Chapter 606: Goddess
"Activate."
Pale blue chakra condensed into a mist, sliding down the young girl's slender ankles.
It infiltrated the rune group in a silent, nourishing manner.
The runes were activated, turning from a dull grayish-black to pale blue, glowing with a faint light, and bringing a somewhat profound and mysterious aura to the ice layer.
From the inner circle outward, the energy inputted by Haruno Sakura turned from a trickling stream into a surging, roaring river. Soon, the entire jutsu formula was lit up layer by layer.
Beep—
"Activation charging complete."
"Rune group beginning self-check."
The translation incantations conveyed the operational status of the jutsu formula to the operator. A deep purple, ethereal light could be seen suddenly lighting up, flashing forward from the inner ring outward, dyeing the passing runes a profound purple.
This was the self-check jutsu formula in operation.
First, the inner circle rune group passed the self-check, the purple light shining evenly before spreading outward.
"Master control jutsu formula self-check passed."
"Input channel self-check passed."
"Anti-energy barrier group self-check passed."
...
"Output channel self-check passed."
In just a brief moment, the entire jutsu formula had been painted with purple light, the deep color adding a trace of mysterious flavor to the ice surface.
Ding—
"Self-check complete."
"Initiate the next phase?"
Haruno Sakura stopped.
The first two steps of activation and self-check could fail or be repeated as many times as needed without causing any impact. However, in the upcoming phase of activating the reactor, every step was a one-way street with no turning back. There was no possibility for regret, nor any room for error.
She only had one chance.
A deep breath.
The young girl's eyes remained clear, cold, and placid, showing no signs of apprehension or unease. With her mind racing, she went over the upcoming process one last time and no longer hesitated. There was no problem; I can succeed, Haruno Sakura thought.
"Activate."
The young girl's voice was steady and crisp.
"Please inject chakra." The jutsu formula began to unfold.
The young girl followed the prompt, lightly tapping her forehead, her fingertips pressing against the diamond-shaped jewel-like Yin Seal.
With a slight exertion of force, she pulled the purple mark out of her skin.
In an instant, the mark broke free from control and rapidly expanded, a strong blue light bursting forth along the gaps of the runes.
Katsuyu the Slug Sage quietly stepped back a few paces.
It knew how much chakra was stored within Haruno Sakura's Yin Seal—far exceeding that of an ordinary Kage-level ninja, and not even inferior to the Sage itself. If the seal lost control and the energy was released, it feared the entire Shikkotsu Forest would be reduced to history under the earth-shattering explosion...
Haruno Sakura herself remained calm and composed, possessing excellent psychological fortitude as she steadily continued her operation. Her movements were extremely fast; with a nimble flip of her wrist and a forceful slap, she pressed the Yin Seal onto a pre-designed blank space—a size perfectly matching the expanded mark. Then, the rune lines perfectly connected to the interface, and the energy on the verge of losing control immediately stabilized.
A massive amount of chakra began to be injected into the jutsu formula.
"Chakra injection complete."
"Anti-energy barrier group beginning to unfold, 099, 199, 299..., 9999."
"Anti-energy barrier group fully unfolded."
"Energy pool preparation complete."
"Beginning injection of uranium fuel core and control rods."
The fuel core was a silver-white cylindrical metal rod, produced by the enrichment plant in the Land of Snow through processes such as selection, crushing, acid leaching, and enrichment. The most critical centrifuge core within it was a high-speed rotating Rasengan—as long as this thing wasn't blasted outwards, the rotation itself wouldn't consume too much energy. Add in the nature transformation of water, and it could spin incredibly fast.
The control rods were creations of Yin-Yang Release, the black rods commonly used by Pain that possessed the effect of interfering with and absorbing energy. They were more effective than the boron carbide and graphite used on Earth in her past life, and were also more controllable and flexible, so Haruno Sakura had secretly learned a trick or two.
The existence of ninjutsu and sealing formulas allowed Haruno Sakura to achieve powerful functions without needing to construct complex reactor cores and machinery like humans in her past life!
"Fuel core and control rods injection complete."
"Initiate reactor?"
Finally... it was the most critical step.
Haruno Sakura's eyes rippled slightly. Taking a deep breath, she said in a deep voice:
"Initiate."
Katsuyu the Slug Sage had unknowingly retreated about a hundred meters, shrinking its head and staring fixedly at the jutsu formula not far away. The jutsu formula seemed to have no reaction at first, but it quickly realized that was just an illusion. In fact, the purplish-black control rods were shrinking at an extremely slow speed.
The Sage even had a feeling that, in a place it couldn't see, something was happening.
It was as if... a quiet plaza had suddenly become bustling with people coming and going.
Suddenly, the energy pool lit up.
First, the innermost energy barrier began to flicker, showing spots of light from being attacked. Soon, those spots spread like a virus to the second layer, the third layer... the inner barrier walls lit up one after another, their light becoming brighter and brighter.
Haruno Sakura knew, the chain reaction had begun.
This also meant that the seal had ushered in its most dangerous moment.
The energy conversion rune group began to activate according to the program, attempting to absorb the restless nuclear energy within the energy pool. The faintly shining blue light marked that the jutsu formula had entered the stage of full-power operation.
In a moment, the entire jutsu formula lit up.
The ice layer began to sizzle; the heat dissipating from the energy pool was rapidly melting the ice surface.
As the ice layer dissolved, the jutsu formula did not wash away with it. Instead, it gradually floated up until it was level with the young girl's eyebrows. The physical rune ink had long since evaporated completely; pure light outlined every rune of the jutsu formula, causing it to enter a state of pure energy.
"Activation complete."
"Current power 10%."
Haruno Sakura gently raised her hand, manipulating the seal to increase the power.
The control rods lifted, the reaction speed increased, and the power increased accordingly.
The energy pool grew brighter and brighter, its light almost blinding. The energy released by the chain reaction was absorbed by the energy pool, feeding back into the operation of the jutsu formula. The inner barriers gradually became unstable, especially the innermost few layers. Wildly bombarded by tyrannical energy such as high-energy rays released by nuclear fission, they collapsed and dissipated in the blink of an eye, turning into a flash of light, and were then rapidly rebuilt.
"Current power 40%."
The brilliance of the energy pool could no longer be looked at directly, and rolling waves of heat assaulted the face. The cooling runes lit up, absorbing and converting the excess heat to bring down the excessively high temperatures.
It was impossible to directly observe the state of the energy barrier walls with the eyes, but the master control jutsu formula could still clearly detect the situation inside the energy pool: the collapse of the barriers had already spread to the middle layers. The first fifteen layers of barriers were smashed to pieces almost as soon as they were reorganized, and stability could only be maintained beyond the thirtieth layer.
At this power, the energy released by the Yin Seal had already exceeded Haruno Sakura's output power at her peak!
Haruno Sakura remained unmoved, firmly continuing to turn up the power.
"Current power 100%."
The intense light blooming from the energy pool directly pulled a long, dark shadow behind the young girl. Even with her eyes closed, the blinding light could penetrate her eyelids and leave a dazzling spot of light on her retinas!
The barrier group operated at full power, regenerating barriers at a dizzying speed—which were then instantly destroyed. The inner barrier walls had already fallen into a cycle of birth and destruction on the millisecond level, and the outer barriers were also beginning to totter!
The young girl stared fixedly into the inside of the seal, not daring to slack off in the slightest.
This continued for a long time...
The barriers did not collapse.
The seal held steady! It had ultimately succeeded in locking that massive energy within the small, confined space of the energy pool.
Next, the new Yin Seal began to output energy at a maddening speed!
"It's a success!"
Haruno Sakura let out a long breath, finally freeing her hand to wipe the cold sweat from her temples.
During the operation just now, she appeared to handle it with ease and stood as steady as a mountain, but in reality, she had clenched her fists tight and her nerves were taut!
"No, I'm wrong, there's still one final step..."
The young girl suddenly thought of something.
"The most important step!"
With that said, she spread her hands, manipulating the energized jutsu formula to shrink drastically. The jutsu formula, which had just been hundreds of meters in size, finally shrank to the young girl's fingertips, turning into a condensed and blinding point of light.
Haruno Sakura pressed the new Yin Seal back onto her forehead, connecting it into her own meridian pathways.
An unprecedented, massive amount of chakra instantly surged into the young girl's body.
The next moment, she became a god.
Boom!!!
In merely an instant, surging energy poured madly out of Sakura's body. A pillar of qi could be seen shooting up into the sky, cleaving the clouds and piercing straight into the firmament!
A rumbling sound like a thunderstorm exploded by their ears, stirring up a semi-transparent wall of air visible to the naked eye. It was as if a ripple had formed in the sky, spreading rapidly in mid-air until it disappeared over the horizon.
The violent waves of air stirred up monstrous billows on the great lake. Terrifying waves roared, and turbid waves surged into the sky—it was utterly horrifying!
A fierce wind struck, blowing Katsuyu the Slug Sage backward again and again, leaving it dizzy and endlessly appalled!
The Sage struggled to raise its head, only to see light more blinding than the sun shooting out from the young girl's body. The latter's face and figure had long been swallowed by the dazzling glare, leaving only a vague silhouette. In a daze, it truly looked as if another sun had lit up in mid-air!
Endless brilliance and earth-shattering roars instantly filled the entire world!
In an instant, thousands of miles away, Tsunade, Jiraiya, Sakura Uchiha who was still fighting, Sasuke, Orochimaru, and Kabuto, as well as Pain and the others hiding in the dark, all inexplicably felt a palpitation in their hearts—
"Did something happen?" In Konoha, Tsunade pressed her chest, her heart pounding. "Why... is my heart suddenly beating so fast?"
In the Land of Sound, Sasuke and Orochimaru's fierce battle abruptly paused. Sakura Uchiha froze slightly, looking in a certain direction: "What a strong palpitation... Is it the original?"
In a certain secret base, Pain suddenly frowned tightly: "Strange... I suddenly have a bad premonition!"
After a good while, the blinding, intense light gradually subsided. The sky was as blue as if it had been washed; the scattered white clouds that had been drifting about earlier were now completely wiped out!
And in mid-air, a figure finally reined in her light, revealing her new image.
The young girl floated in the air, barefoot. The stiff, grayish-white ninja uniform on her body had been replaced by a gorgeous new purple outfit. Beneath the diamond-shaped Yin Seal on her forehead, a crescent moon-shaped mark had formed, faintly emitting a blue light and looking particularly magnificent.
She still faintly bloomed with fluorescence, and her aura was terrifyingly strong.
The energy of the newly born Yin God Mode was far too powerful and overflowing. Even with Haruno Sakura's control, it was difficult to tame such mighty energy, so she could only let the excess power leak out!
Katsuyu the Slug Sage poked its head out from the water surface, which was still rippling from the aftermath, looking at the sky, speechless.
It looked at Haruno Sakura; the young girl stood suspended in mid-air just like that, like a goddess.
No...
In the world of Naruto, at this moment, possessing such power, she was a goddess!
Such power had already surpassed anyone in Katsuyu the Slug Sage's memory, enough to rival the Sage of Six Paths from back then.
"Unbelievable." After a long while, the Sage finally recovered its senses and murmured, "It's as if I've seen..."
"Another Sage of Six Paths!"
In mid-air, the young girl looked over expressionlessly and shook her head.