Chapter 140: Who Would Not Want an Aerial Fortress?
"What do you think of this base?" Kenichi asked.
By now, he and Sasori had finished searching the entire facility. The place was huge, but strangely empty. They barely saw any Sky Village shinobi, and the personal flight devices were nearly useless in narrow underground corridors.
Some people had escaped, but Kenichi did not care. From one captured researcher, he had already pried out the secret behind the fortress's ability to fly.
"Not bad. It covers a lot of ground," Sasori said, eyes half lidded as he examined several flight devices in his hands. A few corpses were still hanging from them. "But it isn't sturdy. Feels like any little brat could blow this place apart."
He was manipulating the flying tools with chakra threads like puppet strings, using them as practice. He had already figured out how to operate them. Now he was studying the structure, trying to understand the principles. He clearly wanted to integrate this technology into Unit 01 and whatever puppets came after.
"What you said makes sense." Kenichi tossed the man he was holding to the ground.
The man trembled so hard it looked like his bones were about to rattle apart. He was the architect behind the Ancor Vantian Sky Fortress.
Kenichi crouched and smiled at him.
"Tell me. How does this building fly?"
Then Kenichi's smile sharpened.
"And if you try saying something stupid again, like earlier, I will send you to meet your companions right now."
This idiot had actually tried to fool him by pretending to be a gorilla. The arrogance was impressive in a way.
Kenichi had not even known books like Quantum Mechanics Even Gorillas Can Understand existed in this world.
"T this…" The man swallowed, sweating. "It requires the power of the Zero Tails. We must place the Zero Tails in Ancor Vantian's core, then supply Ancor Vantian with chakra from shinobi, or stamina from civilians."
Kenichi raised an eyebrow.
That answer, at least, made sense.
It was far more believable than the earlier nonsense about using massive amounts of Wind Release chakra to keep an entire fortress airborne.
Kenichi knew exactly what kind of energy a structure this large would demand. In his previous life, you would need something like nuclear fusion to run it.
But this was the shinobi world.
Using Zero Tails as an energy source was not strange at all. If anything, Kenichi thought the Nine Tails would probably be even more efficient.
"Take me to the core area," Kenichi said, helping the man up as if they were old friends. "Can Ancor Vantian fly right now?"
"Not now… not yet…" The man dropped his gaze, terrified.
When he tried lying earlier, Kenichi had almost beaten him to death. In that moment, he had genuinely felt the Pure Land calling his name. Now he had a deep, instinctive fear of this man.
He had always thought he was not afraid of death.
Then death almost arrived, and he learned the truth. He was terrified. Extremely terrified. He would do anything to survive.
Seeing Kenichi frown, the man panicked and rushed to explain.
"It's because Zero Tails is still weak! It hasn't absorbed enough darkness yet, so its power is limited. Once it grows a bit, it will be able to absorb shinobi chakra and make Ancor Vantian fly!"
Kenichi watched him babble, then looked toward the eggs laid out on the ground and scratched his head.
More accurately, Zero Tails' true form was the fleshy mass inside, not the shell around it. The egg was a restraint, Shinno's method of controlling and protecting it.
Even with that outer layer, Zero Tails itself was not large. It was only about the size of a big watermelon.
"Then what about this base?" Sasori asked, tapping the stone wall. "Those who escaped will come back eventually."
The fortress was enormous and already built. Sasori clearly did not want to abandon something this valuable unless there was no choice.
"So what if they come back?" Kenichi said calmly. "This is the level they are relying on. I do not think they can be that strong."
Kenichi was not worried about Shinno.
You could often estimate someone's level by looking at a few obvious signs.
How strong was the First Hokage? Just look at the way he treated the Nine Tails like a pet.
So what was the gap between Zero Tails and Nine Tails?
Holding this little creature, Kenichi felt no pressure at all. If anything, it seemed almost cute, the kind of pet that would bite you once, then apologize with a guilty look.
And it was his first time encountering dark chakra. That alone made it worth studying.
"That may be true," Sasori said, still wary, "but are you not worried they will leak this information to other villages?"
Kenichi hesitated.
Ancor Vantian was too big. Sealing it away was unrealistic, and handling it on the ground was inconvenient. If he could not lift it into the air, then it was a sitting duck.
"I do not think the odds are high," Kenichi said after a moment, shaking his head. "Ancor Vantian is probably their only chance at turning things around. If they lose it, I do not know what else they can do."
He remembered what the architect had claimed earlier.
Ancor Vantian's design included a main cannon powered by Zero Tails. Supposedly, one shot could erase Konoha from the world.
Kenichi had almost laughed.
Konoha really lived rent free in every villain's head. Destroying Konoha was always used as the standard unit of bragging.
It was like someone in his previous life boasting about how they could eliminate mold to prove their strength.
Still, whether it was true or not, Kenichi could feel the obsession in that claim. These people were not going to casually hand their only trump card to other villages.
He turned to Sasori.
"Sasori. If Sunagakure was destroyed, and this was your only chance to avenge it, would you give this weapon away without even trying?"
Sasori fell silent. After a moment, he admitted it with his expression.
No. He would not.
Kenichi nodded, then looked back at the trembling architect.
"Let me ask you something. Does your energy extraction device have to use dark chakra converted from Zero Tails? Could another tailed beast work?"
The man shook his head quickly.
"No. Dark chakra is the most suitable energy source we can access right now. And besides, we cannot access the tailed beasts in other villages."
A tailed beast.
The Sky Village did not have one. They relied on flight tools and weapons. To them, tailed beasts were legends from another world.
Kenichi dug through his things, then pulled out a sealing scroll and tossed it to the architect.
"Try this."
The man caught it, confused.
Kenichi's eyes narrowed slightly.
"This contains Nine Tails chakra. Only a portion, though."
It was chakra Kenichi had collected during the Nine Tails' attack. He had once considered researching it himself, but he had been too busy and set it aside.
Now it was worth using as an experiment.
If Nine Tails chakra could power Anker Bandian, then he did not need to rely on Zero Tails. Even if the scroll ran dry later, he could always find other ways.
He could take chakra from other villages' tailed beasts.
Or he could go to Konoha and look at Naruto. Naruto's identity was no secret to Kenichi.
"Nine Tails chakra?" Sasori's interest immediately rose. Sunagakure's One Tail was already monstrous. So how terrifying was a beast with eight more tails?
"I will try," the architect said quickly, wiping sweat from his face as he stood. Even so, he still asked Kenichi for help.
Kenichi did not mind. Nine Tails chakra was far too violent for an ordinary person to handle alone.
With Kenichi's assistance, that ominous chakra reappeared in the world, thick and heavy like a living curse.
The moment it surfaced, Zero Tails' egg began to tremble violently. It looked like it wanted to flee, but it could not even move properly. All it could do was wriggle on the ground in panic.
"It cannot absorb other chakra," the architect said shakily after testing. "It can only absorb shinobi chakra. It probably would not even dare absorb yours."
Kenichi clicked his tongue, disappointed.
Zero Tails was too weak.
Absorbing chakra sounded impressive, but it did not automatically make something invincible. Nagato could absorb chakra and devour ninjutsu, yet he was petrified when he absorbed natural energy.
If Zero Tails dared to absorb Kenichi's chakra, Kenichi would teach it a basic shinobi lesson.
Intelligence came first.
Sasori stared at the ominous chakra, lips parting slightly. Then he licked his lips, eyes intent.
Kenichi paused, then spoke with sudden seriousness.
"Sasori. Even if it looks like jelly, you cannot use that."
Sasori's expression went blank.
Then it turned strange.
His gaze slowly shifted to Kenichi, carrying a level of complicated emotion that could not be summarized in one word.
"…What do you mean, use it?" Sasori's eyes practically accused him. "What exactly do you think I am?"
There was a long silence in the ruin.
Then Sasori's stare grew even stranger.
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