On the fourth day, Tamura Zairo was secretly taken by Tsuchidai to the research division hidden inside a mountainside. He wore a mask the entire time to avoid exposing his identity.
"So that's the Eight-Tails' tentacle?"
Looking through the glass window at the massive tentacle sealed inside, Tamura Zairo found the Eight-Tails' form hard to understand.
A lower body made of octopus-like tentacles seemed ill-suited to providing stable support. Structurally, it felt extremely unreasonable.
"The Third Raikage was able to suppress the Eight-Tails. During those battles, he severed many of its tentacles, and we preserved them," Tsuchidai said with a sigh.
"Our village once produced two geniuses—the most vicious criminals, Kinkaku and Ginkaku. They consumed the Nine-Tails' flesh and gained its power. We tried to replicate that process, but we've never succeeded."
Kinkaku and Ginkaku had been terrifyingly strong back then. If the Third Raikage hadn't mastered Hell Stab, it would have been nearly impossible to break through their tailed-beast cloaks.
"Didn't you say the plan for tailed beasts was to imitate the First Hokage's wife—using sealing techniques to seal a tailed beast inside a powerful ninja?" Tamura Zairo asked while staring at the huge tentacle.
"The problem is that our village's sealing techniques aren't strong enough to seal a full tailed beast. But a complete tailed beast is indeed too powerful. If it's only a part of one, wouldn't that be much easier? It should also be far safer than directly consuming tailed-beast flesh."
As he spoke, Tamura Zairo put forward his idea.
Strictly speaking, this wasn't even his original idea. During the Fourth Great Ninja War, Kabuto had sealed an Eight-Tails horn cultivated by Orochimaru into Fukai's body, allowing him to unleash tailed-beast power.
There was also the pseudo–Nine-Tails jinchūriki from the Fire Temple—who became a jinchūriki using nothing more than collected Nine-Tails chakra. These examples proved the idea was feasible.
Slap!
"How did we never think of that?!"
Tsuchidai froze for a moment, then slapped himself and immediately became excited.
That's right—sealing a complete tailed beast was too difficult, and the burden was enormous. But sealing only tailed-beast flesh or a fragment of chakra was a completely different matter.
"This token will allow you unrestricted access within the research division."
Tsuchidai handed over a token and hurried off, eager to report this discovery to the Third Raikage.
If this approach worked, Kumogakure would strike gold.
"Give me a piece of the Eight-Tails' flesh," Tamura Zairo said to the ANBU guarding the storage chamber.
Seeing Tsuchidai's attitude toward Tamura Zairo earlier, the ANBU ninja didn't question it. He opened the chamber, retrieved a prepared sample of tentacle flesh, and handed it over.
"So this is tailed-beast chakra…"
Looking at the crimson chakra emanating from the flesh inside the bottle covered in sealing formulas, Tamura Zairo understood—it was the Eight-Tails' chakra.
"Where are the Sharingan stored?"
After sealing the bottle into a storage scroll, Tamura Zairo asked about the location of the Sharingan.
"Follow me."
The ANBU formed a clone with hand seals and led Tamura Zairo to the laboratory dedicated to Sharingan research.
The researchers there, seeing that he was escorted by ANBU and carried a token bearing the Raikage's aide's authority, asked no questions.
"Do you have any Sharingan that were discarded after experiments?"
After skimming through the research reports, Tamura Zairo requested discarded Sharingan.
He knew the key to the Sharingan lay in its ocular power—the physical eye structure was secondary. And by now, Kumogakure had already exhausted most structural research.
"Yes."
Relieved that Tamura Zairo only wanted discarded specimens, the lead researcher retrieved several bottles from a preservation cabinet. Inside were four dissected Sharingan.
"Give me a quiet room."
Taking the bottles, Tamura Zairo made his request. He wanted to conduct some experiments.
The researcher said nothing and led him to a nearby rest room.
"Let's hope this works."
Murmuring to himself, Tamura Zairo took out one Sharingan and held it in his hand. He refined chakra, wrapped it around the eye, and activated a chakra absorption technique.
Chakra absorption techniques weren't rare. Many ninjutsu had chakra-draining properties, especially Earth and Water Release techniques. Jirōbō's Earth Prison Dome and Kisame's chakra absorption were classic examples.
Tamura Zairo's technique, however, was low-level—something he had obtained through Tsuchidai. Its absorption was crude, and its refinement ability was weak, especially without Earth or Water affinity.
Under the absorption technique, the already-damaged Sharingan couldn't withstand the strain and shattered. The ocular power inside was wrapped and absorbed by Tamura Zairo's chakra, turning his pale-blue chakra tinged with crimson.
But this was only mixing, not true fusion—the Sharingan's ocular power was far higher in quality than Tamura Zairo's chakra.
This was the limitation of his absorption technique: it couldn't refine higher-grade chakra.
Still, that was enough.
He had never intended to refine the Sharingan's power on his own—that would be unrealistic.
This was where his cheat came in.
Taking a deep breath, Tamura Zairo slapped the crimson chakra mass onto his forehead, guiding it with his own chakra into the mental space where his golden finger resided.
As expected, the Sharingan's ocular power was immediately detected and treated as an external invader. The fragment went to work, suppressing and decomposing it.
Soon, four phantom imprints were separated—once again the same four figures as before. The last imprint was still the most blurred and indistinct.
Tamura Zairo examined them, then used the fragment's power to grind apart the imprints of the Sage of Six Paths, Ōtsutsuki Isshiki, and the fourth unknown entity. He then pushed their shattered essence toward the phantom of Ōtsutsuki Kaguya.
Just as he had predicted, Kaguya's phantom instinctively devoured them.
The fragments of Isshiki and the Sage of Six Paths were consumed first, followed by the final imprint. That last imprint had been hidden deepest and was of the highest rank—Kaguya's phantom struggled to digest it. Fortunately, it had already been ground down by the fragment's power, reduced to basic nourishment with no ability to resist.
As the three imprints were consumed, Kaguya's phantom became slightly more solid. Tamura Zairo then pushed the Sharingan's ocular power toward her.
She devoured it instinctively—and a faint crimson glow appeared at her forehead.
"My hypothesis was correct."
Watching that point of red light, Tamura Zairo confirmed a long-held suspicion.
By supplying chakra, one could awaken and strengthen Ōtsutsuki Kaguya's will and power—especially chakra originating from the bloodline descendants of the Sage of Six Paths.
This matched what had happened during the Fourth War, when Kaguya revived and the Sage of Six Paths appeared again. Both had left their will within chakra itself. That was why Kaguya spoke of reclaiming her chakra rather than stealing it.
It had always been hers.
That also explained why almost no one in the ninja world could resist Kaguya—compared to facing beings like Isshiki, the pressure she exerted was deeper, rooted in bloodline and chakra essence itself. Only those who reached Six Paths–level could resist it.
And that was exactly what Tamura Zairo wanted.
Among the four imprints, he had chosen Kaguya deliberately.
Of course, there was another, more practical reason—
Kaguya was the only woman among them.
And she seemed… a bit naïve.
Even if this phantom one day gained true consciousness, she would probably be far easier to manipulate.
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