Chapter 352: All Three Disciples Have Advanced to the Kage Level
A suffocating wave of killing intent crashed through the dimly lit underground base.
The sheer density of the chakra caused the massive glass culture tubes lining the walls to groan, spiderweb fractures racing across their curved surfaces. Behind the single eyehole of the swirling orange mask, three crimson tomoe spun with frenzied, violent speed, locking onto Orochimaru as if to physically tear the Sannin apart.
The name 'Rin Nohara' was the absolute taboo in Obito's heart, a festering wound that had never healed. Yet this snake had just let it slip from his tongue with a frivolous, almost playful hiss.
"Orochimaru." The voice was a guttural rasp, devoid of any human warmth. "Do you wish to die?"
The mocking amusement vanished from Orochimaru's pale face. The temperature in the room had plummeted, and the Sannin's survival instincts flared, warning him that the masked man was a hair's breadth away from snapping his neck.
"Calm down, Obito-kun." Orochimaru raised his hands in a slow, placating gesture, though his feet glided silently backward, putting a crucial half-step of distance between them. "I merely thought this might be of use to you. After all, the Impure World Reincarnation is a highly malleable jutsu."
Obito's chest heaved, his breathing ragged beneath the mask.
Resurrect Rin? Drag her soul back using a vile, profane jutsu that desecrated the dead? Force her to return to this rotting world of endless despair, trapped inside a cold, decaying shell of ash and dirt?
Never.
"Put away your filthy thoughts, Orochimaru," Obito commanded, his tone dropping to a freezing whisper. "Do not project your twisted desires onto mine. Rin is not someone a creature like you is allowed to touch."
Golden, slit-pupiled eyes narrowed in the gloom. Orochimaru tasted the obsessive, unhinged madness rolling off Obito's chakra and wisely chose to retreat.
"My apologies. It seems I completely misunderstood your intentions." He bowed his head, adopting a posture of total humility. "I hope you can accept my sincere regrets. Of course, should you ever change your mind and wish for her to return to your side in another form... you know where to find me."
Obito stared holes into the Sannin for several agonizing seconds. Slowly, the murderous pressure suffocating the room began to recede. Snapping Orochimaru's neck right now served no purpose. The grand plan still required this slippery snake to perfect the Impure World Reincarnation.
A cold sneer echoed from behind the mask. Without another word, Obito focused his Mangekyo Sharingan. The spatial vortex of Kamui spiraled into existence, silently absorbing the sealed container holding Rin's cellular tissue into his alternate dimension.
The air around him began to warp and twist.
"Remember the promise between us."
The vortex collapsed inward, swallowing Obito's figure whole and leaving the laboratory in dead silence.
The moment the spatial distortion faded, the humble apology melted off Orochimaru's face, replaced by a chilling, mocking smirk.
"Rin Nohara..." he hissed softly, his long tongue darting out to wet his lips. "The legendary emotions of the Uchiha Clan. Such a terrifying source of power, yet such a pathetic, easily manipulated weakness."
Turning on his heel, Orochimaru glided toward the deepest recesses of his laboratory. Rows of operating tables sat in the gloom, bearing the pale, dormant forms of the sacrifices he had prepared. The White Zetsu clones Obito had so graciously provided.
"Still, this works in my favor," Orochimaru murmured, his golden eyes gleaming with dark ambition. "The deeper his obsession, the easier he is to predict. Well then, Obito-kun. Before I raise the curtain on your grand stage... let me perfect my own masterpiece."
Chuckling darkly, the Sannin returned to his bloodstained experimental bench, plunging back into the forbidden depths of the Impure World Reincarnation.
Far away, within the desolate, blocky wasteland of the Kamui dimension.
Obito slumped onto a massive, floating concrete pillar. His gloved hands reached up, slowly pulling the orange spiral mask away from his face. The dim, colorless light of the dimension fell upon the ruined right half of his visage, illuminating the deep, jagged scars that twisted his flesh.
Right now, those scars contorted with raw, unmasked agony.
"Rin..."
The name slipped from his lips like a prayer. His lone visible eye, usually so cold and empty, swam with a desperate, suffocating sorrow.
"This world is beyond saving. It is a rotting carcass, filled with nothing but endless war, blind hatred, and meaningless sacrifice. Despair is the only truth left."
Silence reigned over the empty dimension for a long time. When Obito finally raised his head, the sorrow in his eye had hardened into absolute, fanatical resolve.
"Wait for me, Rin." He clenched his fist, his knuckles turning white. "Soon, I will burn this reality to ash and create a brand new world. A dream world where you are still alive. In that place, no one will ever have to bleed. No one will ever have to cry. We will be together. Forever."
His hoarse voice echoed across the dead, silent void, heavy with a madness that could not be reasoned with.
The Infinite Tsukuyomi. It was the only salvation left for this cursed earth.
Several months later. Inside the isolated expanse of the Tianyu Space.
A deafening explosion rocked the center of the massive training ground. A towering, grinding sandstorm violently collided with a massive, boiling red claw made entirely of Tailed Beast chakra.
The sheer kinetic force of the impact compressed the air, generating a visible white shockwave that ripped outward in a perfect ring. The reinforced stone floor of the arena shattered, massive chunks of debris peeling back like dry bark under a hurricane.
"It's not over yet!" Naruto's roar tore through the deafening wind.
A streak of blazing orange chakra rocketed out from the swirling dust cloud. In his right hand, a sphere of hyper-compressed, violently spinning wind chakra illuminated the gloom.
"Great Ball Rasengan!"
Across the cratered battlefield, Gaara stood with his feet planted firmly in the earth, his teal eyes cold and solemn. He slammed his palms together with a sharp crack.
The crushed stone and sand littering the entire arena instantly came alive. It surged upward, forming a terrifying, sky-obscuring tidal wave of golden sand that crashed down toward the descending blonde shinobi.
This clash had long since shattered the boundaries of ordinary Jonin-level combat. Over the past few months, subjected to Uchiha Akira's brutal training regimen and fueled by an endless supply of clan resources, the disciples had undergone an devastating metamorphosis.
Standing in this arena today, every single one of them wielded the terrifying, cataclysmic power of a Kage.
At the far edge of the training grounds, safely outside the blast radius, Temari and Hinata stood shoulder-to-shoulder, observing the apocalyptic spar.
Without a single rustle of wind or shift in the air, a tall figure materialized beside them.
"Teacher!" Hinata gasped softly, immediately turning to offer a deep, respectful bow.
"Hokage-sama," Temari echoed, bowing her head in sharp military salute.
Uchiha Akira waved a hand, dismissing the formalities. His dark eyes swept over the cratered arena, watching the violent collision of sand and demonic chakra. A faint, satisfied smile curved his lips.
"Excellent progress."
His calculating gaze then shifted to the quiet Hyuga heiress standing beside him. Naruto and Gaara were monsters in their own right, but Hinata's evolution over these past few months had been nothing short of miraculous. Backed by Akira's absolute authority and limitless resources, she had shattered her old limits. Even without a Tailed Beast sealed inside her gut, her raw combat power had skyrocketed.
With a mere thought, Akira summoned the system interface, projecting her status panel into his vision.
[Disciple: Hinata Hyuga]
[Potential Rating: SSS]
[Bloodline Limit: Byakugan (Purity 100%)]
[Special Status: Tenseigan Activation Progress (20%)]
Reading over the completely refreshed data, Akira gave a slow nod of approval.
Over the past few months, he had bled a massive fortune of Family Glory Points from the system, ruthlessly pouring every last drop of that investment directly into Hinata's development. The return on investment was staggering.
Her latent potential had been forcibly unlocked to its absolute peak, hitting the legendary SSS rank. The genetic purity of her Byakugan had been refined to a flawless one hundred percent.
But the crown jewel of his investment lay in that final line of text. The Tenseigan activation progress sat at twenty percent. The moment that bar filled to completion, Hinata would awaken the mythical dojutsu of the moon, and her destructive power would eclipse anything the shinobi world had ever seen.
'Even without the full awakening,'Akira mused internally, his dark eyes analyzing the dense, highly refined chakra circulating through the girl's coils.'With the absolute purity of her Byakugan and the sheer volume of chakra she now commands, Hinata has already firmly planted her feet in the world of Kage-level strength.'
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