Chapter 256 - 260: Six Paths-Level Tsunade, and Konan the Diligent Student

Natsuki produced a storage scroll and sealed Otsutsuki Isshiki inside it.

In theory, storage scrolls couldn’t hold living things. But Isshiki was Otsutsuki — ageless and undying — so being sealed in one wouldn’t harm him in the slightest.

Natsuki opened a doorway and returned to the manta ray.

Konan looked over at him.

"Minato and Nagato have this well in hand. We don’t need to shadow them anymore," Natsuki said after a moment’s thought.

He’d only joined the sweeps to find Isshiki in the first place. Between Minato and Nagato, clearing out rogue shinobi and bandits was massive overkill. It wasn’t worth his attention.

"Mm." Konan nodded.

She had a vague idea of what had happened. She didn’t ask.

The two returned to the Hokage’s office.

"Konan." Natsuki sat down and then, without warning, asked, "Have you retained everything I taught you yesterday?"

Konan froze.

Taught her what, yesterday?

She thought about it, and her face went slowly pink as she remembered.

"I’ll need to assess your progress," Natsuki said, smiling.

Her pulse jumped.

She hesitated, then crossed to him, leaned down under his gaze, and offered her mouth.

Steadying herself, she copied what he’d done to her the day before and mounted a counteroffensive.

Natsuki did nothing at all. He just watched her face redden.

Some indeterminate span of time later, Konan straightened up, dizzy, biting her lip, her thoughts in total disarray.

Natsuki took her hand and pulled her into his lap, then reached up and stroked her cheek.

She didn’t dare look at him. She closed her eyes instead, and her breathing turned rapid.

"You’ve learned well." Natsuki rested his other hand on her knee. "We’ll continue tomorrow."

Konan’s heart lurched, and she nodded, embarrassment and delight running together.

He pressed his fingers down slightly. Her long trousers got in the way of the effect he was after.

Then he remembered what Konan wore in the original story — under the black Akatsuki cloak, a startlingly bold zip-front top and a ring through her navel.

"Wear stockings tomorrow," Natsuki said.

Konan agreed instantly.

"Back to work." He helped her up.

She turned and left, visibly reluctant.

Natsuki left the office and went next door, to the Hokage’s Advisor.

He knocked, waited for permission, and went in.

"You don’t usually knock." Tsunade smiled at the sight of him.

"Then do I get a reward?" Natsuki closed the door and walked over.

"You knocked specifically to grope me?" she asked, exasperated.

"I’m not that sort of man." Natsuki reached out and laid his hand over her heart.

Feeling it beat put him in a considerably better mood.

"And you still say that." Tsunade, irritated, brought a foot up and shoved at him with it.

She didn’t actually stop him.

That Natsuki liked her body was a private point of pride. She was, after all, a good deal older than Kushina and the rest.

"Tsunade-sensei. What do you know about the Sage of Six Paths?" Natsuki changed the subject.

"What kind of question is that?" She rolled her eyes. "Name a shinobi who doesn’t know about the Sage of Six Paths."

"Then what about the story before he founded Ninshu?" Natsuki chuckled.

"That, I don’t know." She shook her head.

The Sage’s legend was universal in its broad strokes: he founded Ninshu, spread ninjutsu, and was recognized as the progenitor of shinobi everywhere.

Otsutsuki Kaguya, on the other hand, was known to almost nobody. And Hamura on the moon was known to nobody at all.

"Then let me tell you."

Natsuki stepped forward and settled himself onto her lap. He withdrew his hand, rested his head against her, and started at the beginning.

There were two accounts of the Sage’s birth in the original story. The anime had Kaguya falling in love with Tenji, Emperor of the Land of Ancestors, and bearing the Sage and his brother. The manga had her bearing them under the blessings of the people.

The second fit her image as the Rabbit Goddess far better, and fit the Otsutsuki temperament better still. So that was the version Natsuki told, working through the whole tangled family history of love and betrayal.

Besides, the manga was the original text.

"That’s true?" Tsunade looked deeply skeptical.

Natsuki wasn’t surprised. Told out of nowhere that your species’ ancestor came from another world, nobody would swallow it either.

"It’s true." He smiled. "The proof is that before Kaguya descended, the shinobi world had no chakra. It did have natural energy."

Tsunade’s expression shifted.

As a contract-holder of the Shikkotsu Forest, she knew perfectly well that the Three Great Sage Regions had existed for well over a thousand years.

Their existence — natural energy’s existence — was as good as proof that chakra was a foreign import.

"Then the shinobi world is in serious danger." Tsunade sat up straight, frowning.

The motion caught Natsuki somewhat off guard, and he took a moment to breathe.

"There’s no immediate danger." He kept his gaze exactly where it was. "Kaguya and Isshiki have both been sealed."

"You said Isshiki escaped." Tsunade blinked. "When was he sealed?"

"Just now. By me."

"...?"

She stared at him.

"Isshiki was formidable, but his old injuries never healed," Natsuki explained.

"Ah. That makes more sense." Tsunade let out a breath.

"But the Otsutsuki clan is a standing threat regardless." His tone turned serious. "This world is a very good planet for growing a God Tree."

"So what do we do?" Tsunade asked before she could stop herself.

Her own strength was formidable and would be worth nothing at all against the Otsutsuki. In the entire shinobi world, the only person who could threaten them was probably Natsuki.

Which was why she’d asked a question that wasn’t at all in character for her.

"We get stronger."

Natsuki got up off her, extended a hand, and Isshiki’s two eyes appeared in the air.

"The Otsutsuki’s power comes from two places. Their constitution and their eyes." He looked at her. "I’m going to transfer Isshiki’s ocular abilities to you."

"You need them more than I do." Tsunade shook her head.

"I don’t need them at all." Natsuki smiled. "Because I already have eyes that do the same things."

His own eyes shivered, and both the Byakugan and the black eye surfaced at once.

Tsunade stared, comprehending none of it.

Whatever it was, it was good for the shinobi world.

"Don’t fight it."

Chakra surged from Natsuki’s palm and enveloped the pair of eyes. A moment later the abilities came free of them, resolving into two threads of light.

Tsunade watched the light flow into her own eyes and felt something profoundly strange begin.

Her eyes were changing at a fundamental level. Evolving.

At the same time, an ocean of information poured into her mind — every ocular technique Isshiki had mastered.

But she was still short of Six Paths level, and what she lacked was chakra.

Natsuki raised his left hand to her forehead and poured a staggering volume of it into her Yin Seal.

His original plan had been to seal the chakra away as though it were a Tailed Beast. On reflection, the Yin Seal accomplished the same thing — and better, since it also conferred sustained youth and kept the body at its peak indefinitely.

He was already planning to install external Yin Seals for Mikoto, Konan, and the others.

A long while later, he withdrew his hand and checked the system notification.

The condition for the Expansive Truth-Seeking Ball was half satisfied.

Which meant Tsunade was now a Six Paths-level shinobi.

And not an ordinary one, given that she’d also inherited Isshiki’s ocular techniques.

"This is..." Tsunade opened her eyes, disbelief written across her face. "This is unimaginable."

She had never conceived of being this strong.

She was equally shaken by the fact that Natsuki had beaten Isshiki. Before, she’d had no frame of reference. Now, standing at Six Paths level herself, she could feel how monstrous Isshiki had been.

And Natsuki had put him down without taking a scratch. What was he, at this point?

"Take the next few days to adjust to it." Natsuki leaned down and kissed her. "I’m heading out. See you soon."

"Thank you," Tsunade said, and meant it.

"Do we really need thank-yous between us?" Natsuki smiled, turned, and left.

Tsunade touched the corner of her mouth, and found herself smiling too.

Once the door closed, Natsuki opened a portal and stepped through into the Shikkotsu Forest.

Ever since acquiring the infant Ten-Tails, one question had been sitting in the back of his mind: where to plant it.

He’d settled on the Shikkotsu Forest. It was remote from the shinobi world proper and thick with natural energy.

Not that he intended to let the thing drain the world’s energy. He was simply going to house it here and feed it on his own chakra.

Once it had grown enough, he’d sacrifice Isshiki to it.

"Lord Natsuki. It’s been a long time." Katsuyu came sliding over.

"I need your help planting a God Tree here," Natsuki said, straight to the point.

"A God Tree?" Her tone shifted entirely.

She’d lived over a thousand years. She knew exactly what a God Tree was — she had witnessed the battle that sealed Otsutsuki Kaguya, since the mind behind that battle had been the Great Toad Sage, which is to say the Three Great Sage Regions themselves.

"Let me explain."

Natsuki laid out the whole chain of events.

Katsuyu’s astonishment only deepened. When had Natsuki reached a level where he could defeat Otsutsuki Isshiki?

But on reflection, this was a good thing.

Why had the Three Great Sage Regions fought so desperately to stop Kaguya? Because growing the God Tree would have drained the life out of the entire world. Everyone would have died.

Natsuki was a different case. He was of this world. His family and friends lived in it. He wasn’t going to destroy it.

On the contrary — when the Otsutsuki eventually came, he’d be the one standing in their way. Which meant the Sage Regions would never have to repeat the enormous ordeal of a thousand years ago.

"Follow me," Katsuyu said.

She led him to an open clearing.

Natsuki raised a hand and released the Ten-Tails.

The instant it appeared, it flung out countless roots and drove them into the soil.

Natsuki wove seals immediately.

Six Red Yang Formation!

Six pillars of light came down from above and pinned the Ten-Tails inside a fixed boundary. Its roots could no longer spread without limit and bleed the world dry.

Then he extended a hand, and chakra poured out of him without end.

The Ten-Tails shuddered, and its trunk began throwing out branches and dense foliage.

Katsuyu watched, dumbstruck.

Was that volume of chakra something a human being should be able to hold? When exactly had Natsuki become this?

It felt, standing here, as though he had surpassed the Sage of Six Paths of a thousand years ago and stood level with Kaguya herself.

After a while, Natsuki raised an eyebrow.

The Ten-Tails had stopped accepting chakra.

Not because it had hit a ceiling — because digestion took time. It was a living thing, after all.

He withdrew his hand. Once the tree finished processing what it had, he could come back and feed it more.

"I’m heading off. Keep an eye on it. If anything happens, summon me."

Katsuyu nodded.

With the Six Red Yang Formation holding, the Ten-Tails wasn’t going to cause any trouble. Natsuki gave her the warning anyway.

The next day.

Natsuki pushed open the office door and found Konan waiting.

She was wearing an Anbu white cloak, which was unusual — Anbu only wore those on external missions. The flak jacket was standard for everything else.

"Natsuki-sensei." She took the cloak off.

Natsuki’s eyebrows went up.

She’d worn stockings, exactly as instructed. She’d also worn a maid outfit, which he hadn’t asked for at all.

He walked to the Hokage’s chair, sat down, and looked at her.

Konan came forward with her expression carefully blank, sat down in his lap, and — without waiting for him to say anything — demonstrated the results of her studies with considerable initiative.

Natsuki rested a hand on her stocking-clad thigh.

Reviewing Konan’s homework while enjoying the texture of the silk, he concluded that today was going extremely well.

A long time later, Konan pulled back, flushed, lips parted, hauling in air.

Her legs had gone numb and useless underneath her, and all she could do was slump against him.

"We’ll continue tomorrow," Natsuki said, thoroughly pleased.

Teaching Konan piece by piece like this was, he had to admit, a genuinely excellent way to spend a morning.

Then a thought struck him and he raised a hand to her forehead.

He’d worked out the Yin Seal the previous day and could install one externally now.

A moment later, a vast quantity of his chakra pooled at her brow, and as the seal took hold, Konan felt her exhaustion evaporate completely — and her spirits with it.