After shrinking the Box of Ultimate Bliss, Kiyohara sealed it inside a storage scroll before turning around and walking back toward Hozuki Castle.
The three children quietly followed behind him.
Deep beneath Hozuki Castle, inside the underground hall, Mui still knelt where he had been left.
Although the bleeding from his severed arms had long since been stopped by Kiyohara's medical ninjutsu, his complexion looked even more lifeless than before.
Even though he had not witnessed the brief battle with his own eyes, he had still sensed the terrifying surge of sinister chakra that had erupted nearby.
The Box of Ultimate Bliss was undoubtedly no ordinary object.
Even if he had continued to possess it, his wish of reviving his son, Muku, would most likely have remained impossible.
Not to mention that Kiyohara had already taken the box away.
'To think... all these years of planning were nothing more than a joke.'
Bitterness filled Mui's heart.
Hearing footsteps approaching, he slowly raised his head.
Kiyohara's figure descended the stone staircase.
"Lord of Hozuki Castle, I have a way to revive your son."
Kiyohara spoke calmly.
He had begun painting Mui a picture of hope.
In the shinobi world, the boundary between life and death had never truly been that high.
Take the Impure World Reincarnation Technique, for example.
Of course, a person revived through that method was better described as an animated corpse than a truly living human, merely dragging around an artificial body created for the dead.
As for a perfect resurrection without side effects, the simplest solution would be to seize Madara's Rinnegan and perform the Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique.
Alternatively, someone capable of bearing the burden of those eyes could be controlled into casting the technique on Kiyohara's behalf.
However, Hozuki Castle simply was not valuable enough for him to go to such lengths.
Instead, Kiyohara had another idea.
He intended to control the puppet inside the Box of Ultimate Bliss.
Since every puppet sealed within the box was brainwashed by its influence, then after Kiyohara had taken control of the box itself, wasn't that equivalent to controlling every puppet inside?
The creature known as Satori, the monster that had just fought Kiyohara, was actually Mui's son.
More precisely, it was Muku after being transformed into a monster.
His human body still existed.
Unfortunately, he was no longer truly human.
After spending countless years trapped within endless darkness while being continuously corrupted by the box, his mental state had become extremely unstable.
Still, if Kiyohara simply ordered him not to do evil, he should still be able to live an ordinary life.
Hearing those words, Mui's entire body trembled.
There was actually another way to bring his son back?
The hopelessness that had long since filled his eyes suddenly gave way to the desperate hope of a drowning man catching sight of his final lifeline.
"You truly have a way?"
Mui immediately asked.
"I do."
Kiyohara nodded.
"However, it may not be as perfect as you imagine. Every resurrection technique has its flaws."
He deliberately warned him in advance so that Mui would not be shocked later by the condition his son would be in.
Perhaps, after spending enough time surrounded by bonds with the people he cared about, Muku's sanity could gradually recover.
"But there is one condition."
Kiyohara continued.
"You must work for me."
As soon as Mui heard those words, he endured the agonizing pain from both arms and slammed his forehead heavily against the stone floor.
"I agree."
His voice was firm.
"I've spent all these years researching this. I even conducted countless secret experiments behind Kusagakure's back."
"It was all for my only son."
"I'll agree to anything."
"Very good."
Kiyohara nodded.
"Itachi, go retrieve his arms."
"Yes, Sensei."
Itachi quickly left before returning moments later, carrying the two severed arms that had fallen outside the castle.
One arm had a perfectly clean cut.
The other clearly showed signs of being violently torn off.
Kiyohara accepted them and immediately reattached both arms.
From the moment Mui had been defeated until the monster emerged from the Box of Ultimate Bliss, barely twenty minutes had passed.
Using Yang Release chakra, Kiyohara reactivated the cells within the severed limbs.
Completely regenerating lost limbs remained an extraordinarily difficult feat in the shinobi world.
Simply reattaching severed limbs, however, was far easier.
Even though one arm had suffered extensive tearing, Kiyohara's superb medical ninjutsu allowed him to reconnect it flawlessly.
"Unbelievable..."
Mui flexed his restored fingers.
Suppressing the astonishment in his heart, he looked up at Kiyohara.
None of them wore shinobi forehead protectors.
Yet Mui had already guessed they were shinobi from Konoha.
And someone possessing medical skills of this level...
There was only one possible person.
"I am willing to serve you, Lord Kiyohara."
"So long as you bring my son back."
A father's love for his child had completely stripped away his pride.
Kiyohara nodded.
The story behind this incident had actually been very simple.
Mui had devoted everything to reviving his son.
He had even turned against Kusagakure's elders in pursuit of that goal.
Only to eventually discover that his son had become a monster.
In the end, he had chosen to die together with him.
Kiyohara took out a Flying Thunder God kunai and planted it into the stone floor directly before Mui.
"I want you to continue governing Hozuki Castle."
"Find a way to infiltrate Kusagakure."
"If you perform well..."
"I will fulfill my promise."
As a result, Kusagakure would gradually fall under Kiyohara's control from the shadows.
The Land of Fire and the Land of Earth did not share a border.
The Land of Grass lay perfectly between them.
By controlling the Land of Grass, Kiyohara would gain constant intelligence regarding the movements of the Land of Earth.
By now, the Four Tails' jinchūriki had probably already fallen out with Ōnoki and become a wandering monk traveling the world.
That would make it much easier for Kiyohara to track him down.
Eventually, he only needed to obtain a portion of Son Gokū's flesh and absorb the chakra of the Four Tails.
At present, his body had already fully adapted to the Three Tails' chakra.
It had also adapted, to varying degrees, to the chakra of the Two Tails and Eight Tails.
As for Kurama's chakra...
Kiyohara was preparing to begin adapting to it as well.
The only drawback was that carrying so many different tailed beast chakras placed an enormous burden upon the body.
Even the Gold and Silver Brothers had only managed to adapt to the chakra of a single tailed beast throughout their entire lives.
Turning away, Kiyohara led Itachi, Izumi, and Shion back toward the staircase.
Behind him came Mui's voice.
"When... when will you..."
"When I'm in a good mood."
Kiyohara never looked back.
His footsteps gradually faded into the distance.
Mui remained kneeling alone within the empty underground hall.
Before him stood the Flying Thunder God kunai engraved with its distinctive sealing formula.
By the time Kiyohara escorted the three children back to Konoha, darkness had already fallen.
Izumi had fallen asleep aboard the airship, her head resting gently against Shion's shoulder.
Shion herself did not remain awake for much longer.
Not long after Izumi leaned against her, she too quietly closed her eyes.
Only Itachi remained awake.
He sat beside the window, silently watching Konoha's lights draw ever closer in the distance.
"Goodbye, Sensei."
Izumi waved as she left.
"Goodbye."
Kiyohara waved back.
He escorted each of the three children safely home before finally returning to his own residence.
As he opened the front door...
He immediately saw Tsunade stepping out of the bathroom.
Her long golden hair was still damp, tiny droplets of water clinging to the strands that rested over her shoulders, with several locks sticking to her fair neck.
She was wearing an outfit Kiyohara had never seen before.
A form-fitting white camisole with an extremely low neckline accentuated her generous curves.
Her lower body was wrapped in matching white thigh-high stockings that hugged her shapely legs tightly, the tops pressing gently into her thighs and leaving faint reddish marks.
"You're back?"
Leaning casually against the bathroom doorframe, Tsunade slowly dried her hair with a towel.
Kiyohara's gaze lingered on her for several seconds.
"Yeah."
"The matter at Hozuki Castle has been taken care of."
"So quickly?"
Tsunade looked genuinely surprised.
He had left that morning and returned that same afternoon?
After all, Hozuki Castle was an international prison that Kusagakure valued greatly.
"What about the box?"
She was curious about how Kiyohara intended to deal with it.
"I brought it back."
Upon hearing that, Tsunade tossed the towel aside.
Walking barefoot across the wooden floor, she stopped directly in front of Kiyohara and looked up at him.
"What does it look like?"
"Let me see it."
She wanted to make a wish and see whether it could improve her gambling luck.
"I'll show it to you tomorrow."
"Let's rest for today."
Tsunade pouted slightly, but she did not insist.
Turning around, she walked over to the sofa, sat down, and patted the empty seat beside her.
Kiyohara sat next to her.
Tsunade shifted her body before slowly sliding down until her chin rested upon his thigh.
Tilting her head upward, her golden-brown eyes looked at him from below.
From this angle, Kiyohara could clearly see the soft curves that were pressed together even more prominently.
"Kiyohara..."
Tsunade's voice suddenly became much quieter.
"Hm?"
"...Do you have... an unusual relationship with Kurenai... and Rin as well?"
As she spoke, one finger absentmindedly traced circles across his knee.
Tsunade was far from foolish.
Being considerably older than the others, she had noticed many things.
She simply chose not to say them most of the time.
"...Yes."
After several seconds of hesitation, Kiyohara decided not to deny it.
Although Tsunade had long suspected the truth, hearing him admit it personally still filled her with frustration.
She knew this guy was never as honest as he appeared.
Biting her lower lip, she lowered her head.
"Hiss..."
Kiyohara sharply inhaled.
He reached out and gently held the back of Tsunade's head as her golden hair slipped between his fingers.
"Sensei..."
"Be a little gentler."
Kiyohara said helplessly.
Tsunade possessed monstrous strength.
She could channel that terrifying power through any part of her body.
If Kiyohara's physical body had not already been extraordinarily durable, and if he had not instinctively reinforced himself with a layer of Steel Release at the last moment, he might have ended up injured instead.
After all, when fighting opponents like Obito, Kiyohara could emerge completely unscathed as long as he fought seriously.
Yet he had nearly met his match here with Tsunade.
She refused to let go.
Only after a long while did she finally lift her head again.
The rims of her eyes had turned slightly red.
It was impossible to tell whether it was because of anger... or something else.
"You..."
"...disrespectful disciple."
Kiyohara's hand slid from the back of her head to her cheek, his thumb gently brushing away the moisture lingering at the corner of her lips.
"However... Sensei is the most beautiful woman I've ever met."
Tsunade's eyelashes trembled slightly.
She turned her face away with a quiet huff, but Kiyohara could clearly feel that the cheek resting against his thigh had become noticeably warmer than before.
"Don't try that on me."
She muttered softly.
"Then... whose was your first kiss?"
The moment the words left her mouth, Tsunade immediately felt the question was unnecessary.
Kiyohara's hand paused.
That was... a dangerous question.
"Yours, Sensei."
Tsunade's eyes widened ever so slightly.
She stared intently at his face, searching for even the slightest trace of deception.
But she found nothing.
With Kiyohara's vast experience, his expressions had long since become the perfect mask hiding his true thoughts.
Naturally, what he had just said was a lie.
His first kiss?
Well...
He had lost that many years ago.
Obviously, Tsunade had never expected that answer.
"As if I'd believe that."
She still found it difficult to believe Kiyohara's smooth lies.
But...
What if it were actually true?
The possibility crept into her mind despite herself.
She had heard before that some men and women maintained ambiguous relationships that never crossed any physical boundaries, sharing only an emotional connection that remained incredibly pure.
Even though the possibility was incredibly small, Tsunade still wanted to believe it.
Otherwise...
She really had no advantage where age was concerned.
When all was said and done, she was the older woman pursuing someone much younger.
Whenever she looked at Kiyohara's youthful face, she couldn't help but feel a trace of guilt.
Not to mention...
They were teacher and student.
Moonlight filtered through the narrow gap between the curtains, bathing Tsunade's golden hair in a gentle silver glow.
That night...
Kiyohara had a rather difficult time getting through it.
Several days later.
Konoha.
Kiyohara's private laboratory.
Standing before the experimental platform, Kiyohara looked at a spherical container roughly half a meter in diameter.
The material composing it was extraordinarily unusual.
It possessed a texture somewhere between living biological tissue and polished metal.
This was something Kiyohara had spent an enormous amount of time and effort creating.
It had been constructed using fibers smelted from the special ores of the Land of Lightning, combined with numerous chakra-conducting materials to form an artificial vessel capable of housing a tailed beast.
It was flexible.
It was durable.
Most importantly, it could withstand tremendous quantities of chakra without collapsing.
"It's finally complete."
Kiyohara said to himself.
He retrieved a specially prepared sealing scroll from another storage scroll.
Within it was a portion of the chakra extracted from Moryo.
Drawing out the mass of dark violet chakra, he aimed it toward the injection port located atop the sphere.
The purple-black chakra flowed through the conduit into the interior of the vessel.
Almost immediately, the container's surface began changing color.
Its original milky white exterior was rapidly dyed a deep violet-black.
The artificial organic patterns covering its surface slowly wriggled beneath the chakra infusion like living blood vessels, pulsing rhythmically as they distributed Moryo's chakra evenly throughout every part of the sphere.
Inside the vessel, the purple-black chakra gradually condensed.
Soon, it formed a core roughly the size of a clenched fist.
Activating his Byakugan, Kiyohara looked through the outer shell and carefully observed the internal chakra flow.
Everything remained remarkably stable.
There was no rejection.
No structural collapse.
The artificial chakra pathways inside the container had successfully dispersed Moryo's highly corrosive chakra across the entire surface of the sphere, preventing it from concentrating enough force to destroy any single point.
"Excellent."
Kiyohara nodded with satisfaction.
This container had turned out even better than he had anticipated.
All that remained now was to continue feeding it chakra.
As its internal chakra core continued growing, it would eventually mature into a complete artificial tailed beast.
Once that happened...
He could attempt to consume the flesh and blood of this artificial tailed beast, just as he had done with the Three Tails, absorbing Moryo's chakra and making it part of his own strength.
Kiyohara shifted his gaze away from the spherical vessel and toward the miniature Box of Ultimate Bliss resting in the corner of the laboratory.
"The chakra inside the Box of Ultimate Bliss..."
"I could probably try adding that as well."
He murmured quietly.
However, the artificial tailed beast's vessel had only just completed its initial infusion.
It still required time to stabilize.
Once Moryo's chakra core had fully matured, there would be plenty of time to experiment with incorporating other varieties of chakra.
Kiyohara shut off the valve connected to the chakra reservoir before placing the spherical container back into a cultivation tank filled with nutrient solution.
This semi-biological vessel also required a constant daily supply of nutrients to maintain healthy growth.
The pale green liquid slowly submerged the purple-black sphere.
Tiny bubbles drifted upward from its surface.
Turning around, Kiyohara left the laboratory.
...
Somewhere deep within the mountains of the Land of Fire.
Two figures slowly emerged from beneath the earth and stepped onto the surface.
"It's been a long time since I've visited the lower world."
Toneri's father spoke calmly.
He wore a long white robe whose hem dragged across the ground, leaving a long shadow behind him.
His dark blue hair flowed loosely down to his waist, the ends curling slightly.
Despite appearing only around twenty years old, his skin was so pale that it looked as though sunlight had never once touched it.
Hidden beneath this valley were numerous pools resembling ordinary bodies of water.
In reality...
They served as passageways connecting the Moon and the Earth.
Strangely enough, touching the water would not wet one's body at all.
Powerful genjutsu had also been placed around the entrances to prevent outsiders from entering accidentally.
Anyone who wandered inside would immediately fall into a deep sleep.
"Father..."
"So this is the lower world?"
It was Toneri's first time coming here.
"That's right."
His father nodded.
"So this is Earth."
Toneri pondered thoughtfully.
He looked almost identical to his father.
The same blue hair.
The same pale complexion.
His father glanced around at the surrounding landscape.
"The Earth is much larger than the Moon."
Toneri commented.
Although he had been born without eyes, he could perceive everything around him.
Because of that, he could still understand the surrounding terrain and geography.
"Naturally."
"The Moon could never compare to the Earth."
His father shook his head.
"Come."
"Let's find the location of the Hyūga Clan first."
The two leaped into the air simultaneously.
Their figures disappeared into the night as they sped toward the heart of the Land of Fire.
Meanwhile...
The chakra fluctuations created by the descent of Toneri and his father had attracted the attention of another individual.
A monk dressed in a white haori slowly lowered the wine glass in his hand.
His hair was tied high atop his head, with a long braid hanging down his back.
The Roman numeral IV was tattooed beneath his left eye.
A black diamond-shaped mark rested upon his chin.
Jigen's eyes narrowed.
"Members of the Otsutsuki clan?"
He said silently.
Yet...
His hand trembled almost imperceptibly.
"You really are pathetic, Jigen."
Jigen frowned slightly.
At this moment, the consciousness controlling the body belonged to Otsutsuki Isshiki.
Although he and Jigen shared the same body, Jigen's own consciousness was normally suppressed into the deepest corner of his mind, surfacing only occasionally.
"Relax."
"I have no intention of indiscriminately killing anyone."
Isshiki shook his head.
If Kaguya had not ambushed him a thousand years ago, forcing him into desperation, he would never have chosen such a dull monk as his vessel.
Jigen's aptitude...
Was simply far too poor.
Had this vessel possessed even slightly better talent, Isshiki would have acted much more openly instead of remaining hidden in the shadows for an entire millennium.
"Members of the Otsutsuki Clan are forbidden from killing one another."
Isshiki spoke calmly through Jigen's body.
"...No."
"They're natives."
After sensing more carefully, he discovered that although their bloodline was remarkably pure, their chakra signature was unlike any Otsutsuki he had ever encountered.
Understanding dawned upon him immediately.
The descendants living on the Moon had finally come down.
For the past thousand years, Isshiki had hidden within the shinobi world.
Naturally, he had learned a fair amount about the Moon's branch of the Otsutsuki Clan.
They were all descendants of Kaguya's younger son, Otsutsuki Hamura.
"A bunch of mixed-blood mongrels..."
"And yet they've managed to revert to their ancestral bloodline."
Isshiki's voice was filled with undisguised contempt.
After consuming the Chakra Fruit, Kaguya had been unable to bear the overwhelming amount of chakra within her body.
She had been forced to divide that power, giving birth to Hamura and Hagoromo.
The people of Earth had romanticized that event as the "Blessing bestowed upon all living beings."
But in Isshiki's eyes...
It was nothing more than a glorified excuse for Kaguya's theft.
"However..."
A smile slowly curved across his lips.
"It wouldn't hurt to let them test that fellow from Konoha first."
The Fourth Hokage of Konoha...
Even while hiding within the shadows of the shinobi world, Isshiki had long heard that name.
The strength and ambition displayed by that native had already surpassed the realm of ordinary shinobi by an immeasurable margin.
At one point, Isshiki had even suspected that Kiyohara might somehow be connected to the Otsutsuki Clan.
However...
After observing him in secret multiple times, he had dismissed the idea.
Kiyohara bore no Kāma.
Nor did he possess the distinctive chakra characteristics of the Otsutsuki.
He was simply an exceptionally gifted native.
Even so...
That native's strength could not be underestimated.
Given the poor quality of his current vessel, attacking recklessly would involve far too much risk.
"So..."
"I'll let them scout things out first."
Isshiki slowly closed his eyes once more.
If Kiyohara turned out to be weaker than expected...
Perhaps...
He could attempt to make Kiyohara's body his next vessel.
After all, even if that native wasn't a pure-blooded Otsutsuki, he still carried an extremely faint trace of Otsutsuki blood.
Compared to Jigen's current body...
It was superior by an immeasurable margin.
"Amado."
Isshiki looked toward the depths of the chamber.
"Jigen-sama."
"Is there something you require?"
A man with a thick beard and yellow-tinted glasses stepped forward.
It was Amado.
"How is the research progressing on finding a suitable vessel for the Kāma?"
Isshiki asked.
"It is still ongoing."
Amado shook his head.
"Creating a body capable of withstanding your power is proving extraordinarily difficult."
Among every living being Amado had ever encountered...
Jigen was unquestionably the strongest.
If he were ever able to unleash his full power without restraint...
Amado honestly suspected that the shinobi of the present era would never have had the chance to rise at all.
The entire shinobi world...
Would have long since become nothing more than farmland cultivated for him.
(End of Chapter)