Deep beneath the Illusionary Ruins, the underground complex had nearly vanished beneath layers of collapsed earth.
The entrances had been destroyed long ago, but that wasn't the real reason.
The true pillar of the ruins, the massive natural-energy vein hidden below, had been completely drained.
That part was entirely Fujimoto Tōma's doing.
A lake-sized vein of condensed natural energy had been absorbed by him alone. During the process, he hadn't reinforced the structure at all. By the final stage, the entire ruin was already on the verge of collapse. The only reason it hadn't fallen sooner was because Tōma had deliberately held it together.
Today, however, it finally gave up.
The ruins collapsed inward with a thunderous roar, burying everything beneath tons of stone and soil. Tōma stood calmly atop the rubble, stretching for the first time in a long while.
Crack. Pop. Snap.
A series of sharp sounds echoed from within his body.
"Feels good," Tōma exhaled, rolling his shoulders. He hadn't moved properly in ages. If he'd stayed still any longer, he might've rusted in place.
At first, his body would reach saturation quickly, forcing him to rest. But as time passed, his physique strengthened, and his adaptation to natural energy deepened. Saturation became rare.
And time was not on his side.
Naruto had already left the village. Which meant Akatsuki's movements were no longer far off.
So Tōma had chosen isolation.
Now, the mineral vein was gone. Completely.
Near the end, even he had felt uneasy. A natural-energy reservoir that vast, almost insufficient for his needs. He'd genuinely wondered where he'd find another source if this one ran dry.
Fortunately, he'd finished just in time.
He had deliberately suppressed the final transformation, holding it back instead of letting it trigger immediately. He didn't know what that last change would bring, or whether it carried risks. This wasn't something to gamble on alone.
He'd need someone he trusted watching over him.
Still, before leaving, he absorbed every last trace of remaining energy. Waste was a sin.
Now, standing above the ruins, Tōma assessed himself.
At a glance, he didn't look much different than before.
His ninjutsu hadn't improved. If anything, they felt slightly rusty. Once the transformation was complete, he'd need to relearn and refine everything.
The real changes were simpler.
Chakra quantity.
And physical strength.
At this point, Tōma no longer had chakra inside his body in the traditional sense. What filled him instead was pure natural energy. He couldn't directly manipulate it, so whenever he used techniques, he first converted it into chakra.
It sounded inefficient, but it wasn't.
Ninjas always had to extract chakra before using it anyway. He'd simply replaced extraction with conversion.
And the conversion was faster.
More importantly, the amount of chakra produced exceeded his expectations by a wide margin.
As a child, he'd once thought that even implanting Hashirama cells would only give him "enough." He never imagined reaching this level.
Now?
His chakra reserves rivaled those of the weaker tailed beasts.
Kisame Hoshigaki would have been utterly outmatched.
That, at least, made sense. Absorbing an entire natural-energy vein should lead somewhere.
As for his body…
Tōma clenched his fist. The air popped under the force.
He frowned slightly.
Honestly, this felt unfair.
Since laying his foundation, he hadn't seriously trained his body. He maintained it, nothing more. True physical growth required enormous time investment. Guys like Might Guy and Rock Lee proved that.
Tōma never had that luxury.
And yet now, his physical strength likely surpassed Lee's.
Not Guy's. But still.
A cheat, plain and simple.
He could feel it too. His body had hit a threshold earlier, where growth stalled. But that ceiling felt thin now. A little focused training, and it would shatter.
For the first time, improving his taijutsu felt worthwhile.
Tōma smiled faintly.
Then his figure vanished from the ruins.
Shikkotsu Forest.
Tōma appeared amidst endless white stone and mist. He'd deliberately avoided Mount Myōboku. Too many toads. Too many eyes.
Here, there was only Katsuyu.
The effect would be the same.
He looked up.
And froze.
He knew Katsuyu was massive.
He hadn't known she was this massive.
Bigger than a tailed beast. Vast beyond scale. A single movement from her main body could trigger landslides.
He'd never been here before. The Flying Thunder God mark had been delivered via a kunai Katsuyu carried for him.
This was his first time seeing her true form.
A portion of the colossal body split away, forming a slug roughly his size.
"Greetings, Katsuyu-sama," Tōma said respectfully.
"So," Katsuyu's main body spoke, her voice neutral and deep, "your accumulation is complete?"
There was unmistakable surprise in her tone.
"I believe so," Tōma replied.
"Wait here."
Moments later, two familiar presences emerged.
The Great Toad Sage.
And the White Snake Sage.
"Katsuyu, this isn't a joke, is it?" the White Snake Sage said sharply. "You're telling me this kid finished accumulating natural energy?"
Katsuyu said nothing.
She let him look.
The snake's eyes widened.
"You actually finished it?" he hissed. "How? Where did you get that much natural energy?"
"…Luck," Tōma said honestly. "But was this supposed to take a long time?"
"A long time?" the White Snake Sage scoffed. "We were prepared to wait centuries."
"…Centuries?"
That finally broke Tōma's composure.
"Hold on," he said slowly. "Even if it worked, I'm human. I wouldn't survive that long."
"Hmph. You underestimate yourself," the White Snake Sage said dismissively. "Your lifespan already rivals ours. Possibly exceeds it."
"That's impossible," Tōma said flatly.
"Is it?" the snake sneered. "Shinobi constantly burn their own life force. Extracting physical energy, overusing chakra, tearing themselves apart. Short lives are the natural result."
Tōma blinked.
…That actually made sense.
If chakra was built from physical energy, then constant extraction was a slow self-drain.
His method?
Conversion didn't consume his body at all.
If he stood still and exhausted all his energy, his body would remain fully intact.
Empty chakra. Full stamina.
The Great Toad Sage spoke calmly. "White Snake is correct. At your current state, your lifespan already matches ours."
"And once your transformation completes," he added, "it will surpass us."
Tōma stared ahead, speechless.
So while training quietly…
He'd accidentally achieved longevity?
"…So I just kept training," he muttered, "and somehow became immortal?"
...
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