Unknown Alternate Dimension.
Inside a base with a distinct sci-fi feel, a man leaned lightly against a stone chair, his left hand gently supporting his cheek, his right hand swirling a goblet. The dark red liquid within emitted a strange, alluring aroma. The man wore a white haori, his hair gathered atop his head with a long braid trailing behind. A Roman numeral 'IV' was tattooed beneath his left eye, and a black diamond-shaped mark was imprinted on his chin. He wore red neck and wrist guards, his fingernails painted black. A black crystal was embedded in his abdomen, a red belt tied around his waist, and red earrings dangled from his ears. This was Jigen.
Around a long table in the middle of the room sat several men and women in various attires, their voices raised in what seemed to be a heated debate.
The instant the Spear of Heaven activated, the man's hand, swirling the wine, paused ever so slightly—a movement so minute it would have been impossible to notice without close observation.
"Jigen, what is it?" At one side of the long table, a man with neatly combed hair and sharp, practical attire noticed this and couldn't help but ask.
"...It's nothing. Please continue." Jigen shook his head slightly.
However, the individuals who had been fiercely arguing just moments before could no longer return to their previous state. In their memory, anything that could capture Jigen's attention was never a trivial matter.
Atop three giant birds that looked as if they had flown straight out of an ink wash painting, stood three figures: Sakura, Sai, and Ino.
"What on earth happened over there?" Sakura gazed into the distance at the area that now resembled the scene of an apocalypse, her expression grave.
BOOM!
Near their position, a crimson bolt of lightning suddenly struck down. The deafening roar vibrated their eardrums, leaving them ringing.
"Sai! Sakura! We need to get out of here!" Ino shouted.
"What did you say? Louder!" Sakura yelled back. The clap of thunder just now had been so terrifying that all three of them were experiencing temporary tinnitus, their hearing drastically reduced.
"Let's go! That place isn't somewhere we can approach!" Ino shouted at the top of her lungs.
Sai seemed to understand her, immediately maneuvering his ink bird to fly in the opposite direction.
But not everyone possessed such a clear understanding of their own limitations. Especially those "gamblers" who had come seeking secret treasures, hoping to strike it rich overnight. Upon seeing the Spear of Heaven emanating its terrifying might, they were like cats that had smelled fish, all employing their various skills to rush towards the center of the light pillar at high speed.
Among them, a man with a kasa hat slung on his back and several scars on his face charged at the very front.
"The bounty hunter, Ren?!" A fellow bounty hunter recognized him.
"Isn't he hunting Gosuun? Why is he here?"
"Could it be? Is Gosuun here too?!"
A crowd of bounty hunters and rogue ninja arrived beneath the Spear of Heaven. Gazing at the pillar before them, radiating terrifying energy, they realized that even arriving first was meaningless. Because they found that, faced with this "secret treasure," they had no idea where to even begin.
The dark red pillar of light persisted for a full hour. By then, the Spear of Heaven was already swarming with people. They didn't know why they were climbing it, but everyone else was, and if they didn't, they felt an inexplicable emptiness in their hearts, as if they had personally forsaken the "secret treasure."
"The secret treasure is mine!" A man with a square build, a square face, and a savage aura was the first to climb to the highest point of the Spear of Heaven. Gazing at the dark red pillar of light within arm's reach, he stretched his arm towards it with a crazed expression. This was the wanted criminal, Gosuun.
"Gosuun!" a sharp cry rang out.
He turned his head to see the bounty hunter Ren, using both hands and feet, struggling to climb to the top. Gosuun couldn't help but sneer, "A treasure of immense proportions is right before your eyes, yet you don't cherish it, instead thinking only of how to capture me. Foolish samurai. Then again, as someone who isn't even a ninja, how could you understand the preciousness of this power?"
Saying this, he thrust his arm violently into the pillar of light.
Thrum!
The chakra within his body began to grow at a terrifying rate, surpassing his years of arduous training in the blink of an eye. Joy was beyond words. He made a contemptuous gesture towards the attacking bounty hunter and leaped into the pillar of light.
"Don't even think about running!" Ren gritted his teeth and followed close behind, disappearing into the light.
Within the pillar of light.
Gosuun floated in the air as if freed from gravity. He stared, eyes wide, at the man hovering in the very center of the light pillar. The man was bare-chested, his physique almost perfect in proportion, his muscles exquisitely defined, like a stone sculpture from the hands of a renowned master. Several perfectly round black orbs circled behind the man, rotating slowly, as if containing all the profound truths of the world.
Seemingly sensing his presence, the man's closed eyes slowly opened. A divine light flashed within them, as radiant and bright as the dawn of a new day...
"Are you... a god?" he asked, utterly shaken by the sight.
The "god" did not answer him, merely lifting his right hand slightly. Instantly, Gosuun felt the swelling and discomfort within his body vanish, replaced by an immense sense of euphoria that made him instinctively close his eyes. A tachi, so black it seemed capable of swallowing all light, appeared in his hand.
When he opened his eyes again, the figure of the god was nowhere to be seen, as if it had all been an illusion. But the tangible sensation of the sword in his right hand told him that what had just happened was no figment of his imagination.
"What did you see?" The bounty hunter Ren heard his low murmur and looked intently, but saw nothing but an expanse of dark red.
Gosuun turned his head and looked at him mockingly. A difference of mere seconds; this man would probably go to his grave never knowing what a monumental opportunity he had missed. To come face to face with a god was to receive a divine blessing, to be bestowed with a divine weapon.
Vwwooom!
Just as the two faced off, the vast pillar of energy abruptly shrank until it disappeared.
Staring at the vanished light, both men were momentarily stunned, then fixed their gazes deadly upon each other. They both understood: the "secret treasure" of the Great Crater had been obtained by them. But neither had any intention of shaking hands and making peace. They had only one thought—Kill the other!
The secret treasure could only belong to one person!
Having lost the support of the light pillar's energy, both their figures plummeted towards the ground.
"They got the secret treasure!" A sharp-eyed rogue ninja spotted the two and shouted loudly. His words instantly gave a target to the crowd, who had been thrown into a daze by the disappearance of the light pillar.
"The secret treasure is mine!" a rogue ninja roared, leaping down towards the spot where the two were falling.
RUMBLE!
The Spear of Heaven began to shake violently.
"It's shrinking!" The people still clinging to the Spear of Heaven cried out, their faces contorted in terror.
A terrifying force caused the earth to crack open with countless horrifying fissures. The Spear of Heaven shrank to the size of a sword hilt, then, with a sonic boom, shot off and vanished from everyone's sight.
"It ran off. Aren't you going to chase it?" Ren asked, dual-wielding his swords, his peripheral vision catching this.
"What do you know?" Gosuun snorted. Trying to trick me into fighting with that god-like being for it? Does he take me for an idiot?
"Hand over the secret treasure! Gosuun, you don't deserve to possess it!" Several rogue ninja attacked him, but half of their kunai were aimed at the bounty hunter Ren—whether by accident or intentionally, it was hard to say.
"Shall we take care of these small fry first?" Gosuun asked.
"Fine by me." Ren clearly didn't consider these rogue ninja allies either and nodded slightly.
Gosuun reversed his grip on the black blade in his hand and swung it lightly. In an instant, with a deafening crash, a massive chasm, over ten meters long and two meters deep, tore open the earth. The rogue ninja who had been attacking him had vanished without a trace.
Pfft! Pfft!
Ren's figure blurred into several afterimages. Every flash of his blades was accompanied by a spray of blood, signifying the end of a life.
The brutal display from the two of them terrified the remaining onlookers, who stopped in their tracks, daring not to advance further.
"Is this the power of the 'secret treasure'?" A trace of regret flashed in their eyes. Why hadn't they been the first or second to climb to the top of that divine pillar? If they too had received the baptism of the light pillar, possessed such terrifying strength...
"Did you notice Gosuun's black blade? I remember he didn't have that sword earlier," someone whispered.
"Are you saying his current strength is entirely due to that sword in his hand?"
The eyes of the surrounding crowd flickered. It was common knowledge that human strength couldn't increase out of thin air. They were well aware of Gosuun's previous strength; now, they had witnessed firsthand how terrifyingly strong he had become. They couldn't snatch the strength a true expert had cultivated step by step, but this black blade before them... that was another story.
Gosuun's figure vanished, reappearing directly in the midst of the crowd. His black blade danced, reaping lives wantonly. He had been a wanted criminal before; there was no evil he hadn't committed. Seeing the shifty, avaricious looks on these people's faces, he could guess what these bastards were thinking even with his eyes closed. It was nothing more than the usual: find partners to rob him of his treasure; spread the news to stir up chaos and fish in troubled waters... Better your friend dies than you! For his own survival, he decided none of these people would leave here alive.
"Ren, help!" "We've hunted wanted criminals together, we're comrades!" "..."
The bounty hunter Ren merely watched quietly from the side, neither participating in the slaughter nor stepping in to stop it. Everyone here was an adult; who didn't know the score? Playing such meaningless emotional cards was utterly laughable. He feared that if he saved these people, he would be the one getting stabbed in the back moments later.
Just as Gosuun cut down the last person in his sight, he suddenly swung his long sword towards Ren. From the very beginning, they had shared an irreconcilable private grudge.
The two figures swiftly intertwined, clashing together. Blades met, sparks flying. The more they fought, the graver Ren's expression became. He discovered that what Gosuun had obtained in the pillar of light was not just that bizarre black blade, but also an unfathomably deep reserve of terrifying chakra. Sword waves capable of cutting stone and sundering metal were unleashed as if they cost nothing. He was being pushed to his limits.
Unseen by them, Naruto floated in mid-air, observing their battle. The strength these two possessed was entirely his deliberate creation. He didn't want anyone to know yet that he was the one who had activated the Spear of Heaven. So, he had orchestrated this scenario: the wanted criminal Gosuun and the bounty hunter Ren, in the midst of their pursuit, fortuitously obtaining a "secret treasure"—a plotline the masses would find delightful. It would attract attention and muddy the waters.
Originally, after Gosuun and Ren entered the pillar of light, they should have been torn apart by the natural energy the Spear of Heaven had absorbed over the years. But under his harmonization with Yin-Yang Release, the two had successfully experienced a fortuitous encounter, their strength greatly increasing, leaping to the level of Jonin-class powerhouses in one go. Gosuun, especially, with the Yin-Yang Release creation Naruto had gifted him—the black blade—even possessed the foundation to threaten Kage-level experts.
The miniaturized Spear of Heaven floated above his palm. Just as the Tonika Village records described, the Spear of Heaven was the weapon of a "Creator God." It was just that in this era, with the Otsutsuki clan having vanished into obscurity, no one could wield it. Stimulated by his tomoe Rinnegan, the genes within his body had also begun to transform in the direction of the Otsutsuki clan. From a certain perspective, he was perhaps no longer human, but an Otsutsuki. That was why, when the Spear of Heaven activated, he had felt that soul-deep desire to leap into the pillar of light. Because the Spear of Heaven, while being a weapon, was also a natural energy absorption device. Having been placed in this world by the Otsutsuki for an unknown number of ages, the natural energy it had absorbed surpassed anyone's imagination. And the reason for his desire was that the energy absorbed by the Spear of Heaven was precisely the energy the Otsutsuki clan used to modify and strengthen themselves. It was just that now, this energy had been intercepted by him.
"Unexpected harvest! You actually managed to form Truth-Seeking Orbs!" Kurama exclaimed, looking at the six black orbs floating behind Naruto. When he and Isobu had suggested Naruto try to form Truth-Seeking Orbs, it had been more of a theoretical concept. After all, Naruto at that time had pretty much reached the limits of human potential. He hadn't expected Naruto to actually achieve it.
"Luck was the main factor," Naruto also marveled. If not for the millennia of natural energy absorbed by the Spear of Heaven, allowing him to conduct numerous trial-and-error experiments, he probably wouldn't have known when in the blue moon he would have been able to form the Truth-Seeking Orbs. But the chakra consumed to create even one Truth-Seeking Orb had truly exceeded his expectations. Excluding the energy wasted in trials and the portion that dissipated into nature because he couldn't utilize it in time, the Spear of Heaven's thousands of years of accumulation could only support him in creating six Truth-Seeking Orbs.
But even with only six Truth-Seeking Orbs, his strength had undergone an earth-shattering transformation.
Naruto flicked his index finger. One of the Truth-Seeking Orbs behind him slowly flew towards a mountain range below. With a mere thought, the black orb, originally the size of a ping-pong ball, suddenly expanded, completely engulfing a mountain peak tens of meters high. When he recalled the Truth-Seeking Orb, what remained of the mountain looked like a loaf of bread from which a huge bite had been taken.
"Kurama, just as you said, the power of the Truth-Seeking Orbs surpasses all currently known levels of power in the shinobi world." Naruto beckoned with his finger, and the Truth-Seeking Orb returned to hover behind him. "In that case, there's no need for our plans to be so conservative. We can accelerate the schedule."
In the dead of night.
His tomoe Rinnegan emitted a bright golden glow. The void behind him tore open, creating a spatial rift, and his figure slowly disappeared into it.
Tonika Village.
The Dragon Heritage member left on guard paced anxiously back and forth in the room. Anyone who wasn't blind could tell from the commotion in the distance that something major had occurred.
"Good work." Naruto's voice sounded in the room.
The Dragon Heritage member's face lit up with joy. He turned to Naruto. "Leader, are you alright?"
"With my strength, what could happen to me?" Naruto patted his shoulder, leaving behind a surge of energy.
"This is?" The Dragon Heritage member looked at him, uncomprehending.
"You did very well. This is your deserved reward," Naruto said encouragingly. This energy was similar in principle to the Stone of Gelel, but its effects were better than the Gelel Stone, which could only enhance life energy. "When you cultivate, try to fuse with this power. It should allow you to surpass that limit."
"Thank you, Leader!" Hearing this, the Dragon Heritage member was overjoyed. He had been stuck at the peak of Chunin for many years, and due to insufficient aptitude, he had already lost confidence in being promoted to Jonin. He never expected to receive such an unexpected reward from such an ordinary mission. Instantly, his sense of belonging to the Dragon Heritage organization soared.
"Keep up the good work. Jonin isn't necessarily your limit."
As time passed, news of the events at the Great Crater gradually began to spread. The already unstable shinobi world, like a pot of boiling water, instantly seethed with turmoil.