Chapter 258: Sage Technique — Yang Release — Yin Seal — Strength of a Hundred Technique
Not just Hikaru — even Mōryō's own face carried a distinctly human flicker of confusion.
He glanced down at his own fist, almost on reflex.
He could feel that the pink-haired girl charging at him carried real strength.
But there was no way he should have been able to send her flying with a single punch like that.
And more than that — the punch itself had felt strangely light. Almost like striking cotton.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Sakura — sent tumbling dozens of meters by Mōryō's blow, crashing gracelessly to the ground — shook her head and rose to her feet, visibly irritated.
The Light and Heavy Rock techniques!
The moment those techniques activated, her own strength plummeted, instantly, to near zero. To restore her usual full power, she had to cancel the technique at exactly the right moment.
This was the first time she'd used Light and Heavy Rock in actual combat — and it had bitten her badly, right out of the gate.
"Damn it..."
She brushed the dust off herself and looked back up at her opponent.
"Seems humanity's really run out of decent fighters."
"Sending a little yellow-haired girl to face me, of all things."
Mōryō watched Sakura rise from the ground, expression utterly indifferent.
"In my time, a girl like you would have been fit for nothing more than my next meal."
"Unless you'd rather not..."
Before he could finish, what he saw next stopped him mid-sentence.
Flame — solid, manifest chakra in blue and pink — surged violently to life all around her body.
"That physical strength..."
Mōryō's expression turned grave, studying Sakura.
Even back in his own era, someone like this had been an exceedingly rare occurrence.
The kind of talent that might not appear once in a full century.
"You got lucky just now."
"This time won't be so easy."
The corner of Sakura's mouth curved upward, her green eyes glinting with a faint, eager excitement.
That earlier punch had sent her flying, sure. But in the instant of contact, she'd learned something about her opponent.
Just as Hikaru had said.
He was the same category of being as herself.
Sure, it was only soul-force being used to forcibly unlock the dormant potential inside that stolen body — but that alone proved just how formidable he really was.
Soul as consciousness. Consciousness as spirit. Spirit as Yin Release.
Using Yin Release to unlock the body's own Yang Release.
Genuinely astonishing.
If Yin Release could ignite Yang Release like that — did that mean this being had already touched the fabled fusion of Yin and Yang Release itself?
Sakura had already grasped something significant from this soul-possessing-a-body phenomenon in front of her.
"Girl. If you set aside your resistance right now."
"This old one could take you as a consort."
Perhaps deciding this pink-haired girl was worthy enough to catch his eye, Mōryō offered what he clearly believed was generous terms.
???
"Let's do this together. Kill him."
Sakura's expression stayed flat as she looked over at Hikaru.
Hikaru's face twisted oddly at that, but she nodded regardless.
Time seemed to freeze in that instant.
In a heartbeat, Mōryō's pupils contracted sharply!
The ground beneath Sakura's feet shattered instantly, and a thunderous crack followed close behind!
Mōryō had no time to spare thought for anything else, throwing his arm up to block almost on pure reflex!
An instant later, his pale form was sent flying backward through the air!
And in that same instant, mid-flight, a dark blue-clad figure closed in from behind, blade wreathed in flame.
Uchiha Style — Sword Leap Flame.
A blade of fire tore free from the sword's edge, streaking toward Mōryō!
Mōryō swept a hand up to intercept the incoming flame — and in the blink of an eye, that raging fire transformed into pure, refined chakra, flowing straight into his body.
"I see. You're a descendant of Indra Ōtsutsuki."
The instant Hikaru's chakra entered him, Mōryō immediately understood exactly who she was.
Hikaru had no idea who this "Indra" figure was supposed to be, but quickly called out toward Sakura, closing in on the other side:
"Careful. He can absorb chakra."
Sakura, unbothered, charged in again anyway, driving a fist straight at Mōryō.
That warning was for Hikaru's own benefit, not mine.
Mōryō steadied himself midair with ease, and dozens of black tentacles surged out from his wide sleeves, streaking toward Sakura's incoming fist.
The tentacles were grotesque, lined with unsettling, tooth-lined mouths — and the instant they made contact with Sakura, she felt them actively gnawing at her chakra.
"I see now!"
"A monster born from Yang Release cultivated through raw physical strength, is that it?"
The instant he tasted Sakura's chakra, Mōryō immediately understood the full nature of her Yang-Release Body Technique.
This thing can devour someone's chakra and absorb their memories along with it!
Sakura's eyes turned sharp instantly.
So there's some genuine substance behind this "Lord of Demons" title of his, after all.
Still — so what if he'd gotten a taste of her memories?!
The chakra gathered at her fist surged violently, and the raging torrent of chakra inside her erupted all at once!
Under that violent surge, every last tentacle shattered to pieces!
The foul-smelling blood and gore that sprayed outward stopped dead the instant it hit the raging chakra surrounding her.
By now, Sakura's chakra reserves had grown so vast that raw chakra alone could physically affect the world around her!
Giving Mōryō no chance to recover, she twisted her body and brought a devastating kick down in a single fluid motion!
"Heavenly Foot of Pain!"
The earth split open instantly, an invisible shockwave surging violently across the entire battlefield!
Mōryō's entire lower body shattered to pieces under that single blow!
His upper body, offering essentially no resistance, was sent flying dozens of meters, tumbling across the sand, streaking blood and trailing dislodged tentacles, before crashing deep into the ground!
And yet, even wounded this catastrophically, he still wasn't dead.
"Heh. Heh. Worthy of a monster who built physical enhancement out of Yang Release itself."
"If we'd fought before now, I suspect you might genuinely have been my equal."
Even with his entire lower half obliterated, Mōryō's voice still carried plenty of strength.
Hearing this, Sakura instinctively glanced back at Shion, still lying motionless within the purple array.
Shion showed no sign of life at all now — collapsed, still as a corpse.
Right now, Mōryō was over a hundred meters from her. There was no possible way he should still be able to reach her physical body from this distance.
And yet, from his own words, it was clear — even now, Mōryō could still make contact with his own flesh.
But how?
Sakura didn't understand it.
As if sensing her confusion, Mōryō — almost like some patient teacher offering enlightenment — spoke up:
"You think this old one couldn't possibly cross past the two of you to reclaim his own body?"
Sakura and Hikaru stood shoulder to shoulder, blocking the space between Mōryō's soul and Shion, an unbreachable chasm.
Sakura said nothing, watching calmly as the man before her — hands braced against the ground, blood dripping from his mouth — still somehow managed a smile.
"What is the soul?"
"The soul is the consciousness underlying every living thing in this world."
"And what, then, is consciousness?"
At that, Mōryō's smile twisted into something almost feral, almost mad.
"Consciousness, of course, is..."
"...the space between one thought and the next."
The tone was cool, composed — nothing like the earlier manic delivery. As if speaking from somewhere entirely detached, indifferent to all of creation.
The second half of the sentence came from behind her, and Sakura spun around instantly, toward Shion, still lying within the array.
Shion — who'd been motionless on the ground just moments ago — now had her eyes open, pale lavender pupils staring flatly at Sakura and Hikaru.
The ropes binding her had already fallen away. Her entire body floated, suspended, countless tentacles surging out from the array itself to lift her aloft.
No.
She should be addressed differently now.
Mōryō.
Mōryō's physical body, sealed within Shion, had now fully merged with her.
The overwhelming surge of raw vital energy radiating from that body was so intense that even Sakura, standing dozens of meters away, could feel it clearly.
Strange purple markings, faintly glowing, bloomed across Shion's skin, and she stepped down, bare and pale, onto the countless tentacles below her, walking forward one deliberate step at a time — the girl once known as Shion, now known only as Mōryō.
The countless tentacles bowed low beneath her feet, like courtiers prostrating before their emperor, dipping their tips in reverence.
Shion's clothing shifted along with the purple glow, transforming into heavy, flame-like purple armored robes.
With each bare footstep landing on the ground, purplish-black armor spread further across her body.
A strange purple-black flame pattern crept up the side of her face.
By now, even her cream-colored hair had fully darkened into pure, unbroken black.
Ink-black.
"Such a long wait, for this body..."
A voice emerged from her — cool and ancient at once, at once an old man's and a young girl's.
Deeply discordant, unsettling — and yet somehow entirely natural, as though this was exactly how it should have always been.
Then, tilting her head slightly, as if picking the earlier conversation back up, that mouth curved into an eerie smile.
"The space between one thought and the next — that's how one arrives."
"That is the soul of a living being. The consciousness of a living being."
"No matter where this old one's soul resides, the instant this body's seal breaks—"
She raised one pale, delicate finger to her own temple, a victorious smile spreading across her face as she spoke.
"—body and soul complete their reunion."
At that, Sakura tore off her Hokage robe, tossing it aside without ceremony, lifting her gaze calmly toward the now fully-embodied Mōryō.
"So, you're saying — once Yin Release and Yang Release each reach a sufficient threshold, one can separate body from soul entirely, and simply return the soul to the body the instant a single thought crosses one's mind?"
Mōryō gave a small, approving nod at that.
"Correct. In your shinobi terminology, that's exactly right."
"And a physical body can be destroyed through brute force. But a soul cannot."
"So long as one's own spirit is sufficiently strong, even discarding the body entirely, one can persist through the soul alone, indefinitely."
Confident now that victory was firmly within his grasp, Mōryō's earlier urgency had entirely dissipated.
Sakura gave a slight nod at that.
So that explains it, then — why the Sage of the Six Paths, Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, never consumed the Chakra Fruit from the God Tree, and yet still managed to linger in the Pure Land as a spirit for over a thousand years.
His own spiritual strength must have been powerful enough that even after a millennium, his consciousness hadn't eroded at all.
And that Pure Land he'd created was very likely a special sanctuary — designed specifically to contain beings powerful enough, in spirit, to keep disturbing the world even after death.
Sakura felt, faintly, a new path opening up before her.
Consciousness.
A sufficiently powerful consciousness.
Or perhaps, put another way — a sufficiently powerful soul.
"Thanks."
"Still, even though you've answered my question — I'm still going to finish you off."
She struck fist to palm, and the violet diamond seal on her forehead pulsed with a faint glow, black lines spreading across her entire body.
The Sage Chakra stored within her Yin Seal, released for the first time.
Centered on that purple diamond mark, an angular, ringed pattern like a great solar halo slowly emerged — and alongside it, mysterious black sage markings began spreading across her cheeks.
The blue-violet chakra roaring around her body slowly gathered inward, condensing entirely within her, without a trace escaping outward anymore.
Even her hair, which had been drifting without any wind at all, went perfectly still.
Sage Technique — Yin Seal — Strength of a Hundred Technique!
Hikaru stared at the girl beside her in genuine astonishment.
Was this her trump card, then?
Sure enough...
Interesting.
"Sage Technique."
"The same state as that Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki fellow?"
"Still, compared to him — you're still quite a ways off."
Mōryō watched Sakura calmly, seeing nothing wrong with her current state at all.
"Is that so?"
The corner of Sakura's mouth curved upward, and in that instant, her green eyes had somehow already turned gold.
"And now?"
Gold suffused those eyes, once the color of polished emerald.
A pair of golden eyes gazed calmly at the being before her.
"To thank you for answering my question, I'll bring out my full strength, specially for you."
The moment those words left her mouth, every black marking across her body transformed instantly into pure, faintly glowing gold!
Sage Technique — Yang Release — Yin Seal — Strength of a Hundred Technique!
Mōryō's expression shifted, visibly, at that.
For the first time, he felt genuine danger, radiating off the figure before him.
Danger of a kind that could genuinely kill him.
Which meant — she now possessed the strength required to end his life.
"I think I finally understand why the Sage of the Six Paths never actually killed you, back then."
Sakura flexed her hand, feeling the power coursing through it, her gaze cold as she regarded the girl standing before her.
"But as far as I'm concerned — right now, you're really nothing special at all."
And she was right — the Sage of the Six Paths had deliberately chosen not to kill him.
Choosing instead, specifically, to seal him away.
Sakura had already grasped the reasoning behind it.
Those countless powerful consciousnesses — souls, really — gathered in the Pure Land.
And the demons sealed away across the shinobi world.
Mōryō, in the Land of Demons. Gedo, sealed within the Box of Ultimate Bliss. Even Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, sealed on the moon itself.
Clearly, someone with the Sage's own power could have erased every one of these beings with ease.
So why hadn't he?
Because there was an enemy.
An enemy shared by the entire planet.
Invaders from beyond the stars. The Ōtsutsuki clan.
Against the Ōtsutsuki, every last scrap of power was a precious, irreplaceable resource.
But right now, Mōryō had clearly lost all control of the situation — so it was time to send him straight into the Pure Land herself.
(End of chapter)
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