Having gotten a short reprieve, Tachibana took a warm bath inside Tsunade's home with glee.
His eyes remained closed but his mind's eye was still focused on the system panel hovering in front of him.
[Sequence 6 Faceless]
[Potion Digestion : 99%]
Keeping his eyes closed Tachibana went over the potion digestion rules he had accrued over the short time period of him digesting the potion.
'Number one, no matter who I am, be it Tachibana Rei or the ghostly Gehrman Sparrow, I am always myself. The original that transmigrated into this body. Like Klein Moretti was Zhou Minguri, I am Kevin Ashton.'
'As Tachibana Rei, the other people that think I am him are right but wrong at the same time. They are right because I am currently Tachibana Rei, but wrong because I am in fact Kevin Ashton at the same time.'
Tachibana closed his eyes and took a deep breath before feeling something melt fully within him.
He opened his eyes and looked at the system and saw the words he was waiting for.
[Potion Digestion : 100%]
"System, do I have to perform any advancement ritual for the next sequence?"
"No host does not need to perform an advancement ritual for the next sequence since there are no singing mermaids in this world."
"Host has already completed replacement advancement ritual by getting several main characters to believe that host has a different identity of Tachibana Rei and an identity of Gehrman Sparrow and Mr. Fool."
"Then give me the advancement potion for Marionettist please." Tachibana requested and the system complied by summoning a vial of completely black liquid.
Tachibana brought the vial closer and studied it to notice several nearly microscopic worms squirming inside the liquid in the vial.
'...look at the things I have to drink for more power…' Tachibana lampooned.
He uncorked the vial before bringing the potion close to his lips.
There was a musky scent that put him off but Tachibana quietly opened his mouth and downed the potion without protest in a single gulp.
It took him a few seconds to put off the unsettling taste as the potion travelled from his throat to his gullet and finally to his stomach.
Suddenly Tachibana felt that his body had turned abnormally stiff. As if the joints of his body had become poorly oiled and fractured. Every movement felt like his body was fighting against itself.
However as Tachibana focused on the feedback he got from playing the identities in his day to day life he quickly adapted and held on to his sanity, even as the several worms in the potion broke off from the potion and bored into every cell and fiber of his very being.
Tachibana didn't open his eyes as he focused on cogitation to calm himself and eventually he finally managed to completely absorb the potion into himself.
Tachibana opened his eyes quietly and looked at himself in the mirror.
There in his fogged up reflection was a single ethereal black thread that emerged out of his head, connected much deeper than the physical body to a level that not even his soul was spared.
There weren't any other spirit body threads around but Tachibana knew where he was going next he would be surrounded by them and there would be no shortage.
Tachibana quickly dried himself and dressed up in the shinobi combat gear before going to the living room and performing the summoning jutsu.
"Summoning Jutsu."
Tahcibana performed after biting his thumb for blood and activating the sealing array required for the summoning.
There was a short puff of smoke before a tiny Katsuyu appeared inside the Senju household.
"Katsuyu-sama, could you please reverse summon me to the Sunagakure battle field along with the rest of team Seven?"
Katsuyu, ever the gentle giant, nodded with her tentacle eyes before speaking softly, "Grab onto me Tachibana-kun."
Tachibana placed his hand on Katsuyu's squishy body before he felt space twist for a second much like his flame jump ability before he found himself at a new base in the rocky cliffs at the land bordering Sunagakure in the South West.
Tachibana took a second to reorient himself before he heard a trio of shouts.
"Tachibana-kun!"
"Rei-kun!"
"Tachibana."
The shouts came from Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke respectively, each having just been summoned in the same tent as him too.
At the same time, a Jonin of Konoha entered the tent with urgency.
"Tachibana-sama, thank you for coming to this front by yourself. The Suna shinobi have already been spotted on the border and our team is already moving to intercept them, would you like to join them?"
Tahcibana looked at Gekko Hayate for a second before shaking his head.
"Have them stand down. Me and the rest of Team Seven will be enough to handle this threat. The rest of them will only slow us down."
Gekko Hayate looked at Tachibana with surprise but Tachibana kept his gaze steady and explained.
"I recently developed a new jutsu that will allow me to handle large groups of people at once so please don't worry about it, and the rest of team seven is more than capable at this stage to handle a jinchuriki."
Hayate thought for a little while before Tachibana ensured him some more.
"We've already fought the Eight Tails Jinchuriki at the start of the war and lived while the Jinchuriki died. So please don't worry about us."
Gekko Hayate finally nodded but it just felt odd for actual kids to go to the battlefield before him and the other Jonin.
Either way he had already heard Tachibana's feats in commanding the battlefield successfully, even experienced it personally when because of Tachibana's strange commands they discovered and rooted out several spies in their midst on their front.
Looking at Gekko Hayate's reluctant but accepting nod Tachibana nodded himself before turning to the three little miscreants who were looking at him wide eyed for the position he commanded.
None of them had ever ordered a Jonin before so it felt rather unique and unbelievable for someone they knew, someone on their team that was the same age as them to be ordering one and commanding their respect.
Tachibana only gave them a smile before speaking up clearly and boldly.
"Alright, get ready. We will be needing to handle the upcoming Suna force, I and Sakura will take on the Jonin while Naruto and Sasuke, the two of you will be handling their special weapon."
"Special weapon?"
"Yes. Like Killer B was the Kumogakure Jinchuriki that housed the Eight Tails, Suna is sending their One Tails Jinchuriki onto the battlefield."
Everyone's eyes widened at the information.
But the most shocked of all was Gekko Hayate.
He truly understood the horror of a Tailed Beast since he had been alive when the Nine Tails rampaged through the Leaf Village on the fateful night the Fourth Hokage sacrificed himself.
'Is that why he asked us to stand down? So that we don't become meaningless sacrifices ourselves?' Gekko looked at Tachibana with a new resolve.
Tachibana ignored him however in favour of elaborating on his tactics further.
"Sasuke, your Mangekyo Sharingan will be very useful in the upcoming fight so keep it ready. I and Sakura will distract all the Jonin for the time being while you and Naruto take on their Jinchuriki. Make sure that by the time we are done, you at least take down the first line of defence of the Jinchuriki, his special sand. It'll be even better if you can beat him down to a state where he partially transforms."
"Force a transformation? Isn't that dangerous?" Sakura asked the question on everyone's minds but Tachibana simply shook his head, "Don't worry as long as I am in their vicinity I can get the Tailed beast under control."
With that said as everyone digested the information, Tachibana immediately ordered Gekko.
"Gekko could you please get us the last seen coordinates of the infiltrating group so that we can set off immediately."
Gekko nodded and rushed off to the communications department.
In the meantime Tachibana looked at Naruto who looked a little downcast.
"What happened, Naruto-kun?"
Naruto looked at Tachibana with a soft wry smile before asking him a question that had been on his mind ever since the talk about Jinchurikis had become common because of the war.
"Tell me… Rei-kun… am I Konoha's Jinchuriki?"
Tachibana's eyes widened slightly before he didn't delay and nodded softly.
If anyone deserved to know the truth at this point it was Naruto.
He had been through a terrible lot for very little in return in life.
The unfiltered hatred from the village.
The loneliness as a child.
And the nights spent alone without a guiding light.
It had all been too much for Naruto already.
There was no longer any Third Hokage to prevent Tachibana from revealing the information to Naruto and neither was there any Danzo.
If anything, the position that Tachibana commanded today in Konoha due to the war made him as important if not more important than those figures in the village.
But since it was a big news to deliver he started off softly.
"How did you figure it out?"
Naruto froze for a second, wide-eyed because of the indirect revelation before he slowly mumbled to himself and then explained for the rest of his team to hear.
"When we fought the Eight Tails Jinchuriki… I realised that monsters could be sealed within people and then I realised that people called me the demon fox child in the village… so…"
Tachibana nodded.
There was a wry smile on his lips too before he spoke up.
"But that doesn't change the fact that you are my friend and my teammate Naruto-kun."
"Mee too!" Sakura echoed.
Before Sasuke simply showed concern in his own way, "Hmpf."
Naruto's teary eyes widened before he furiously rubbed them till they turned slightly red as he shouted out loud. "Yossahhhaaa!!! Watch as I mow down their Jinchuriki today!! I'll beat that guy up so bad that the monster in him regrets ever coming out!!!"
"Oh regret he will, alright." Tachibana finally said with a mysterious smile.