October, Year 43 of Konoha.
On the final night before the full moon, Yako sat atop the First Hokage's face on the Hokage Rock.
He looked down over Konoha.
Below, the village streets were still full of people moving through the night.
Some walked in haste.
Others moved at a leisurely pace.
Yako had been in this world for years now, and every single month had been packed full of missions.
But after returning to the village this month—spending time with Kyoi, spending time with his child, arranging ANBU assignments, helping Princess Kushina with her special training—
The pace of his life had suddenly slowed.
And tonight...
He didn't want to think about ANBU missions.
Didn't want to think about the Ōtsutsuki.
Didn't want to think about Uchiha Madara.
Didn't want to think about Danzo.
Didn't want to think about his Jashin cult either.
Tonight, he simply sat atop the Hokage Rock and emptied his mind.
The night wind was a little cold.
Before long, it carried away the last traces of heat from his body.
Once his mind had settled completely, Yako formed a Buddhist mudra with his hands.
Ever since cultivating the Threefold Wrathful King Dharma Form, Yako no longer needed to deliberately seek death in order to experience the Three Lives.
Last month, he had encountered the Jashin and died at its hands.
This month, nothing had happened.
So tonight, he intended to enter nirvana by his own will and walk through the Three Lives once more.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
The scenery around him faded away.
The sounds around him faded away.
In an instant, Yako's body temperature dropped to an icy stillness.
When all afflictions are extinguished, that is parinirvana—that is nirvana.
All conditioned things are impermanent.
They arise and pass away.
Within his heart, the Threefold Wrathful King Dharma Form slowly turned.
Its three heads gazed toward his past life, present life, and future life.
And when the three Buddha heads completed a full rotation...
Yako completed one full cycle of Three Lives cultivation.
Several minutes later, he slowly opened his eyes.
The Threefold Wrathful King Dharma Form had grown stronger.
The system's reward had manifested as an increase in spiritual energy.
If measured through the lens of his Thousand-Hand Wrathful King, then he had gained nine additional Buddha arms.
And just as Yako was quietly enjoying the fruits of his cultivation—
A voice suddenly rang out in his mind.
His believer, Hidan, was praying to him.
Praying with utmost sincerity.
"O great Jashin... I can only serve you up to this point..."
Why did that sound like a last will and testament?
Yako immediately sank his consciousness into the Blood Arbiter Ascends to Godhood divine realm.
Hidan had been extremely diligent.
Every one or two weeks, he managed to assassinate another noble.
His hatred for the nobles of the Land of Hot Water ran bone-deep.
At this point, four offerings of sacrificial blood had already gathered in the blood pool.
All of them were Hidan's doing.
And with each new sacrifice, Yako's power as the Jashin continued to grow.
So what the hell had happened to Hidan?
Hidan's faith in the Jashin was unwavering, and his talent for Blood Arbiter Ascends to Godhood secret arts was exceptionally high.
He was one of the rare true talents the Jashin cult could not afford to lose.
He absolutely could not die.
Within the divine realm, the Jashin statue stood coated in blood, crystalline and eerie.
One of those drops of blood belonged to Hidan.
Using it, Yako traced Hidan's condition.
Deep beneath a noble's estate, inside an underground prison—
Hidan had been nailed to a wooden board with more than a dozen iron spikes.
The spikes pierced through his shoulder blades.
Through his elbow joints.
Through his palms.
Through his knees.
Through his ankles.
It was a truly horrific sight.
And even then, the noble's samurai still weren't satisfied.
They were continuing to lash him with whips.
Hidan was simply too weak.
He had failed to assassinate the noble, failed to obtain the noble's blood, and had instead been captured by the noble's retainers and subjected to merciless torture.
But the more the samurai whipped him—
The more fear appeared in their eyes.
No matter how much they tortured him, Hidan only kept muttering incomprehensible prayers.
He refused to reveal who had sent him to kill the noble.
It was as though the boy could not die.
His vitality was enough to make their skin crawl.
During the first five days of torture, Hidan had actually grown more and more exhilarated from the pain.
"Wash away sin through suffering! Delight the gods with blood!"
"You fools who know nothing of pain! Lord Jashin will judge you!"
"My suffering will only bring Lord Jashin even greater pleasure!"
He had been tortured for five straight days.
Screamed for five straight days.
And still, he did not die.
By the end of it, the samurai themselves had begun to feel fear.
This boy was a monster.
Their methods became more vicious.
They abandoned the whips and switched to blades instead.
Again and again, they stabbed through Hidan's body.
Only then did he finally lose consciousness.
His body had already reached its limit.
He had gone five days without a single drop of water.
More importantly, he had lost far too much blood.
His veins were nearly dry.
And so he offered one final prayer—
Telling Lord Jashin that he could no longer continue serving him.
Yako opened his eyes.
First, he tossed a Flying Thunder God kunai behind and to his side, lodging it into the trunk of a tree.
Then he vanished using Mayfly Technique
Traveling at full speed with Mayfly Technique, Yako reached the Land of Hot Water by the following afternoon.
Inside the noble's underground prison—
Four samurai, despite being the torturers themselves, were staring at the boy nailed to the board with visible fear.
This child was a demon.
Anyone else—
Even a shinobi—
Would have died long ago.
But this kid's lungs had already been punctured, and he still retained a faint breath.
Two of the samurai gripped axes in both hands, trying to force courage into themselves.
"If we cut off his head, there's no way he can still live, right? That has to kill him."
"One from each side. We take turns chopping. I'll shout one, then swing. You shout two, then swing. Don't hit at the same time."
"Fine. Let's do it."
Every samurai in that underground chamber looked at Hidan as though he were some inhuman abomination.
The samurai on the left shouted and raised his axe high—
Then brought it crashing down toward Hidan's neck.
And at that exact moment—
A hand appeared out of nowhere and caught the axe.
The heavy, sharpened weapon looked as fragile as paper in that hand.
Yako squeezed lightly.
The axe shattered.
These men had all witnessed Hidan's abnormality firsthand.
They could not be left alive.
Four Wood Release: Ironvine Bind tendrils shot out and strangled the four samurai to death.
Then Yako grabbed what remained of Hidan and sank into the ground, disappearing with him.
He found a wild spring in the open countryside and laid Hidan down beside the water.
After roughly stitching him up, Yako left a pile of food nearby.
With Hidan's immortal body, as long as he had food and water, even grievous injuries would heal on their own.
Looking down at the unconscious Hidan, Yako thought to himself that he needed to map out a proper development route for him as soon as possible.
Otherwise, Hidan was eventually going to get himself killed just playing around.
It was time to test the compatibility between the Eight Gates and an immortal body.
An immortal body excelled at close-range taijutsu and trading wounds for wounds.
The flaw of the Eight Gates was that it inflicted severe damage on the user, and opening the Eighth Gate could even result in death.
But if Hidan trained the Eight Gates, then the injuries would heal thanks to his immortal body.
And if he opened the Eighth Gate...
Then death itself meant nothing in front of immortality.
A perfect closed loop.
Yako reappeared in a flash beside the Flying Thunder God kunai still embedded near the Hokage Rock.
He immediately lowered his head and checked himself over.
Best to make sure he hadn't accidentally left any body parts behind.
Fortunately...
Everything was still there.
He headed straight to the ANBU base and summoned Hippo.
"Hippo. Design a mission for this man and get him out of the village."
"Him? Might Dai?"
Hippo had never even heard of the man and looked thoroughly confused.
But now he was one of Lord Fox's trusted subordinates, so he moved immediately to carry out the order.
After a brief investigation, Hippo became even more bewildered.
"The Eternal Genin...?"
"Why would Lord Fox specifically want him sent out of the village?"
Might Dai had taken the Chūnin Exams several times and failed miserably every single time.
Eventually, no squad wanted to take him.
So he had been reduced to taking cheap D-rank missions inside the village just to survive.
And not only that—
This so-called eternal genin spent every day fired up and shouting dramatic nonsense like an idiot.
With only a little arranging from Hippo, Might Dai was soon "accidentally" inserted into a squad and sent toward the Land of Hot Water.