Chapter 121: The Miraculous Hashirama Cells
"Kushina, it's like this…"
"Enough already, Sarutobi. If you keep chatting, Konoha is going to be finished. Impure World Reincarnation doesn't have a time limit, once this is over, you'll have all the time you want to reminisce!"
Tobirama barked, cutting off Sarutobi Hiruzen mid-sentence.
"…Yes. Third Hokage-sama, the Second Hokage-sama is right. Although I have many questions, this is obviously not the time to talk. Let's deal with the matter at hand first. What do you need me to do? Please give the order."
Kushina clenched her fists.
"The four of us will use the Four Red Yang Formation to seal off these roots. Then I'll place Flying Thunder God marks on the people inside the barrier. If something unexpected happens, I'll have a shadow clone use Flying Thunder God to transfer you all outside the formation."
The Second Hokage explained his plan.
The living people who needed to remain inside the barrier were Nagato, Uchiha Hikari and Shiromo, who would be absorbing chakra.
Shiromo didn't really matter. He could "phase through walls" at any time anyway; the Four Red Yang Formation wouldn't be able to stop him.
"Wait! Can that Flying Thunder God mark be removed?"
Uchiha Hikari took a step back and asked hurriedly.
"No. Flying Thunder God marks are permanent. But if you don't let me place one on you, and something goes wrong, then you will definitely die. Anyone trapped inside the Four Red Yang Formation will have to endure all incoming attacks directly, even Susanoo won't be able to block them."
Tobirama froze for a moment, then a faint smile appeared on his face as he answered Hikari.
"Then I'd rather choose death."
Hikari said it decisively, delivering a classic line that perfectly embodied Uchiha-style thinking.
In response, Tobirama wore an expression that clearly said, "I knew it would be like this," and then looked toward Shiromo.
The meaning was obvious: "Aren't you going to persuade her?"
"It's fine. If something really happens, Second Hokage, you can use the Spirit Transformation Technique to restrain her soul and wait for me to fix it."
What Shiromo was referring to was the forbidden technique Tobirama used in the original story to restrain Sasuke's soul, buying time until Yakushi Kabuto arrived to save him.
"Suit yourselves. I'm just afraid that by then she'll be blown up so completely there won't even be any scraps left."
Seeing that both of them had the same attitude, Tobirama didn't bother trying to persuade them further.
After placing a Flying Thunder God mark on Nagato's clothing, he signaled to the others.
Temari, Gaara, and Orochimaru, all uninvolved parties, moved to the outer perimeter.
"Four Red Yang Formation!"
Along with the synchronized shout of "Four bottles of Wanglaoji," a deep crimson cubic barrier rapidly rose up.
"Summoning Technique: Gedo Statue."
At the same time as someone yelled "Mobile toilet," Nagato summoned the Gedo Statue.
"Then… let's begin."
Shiromo flew into the air and pressed his hand against the root system of the Dragon Vein.
As gravity inverted, the shell, so tough that Temari's tornado earlier hadn't even scratched it, instantly split open with a huge hole.
A torrent of chakra began to surge out in all directions.
"Sealing Technique: Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals!"
Nagato formed hand seals and began using the same technique originally meant to seal and absorb tailed beast chakra, now to absorb the chakra of the Dragon Vein.
Shiromo stopped Uchiha Hikari, who was also preparing to absorb chakra. "There's no problem for now. Don't move yet."
The size of the opening Shiromo cut wasn't deliberately kept small.
This thing was like the Ten-Tails plugging a power strip into the ground, and then accidentally snapping it off.
Normally, if it broke, that would be the end of it. But then some kind-hearted passerby sealed that power strip into the bedrock, stabilizing it.
Now that it had been cut open again, if the opening were too small, the pressure and impact would become enormous.
If the opening were too large, then the amount released per unit of time would be excessive.
So the opening could be neither too big nor too small.
The problem was that Shiromo didn't actually know the total amount of chakra contained within the Dragon Vein, so he could only make an estimated judgment.
For now, it seemed fine.
"When fluctuations appear, you can help by absorbing some chakra."
Shiromo spoke.
"Alright."
Hikari activated the ability of Yachihoko, and the mark she had left on the Dragon Vein began to draw in chakra.
However, as time passed, the outflow of chakra seemed to grow more and more violent.
"I'll help!"
Below, Hashirama, who was maintaining the Four Red Yang Formation, created a Wood Clone, entered Sage Mode, and clapped his hands together.
"Sage Art: Gate of the Great God!"
Several Gate of the Great God descended from the sky and slammed down around the craak.
Like metal locking rings, they controlled the rate at which chakra poured out.
"That's about enough chakra absorption. Transfer it into the Gedo Statue for storage."
Once the output rate slowed and Hikari stopped absorbing, Shiromo spoke again.
"Got it."
Hikari didn't ask why. She directly activated the Yachihoko mark she had left on the Gedo Statue and transferred the chakra she had just absorbed from her body into it.
This was what trust felt like.
If it had been an Uchiha who didn't trust him, they would already be starting to suspect that he was trying to weaken them.
Of course, Shiromo had his reasons for doing this.
For Hikari, chakra quantity was indeed extremely important.
As long as she had enough chakra, she could disregard eye power entirely, surpass the Eternal Mangekyō, and activate Complete Body Susanoo.
Moreover, having a vast amount of chakra would greatly reduce the cost of using dōjutsu.
It would have an effect similar to Hashirama cells.
But at the same time, this also brought a problem.
That problem was the body having to endure an excessively large amount of chakra.
First of all, Hashirama cells are something truly miraculous.
As for how miraculous.
Calling Hashirama a regression of the God Tree would actually be underselling it.
Obito and Madara could use Hashirama cells to enhance their control over the Ten-Tails, and transplanting Hashirama cells granted a whole pile of absurd buffs.
It could only be said that even Ōtsutsuki cells weren't this ridiculous. If this really was regression, then it would have to be a regression to the Ōtsutsuki God himself.
There were even unofficial records claiming that the chakra of the nine tailed beasts was originally distributed evenly.
The Sage of Six Paths wasn't biased, he didn't divide it as "one share for Shukaku, one share for Kurama, one share for Matatabi, one share for Kurama" and so on.
The real situation was that after Hashirama got married, he tirelessly "worked" his body for Uzumaki Mito, the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki. While Kurama was living inside Mito as a little glutton, it secretly consumed a massive amount of "Hashirama cells," which was why it ended up with far more chakra than the other tailed beasts.
But no matter how you looked at it, there was one hurdle that couldn't be ignored: Hashirama's death at a relatively young age.
Well, it couldn't exactly be called 'young', after all, he had already become a grandfather.
But compared to the miraculous nature of Hashirama cells, and the vitality and longevity of the Senju and Uzumaki clans, it simply didn't add up.
Explanations like "cells have a limited number of divisions" might work for ordinary people, but in the face of the miraculous Hashirama cells, something like that shouldn't have happened at all.
Madara only transplanted a small amount of Hashirama cells into his body, and they ended up growing into an entire face.
What kind of Hashirama cells were these? These were Tomie cells.
With that kind of proliferation, how could there possibly be an upper limit on the number of divisions, where you just die once it's reached?
Fortunately, in 'Sasuke Retsuden', there was a plot point that answered this question.
In 'Sasuke Retsuden', Naruto contracted a strange illness that left him extremely weak. He couldn't even mobilize chakra, and his life was in danger, he could die at any moment.
After investigation, it was discovered that the Sage of Six Paths had once suffered from the same illness.
And in both cases, it was caused by having to bear an excessively massive amount of chakra within their bodies.
So then, Hashirama, who once looked at Naruto plus Kurama and said, "Your chakra is almost catching up to mine", could it be that he had also contracted this disease?
Unfortunately, unlike the Sage of Six Paths and Naruto, Hashirama never went to the Land of Retsudo to find the cure.
He really did just die outright.
To prevent something like this from happening, Shiromo needed to control the amount of chakra inside Hikari's body.
Anyway, whenever she needed it, there was always the Gedo Statue, the ultimate large-scale battery, right there.
(End of this chapter)