That night after the fishing test.
Kakashi released the little fish from the buckets, then used the five remaining big ones to make Konome, Naruto, and Sasuke a grilled-fish feast.
The method wasn't anything fancy, but the taste was absurdly good.
He roasted the fish over an open flame until it was about seventy to eighty percent done, then simmered it in a special spicy sauce. Apple slices went in too, adding a thread of sweet-and-sour brightness. The skin came out crisp and smoky with a satisfying chew, while the flesh was tender, fragrant, and soaked through with flavor.
Konome used her chopsticks to peel off a piece of skin, wrap it around a chunk of soft meat, dip it once in the sweet-spicy red broth, then pop it into her mouth. The moment she chewed, her whole body practically ascended.
Naruto and Sasuke ate so hard they couldn't even lift their heads, hissing and panting between bites as they inhaled everything in sight. While praising the fish, they even grudgingly admitted that Icha Icha Paradise was indeed a masterpiece from the sacred halls of art, one that simply had to be appreciated.
With his "incredible culinary skills" washing away the injustice of his "reading porn" reputation, Kakashi cooked with even more enthusiasm. For a while, host and guests were all smiles.
After that night, Team Seven was officially established.
Under normal procedure, the next step was grinding missions, stacking experience, and then pushing for chūnin promotion.
Unfortunately, this team was anything but normal.
Leaving aside Kakashi, one of the village's top elite jōnin, Naruto and Sasuke alone were already two "over-tuned" special jōnin in all but name.
Sasuke had learned swordsmanship early, and with the Sharingan being shamelessly effective on top of that, his strength progressed at a terrifying pace. His only flaw was a lack of chakra. Once his "chakra seed" gradually bloomed and bore fruit, he would step straight into the jōnin tier.
Naruto trained under Might Guy. His chakra was so excessive that the Eight Gates were out of the question, but with that monstrous chakra propping him up, his muscle growth was outrageous. With pure taijutsu and Shadow Clones alone, he could already reach jōnin-level combat power. Because he couldn't do genjutsu at all and his ninjutsu control was still rough, he lacked a decisive finisher and long-range methods, so under normal conditions he was a bit weaker than Sasuke. But the moment he drew on the Nine-Tails' chakra, his ceiling jumped straight into the realm beyond Kage-level.
And then there was Konome, one foot already planted beyond Kage-level.
This "genin team" was packed with monsters, a gathering of talents so dense it was almost ridiculous. Sending them to do D-rank missions was like dropping a nuclear bomb on a mosquito. It was a waste of manpower.
But it was also an unavoidable part of the standard chūnin promotion process.
Without enough mission records, they couldn't properly participate in the Chūnin Exams. The end result would be three terrifyingly strong "Konoha genin."
If they followed the rules, Kakashi didn't have much choice.
Everyone went through it. Even Minato Namikaze had jōnin-level strength when he graduated, and he still had to pick up trash when the time came.
Naruto and Sasuke were unhappy, but they could only pinch their noses and accept it, using the downtime to repair their weapons.
Ordinary iron weapons were cheap. Two or three thousand ryō could buy a decent ninja tool. But the moment you involved rare chakra-conductive metals, the price multiplied by dozens.
The more chakra metal mixed into a weapon, the more expensive it became. Worse, even at those prices, supply couldn't meet demand. You could have money and still not be able to buy a suitable weapon.
Naruto was fine.
His fighting style didn't rely much on weapons. He could walk into a ninja tool shop and grab any old pair of knuckle-dusters and make do.
Normal ninja tools had low chakra conduction. You poured in ten units of chakra, and only two or three units of effect came out. But who cared when you had Naruto's reserves?
Even the finest chakra-conductive metal, the mythical "one hundred percent conduction" material, only meant ten units of chakra became ten units of output.
Naruto could just cram in a hundred units, a thousand units, into a cheap iron tool. Even if only a tenth or two-tenths remained, it was still enough to crush someone else's chakra-metal ninja tool.
Brute force produced miracles.
Sasuke didn't get miracles.
His sword style inherited from both the Hatake and the Uchiha. When he swung, it was sparks and lightning, dazzling and violent, but it demanded extremely high chakra conduction from the blade. On top of that, Sasuke's chakra reserves were limited. He couldn't afford waste. To unleash the true power of his swordsmanship, he needed a weapon forged from chakra-conductive metal.
So his damaged blade was handed to professionals for repairs, and until it was done, he couldn't leave the village.
They took the opportunity to stay in Konoha and do simple missions as a bridge period. Clearing drains, picking up trash, finding cats.
Anything they could repeat to build mission counts, they did.
Konome wasn't going to pick up trash with them.
She sent a Shadow Clone to follow Team Seven, while her real body went straight to her most loyal force: Root.
It was still the Third Base.
"My lady."
In the brightly lit corridor, Root shinobi greeted her in low voices. Their eyes burned with something difficult to describe as they watched the one who had pulled them out of misery.
"Has Danzō shown any abnormalities lately?" Konome asked, scanning the faces as she headed toward the research division.
A Root operative in charge of intelligence followed and reported Danzō's movements.
"Just as you predicted, Danzō used Kotoamatsukami on Kitsunebi. He wanted to rewrite Kitsunebi's will and force loyalty. Thanks to your warning, we were prepared in advance, so there was no impact."
At the mention of "rewriting will," the man's eyes filled with fear and hatred.
That ability was too terrifying. Once you were hit, you could become someone's puppet without even realizing it. Even if you weren't the one targeted, what if your family or friends were altered and then stabbed you when you least expected it? How could anyone guard against that?
His gaze toward Konome grew even more grateful.
If she hadn't warned them, they would never have known Danzō was hiding such an evil power. Root might have become his blade of cruelty all over again.
Serving Konome was the correct path.
Only she could lead them in overthrowing Danzō's wicked rule.
Konome nodded, watching the Root shinobi along the way. Above their heads, the light of worship, gratitude, and loyalty shone so brightly it was soothing.
Kotoamatsukami and the Nine-Tails' "sense of good and evil" had formed a linked effect.
She could use Kotoamatsukami to guide others into loyalty, and she could also directly see whether a subordinate's loyalty had weakened. If she detected an issue, then came the real brainwashing of Kotoamatsukami or physical elimination. Only by doing that could she swallow the Root Danzō had commanded for decades.
After confirming Root remained loyal, she asked again, "Any clues about the hidden suicide agents in ANBU?"
"Yes. These past few days, Danzō contacted some old subordinates hidden in ANBU. One ANBU squad leader, and two ANBU intelligence personnel. We didn't move, afraid we'd alert them."
The operative listed the three with precise detail.
"Root has supplied blood to ANBU for years. There's no way it's only two or three small fry," Konome said. "Monitor those three closely. See if we can find a breakthrough through them."
"Yes!"
After giving the orders, Konome waved them off and entered̄ walked alone into the research division.
The hive-like laboratory was much the same as before, except the focus was no longer on transplanting Hashirama's cells. It had shifted to studying the "chakra seeds" within Hashirama's cells.
That was her command.
If she wanted to reach Six Paths, she currently held three routes in her hands.
First: without relying on external objects, fuse seven chakra natures to create Kekkei Mōra. Once achieved, the path to Six Paths would open naturally.
This method was unimaginably difficult, but it carried no hidden dangers. It was the most orthodox route.
Second: use a God Tree seed to devour Toneri Ōtsutsuki's body, seize the Nine Tailed Beasts, let the God Tree swallow their chakra, and produce a brand-new chakra fruit. Once she consumed the chakra fruit, she would naturally enter Six Paths and become a new "ancestor of chakra."
This route was riskier. There were too many uncertain factors in the middle, but it might completely erase the immortal Ōtsutsuki Kaguya. It was a leap straight to the heavens.
Third: directly devour the Nine Tailed Beasts and turn herself into a small Ten-Tails, achieving Kekkei Mōra that way.
This route carried the greatest risk. Kaguya Ōtsutsuki might seize her body like a cuckoo taking over a nest. Konome had already discarded it.
But after thinking it through, she realized these three methods were essentially the same.
Devouring tailed beast chakra herself was still fusing seven chakra natures.
The God Tree devouring tailed beast chakra was also fusing chakra of different attributes.
So what was the difference?
Even the Tenseigan Chakra Mode on the Moon probably couldn't avoid chakra fusion. The Tenseigan simply "skipped" that step for its user. The fact that Toneri immediately regressed after losing the Tenseigan proved it.
Naruto and Sasuke could enter Six Paths because they borrowed chakra from the Sage of Six Paths and the tailed beasts, and after the Ōtsutsuki battle they fell out of that level again.
There were a thousand methods, but in truth there was only one road.
Once she saw through the surface, she understood that "chakra fusion" could never be bypassed.
So over the last five years, she had split off a massive number of Shadow Clones to study methods of chakra fusion, and the researchers in this division, under her command, explored the secrets of Kekkei Genkai.
After years of experiments, they had finally achieved a breakthrough.
It was the same underground chamber where the Senju Tree was sealed.
A sea of green churned endlessly. The flesh-like base gently squirmed. Time had left no mark on the tree. In a sense, it had destroyed the Senju, yet also made them eternal.
In front of the tree, several Konome clones in white lab coats were busy with vials and instruments. These were the Shadow Clones she had assigned to study Wood Release. They were identical in appearance, except for one Yang Release clone wearing Root attire, making it easier to tell apart.
Before Konome could look closer, a scraping sound crawled along the floor.
Samehada wriggled forward, dragging its spikes with a grating hiss. From a distance it looked like a giant caterpillar. It shamelessly blocked Konome's path, mouth agape as if it had just "accidentally" wandered here.
Konome sighed and fed it one unit of chakra.
The greedy roadblock immediately wagged and wiggled aside.
"You're here?" the Yang Release clone asked, turning from the commotion and setting down his work as he approached.
Konome had barely begun, "I heard the Kekkei Genkai research…"
"See for yourself."
Without waiting for the main body to ask, the Yang Release clone pressed his left fist to his chest. The fake chakra core synced instantly with the main body, and an enormous torrent of memory fragments slammed straight into Konome's mind.
Unlike the pain of organizing memories in the past, she only closed her eyes for a moment to steady herself before digesting everything completely.
After years of using Shadow Clones, she had become increasingly adept at this kind of memory transfer.
And with her Sage Body entering its second stage, based on the principle that Yin is born from Yang, the growth of her soul and mental strength wasn't weaker than her physical growth. She even suspected that her ability to radiate fear into her surroundings came from her unusually powerful will and spirit.
The side effects of the Shadow Clone method hadn't disappeared entirely, but she had reduced them to the lowest level. She was no longer dizzy after only a few transfers. Once her Sage Body entered the third stage, she might be able to use Shadow Clones as freely as Naruto.
As Konome sifted through the memories, her brows lifted in surprise. The results her clones had uncovered were enough to overturn her old assumptions.
"As you can see," the Yang Release clone said calmly, "I studied the nature of Wood Release chakra and discovered its structure is an overlap of Earth and Water structures, with a bit of Yang Release mixed in. At first I thought this was the trait of Kekkei Tōta, but later I realized that wasn't it at all."
He looked at Konome's expression and continued, voice steady as he revealed the truth behind Wood Release and Kekkei Genkai.
"So-called chakra fusion is actually a misconception.
It's like hydrogen and oxygen forming water. It isn't that hydrogen gas and oxygen gas 'fuse.' Their tiniest atoms are linked by chemical bonds, creating water as a unique compound.
Chakra works the same way.
At the smallest level, chakra particles gather into a primary structure. That primary structure becomes the five: Wind, Water, Fire, Earth, Lightning. Different structures represent different chakra 'states,' forming the most basic nature transformations.
You could call them elements.
And while maintaining those basic nature transformations, if you extract the smallest elemental chakra particles and then bind those elemental particles together, you form countless compounds.
Compound-form chakra particles are larger, their structures more complex. They produce more, stranger nature transformations, which on the macro level become what we recognize as Kekkei Genkai.
Wood Release chakra particles are a secondary particle structure built from Water and Earth primary-structure particles, with Yang Release chakra acting as the 'chemical bond' that links the two.
I suspect other Kekkei Genkai work the same way.
Two of the five elemental chakra natures form the base, while Yin and Yang, the most special types that don't conflict with any element, act as universal intermediates. Those three combine to form a complex Kekkei Genkai.
As for Kekkei Tōta, fusing three basic nature transformations, the difficulty is at least triple that of a normal Kekkei Genkai.
Take Dust Release: Wind, Fire, Earth.
You might have to construct something like a triangular structure: Wind linked to Fire via Yin-Yang, Fire linked to Earth via Yin-Yang, Earth linked back to Wind via Yin-Yang.
Or maybe Kekkei Genkai and Kekkei Tōta are two different paths and it isn't as hard as I'm imagining. Otherwise that old man Ōnoki should have three Kekkei Genkai.
In any case, the basic theory behind chakra 'fusion' is this.
Two elemental natures, with Yin-Yang sandwiched between as the bond.
Keep going until all five elements are linked through Yin-Yang intermediates.
That is the so-called fusion of seven chakra natures.
Kekkei Mōra."
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