Natsuki hadn't gone far from the tent before he stopped and turned.
Tsunade had come after him.
"Just give my bracelet to Nawaki," she said. "There's no reason to burn that much chakra making another one."
Producing a Wood Style chakra crystal cost an enormous amount of chakra. As far as she was concerned, making a second would measurably weaken him — and with Konoha and Kumogakure locked together, a commander whose strength dipped at the wrong moment could cost them everything.
"You've misread the situation, Tsunade-sensei. The chakra crystal isn't the only way to push Wood Style," Natsuki said, catching her line of thought.
"There's another?" She blinked.
"Sensei recently finished cloning an organism that carries the First Hokage's cells." He sketched out White Zetsu in a few sentences. "It repairs living tissue, and it amplifies Wood Style."
He left out where the things had actually come from.
There was a second option for Nawaki as well, in fact — the greatsword Samehada.
"Something like that exists?" Tsunade shook her head slowly. "I suppose all those years Orochimaru's spent buried in that laboratory weren't wasted after all."
She trusted Orochimaru, and she trusted Natsuki. Neither of them was Shimura Danzo; neither of them would go rummaging in places best left shut for the sake of it.
"Keep the bracelet." Natsuki paused. "Besides — passing on something I gave you isn't a good look."
Tsunade's hand went still, and she slid it back onto her wrist.
"One on its own is unbalanced, anyway."
He stepped forward, took her left hand, and pressed a second identical bracelet into her palm.
"You—"
Tsunade stared at it.
"Goodnight, Tsunade-sensei." Natsuki folded her fingers closed over it, smiling, released her hand, and walked away.
She stood there for a while before she came back to herself.
Then she let out a quiet breath.
If this kept up, whatever was between them was going to become something she couldn't name.
All she had to do was say no. That was the whole of it.
For reasons she declined to examine, she couldn't make herself say it.
Natsuki walked into the command tent.
"Natsuki." Uchiha Mikoto's face lit up.
During the war with Iwagakure, she'd spent most of her waking hours at his side. This war, with Kushina in camp, that time had shrunk considerably.
"Evening." He crossed to her. "Have you eaten?"
"Not yet."
"Then eat first."
Natsuki turned toward the sand table.
He was thinking about Nawaki.
Duy and Guy had built their names on an assist from Madara and Black Zetsu, who had obligingly delivered Dodai straight into their hands.
Should he attach Nawaki to Minato's squad and let him ride the same wave?
The problem was timing. There was no telling when Madara would move again. He certainly wouldn't strike every time Minato's squad went out — those two waited for opportunity and certainty, and lashing out at random gained them nothing.
Which meant Natsuki couldn't build a plan around them.
He glanced over at Mikoto, working steadily through her meal, and something clicked.
Yugito Nii. The Two-Tails Jinchuriki.
A reputation was built out of two things. Your own strength was only one of them. The other was the strength and renown of whoever you beat — the bigger the name that fell, the faster yours rose.
Yugito Nii was an excellent name.
Kumogakure being Kumogakure, both of its Jinchuriki were famous. And nobody needed to be told what a Jinchuriki could do.
There was a second benefit, too. Unlocking the Hogyoku on his Aizen template required the power of all nine Tailed Beasts.
That settled it. Yugito Nii would be Nawaki's stage.
Both of Kumogakure's Jinchuriki were somewhere in the Land of Moon. Neither had shown themselves once since the war began — which was thoroughly out of character for the Cloud.
Natsuki had turned it over and reached the only explanation that fit: Kumogakure was holding both of them in reserve for him. That required staying hidden. Wait for the right moment, surface together, and finish him in one coordinated strike.
If they moved openly, he'd simply pick them off one at a time.
It was, admittedly, the correct call.
It also explained why the serpents of Ryuchi Cave hadn't turned up either Jinchuriki since the fighting started. The two of them were almost certainly behind layered barriers, and barriers of that grade were beyond what the snakes could see through.
Fortunately, Konoha now had White Zetsu.
"Mikoto." Natsuki looked over as she set down her chopsticks. "You've put in a long day. Go and get some rest."
"Mm." She rose, and left the tent.
Natsuki headed for the Anbu section of camp.
The cloned White Zetsu had all been folded into the Anbu and were handled by them.
He was becoming increasingly aware that his Anbu had no proper head. The organization mattered more with every month that passed, and it badly needed someone both powerful and loyal at the top of it.
His thoughts drifted to Yahiko and the others, still in Amegakure.
Perhaps it was time to start bringing them into Konoha by degrees.
Once all five great villages answered to him, leaving people of that caliber parked in a small village like Ame would be a waste. And their dream had never been peace in the Land of Rain alone — it was peace across the whole shinobi world.
They were never going to build that from where they were standing.
Natsuki found the White Zetsu and set them hunting for Yugito Nii's exact location.
Then he collected Kushina and returned to Konoha for the night.
The next day. Tsunade's tent.
Nawaki circled the pale creature in front of him, studying it with open curiosity.
"So this is White Zetsu?" Tsunade asked.
"Mm." Natsuki nodded. "Nawaki — don't resist it."
He glanced at the White Zetsu.
Its body shuddered and collapsed into a white fluid that flowed up over Nawaki and covered him entirely.
"That's a strange feeling," Nawaki said, turning his arms over.
It had bonded to him without altering his appearance in the slightest. Nothing about him looked different.
"Think of it as biological armor," Natsuki said.
"Is it really as impressive as you're making out?"
"You'll find out the first time you run the Wood Golem." Natsuki paused. "And once you've got the Wood Golem down, we move."
"Move on what?" Tsunade asked.
"On building his name." Natsuki smiled. "Target's the Two-Tails Jinchuriki."
"I can beat the Two-Tails?" Nawaki froze.
"You're a Wood Style user." Natsuki clapped his shoulder. "The Wood Golem won't have much trouble with her."
Senju Hashirama's Wood Golem had fought Madara to a standstill — Madara with Susanoo active and the Nine-Tails under his control.
Nawaki's version wasn't remotely in that class, obviously. But with White Zetsu behind it, even half that output was more than enough for the Two-Tails.
"We'll all go together when the time comes," Natsuki added, with a glance at Tsunade.
That let her breathe. With Natsuki there, Nawaki wouldn't be in any real danger.
"Get practicing."
Natsuki turned and left the tent.
He thought for a moment, then made for Kirigakure's camp.
Something had occurred to him.
When he'd used the Black Holy Grail to draw out the Four-Tails, Roshi had died on the spot.
That was simply how Jinchuriki worked. Pull the beast out, and the host dies with it. In the original timeline, only the Eight-Tails had ever gotten around it, by leaving a severed tail behind inside its host.
Natsuki intended to collect the power of all nine Tailed Beasts. That included the Nine-Tails.
Which meant it included Kushina.
His current answer was to convert Kushina into a demon before extracting anything. But he wanted a second answer, one that didn't depend on that working.
In the original timeline, someone else had gone looking for exactly this — the teacher of Utakata, the Six-Tails Jinchuriki.
Natsuki found Terumi Mei quickly.
"Natsuki-sensei." She stood.
"Who is the Six-Tails Jinchuriki?" No preamble at all.
Mei went still, and hesitation crossed her face.
"Is there anything I want to do that Kirigakure could stop?" Natsuki asked, without raising his voice.
Mei swallowed whatever she'd been about to say. "Utakata."
"And his teacher?"
"He doesn't have one." She kept her voice level. "He's seven. He hasn't even graduated."
Natsuki raised an eyebrow.
That complicated things.
Utakata's teacher had only started researching a survivable extraction after watching what being a Jinchuriki did to the boy over the course of years. None of that had happened yet, and none of it was going to happen on Natsuki's schedule.
No matter. He'd do the research himself.
Starting with the Two-Tails Jinchuriki.
September came.
The Land of Moon ran much the same climate as the Land of Fire, and these were the two hottest months of the year. For shinobi, it hardly registered — chakra made heat and cold equally negotiable.
Konoha's command tent.
"Natsuki! I've got the Wood Golem!" Nawaki was almost shouting.
He'd spent the month discovering exactly what White Zetsu was worth. His effective strength had roughly doubled.
That was no accident. The White Zetsu Natsuki had given him was the one that had once hosted Uchiha Madara himself — a genuinely singular specimen among thousands of identical ones.
"Then we move tonight." Natsuki nodded. "I'll come get you."
Night fell.
Natsuki arrived at Tsunade's tent to find both of them ready and waiting.
He opened a rift without a word, and the three of them stepped through into a forest.
"There's a Cloud strongpoint just beyond the trees. It's heavily manned — over a hundred," Natsuki said. "Their entire purpose is keeping the Two-Tails Jinchuriki out of sight."
"So we just hit it?" Nawaki was already straining forward.
"First I put up a barrier, so their main camp doesn't notice anything." Natsuki smiled. "Once it's up, the field is yours."
He walked out of the treeline alone.
Looking across at the lights of the strongpoint, he raised a hand.
The Kikyo template's Concealment Barrier.
He was going to this much trouble for one reason: Nawaki needed a stage nobody would interrupt. If the Fourth Raikage came charging in halfway through, the whole point would be lost.
Tsunade watched him work, and something shifted in her chest.
He had thought of everything, for Nawaki's sake.
She also knew perfectly well that Nawaki wasn't the only reason.
The invisible barrier spread outward and closed over the strongpoint.
"Enemy attack!"
The Cloud sensors caught it and shouted — far too late. The barrier had already sealed.
Nawaki's hands flew through the seals.
Wood Style: Wood Golem!
A tree erupted from the ground in front of him and kept going.
The earth bucked, the treeline shuddered, and something impossibly large hauled itself upright out of the soil.
Nawaki leapt and landed on the golem's head, grinning like a boy on a festival ride, and swung his arm forward.
The golem moved. Every stride split the ground and threw dust into the sky.
"What is that?"
"Why is it that big—"
"Defensive positions, now!"
Even in the dark, nobody at the strongpoint had any difficulty seeing it.
Then a young woman with long blonde hair dropped into place in front of the Cloud line.
Yugito Nii.
Her arrival visibly steadied the shinobi around her.
"That's Wood Style." She recognized it instantly, and frowned.
"Which means Natsuki, Tsunade, or Nawaki is out there," the Jonin at her left said, going pale.
"Possibly all three." Yugito snorted. "I'll hold them. You break the barrier and get word to the main camp."
She'd carried the Two-Tails since childhood and had spent her whole life learning what a Tailed Beast could do. Confidence wasn't something she had to manufacture.
Version 2 Jinchuriki Form!
Chakra tore into the sky.
Blue markings crawled across her body in the shape of a monstrous cat. Her hair lifted and stood, and her eyes went white.
Mouse Hairball!
Yugito went straight at the golem.
At range, she threw both hands up and let an enormous volume of chakra pour out of her, her ten fingers working. The chakra clotted into dozens of mouse-shaped spheres, and the whole swarm flew at the golem.
Nawaki simply had the golem sweep them out of the air.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Every sphere burst, and the fire that came out of them was endless. Within seconds the golem was wrapped in flame.
Tsunade's stomach dropped and she started forward — and Natsuki caught her hand.
"Nawaki's fine."
As he said it, the golem shuddered, and branches and vines burst out across its whole body. They drove into the fire and smothered it.
Yugito's pupils shrank.
The golem walked out of the blaze without a mark on it.
Nawaki's hands moved again. The golem raised an arm, and the vines tore free of its body and shot at Yugito like a volley of spears.
She dodged — and kept dodging, dropping low and running at the golem on all fours like the animal she carried.
She reached it, sprang, curled her fingers, and steel-hard claws extended.
The golem's hands came around to crush her.
Yugito was faster. She slipped between them.
But the instant she turned toward Nawaki, the golem's body erupted with growth again, and her entire field of vision went green. Nawaki had vanished behind a wall of living wood.
There was nowhere to go but back.
Full Tailed Beast Transformation!
She drew a long breath. Version 2 had accomplished nothing; there was one option left.
A shadow swelled up out of her and resolved into a vast blue cat standing astride the broken ground.
Cat Claw!
Yugito swung with everything she had.
The claw met the golem's fist, and both giants rocked backward.
Yugito gave more ground than the golem did.
The disbelief showed on the Two-Tails' face.
Nawaki, watching from above, only got more fired up. He could take her. He knew he could take her.
The golem came on again, and with no time left to think, Yugito met it.
The ground split like an earthquake had come through. Inside a rolling wall of dust, the golem and the Two-Tails hammered at each other, and every exchange shook the valley.
"White Zetsu can do that?" Tsunade said.
"Not all of them. Nawaki's is a special case," Natsuki said, unconcerned.
"There's a problem, though." Something had occurred to her. "This isn't Nawaki's real strength."
"It doesn't matter." He shrugged. "He'll grow into it."
"True enough."
Build the name first, build the strength afterward. And Konoha hardly depended on Nawaki alone — he could stop taking the field entirely after tonight and never give anyone the chance to spot the gap.
Tsunade came back to herself and looked down at her left hand.
He hadn't let go of it since he'd taken it.
She hesitated. Then she left it where it was.
"Damn it!"
Yugito was driven back again.
Against the golem she was losing on every exchange, and she knew it.
Furious, she opened the Two-Tails' jaws.
Chakra condensed between them into a dense black sphere.
A Tailed Beast Bomb.
"Samehada!" Nawaki's chest seized and the word came out on reflex.
The greatsword disgorged a colossal volume of chakra — grudgingly, as it always did.
The golem swelled again, half again as large.
The Bomb launched.
The golem got both hands in front of it.
For a heartbeat the world seemed to stop. Then the chakra came apart in every direction at once, white light drowned the night sky, and everything within a hundred meters simply ceased to be there.
Nawaki squeezed his eyes shut.
He realized almost immediately that nothing had happened to him.
A few seconds later he opened them.
The golem was still standing exactly where it had been.
The Two-Tails, drained by its own Bomb, had gone gaunt and slack, and it was lying on the ground.
"That's not possible—"
Yugito's eyes were wide.
Nawaki wasn't especially interested in her opinion. He put the golem back to work, and it beat the Two-Tails down with its fists.
Under ten seconds later, the beast was gone, and all that remained was Yugito Nii, unconscious in the dirt.
_________________________________________________
Read Advanced Chapters on : patreon.com/Kaizo247
~ Evey 150 PS = Bonus Chapter
~ Push the Story forward with your [Power Stones]