Late at night, Tsunade returned with Shizune, her curses echoing faintly through the courtyard.
There was no need to guess what had happened.
Another crushing defeat at the gambling house.
The strong smell of alcohol clung to her, proof that she'd drowned her frustration with drink after blocking a few punches with her fists.
Shizune followed closely behind, carrying towels and water with practiced familiarity, carefully supporting Tsunade to keep her from stumbling.
She'd done this countless times over the years.
Tsunade's gaze swept the courtyard and then paused.
Her beautiful eyes narrowed slightly as they landed on Namikaze Kirito, who was still standing there.
Then she noticed the surroundings.
The scarred ground.
The shattered stones.
The pockmarked wall.
It didn't take much imagination to figure out what he'd been doing.
"…Hey, brat," Tsunade said, her tone lazy but sharp.
"You planning to train yourself to the brink of death out here?"
"You're back…"
Kirito exhaled, lifting his head.
Under the influence of alcohol, a faint flush colored Tsunade's fair face, making her appear even more striking.
Kirito froze for half a second.
In his previous life, he'd been nothing more than an otaku.
Seeing characters like this had only ever happened through a screen.
Now...
This was reality.
Even random passersby in this world would've been top-tier beauties back then.
Let alone Tsunade.
"Little devil," Tsunade clicked her tongue, turning away.
"You're only three years old. You don't need to push yourself like this."
"That bastard Jiraiya probably didn't even leave you food," she muttered irritably.
"So now he's dumping everything on me. What a pain…"
She stretched lazily, her figure outlined under the dim light.
"Forget it. I'm going to sleep."
With that, she turned and walked toward the house.
Shizune lingered behind.
She stepped closer to Kirito and handed him a neatly packed meal.
"Kirito-kun, this is dinner Tsunade-sama brought back for you," she said gently.
"You're still young, so please don't overdo it."
"And… don't blame Tsunade-sama. She actually cares about you a lot."
After speaking, Shizune quickly hurried after Tsunade.
Tsunade had drunk far too much, and Shizune was used to taking care of her by now.
As they walked away, Tsunade's thoughts were anything but calm.
Her eyes kept drifting back to the damage in the courtyard.
Those craters—
There was no mistaking it.
Rasengan.
Jiraiya was unreliable as ever and had already left, but before going, he'd specifically told her that he'd given Kirito the Rasengan training method.
He'd asked her to keep an eye on him.
But these traces—
They weren't from someone starting to learn Rasengan.
They were from someone who had already succeeded.
"…What a terrifying brat," Tsunade muttered.
The shock cleared much of the alcohol from her head.
Back in the courtyard, Kirito looked down at the meal Shizune had left.
A faint warmth surfaced in his eyes.
Cold on the outside. Warm on the inside.
That was Tsunade.
He'd known it since his previous life.
She hadn't always been like this.
Once, she'd been blunt, proud, straightforward.
But after losing the people closest to her—one by one—she'd built walls around herself, pretending not to care, refusing to let anyone close.
In that sense…
Kirito was very much like her.
That was why he'd chosen Tsunade.
After finishing his meal, Kirito returned to training.
"Rasengan with attribute change…" he murmured.
"I don't know my chakra nature yet, so I'll test it directly with the Dark Fruit."
He formed a standard Rasengan in his palm.
Once it stabilized, he expanded it—then compressed it back to normal size.
"Rasengan itself is already mastered. Next…"
"…Darkness."
Kirito focused.
Black mist surged up beneath the Rasengan, attempting to merge with it.
But the moment darkness touched the spinning chakra—
The Rasengan began shrinking.
The Dark Fruit was absorbing the chakra inside.
Yet instead of vanishing, the absorbed chakra flowed back into Kirito's body.
That realization made his mind race.
In the pirate world, the Dark Fruit could absorb Devil Fruit abilities.
That was how Blackbeard had taken Whitebeard's power.
So in this world—
It absorbed chakra.
Then what about—
Kekkei Genkai?
Yin Release? Yang Release?
Unique physiques?
If his hypothesis was correct…
Even if Kirito didn't use those powers himself, he could create subordinates with terrifying abilities.
"…Is this the true nature of darkness?" Kirito whispered.
Even knowing it was his own power, his breath quickened.
The ability to create—or destroy—the world.
The Tremor Fruit was no different.
Once it broke past its upper limit, shattering space itself wouldn't be impossible.
At that point, he wouldn't need Edo Tensei.
He could tear open the boundary of the Pure Land—
And retrieve the souls directly.
With a suitable body, true resurrection would no longer be fantasy.
"…This is insane."
Kirito's eyes burned with resolve as he refocused.
Speculation meant nothing without execution.
Physique.
Ability development.
Medical ninjutsu.
All of it required relentless training.
I decide my own fate.
That night… I'll never be that powerless again.
Dark mist flowed steadily into the Rasengan.
Though the Dark Fruit absorbed chakra, it immediately returned to him.
Inflow and outflow balanced—
Zero consumption.
That meant...
Unlimited experimentation.
Training was monotonous.
Endless.
The Rasengan in Kirito's palm formed, vanished, expanded, compressed—over and over again.
If not for the zero chakra cost, he would've collapsed long ago.
Even so, the mental strain was intense.
He'd trained since noon without rest.
Time passed unnoticed.
Finally...
A Rasengan completely wrapped in darkness stabilized in his palm.
A black sphere, shrouded in dense mist, spinning silently.
It radiated danger.
"…Let's test it."
Kirito pressed the sphere against the nearby rocky hillside.
Puff.
A soft, eerie sound echoed.
A perfectly round hole appeared in the stone.
No cracks.
No edges.
It was as if that portion of matter had simply been erased.
Rasengan—enhanced by darkness—
Didn't destroy.
It annihilated.
If that had hit a person…
The thought alone made his scalp tingle.
Satisfied, Kirito returned to the room prepared for him.
Exhausted but exhilarated, he collapsed onto the bed—
And fell asleep almost instantly.
PS: The Dark fruit is an enhanced version here...
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