Chapter 125: Reform
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She placed her hand on her shoulder, where the Cursed Mark had evolved into a pattern of 6 tomoe arranged in a circle. She could feel it since last night, after taking the pill sent by Tsunade - the natural energy around her. The Cursed Mark changed after her ingestion, as if the materials inside were absorbed into the Cursed Mark, evolving it.
And along with it, her body was renewed, reconstructed through the Cursed Mark. The constant pain coursing through her body made her unable to sleep for the 2 days, but the constant power surge in her body made her able to endure through the torture.
She felt her body was fully transformed as there was no more pain and she felt better than normal. As if the air felt clearer, the chakra felt closer. There were 18 hours left before Iwa and Suna would launch a full scale attack.
She teleported to a barren dessert of Land of Wind. The 6 tomoe patterns flared like flames, the demonic patterns spread throughout her entire body, as if burning her alive.
Sizzle!
The mark covered her entire body. Her skin grew paler, close to white. Her blonde hair turned even more washed out but retained a hint of blonde.
"Ah..!" Tsuyu gasped in pain as her head throbbed.
Two lumps grew painfully from her head, into a pair of small twisted horns. Her tied hair unraveled, letting it sway in the air. Her hair grew longer, even reaching her knees. A red eyeshadow appeared around her eyes as her transformation reached the end. Her appearance was eerily similar to a certain race.
Unlike the monster appearance of Cursed Mark Stage 2, her appearance was almost beautiful, like she was untouchable by the mundane world.
So this is… natural energy… senjutsu. My senses felt really sharp. Is this what they call Sage Mood? This must be what I am missing… this potency. I feel it. I can try to use those techniques.
Tsuyu muttered to herself, experiencing the power coursing through her body.
She took a deep breath, creating Collapse nature chakra, the Cursed Mark in her body was akin to an automatic natural energy absorber, stabiliser, and expeller - absorbing natural energy, creating senjutsu chakra in the right proportion and expelling excess natural energy after its creation.
She swirled the Collapse nature senjutsu chakra inside tenketsu of her entire body, gathering them into her flesh.
She opened her eyes, her hands clasped together as she condensed all the Collapse chakra together all at once into her center without caring for its stability. And with a recoil and opened arms, she unleashed all of it out.
Collapse Release: Abyssal Repulsion!
Bang!
Powerful force unleashed from her body in a single instance, pushing the sands beneath her, the air, and dust. A circular sandwave was created, rippling like a wave of the ocean from her as the epicenter, the ground beneath her shook from the force. In a moment after the force subsided, a 6 meter radius around her was cleared, not a dust remained in the air. Though it was soon filled in with sand dust the next moment.
I will survive…
Tsuyu's gaze turned cold. The sandy desert was used as a training ground, creating a smaller scale Collapse Release technique.
Abyssal Attraction! The sand and dust in a few meters radius was pulled by invincible force towards her.
"Cough…" Some sand caught in her mouth. She thought that was silly. She clasped both her hands together, gathering a mass of Collapse senjutsu chakra into a singularity.
Abyss Core…!
A pitch black core was created between her palm, dusts and sands slowly attracted towards it. She sent the core up and forward, and with a clap of her hand, more of her chakra was directed into the core, creating an attraction force as dusts and sands rushed towards it, forming a spherical chunk of compressed sand of a meter radius.
She released the created boulder, letting it fall with a muffled bang.
And finally…
Collapse Release version of Rasengan.
She summoned two shadow clones. As the mass of chakra turned into a golf sized sphere, it turned pitch black, the surrounding space distorted and the light around her as if dimmed, the sphere in her hand turned into a void, even the area around her hand. A ring of white light formed like an aurora around the void, created by the light bent surrounding the gravity. All the dust in the air stopped and floated, the sands beneath her feet rising and circling Tsuyu as if she was the center of the universe. But seemingly unable to fully form, it wavered; it just dispersed as if through hawking radiation in an instant. The dust returned to its original trajectory, the sands fell back down to the ground.
She figured out what's lacking. She needed to use a large amount of chakra to fully form a stable Collapse Release nature infused Rasengan. A volume enough to reach a steady state and stability.
She couldn't afford to test the jutsu fully, she needed to fight in a day. But she felt confident… It's already completed.
I will end this war, once and for all. Nii-san, we both won't have to fight anymore.
She recalled her power. Her twisted horns receded, her pale skin returned to its healthy colour, her washed blonde hair turned to its normal blonde, her hair length turned to normal. She tied her air up like normal.
She consumed a little bit of her chakra to test her jutsu. It's time to replenish fully before her final battle.
Like a shadow, she disappeared and appeared in the border of Land of Fire facing Land of Grass.
The battlefield this time was an open meadow of grass. Able to hold thousands of shinobi fighting. This would be the last line Konoha had before Iwagakure stepped into the Land of Fire.
"Tsuyu-sama! You are here! We had prepared the prisoners. Come this way." A young Kunoichi saw her and immediately went to her.
"Lead the way."
Tsuyu nodded. It was a little weird that people started calling her with -sama surname. She had come a long way. Her status was equivalent to the Legendary Sannin at this point. Except she was known as the Demon for enemies, but for the people of Konoha, a Hero, and her other monikers she gained throughout her battles included Tsuyu of the Iron Maiden, Death Touch, and even Shadow of Yellow Flash. She wondered who came up with such things. But she supposed it made sense naming wise.
Thinking about it, Naruto also made a name out there. Naruto of the 9 tails and Naruto of the Shadow Clones. Sasuke was even called Shadow of the Uchiha and Crackling Thunder. The latter referred to how each time the enemy saw a flash of lightning and the sound of chidori, they were already dead.
Tsuyu went to the holding cells with close to 38 prisoners of Iwagakure. With chakra limbs of Reibi, she attacked all of them all at once like a net.
Wailing and groans of pain filled the underground hall, their hands and bodies tried to hold onto anything to hold on.
Tap. Tap.
"Tsuyu…"
She heard the familiar voice. Turning around, it was Jiraiya.
He would fight with her as well. Jiraiya was responsible to fight the troops on the ground, while she would be responsible to fight with Tsuchikage and Deidara. With his power with Sage Mode, Jiraiya would be a strong opponent against Akatsuki members that would come to support Iwa. They didn't know who yet however.
But based on Pain's arrangement, it was Konan, Kakuzu, Hidan and Sasori. Each was paid 2 million Ryo. The trio of immortals were dispatched as Pain wouldn't want them to die just yet. Tobi would also be around to save them in case anything happened. As for Itachi… Pain had lost contact with him.
He didn't know whether he went rogue or not. Itachi didn't do anything yet so Pain gave him the benefit of the doubt. Itachi couldn't just leave given Tobi was still there and he was wary of Madara more than to him.
Iwagakure didn't care about Sasori being a rogue nin of the Sand that killed their own Kazekage. Because Iwa believed Suna would be destroyed after this war if they failed to take the Land of Fire, which they believed would happen. Konoha may take a last stance and destroy Suna since they were the weakest, taking them down with their fall.
Their Land of Wind were facing turmoil, rebellion, plague and even famine. If Suna failed, the Land of Wind would turn into a chaotic land filled with death.
Onoki invested heavily in Akatsuki, because he was scared of Tsuyu after battling her days before.
"Jiraiya-sama. What's the matter?" Tsuyu looked at him. Jiraiya looked tired, his face had lost its usual energetic self. There was no trace of that old man who liked to peep.
"Come with me. We will go to another space for a while." Kuchiyose!
A giant toad was summoned. The orange toad opened it's mouth, letting it's tongue fell on the ground. Jiraiya went to step and stood on the tongue.
"Come."
Tsuyu frowned. But she still followed and stood next to Jiraiya. The two were gobbled up by the toad and disappeared.
When they reappeared, the toad threw both of them up.
They reached a clearing, surrounded by a barrier that cut off chakra signatures. Even Zetsu could not detect them. This precaution was needed against Madara and Zetsu.
Akatsuki Theme played.
The sound of crows flapping its wings and its kaws echoed in the surrounding forest. Crows flew from behind Tsuyu, and from the flocks gathered, a figure in black robe with a red cloud pattern appeared in front of her.
The pair of red irises with 3 tomoe gazed at her direction.
"Itachi Uchiha…" Tsuyu squinted her eyes. She still felt resentful over his attempt to kill Naruto in the past.
"Jiraiya-sama, why are we communicating with a traitor?" Tsuyu asked him coldly. Sure she herself had connection to Orochimaru in the past, but for Jiraiya who had judged her for it now talking to Itachi, his hypocrisy was baffling.
Jiraiya looked at Tsuyu. The natural energy she breathed in almost naturally and expelled as if it was air though in a minute amount. Her strength had improved from whatever Tsunade gave her.
Itachi could also feel it. Tsuyu's strength, if unleashed, would be unfathomable.
"Itachi is Konoha's spy. He acted to spy on the one suspected to be Uchiha Madara in Akatsuki… as well as… Pain. The bearer of Rinnegan."
Tsuyu's frowning expression turned into that of a serious one.
"Rinnegan… the legendary eyes of the Sage of Six Paths. They truly exist?" She asked for confirmation. She was a keen reader, to enrich herself she also read on culture and history, even folklore of the shinobi world. But since these two were saying that, then it must exist.
"Yes. Tsuyu. Listen. Pain, Madara, and all of the Akatsuki, wanted to capture all the bijuus from all hidden villages."
Tsuyu stood quietly listening. This information was extremely important even in her cognition.
Itachi suddenly spoke.
"Akatsuki wanted to take the chance where all of the hidden villages weakened through the war to capture their bijuus. 4 people from the Akatsuki would be fighting for Iwagakure."
"I made the mistake of attempting to take your brother's life… because I wanted to stop them, and I wanted to stop the war that would weaken all of the shinobi villages. If Konoha loses 9 tails, we have to surrender. We could avoid deaths and losses of our people. Even if we had no place in the Land of Fire, as long as Konoha lived with their people, even in obscurity, I believed it was for the better good. Akatsuki's goal to capture the bijuus would be more difficult to achieve if the hidden villages kept their power."
"So what are you two planning? What do you want me to do?"
"You are strong, Tsuyu. Perhaps Konoha could survive the war with you. But if you commit slaughter towards them, Akatsuki goals would be achieved."
"Then I will kill all of the jinchuriki. Or at least… one of them. Killing the strongest, the 8 tails would do enough as well even if I couldn't kill all." Tsuyu directly gave the solution. The two gasped inwardly at how quickly she came up with it.
"Once they are dead, Konoha and other shinobi villages would have the time to hunt down that little group of yours. 8 tails would take time to revive. And he had no chance given that the second strongest bijuu was missing for years. His plan foiled."
Jiraiya frowned.
"Tsuyu, if you kill all jinchuriki… the power balance…" Jiraiya spoke.
Tsuyu snickered.
"Itachi, you initially planned to kill my own brother for the same reason. As for power balance, you wanted Konoha to disappear into obscurity, and call it 'surviving' as long as people didn't die in war."
"Then…"
Tsuyu raised both her arms, her voice raised.
"We will have Konoha become the overlord. This world can be united under one banner. The use of Jinchuriki was already inhuman, eradicating weapons of mass destruction from this world, from the flawed system would do wonders. This world would no longer need jinchuriki, the bijuu can be set free, since Konoha had become the overlord there was no need for such weapons. I will fix Hashirama's mistake to weaponize them in the first place. This world needs a reform, so many things were fucked up. And once that happens, the little side goal to eradicate Akatsuki can be accomplished."
Even Kurama and Reibi inside of Tsuyu were shocked hearing that.
So… that was how she planned to free me and the other bijuus… she wasn't lying… Kurama could hear Tsuyu's voice, and feel she didn't lie. Reibi seemed really happy inside and was bouncing on Kurama's fur. For Bijuus to be free, for them to no longer become a weapon, it was a dream for them.
She was so serious, even Kurama felt touched that someone was really out there, wanting to free them.
And her method… to reform the shinobi world…
Kurama's eyes look at her with a sense of recognition. The only human that had wanted to free him all this time. At this moment, even without Tsuyu trying, she already had gained Kurama's recognition.
"A reform? Tsuyu… that method… you are forcing people to submit under the rule of power. You are making an enemy of all the hidden villages. Even without jinchuriki, you will escalate war. They wouldn't just submit to Konoha! You will lead to more war, more conflicts. You can't be serious, Tsuyu!" Jiraiya said almost shakily.
"I have a method to convince them. They wouldn't dare to fight back." Her eyes turned colder.
Jiraiya and Itachi felt their backs chilled.
"Tsuyu… what are you planning to do?" Itachi asked carefully.
"As long as I show enough strength, they won't retaliate. I will…"
"Make an example using a hidden village. Once they know what I am capable of, they will submit…"
"Tsuyu… are you… planning to commit a massacre…" Jiraiya's shaky expression turned cold. Even Itachi's.
Both of their chakras pressed heavily towards her like a mountain. Her own chakra was released, reversing the situation to press down upon them.
"If that is what needs to be done. For peace. Unless you two have better options, I am open for discussion."
"I can't allow you… I had hoped the prophecy wasn't real. But you…" Jiraiya turned to face Tsuyu like a great enemy. Murderous intent leaked out of him.
"Prophecy? Jiraiya-sama… pardon my rudeness. Which charlatan did you listen to that wanted to kill me?" Tsuyu's eyes turned cold. He didn't know Jiraiya had so much enmity with her that he even had to mention some prophecy bullshit. She knew humans were illogical at times but this crossed her line too much.
But a part of her couldn't help but wonder if Being X actually sent some stupid idea to Jiraiya to make him her enemy. Prophecy, dreams, she could only blame Being X.
Damned Being X… are you finally interfering with my life…?! But even if you give any idea to Jiraiya, I wouldn't stop!
"No. I couldn't kill you… I couldn't let Naruto feel sad. We don't need to kill you." Jiraiya turned to Itachi.
A flock of crows appeared and came out of Itachi's body, rushing towards Tsuyu all of a sudden.
Tsuyu took a step back, frowning and slashing a few crows with a kunai in her hand.
A crow with a red eye with an iris pattern flew right towards her, their eyes met - the Sharingan with four-pointed pinwheel in the crow's eyes spun.
Kotoamatsukami!
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