issue, it was precisely the point Yu had just raised—the awkward, uncomfortable sensation of having his life and death controlled by another.
At this moment, Kakuzu perked up slightly, feeling a trace of alertness as Yu suddenly brought this up.
Yu smiled at him nonchalantly.
"This is the reason I brought you here—"
"Next, I am going to undergo a crucial cultivation, but I cannot predict the risks involved in this training."
"And right now, the only person I can think of who might be able to pull me back from a dangerous situation, Kakuzu-san... is you."
Hearing this, Kakuzu was briefly taken aback, still not entirely understanding the meaning behind Yu's words.
By then, however, Yu waved his hand at him, sat cross-legged in the center of the training ground, and unrolled the black-covered scroll in his hand.
Pfft!
White smoke drifted upward.
In front of Yu, three glass containers appeared, holding three fresh, beating hearts.
He slowly raised his hands and clasped them together to form the 'Snake' hand seal.
In the next instant, the containers were sliced open by invisible wind blades. The three fresh, beating hearts floated into the air and settled before Yu.
"Secret Technique: Heart Capture."
His eyes narrowed slightly. Unclasping his hands, he extended his right palm open.
Like droplets of water falling into the ocean, the three hearts were captured, wrapped, and entwined by blood vessels extending from Yu's palm, sinking inch by inch into his hand.
Visibly, Yu's arm expanded—resembling a python after swallowing prey—as three abnormal bulgings appeared along his arm.
Soon, the three swollen nodes writhed slowly backward along his forearm, elbow, upper arm, and shoulder, before finally sinking into the left side of Yu's chest.
This was precisely the "Heart Capture Technique" within the Earth Grudge Fear secret arts.
It allowed the user to manipulate the black tentacles inside their body to entwine the opponent's heart, forcefully extracting both the heart and chakra nature. Afterwards, the user could transplant the heart and chakra nature into their own body, stitching the flesh together to make it their own, granting themselves the corresponding element of that heart.
From an external perspective, this was undeniably an extraordinarily sinister secret art. Yet judging by its practical effect, the jutsu possessed another highly unique function—
It could expand the caster's own chakra nature transformations and skip years or even decades of trial, error, and training, allowing them to directly master the nature and shape transformations of five elemental jutsu natures.
The fusion of the Earth Grudge Fear hearts went exceptionally smoothly. Possessing absolute control over Earth Grudge Fear, there was no possibility of failure for Yu.
Soon, the three hearts—Water, Lightning, and Earth—settled into his left chest, beginning to beat as they were supplied with blood flow through a vast network of Earth Grudge Fear tentacles.
Combined with the Wind nature original to his body and the Fire nature heart borrowed from Kakuzu, a peculiar transformation began to occur within Yu's body.
This did not directly amplify Yu's strength or alter the normal capacity of his chakra.
However...
In a subtle, intangible way, Yu merely felt as though his body had reached a state of perfection. If placed in other universe settings, such a constitution might be dubbed 'Flawless Aptitude' or 'Omni-Elemental Talent', granting unmatched cultivation potential.
Yet within the Naruto world, the tangible transformation Yu could feel was roughly limited to—
The efficiency and speed of his jutsu training had grown slightly faster, and his mind was no longer bound by existing knowledge frameworks regarding elemental usage; flashes of inspiration would constantly strike him.
Much like Kakashi Hatake.
However, for Yu, this was merely a beginning—
Yu's goal was to break through to the Six Paths level, and the most fundamental criterion for entering the Six Paths level was:
Being able to combine seven chakra natures with his bare hands to create Truth-Seeker Orbs.
The method for fusing Truth-Seeker Orbs was something he had already touched upon back in the Land of Rain by entering the Tenseigan Chakra Mode—
Namely, pushing open that 'Six Paths Door' he had felt.
And the key to opening the Six Paths Door was—
The seven keyholes set upon that door—or rather, the seven distinct chakra natures: Yin, Yang, Water, Fire, Lightning, Earth, and Wind.
Previously, Yu had used Tenseigan chakra to forcefully combine the Wind, Yin, and Yang natures to fill the door, gaining the ability to generate Chakra Prayer Beads and Yin-Yang Release Black Receivers.
Theoretically, with Yu's current physical strength, his body only permitted him to complete the fusion of three types of Tenseigan chakra. Fusing seven types of Tenseigan chakra simultaneously was an impossibility.
However, Yu had previously felt that this threshold seemed somewhat off—not that it was too weak, but rather too exaggerated. Someone capable of fusing the power of seven Tenseigan chakra natures would likely have a strength far surpassing ordinary Six Paths entities long ago. The two brothers, the Sage of Six Paths and his brother, had only completed the fusion of seven ordinary chakra natures to create Truth-Seeker Orbs, rather than the vastly more difficult fusion of seven Tenseigan chakra natures.
Therefore, from a technical perspective, this might have been a hypothetical pathway envisioned by the Ōtsutsuki of the Moon to forcefully trace back the manufacturing method of Truth-Seeker Orbs via Tenseigan chakra. They perhaps only used it as a theoretical reference and never expected anyone to actually achieve it.
And now, Yu had a new idea—
Leveraging the [Conversion] ability he had comprehended from the comprehensive world perspective to exploit a shortcut: converting the three-nature fused Tenseigan chakra into seven ordinary nature chakras, and utilizing the fusion process of Tenseigan chakra to knead all seven nature chakras together—
To forcefully knock open the Six Paths Door!
At this moment, as Earth Grudge Fear circulated within his body, all seven chakra natures began running without flaw or omission!
Yu's gaze hardened, and he immediately brought his hands together.
In sequence, he formed five seals: Rat - Boar - Horse - Snake - Water-Brother.
In the next instant, his Tenseigan chakra burst into flames. Green flames surged from the surface of Yu's body, forming a teal-green coat of chakra fire around him!
And the pair of Byakugan in Yu's eyes, under the infusion of vast amounts of Tenseigan chakra, shifted from white to teal, from teal to green, and subsequently from green to a gemstone-like cyan-white!
A pair of brilliant, gem-like cyan-white pupils—resembling a true Tenseigan—appeared in his eyes!
"Tenseigan Chakra Mode—Activate!"
Yu let out a deep shout and brought his hands together once more.
Under the Tenseigan Chakra Mode, he began madly channeling different natures of Tenseigan chakra into his palms.
Wind, Fire, and Yang.
The three Tenseigan chakra natures Yu was most adept at converged into a single point.
Pitch-black Truth-Seeker Prayer Beads emerged silently around his hands, spinning before merging into a singular entity!
At this moment, as Yu pulled his hands apart—
A golden light as radiant as a blazing sun leaped and flickered within his palms!
And this was remarkably—
"Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion!"
A golden light sword that could stretch up to 20,000 meters was currently held by Yu like a miniature sun, or a delicate, dice-like 'sword orb'!
Whoosh—!
Crack! Crack!
Gales of powerful wind rose around Yu. Centered on his seated figure, spiderweb-like cracks continuously spread across the ground!
To the side, Kakuzu was forced to anchor his feet with chakra to stabilize himself. Yet he couldn't stop himself from retreating more than ten meters before raising his head, watching this scene with terror gripping his heart.
Although he knew Yu wasn't targeting him and was truly just cultivating, this horrifying commotion still made him involuntarily ponder in his heart:
Could it be that Yu had found out about him secretly leveraging the Headquarters' influence to let Takigakure win bids for a few small factories...?
This kid... isn't knocking this old man down to give a warning, is he?
Meanwhile, Yu had no spare energy to pay attention to Kakuzu's thoughts.
After producing the Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion for the second time in this world, his expression instantly changed slightly.
At present, lacking Hashirama cells, his normal chakra reserve was insufficient to pay for the massive amount of chakra required to execute a single Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion.
Yu immediately closed both eyes, as platinum markings began surfacing at the corners of his eyes and across his forehead. He began gathering and converting chakra from alternative channels—
"Sage Mode—Activate!"
In Sage Mode, utilizing his ultra-sensory range, natural energy within a 20-kilometer radius rapidly gathered toward Yu.
Right at this moment, Yu immediately employed the power of [Conversion], turning the natural energy into chakra and channeling it directly into the Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion.
Then, right before the Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion fully formed and was about to shoot out—potentially cleaving all of Konoha in half—he exerted the power of [Conversion] once again!
In an instant—
BOOM—!!!
Surrounding Yu's body, space began to tremble destabilizingly, visible ripples and creases manifesting in the air!
Looking from Kakuzu's perspective in the distance, it appeared as though Yu's nose and toes were distorted and folded together.
Immediately following that—
Crack! Crack!
Out of nowhere, a burst of fracturing sounds resonated around Yu. It didn't rise from the ground, but rather... from midair, right out of the atmosphere!
Vast swathes of black fissures abruptly manifested around Yu, collapsing in a single instant into huge, ominous black voids!
Driven by Yu, the three Tenseigan chakra natures fused at a single point were converted into ordinary chakra natures of lower quality.
And through this back-and-forth process, the Tenseigan chakra had constructed the 'vessel' for chakra fusion—or rather, the 'rudimentary shape of the key'. Subsequently, the Tenseigan chakra was decomposed and transformed into ordinary chakra.
Yet, the ordinary chakra of the Wind, Fire, and Yang natures was utterly incapable of filling this 'vessel'.
Just as Yu had envisioned—
This 'vessel' truly had remaining empty space!
Seeing this, Yu's expression brightened instantly!
He immediately channeled even more Tenseigan chakra into it, converting it through transformation into ordinary chakra of the Yin, Water, Lightning, and Earth natures.
By continuously pouring in chakra through this method—which was completely exploiting a technical loop—to complete the fusion of all seven ordinary natures, an unknown amount of time passed.
In a subtle, mysterious realm, Yu suddenly perceived—
The 'vessel' was full!
This 'key' forged from the fusion of seven chakra natures had taken shape!
It was as if all he needed to do was raise the key, insert it into that invisible, intangible 'Six Paths Door', and give it a turn!
At that point, what would unfold before Yu would be an entirely brand-new world!
Yet right at this moment, Yu suddenly felt a sharp pain in both palms, followed immediately by a total loss of sensation in his hands.
Positioned beneath his hands, his cross-legged lower legs also felt a sudden sting. Then, a sudden chill struck above his left ankle, and the entire ankle and foot below it instantly lost all sensation!
Sizzle—!
He snapped his head down, only to see:
A substance resembling a 'water drop'—a drop of indestructible black ink—abruptly fell from the center of his palm!
This 'water drop' directly dissolved both of his hands and one of his lower legs!
The severed foot fell limply onto the ground.
Afterward, the droplet directly dissolved the barrier formulas and earth layer beneath the floor, silently plunging into the earth like a bullet in uniform freefall!
In a matter of seconds, it penetrated hundreds of meters deep into the earth!
And it showed absolutely no sign of stopping!
Yu's brows knit tightly and his expression transformed drastically! Disregarding the regeneration of his severed hands and leg, he instantly mobilized every last drop of chakra throughout his entire body, shooting it downward to capture that 'ink-black water drop' he had created!
Yu could feel it—
That might... precisely be a 'Truth-Seeker Orb'!
He could also feel that as long as he thoroughly mastered and analyzed that object, he would obtain unimaginable power.
He could feel even more clearly that an unbreakable connection existed between himself and that Truth-Seeker Orb he had forged!
Yet, the moment the massive volume of chakra Yu dispatched to capture it touched its surface, it was decomposed entirely!
He... was actually unable to lift this object!
It was like an ant attempting to move a giant boulder it could never hope to push. The chakra within Yu's body began draining frantically the moment that object was created—like a floodgate opening—continuously being sucked into that object across hundreds and thousands of meters just to sustain its existence!
Finally, when the Truth-Seeker Orb had fallen to a depth of over 2,000 meters underground, the massive amount of Tenseigan chakra Yu urgently generated caught up, holding the Truth-Seeker Orb afloat!
Yet right then, Yu's right eyelid twitched violently!
His 'sixth sense' spontaneously triggered a warning!
Having poured his full heart and mind into the process of creating and controlling the Truth-Seeker Orb, Yu suddenly realized with shock—
The Tailed-Beast-level chakra volume he had converted by extracting natural energy from a 20-kilometer radius under 'Sage Mode' and 'Tenseigan Chakra Mode' had actually run dry at this moment!
If he continued extracting further, it would directly consume the 'lifeline' keeping him alive!
However, while the creation of this 'Truth-Seeker Orb' might have been within Yu's control, its decomposition or disappearance... was something current Yu was entirely unable to control!
At this moment, Yu was like someone tethered at the edge of a cliff to a 'giant boulder' that constantly drained his chakra to the point of death. If he let go, the boulder would completely lose control, dragging him off the cliff to be drained dry to death.
Yet if he refused to let go and forcefully held onto this 'boulder', Yu's stamina couldn't hold out for long either. Eventually, he would become exhausted to the point of losing consciousness, dragging him down the cliff all the same!
Seeking the Way, seeking the Way...
Whichever direction he turned, it turned out to be a fatal impasse!
Realizing the situation he was in, Yu's face turned pale with shock!
————
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