Chapter 562: "Sword of the Thunder God" Is a Product Model
Since the shortcut to training Sage Mode was rather discreet and not something that could be shared openly, Hoshigaki Chinrei dismissed everyone before eagerly beginning his training in the middle of the night.
As for why he didn't let his son, Hoshigaki Shizuma, train with it?
Part of it was the classic father-and-son distrust.
The other reason was that Hoshigaki Shizuma was still too young to make use of this shortcut.
So Chinrei assigned his son and the villagers to keep watch outside over Rokushō Aoi, who had been knocked unconscious by the sleeping black tea. They were to monitor him constantly and make sure that if Rokushō Aoi woke up and discovered the item was gone, he wouldn't interrupt Chinrei's training.
Just as Chinrei had expected, Rokushō Aoi woke up.
The sleeping black tea in this small village had been brewed using local tea leaves. Unfortunately, those leaves had an unusually strong refreshing effect, making the sleeping tea much less effective.
Even so, once the drug wore off, a person would normally continue sleeping peacefully until morning.
But because the villagers knew the tea wasn't very potent, they had repeatedly encouraged Rokushō Aoi to drink more.
It was the first time Rokushō Aoi had ever seen people urging someone to drink tea instead of alcohol.
Thinking it was some traditional Kirigakure custom, and not wanting to offend the locals, he reluctantly drank a huge amount of the sleeping tea.
As a result...
He was awakened by the urge to pee.
After Rokushō Aoi finished relieving himself, he instinctively reached for his waist.
His face instantly turned pale with terror.
The Sword of the Thunder God was gone!
Had he left it in his room...?
Or...
Rokushō Aoi didn't dare continue that train of thought.
He immediately rushed back toward his room to confirm it.
"AAAAAHHHHHHHH——!!"
At that moment, a bloodcurdling scream came from Hoshigaki Chinrei's room.
After fiddling with the Sword of the Thunder God for a long time, Chinrei still hadn't figured out how to use its hilt properly. He realized it wasn't helping him train any faster.
Then he remembered something his son had explained before leaving.
Apparently, some advanced ninja worlds had devices powered by electricity or even chakra, that operated automatically.
Chinrei suddenly understood.
After positioning it properly, he poured chakra into it, eagerly waiting to experience the power of this legendary ninja tool.
The result...
As everyone knows, when Gojo Satoru fought Sukuna, every part of his body suffered slashing attacks.
Including...
So all those people online claiming they could fight Sukuna too should first try experiencing those slashes themselves.
Who had it worse?
Gojo, constantly repairing his shredded intestines with Reverse Cursed Technique...
Or Kakashi, who had been "admired" by Itachi Ace inside Tsukuyomi for three days and three nights?
Hoshigaki Chinrei decided...
He wanted to find out for himself.
The instant he injected chakra into the Sword of the Thunder God, its blade extended.
The intense pain made Chinrei tremble and lose his grip.
As he trembled, the Sword of the Thunder God successfully gave him an unexpected "modification."
Once it slipped from his hand, the chakra supply stopped, and the blade gradually disappeared.
At that exact moment...
Senju Tobirama arrived.
Tobirama had learned from Tsunade that his rather useless Sword of the Thunder God had been stolen.
He might not care about it...
But that didn't mean other people were allowed to steal it and use it.
So, after estimating the timing and making sure Rokushō Aoi had already met the people behind the scenes, allowing him to wipe them all out in one go, he hurried over in the middle of the night to resolve the matter and retrieve his sword.
Then...
He looked inside the room.
At the dazzling, colorful scene before him.
At that moment, Senju Tobirama wished he could gouge out his own eyes.
Why had he come?
He clearly didn't care about the Sword of the Thunder God at all.
Why hadn't he simply thrown a Mutual Multiplying Explosive Tags Technique over here and blown everyone to pieces?
In truth, Tobirama's real body was still in the laboratory handling important work.
The one who came was merely a Shadow Clone.
But as the creator of the Shadow Clone Technique, Tobirama knew better than anyone that whether a clone was dismissed voluntarily or destroyed in battle, all of its memories would return to the original body.
Normally, that was a wonderful ability.
It allowed him to gather intelligence with zero risk.
But today...
For the first time...
Tobirama experienced its downside.
What if the information itself was mentally contaminating?
What if simply looking at it inflicted irreversible damage?
At that moment, Tobirama's heart was filled with despair and the overwhelming desire to destroy everything.
The little bomb was about to explode.
"Y-You... who are you?"
Hoshigaki Chinrei lay weakly on the ground, staring in confusion and disbelief at the white-haired man who had suddenly appeared in his room.
He couldn't understand why a perfectly fine ninja tool had turned into a pencil sharpener.
Nor could he understand why someone had suddenly appeared inside his bedroom.
Hadn't he already ordered everyone outside to guard the place?
Then it hit him.
He understood now!
This man must also be after the treasure!
He must have secretly tampered with it by pouring in more chakra, causing the treasure to malfunction and leaving him with nothing!
"Damn you, I—"
"Mutual Multiplying Explosive Tags."
Without the slightest expression, Senju Tobirama pulled out stack after stack of explosive tags from inside his clothes and rapidly plastered them all over the room.
"Father! What's wrong?!"
Hoshigaki Shizuma's voice rang out from outside.
Along with it came the shouts of the villagers and Rokushō Aoi's furious yelling, demanding that Chinrei return his Sword of the Thunder God.
Sword of the Thunder God?
What was that?
Oh...
Was that this extraordinarily tragic thing's name?
It actually sounded pretty good.
His son had once told him that these products all had names.
Things like Spring Breeze X Spirit, Soft X Catgirl, Silk Thread X...
He hadn't expected the one in his hands to be called the Sword of the Thunder God.
A truly domineering name.
"If you can't have it, then you'll destroy it? Dream on!"
Seeing Tobirama covering the room with explosive tags, Chinrei let out a cold laugh.
He had already accepted death.
What was the Bloody Mist he longed to restore?
It was a village where teammates and classmates held no affection for one another.
Where everyone was mortal enemies.
What he desired...
Was either to kill others...
Or be killed himself...
And become part of the Bloody Mist.
If that was the case...
What did he have to fear?
The only thing he feared...
Was that the Bloody Mist would never return!
"Shizuma! Catch it! You must restore the Bloody Mist to Kirigakure! This is... my last bit of chakra!"
Dragging his heavily wounded body, Hoshigaki Chinrei erupted with astonishing willpower.
He grabbed the Sword of the Thunder God once more and poured his remaining chakra into it.
The blade instantly expanded into an enormous, razor-sharp weapon.
Then Chinrei hurled it toward the wall with all his strength.
Because so much chakra had been infused into it, the blade remained extended for several seconds even after leaving his hand.
The Sword of the Thunder God effortlessly sliced through the wall and flew outside.
That's right.
Even with his dying breath, Chinrei wanted to pass both the treasure and his will to his son.
Under almost any other circumstances, even Senju Tobirama would have been moved by such determination.
He would have respected his enemy.
But in the current situation...
Tobirama felt absolutely nothing.
Outside, Hoshigaki Shizuma caught the Sword of the Thunder God, now stained with colorful paint.
The next instant, Tobirama detonated the explosive tags with one hand while using Flying Thunder God.
"Flying Thunder God Slash!"
Slash.
Hoshigaki Shizuma remained standing in the exact same posture, still gripping the sword's hilt.
A thin line of blood slowly appeared across his neck.
As he collapsed, only one thought remained in his mind.
'You old bastard... you actually teamed up with an outsider to stab me in the back?'
(End of this chapter)