Chapter 352 – The Feeling of Standing at the Mountain's Peak
"It looks like… I succeeded."
Kei floated quietly within Susanoo's crystalline cockpit.
At this moment, he felt an unprecedented level of resonance between himself and Susanoo.
It was an absolute form of control—
a sensation he had never experienced before.
Even when wielding the Mangekyō Sharingan at full power, he had never come close to this state.
Now, Susanoo responded the instant a thought crossed his mind—
moving as naturally and precisely as his own body.
"I never imagined that Susanoo's evolution wouldn't just amplify defense, offense, and size," Kei murmured,
"but would elevate control to such an unbelievable degree as well."
The next instant, his gaze sharpened.
The eighty-meter-tall Susanoo moved.
Its pitch-black body erupted with terrifying crimson light from its eyes.
It lowered its stance slightly—
and in the blink of an eye, the massive chakra blade was drawn.
The strike tore through the earth.
The ground split open.
Trees were sliced apart as easily as tofu.
The devastation spread like the end of the world itself, only stopping once the blade's power finally dissipated.
"…But the consumption really is heavy."
Kei checked his chakra and ocular strain.
This state demanded an enormous amount of both.
Which made sense.
A Fourth-Stage Susanoo—
with that level of mobility, destructive power, and sheer mass—
had to be costly. Otherwise, it would be absurd.
Still, such consumption wasn't a real problem for him.
While it prevented sustained use for now—he still valued his ocular power—
Kei was confident that as his fusion level increased, the burden would continue to drop.
Eventually, this would no longer be a limiting factor at all.
What truly frustrated him was something else.
His fusion progress was painfully slow.
The only silver lining was that the long-stagnant "99% download" finally seemed to be loosening.
If things continued at this pace…
his eyes might soon undergo subtle changes.
Shaking his head, Kei noticed Hyūga Ayaka running toward him from the distance.
After a brief pause, he dismissed Susanoo.
The colossal chakra construct dispersed into the air, and Kei gently descended back to the ground just as Ayaka reached him.
She looked shaken—clearly still struggling to process the destruction she had just witnessed.
"Are you… are you okay?" Ayaka asked, catching her breath.
"I'm fine," Kei replied calmly.
"There were a few unexpected variables, but the outcome was good."
"The first time I reinforced Susanoo, the tailed beast chakra exceeded its capacity," he continued.
"That forced Susanoo into evolution—but the evolution required complete restructuring, which is why things got messy."
"Evolution… and restructuring…"
Ayaka stared at him in a daze.
"So the Susanoo you just used—was that the power you intended to display after enhancing it with tailed beast chakra?"
"More or less," Kei smiled faintly.
"Strictly speaking, that was Susanoo's mature form."
"…Or rather, the Fourth Stage."
Ayaka fell silent.
She knew Susanoo had multiple stages—but all previous forms shared the same flaw.
They were impregnable fortresses, yet completely immobile.
In other words—giant targets.
But what she had just witnessed was different.
Even without seeing it move at full speed, she had no doubt that those legs weren't ornamental.
And the destructive power…
It surpassed anything Kei had shown before.
She had seen his strength in Konoha.
She had witnessed it reach terrifying heights in the Land of Water.
Yet none of it compared to that single strike.
With her Byakugan, Ayaka had clearly seen just how far the devastation extended.
Had that attack been unleashed in Kirigakure—
Whether the village would still exist at all was a real question.
"…Your power," she murmured,
"has reached this level?"
Then she looked at him sharply.
"And your eyes? I can sense that your cells are in an extremely active state."
"You should be close to meeting the conditions for the next evolution… right?"
Kei thought for a moment before answering.
"Probably. But how far it'll go—I honestly don't know."
That was the truth.
His fusion rate had been stuck for too long.
This breakthrough might push him past seventy percent—or even higher.
Seventy percent Eternal Mangekyō progress was already dangerously close to completion.
Strictly speaking, he was already approaching Eternal Mangekyō standards.
His ocular power regenerated, after all.
Kei even suspected that in terms of practical usage, his eyes might already rival the Eternal Mangekyō.
What he lacked was sheer quantity and quality of chakra and ocular strength.
But speculation only went so far.
Without a proper reference, the only way forward was continued experimentation.
Still—
This evolution might finally give him a reliable answer.
After a moment of silence, Kei spoke again.
"…What's my fusion level now?"
Although this wasn't really the best moment to ask, Kei still couldn't help himself.
"My cells are clearly very active," he said after a brief pause.
"But what does that actually mean in practical terms? Can you tell?"
"Of course."
Ayaka activated her Byakugan instantly, but a complicated look crossed her face.
"Your fusion level is already approaching seventy percent."
"Seventy percent?" Kei froze for a moment, genuine disbelief flickering across his face.
"That high? Are you sure you're not mistaken?"
"No." Ayaka shook her head calmly.
"I have my own criteria for judging this."
She hesitated for a second, then continued.
"It's incredible, really. To be precise, it was the Nine-Tails' chakra that stimulated the fusion of the cells inside your body. Those cells didn't change on their own—but the stimulation forced them to accelerate, pushing a process that should have been slow into fast-forward."
So it really was the Nine-Tails' chakra…
Kei nodded quietly.
He'd felt something similar back when the Three-Tails' chakra first entered his Susanoo—
a faint but unmistakable sensation of evolution.
Back then, the feeling hadn't been very strong, but it had been there.
This time, strangely enough, the sensation felt less obvious.
He suspected the reason was simple:
the enhancement had already fully fed back into his body.
His focus had been on his eyes, and his baseline strength had already grown to a frightening level—
so the change didn't feel as dramatic.
But no matter how he looked at it, this was an excellent sign.
Kei genuinely looked forward to seeing the final form his eyes would eventually reach.
Nearly seventy percent fusion meant there was still over thirty percent to go.
That remaining gap might take who-knew-how-long to close…
but having already come this far, he had no reason not to believe in the future.
One thing, however, was absolutely certain.
At his current stage, there were very few people left who could truly be called his equals.
With Fourth-Stage Susanoo, he had reached a level where he could directly confront a tailed beast.
Not by relying on ocular dominance or suppressive techniques—
but purely through overwhelming destructive power.
Even if his mastery of this new Susanoo form was still rough,
even if his endurance was far from ideal—
He had reached that tier.
"Looks like my luck really wasn't bad this time," Kei said with a light chuckle.
Then he asked casually,
"By the way—when I was restructuring Susanoo just now, did anyone come close?"
"No," Ayaka replied immediately, though she still seemed distracted by the fusion percentage.
"I was monitoring everything around you—above ground and below. No one approached. That said, someone might still have sensed that terrifying chakra fluctuation. We should probably leave soon."
"You're rushing because of your experiments?" Kei asked suddenly.
He glanced at her and spoke evenly.
"I can tell you're feeling anxious right now, but you really don't need to be. Don't forget—you're only in the first phase of experimentation, and you've already achieved solid results. Rushing this kind of thing will only backfire."
Experiments—especially ones involving one's own body—were never something to rush.
Kei himself had advanced his fusion step by step over the past two years,
and even now, his eyes hadn't fully evolved.
Being impatient here would only lead to disaster.
Your body was not something you gambled with.
"I'm not planning to risk myself," Ayaka replied, shaking her head as her expression settled.
"I just don't want to be left too far behind by you—or by Imai Kenta. I've already explained that reason. Don't ask again."
She turned slightly, her tone firm.
"Let's go. I don't want to waste any more time here."
"We should leave, yes," Kei agreed, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
"But before that… I want to try one more thing."
"…An experiment?" Ayaka asked, frowning slightly.
"What kind of experiment?"
Kei smiled faintly.
"Do you want to experience what it feels like…"
"…to stand at the very peak of a mountain?"