Chapter 193: Kurotsuchi: Where Did My Floating Trait Go?
Mōryō's physical body was sealed in the Land of Swamps.
Kurotsuchi used Light-Weight Rock to carry the stone sphere that physically sealed Mōryō, and Shiromo's group began heading toward their destination.
Along the way, Tsunade recalled what she had just done while working together with the others, and felt a kind of exhilaration she had never experienced in her life.
It wasn't that Tsunade had suddenly become a psychopath who enjoyed chopping off people's arms and legs.
The satisfaction came from the fact that she had finally matched Shiromo's rhythm in how he dealt with others.
As someone who had participated in the Ninja World Wars, Tsunade had no saintly mentality or moral squeamishness.
Back then, after the Three Sannin fought Hanzo and encountered Nagato, Konan, and Yahiko, the three of them had very different attitudes.
Tsunade stood between Jiraiya's emotional, overly soft-hearted side and Orochimaru's rational, overly cruel side.
For a ninja, being ruthless toward enemies was perfectly normal.
But to decisively sever an opponent's limbs the moment you first met them, simply because intelligence confirmed they were irreconcilable, ensuring they could no longer resist, that kind of behavior had never even appeared during the Ninja World Wars.
Tsunade had always thought Jiraiya and Orochimaru's problem was that they were too extreme.
Now she realized it was exactly the opposite.
They weren't extreme enough.
Jiraiya wasn't extreme enough in his emotions, not extreme enough in goodness.
Orochimaru wasn't extreme enough in his rationality, not extreme enough in evil either.
Otherwise, if Orochimaru had truly wanted to find a chance to kill the three of them back then, Jiraiya wouldn't have been able to protect them every moment.
After killing them, a quick cremation, and even Madara and Black Zetsu would've been left clueless.
As for Jiraiya… if he had brought the three of them back to Konoha… Uh, better not.
Thinking about Konoha's situation, Tsunade gave an awkward smile.
If the three of them had really gone to Konoha, with Jiraiya's free-spirited personality, he would've dumped them there and gone off wandering.
Then the three kids would either get messed with by Danzō, or bullied by Konoha villagers who naturally loved picking on outsiders.
If they didn't end up wanting to destroy Konoha in advance, that'd already be impressive.
"My lords, let me out! I can bestow Mōryō-sama's power upon you!"
Yomi's voice echoed from inside the stone sphere.
Thanks to Tsunade's hemostatic medical ninjutsu and Mōryō's soul sustaining him, Yomi still sounded full of energy.
So why did Yomi only speak up after they'd walked halfway?
Because earlier, Yomi had been trying to use Mōryō's power.
Mōryō's 'presence' was clearly much lower than that of Satori from Blood Prison.
Putting strength aside for the moment, the biggest difference was that this guy could talk like a human, and not in any particularly intimidating way either. His personality was basically human too.
Mōryō realized that Shiromo's group intended to send its soul to the place where its physical body was sealed, which aligned perfectly with Yomi's goal.
Mōryō didn't care what Shiromo's group planned afterward.
As long as it escaped the seal, it would be invincible. There would be no need to bother with them at all.
So when Yomi tried to use its power to break free, Mōryō naturally refused.
Yomi could only try to tempt Shiromo and the others.
If it was about granting power, Mōryō wouldn't object.
Because accepting its power meant falling under its control, making its unsealing even more secure.
The moment Yomi said this, the most nervous person was Shion.
She clutched her clothes tightly and looked at Shiromo and the others with worry, afraid they might agree.
"You can give power too, huh? Sorry, we're already completely filled up by this guy. No room for anyone else."
Tsunade tugged at the corner of her mouth, pointed at Shiromo, and delivered a line full of dangerous implications.
"What?"
Yomi froze inside the sphere.
So did Mōryō within him.
"Yeah. What Shiromo gives is obviously way stronger than whatever this Mōryō thing offers. And Mōryō is way too creepy, all tentacles and stuff. As girls, we have to stay far away from that."
Kurotsuchi glanced at the red stone Shiromo had given her and nodded in agreement with Tsunade.
A shrine maiden and a tentacle monster being paired together did make a bit too much sense.
Luckily this was a normal plot, not an adult parody plot.
When Yomi used 'dark medical ninjutsu' to cut himself open earlier and let Mōryō's soul enter his body, Mōryō had looked like a writhing mass of tentacles.
Of course, according to the 'setting', Mōryō was an energy lifeform with no fixed shape, supposedly "a collective formed from humanity's negative emotions and resentment," something that could only be sealed.
Great, an Evil Sword Immortal.
But there was no need to take that kind of setting seriously. This wasn't some rules-based horror story.
With Mōryō's power level, talk of a "collective of all humanity's negative emotions" was a joke. Naruto's negative mirror clone at the Waterfall of Truth could've one-shotted it.
"..."
Silence fell inside the stone.
For a moment, neither Yomi nor Mōryō knew how to continue.
Mōryō completely gave up caring. It was almost at the destination anyway.
Yomi's brain, meanwhile, went totally blank.
He had imagined righteous characters solemnly rejecting Mōryō's power.
But he had never imagined someone would outright look down on it.
And even call it "creepy".
After hearing their conversation, Shion became extremely curious about Shiromo.
For the rest of the journey, she kept whispering questions to Uchiha Hikari about him.
Hikari eventually got annoyed and tossed out a single line: "He's my sun," then ran ahead to clear the path.
She smashed every stone soldier terracotta warrior mentioned in the intel into rubble with Susanoo.
"Throw the stone over there."
Shiromo said to Kurotsuchi.
"Leave it to me."
Kurotsuchi lifted the stone sphere, floated into the air, and spotted what was clearly an entrance.
She tossed the sphere upward, coated her foot with rock, and delivered a powerful bicycle kick, sending the Light-Weight Rock–enhanced stone sphere flying forward.
As the Tsuchikage, Kurotsuchi was no longer wearing the old classic Iwa-nin outfit, but she also wasn't wearing a high-slit qipao either, so there was no need to worry about Tornado-style wardrobe malfunctions from that kick.
Kurotsuchi's Lava Release was long-range, but after becoming Tsuchikage and continuing her training, she'd grown fond of coating her limbs with Earth Release and combining it with Added-Weight Rock Technique and Light-Weight Rock Technique for taijutsu attacks.
In other words, Terumi Mei was a "special attack-type ninja," while Kurotsuchi was a "physical attack-type ninja."
The stone sphere flew through the air.
Cracks opened across its surface, and small tentacles formed from Mōryō's power wriggled out.
After the perfect goal, a moment later the ground began to shake and split apart.
Magma beneath the Land of Swamps surged up to the surface.
"Is it time to use this now?"
Kurotsuchi hovered in the sky, gripping the red orb and calling down to Shiromo.
"Use it. I'll amplify it for you."
Shiromo raised a hand toward her.
"Huh?"
Kurotsuchi tilted her head in confusion.
Shiromo could fly, couldn't he?
Why wasn't he flying up to help her, and instead raising his hand at empty air below?
But she didn't think too much about it.
She closed her eyes, tightened her grip on the red orb, and began resonating with the natural energy inside.
As the natural energy poured into her body, her clothes transformed into a red qipao with black patterns.
At the same time, her body started sinking downward, until she finally landed on the ground.
When Kurotsuchi opened her eyes, she found herself already on the ground, with Shiromo's raised hand resting perfectly on her shoulder.
"Huh?"
She hopped in place a couple of times.
Realizing she couldn't float anymore, she froze in confusion.
(End of this chapter)