Kakuzu and Obito left the Land of Water and headed back toward the Akatsuki base. Kakuzu glanced sideways at Obito, his expression a mix of curiosity and anger.
"Tobi, what the hell was that? I was helping you, and you destroyed one of my hearts!" Kakuzu's voice carried clear frustration.
All this ti, Kakuzu had been the one to kill his comrades for their hearts, but this was the first ti he'd ever lost a heart to a comrade's attack.
However, Obito didn't answer.
On the way to the mission, his goofy personality had been irritating Kakuzu to no end-like an annoying fly buzzing around nonstop. But now, ever since leaving the Land of Water, Obito had been quieter than even Kakuzu.
Seeing Rin again had left Obito in no mood to joke around or tease Kakuzu.
"Tobi, answer ! If you don't give a good explanation, don't bla for what happens next!" Kakuzu growled, his anger flaring even more as Obito remained silent.
"I'll help you find another heart," Obito finally replied, his tone laced with irritation as Kakuzu's repeated questions began to grate on him.
"You... you dare speak to in that tone?" Kakuzu's eyes narrowed in fury, his anger rising
even more.
Then, as if to completely change the subject, Obito suddenly asked, "Hey, Kakuzu, do you think that girl might like ?"
"Huh? Like you?" Kakuzu froze mid-sentence, staring at Obito with a look of utter disbelief. "Have you lost your mind? If it weren't for stepping in, she would've killed you! How the hell did you co up with this ridiculous idea that she likes you?"
"But... didn't she stop attacking ? Doesn't that an she likes ?" Obito said with complete sincerity.
In his mind, even though Rin had fought him, she had stopped several tis. To him, this was a sign that she liked him.
"She didn't even know who you were. She stopped because she was curious about your identity, not because she liked you!" Kakuzu retorted, exasperated.
Even though Obito wore a mask, it was still painfully clear that he was deluding himself into thinking that the girl liked him. Kakuzu couldn't help but shake his head, muttering to himself.
"No, no, Kakuzu. You've been single for over a hundred years, so you don't understand love," Obito countered confidently. "You also don't understand her."
"I understand her. I'm sure she likes !"
"And as for the fact that she doesn't know who I am... well..." Obito paused briefly, his mood lifting again. "Even though she doesn't know , she still likes ! Clearly, she loves for who I am. This... this is true love!"
Kakuzu's eye twitched at Obito's delusional reasoning.
"If Kakuzu had been from the modern era," he thought, "he'd have imdiately recognized this behavior. Obito's acting like a classic lovesick fool!"
It was as if soone had ssaged their crush during a rainstorm, offering to pick them up from work, and the crush replied with a harsh 'Get lost!'-yet the lovestruck person would still be happy, thinking it ant their crush was worried about them getting wet in the rain. "Sure, maybe that girl doesn't like you, but I can definitely tell-you're really into her!" Kakuzu remarked after a long silence, unable to stop himself from stating the obvious.
Obito, who had been confidently spinning his tale, suddenly looked bashful. "Wha-how did you even notice that?" he stamred, his bravado crumbling in an instant.
"You've got ti to think about this nonsense, but maybe you should focus on explaining yourself to the leader instead?" Kakuzu replied, shaking his head in disbelief.
Obito's whimsical and distracted behavior was utterly frustrating for Kakuzu, who was more concerned with the failure of their mission to capture the Three-Tails. How was Obito planning to explain this to the leader, Pain?
"Explaining is my problem, not yours," Obito said dismissively. "But really, Kakuzu, didn't you notice? She definitely likes ! Maybe your judgnt just isn't sharp enough."
Obito's mood had shifted back to its usual erratic state, and he started talking endlessly again, clearly lost in his own delusions.
Kakuzu rolled his eyes. He had no words for Obito's self-inflicted fantasy.
At this point, Kakuzu couldn't help but wonder, "Is this guy under so kind of genjutsu? Sothing even stronger than Kotoamatsukami? He's completely trapped in an illusion of his own making!"
anwhile, on the other side of the world, Akira and Konan had returned to the Leaf Village without any major incidents.
Over the past few days, Akira had focused his efforts on perfecting his jutsu training.
By now, he had mastered almost all of the fundantal techniques, including the basics of Wood Release. He had even learned the Wood Release: Ranking Technique, a powerful defensive move.
When Akira finally returned to the Leaf Village, he had also just finished mastering the Wood Dragon Technique!
For the next half-month, Akira stayed in the Leaf Village, training tirelessly.
His current goal was to master the True Several Thousand Hands technique, but no matter how hard he trained, he couldn't fully grasp it.
One morning, after yet another life simulation with little progress on the Thousand Hands technique, Akira sighed deeply. He had an idea why he couldn't succeed.
"Looks like I just don't have enough chakra," Akira muttered to himself in frustration.
Techniques like Wood Release: Advent of a World of Flowering Trees and the Wood Human Technique could be powered by the chakra of a Kage-level shinobi. But the True Several Thousand Hands technique was far more demanding. Akira's current chakra reserves, while substantial, weren't enough to sustain it.
Thinking it over, Akira realized he had spent nearly two months focusing on jutsu training. He had spent over fifty million ryo mastering various fundantal and advanced jutsu, including Impure World Reincarnation and powerful Wood Release techniques like the Ranking
Technique.
Now, having learned most of the jutsu he wanted, Akira knew it was ti to focus on increasing his chakra capacity.
Based on his life simulation results, Akira could predict that once he surpassed Kage-level and reached the power of soone like Madara Uchiha or the First Hokage, the cost of life simulations would skyrocket to ten million ryō per session!
If that happened, he'd regret not having mastered these techniques when the simulations only cost one million per session.
With this in mind, Akira decided to focus on increasing his chakra levels rather than learning more jutsu for now.
Having made up his mind, Akira got up and went through his morning routine before heading toward Konoha Hospital.
Hanabi had been taking care of Hinata for a while now. Hinata's appearance had returned to normal, and she looked just like she had before.
According to Orochimaru, Hinata could awaken at any mont.
Over the past few days, Akira had made a habit of stopping by the hospital, hoping to be there
when Hinata woke up.
Another week or so passed without any major developnts.
During this ti, Akira focused on extracting chakra from his life simulations. Bit by bit, his chakra reserves increased. Like grains of sand forming a mountain, his chakra levels steadily
grew.
To Akira, the growth seed small. But in the ninja world, where his daily chakra increase was equivalent to the amount of chakra held by an elite jōnin, this rate of growth was enough to
shock anyone.
As it stood, Akira's chakra reserves were now comparable to those of the Uzumaki clan!
By his estimation, his chakra had surpassed the 80,000 mark!
Even in his base state, Akira was now one of the strongest individuals in the ninja world. Only people like Nagato and Naruto Uzumaki could rival his chakra capacity.
"Brother-in-law, you're here!" Hanabi greeted him with a bright smile as Akira entered
Hinata's hospital room.
"Yes, I'm here. Have you eaten yet? If not, you should go grab sothing. I can stay here,"
Akira said kindly.
"Brother-in-law, I-" Hanabi began, but suddenly, her expression changed.
At the sa ti, Akira's face shifted as well. Both of them turned their attention to the
hospital bed, where Hinata lay.
Hinata's chakra surged to life, a bright blue energy swirling around her. The chakra was visible to the naked eye, and her entire body began to levitate off the bed! The sheer amount of chakra pouring from her seed to appear out of nowhere.
Under the watchful eyes of Akira and Hanabi, Hinata slowly opened her eyes, floating in the
air.
Her gaze t Akira's, and her bright blue eyes sparkled like galaxies, swirling with countless
stars.
Next bonus chapter if we reach 400 Powerstone
Note: If you are interested, you can read up to chapter 285 at patreon/Emiko1.
Reviews
All reviews (0)