The Zero-Tails inside Shen's body was nothing more than an abomination—a byproduct of a forbidden technique embedded within Uchiha Shin's eyes.
"It's vaguely similar to Yin Release, but not as refined or formidable as Moryo," Shin muttered to himself, his Rinnegan Sharingan gleaming with disinterest.
Once he saw through the Zero-Tails' true nature, he discarded it from his thoughts. It was garbage—not even worth a second glance.
His gaze shifted toward Yahiko, and a smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.
"The Three-Tails is inside Yahiko? Hah, you just saved me the trouble of tracking it down. What a good little errand boy."
Despite his taunts, Shen did not immediately charge at Shin. Instead, his instincts screamed at him to turn and run.
The moment his feet touched the ground, the sheer scale of devastation Shin had wrought became painfully clear. The influence of the Zero-Tails momentarily fogging his mind dissipated, replaced by an overwhelming sense of survival.
"Shit! I actually lived through that? I need to get out of here!" he thought, making a swift retreat.
But unlike Shen, Yahiko was an idiot.
"UCHIHA SHIN!!! I'LL AVENGE NAGATO!!!"
Yahiko's hatred consumed him. The death of his closest friend had left a permanent scar on his soul, one that no amount of time could heal.
Shin barely raised an eyebrow. "Bold, aren't we? But I did give Nagato a chance."
His voice remained eerily calm as he peered into Yahiko's rage-filled eyes with something akin to amusement.
"You're suffering so much. How cruel of me to leave you in such pain," Shin continued. "Let me be generous… I'll send you down to see Nagato myself."
Shin's mocking words sent Yahiko over the edge. Without hesitation, he unleashed the full force of the Three-Tails inside him. A tsunami of crimson chakra erupted, taking the form of the hulking beast.
With a deafening roar, the Three-Tails opened its maw and fired a Tailed Beast Bomb.
BOOOOOM!!!
The sheer force of the attack tore across the battlefield like a comet, obliterating everything in its wake.
But Shin simply raised his left hand and absorbed the entire attack into his body as if it were nothing.
"Tsk. Restless little thing."
He sighed and raised his hand again.
"Eighty Gods Vacuum Fists."
In an instant, a barrage of chakra-imbued fists materialized and rained down like a divine punishment.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The entire landscape collapsed as an abyss, spanning over ten kilometers, carved itself into the earth. The very air trembled beneath the onslaught.
In mid-air, Yahiko's battered body was flung from the dissipating form of the Three-Tails. His consciousness flickered as he plummeted toward the ruins below.
Black Zetsu, watching from the shadows, shivered in horror as Shin's Rinnegan Sharingan pulsed with newfound power.
"Mother's... eyes?!"
Zetsu recognized the unmistakable sight—the same eyes that once belonged to Kaguya Ōtsutsuki herself. But this shouldn't have been possible. No mere bloodline could awaken something like this.
Shin smirked. "Summoning: Demonic Statue of the Outer Path."
With a flick of his wrist, the colossal husk of the Ten-Tails manifested. Chains shot from its gaping maw and latched onto Yahiko's broken body.
"AAAAAHHHH!!!" Yahiko screamed in agony as the Three-Tails was forcibly extracted.
But Shin wasn't after its chakra—he sought something far greater. The Divine Tree's fruit.
"Swallow it," he commanded.
The confused and weakened Three-Tails barely had a moment to process before the Demonic Statue devoured it whole.
Yahiko, now an empty husk, collapsed into the abyss. Shin, ever the merciful soul, decided against absorbing his soul.
As he turned, his gaze landed on Black Zetsu. But before he could deal with him, he caught sight of Shen, desperately fleeing in the distance.
"Hmph. You think you can run?"
"Heavenly Hand Power."
In the blink of an eye, Shen's position was swapped with a rock several kilometers away. He found himself standing directly in front of Shin.
Panic gripped Shen's heart. "Fuck."
But desperation bred recklessness.
"Uchiha Shin! I… I SURRENDER!" Shen feigned submission, his hands raised. But in the next second, he lunged forward.
"Cellular Activation + Zero-Tails Chakra!"
"HAAAAAAAAAH!"
"Bone-Splitting Fist!"
His fist crashed into Shin's left shoulder with everything he had.
BOOM!
The shockwave rippled outward, dust and debris exploding from the impact.
For a split second, Shen's heart leapt. Did he actually land a hit?
Then reality hit back. HARD.
A sudden and violent repulsion force detonated from Shin's body, obliterating Shen's entire right arm into a fine mist of blood and bone.
He remained standing, an eerie smile frozen on his face, his brain struggling to comprehend what had just happened.
Shin stared at him with sheer disappointment. "That's it? How boring."
He had let Shen land the blow on purpose—curious to test the strength of his forbidden techniques. But it was underwhelming.
"Pathetic."
With a single gesture, Shin's hand clamped down on Shen's skull.
"Human Path: Soul Extraction."
Shen's body convulsed violently as his soul was ripped from his flesh. He let out one final, choked gasp before his essence shattered into fragments of pure soul energy, all of which Shin absorbed effortlessly.
His lifeless body collapsed, a heap of flesh devoid of purpose. As for the Zero-Tails? Shin couldn't have cared less.
More importantly, he had obtained two new forbidden techniques—Cellular Activation and Physical Enhancement.
"Hmm… there's a third stage above this… a complete Physical Transformation," Shin mused. "It requires combining these two techniques with the Zero-Tails' chakra. A crude attempt at manipulating Yin chakra into Yang… but not entirely useless."
Satisfied, he turned his attention back to Black Zetsu, who trembled in his presence.
"Relax, Black Zetsu," Shin said, smirking. "I'm feeling… generous."
With a wave of his hand, the invisible force binding Zetsu dissipated.
With a sickening squelch, Black Zetsu peeled away from White Zetsu's husk, collapsing onto the ground in its true, amorphous form.
A blob of writhing, tar-like flesh—complete with multiple… unsettling eyes and a mouth.
Shin grimaced. "Damn. You're ugly."
For the first time, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, watching from her sealed dimension, visibly turned her head away.
"…I was in a hurry when I created him," she muttered, embarrassed.
Shin chuckled darkly. "Tch. So much for the will of Kaguya. Looks more like a sentient shit stain."
Black Zetsu, utterly humiliated, could only gurgle in response.
But in Shin's eyes, none of this mattered.
He had taken everything he wanted. Now, it was time to move on to the next stage of his plan
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Bonus Chapter - 100 Power Stones