Chapter 65

Tailed Beasts.

Ultimate demons passed down from ancient times.

Since ancient times, they have been symbols of natural disasters.

They possess immense power that humans cannot touch.

The name comes from the fact that they have different numbers of tails, ranging from one to nine, making a total of nine tailed beasts, which are peculiar life forms created from the materialization of massive chakra.

Immortal and indestructible.

They can only be sealed.

Shi Bai searched for various information about the tailed beasts. The texts all demonized these chakra beings, referring to them as natural disasters.

To prevent the tailed beasts from causing chaos, someone must be a sacrifice, becoming a container to seal the tailed beast, known as a jinchūriki.

The current five major ninja villages each have a jinchūriki weapon that seals a tailed beast.

Including Konoha, where Shi Bai is currently located, which has one tailed beast, the most powerful of all—the Nine-Tails.

The Nine-Tails is a giant fox with nine tails, once controlled by the Uchiha clan's ninja, Uchiha Madara. The First Hokage defeated Madara and, recognizing the evil and immense power of the Nine-Tails, sealed it within Konoha.

The records abruptly end after this point.

However, for Shi Bai, this information is already sufficient.

The tailed beasts are life forms created from the materialization of chakra.

They possess the power of natural disasters.

Thinking back to the day when the One-Tail Shukaku went berserk, even from a distance, he felt a sense of overwhelming fear.

Shi Bai felt that naming the tailed beasts as symbols of natural disasters was entirely justified.

This power is indeed difficult for humans to control.

The most critical point is that even if the tailed beasts are killed, they will resurrect after a period of time, randomly appearing somewhere in the ninja world.

Therefore, only sealing techniques can be used against the tailed beasts.

Shi Bai looked at the sealed glass tube in the indentation of the adjacent detection instrument, which contained a mass of chakra emitting a pale purple glow.

"Completely chakra, but it seems to have undergone yin-yang chakra property changes..."

Based on the knowledge Shi Bai had and the data from his experiments, chakra has a volatile nature.

In other words, if chakra is materialized, it will dissipate over time.

However, the tailed beasts maintain their form using purely materialized chakra without continuously dissipating.

At least from the known information, the tailed beasts do not have this continuous dissipation property.

"Is it because of the yin-yang property changes? And there is also a mysterious unknown element. If I hadn't conducted natural energy experiments beforehand, it would have been difficult to detect this."

Shi Bai then stared at the tailed beast chakra with a puzzled look.

This mass of tailed beast chakra came from the One-Tail Shukaku of the Sand Village.

Shi Bai felt that this chakra had very high research value, so when he fled, he used an experimental bottle that could automatically absorb chakra to collect a bit of it.

Shi Bai had a preliminary understanding of the tailed beast chakra, but deeper layers still lacked an effective path for exploration and decryption.

Most importantly, while he was proficient in the yin-yang property changes of yang chakra, he was not very skilled in the yin chakra property changes.

The Spirit Transformation technique that Ryū gave him also belonged to the yin chakra property change type, which could bypass any defense to enter the enemy's mental world for destruction and control.

Therefore, to explore the secrets of tailed beast chakra, one must first be proficient in yin-yang property changes.

As Shi Bai was thinking, the laboratory door opened, and footsteps approached.

A small figure slowly descended the stairs of the corridor.

"Back already? That took long enough."

Shi Bai teased Ryū when he saw her return.

"You guessed right."

Ryū said this.

Shi Bai was slightly taken aback, then propped his chin with his hand, looking serious.

"I see. The Hokage faction is preparing to exchange other benefits for the Uchiha not to pursue this matter. The Uchiha leadership rejected your proposal, treating it as if it never happened, right?"

As he finished speaking, a kunai flew toward his face.

Shi Bai caught the flying kunai with two fingers, hooked the handle, and played with it on his finger.

He leaned slightly against the experimental table behind him and smiled. "Your reaction is too cold. Didn't I already say that while the Uchiha clan as a whole will benefit, the handling of the matter won't satisfy you personally. Politics requires compromise from both sides to maintain balance. When one side no longer accepts compromise, that's when bloodshed occurs."

Neither the Uchiha nor the Konoha leadership had any intention of doing such a thing.

"Your words are truly prophetic."

"Since you are a staunch powerist, you believe in power and authority, not in profiting through politics. For you, as long as you have power, whether you take or compete, you cannot accept profiting through compromise. This is the biggest point of contention between the two of you."

Ryū looked at Shi Bai with disgust.

It felt as if she had been stripped naked and seen through.

"But I think the Uchiha leadership's actions are also a form of strategy. The Uchiha clan is not a small family. Politics, economy, and military are inherently inseparable, and politics is inherently complex and intertwined..."

"Enough, I didn't come here to listen to your long-winded speech."

Faced with Ryū's tough attitude, Shi Bai said nothing, just spreading his hands in a helpless gesture.

"Alright, let's drop this topic. Let's talk about something else. I have something I need your help with."

Shi Bai was very familiar with asking Ryū for help, showing no embarrassment on his face.

"What?"

"I want to collect information on the tailed beasts. The Uchiha clan should have more information on this, right?"

"There is, but why do you need it...?"

Ryū glanced at the glass tube in the detection instrument, which contained a mass of chakra emitting a pale purple glow.

"Shukaku's chakra?"

Ryū understood Shi Bai's intention.

"Ah, yes. Don't you think the power that guy displayed that day was quite shocking? And I feel that the tailed beasts and my research are actually converging. There might be some commonalities. If I can get more information on the tailed beasts or chakra..."

Shi Bai spoke confidently, not caring to tell Ryū that the tailed beast chakra had significant research value.

As for whether it was related to his research, only he knew.

"I can find the information for you, but don't even think about tailed beast chakra. Jinchūriki are core secrets of each village and won't allow unrelated people to access them."

"Fair enough."

Shi Bai was not disappointed; getting more information on the tailed beasts was already satisfying.

However, he had not lied to Ryū.

The tailed beast chakra indeed had many resonances with his experiments, especially with natural energy.

"Also, I need detailed information on yin chakra property changes. I'm counting on you for that too."

After requesting the tailed beast information, Shi Bai made his second request.

The tailed beast chakra contains yin-yang chakra property changes. To truly understand the secrets of the tailed beasts, learning yin-yang chakra property changes is a prerequisite.

Ryū suddenly felt like stomping on the other person's smiling face a few times.

What does she think he is? A cash machine?

"By the way."

Shi Bai suddenly thought of something and said it.

Ryū couldn't help but frown.

"What else?"

"When you reported to Orochimaru, did you mention anything about the tailed beasts?"

The Sand Village secretly preparing to use the tailed beast weapon is no small matter.

"It's not necessary. If we hadn't known in advance that Shukaku was sealed there, the Root ninja wouldn't have misled us. The front-line Konoha ninja have already received this information. Besides, whether the Sand Village will use Shukaku's power after the failure of the pursuit team is unknown."

Ryū thought for a moment and answered Shi Bai's question.

"I see... No problem then."

"Given this situation, the village will likely give us a cold shoulder for a long time. You have enough time to conduct your research. Don't waste this idle period."

"Of course, speaking of which, I should thank the people from Root."

Shi Bai said with a smile, secretly adding, "I'll give them a super gift later."

◎

As Ryū said, the Shu Mo team, except for the team leader Shu Mo, who was on a normal mission, all three of them received a leave notice.

Due to the inefficiency of the Anbu, the mission went awry. To calm Shi Bai and the others, they were granted a two-month leave for rest and recuperation.

This was an official notice from the Hokage, with this general meaning.

Shi Bai glanced at it and didn't pay much attention to it anymore.

This gave him enough time to handle his research.

He had too much to research.

Yin chakra property changes, senjutsu, Spirit Transformation, verifying whether the loss of chakra equals death, tailed beast chakra... and so on.

He had a lot on his plate, and two months seemed too short to Shi Bai.

However, many experiments could be conducted simultaneously, without interfering with each other.

For example, the senjutsu experiment and the experiment to verify whether the loss of chakra equals death could be done at the same time.

He could also practice yin chakra property changes to quickly master the Spirit Transformation technique.

The cost was that he would spend all his time in the laboratory, except for eating and sleeping, conducting research and practice.

Mastering yin chakra property changes was not difficult for Shi Bai.

When he learned yang chakra property changes, it didn't take long, and the same level of yin chakra property changes was no different.

In less than a week, Shi Bai mastered yin chakra property changes.

After mastering it, Shi Bai specifically asked Ryū to teach him a basic genjutsu—Naraka-See Technique.

A genjutsu that makes the enemy see the most terrifying thing in their mind.

This can be considered an entry-level genjutsu.

Learning this genjutsu was not for combat but to warm up before learning the Spirit Transformation technique.

Compared to the basic genjutsu like Naraka-See Technique, the Spirit Transformation technique, which involves the soul level, has a much higher learning difficulty.

So Shi Bai didn't plan to achieve it all at once. He didn't have the talent to learn S-rank secret techniques with just a glance.

Moreover, there is no one in the world who can learn S-rank secret techniques with just a glance. That would be too exaggerated.

Even the Sharingan's copying ability can't do that.

After a few more days, Shi Bai finally touched the threshold of the Spirit Transformation technique.

Although he only touched a small part of the threshold, Shi Bai felt he had gained a lot.

The Spirit Transformation technique not only allows the user to control the enemy's mind using their spirit body but also to invade and destroy the enemy's mental world.

Since it can lock onto targets over long distances, it also has a wide range of perception and excellent locking ability.

Shi Bai now only needed to form the seals and open his mind to sense everything within a 20-meter radius.

This technique, which gave him a god-like perspective, made Shi Bai more confident in his future tailed beast research.

Shi Bai's goal was clear. Whether it was the basic genjutsu Naraka-See Technique or the Spirit Transformation technique, their purpose was to further explore yin chakra property changes for his research.

While Shi Bai was using his consciousness to perceive the outside world, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head, as if receiving a warning signal, making him quickly stop the chakra and stop perceiving the outside world.

"Phew... Only eleven seconds? No wonder it's an S-rank technique from the Sealed Book. With my current ability, I can't even use it proficiently at the beginner stage."

Shi Bai could only initially perceive the outside world, unable to lock onto targets over long distances, let alone attack the target's mental world with his spirit body or control the enemy's mental world in more complex ways.

Compared to the complete Spirit Transformation technique, this achievement was far from satisfactory.

Moreover, this technique had a significant risk. When perceiving and attacking with the spirit body, the user's physical body would be unable to move or defend.

Therefore, this technique could only be used when there were reliable teammates around.

Additionally, the longer the spirit body was away from the body and the farther the distance, the more chakra was required.

While the ability was strong, it was also quite troublesome to use.

For the user, it was a double-edged sword of power and risk.