Naruto: I, Shikotsumyaku, Byakugan Princess

Chapter 175 Tsubaki
"If I were you, I wouldn't touch it carelessly."

The light pillars embedded in the ceiling and walls suddenly lit up, and the dazzling white light turned the dim basement into daylight.

The rapidly changing light caused Gray Glass's eyes to squint uncomfortably.

Da da!

The soft leather heels clicked on the stair steps, the sound particularly crisp in the empty basement.

A woman with long, black hair cascading over her shoulders, dressed in a standard black uniform, slowly descended the stairs. Her face was cold and her eyes were expressionless, with two dark bruises under her eyes. She was none other than the mysterious Panda Girl from the Equipment Department.

Why is she here?
Hui Li subconsciously frowned.

At this time, most of the Root staff have already rested, and only a few ninjas on duty are patrolling inside Root. Why would she go here instead of going back to sleep?

Moreover, the experimental department and the equipment department are far apart, and there is a protective barrier outside the basement. How could she enter this place?

Suppressing the tangled questions in her mind, Hui Li retracted the chakra scalpel that was close to Samehada's belly and turned to look at the approaching panda woman:
"You know about it?"

She walked closer and glanced down at Samehada, who was rolling on the ground with its belly bulging:

"It...ate too much."

The unexpected answer made Hui Li's eyes widen as she looked at Samehada, who was on the ground in pain as if she were giving birth. Was she just bored and looking like this?

She couldn't believe it.

Samehada has an astonishing appetite. In the original story, Killer Bee, the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, had all six of his tails eaten by Samehada in one go. How could it possibly be so weak in such a short time?

"There are no perfect abilities in this world, and ninjutsu that absorbs chakra is by no means omnipotent. Wood Release chakra is not so easy to absorb."

"Just let it digest on its own for a while. If you cut open the organ that absorbs chakra, this..."

The panda woman stared at the sword hilt on Samehada's rear end, which was constantly pounding against the ground. She paused slightly, unsure of what to call this strange-looking creature.

"It's called Samehada, a great sword. It's a living ninja tool."

Noticing the other party's hesitation, Hui Li introduced Samehada's identity at the opportune moment.

Samehada was originally a symbiotic organism of the Three-Tails, Isobu, responsible for attaching itself to the Three-Tails' abdomen to help it clean up food scraps and refine chakra. It can extract five times the amount of chakra from its food compared to ordinary creatures and feed it back to the Three-Tails to maintain its fighting energy.

When the Three-Tails was sealed, Samehada became independent after separating from its original body.

It was later modified by Kirigakure into a ninja tool and became one of the weapons of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.

This creature doesn't even have eyes, and can only identify its master by sensing chakra. In its world, only chakra is real; everything else is false. It will relentlessly pursue any delicious chakra it encounters, which is why it so easily betrayed its master.

"Hmm... Samehada, its chakra core should be in its stomach and intestines. That part cannot be repaired. Once it is accidentally damaged, it will never be able to generate chakra again."

Hui Li nodded. Although she knew that with her control and technique, it was absolutely impossible to damage Samehada's chakra core, what the other party said was not without reason.

If you've just accidentally overeaten and it's not serious enough to require surgery, it's best to let it digest on its own.

"Can it digest it on its own?"

After struggling on the ground for a while, Samehada's condition had clearly improved. The trembling sword hilt automatically reached into Gray Glass's hand, conveying a simple signal.

"it is good……"

The information was vague and unclear; it was unclear whether it was answering Hui Li's question or saying that she was already cured.

However, it seems that there is nothing seriously wrong.

"Thank you for your help. May I ask your name?" Hui Li stared at the mysterious woman in front of her. This was the second time she had asked the woman for her name. The first time was before setting off for the mission at Lei Gu Mountain, when the woman did not answer her question.

She glanced at Hui Li's youthful face, her blank eyes seemingly shimmering with emotion.

"Tsubaki-hime".

After saying that, she turned and headed straight for the giant tree in the center of the basement without looking back. Her thin, frail but upright body resembled a lonely wild grass.

Tsubaki-hime?

Shaking her head, Hui Li was certain she had never heard of the name before, but that was normal. In a real world, the numerous characters from the original work only make up one millionth of the total population; they are actually a tiny minority.

"What's the difference between Wood Release chakra and regular chakra? Why did it transform Samehada like this?"

"It's not that Wood Release chakra is different, but rather that chakra with a changed nature is inherently more difficult to digest than ordinary chakra, and the same is true for the bloodline limit after the fusion of the two natures."

There are countless secret techniques within Yin and Yang Release that possess the ability to absorb chakra, but the difficulty in digesting nature-transformed chakra remains a problem for which no one has yet provided a satisfactory solution.

Blood inheritance limit?
Hearing the other party casually mention Yin-Yang Release, Nature Fusion, and Bloodline Limit, Hui Li couldn't help but become even more curious about Tsubaki's identity.

She casually flipped through the various books in the Root and Konoha collections, but she didn't find much knowledge related to Yin-Yang Release or Bloodline Limits. Unexpectedly, these hidden things seemed to be just ordinary knowledge to this mysterious woman in the Equipment Department.

He could even casually tell her about this stranger he had only met two or three times.

Seeing that the woman seemed more interested in sex than before, and not as cold and indifferent as she had been, Hui Li didn't want to miss this rare opportunity, so she simply asked directly:

"What's the difference between chakra resulting from the fusion of two nature transformations and ordinary single-nature chakra? Why does it become so difficult to digest?"

Just as Hui Li was pondering and asking questions, Chun Ji had already stopped in front of the giant tree.

"Different levels of stability."

She answered directly, completely ignoring Hui Li's platitudes, or rather, she didn't care about anything at that moment.

"Wood Release is formed by the fusion of earth and water, the two most stable physical properties."

The flow of water is absorbed by the earth, and the solidity of the earth is dissolved by the water. With a touch of Yang Escape as a catalyst, the two forces, whose original structure had been completely destroyed, are revitalized and a brand-new stable structure is born—wood!

Drawing upon the strengths of both, the 'wood' naturally possesses terrifying stability, harder and heavier than earth, more powerful than water, and also gains the resilience of life itself. Just a little bit is enough to make that strange fish suffer terribly.

She leaned against the glass wall with both hands, her dark eyes fixed on the massive chunk of flesh beneath the tree roots, her posture identical to that of the manic Chihaya Toru.

The severed limbs and fascia were like fleeting clouds, and the features that melted away like candles did not frighten her in the slightest. Her cold eyes stared at the head in front of her that was indistinguishable in terms of features, and Hui Li actually saw a different kind of tenderness and pride in it.

"I've come to see you all again."

Chun Ji's delicate face was pressed tightly against the glass pillar, her clear, lake-like eyes looking at the base made up of countless corpses. An indescribable emotion churned within her, and her longing and loneliness almost overflowed from her eyes.

This person?

Looking at the woman leaning against the glass pillar, the gray light in Hui Li's eyes flickered uncertainly, while the chakra core in the woman's heart, which was comparable to that of an elite Jonin, kept flashing with a dazzling light.

He has a thorough understanding of Wood Release bloodline limits, loose muscles without any signs of training, and no scars from battles all over his body, yet he possesses such powerful chakra!

When Hui Li first encountered Tsubaki in the Equipment Department, she sensed something was off about her. However, given the Nara brothers who had transplanted Sharingan eyes, she assumed she was another experimental subject. But now, it seemed… “Senju Tsubaki?”

Upon suddenly hearing her surname, which had been abandoned for many years, Senju Tsubaki's body stiffened. She slowly turned around and found the strange blind girl looking at her with a searching expression.

"How did you...?"

"The legendary Senju clan members are born with abundant vitality and immense chakra. Even a six or seven-year-old child can easily extract chakra comparable to a Jonin."

Your situation is very similar.

Hui Li looked at Senju Haruhime's massive chakra core with a sigh. She had gone to great lengths to develop the Reverse Eight Gates in order to cultivate the Senju Sage Body.

Upon hearing Hui Li's words, a hint of loneliness and sorrow flashed in Chun Ji's eyes:

"The Thousand Hands of the Forest have long since merged with Konoha, they no longer exist... no longer exist..."

Whether she was speaking to Haili or admonishing herself, Senju Tsubaki just mechanically repeated the words, turned around and leaned against the glass pillar, her body sliding down inch by inch.

The calm voice grew fainter and fainter until only a deeply sorrowful sigh echoed in the empty basement, like the murmurs of a lost soul.

Seeing this, Hui Li wanted to say something, but didn't know how to start.

As the wheels of time rolled on, the Uchiha family was not the only one crushed.

Senju, Uzumaki, Kaguya, Uchiha... these once-famous bloodline clans of the Warring States period have all been crushed into dust by the wheels of time.

Is it because they are unfortunate?

Do not!
Is it because they've become weaker?
Nor is it!
It's just that times have changed.

Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha pacified the world and established ninja villages, much like inventing firearms and cannons in the age of cold weapons. All secret martial arts schools and tactical masters had to bow down to the times.

The powerful ninja clans that dominated a region during the Warring States period were like children holding gold bricks when faced with a massive war machine composed of countless secret techniques, bloodline families, and commoner geniuses.

When the balance of power is reversed, one must either completely submit like the Hyuga clan, or emerge as a supreme powerhouse like Hashirama Senju. Those who lack strength but cling to their past glory will only be destroyed by endless greed.

Like her, like Naruto, like Sasuke, like the woman in front of me, their families are all like this, without exception.

Silence quietly spread in the basement.

Hui Li simply stared at the thriving giant tree, at the piles of corpses below, and at the woman sitting on the ground like a puppet, leaning against the glass pillar. She just watched quietly.

If she stops striving to become stronger, she will end up in this miserable state.

So she can't stop no matter what; even if she dies, she'll die on the path to becoming stronger.

creak!

creak!

Samehada thrashed about on the ground, its sharp spines scraping white marks off the hard stone bricks. Its swollen belly had also shrunk considerably.

It seems that Tsubaki was right; it did eat too much.

With her resolve strengthened, Hairi gripped the hilt of Samehada tightly, strands of pure chakra flowing down her arm and into her heart. Samehada could absorb external chakra and transform it into a pure, all-purpose chakra, which was not only pure in nature but also extremely efficient in absorption and transformation.

The chakra core greedily absorbed Samehada's all-powerful chakra, converting it into purple energy before drifting away along the double helix chains.

coo.

Bubbles rose from the yellow solution at the bottom of the glass column, emitting a strange sound.

Time passes quickly.

Before we knew it, it was late at night.

"Tsubaki, aren't you going back?"

Seeing the woman in front of him still leaning against the glass pillar, showing no sign of leaving, Hui Li clutched her now-shrunken sharkskin belly and felt anxious.

She wanted Samehada to consume more chakra, so that the research on the main body would have more assurance.

However, in front of Tsubaki, Hui Li was too embarrassed to make a move. After all, Tsubaki had just treated Samehada and explained Wood Release to her. It would be really awkward for her to absorb the chakra of Tsubaki's family now.

She doesn't have that kind of thick skin.

"Back to where?"

A weak, feeble voice came from Tsubaki's mouth. Her eyes, with their heavy dark circles, were hazy, as if she had drifted off into a dream.

"Go back to sleep."

"I can only fall asleep when they're with me."

With dark circles under her eyes, Tsubaki looked at Kairi's shriveled, belly-covered sharkskin and nodded as if she understood something:
"It's okay, eat if you want, just don't make a sound. I just want to stay here and sleep a little longer." After saying this, she seemed to have exhausted all her strength, closed her eyes and leaned against the glass, her face pressed against the blurry face inside.

Only then did Hui Li realize that the two had extremely similar facial features, especially the distance between their eyebrows and eyes, which was as if they were carved from the same mold.

That indistinguishable male and female corpse must be a member of Tsubaki's family!

He let out a heavy sigh.

Having already obtained permission, Gray Glass carried Samehada and quickly darted to the top of the glass pillar, offering it inside. This time, it was smarter; it only ate until its belly was slightly swollen before Samehada released its jaws and refused to eat any more.

She extracted the satiated Samehada and sealed the glass door, filling the gaps in the glass created by her Wind Release technique with Earth Release.

Looking down at the woman below who seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep, Hui Li pressed down on Samehada, which was writhing and digesting again, to prevent it from making a sound, and then slowly walked down the glass pillar.

Samehada takes a long time to digest Wood Release chakra, and the development of the Reverse Eight Gates is not something that can be accomplished overnight.

That's all for today!

Carrying the well-fed Samehada on her back, Hui Li tiptoed out of the basement and turned off the glaring lights as she did so.

hum!
The bright red barrier opened and closed.

In the empty and dark basement.

The lush green branches swayed inside the glass pillar, while the pale, disfigured body parts sipped the nutrient solution, making gurgling sounds. The woman, nestled against the giant tree through the glass, head bowed, slept peacefully, a faint, touching smile even appearing on her puppet-like face.

Her smile was pure and fresh, unlike wild grass, but more like a camellia bud about to bloom.

(End of this chapter)