Chapter 227 - Level 5 Physical Regeneration
The Chimera Technique was second nature to him by now. At this stage of his development, completing the gaps in his bloodline had become something close to a physical instinct.
Because of that, absorbing the Uzumaki bloodline went far faster than he had anticipated.
He had been preparing an explanation for when Jiraiya and Minato arrived and caught him mid-technique. But once he actually began, he realized the explanation wasn't necessary. In the past, every use of the Chimera Technique had required careful, concentrated effort - a deliberate and painstaking process that consumed considerable time. The White Zetsu incident was a different case, given its unique nature.
This time was different in another way entirely. His body had developed a deep, instinctive hunger to complete the Otsutsuki bloodline, and that hunger drove his flesh to cooperate actively with the Chimera Technique, accelerating the absorption on its own.
And as the completion percentage of his Otsutsuki bloodline climbed, his body's capacity to integrate each remaining bloodline had improved dramatically. Conflict between bloodlines was minimal now - negligible, essentially nonexistent.
So Hyuga Ritsu used the Chimera Technique and completed another missing piece at a speed that exceeded even his own expectations, taking one more enormous step toward becoming a true, complete Otsutsuki.
His appearance changed in small, subtle ways. The horns on his head grew slightly. His skin became a shade paler. Neither change was noticeable without close observation.
Nagato's changes, on the other hand, were catastrophic. His vivid red hair turned white at terrifying speed. His skin lost its elasticity and shriveled. The life bleeding out of him fell continuously, and the light in his Rinnegan slowly dimmed and went out.
His chest was full of resentment.
He had never imagined he would meet his end this way. He had the Rinnegan - the supreme and absolute power - and he hadn't even had the chance to see the Moon's Eye Plan through to completion, hadn't been able to glimpse that promised new world. To fall here, before any of it -
He couldn't accept it.
But his refusal to accept it meant nothing. His spiritual force was nowhere near the level required to affect the physical world around him.
And so Nagato drew his last breath in resentment, his Rinnegan locked onto Hyuga Ritsu, those eyes filled with hatred and something like a dying curse - as though he were willing Ritsu to follow him.
Ritsu paid no attention to whatever Nagato was directing at him in those final moments. He was focused inward, quietly taking stock of the changes occurring inside him.
With the Uzumaki bloodline claimed, another piece of the Otsutsuki puzzle had slid into place. The external changes were subtle, but internally, he was undergoing another upheaval.
His chakra had broken through to new heights in both quantity and quality simultaneously. To get a clearer sense of the scale, he released Sage Mode and ran a rough estimate. His chakra reserves had expanded by approximately one third compared to before.
That was an extraordinary number. His chakra had already been comparable to a Tailed Beast's. Adding another third of a Tailed Beast's worth on top of that - measured against the One-Tail, since Tailed Beasts varied considerably among themselves - was staggering.
And it wasn't only the quantity that had grown. The quality had been elevated as well.
To put it simply: if releasing Wind Release: Rasenshuriken had previously consumed roughly one third of a unit of his chakra, it now required only one fifth. The improvement in chakra quality meant he could execute techniques with less fuel, which effectively made his already massive reserves even larger.
Beyond that, higher quality chakra didn't just mean spending less on existing techniques. It meant he could develop and refine techniques of a far higher order - the difference between ordinary fuel and aviation-grade fuel, where one can barely drive a vehicle and the other can push a spacecraft into the sky.
"Maybe I can try to replicate that technique."
Ritsu murmured to himself.
What surfaced in his mind was one of his ancestor Kaguya Otsutsuki's many abilities. Compared to her other techniques - which operated on levels so far beyond ordinary comprehension that even grasping their principles was near-impossible - this particular one had at least a theoretical chance of being replicated.
Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack.
The suspected origin of the Hyuga clan's Gentle Fist.
He turned the idea over for a few seconds, then set it aside. His Otsutsuki bloodline was still incomplete. Replicating the Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack was not going to be simple - it would likely take considerable time to research and develop. That was a project to take home and work on slowly.
He shifted his attention to the other changes.
Absorbing the Uzumaki bloodline had done more than push his chakra to new highs. He could feel, with quiet certainty, that his lifespan had extended significantly. Reaching a hundred years without dying violently was no longer in any doubt. How much further beyond that - he couldn't sense precisely yet.
Given that the Otsutsuki clan seemed to be effectively immortal, perhaps a true, complete Otsutsuki was genuinely a deathless being.
The thought made a full rotation in his mind and was then filed away. He was only sixteen. His body was still in its growth phase. Immortality was a topic that felt abstract and distant, and he had no particular interest in it right now.
What he was more interested in was how much his combat strength had actually increased.
"Is my visual range larger?"
He blinked.
The landscape visible to him had expanded. He ran a rough calculation. "About fifty kilometers? That's excellent."
The corner of his mouth lifted.
A longer Byakugan range meant he could gather intelligence on enemies earlier, and earlier intelligence meant he could take complete control of a battlefield before a fight even began.
And it wasn't just range. His perception had sharpened as well.
He couldn't tell whether there were simply no White Zetsu within fifty kilometers, or whether his Byakugan still couldn't penetrate White Zetsu's Mayfly Technique. He couldn't locate Black Zetsu anywhere.
But even so.
Today's harvest had Hyuga Ritsu's pulse running fast.
He still had the superpower called Physical Regeneration. Absorbing the Uzumaki bloodline and pushing his body another step closer to a true Otsutsuki had simultaneously pushed that superpower to a dramatically new level.
The Uzumaki clan's healing ability was extraordinary.
Not only was their own recovery rate remarkable - they could even share their life force to heal others.
Among the bloodlines descended from Kaguya Otsutsuki, each branch had inherited something distinct. The Hyuga inherited the Byakugan. The Uchiha inherited a power rooted in the Divine Tree - the Rinnegan and Sharingan. The Senju inherited vast life force and powerful chakra. The Kaguya clan inherited bone manipulation and a degree of regeneration. The Otsutsuki horn clan inherited exceptional compatibility with Tailed Beast power and the Divine Tree's energy.
The Uzumaki had inherited regeneration, healing, and longevity.
These abilities meshed perfectly with Ritsu's Physical Regeneration superpower. Add to that the fact that Nagato's bloodline was among the purest Uzumaki lineage in existence -
The result: Hyuga Ritsu's Level 4 Physical Regeneration superpower had advanced. It had broken through to Level 5.
In the ranking system of Academy City, a Level 5 esper possessed the combat capacity to stand alone against a fully equipped modern military division. To be more direct: a Level 5 could contend with aircraft and artillery - the concentrated product of scientific achievement - and do so against them in bulk.
Ritsu looked down at both his hands.
Physical Regeneration, strictly speaking, was not a combat-type superpower. But elevated to Level 5, the regenerative capacity itself had been strengthened to a degree that defied common sense, and through that alone it granted him a frightening combat capability.
Put simply: he was effectively unkillable.
He hadn't tested it, but Ritsu was confident that even decapitation, dismemberment, or being fed through a meat grinder would not kill him now. As long as some fragment of his physical tissue remained, given enough time, he would regenerate back to his original state.
Of course, the minimum amount of tissue required was not a fixed value - it was something that would continue to shift as his superpower advanced further. There was still road ahead of him. Perhaps, with enough effort, he could reach what was sometimes called the drop-of-blood regeneration threshold.
If he actually reached that level, ordinary means would have no chance of killing him at all. The only way to do it would be to completely and utterly obliterate every last piece of his body. Leave anything behind, and Hyuga Ritsu would come back.
Beyond that, with his Physical Regeneration elevated to this scale, his physical body had also undergone a corresponding transformation. A normal body couldn't support regeneration like this.
He wasn't entirely certain yet how far his physical durability had climbed.
"Maybe I should find an opportunity to get my hands on the Eight Inner Gates Formation."
Ritsu said it quietly, almost to himself.
The forbidden technique and his Physical Regeneration superpower were a natural pairing. He had had his eye on the Eight Inner Gates Formation for a long time, alongside the Chimera Technique. The problem was that unlike Hiruko - who shared a certain kindred spirit with him - he and Might Dai simply did not get along. Might Dai had refused to teach a child a forbidden technique that could kill its user.
But circumstances were different now.
Ritsu was no longer the boy who had scraped and fought for every edge just to break free from the Caged Bird Seal. He had broken out of that cage long ago and flown straight up. He was now a figure of genuine weight and standing in Konoha. He had every means to obtain the Eight Inner Gates Formation.
And speaking of leverage -
Nagato's body, still hanging from his grip, was a bargaining chip. The contributions he had made to the village today were extraordinary, and extraordinary contributions deserved extraordinary rewards.
At that moment, Jiraiya arrived.
"Nagato!"
The shout carried grief.
The body offered no reply.
"I'm sorry, Jiraiya-sensei. I couldn't hold back."
Ritsu said it in a low voice.
Jiraiya stared at Nagato's body - at the hand still closed around that throat - and for a moment couldn't find words. He didn't blame Ritsu. He couldn't. Nagato had been Konoha's enemy. He had been a genuine threat to the peace of the shinobi world. Every Konoha ninja had every reason and every right to kill him.
He just couldn't speak.
"Clan Head Hyuga, this is..."
Minato appeared beside Jiraiya. He took in the enormous underground cavity that had been blasted into existence, then looked at Ritsu standing there with Nagato's body, expression bright. Minato's own expression shifted to something close to barely contained satisfaction.
He and Jiraiya wanted different things here.
Minato had no particular attachment to taking this man alive. Alive would have been acceptable, but dead with a body intact was, if anything, the safer outcome. The Rinnegan alone had the ambitions of five Kage burning around it. And Nagato's brain - preserved and intact - was worth its weight in gold. The Yamanaka clan's best could extract enormous amounts of intelligence from a dead man's mind.
"You've done exceptional work for the village this time. I genuinely don't know what I could give you that would be worth what you've contributed." Minato said it with sincere exasperation. He meant every word. Ritsu had solved a problem that had threatened the entire shinobi world, and Minato was already trying to calculate what kind of reward was even proportionate.
"Hokage-sama. I want to learn the Eight Inner Gates Formation."
Ritsu made his request directly.
"The Eight Inner Gates Formation?"
Minato's brow creased. It was not a technique he didn't know. The village's eternal genin - Might Dai - had used it to drive off four of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist who had been lurking outside Konoha. Seven had arrived. Three had limped back.
The Eight Inner Gates Formation was not Might Dai's alone. The First and Second Hokage had both documented it in the village's forbidden scroll archives - a technique that had survived from the era of warring clans.
"Clan Head Hyuga, that technique is extremely dangerous."
Minato said it with genuine concern.
Ritsu didn't waver. "Hokage-sama, my mind is made up. I don't need anything else. If the village is willing to teach me that technique, I'll trade every credit and commendation I've accumulated for it."
Minato studied him - the earnest expression, no trace of humor in it - and let out a long, helpless breath.
"If you're truly set on this, then... once we're back in the village, I'll give you the opportunity to learn it."