Chapter 270: Reckless

Chapter 270: Chapter 270: Reckless

Looking at Hiruko, who had already transformed into a gigantic monster in the middle of the field, and then at the Kekkei Genkai shinobi whose bodies were gradually dissolving within the gelatinous substance, Hyuga Kagami wore an unprecedentedly grave expression.

"This is way too... way too reckless!"

After the initial shock passed, only one thought remained in Kagami’s mind.

In his eyes, Hiruko’s method of fusion was simply too crude—too reckless. The way he was going about this was practically brute-forcing the entire process without the slightest regard for the consequences.

"Isn’t he afraid of all the hidden problems this could cause in the future? No... with the way he’s doing this, there’s no guarantee he’ll even survive the final fusion. What future is there to worry about...?"

For a moment, Kagami’s mind was once again filled with countless questions.

Kagami believed Hiruko wasn’t an idiot. After all, someone capable of developing the Chimera Technique could hardly be called stupid.

But what Hiruko was doing right now was no different from suicide.

From Kagami’s perspective, it was utterly foolish.

That was why he was so curious—had Hiruko truly gone insane, or did he still have another card up his sleeve?

At that moment, as their bodies continued to dissolve, the Kekkei Genkai shinobi wrapped within the gelatinous substance were reduced to nothing more than masses of chakra.

Kagami stared fixedly at Hiruko in the center of the field, pushing his Sharingan to its absolute limit.

"How are you going to deal with this chakra... when their souls are contained within it?"

At the same time, Kagami wasn’t the only one present who had the same doubts. Pain, Orochimaru, Sasori, and Kakuzu were wondering the same thing.

Among the Six Paths of Pain, the Human Path possessed the ability to forcibly read another person’s memories and extract their soul. Because of this, Pain was the person present who was most familiar with and knowledgeable about souls.

Orochimaru had developed the forbidden technique, Living Corpse Reincarnation, and had already performed it once, devouring the soul of the original owner of his current body. Thus, he was no stranger to matters concerning the soul either.

Sasori had recently transformed his own body into a puppet, a process that touched upon certain aspects of the soul, so he could barely be considered to have stepped into that field as well.

Kakuzu was similar to Sasori. Because of his Earth Grudge Fear secret technique, every time he seized another person’s heart, he would also plunder a portion of that person’s soul power. As a result, he possessed a certain degree of understanding of souls too.

As for Konan, Shinichi, and Shinno, their understanding of souls was somewhat lacking compared to the others.

But that didn’t prevent the three of them from realizing that the masses of chakra wrapped within the gelatinous substance were by no means ordinary chakra condensed by a shinobi while performing ninjutsu.

Just as countless possibilities flashed through Kagami’s mind, Hiruko actually absorbed all five masses of chakra left behind by the Kekkei Genkai shinobi directly into his own body.

"He... he actually went that far!?"

Kagami was stunned.

He had always thought that the Fourth Raikage was the most reckless man in the shinobi world.

But compared to the Hiruko standing before him now...

Even the Fourth Raikage suddenly didn’t seem all that reckless.

Unlike Kagami, who was shocked by what he had seen, the others didn’t show much of a reaction. Orochimaru even involuntarily extended his tongue in excitement. Evidently, none of them truly understood the dangers of absorbing another person’s soul.

Kagami immediately restrained his outward emotions, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t conceal the trace of regret in his gaze as he looked at Hiruko.

In Kagami’s view, although Hiruko’s earlier fusion process had been reckless, as long as his body could withstand it, there had still been some hope that he might reach the very pinnacle.

But absorbing the souls afterward was simply too reckless.

Without ocular power on the level of the Rinnegan or Tenseigan—the pinnacle of Yin Release and spiritual power—it was fundamentally impossible to truly absorb another person’s soul.

Orochimaru’s forbidden technique, Living Corpse Reincarnation, was the best proof of this.

The souls of those Orochimaru had possessed had neither disappeared nor been completely absorbed by him. Instead, one after another, they remained dormant like cocoons deep within Orochimaru’s soul.

Not only could they potentially backlash against him at any moment, they had also made Orochimaru’s soul far more impure and chaotic, ultimately becoming his greatest weakness in the future.

While countless thoughts raced through Kagami’s mind, the side effects of Hiruko forcibly absorbing the souls of five Kekkei Genkai shinobi immediately began to manifest.

"Argh...!"

Hiruko clutched his head with both hands and let out an agonized howl. From the way he writhed, it was as though something was rampaging inside his very mind.

At the same time, Hiruko’s body began to fall apart.

Chunks of flesh and masses of cellular tissue sloughed off his body one after another.

Yet the moment those pieces of flesh and tissue fell away, the gelatinous substance caught them all and forcibly pieced them back into place bit by bit.

The gelatinous substance was like an adhesive, continuously repairing Hiruko’s body as it tore itself apart.

In an instant, the Kekkei Genkai fusion ritual became a contest between the collapse of his body and its relentless reconstruction.

Unable to withstand the forced fusion, Hiruko no longer even resembled a human. His entire body had become a mangled mass of blood and flesh.

Yet because of the gelatinous substance produced by the Chimera Technique, no matter how badly Hiruko’s body broke apart, it stubbornly gathered every scattered piece of tissue and forcibly stitched him back together.

The agony he was enduring was absolutely beyond what an ordinary person could withstand. Even as Kagami marveled at Hiruko’s endurance, his anticipation toward the perfected Chimera Technique grew even stronger.

Looking at the roaring monster before them, only Konan and Shinichi showed expressions of disgust. Everyone else’s faces were filled with indescribable shock.

Even Pain, who possessed the Rinnegan, showed a slight change in expression.

At that moment, the aurora shimmering across the sky began to dim.

As the aurora faded, the green light focused onto Hiruko’s body by the enormous mirrors naturally weakened along with it.

Everyone understood what this meant.

The strange aurora phenomenon in the sky was about to disappear. If Hiruko couldn’t overcome the rejection reaction before the aurora vanished completely, then this Kekkei Genkai fusion ritual would end in failure.

Just when everyone thought Hiruko was about to fail and be reduced to nothing—

His agonized howls abruptly stopped.

Immediately afterward, the gelatinous substance covering the entire platform began to merge into his body little by little.

And as the gelatinous substance was absorbed, the violent and chaotic chakra fluctuations within Hiruko gradually began to stabilize.

"He survived it?!"

Kagami froze for a moment before immediately thinking, "No, that’s impossible. Hiruko is just an ordinary human. How could his body possibly survive that kind of disintegration? He must have mastered some other technique. Aside from the Chimera Technique, he must possess another technique capable of repairing his body and increasing its physical strength!"

Having finally overcome the rejection reaction, Hiruko stood naked at the center of the platform.

His aggressive gaze swept across everyone around him like that of a wild beast.

And finally...

His eyes settled on Kagami and Orochimaru.