"Your vitality really is something else."
Yamanaka Shinno turned and walked up to Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's collapsed body on the ground.
Not even ten seconds had passed, yet most of the gaping wounds carved into him by Shinno's blade were already healing. The remaining cuts were visibly closing with alarming speed.
This regeneration… it surpassed even the legendary Sage Body of Senju Hashirama.
However—
The severed neck and the cleaved skull showed no signs of recovering.
When you're struck by a conceptual-level decapitation, unless that conceptual force has fully dissipated, no amount of regeneration will save you.
"A conceptual slash like that—once it's locked onto you, there's no dodging it with your power."
Shinno looked at Isshiki's twitching pupils and that stubborn, hate-filled gaze, then let out a scornful laugh.
Sure, this guy had way more combat experience and killing instinct than Ōtsutsuki Kaguya—but in that fight just now, he probably hadn't even managed to unleash half of his strength.
From the moment he was beheaded—even while in his shrunken form—he'd completely lost his composure.
Faced with an attack he couldn't comprehend, and a wound that refused to heal, he'd been utterly paralyzed against Shinno's follow-up strike.
The vast gap in power, compounded by mental collapse...
It would've been strange if Isshiki hadn't been one-shot.
Shinno raised his hand and summoned the Domain to envelop Isshiki's halved head and torso, attempting to seal him away.
But even now, the guy was resisting—his body instincts and willpower fighting against being absorbed.
"Tch."
Shinno clicked his tongue and reversed his palm, drawing a calligraphy brush and a sealing talisman from the Domain.
The talisman bore three bold characters: "Ōtsutsuki." Beneath that, he wrote two more: "Isshiki."
He formed a one-handed seal, slipped the paper between his index and middle fingers—
Soul Severance Technique.
Scarlet runes of the jutsu spread outward.
Bit by bit, Isshiki's soul was drawn from his damaged body by the Soul Severance Technique, driven by spiritual energy.
Shinno could feel resistance in the soul, could sense it struggling.
But when he glanced at the talisman, he saw it was already strained—limited by its material, unable to handle much more spiritual power.
So, he picked up a longsword nearby.
As his chakra surged, he activated that same conceptual-level decapitation slash—again and again.
More than ten strikes in rapid succession.
Finally, Isshiki's soul could no longer cling to his ruined body. With one last venomous glare at Shinno, it was forcefully sucked into the sealing talisman!
"Giving me that look? Keep it up and I'll erase your soul next."
Muttering to himself, Shinno raised a hand, summoning a replica of the Amber Purifying Pot. A flash of light flew into his hand.
Anything Shinno had seen before, the Boundless Weapon Realm could replicate—and that included the Six Paths' ninja tools.
(T/N: Boundless Weapon Realm (Gold): A conceptual domain born of spatial fusion and conceptual force. Can be compressed into the Boundless Realm for item storage, or expanded into the Boundless Weapon Domain. Within this domain, all previously seen weapons can be replicated and projected.)
He tossed the talisman holding Isshiki's soul into the replica bottle.
Then, in a classic nesting-doll move, he sealed that replica bottle into the Domain itself!
After that, he waved his hand to collect Isshiki's scattered remains—arm here, leg there—and sealed them all away.
Just as Shinno was about to deactivate the Boundless Weapon Realm—
The system's alert chimed unexpectedly.
[Beep ~ Hidden Boss eliminated prematurely. Worldline destabilization has intensified. Reconstruction time extended. Reward acquired: Trait Copy ×1, Trait Extraction ×3, Trait Gift ×3, Trait Downgrade ×1, Trait Reset ×1, Trait Removal ×1.]
[Beep ~ Worldline collapse severity increased. Reward difficulty significantly heightened until reconstruction is complete. Estimated Worldline Reconstruction Time: 1 year, 162 days, 18 hours, 31 minutes.]
"You've gotta be kidding me, system. You never mentioned that claiming more rewards would increase the destabilization! And you just tacked on half a year?!"
Staring at the alerts in his mind, Shinno didn't even know what expression to wear.
Wasn't the whole point to farm once a year?
It hadn't even been a full month, and now the deadline had been pushed back another six months?
But the rewards were so damn good...
Half a year of delay versus those juicy traits?
"...Fine, fine. Worst case, I'll take the whole family on vacation for a few years."
Shinno's face went through a whole range of emotions before he finally let it go.
If he fought his heart out and didn't get anything, he'd probably slap himself black and blue.
A time extension was still better than coming up empty.
Still...
He hadn't even dealt with the Sage of Six Paths or Ōtsutsuki Kaguya yet.
What if once he figured out what was going on with the Sage, then dealt with both of those threats, the worldline timer got even longer?
Rubbing his face, Shinno focused on the portal logs in his [Multiversal Traveler] system.
There were two worlds locked in.
He took a deep breath and cast aside his annoyance.
Two new worlds.
One of them seemed to have a pretty high power ceiling too...
No way he'd crash both worldlines in just one or two years, right?
"System, let's go ahead and use those three Trait Extraction chances."
He glanced at his own fortune—the karmic flow under his red trait, [Clockwork of Fate], had shifted from deep purple to a faint red-pink.
This was good luck.
Perfect time to draw.
[Congratulations, Host has acquired:
Purple Trait: Love Beyond Gold – Seven-Day Lock
White Trait: Poseidon's Trident
White Trait: Bark Speak]
Love Beyond Gold – Seven-Day Lock (Purple):
"What is love, that even the stars bend to its ache?"
Causes lovers to brave fate, transform longing into wings, defy gods and sky, and wait through lifetimes to reunite.
Consumes energy to bind two individuals (at or below your own strength) to hold hands for seven days.
During this time, greatly increases the probability of developing romantic feelings, forming a relationship, emotional deepening, and mutual forgiveness.
...
Shinno stood in silence, blinking at the purple trait's poetic intro.
He chose to ignore the two white traits and reread Love Beyond Gold – Seven-Day Lock several times.
He had to admit...
Yeah, no way he could've written that himself.
A purple-tier trait, and honestly, it was exactly what he needed right now.
Seven days was short, sure—and it only boosted probabilities—but if it could be used multiple times, even a hardened cynic would go soft.
But...
If he got this trait now, then why had his future self been so desperate to hook up Jiraiya and Boa Hancock?
[Kind Reminder: Trait Extraction is not affected by world-level causality or time-type interference. Results are entirely random.]
"…Huh?"
Shinno blinked at the system's sudden message, then realized—
The system existed outside of the Naruto's rules.
Every draw, every trait upgrade... was unknown.
And each unknown outcome could spawn countless new futures.
"So damn convoluted."
He shook his head and stopped thinking about it.
He'd forge his own path. With his current abilities, the future was his to shape.
"Activate [Love Beyond Gold – Seven-Day Lock]."
A surge of information flooded into his mind.
Thanks to his trait [Seeker of Origins], with its massive memory and comprehension boost, he quickly absorbed it all.
Then, with a wave of his hand, Shinno deactivated the Boundless Weapon Realm.
He turned to look toward Tsunade, Uchiha Hikari, and the others.
But the moment his gaze landed on the figure sitting cross-legged midair—surrounded by floating Truth-Seeking Orbs, soul nearly solid—his eyes widened slightly.
The Sage of Six Paths, Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo... had descended from the Pure Land!
And what's more—Shinno hadn't sensed him coming at all, not until he actually saw him.
His eyes quickly scanned Hagoromo's traits.
Then, taking a cautious step forward, he moved to stand in front of Tsunade and Uchiha Hikari.
Even though this guy was in spirit form, he wasn't on the same level as Isshiki.
Not even close.
----------------
Pls Drop some Power Stones
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