Strongest Hidden Mist Village [144]

At the base of Mount Akakyu—

Snowflakes began drifting down from the sky.

Tourists in Akakyu City were the first to notice something was wrong. The usually warm, springtime climate had turned bitingly cold. Even the water in the hot spring inns was rapidly losing heat—and some of the springs had already frozen over.

"What the hell?!"

"It's spring! Why is it snowing?!"

"Ahhh! My legs—my legs are frozen in the water!"

Panic spread.

What was a peaceful hot spring resort just moments ago had suddenly been plunged into the heart of winter.

And it was all coming from one source.

A wave of suffocating cold erupted from Yoru—so intense it felt like it pierced through the soul itself. In an instant, everything in the surrounding area froze solid.

It didn't matter how hot the air had been.

It didn't matter how deep the lava flowed.

The moment Yoru unleashed his Bankai, an overwhelming tide of icy energy swept outward, swallowing everything in its path.

Jashin shattered the ice beneath him in a frenzy, trying to break through the frozen magma and escape.

He didn't hear the shouts of his followers. Didn't care.

He only wanted to run.

But then he looked up—and froze in place.

The sky above had turned black. Not the darkness of night, but something deeper, more oppressive. And something was rising through the ice.

"…Quite the scene," a voice said flatly.

Yoru emerged, step by step, from beneath the frozen frozen lava rock.

Unlike his previous partial Bankai, there were no wings of ice behind him, no dragon heads formed from his arms, no twelve-petaled ice flower blooming at his back.

He looked nearly the same as before—except now, a faint, crystalline armor of ice clung to his body.

That was all.

But everyone could feel it.

An oppressive weight in the air, like the pressure before a blizzard… or the gaze of death itself.

It wasn't chakra.

It was something far beyond that.

Jashin stared, pupils narrowing, and felt his blood run cold.

He had felt this once before—a thousand years ago.

And back then, he barely survived.

The wounds he took during that battle had never healed.

But now…

Now the pressure was even greater.

Back then, he had lived.

Now… he wasn't sure he could.

No. No—he had one chance.

He had already consumed part of Yoru's flesh, his blood—his essence.

As long as the ritual finished…

He still had a shot.

"Kill him!" Jashin commanded.

He bit into his fingertip, pressed it to his chest, and smeared a symbol in blood.

The command didn't echo through the air.

It echoed directly into the minds of every cultist in the cavern.

Nearly a thousand cultists paused—then turned their gazes to Yoru.

They saw someone impossibly strong.

But divine command overruled fear.

"Blasphemer! Die!"

The Jashin Cult leader was the first to charge, black spear in hand.

The others followed, screaming in fury as they surged toward Yoru.

Yoru didn't flinch.

He looked at them calmly—and then the cold struck.

A wave of frost swept outward.

And in that moment, they all died.

Regeneration didn't matter.

Immortality meant nothing.

When your soul freezes and shatters into dust—nothing else matters.

"…It's done."

But as Yoru finished off the last cultist, a hoarse voice rose from Jashin's mouth.

Yoru turned.

The black-and-white markings on Jashin's body had deepened. And in the center of his chest, a new mark had formed—a bloody, triangular seal encircling a small circular core.

"I've consumed your blood and flesh," Jashin growled. "With the Curse Technique: Death Controlling Possessed Blood, our lives are now bound."

He threw his head back and laughed.

"You may have the power to destroy the soul—but in the end, I win!"

The technique was powerful. Once the link was complete, both lives were tied together. And with Jashin's immortality, it created an unbeatable equation.

At least—for living beings.

But Yoru, free of his gigai, had long since transcended that definition.

He was no longer bound by life or death in any traditional sense.

Still, Jashin might possess abilities different from Hidan. No point dragging this out.

"Die, Ōtsutsuki descendant!"

Jashin raised the black spear, aimed it at his own chest, and plunged it down.

But just as the strike landed—a surge of frost engulfed his body.

Yoru's eyes were calm.

Hyōrinmaru's power was beyond question.

As the strongest ice-type Zanpakutō, its true strength was comparable to Ryūjin Jakka. But in the original timeline, that power had never been fully realized. Hitsugaya only barely achieved full Bankai during the Quincy Blood War.

Yoru—unrestricted by a gigai—had unlocked its ultimate power

-Shikai Hyōketsu (Four-World Freezi)

Within four steps of the user, all water, fire, and wind are frozen.

Time. Space. Energy. Even biological function—all of it can be frozen.

This was Hyōrinmaru's true strength.

Jashin's so-called immortality, his cursed blood technique—all of it was frozen in a single instant.

[Ding! Special lifeform 'Jashin: Jashin' slain. Reward: 1,000,000 points.]

"I actually wasn't keen on killing you," Yoru said, glancing at the system prompt.

He shook his head, sheathed Hyōrinmaru, and pulled out a scroll. From it, he retrieved a new gigai, and slipped his soul smoothly back into it.

A moment later, Yoru stretched his body. He glanced at Tsunade, still frozen in place and utterly stunned, but paid her little mind. Instead, he stepped forward and grabbed the black rod embedded in Jashin's chest.

The rod was clearly unusual—it radiated immense energy, so potent that even Jashin hadn't been able to remove it after a thousand years.

"A product of Yin–Yang Release, then…" Yoru murmured, sensing the chakra fluctuations emanating from it.

He already possessed some understanding of Yin–Yang Release, having even begun researching it. His research subject was none other than Shisui Uchiha, who had awakened the Rinnegan.

When the two opposing forces interact, they give birth to all things.

The Rinnegan encompassed the power of Yin–Yang Release, but the amount Shisui could manifest was vastly inferior to the force sealed within this black rod.

It had been embedded in Jashin's body for at least a millennium—and through all those years, Jashin had struggled endlessly to expel it. Yet despite his efforts, the rod still pulsed with an incredibly strong chakra signature.

When Yoru touched it, he could feel a faint psychic resonance.

"A millennium-old Ōtsutsuki's mental energy…"

Yoru's eyes gleamed with curiosity.

Still, he didn't act recklessly. Only after confirming the imprint posed no real threat did he begin to engage with it.

Instantly, Yoru felt as if he had traveled through time—drawn into a barren world from a distant, disembodied perspective.

It was a land of extreme desolation, decaying and still. Not like the sand-swept dunes of the Land of Wind, nor the craggy cliffs of the Land of Earth. This place was something else entirely—a deeper, quieter ruin. A world on the verge of collapse.

And yet, within this dying land stood a single, colossal tree.

It pierced the heavens, its crown lost among the clouds. The tree's branches stretched as wide as houses; its roots wound through the earth like mountain ranges. From beneath, energy and nutrients were being relentlessly drawn upward, draining the land below until it was little more than a husk.

Yoru realized he was standing directly beneath it—the towering, all-consuming God Tree.

What was all this...?

"The God Tree has nearly absorbed this world's energy. The fruit will form soon."

"But the natives are resisting. We'll need to wipe them out."

Suddenly, a clear, cold voice spoke beside him. Yoru turned, and a striking figure came into view. She had pale skin and long blue-white hair, a delicate, beautiful face with Byakugan eyes. Most importantly, she had two horns on her head.

This appearance would be familiar to anyone who had seen the end of Naruto. She was the progenitor of chakra in the shinobi world, the mother of Black Zetsu and the Sage of Six Paths, and the primary antagonist of Naruto Shippuden.

Kaguya Ōtsutsuki.

The Rabbit Goddess.

Yoru had initially thought this Yin–Yang Release black rod was left behind by the Sage of Six Paths, but now Kaguya Ōtsutsuki had appeared. So, a being capable of standing beside her, communicating as an equal—and even taking the lead in their conversation...

"I will handle those inferior beings."

A detached voice echoed from what appeared to be Yoru himself, and the scene shifted abruptly.

Swarms of grotesque demons and monsters surged forward, howling and snarling in twisted tongues. Without hesitation, the other "Yoru" calmly extended a hand and unleashed a dozen or so chakra black rods, each forged through Yin–Yang Release.

The rods streaked through the air. The charging monsters didn't stand a chance—scattering like startled birds in an instant. The vision wavered, then slowly dissolved.

Yoru blinked and returned to reality, the disorientation fading as quickly as it came.

"I didn't expect Jashin to actually be a native of Earth from a millennium ago."

"And the origin of this black rod is actually Isshiki Ōtsutsuki!"

The shinobi world was never all that special.

Just one small planet in the vast universe. And to the Ōtsutsuki Clan, it was nothing more than another pit stop on their path to godhood—an energy source to be harvested, devoured, and abandoned.

Through the memory fragment embedded in the black rod, and what he already knew from history and the original timeline, Yoru had pieced together the story:

Kaguya Ōtsutsuki and Isshiki Ōtsutsuki had come to Earth a thousand years ago. They planted the God Tree, preparing to extract the chakra fruit by draining the world's life force.

But the tree consumed too much.

Even the planet itself began to wither.

Faced with extinction, Earth's original inhabitants fought back.

Jashin had been one of them.

Not a shinobi. Not a chakra wielder. But a being who possessed real power—a unique form of immortality and spiritual resilience that had nothing to do with ninjutsu.

They'd lost, of course. The Ōtsutsuki were overwhelming.

The resistance was crushed. Its champions killed. The old world erased.

But some like Jashin survived, wounded and broken, hiding deep underground for a thousand years.

Until now.

And then betrayal struck.

Kaguya turned on Isshiki.

Her sons, Hagoromo and Hamura, later turned on her.

And the world they left behind became the shinobi world we know.

A world built not on its native cultivation paths, but on chakra—a system invented and spread by the Sage of Six Paths.

A convenient system.

A limited system.

"...So you were the righteous one, huh?" Yoru muttered.

He looked down at the crumbled remains of Jashin and stomped once, reducing what was left to ice and dust.

"Rest, then. Back to the world that birthed you."

His gaze sharpened.

"So the real question is…"

"Kaguya betrayed Isshiki because she didn't want to become the Ten-Tails' sacrifice."

"But what about Hagoromo and Hamura?"

Why did they betray their mother?

If it was truly to save the world—

Then why erase the original power systems of the planet?

Why introduce chakra?

Why wipe out everything that came before?

Yoru narrowed his eyes.

"Jashin proves the world once had a system of power far more diverse and potent than chakra."

Even in a weakened state, Jashin had surpassed most Kage-level shinobi. And by the vision's implication, he wasn't even the strongest of his time—just one of many.

A survivor.

That meant…

The original world had once been alive with cultivation paths, techniques, and powers that had nothing to do with chakra.

Until it was all overwritten.

"Convenient, sure. More accessible, yes."

"But once you commit to chakra, your ceiling is set."

Unless you had Ōtsutsuki blood, you'd never surpass Kage level.

Not in a thousand years.

And so, the Sage of Six Paths—worshiped as the world's savior—

"What if he was just a tyrant, ensuring no one could ever challenge his bloodline's rule?"

Yoru's voice was quiet now. Cold. Heavy.

He turned slightly.

Tsunade was still standing there, stunned.

"You've been watching this whole time," he said. "Figure anything out?"

"…"

Her face was pale. Complex emotions twisted behind her eyes.

"You're… Yuki Yoru," she finally said.

Yoru raised an eyebrow. "That not obvious enough?"

"There's no one else in the shinobi world with Ice Release like that."

"No," she shook her head. "That's not what I meant."

"You changed bodies, didn't you? After killing Jashin—you transferred your soul into a new vessel."

Yoru's gaze remained level.

Tsunade took a breath.

"Back during the Third Great Ninja War… Hiruzen sent me a letter. He warned me about you. Said you were dangerous—capable of manipulating souls. He wanted me to return to the village and help stop you."

"I didn't believe him."

"I thought it was just a ploy to drag me back."

She looked away for a moment.

"I never thought he might be telling the truth."

She looked at him again.

"And the Shinigami. The Soul Society. All those rumors circulating through the Land of Water and beyond… that's you, isn't it?"

"You're not just the Fourth Mizukage."

"What are you really trying to do?"

Yoru gave a soft, cold chuckle.

"What do you think I'm trying to do, princess?"

Tsunade clenched her fists.

She wanted to say "world domination." It was on the tip of her tongue.

But she didn't.

Because after seeing everything with her own eyes… that word felt small.

Childish.

Yoru wasn't acting like someone who wanted to conquer the world.

He was acting like someone who'd outgrown it.

And his power…

The sheer cold he unleashed, the way he froze Mt. Akakyu in an instant, the way even Jashin couldn't resist—

It reminded her of one man.

Her grandfather—Senju Hashirama, the God of Shinobi.

In the Warring States period, it was Hashirama who crushed chaos with his overwhelming strength and founded Konoha with Madara.

Back then, he was a force of nature.

And now—Yoru was just like him.

Or worse.

If he wanted to, he could lead the Land of Water and sweep across the entire shinobi world like a winter storm.

But he hadn't.

Why?

Tsunade didn't have the answer.

"…Some things aren't so easy to explain," Yoru said.

"This world has secrets—ancient ones. Powers and beings most people can't even imagine. Like that so-called god you just saw. Or the one who left that black rod in him."

He calmly sealed the rod into a scroll and tucked it away.

"The less you know, the lighter your burden."

"With your current state… it's probably best if you just keep drowning yourself in sake and gambling."

"Better than getting involved in something you're not ready to face."

"You—!" Tsunade's face flushed. "Don't patronize me!"

"If this really involves something that threatens the whole world—how could I just turn away?"

"Oh?" Yoru smiled. "Am I joking? Or are you?"

"Let's be honest, Tsunade. You still haven't even conquered your hemophobia. You froze up just from a scratch."

"You think you're going to face down gods like that?"

"I—! You—!"

Tsunade's words failed.

Yoru smiled faintly at her frustration.

"Anyway, we're done here."

"The Jashin cult is gone. Side quest complete."

He turned.

"Don't forget—you still owe me two lives."

"And one favor."

"Yuki Yoru!!"

"Ciao~"

And just like that, his form shimmered and vanished.

Tsunade stood frozen for a moment.

Then, with a scream of frustration, she punched the frozen cliff wall beside her, sending shards of ice scattering across the ground.

She stared at her reflection in the cracked surface.

Conflicted.

Frustrated.

Haunted.

A long silence passed.

Then she stood upright and turned toward the exit of the frozen cavern.

"No…"

"I have to understand."

"What is your true goal, Yuki Yoru?"

"And what exactly are you facing?"

"You won't get away!"

PS: Read Advance Chapters at https://www.patreon.com/c/ReadJin