A Sage's Pursuit of Power

The changes in Aoba's eyes drove him straight into the lab, where he conducted experiment after experiment.

In the end, he came to no conclusive results.

The only thing he could confirm was that the fusion of his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan had indeed loosened slightly. Although the progress was faint, it was noticeable.

As to why this happened, he had no idea. He employed every verification method at his disposal but uncovered nothing.

Still, while he didn't get a definitive answer, the development gave him a path forward.

From that point on, Aoba shifted all his training focus to integrating tailed beast chakra.

This accelerated the progress significantly. In just two months, he successfully fully integrated the chakra of the Eight-Tails into his body.

Afterward, as expected, his Eternal Mangekyō fusion advanced a bit more.

Aoba then set his sights on the other tailed beasts. Judging by the current progress, he estimated that fusing the chakra of four or five tailed beasts would allow his Eternal Mangekyō to complete its fusion.

He still didn't know the exact mechanism, but at least he had stumbled onto the right path.

Currently, Aoba already had access to the Two-Tails through Yugito Nii. Counting the Nine-Tails in Konoha, he now had chakra from four tailed beasts at his disposal.

The Three-Tails and Six-Tails were in Kirigakure, effectively under Madara's control. These were currently out of reach, especially since Konoha had lost Hashirama, and Aoba's eyesight was impaired.

Though Konoha was still strong enough to dominate any other ninja village, taking on Madara and Black Zetsu together was a risk Aoba wasn't ready to take.

Thus, he turned his attention to Takigakure and Iwagakure.

Takigakure had the Seven-Tails, while Iwagakure held the Four-Tails and Five-Tails.

Since Aoba only needed five tailed beasts for now, his first target was naturally Takigakure.

Iwagakure wasn't much of a threat, but Ōnoki, the old "Stone Potato," still had some weight to his name. Out of respect, Aoba decided to deal with Iwagakure later. Based on his calculations, five tailed beasts would suffice for the time being.

Takigakure's situation was unfortunate. As the strongest ninja village outside the Five Great Nations, it had managed to maintain its independence through the possession of a tailed beast.

In several wars, they had barely preserved their autonomy and were developing relatively well. If the major nations hadn't monopolized the world's resources, Takigakure might have risen further.

However, with Konoha's recent dominance, Takigakure sensed the winds of change.

Historically, Konoha was a favorite among smaller villages because its ninjas were seen as relatively reasonable, at least compared to those of Kumogakure and Iwagakure.

But this new Konoha, under the Fifth Hokage Tsunade, was different. Her fiery temperament and domineering nature kept smaller nations trembling.

Worse yet, Konoha had shed its "benevolent giant" image. Under the guise of "mutual development" and "free trade," it had appropriated valuable mines and ports around the Land of Fire.

The smaller villages were seething, but none dared voice their anger.

Now, to make matters worse, Konoha had officially sent a diplomatic request to Takigakure, asking for their jinchūriki's cooperation in research.

Takigakure convened an emergency meeting to discuss the matter.

However, after much debate, they arrived at a grim conclusion: no matter how they strategized, they couldn't influence Konoha.

The gap between them and the current Konoha was simply too vast. Even if they tried to resist, they posed no real threat to Konoha.

In other words, they lacked the means to resist.

"There's only one force in the ninja world right now capable of opposing Konoha."

"You mean Madara Uchiha's Kirigakure?"

"Exactly. We could ally with Kirigakure. Madara doesn't fear Konoha."

"Yes, but look at what Konoha has done: they've pushed free trade and seized resources like mines and ports. And what about Kirigakure?"

"They annexed Kumogakure. Alright, I see your point. But we can't just hand over our jinchūriki. That jinchūriki is the key to Takigakure's independence."

"We all understand that. The question is: if we don't want to hand over our jinchūriki or be swallowed by Kirigakure, what can we do?"

After a full day of discussions, Takigakure's leadership reached a decision. They would hand over their jinchūriki but would first negotiate for some concessions to ease the blow.

To their surprise, Konoha readily agreed, offering a hefty sum of money and a large collection of secret ninja scrolls.

While no amount of resources could truly replace a jinchūriki, Takigakure felt slightly better about the situation, as though they had salvaged something from the loss.

And so, the Seven-Tails jinchūriki, Fū, was sent to Konoha for what was officially described as a "friendly exchange visit."

Fū, a naive young girl, was thrilled to leave her village. Due to the traditional treatment of jinchūriki, she had lived a lonely life in Takigakure, with no friends to speak of. This explained her overly eager friendliness in the original storyline.

She was excited about leaving the village, unaware that others viewed her departure as a death sentence, or worse.

Konoha made no attempt to conceal its actions, and Madara Uchiha quickly received the news. Thanks to Black Zetsu and his army of White Zetsu, they had access to most intelligence outside Konoha.

Black Zetsu was deeply uneasy about Aoba's actions in collecting tailed beasts.

"Aoba Kamikawa is gathering tailed beasts, and there are few people in the ninja world who can stop him. If this continues, our plans may be jeopardized."

Black Zetsu tried to remind Madara, but Madara's next words nearly made him lose his composure entirely.

"Plan? What plan?"

"...The Eye of the Moon Plan, of course. Collect the tailed beasts, revive the Ten-Tails, become its Jinchūriki, and cast Infinite Tsukuyomi..."

"Oh…" Madara's expression lit up with a sudden look of realization, leaving Black Zetsu thoroughly exasperated. Of course, this is a metaphor, Black Zetsu didn't actually have the organs to feel that way.

However, Madara's attitude gave Black Zetsu an ominous feeling.

At some point, Madara had become completely absorbed in his all-out rivalry with Aoba, to the extent that he had forgotten his original objective: the Eye of the Moon Plan!

"It's fine. As far as I know, Aoba hasn't killed any of the Jinchūriki. So if he's gathering tailed beasts now, isn't he essentially doing the work for us? Once I've fully developed Kirigakure and defeated Aoba, won't all the tailed beasts end up mine anyway?"

Of course, defeating Aoba takes priority... Black Zetsu thought, utterly speechless. Now, it felt genuinely panicked.

The pawn it had spent over a thousand years cultivating, the best one it had ever found, seemed to have gone completely off track.

What should I do now?

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Currently on Chapter 309 - Hashirama Attacks Konoha