Chapter 96: Temari, What Are You Trying to Do?
Land of Rain, Amegakure Village.
After leaving Orochimaru's place, Shiromo took the scroll sealing the Eight-Tails' cells and went to find Nagato.
"Here. Absorb some of this and see if it works."
Bang.
Shiromo opened the scroll.
"Power of a tailed beast?"
Nagato looked slightly surprised, then shook his head. "Thank you for the thought, but this power should be left to others. I'm not at the point where I need this yet…"
Nagato truly was someone who had cast off base desires for the sake of his ideals and could endure pain.
In the original story, he was already so frail and hollow, yet after capturing so many tailed beasts, he never once thought of absorbing some chakra to recover himself.
"Actually, I want you to summon the Gedo Statue (Demonic Statue of the Outer Path) and then test whether its attacks can give me some new abilities."
"As for helping you recover, it's just so you don't get drained dry."
"..."
Hearing that Shiromo was asking for his help, Nagato stopped refusing. He raised a hand toward the Eight-Tails' horn.
"Preta Path!"
Crimson tailed-beast chakra surged out of the Eight-Tails' horn and was continuously absorbed into Nagato's body.
"How is it? Does it work?"
Shiromo asked.
"There is an effect, but it's a bit slow…"
Nagato kept his hand raised, maintaining the technique, and frowned slightly.
"That's fine. As long as it works. Take your time recovering, I'm not in a rush. I still have plenty of other things to do anyway."
Shiromo didn't say any more unnecessary words. After confirming that it worked, he left the command tower where Nagato was.
There being an effect, but a slow one, was nothing strange.
In the original story, when Nagato absorbed Killer B's chakra, he instantly recovered from his shriveled, white-haired state. That was mainly because he was in an Impure World Reincarnation body.
Although chakra is tied to life force, Kakashi would straight-up die if his chakra was exhausted, and clans with larger chakra reserves generally have stronger vitality, the two still cannot be treated as the same thing.
An Impure World Reincarnation body is extremely special. It's said to have "infinite chakra," but in reality, it's more like carrying a permanent "chakra buff."
The chakra cap itself is fixed.
This was why the Second Tsuchikage, Mū, couldn't use Dust Release after splitting, his chakra was insufficient.
Secondly, absorbing tailed-beast chakra was something Sasuke also did in the final battle, yet it didn't magically heal his injuries.
Absorbing tailed-beast chakra is simply replenishing chakra.
If you want to restore life force, conversion is naturally required.
As for how that conversion works, like how Gedo Statue sustained Madara's life for so many years, that is something only the people involved know.
At a small training ground outside the village.
Hanabi, wearing a gray robe, was sparring with Fū. Karin sat off to the side, resting her chin on one hand as she watched the two fight.
Fū was extremely happy. Leaving her village to come out and see the world had indeed been the right decision.
Just like that, she had achieved the milestone of making friends from both the Uzumaki clan and the Hyūga clan.
After the sparring ended, even though Fū didn't use her tailed-beast power and held back with her base strength, Hanabi still had no chance of winning against her at this stage.
Despite her defeat, Hanabi wasn't discouraged at all. Instead, she happily turned around, planning to run back to Karin to rest for a bit.
But then she saw Shiromo, and her expression immediately became conflicted.
After hesitating for a moment, Hanabi slowly walked up to Shiromo.
"Um…"
"What is it? Are you going to ask about the balance between hardness and softness? That's something you have to comprehend on your own."
"No… uh, no, no, that's not it. Well, yes, I do want to know about that, but I have another question too."
Hanabi shook her head back and forth.
"Hm? If you have something to say, just say it."
Seeing how hesitant she was, Shiromo found it a little strange.
"Okay…"
Hanabi took a breath, gathered her courage, and spoke.
"I suddenly thought of something. You said you came from twenty years in the future. Twenty years later, you're this age. Twenty years later, I'd be twenty-seven. So technically, you should be calling me 'big sister'…"
Her voice grew smaller and smaller as she spoke, and by the end, she had shrunk her head down.
"Huh?"
What was this about?
Future Hanabi made her nephew Boruto call her big sister, and now present Hanabi wanted him to call her big sister too?
Could it be that because Hanabi had liked her own sister since childhood, she'd also developed a strange quirk of liking to be called "big sister" by others?
"Um, I was just joking! Let's talk about training instead!"
Before Shiromo could respond, Hanabi hurriedly changed the subject.
Of course, it wasn't that she liked people calling her big sister. What she liked was protecting others, the feeling of being needed by her family.
This was also reflected in the drunken remarks of adult Hanabi.
Even though she was still just a little Hanabi now, she already had big ambitions.
But if she wanted to protect the people she cared about, strength was absolutely essential.
So after bringing it up briefly, Hanabi immediately dropped the topic.
"Alright then. Sit down, and I'll casually explain some things to you. The specifics are something you'll have to figure out yourself."
Shiromo didn't pursue it further. After sitting down, he began explaining what he knew about Taiji principles to Hanabi.
Things like Taiji force, or movements like advancing, warding off, blocking, and punching, basically just foundational descriptions and concepts.
If even Konohamaru could learn the Rasengan from "puchi-pa," then as long as Hanabi's comprehension was sufficient, she would definitely be able to gain something new from this knowledge.
At the very least, what Shiromo explained was far more detailed and accurate than Naruto's "puchi-pa."
After chatting with Hanabi for a while, Shiromo was informed that someone had come to Amegakure looking for him. After encouraging Hanabi to keep working on her own comprehension, he left.
At the entrance of Amegakure.
"Here. Take it!"
Temari tossed an envelope at Shiromo and immediately turned around, about to leave.
"Wait!"
After catching the envelope, Shiromo called out to her.
If his guess was correct, what was inside the envelope was the agreed-upon item, Granny Chiyo's swimsuit photos.
The fact that Granny Chiyo actually provided them, and so quickly at that, was quite surprising.
But on second thought, Shiromo felt that Granny Chiyo might have had ulterior motives.
First of all, as long as Temari hadn't forgotten to pass on the message, Granny Chiyo now knew that Sasori was in the Akatsuki.
However, she didn't know that Sasori had already turned himself into a human puppet.
So even if she couldn't figure out what Shiromo really wanted to do, she still fulfilled the request.
She might have thought that if Shiromo showed the photos to Sasori, Sasori would feel insulted, break ties with Shiromo, and maybe even return to the village.
"What is it? If you have something to say, say it quickly. There's still a lot to deal with back in the village. Coming all this way just to deliver the letter has already delayed things enough…"
Temari stopped and urged him impatiently.
After Sunagakure's failed attack on Konoha and the death of the Fourth Kazekage, there truly were many matters that needed handling.
"Wait here for a bit. I need to deal with these photos first. Then I'll go back with you."
Shiromo shook the envelope in his hand.
"Huh? What are you trying to do?"
Temari looked stunned.
"I want to…"
Shiromo naturally wanted to go find the Dragon Vein and, while he was at it, unseal Uchiha Hikari's sealing site.
But just as he started speaking, he thought of Sunagakure's current situation.
This was a very good opportunity.
An opportunity to let Sunagakure completely break free from the control of the daimyo.
He could make some moves here.
So he paused in thought.
"…Pervert!"
During Shiromo's pause, Temari didn't know where her thoughts had gone again and suddenly cursed him.
(End of this chapter)