Kushina took a deep breath and stared fixedly at Seiryū.
After a moment, she asked hesitantly, "Seiryū, you said Tsunade-sama knows that you… still have feelings for other people?"
Seiryū looked as though the answer was obvious. "Of course. I told her myself."
"You told her?"
Kushina's mouth fell open. Then she asked carefully, "And… how did she react?"
"What do you mean?"
Kushina froze for a moment as she looked at Seiryū's confused expression.
"Wasn't Tsunade-sama… upset?"
If it were her, and she found out her boyfriend liked other women, she would probably rip his head off.
Seiryū's way of thinking was clearly different from ordinary people's. He thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "Maybe a little? I actually found that strange too. Why would she be upset?"
Rōran allowed polygamy.
Seiryū did not feel he had done anything wrong.
After all, he was not only a shinobi of Konoha. He was also the Prince Regent of Rōran.
"Uh…"
Seiryū's serious expression made Kushina pause again.
She asked uncertainly, "Shouldn't she be upset?"
"That's what I don't understand. Why would she be?"
Seiryū touched his chin and began to ponder. "I didn't do anything wrong, did I? Rōran allows polygamy…"
"Wait!"
Kushina interrupted him. She blinked, then asked, "I know what Rōran is, but why are you bringing up Rōran's laws right now?"
Seiryū answered matter-of-factly, "Because I'm Rōran's Prince Regent. Naturally, I should follow Rōran's laws. Otherwise, wouldn't I be letting down the people who like me, and the people I like?"
"You're Rōran's Prince Regent?" Kushina stared at him. "How did I not know that?"
"I bought the position from the queen. It cost me three million ryō."
"…"
Minato and Kushina looked at each other.
So Seiryū had that kind of identity too?
Could a political title like that really be bought with money?
But more importantly…
No matter how they looked at it, something about this sounded wrong.
Seiryū's understanding of relationships seemed to differ significantly from that of a normal person.
Kushina felt a headache coming on.
"You like multiple women," she said slowly. "Don't you think that's… bad?"
She already knew Seiryū had problems with the way his mind worked.
She just had not expected those problems to show up in this area too.
Because his expression was not fake at all.
He truly believed there was nothing wrong with liking several women and wanting to marry them all.
But in Kushina's eyes, that was absolutely unacceptable.
Having grown up under Konoha's customs, where marriage meant one man and one woman, she instinctively rejected the idea. She decided that she had to correct Seiryū's distorted thinking.
"Think about it," she said. "If Minato liked another woman while being with me, what do you think I would do?"
Seiryū glanced at Minato.
Then he answered without hesitation, "You'd beat him to death, of course. He's from Konoha. How dare he like someone else? That would be completely unlawful."
Minato fell silent.
So Seiryū did understand the problem?
Then why…
"Exactly!" Kushina clapped her hands. Her expression became very serious. "It would be completely unacceptable. If Minato liked someone else while being with me, I would beat him to death!"
Minato remained silent.
Kushina continued, "Then look at it from another angle. Tsunade-sama knows that you like other women, and not just one. Do you think she would be unhappy?"
"Uh… I suppose so?"
Seiryū was stunned for a moment. Then his eyes lit up with realization. "So that's why she was unhappy."
"Yes, yes!"
Kushina and Minato both nodded slightly.
For a moment, they felt that Seiryū might not be beyond saving after all.
Then Seiryū's next words silenced them.
He frowned slightly, as if trying to sort out the logic.
"But Minato-senpai is from Konoha. Konoha follows monogamy. I'm the Prince Regent of Rōran, and Rōran doesn't."
The two of them stared at him.
Damn it.
His way of thinking really was wrong.
Ignoring their expressions, Seiryū felt his thoughts growing messy.
He continued muttering to himself, "Minato-senpai would be acting unlawfully, so it's normal for him to be beaten to death. But I'm acting within the law, so…"
He paused.
"No. That bad woman is from Konoha. She follows Konoha's customs, so of course she would reject Rōran's system."
His brows tightened.
"Did I… do something wrong?"
"But I'm not wrong, am I? I'm only following Rōran's laws. But Tsunade, Kurenai, Rin… they're all from Konoha."
"Am I wrong? Or am I not wrong?"
It was as though two entirely different sets of values were clashing inside his mind.
Seiryū felt his head begin to swell.
For a moment, his thoughts fell into complete disorder.
His emotions became unstable, slipping beyond his control.
His heart churned because of the conflict in his own mind.
"Is my way of thinking right… or wrong?"
His mind was chaotic. His emotions were unsteady. His thoughts were tangled together in a knot.
And in that instant, a flaw appeared in Seiryū's will.
Inside the Yin Seal, the Dragon Vein consciousness—no longer perfectly restrained by him—seemed to find an opening.
An opportunity.
The Dragon Vein consciousness had long regarded Seiryū as its enemy.
He had taken its source power. To it, he was the greatest threat, an enemy that could not coexist with it.
Previously, it had been suppressed so completely by Seiryū that it could do nothing but resist as he devoured its power bit by bit.
But now, Seiryū had exposed a weakness.
The Dragon Vein consciousness possessed only instinct, but that instinct had never stopped resisting his plunder.
Now that Seiryū's mental defenses had faltered, it immediately seized the chance.
Almost instantly, the Dragon Vein consciousness broke through the restrictions of the Yin Seal.
It slammed into Seiryū's mind while amplifying the chaos already tearing through his thoughts.
A low hum rang out.
The Yin Seal on Seiryū's forehead lit with a faint purple glow.
A massive amount of Dragon Vein chakra began pouring out uncontrollably.
"This is—oh no!"
"Seiryū, control the Dragon Vein chakra!"
Minato and Kushina were no strangers to this kind of situation. Their expressions changed at once.
This was what it looked like when a tailed beast's chakra went berserk.
Because Seiryū's emotions had fluctuated too violently, and because his thoughts had fallen into chaos, a crack had appeared in his mind. The Dragon Vein sealed within him had seized that opening.
Was the Dragon Vein going berserk?
"I'm not wrong… No, I am wrong… No… What should I do…"
Caught in the storm of his own thoughts, Seiryū did not notice what was happening to the Dragon Vein.
It was as though the Dragon Vein consciousness had deepened the confusion in his mind, forcing him to ignore the changes taking place in his own body.
He did not even hear Minato and Kushina's voices.
He continued muttering, "What should I do?"
Yes.
He had always overlooked Tsunade's feelings.
Kurenai's feelings.
Rin's feelings.
He had assumed his own way of thinking was correct.
But Tsunade, Kurenai, and Rin were all from Konoha.
They had been raised under Konoha's customs.
Their understanding of love and marriage was different from his.
In fact, their values were fundamentally incompatible.
So what should he do?
Give up?
No.
He would not.
He did not want to.
Refuse to give up?
Then he would be ignoring their feelings.
Two different beliefs clashed inside Seiryū's mind, each suppressing the other in turn.
More and more thoughts surged up, colliding and tangling together until his consciousness became a mess.
He failed to notice the abnormality in his own body.
In the end, all thoughts and questions condensed into a single point.
What should he do?
Boom!
As the surging Dragon Vein chakra reached a critical point, a purple chakra cloak instantly covered Seiryū's body.
Dragon Vein Chakra Mode.
But it lasted only a second.
The color of the chakra cloak shifted from purple to dark red, coiling around Seiryū like a dragon.
The chakra fluctuations became violent, frenzied, and sinister.
Seiryū's eyes turned blood red, burning with the savagery of a rampaging dragon.
Yet he was still muttering, "What exactly should I do?"
He could no longer think clearly.
The Dragon Vein consciousness was striking his mind, amplifying the thoughts hidden deep in his heart.
Finally, Seiryū seemed to arrive at a solution.
Cold, resolute words slipped from his mouth.
"If Konoha doesn't allow polygamy…"
"Then I'll change Konoha."
"I'll make Konoha follow my will. I'll make Konoha accept it too. Then… there won't be a problem anymore, right?"
"No. Not just Konoha."
"The entire shinobi world."
"If the shinobi world refuses…"
"Then I'll destroy it and rebuild a new one."
"A world that accepts my ideals."
"Hehehe…"
His laughter became low and unsettling.
"I'll make the entire shinobi world accept polygamy. Then there won't be any problems left."
If he could not change himself, then he would change the world around him.
He would make Konoha obey his will.
He would make Konoha accept his ideals.
And if Konoha alone was not enough, then he would change the entire shinobi world.
If the world refused to follow his will, then he would destroy it and build a new world that did.
The moment that thought appeared, it could no longer be restrained.
It was amplified wildly.
Seiryū's mind began to twist toward an extreme.
And once he became extreme, he no longer considered consequences.
He no longer considered anything else.
He only wanted to do what he believed had to be done.
At this moment, Seiryū was truly a madman.
A terrifying existence willing to do anything to realize the thought in his heart.
Boom!
The Dragon Vein chakra erupted.
It had not swallowed Seiryū's reason completely as it had before.
Instead, it amplified the most extreme side of him.
He wanted to change Konoha.
He wanted to change the shinobi world.
That will, that idea, made the berserk Dragon Vein chakra even more violent.
The chakra surged outward with a roar.
The resulting shockwave destroyed Minato's house and damaged several nearby buildings.
The violent fluctuation of Dragon Vein chakra spread outward from that point, sweeping across all of Konoha.
Minato appeared in a new location with Kushina.
Looking at Seiryū, who was now surrounded by evil, violent chakra, Kushina's face filled with anxiety.
"Minato, hurry! Stop Seiryū and make him regain control!"
Minato's expression was grave. "I know."
Neither of them had expected this.
They had never imagined that those words would have such a severe impact on Seiryū.
It had actually caused him to lose control here and now.
No.
This was not simply losing control.
Under the influence of the Dragon Vein chakra, Seiryū's thinking had turned extreme, giving birth to terrifying thoughts.
When they heard what he had said, both Minato and Kushina felt a chill run through them.
If the shinobi world refused, he would destroy it and build a new one?
That was far too extreme.
Tsunade had warned them more than once that when Seiryū became extreme, he did not consider consequences.
Now they finally understood what she meant.
Minato shouted, "Seiryū! Calm your mind! Don't let the Dragon Vein chakra influence you!"
"Minato…"
Seiryū muttered, his voice low and distorted.
"Do you want to stop me?"
The dark-red dragon-shaped chakra cloak around him flickered like flames.
Violence, ferocity, determination, and madness filled his blood-red eyes.
"No matter who it is… no one can stop me."
"Only this way… can I avoid letting them down."
He continued muttering.
"I'm not wrong."
"The one that's wrong is this world."
"So all I have to do… is change the world."
"Hehehe…"
"That's right."
"I only need to change this world!"
"Roar!"
A beastlike roar erupted from Seiryū's mouth.
Like a jinchūriki entering a partial transformation, Seiryū's body began to change.
Pieces of purple dragon scale covered parts of his body. Fine scales appeared along his handsome face.
Sharp claws extended from his hands, gleaming coldly.
His legs grew stronger and more powerful, while his feet shifted into dragonlike claws that dug into the ground.
A tail stretched from his back, lashing wildly.
Two small horns seemed to emerge from the top of his head.
At that moment, Seiryū looked mesmerizing and dangerous.
The previous Dragon Vein rampage had merely formed a dragonlike chakra cloak around him.
Now, however, Seiryū himself had begun to take on the form of a dragon.
Was this a tailed-beast transformation?
No.
More precisely, this was Hollowfication.
Seiryū was unique.
The system's power had made his body fundamentally different from that of ordinary people.
That was also why others could not use his Kidō.
Because of Seiryū's special nature or perhaps because of the system itself, the Dragon Vein chakra had also changed.
It was still similar to tailed-beast chakra, but it was no longer the same thing.
What appeared now was an abnormal partial tailed-beast transformation.
Or rather, a deeper stage of Hollowfication.
It resembled Ichigo's Vasto Lorde form from Bleach.
In this state, Seiryū's Hollow power or more accurately, the power of the Dragon Vein chakra had been released at a far greater level.
Boom, boom, boom!
Even more terrifying chakra fluctuations spread outward, blasting away nearby trees and structures.
Several unlucky passersby were caught in the shockwave and swept up like leaves in a storm.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Fortunately, Minato moved instantly.
He flashed from place to place, catching the civilians one after another and carrying them to safety.
Otherwise, that single burst of chakra would have been enough to injure them severely.
"Adamantine Sealing Chains!"
Anxiety flashed through Kushina's eyes.
She formed hand seals and attacked at once. Golden chains burst from her body, extending rapidly toward Seiryū.
The chains wrapped around him layer by layer, binding him into a tight cocoon and restricting his movements.
However, a powerful force resisted her.
Sweat began to slide down Kushina's forehead.
She shouted, "Minato, hurry! We can't let Seiryū lose control here. If he does, there will be heavy casualties. I can't hold him for long!"
Whoosh!
Minato had just finished rescuing the civilians. His heart was equally anxious.
He knew there was no time to delay.
He understood Seiryū's strength very well.
The Dragon Vein chakra was not weaker than the Nine-Tails' chakra.
Add Seiryū's own power to that.
If he truly went berserk inside Konoha, the entire village might be torn apart.
The casualties would be disastrous.
Minato appeared beside Kushina in an instant and placed a hand on her shoulder.
With a single thought, the three of them vanished.
A moment later, they appeared deep within the Forest of Death, in a deserted area far from the village.
Boom!
The moment they arrived, a roar erupted.
The golden chains wrapped around Seiryū were forcibly shattered by his violent power.
They broke into fragments, scattered outward, then dissolved into specks of golden light in midair.
"Hehehe…"
A hoarse, violent, frenzied voice came from Seiryū's mouth.
"I only need… to change… this world…"
A sinister smile curved his lips.
Two sharp fangs flashed coldly.
After his transformation, Seiryū had grown taller, and his appearance had changed drastically.
If one ignored the violent, evil aura around him and that unsettling smile, his transformed appearance was not ugly.
Rather, it carried a strange, dangerous beauty.
After all, Seiryū's handsomeness was universally acknowledged.
He had not become a full dragon.
He was still largely human, only transformed into a half-dragon form.
That was because Seiryū had not been completely stripped of his sanity by the Dragon Vein consciousness.
He still retained his own awareness and will.
This was not a complete dragon transformation.
Nor was it complete Hollowfication.
Only his most extreme side had been amplified.
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)