She had changed out of her sleepwear and was now dressed in simple, comfortable home clothes.
Arata stepped closer and deliberately lowered his voice.
"The two kids are still asleep. There shouldn't be any problems.
I need to head back and report the mission. If I have time, I'll come see you again."
Xianglin felt a wave of relief wash over her. When she heard that he was leaving, a trace of reluctance surfaced in her heart, but she quickly suppressed it.
She understood—this was not something she could ask him to delay.
She nodded gently.
"Go. You don't need to worry about things here."
Arata looked at her quietly.
This woman....someone with whom he had just shared intimate closeness.
"Take good care of yourself," he said softly.
With that, he didn't linger. Arata turned and left Xianglin's home.
He truly had no choice. The Uzumaki bloodline was already in his possession, and it needed to be fused immediately. Any delay would only waste its potential.
The moment he stepped beyond Xianglin's line of sight, Arata activated his ocular technique.
Takama-ga-hara.
Space twisted, and in an instant, he vanished.
---
Within the Takama-ga-hara Space, inside a sealed chamber of a wooden villa, Arata sat cross-legged on the floor and slowly closed his eyes.
His consciousness shifted inward, focusing on his Mangekyō Sharingan.
Before him floated three blood-red orbs of light, each representing an Uzumaki bloodline he had copied.
With a single thought, the fusion began.
The three orbs collided repeatedly....merging, repelling, separating, and refining.
Throughout the process, Arata continuously supplied chakra, stabilizing the violent interaction and forcing the fusion forward.
More than half an hour passed.
After countless cycles of collision and purification, only one orb remained.
It was larger than the previous three combined, glowing a deep crimson interwoven with threads of golden light.
Arata waited.
When the orb finally grew completely still, he knew the process was complete.
A pure Uzumaki bloodline had been formed.
His consciousness returned to his physical body.
In the darkness of the sealed chamber, Arata opened his eyes.
His Mangekyō Sharingan spun violently, crimson light flickering like flames in the void.
He drew in a deep breath—and shouted.
The fusion began.
His body convulsed violently as his muscles spasmed beyond his control.
An unbearable pain erupted from deep within him, spreading instantaneously throughout his entire body.
It was a pain that pierced straight into the soul....sharp, maddening, and impossible to ignore.
Sweat poured from his skin in torrents, faint streaks of blood mixing within it as his flesh struggled to endure the transformation.
And this was only the beginning.
As time passed, the pain intensified.
Arata clenched his teeth so hard they ground audibly, the agony pushing him to the brink of madness.
For a fleeting moment, he even felt an overwhelming urge to destroy everything around him.
Then—
A warm current surged forth from deep within his body.
The warmth soothed the agony, calming the sensation of genetic collapse as if a clear spring had flowed into cracked, barren earth.
His trembling gradually slowed, his breathing steadied, and the flood of sweat finally subsided.
But the pain returned again.
And once more, it was immediately smoothed away by that gentle, unending warmth.
Suddenly, Arata understood.
This warmth—
It was Wood Release.
He didn't know why, but he was absolutely certain.
Thus, a strange harmony formed within his body. Pain would arise, only to be instantly soothed by the power of Wood Release....again and again.
Within this endless cycle, Arata's body evolved.
His strength increased. His cells grew more active. His vitality surged exponentially. Along with it, his chakra reserves expanded at an astonishing rate.
After all, the Uzumaki clan was famed for its terrifying life force and vast chakra reserves....so immense they were often joked about as "chakra by the ton.
" Even when Naruto was still a child, while suppressing the Nine-Tails, his chakra already surpassed that of elite jōnin like Kakashi.
That alone spoke volumes of the Uzumaki bloodline's power.
As time passed, Arata's fusion progressed further.
Blue chakra began to spiral outward from his body in visible waves, growing denser and more violent.
Eventually, it formed a sky-blue sphere nearly five meters in diameter, completely engulfing him.
Arata himself was no longer visible within.
This was precisely why he had chosen to fuse the Uzumaki bloodline within Takama-ga-hara.
Not only for safety.
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