---Third POV---
"So, kid, how do you plan to deal with these monsters?" Kurama asked.
"Kill them all, obviously. But there's way too many of these low-level ones down there. Need to clear the field first," Ryouma replied calmly.
That was exactly what Kurama had been waiting to hear. It immediately suggested, "In that case, how about returning some of my chakra? I'll unleash a Tailed Beast Ball inside this barrier. All we need to do is use space-time jutsu to get out before the explosion."
After getting its ass kicked by Ryouma, Kurama had to admit that the stupid tanuki's abilities in binding and restraining were actually pretty damn good. But against these monsters with their semi-immortal bullshit, only large-scale burning techniques with explosive power could really hurt them.
"Tailed Beast Ball, huh? I was thinking the same thing." Ryouma nodded. "But no need to bother with transferring chakra back and forth. Thanks to you, Kurama, I can use it myself now."
Previously, due to the type of sealing technique in his body, he could only use the innate bloodline properties of tailed beast chakra, but couldn't perform full transformations or Tailed Beast Balls.
But that was then. Now, after using the Spirit Transformation Technique to get most of Kurama's chakra, he was equivalent to a perfect jinchūriki.
If he'd had this power longer, he might already be capable of pulling off something as insane as the Super Tailed Beast Rasenshuriken.
Clang!
He slid his sword back into its scabbard, then spread his arms wide. A violent gale burst upward, howling and spiraling into the sky, whipping his clothes around.
The next instant, a golden shockwave erupted outward from his body.
Watching from the shadows of a distant mountain, Black Zetsu secretly celebrated. As expected, Ryouma had activated that form.
"This time, let me carefully observe just what power you're really using."
Leaving aside Black Zetsu's possible misunderstanding, Kurama on Mount Sukuna was left scratching its head.
Its chakra had only been in that brat's body for a few hours, yet already, he could manifest a complete tailed beast cloak.
With talent like that, no wonder he'd been able to suppress it using only Shukaku's power.
Whoooosh!
Invisible waves of chakra boiled upward. Kurama's immense power flooded out continuously, condensing around Ryouma's body. A radiant golden cloak appeared.
This was none other than Kurama Mode.
In this form, Ryouma's jutsu output and physical prowess were boosted to overwhelming levels.
Feeling the wildly surging chakra inside him, he clapped his hands together. In response, nine golden orbs of spiraling energy appeared around him, hovering silently in the air.
With a mere thought, the nine spheres shot down toward the swarm of monsters below. Their chakra rapidly shifted into Yin-Yang nature.
Since each tailed beast had different chakra reserves, their Tailed Beast Balls varied in power, but without question, Kurama's was the strongest of them all.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
From within the horde, several winged monsters were the first to react. Screeching like banshees, they shot up toward Ryouma with blistering speed, reaching him in the blink of an eye.
But he had no intention of wasting time with them.
The moment he launched the spiraling orbs, he activated the Flying Thunder God Technique he'd prepared. His figure vanished instantly, reappearing outside the Four Red Yang Formation.
The monsters' attacks hit nothing but air, while the nine massive Tailed Beast Balls, under Ryouma's remote control, detonated inside the barrier.
BOOM!
An explosion roared forth, its impact sweeping across the battlefield.
Inside the Four Red Yang Formation, blinding light flared, like countless suns going off at once.
The blast wave spread outward, uprooting trees and pulverizing boulders to dust. A violent hurricane lifted debris into the air, forming a massive storm.
The vast majority of monsters stood no chance against such overwhelming might. Their bodies were torn apart, shattered into fragments, then incinerated in the heat that surged within the barrier.
The Four Red Yang Formation itself warped under the bombardment, but thanks to the chakra supplied steadily by Ryouma's shadow clones, the barrier held firm, locking the destructive energy within.
Gradually, the explosion's force died down.
In the next moment, Ryouma flashed back inside the barrier with Flying Thunder God.
What met his eyes was a battlefield scarred beyond recognition, massive craters carved into the ground, fissures spreading out like a giant spider web. The air was thick with choking smoke and the stench of charred flesh.
The once-dense, swarming horde of monsters had been reduced mostly to dust and ashes. Only a few great demons of Sukuna's level still clung stubbornly to life.
Golden chakra arms sprouted from Ryouma's cloak, seizing the half-shattered high-level monsters before they could fully regenerate.
He ignored their threats, and temptations. He didn't give a shit about any of it. Drawing his blade from his back, the golden chakra flowed instantly into the steel, lengthening and sharpening it.
His perception went into overdrive.
Clang!
Blades of light slashed through the air, cutting cleanly along the critical points.
The ancient demons screamed. Thus, these ancient and evil monsters, who had survived for countless ages, finally met their end.
---
As the crimson barrier of the Four Red Yang Formation slowly dissipated, Black Zetsu cursed internally.
No wonder these monsters had been sealed away for a thousand years by Hagoromo, each and every one of them truly was a brainless waste.
He had seen clearly now: the mode Ryouma activated this time was entirely different from the one in the Land of Grass, aside from its color scheme. This chakra, it was the Nine-Tails' power.
Which meant the Nine-Tails following at Ryouma's side wasn't some split body or avatar. Just like Shukaku, it had truly become Ryouma's possession.
If that was the case, it explained why Ryouma had suddenly clashed with Kurama by the seaside.
Realizing this, he knew his plan had failed completely.
Without hesitation, he formed hand seals. Behind Ashina, a coffin was summoned; in an instant, he was pulled inside. With a puff of smoke, Black Zetsu disappeared from the battlefield.
---
"How did it go? Did those monsters take down Ryouma?"
Spiky White Zetsu looked at Black Zetsu, who had just summoned Ashina back, and hurriedly asked about the progress of the plan.
"The plan failed."
Black Zetsu's voice was unusually calm.
"Ryouma has mastered the full power of the Nine-Tails. He didn't even use that special mode he once displayed in the Land of Grass, and yet he wiped out all the monsters. He's a truly troublesome enemy."
Hearing this, Spiky White Zetsu widened his eyes.
"Don't tell me he killed the jinchūriki just to gain the Nine-Tails' power?!"
Black Zetsu shot him a glance.
"Impossible. He's not from the Uchiha clan."
"Then how did he extract the Nine-Tails from the jinchūriki? Shouldn't the jinchūriki die once the tailed beast is removed?"
"Not necessarily. Ryouma has mastered the Spirit Transformation Technique, which allows him to interact with souls. He could simply cut off a small portion of Nine-Tails' soul and chakra, leaving it inside the jinchūriki. That way, he gains its power while preventing the jinchūriki from dying."
Black Zetsu's insight was sharp.
If Ryouma didn't possess his trinity perception ability, which was like an advanced version of the Ratio Technique, then to forcibly separate Kurama from Kushina he would have to rely on the Spirit Transformation Technique, or another soul-targeting jutsu: the Dead Demon Consuming Seal.
"So what do we do now?"
Spiky White Zetsu tilted his head, counting on his fingers as he thought.
"Counting the Nine-Tails, Ryouma already has five tailed beasts in his hands. Plus, he has the Rinnegan... Why do I feel like he's more suited to revive the Ten-Tails than we are?"
"..."
Don't say it. You really shouldn't say it.
But after hearing White Zetsu's analysis, Black Zetsu actually found himself thrown off balance.
Could it be... that Ryouma really was an Ōtsutsuki?
---
At the foot of Mount Sukuna, Ryouma sheathed his blade and dispersed the tailed beast cloak around him.
According to Sukuna, the Black Zetsu they'd met was only a dead body clone under his control.
That likely meant it was the Edo Tensei. If that was the case, then Black Zetsu's true body must have long since left the Land of Whirlpools.
Edo Tensei was a type of summoning jutsu, carrying virtually no risk to the caster.
And at the slightest sign of danger, the caster could instantly reverse-summon the resurrected dead they had prepared.
That was why Ryouma had hesitated earlier when Sukuna suggested they could track down Black Zetsu's true body using the power of the monsters.
But he didn't regret his choice back then.
Stretching lazily, he formed hand seals and used Earth Release to dig open the collapsed mine shaft caused by the Tailed Beast Ball's explosion. He once again threw himself into the great endeavor of gemstone mining.
With the aid of his Rikugan, he tunneled back and forth underground, eventually unearthing a total of thirty-six pieces of moonstone.
"What a haul! You two, come here and check this out. Just look at this shine... this stuff's beautiful."
Seeing Ryouma's face full of joy, Shukaku enthusiastically hopped in place a few times to celebrate.
Kurama twitched its mouth at the sight, silently thinking how childish the two of them were.
The fox strode over to the pile of ordinary-looking stones on the ground.
"This stuff... is it the material you used last time to reinforce Kushina's seal?"
"More or less. This stuff is actually the key ingredient in the ink I used back then," Ryouma answered without the slightest hesitation.
As he spoke, he suddenly grabbed Kurama from behind while the fox was examining the moonstones with its tails, then spun it around in circles.
"Don't worry, Kurama. Now that we're comrades, I'd never use something like this on you."
"Of course I know that. Now hurry up and put me down!" Kurama flailed its limbs in midair, struggling.
Shukaku blinked its eyes, then plopped down onto the ground, clutching its belly and laughing.
"Hahaha! So you can actually make that kind of face, huh? What a shame Matatabi and the others can't see this."
---
Inside the Namikaze household, Kushina and the other three sat around the table in a circle. On the table lay one of Ryouma's Flying Thunder God kunai.
Not long ago, after Obito had brought them back to Konoha, Ryouma had quickly sent a scroll over.
Its message was roughly that he had already dealt with Hiruko, but since he needed to gather materials for the sealing ink, he would be staying out a while longer.
"He's so slow. It's already past dinner time." Obito sprawled lazily across the table, both arms hanging down. "Don't tell me he is out on that island having a cookout with Shukaku."
"Alright, stop complaining, Obito." Rin walked out from the kitchen with a pot of tea, pouring each of them a cup. "Collecting materials out in the wild is troublesome enough for Ryouma as it is."
Kakashi stirred his tea with a spoon, glancing sideways at Obito.
"And besides, what's wrong with a cookout at mealtime? You just stuffed yourself with Rin's lunch a little while ago."
"Hah? This isn't about food!" Obito shot upright and retorted unhappily. "If you guys hadn't stopped me, I would've gone to the Land of Whirlpools to have an adventure with him already!"
"Since he told us to come back first, running back to him now would only cause him trouble."
"Says you, a small fry who can't even use space-time jutsu, Kakashi. You've got a lot of nerve." Obito fired back indignantly.
Clink!
Kakashi's hand slipped as he stirred, his spoon striking the cup. His brows furrowed.
This idiot... when it comes to quarreling, he's gotten pretty good.
Bang!
Just as Obito was wearing a smug grin for "winning" the argument, Kushina slammed a fist down hard on his head.
"Oww! What was that for?!" Obito yelped, clutching his skull.
Retracting her fist, she glared at him. "Idiot! Are you saying that besides Ryouma, Minato, and yourself, the rest of Konoha are all small fry?"
"Uh..."
Obito was struck dumb. He hadn't expected that one casual jab would end up insulting so many people at once.
Just as he was about to stammer out an excuse, the space on the table began to ripple slightly.
Whoosh!
In an instant, Ryouma appeared atop the small square table, crossing the sea with the two tailed beasts using the Flying Thunder God Technique.