Chakra Source

Chapter update is here.

Find a quiet spot, turn the page, and let’s see what this story has been hiding 🌙

✦

After leaving the Hokage's Office, the four members of Team Eleven each returned home.

This S-rank mission had taken nearly two months from beginning to end. After so many consecutive battles, everyone was exhausted, so the Third Hokage gave Team Eleven a full half-month of leave.

Back home, lying on his bed, Naoki carefully replayed the Third Hokage's reaction.

From the Third's behavior, he could roughly judge that the Land of Demons mission really had been a coincidence. There had been no deliberate probing hidden inside it.

'Looks like I was overthinking it. If the Third truly suspected me of colluding with Orochimaru, he could have arrested me outright. Why go through so many pointless circles?'

After steadying his thoughts, Naoki began taking inventory of what he had gained from the Land of Demons.

Obtaining a large amount of Violet Mire Resin, and learning every sealing formula in the artificial Tailed Beast data, was undoubtedly his greatest harvest from the trip.

Beyond that, forming a friendship with the priestess of the Land of Demons was also no small gain.

The priestess could not be underestimated. When she requested aid, even Konoha, Iwagakure, and Sunagakure among the Five Great Shinobi Villages had to respond at once and send elite forces to assist.

That alone showed her prestige among the surrounding nations.

Building a private relationship with someone whose worldly status could rival a daimyo would be a major help to Naoki in the future. Leaving everything else aside, on the artificial Tailed Beast project alone, a sealing arts master like the priestess could help him greatly by providing professional guidance and new lines of thought.

'The next problem is the chakra source for the artificial Tailed Beast.'

Once that thought surfaced, Naoki's mind began spreading outward.

He vaguely remembered that the artificial Tailed Beast Shinno created, the Zero-Tails, had used large numbers of ordinary villagers as its chakra source. That directly resulted in unstable chakra of poor quality.

So when the Zero-Tails tried to devour Naruto and Sasuke's high-intensity chakra, the two easily turned the tables on it, and the creature immediately went berserk.

That lesson also proved Orochimaru's earlier suggestion correct: the chakra source for an artificial Tailed Beast was best kept singular.

Chakra gathered from many people might be vast, but it was too unstable. External stimulation could easily send the artificial Tailed Beast into a rampage.

But singular, enormous chakra sources were rare across the entire shinobi world.

That made Naoki think again of the demon Moryo, sealed not long ago. In terms of sheer chakra volume, Moryo was enough to serve as the artificial Tailed Beast's chakra source.

The problem was that its chakra nature was far too evil, and it possessed a self-awareness as fierce as a Tailed Beast's.

If he used Moryo's chakra as the artificial Tailed Beast's chakra source, he would only be giving Moryo a new shell, replacing its old body with one made from Violet Mire Resin.

In essence, almost nothing would change.

Rather than an artificial Tailed Beast, such a thing would just be another Moryo in a different shell. For Naoki, it would bring only harm and no benefit.

What Naoki needed was a chakra source with no self-awareness, or at most a very faint one.

After thinking it over, the only thing that seemed to meet that requirement was the Dragon Vein sealed in the ruins of Roran in the Land of Wind.

In his memory, the Dragon Vein's chakra seemed relatively gentle. Even an ordinary person like the Queen of Roran could control it through her bloodline. More importantly, it did not appear to have any strong self-awareness. As long as someone mastered the method, even a person outside the royal bloodline of Roran seemed capable of using the Dragon Vein's chakra.

Using it as the chakra source for the artificial Tailed Beast would undoubtedly greatly improve the creature's stability.

The only current problem was that the Dragon Vein in the ruins of Roran had been sealed by the Fourth Hokage several years ago. To use its power, Naoki would first have to break the Fourth's seal.

'The Fourth probably used an Uzumaki sealing art. I wonder which one.'

Naoki frowned and began weighing the matter.

Under the guidance of the Land of Demons' priestess, he had mastered the Uzumaki sealing formulas included in the artificial Tailed Beast data, but that did not mean he had mastered the Uzumaki clan's sealing arts.

On the contrary, he currently could not use any true Uzumaki sealing art at all, let alone forbidden techniques such as the Reaper Death Seal.

What he had learned was only how to lay out the formulas the Uzumaki clan had already designed according to the requirements in the artificial Tailed Beast data.

As for the chakra-control techniques and hand seals required to perform Uzumaki sealing arts, he knew none of them. The artificial Tailed Beast data contained no relevant records either. He did not know whether they had never been included, or whether Orochimaru had removed them.

Naoki thought in frustration, 'Looks like I need to make a trip to the ruins of Roran.'

Only by going there himself could he accurately judge what kind of sealing art the Fourth Hokage had used. After that, he could arrange a method to break it accordingly.

He also considered the matter for a while.

The Queen of Roran's bloodline seemed to have considerable influence over the Dragon Vein. When breaking the Fourth's seal, perhaps he should bring someone of that bloodline along in case something unexpected happened.

After a deep night's sleep, Naoki did not stay idle the next morning. He took some tools with him and headed straight for the Forest of Death on the edge of the village.

The fight with Iwamata had made him realize the importance of poison.

He deeply regretted not following Sasori's example and continuously coating the Third Kazekage human puppet's Iron Sand with poison. As a result, even when he severely injured enemies, they often survived.

Unlike Sasori, who could kill an enemy with even the smallest scratch.

In truth, Naoki was not unfamiliar with poison.

His summon, the one-eyed horned snake, possessed very strong venom. However, after several wars, and especially after the poison expert Hanzo the Salamander gained his towering reputation, every major shinobi village had begun developing and defending against poisons.

Because of that, a single snake venom was already unlikely to produce miraculous effects on the battlefield. So he had to enter the Forest of Death and collect other venomous creatures to make a compound toxin.

As soon as he entered the Forest of Death, many memories flashed through Naoki's mind.

He was not unfamiliar with this place.

Before graduation, the Academy had organized multiple practical exercises for children about to become genin inside the Forest of Death. Although he could not say he knew every blade of grass and every tree here, he had a decent understanding of the overall situation.

There were many venomous creatures in the Forest of Death, mainly snakes, scorpions, spiders, centipedes, moths, and rats. His purpose this time was to collect their venom sacs and venom glands.

After nearly an hour moving through the treetops, Naoki finally found something.

Beside a small pond, a cobra was facing off against a little mottled wild boar.

Naoki smiled faintly at the boar. "Lucky day for you."

When he finished speaking, he threw a shuriken, pinning the cobra's head accurately to the ground.

After landing, he skillfully cut open the snake's body, removed the larger of the two venom sacs inside, then tossed the carcass aside.

At that moment, the little mottled wild boar that had just fled suddenly darted back. It grabbed the snake carcass in its mouth and tried to run.

Naoki froze, then shouted, "Hey, that thing is poisonous! Are you a pig or what?"

✦
✦
✦

Ready for more?

The next chapters are already waiting on my Patreon, along with early access, previews, and extra story updates 🗝️

https://www.patreon.com/cw/TheBacklotFanfiction