The Star Meteorite.
Two hundred years ago, this rock had fallen from the sky into the Land of Bears, and from it, the Star Village had been born.
The first Hoshikage (Star Kage), living in the era decades later when Hashirama Senju and Uchiha Madara had swept across every nation and founded Konoha, had discovered that this fallen star could be used to cultivate chakra.
From it, he had created the Mysterious Peacock Method and established the earliest form of the Star Village.
Even now, with the Eternal Mangekyou awakened, Sasuke still considered himself poor when it came to chakra.
His chakra had already surpassed the vast majority of people in the shinobi world, but it still wasn't enough.
People who grew up fearing insufficient firepower never truly recovered from it.
Sasuke, raised in the country of that very fear in his previous life, was no exception.
It was a thoroughly incurable condition.
Solving the chakra problem came down to two things: bloodline and the Tailed Beasts.
The bloodline side he had already found a path for. All that remained was to follow the plan.
That left only the Tailed Beasts.
If his idea of an artificial Tailed Beast had previously been little more than a rough concept, absorbing Orochimaru's memories had made it something considerably more achievable.
Years ago, Orochimaru had exchanged techniques with a man named Shinnou.
Orochimaru had given him the Eight Inner Gates and Konoha's research documentation on Tailed Beasts, and Shinno had given Orochimaru the dark medical ninjutsu in return.
The dark medical ninjutsu, despite the name, wasn't drastically different from ordinary medical ninjutsu. One preferred treating the dead, the other the living.
At the time, Orochimaru had shown zero interest in Shinnou's idea of an artificial Tailed Beast, dismissing it outright as fantasy.
But Sasuke knew from his previous life that Shinnou had succeeded. He had created an artificial Tailed Beast, the Zero-Tails.
It wasn't particularly powerful, and had been dealt with by a Naruto and Sasuke who were not yet at their strongest, but it had worked.
The chakra fuel for the Zero-Tails had been nothing but ordinary villagers and Sky ninja. Its weakness was understandable.
But if Sasuke used what appeared to be flesh of the Ten-Tails from the meteorite, combined with the remnants of the divine tree from the Hidden Waterfall Village, as the raw materials for an artificial Tailed Beast...
And if he used the chakra of all nine Tailed Beasts as the power source...
The result would be something far beyond the Zero-Tails of the original story in both power and chakra reserves.
So Sasuke was absolutely committed to obtaining this fragment of what he suspected was Ten-Tails flesh.
His original plan had been to locate Yomi first, but Yomi's whereabouts were unknown.
Based on his previous life's memory, the Star Village would be thrown into chaos around this period.
The meteorite would be destroyed by Naruto, the wealthy landlord.
He had to get to it before that happened.
... I wonder if I'll run into any old friends.
Sasuke thought this quietly while moving.
His deliberate appearance in the Land of Rice Fields earlier had served multiple purposes beyond simply drawing the snake out.
One of those was ensuring that Konoha would learn of his whereabouts. And once Konoha knew, a certain organization almost certainly would too.
Better to avoid a certain brother, who upon discovering that his younger sibling had mysteriously vanished and slipped beyond his reach, might go from composed to wielding a blade at anyone in his path.
Still turning things over in his mind, Sasuke spotted a mountain range ahead and let the Eternal Mangekyou open in his eyes.
Crimson flames erupted across his body, spiraling around him at high speed, generating tremendous explosive force and propulsion.
Boom.
He transformed into a human-shaped pillar of fire and launched into the sky, shooting toward the Land of Bears.
Evening. Inside the Star Village.
A catastrophe was unfolding.
"Power. Power!" Akahoshi, abandoned by everyone around him, stood encircled by a ring of Star Village ninja, staring at the meteorite in his hands with obsessive, murmuring devotion.
"You traitors who betrayed the village, you actually dared to rebel by joining hands with Konoha ninja!?"
Madness blazed in Akahoshi's eyes. He pressed the meteorite against his chest.
"You traitors have no idea what the power of this fallen star truly is!"
The moment the meteorite made contact with his chest, it consumed his original heart in an instant. Tendril-like extensions erupted outward, replacing his blood vessels and chakra pathways.
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! This sensation of power is absolutely magnificent!" Akahoshi broke into wild, frenzied laughter.
His dark purple hair went ash-white in an instant. His blue pupils darkened to deep violet. The chakra erupting from his body was like a violent, crashing sea, coalescing into a massive, solid-looking chakra dragon.
"His chakra has grown far too strong!" Hinata Hyuga activated her fierce Byakugan, watching Akahoshi with an expression of profound gravity.
Such a sinister, wrong-feeling chakra.
"Everyone be careful, he's..."
ROAR!
Hinata's warning was cut short as the chakra dragon let out a deafening, bone-shaking roar. Everyone in the area went dizzy at once.
By the time their senses returned, the chakra dragon had already swept forward in a cloud of billowing dust and debris, crashing into the Star Village ninja.
Screams and cries of pain erupted from every direction. The chakra dragon eliminated every Star ninja on the field in an instant.
"That bastard!" Kiba Inuzuka ground his teeth and shouted. "Akamaru!"
"Woof!"
Fang Over Fang!
Man and dog spun in tandem, forming twin tornado-like spirals that drove straight toward Akahoshi.
A sharp killing intent flashed in Akahoshi's eyes.
"Pathetic. Konoha's lap dogs."
Smack.
Akahoshi swung a casual hand. A tail-like tendril of violet chakra snapped outward and sent both of them flying.
He was on the verge of pressing the advantage and finishing them off when Hinata came rushing in, closing to within five meters and launching into Gentle Fist strikes.
"That damn Byakugan and those tenketsu strikes!"
Akahoshi's gaze sharpened. It had been the Byakugan's unrelenting insight that had guided his opponents step by step, gradually turning the tide against him. He had been forced into this last desperate gamble, absorbing the meteorite in an attempt to survive.
"I'll kill you first then!"
Faced with Hinata's flanking maneuver, the bloodthirsty aura bleeding from Akahoshi's chakra dragon slammed directly into her slender body.
The impact was devastating. Hinata coughed up blood. Her vision went dark and she lost consciousness.
Hinata... Kiba...
Shino's expression was grim. Desperate, he directed his destruction bugs toward his fallen teammates in an attempt to help.
The destruction bugs fed on chakra, but the energy radiating from Akahoshi's meteorite-absorbed form carried a corrosive, almost radioactive quality. Shino had no answer for it.
"Die. Die!"
Akahoshi's savage laughter filled the air as he drove the violet dragon toward the unconscious Hinata.
The usually composed Shino bit out the word, but still had no way to stop what was coming.
Is this really where we all end?
Then, without warning, the air seemed to grow several degrees colder. The atmosphere thickened.
"Hmm?"
Even Akahoshi felt it. A crushing, suffocating weight pressed down on him like a mountain settling onto his chest.
He tensed inwardly and looked up at the sky.
At some point, a streak of light had appeared in the dim heavens above, carving visible pressure waves and arcs through the air as it descended. A fierce killing intent locked onto him directly.
"Another enemy!?"
Akahoshi's expression shifted sharply. The violet dragon let out a terrifying roar and surged toward the newcomer.
Despite the dramatic entrance, Akahoshi's confidence had expanded to its absolute limit since absorbing the meteorite.
He genuinely believed not even five Kage together could match him.
Crack.
Instead of the expected explosion, in the instant before the violet dragon collided with the light, a crimson crescent blade blazing with brilliant light appeared.
The indestructible sword arc shattered the violet dragon in a single stroke, and without losing a fraction of its momentum, continued driving straight toward Akahoshi.
What!?
Akahoshi's eyes narrowed. He was about to retaliate when the meteorite in his chest began thrashing violently, tearing itself free from inside him and launching eagerly toward the newcomer.
In that instant, Akahoshi actually felt what it was conveying: excitement. Urgency.
The feeling of something that had been waiting for years finally seeing what it had longed for.
Like a devoted admirer who had been silently pining for years suddenly catching sight of the one they had been longing for.
You absolute traitor.
That was the only thought Akahoshi had time for before an intense wave of heat washed over him, and everything went dark.
Boom.
A massive detonation. The ferocious heat could have melted anything. Akahoshi's body at the center of it was instantly vaporized, leaving nothing behind.
"Is this a rescue?" Shino watched the source of the light with a heavy expression, quietly uncertain.
The glow faded. The dust settled. A face Shino recognized without question appeared in his field of vision.
"Sasuke!?"
Shino's mouth fell open, staring in disbelief.
Sasuke stood there with the meteorite in one hand and the unconscious Hinata cradled in his other arm.
He glanced at the meteorite, then looked over at Shino with a faint smile. "It's been a while, Shiroshi. Didn't expect to run into you here."
Shino was quiet for a moment, then said in a flat, muffled voice.
"My name is Shino."
___
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