"Did you not notice? Your own mutation."
Faced with Mukade, who was full of disbelief after being forcibly expelled from the puppet One-Tails, Kagetsu softly reminded him.
"What mutation?" Mukade still hadn't given up trying to wrest back control of the Ryūmyaku vein from Kagetsu.
But no matter how much he called upon the power of the Queen's bloodline, the Ryūmyaku vein that once always answered him was now eerily silent.
"To control a power far beyond your limits—there is always a price to pay. It's true for Jinchūriki, and it's true for you."
Kagetsu pulled his blade out from the puppet One-Tails.
Without the support of the Ryūmyaku vein, the puppet crumbled like a pile of collapsed blocks.
He walked toward the center where the Ryūmyaku vein gathered, flipped his blade, pointed it downward, and released his grip. The blade stabbed deep into the eye of the Ryūmyaku vein's convergence point.
"Impossible! Jinchūriki lose control because the Tailed Beasts have wills of their own! The Ryūmyaku vein has no will!" Mukade denied Kagetsu's claim and shouted, "Besides, I brought the Spirit Suppression Stone! This is the key to controlling and subduing a Tailed Beast's will in the future—so Jinchūriki can freely use their power! It even helps guide natural energy!"
"Is that so?" Kagetsu seed a bit surprised but quickly shook his head again. "I've never believed in so-called absolute suppression techniques.
I don't know how you got that so-called Spirit Suppression Stone, but if I were the one who created that kind of technology, its original purpose would never be to suppress a Tailed Beast's will. It would be to help Jinchūriki reach mutual understanding with their Beasts—without losing control.
The sa goes for natural energy. It's all ant to lower the barrier to training. Your kind of brute-force suppression and forceful seizure… that was never the true purpose behind the creation of the Spirit Suppression Stone."
"I..."
Mukade tried to speak again, but suddenly, he realized he could no longer control his puppet body as freely as before.
A stubborn and unyielding force was interfering, wrestling with him for control over the body.
"Do you feel it now? The Ryūmyaku vein may have no will of its own—but what about the Queen of Rōran, whose body you turned into a puppet and rged with your own?"
Kagetsu could tell sothing was wrong with Mukade, and he saw purple energy leaking out from the cracks in the puppet body—just like the chakra cloak of a Tailed Beast, power was spilling outward uncontrollably.
This ant Mukade could no longer control the energy inside his body.
"Using the Ryūmyaku vein as a power core, then transplanting it into your puppet body and turning yourself into a jinchūriki of the Ryūmyaku vein… that's a bold experint.
But once the balance between you and that power breaks, the backlash is inevitable."
"Impossible! She's already dead!" Mukade shouted. His current state was just like a jinchūriki on the verge of losing control under a Tailed Beast's influence.
Kagetsu didn't say anything more. He just watched Mukade's body spasm and roll on the ground uncontrollably, his eyes flashing with a strange emotion.
He could sense a familiar power coming from Mukade.
It felt like a person's consciousness was awakening through their own ability—or maybe even their bloodline.
…
anwhile, Sakura Haruno was trying to free Naruto from the net buried under the rubble, but the net gave her a helpless feeling—it was like no matter how hard she tried, it wouldn't budge.
Just as she grew more anxious, a voice she faintly recognized suddenly ca from behind her.
Sakura turned around in surprise and saw Kagetsu standing behind her without her noticing when he arrived. She instinctively stepped aside to make room.
As Kagetsu brushed past her, a chilling fear rose in Sakura's chest. With her level of sensory ability, she should have noticed soone that close—but she didn't.
Especially not during an ongoing and dangerous battle.
Two stone arms suddenly shot out of the ground, grabbing the net and shaking it loose. Naruto Uzumaki, who had been tangled inside, was tossed out violently, landing in a daze.
"What…?" Sakura was surprised. Kagetsu's jutsu seed unaffected by the Spirit Suppression Stone, still retaining power and movent.
But seeing Naruto finally freed from the net, she didn't have ti to think it through. She quickly grabbed his arm and pulled him to safety.
As expected, the Spirit Suppression Stone only works effectively against pure chakra. But when it cos to Sage Jutsu, which involves natural energy, its suppressing power isn't nearly as strong.
Kagetsu seed thoughtful. For ninja who haven't learned Sage Jutsu and can only use chakra, the Spirit Suppression Stone acts almost like a seal — a powerful counterasure.
As long as the stone is big enough, it could suppress even a Tailed Beast like the Nine-Tails for a long ti, just like the Five Finger Mountain.
But against a sage who wields the power of natural energy, its effects are much weaker.
And if you add Hollow power — or rather, transford spiritual energy — then it becos nothing more than a regular, though perhaps rare, stone.
"What's happening to him?"
Naruto, who had just regained consciousness and was being supported by his companions, quickly turned his attention to Mukade, who was thrashing and screaming wildly on the ground.
In the silent and enclosed underground space, his agonized cries and the strange changes happening to his body were impossible to ignore.
"He's undergoing Hollowfication!"
The one who answered Naruto was Baki from the Sand Village. Watching the transformation taking place on Mukade's body, Baki's face turned pale, and a deep sense of dread washed over him.
He had seen it before — ninja undergoing Hollowfication on the battlefield. Every one of them beca a rciless and powerful killing machine.
But Hollowfication required a special mask as a dium!
Even within the Sand Village, research into those masks remained shrouded in mystery. No one truly knew how much progress had been made or how many secrets had been uncovered.
Mukade had only taken knowledge about puppet crafting and manipulation techniques from the Sand Village.
As for those mysterious Hollow masks — even soone as close to the Kazekage as Baki barely knew anything about them. There was no way Mukade could have gotten access to them.
When he was assigned this mission, the Kazekage had never ntioned anything about the loss of any Hollow masks.
But if the Hollow mask wasn't lost, then what exactly is happening with Mukade as he begins to Hollowfy?
Is it sothing from the future?
"Hollowfication?"
Even though Yamato and the others didn't fully understand what Baki ant, the cold sweat on his face, the cautious yet fearful look in his eyes, and the overwhelming pressure from Mukade's rapidly expanding power made it clear—sothing was seriously wrong.
"Can't we stop him?"
Yamato asked Baki cautiously.
"The Hollowfication process can't be interrupted. Even getting close could make him see you as food."
Kagetsu replied, watching as Mukade's entire puppet-like body stretched and twisted into a centipede-like monstrous form.
****
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