Sanzu Amado had only ever been lured into Kara for one reason: to bring his daughter back. To him, she mattered more than anything, so of course he was the one who agreed with Natsuki the most.
And he envied Natsuki, badly.
As an inner mber of Kara, he naturally kept tabs on shinobi world intelligence. A prodigy like Natsuki, rising out of nowhere, was impossible not to notice. He knew Natsuki had been an orphan since he was little, yet now he had a warm, happy family. Not only did he have a good wife, he was about to welco his first child.
Compared to that, Amado was alone. The one person he treasured most, his daughter, had been dead for years. The loneliness and pain in his heart went without saying.
So when he heard how fiercely Natsuki cherished his family, even giving up on becoming Hokage because of it, how could Amado not approve?
But Natsuki didn't bother trying to untangle what Amado was thinking. He simply asked, "Orochimaru, is the experint finally over?"
Orochimaru nodded. "For now, yes. After several straight days of high-intensity research, it's ti to stop and rest. More importantly, the test material is dead, and we haven't had any new breakthroughs. We can only shelve it for now. All the samples need to be sealed and preserved. I'll restart the research whenever I need to."
As he spoke, he began sealing away Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's petrified remains.
When it ca to that kind of work, Orochimaru understood it best. No one objected. Honestly, just standing guard for the past few days had left Natsuki and the others exhausted and irritated. Now that the experint was over, it was unquestionably good news.
But Orochimaru hurriedly added, "Natsuki-kun, don't forget to send so of those black blocks. Intact blocks, and so of the pieces you smashed too. I still need to study them later."
"Don't worry. I won't forget," Natsuki promised, then started assigning tasks. "All right, next we disband. Sasuke, Neji, you two take Mr. Sanzu Amado back to Konoha's interrogation unit first. There are still things he needs to explain in detail. Naruto, First Hokage, you two head back to the office. Lady Tsunade and the others are probably waiting. I'll go to the other dinsion and collect all those black blocks."
Those Daikokuten blocks were absurdly heavy, and there were too many of them. Cleaning them up was a nightmare, so the Allied Shinobi Forces had basically left them alone. Senju Tobirama had already told Natsuki about it, waiting for Natsuki and the others to deal with it.
Now that Natsuki had obtained the "black eye," he was the best possible person to collect those blocks.
No one disagreed. And without realizing it, everyone accepted Natsuki's arrangents as a matter of course. Maybe it was the "strongest effect," the way people naturally listen to whoever's strongest. People tend to assu the strong are right, or at least not soone you can go against.
Natsuki didn't even notice. He was just organizing things on instinct, without thinking too deeply.
Once everyone agreed, he locked onto the other dinsion's location and vanished in a flash.
Sasuke reminded Orochimaru to be careful, in case Ōtsutsuki Isshiki wasn't fully dead and tried to possess soone and reincarnate. Only then did he open a space-ti portal and lead Amado back to the village.
Inside the other dinsion, there was no one left.
Not far away, the shattered buildings made it obvious the Kara headquarters had been turned inside out by the Allied Shinobi Forces. They probably hadn't even left behind a single scrap of draft paper.
Natsuki looked at the black blocks scattered everywhere and, curious, reached out to touch one.
During the fight, he hadn't had ti to study them. Only now could he take a closer look.
He had no idea what material these black blocks were made of, or where Ōtsutsuki Isshiki had gotten them. In the hand, they felt unbelievably heavy. The key was that they could block chakra-based sensing. That alone made them extrely special.
Natsuki picked up a shard from one he'd smashed and examined it carefully, but gained nothing.
Naturally, he didn't understand this kind of thing. And he didn't have any kind of appraisal skill, either. Looks like he could only rely on Orochimaru's science.
"Sukunahikona (Shrinking Technique)! Daikokuten (Great Black Sky)!"
He imdiately activated the black eye and used those two techniques.
One by one, the massive blocks shrank, then were sent into a ti-stopped subspace. He didn't miss even a single fragnt.
He had to admit, it looked cool. It just didn't seem that strong as a support ability.
The actual combat application was pretty primitive. It was basically just hiding bricks, making them big, then throwing them. If the enemy was fast enough, they could dodge most of it.
Still, Sukunahikona (Shrinking Technique) was sothing he could develop properly.
Sukunahikona (Shrinking Technique) could shrink any non-living object. Living things could only shrink the user himself. It sounded plain enough, but if you developed it well, it could beco terrifying.
For example, shrinking yourself. If you got tiny and crawled into an enemy's body like Son Goku, you could beco an overwhelming threat from the inside.
In the end, there were no useless dōjutsu. Only people who didn't know how to develop them.
Ōtsutsuki Isshiki, I'm talking about you.
After collecting all the blocks, Natsuki didn't linger. He flashed straight to Orochimaru's lab, dumped several blocks and shards on the ground, and vanished again without even saying hello.
Orochimaru was used to it by now. And at that mont, the blocks had already captured his full attention.
He reached out and stroked the surface, excitent flashing in his eyes.
See? A scientist really is a scientist. Their attitude toward experint materials is completely different.
Natsuki flashed back to the village. He was just about to go to the hospital to see his wife, Tenten, when Kakashi happened to pass by and dragged him off, saying there was a eting in the conference room.
"Kakashi-senpai! Let go see Tenten first, okay?"
Natsuki wanted to cry.
He hadn't used Flying Thunder God to appear right beside Tenten because he was afraid of startling her with a sudden appearance. That was why he'd reappeared sowhere else first and was heading toward the hospital on foot. He hadn't expected to run into Kakashi at the worst possible ti.
Kakashi refused to let go. "They're waiting for you to start. After the eting, you can go to the hospital."
With no choice, Natsuki followed him to the conference room.
Inside, almost everyone was already there. Even the Raikage A, Ōnoki, i Terumi, and Gaara were present. Was this an Allied Shinobi Forces eting?
But everyone was staring at Natsuki, or more precisely, at the center of his forehead.
Looks like they all knew he'd obtained the black eye.
Raikage A couldn't help asking, "Natsuki, I heard you transplanted Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's black eye. Can we see it?"
Aside from Naruto, Sasuke, Neji, and Hashirama, everyone nodded along, clearly curious.
"You dragged here just to look at the black eye, didn't you?" Natsuki said, exasperated. Still, he opened the black eye on his forehead. Then he lifted a hand and shrank the conference table in front of everyone, stored it away, and placed it back again a mont later.
Everyone recognized it as Sukunahikona (Shrinking Technique), and the room imdiately buzzed with excitent.
Being able to turn an enemy's ability into your own weapon was a huge boon.
And just like Neji had said before, as long as Natsuki stayed strong, everyone could keep their confidence that they could face the Ōtsutsuki and whatever terrifying enemies ca next.
(End of Chapter)
[Get 30 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Zaelum"]
[Every 300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]
Reviews
All reviews (0)