"If I were you, I wouldn't touch it casually."
The lamp pillars embedded in the ceiling and walls flared to life all at once. A harsh white light flooded the underground chamber, turning the dim basement into broad daylight.
The sudden shift in brightness made Konome Taketori squint in discomfort.
Tap. Tap.
Soft leather heels clicked down the steps, each sound crisp in the hollow space.
A woman with long black hair draped over both shoulders descended slowly. She wore a standard-issue black uniform. Her face was cold, her gaze dull and lifeless, and beneath her eyes were two dark bruised shadows.
It was the mysterious "panda girl" from the Equipment Division.
Why was she here?
Konome Taketori's brows knit instinctively.
At this hour, most of Root's staff would already be asleep. Only a few on-duty shinobi should still be patrolling the base. If she wasn't going back to rest, what was she doing down here?
And the Research Division and the Equipment Division were far apart. There was also the barrier outside the basement. How had she even gotten in?
Suppressing the storm of questions in her chest, Konome Taketori withdrew the Chakra Scalpel that had been hovering over Samehada's belly and turned toward the approaching woman.
"You know what's going on with it?"
The woman stopped nearby and glanced down at Samehada, which was rolling on the floor, belly swollen.
"It… ate too much."
The answer was so unexpected that Konome Taketori's eyes widened.
Samehada looked like it was in labor from the pain, and she was telling her it was just overeating?
Konome Taketori didn't want to believe it.
Samehada's appetite was monstrous. In the original records, even Killer B, the Eight-Tails' jinchūriki, had been drained of six tails' worth of chakra in a single bite.
How could it tap out after only a moment?
"There's no such thing as a perfect ability," the woman said calmly. "A technique that devours chakra is not omnipotent. Wood Release chakra isn't something you can swallow that easily."
"Leave it alone and let it digest for a while. If you cut open its chakra-devouring organ, this…"
She paused slightly, eyes flicking to the sword-hilt that was still thumping against the ground behind the strange creature. She clearly didn't know what to call something shaped like this.
"It's called Samehada. The Greatsword Samehada. A living ninja tool."
Seeing her hesitation, Konome Taketori introduced it smoothly.
Samehada was originally a symbiotic creature of the Three-Tails, Isobu. It clung to the Three-Tails' belly, helped clear food residue, and refined chakra. It could extract roughly five times the chakra a normal organism could from food and feed it back to the Three-Tails to sustain combat energy.
When the Three-Tails was sealed, Samehada separated from its host and became independent.
Later, Kirigakure modified it into a weapon, and it became one of the tools wielded by the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.
It didn't even have eyes. It could only recognize its owner through chakra sensing. In its world, chakra was the only truth. Everything else was false. If it encountered delicious chakra, it would chase it recklessly.
That was why it betrayed its masters so easily.
"Mm. Samehada. Its chakra core should be in the digestive area," the woman said. "That can't be repaired. If you damage it by accident, it will never be able to produce chakra again."
Konome Taketori nodded.
She knew her control and technique would never be sloppy enough to destroy Samehada's chakra core, but the warning wasn't baseless.
If it really was only overeating, there was no reason to split it open. Letting it digest naturally was best.
"Can it digest it on its own?"
Samehada struggled on the ground for a while, then noticeably improved. Its trembling hilt automatically slid into Konome Taketori's hand, sending a simple signal.
"Okay…"
The message was blurry. It was hard to tell whether it was answering her question or simply saying it felt better now.
But it didn't look like there was any real danger.
"Thank you," Konome Taketori said, watching the mysterious woman closely. "What's your name?"
This was the second time she'd asked. The first time, before the Raikōzan mission, the woman had ignored her entirely.
The woman looked at Konome Taketori's young face. For the first time, something like ripples moved in her dull eyes.
"Tsubaki-hime."
Then, without another glance back, she headed straight toward the giant tree at the center of the chamber. Slender, thin, yet upright, her figure looked like a lonely blade of wild grass.
Tsubaki-hime?
Konome Taketori shook her head slightly. She was certain she'd never heard the name.
But that was normal.
In a real world, the famous names from the "original story" made up a tiny fraction of the population. They were the exception, not the rule.
"What's the difference between Wood Release chakra and normal chakra?" Konome Taketori asked. "Why did it make Samehada like this?"
"It's not that Wood Release chakra is different," Tsubaki-hime replied. "It's chakra after nature transformation. That alone is harder to digest than ordinary chakra. And a kekkei genkai formed by fusing two natures is even worse."
"Among Yin and Yang Release, there are countless secret arts that can absorb chakra. But the problem of digesting transformed chakra… no one has a good solution to this day."
Kekkei genkai?
Just from a casual answer, she'd dropped Yin-Yang Release, nature fusion, and kekkei genkai.
Konome Taketori's curiosity deepened.
She had access to Root's and Konoha's libraries and had browsed freely, yet she'd found very little about Yin-Yang Release or kekkei genkai. But from this Equipment Division woman, those secrets sounded like everyday common knowledge.
And she was telling them to someone she'd met only two or three times.
Noticing that Tsubaki-hime seemed willing to talk now, not as cold and blank as before, Konome Taketori didn't want to waste the chance.
She asked directly.
"What's the difference between chakra formed by fusing two nature transformations and ordinary single-element chakra? Why does it become harder to digest?"
While Konome Taketori was speaking, Tsubaki-hime had already stopped before the tree.
"The stability is different," she answered bluntly, as if she didn't care about being sounded out, or perhaps she simply didn't care about anything at all.
"Wood Release is formed by fusing Earth and Water, two of the most stable 'physical' natures."
"Water's flow is absorbed by earth. Earth's rigidity is softened by water. A trace of Yang Release acts as the catalyst. Two forces whose original structures should have been shattered are revived and restructured, and something new is born: wood."
"Wood that inherits both becomes naturally terrifying in stability. Harder and heavier than earth. Stronger than water."
"And it gains the resilience of life itself. Just a little is enough to make that strange fish suffer."
She braced both hands against the glass cylinder and leaned forward, staring at the immense flesh mass beneath the roots.
Her posture was eerily similar to Chihaya Tōru in his most deranged moments.
Severed limbs and torn fascia were nothing more than passing clouds to her. Faces melted like wax didn't make her flinch. That icy gaze simply settled on a head whose features were impossible to distinguish.
And within those eyes, Konome Taketori saw something unexpected.
A different kind of tenderness.
And pride.
"I came to see you again."
Tsubaki-hime pressed her face to the glass. Her clear, lake-like eyes looked at the base formed by countless bodies. Something unspeakable rolled within her gaze, thick and violent.
A longing.
A loneliness.
So intense it nearly spilled out.
This woman…
Konome Taketori watched her, gray light flickering in her own eyes. Within Tsubaki-hime's heart burned a chakra core powerful enough to rival an elite jōnin, flashing like a beacon.
She understood Wood Release and kekkei genkai with intimate clarity.
Yet her muscles were slack, without the dense conditioning of a fighter. There were no scars on her body, no marks of battle. And still, she possessed such enormous chakra.
Back when Konome Taketori first met her in the Equipment Division, she'd already felt something was off.
But with those Nara brothers who had Sharingan implants as her reference point, she'd assumed this woman was just another experimental product like them.
Now, it didn't seem that way at all.
"Senju… Tsubaki-hime?"
The moment she heard the surname she'd abandoned long ago, Tsubaki-hime's body stiffened. Slowly, she turned.
The strange blind girl was looking at her, as if searching.
"How do you…?"
"The Senju of the Forest," Konome Taketori said quietly, almost with a sigh. "Their clansmen are born with vigorous life force. Their chakra is vast. Even a child of six or seven can extract chakra comparable to a jōnin with ease."
"You're similar."
Konome Taketori's gaze drifted to the massive chakra core within Tsubaki-hime.
The Reverse Eight Gates she was exhausting herself to develop was for one purpose.
To cultivate the Senju's Sage-like body.
At Konome Taketori's words, a flicker of sorrow and loss crossed Tsubaki-hime's face.
"The Senju of the Forest… are already one with Konoha. They no longer exist… they no longer exist…"
She repeated it, not sure whether she was speaking to Konome Taketori or warning herself.
Then she turned back, leaned against the glass cylinder, and slid down inch by inch.
Her voice grew thinner, quieter, until only a sigh remained, heavy with grief, drifting through the empty basement like the murmuring of a lonely ghost.
Konome Taketori wanted to say something.
But she didn't know how.
The wheel of history rolled forward.
And it didn't crush only the Uchiha.
Senju, Uzumaki, Taketori, Uchiha… the great bloodline clans of the Warring States era had all been ground into dust beneath the same wheel.
Were they unlucky?
No.
Had they become weak?
Not that either.
The era had changed.
Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara pacified the world and built the shinobi villages. It was like inventing firearms and cannons in an age of cold steel.
Every secret-school tradition, every tactical master, had to bow before a new age.
In the Warring States era, those clans had ruled entire regions.
But before the village system, a massive war machine made from countless secret techniques, bloodline clans, and civilian-born geniuses, those former giants became like children clutching gold bricks.
When the balance of strength reversed, there were only two choices.
Submit completely, like the Hyūga did.
Or produce a supreme monster like Senju Hashirama.
If you had no power but clung to old glory, you would be destroyed by endless greed.
Like her.
Like Naruto Uzumaki.
Like Uchiha Sasuke.
Like the woman in front of her.
Their clans had all met the same fate.
There were no exceptions.
Silence spread through the basement.
Konome Taketori stared at the thriving giant tree, at the piles of bodies beneath it, at the woman slumped against the glass like a puppet.
And she simply watched.
If she ever stopped becoming stronger, she would end up like this.
So she could not stop.
Even if it killed her, she would die on the road to power.
Clack. Clack.
Samehada flopped on the floor, spines scraping pale lines into the hard stone tiles. Its swollen belly had already deflated a good amount.
Looks like Tsubaki-hime was right.
It really had overeaten.
Her conviction hardened.
Konome Taketori tightened her grip on Samehada's hilt. Thread by thread, pure chakra traveled up her arm and into her heart.
After devouring external chakra, Samehada could convert it into a universal chakra without impurities. It was pure in nature and extremely efficient in absorption and conversion.
Her chakra core feasted on Samehada's universal chakra, transformed it into violet energy, then sent it flowing along the double-helix chains, drifting far away.
Gurgle.
Bubbles rose from the yellow solution at the base of the glass cylinder, making strange sounds.
Time passed swiftly.
In the blink of an eye, it was deep night.
"Tsubaki-hime… you're not going back?"
Konome Taketori watched the woman still leaning against the glass cylinder, showing no sign of leaving. She held Samehada, whose belly had gone dry again, and grew anxious.
She wanted Samehada to eat more chakra. The more it carried, the more security her main body would have for the research.
But with Tsubaki-hime here, she couldn't bring herself to do it openly.
The woman had just "treated" Samehada and explained Wood Release to her. Turning around and draining chakra from the tree that held her family would be shameless.
Konome Taketori didn't have skin that thick.
"Go back where?" Tsubaki-hime replied, her voice weak.
Her eyes, rimmed with heavy dark circles, were hazy, as if her soul had already wandered elsewhere.
"Back to sleep," Konome Taketori said.
"I can only sleep with them here."
Still wearing those dark circles like bruises, Tsubaki-hime looked at Samehada's now-flat belly. She nodded as if she understood.
"It's fine. If it wants to eat, let it. Just don't make noise."
"I only want to stay here… and sleep a little longer."
After that, she seemed to run out of strength. She closed her eyes and leaned into the glass, her face aligned with the blurred human faces inside.
Only then did Konome Taketori realize how similar their features were, especially the distance between their brows and eyes, as if carved from the same mold.
That body inside, neither clearly male nor female, was probably Tsubaki-hime's family.
Konome Taketori let out a heavy sigh.
Permission granted.
She carried Samehada and leapt up to the hatch at the top of the glass cylinder in a few steps, feeding it inside.
This time Samehada was smarter. It only ate until its belly was slightly swollen, then released the branch. No matter what she did, it refused to eat more.
She pulled the full Samehada back out and sealed the hatch. The glass she had cut open with Wind Release was patched with Earth Release.
Lowering her head, she looked at the woman below, who seemed to have already fallen asleep.
Konome Taketori pressed a hand down on Samehada, which had begun to squirm as it digested, keeping it from making any sound.
Then she climbed down slowly.
Samehada needed time to digest Wood Release chakra. Reverse Eight Gates wasn't something that could be completed in a single day.
Today would be enough.
She carried Samehada on her shoulder again and tiptoed out of the basement, switching off the glaring lights on the way.
Whoosh.
The crimson barrier opened, then closed.
In the empty darkness of the underground chamber, the green sea of branches swayed within the glass. Pale corpses drank the nutrient solution, making wet, squelching sounds.
The woman leaned against the glass, nestled beside the tree. Her head drooped.
She slept in peace.
On her puppet-like face, a faint, moving smile appeared.
Pure.
Fresh.
Not like wild grass at all.
More like a camellia bud, just beginning to bloom.
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