Chapter 284: Drowned by X
"There is indeed something wrong inside. I just sent a shadow clone in. Not long after entering, it disappeared."
Senju Tobirama truly lived up to his title as the master of speed. After bringing Kakashi and Rin over, he had even found the time to create a shadow clone to test the area below.
"There's no need to keep testing. Leave the rest to Kakashi."
Shiromo guessed that perhaps, after being injured by Hanabi's attack last time, Ōtsutsuki Toneri had temporarily restricted the passage out of caution.
Or perhaps the special nature of that alternate dimension simply could not sustain a shadow clone.
Whatever the reason, there was no need to continue probing.
"Go on."
Senju Tobirama accepted Shiromo's reasoning and stepped aside, his gaze falling on Kakashi.
Although he was in an Impure World Reincarnation body and did not fear death, and could return at any time with Flying Thunder God, Tobirama had never intended to send his original body inside.
Impure World Reincarnation was not true invincibility, and Flying Thunder God was not an absolute escape.
He understood clearly that his intellect was far more valuable than personally scouting ahead.
If they truly wanted to test the path, it would be better to resurrect some random passerby with Impure World Reincarnation and control them to do it.
But since Shiromo said it was unnecessary, then so be it.
"Understood!"
Kakashi lifted his forehead protector, revealing his Sharingan.
Rin wanted to place her hand on Kakashi's shoulder, but since she had died while still a young girl, her height simply did not reach. She could only press her hand against his back.
"If you release all the garbage at once, the chakra required will be far greater than when you collected it in batches…"
Before Shiromo could finish speaking, Rin clenched her free hand into a fist, expressing her determination.
"I'll do my best."
"That's not what I meant. Just release about enough. Let Hikari cover you. Don't accidentally enter Baryon Mode and evaporate Kakashi's lifespan."
Shiromo cut off Rin's enthusiasm.
There was a limit to how much Tailed Beast chakra a jinchūriki could grant to others.
A Tailed Beast was itself a mass of chakra. If it were possible to give all of that chakra to another person, would that not be equivalent to turning that person into a jinchūriki?
As for Baryon Mode.
It could indeed generate a massive amount of additional chakra through a fusion-like reaction.
But that chakra carried "radiation."
One of Baryon Mode's defining traits was the mutual influence of chakra. Each strike could evaporate the opponent's lifespan.
If that chakra were directly infused into Kakashi, a large portion of his lifespan would vanish instantly.
"Huh? Is that so?"
Rin froze for a moment.
To be honest, she had just been thinking about whether she could take this opportunity, while channeling chakra into Kakashi, to attempt entering Baryon Mode.
Apparently, that would not work.
"Don't think about making a breakthrough on the spot. Accumulate steadily and build your foundation."
Senju Tobirama added a reminder.
Breaking through in the middle of battle might sound passionate and inspiring, but in truth, it was a sign of inadequate ability.
When his elder brother fought Uchiha Madara, every battle had been a contest of their accumulated strength and foundation. There had been no sudden awakenings mid-fight, no last-minute scrambling.
As for Tobirama himself, it went without saying. Had he not developed so many jutsu precisely to have more trump cards?
From the future stories Shiromo had told, Tobirama had realized that the Seventh Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto, had been a typical victim of this kind of habit.
In Naruto's early years, although there had been moments of sudden explosive growth, there were also many instances where he defeated enemies through hard training and steady accumulation.
But as time went on, the number of battlefield awakenings increased. Naruto, who already did not seem particularly intelligent or strong in self-restraint, unconsciously developed a dependence on that pattern.
Especially after discovering that even when he was killed, the Sage of Six Paths would step in to back him up and grant him a temporary surge of power, he developed a sense of inflation, a feeling that "I can accomplish anything now."
This was perhaps one of the core reasons why the future Seventh Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto, had shown no real improvement in strength and could only survive by relying on the Nine-Tails to develop Baryon Mode.
At first, Tobirama had thought Naruto was simply foolish, personally handling everything as Hokage and constantly sending shadow clones to help old ladies cross the street, leaving no time to train.
But upon further thought.
That was not right.
According to Shiromo's story timeline, Naruto had served as Hokage for only a little over three years before being sealed away.
During the ten years Kakashi was in office, what the hell had Uzumaki Naruto been doing?
Ten years.
How many decades does a person even get in life?
One year alone was enough for the Ōtsutsuki to descend and turn the ninja world upside down.
To prevent this flawed ideology from continuing to cause negative influence in the ninja world, Senju Tobirama decided he would do his utmost to curb its spread.
~
"Kamui!"
Kakashi fixed his gaze on the hollow beneath the hot spring and activated his ability.
——
The moon.
Several days had passed since Ōtsutsuki Toneri had dived deep into the underground septic reservoir like a deep-sea explorer.
Because his perception was obstructed, he could only rely on touch, feeling along the inner walls to confirm that there were no cracks and that the seal had not broken.
After feeling along the inner wall once, Toneri discovered only one small hole at a single location, no thicker than his finger.
This hole had been created by Hanabi's Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm while in Tenseigan Mode.
According to later analysis.
If Hanabi had not cared about her own development and had instead fully activated Tenseigan Mode at maximum output, her Tenseigan Mode would absolutely have surpassed Toneri's.
The reasoning was simple.
Tenseigan = pure-blooded Byakugan + Ōtsutsuki chakra.
In the original story, Toneri's Tenseigan was formed from Hanabi's eyes plus his own chakra.
Hanabi's Tenseigan was her own eyes plus the refined chakra of Ōtsutsuki Momoshiki.
Toneri called himself Ōtsutsuki, but in reality, he was merely a descendant of Ōtsutsuki Hamura.
Even if inbreeding had preserved the density of his bloodline, at best it would only reach the level of Indra or Asura's Ōtsutsuki lineage.
Momoshiki, however, was a pure Ōtsutsuki.
Toneri had seen the Tenseigan before. On the moon, there was a giant Tenseigan created from a large number of Byakugan.
But his knowledge and perception only worked downward.
He could not detect power of a higher tier.
Just like this attack from Hanabi.
He could not recognize at all that it was the power of the Tenseigan he so longed for.
Toneri touched the small hole and fell into thought.
The hole was bottomless. When he inserted his finger, he could not feel its end.
But the problem was that the direction of the hole did not seem to come straight from the moon's core. It was angled.
The seal was intact.
Which made this even stranger.
If it came at an angle, then where had the attack originated?
After confirming that the seal was fine, Toneri began to float upward.
However…
"?!"
To his horror, Toneri discovered that, by all logic, he should have already surfaced onto solid ground. He had even felt the doorway of the septic reservoir and passed through it.
Yet he was still swimming.
What was going on?
Had something flooded the entire moon while he had not surfaced for a few days?
(End of this chapter)