The Zero-Tails lunging at Asuka missed its target. At some point, Asuka had already vanished from where he originally stood.
Shinnō hurriedly looked around before raising his head. He discovered Asuka standing calmly in midair, looking down at him.
This was one of the more practical abilities Asuka had unlocked from a collection of miscellaneous powers—the ability to freely walk and run through the air.
The moment Shinnō spotted him, he immediately controlled the Zero-Tails to release a large number of tentacles toward Asuka. However, before the tentacles could even reach him, they were sliced apart by purple blades of light.
This was one of the abilities belonging to the mutant Psylocke. Through telekinesis, she could manifest various weapons, including—but not limited to—light blades, bows and arrows, ropes, and shields. All of these manifested weapons possessed formidable offensive power.
After cutting apart the tentacles surrounding him, countless purple arrows appeared around Asuka, attacking the Zero-Tails like a swarm of guided weapons.
Shinnō controlled the Zero-Tails to dodge left and right. Its massive body slid across the ground like a giant loach while energy arrows rained down from the sky.
Even though Shinnō tried desperately to evade the attack, the Zero-Tails' enormous body still took numerous hits. Each arrow carried power comparable to an explosive tag. The continuous impacts blasted large holes into the Zero-Tails' body of condensed energy.
Although Shinnō quickly repaired the damage using Dark Chakra, the Zero-Tails' body began shrinking rapidly because it had not accumulated enough Dark Chakra to sustain itself.
Before long, its massive form had shrunk to only slightly larger than an ordinary wild beast.
When the barrage of arrows finally ended, only Shinnō's figure remained lying on the devastated ground.
Asuka descended slowly from the sky. Shaking his head, he looked at the unconscious Shinnō.
If he hadn't wanted to test Psylocke's ability, Asuka could have knocked out the Zero-Tails with a single punch long ago.
The Zero-Tails sounded impressive in theory, but its actual combat power was pitiful. In the original story, it had been completely overwhelmed by four-tailed Naruto without any chance to fight back.
Asuka's interest in the Zero-Tails was mainly due to its so-called Dark Chakra—a power said to absorb energy from the negative emotions of the human heart.
Walking over to Shinnō, Asuka grabbed him by the leg and dragged him several meters across the ground.
In the next instant, both of them disappeared.
…
When Asuka appeared again, he was already inside his secret laboratory in Kirigakure.
He had built this laboratory in secret over many years. Nearly all the rewards he had earned from missions had been invested into its construction.
The entire laboratory had a high-tech style that looked completely out of place in the Hidden Mist Village.
In the center of the lab sat something even more unusual—a computer.
Yes, a computer.
Although still primitive, computers had already begun appearing before the Third Great Ninja War.
Asuka often complained about the strange technological development of the ninja world. While most civilians were still struggling to survive, machines like computers had already been invented.
He casually threw the unconscious Shinnō onto the operating table and secured his limbs.
Then Asuka disinfected himself and changed into surgical clothing.
With a scalpel, he cut open Shinnō's clothes and quickly located the sealing formula for the Zero-Tails on his abdomen.
Placing his left hand on the seal, Asuka slowly infused chakra into it and carefully damaged part of the sealing structure.
In the next moment, the Zero-Tails' chakra began leaking out from Shinnō's abdomen.
However, the creature had already become extremely weak, so the escaping chakra was very unstable.
As the Dark Chakra climbed up his arm, Asuka noticed something interesting.
This energy seemed to constantly provoke the negative emotions hidden deep within a person's heart.
He had already sensed this effect during the earlier battle.
However, Asuka's mental strength was far too powerful. The Dark Chakra had merely caused a slight tremor in his mental defenses before becoming completely suppressed.
If he hadn't been deliberately paying attention, he might not have even noticed the disturbance.
Now, watching the Dark Chakra creeping along his arm, Asuka intentionally sealed off most of his mental defenses.
He allowed the Dark Chakra to stir his negative emotions.
As the energy spread through his body, he clearly felt destructive impulses, killing intent, and other negative feelings rising within his mind.
These emotions immediately fed the Zero-Tails' chakra.
The previously weak Dark Chakra quickly grew denser and more stable.
Part of the reason was likely that Asuka's own strength was extremely high. The quality of the negative emotions he generated was far superior to those of ordinary people.
Afterward, Asuka conducted a variety of experiments with the Dark Chakra.
Eventually, he discovered that this so-called Dark Chakra was not fundamentally different from ordinary chakra.
Its only special property was the ability to stimulate negative emotions and convert them into energy to strengthen itself.
In terms of raw power, however, it was far inferior to the corrosive chakra of the tailed beasts.
That explained why Naruto, in his four-tailed state, had easily defeated Shinnō's Zero-Tails in the original story.
To further confirm his conclusions, Asuka gathered numerous experimental subjects.
Using the Red Devil's teleportation ability, he traveled across the ninja world and captured civilians, rogue ninja, and bounty hunters, bringing them back to the laboratory for human experimentation.
Of course, Asuka wasn't so extreme as to test maximum output on every subject.
Some innocent civilians were given only a small amount of Dark Chakra while he carefully recorded the resulting physical changes. Afterward, he extracted the Dark Chakra from their bodies.
He then erased their memories, gave them a sum of money, and sent them back to where they came from.
For bandits and rogue ninja, however, Asuka showed no such mercy.
He thoroughly tested the effects of Dark Chakra on ninja of various strength levels.
After recording all the data, he calmly ended their suffering and disposed of their bodies.
Looking at the dense information recorded in his experimental logbook, Asuka had now fully understood the nature of Dark Chakra.
In simple terms, it was neither particularly valuable nor completely useless.
For someone of Asuka's strength, it had little practical value. But for weaker ninja, it could serve as a method to temporarily unleash explosive power.
The problem now was what to do with the Zero-Tails itself.
Discarding it felt wasteful, but keeping it seemed unnecessary.
After thinking for a moment, Asuka suddenly had an idea.
Since he already understood the essence of the Zero-Tails, perhaps modifying it could produce unexpected results.
Once the idea appeared, he immediately began working on the modification.
The Zero-Tails was essentially incorporeal, born from the negative emotions of humans. Asuka's goal was to alter its form of existence—transforming it into something between illusion and reality.
Fortunately, among the newly awakened abilities he possessed was one related to the soul.
Although the ability itself was weak, it allowed him to directly interact with spiritual energy.
After working day and night, the project finally took shape.
Standing in front of a large container filled with nutrient solution, Asuka looked at the newly modified Zero-Tails floating inside.
He nodded in satisfaction.
The modified Zero-Tails still retained its ability to absorb negative emotions and grow stronger.
Its new body existed in a state between illusion and reality, allowing it to avoid most physical attacks.
When in its illusory form, it could even possess a ninja's body.
In addition, Asuka had erased its consciousness entirely, preventing it from ever developing intelligence again. It would only obey the commands of whoever summoned it.
Yes—summoned.
This had been Asuka's sudden inspiration.
He had transformed the Zero-Tails into a summoning beast.
He engraved the summoning contract directly onto its soul and created a summoning scroll. Anyone who signed their name on the scroll could summon the Zero-Tails to assist them in battle.
Normally, without a steady supply of negative emotions, the Zero-Tails' power would be significantly reduced.
However, the creature carried a natural battlefield debuff.
The moment it appeared, its Dark Chakra would stimulate negative emotions in everyone on the battlefield except the summoner.
As it absorbed these emotions, the Zero-Tails would grow stronger.
A stronger Zero-Tails would trigger even more intense negative emotions, which in turn would further increase its power—creating a self-sustaining cycle.
The Zero-Tails appears.
Enemies become affected by negative emotions.
The Zero-Tails grows stronger.
Enemies are affected even more.
The cycle continues.
Enemies become weaker while the Zero-Tails grows increasingly powerful.
In essence, it functioned as a wide-area debuff against all enemies.
On top of that, the Zero-Tails could shift into an illusory state to avoid attacks, and it could also possess its summoner to enhance their strength—without affecting the summoner's sanity.
This was Asuka's final research result.
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