The Two-Tails' chakra was swiftly delivered into Hyuga Mirai's hands by Guren, a subordinate of Orochimaru. The method seemed identical to the one used over a decade ago—sneaking into the Hidden Cloud Village with the help of the Mask Removal Technique, exploiting the Jinchuriki's carelessness, drugging them, and stealing their chakra, which even triggered a tailed beast rampage.
Although the rampage was quickly subdued due to the loss of chakra, the Hidden Cloud was frantically investigating the incident, trying to uncover who had the audacity to target their Jinchuriki.
Now in possession of the One-Tail, Two-Tails, and Three-Tails' chakra, Hyuga Mirai calculated that this would be enough to regenerate the God Tree from a fragment of the Gedo Statue. After reserving a portion to cultivate tailed beast chakra, he sealed the rest into the fragment.
From here, only remote observation was necessary. Various devices recorded the entire transformation of the Gedo Statue fragment into the God Tree—changes in cellular structure, chakra consumption, and more. Each of the nine tailed beasts had unique chakra characteristics; when combined to grow a God Tree, it could potentially awaken the Rinnegan with Sharingan properties. Consuming and refining the fruit of the God Tree might even grant the power of Kekkei Mora.
Though Hyuga Mirai had mastered chakra nature transformations of seven elements, he still had no real grasp of Kekkei Mora. It didn't seem to be something that could be cultivated naturally—it had to be acquired through the God Tree.
The God Tree needed time to grow—from fragment to seedling took at least over a hundred days. This window was sufficient for Hyuga Mirai to gather the remaining tailed beast chakra.
Ayaka Uzumaki and the Snake Squad were already moving according to plan to target the tailed beasts.
With everything set, Hyuga Mirai found himself unusually relaxed. No. 18 was exceptionally perceptive—always prioritizing his commands and even accounting for details he overlooked.
With such an assistant, Hyuga Mirai could delegate nearly everything to No. 18 and focus on training or inventing new tools, saving a massive amount of time.
These days, he mainly trained in Yin-Yang Release. He had gathered a reserve of dragon vein energy, along with a bit of ambient natural energy. Although the latter was faint, combined with the dragon vein, it was enough to sustain his training for four to five years.
As for the massive Tenseigan, he now carried it around in a nano capsule. Though its ocular power was gradually becoming less useful to him, it remained a valuable energy source.
Upon returning to the Sand Federation, Hyuga Mirai learned of the ongoing peace talks at the front. After seeing Danzo's corpse, Pakura's fury should have mostly subsided.
He hadn't anticipated Pakura to be so hot-tempered. The death of Keikō Sanmoku had led to several months of war with Konoha. If the Sand Federation's shinobi weren't so weak and unable to send Jinchuriki into battle, Pakura might have succeeded in capturing Kikyo Castle during Konoha's lapse in defense.
Unfortunately, the puppet users inherited from Sunagakure were of little use in modern warfare—unless one had puppets like those of the Asura Path with modern firepower.
After the war ended, Hyuga Mirai would most likely be appointed head of the Federal Ninja Academy or as Kazekage's assistant. He preferred the former—less troublesome. If they couldn't find a suitable assistant, he would simply create another humanoid clone to help Pakura with political affairs.
"Things have suddenly gotten easier."
The Federation was still in the midst of urban development. Though more than two years had passed, only the outer new city had been completed. The reconstruction of the original Sunagakure buildings, roads, and surrounding fortifications still required work. According to the plan, it would take at least another five years to fully finish.
Manpower was the main bottleneck. From laborers to managers, every level lacked sufficient personnel, severely restricting the Federation's progress.
Only when Sasori's new puppet technology was more widely adopted and more puppet masters joined the construction effort could development accelerate.
The new grain strain was being promoted slowly. Large-scale reclamation of wasteland would take time, so the current pace was acceptable. Now that the war in the Land of Rain had ended, the reform plan could move forward again.
At present, the Saudi Federation was relying on Hyuga Mirai's business groups to extract resources from other nations and ninja villages in the shinobi world to build their new system. Konan had used the Land of Rain's vital steel industry to trade with the Keikō Trade Association for the new grain strain. Once mass planting and harvesting began, the grain would likely be sold back to the Keikō Association as raw material for other industries.
Among the surrounding great nations, Konoha had no need for it, Iwa couldn't afford to buy much, and they had just fought the Hidden Rain. The Keikō Association was the only viable option in the Land of Rain.
Returning home in the Federation, Hyuga Mirai sat down in his room. The airheaded mother and son next door weren't around—probably off training or visiting Mikoto and Sasuke.
After Ayaka Uzumaki left, Kushina gleefully took over Naruto's training, completely ignoring his unwilling expression.
Kushina insisted on personally guiding Naruto's practice—not just to supervise, but also to strengthen their bond. If Naruto didn't cooperate, that simply meant he didn't understand a mother's love—so a beating would do.
Having received systematic and scientific training from Ayaka, Naruto had no interest in Kushina's vague and often confusing instructions. Ayaka might still be learning herself, but she had access to others for help. Though Naruto said he was training under Ayaka, it could easily have been with Orochimaru, Sasori, or even Hyuga Mirai behind the scenes.
"Let's hope I get lucky this time."
Hyuga Mirai pulled up his system panel—the template extraction progress had completed. However, he had no intention of using the function again until he fully turned the shinobi world into his backyard. After that last unlucky pull, where he got the useless "Father of Explosives" template, he barely touched the system panel again.
To be safe, he prepared everything—Shikotsumyaku clone, Spiritual Clone, and Barrier techniques—before starting the draw.
"Extract!"
Once confirmed, Hyuga Mirai's main body lost control and began absorbing the knowledge of the new template.
He had tried investigating the system's origin multiple times, but all attempts failed. Even Spirit Transformation Jutsu found nothing unusual, and even No. 18 couldn't analyze any anomalies.
The loading time for a new template remained at 24 hours. Fortunately, Hyuga Mirai had nothing pressing to do now.
As night fell, Kushina and Naruto returned home. Kushina looked satisfied after letting off steam, while Naruto was limping—he had clearly taken a beating during training.
The Uzumaki clan's healing abilities were impressive, but using them like this felt like a waste. "Mom, you should learn from Aunt Ayaka…" Before Naruto could finish the sentence, Kushina silenced him with a solid smack and dragged him to continue practicing Taijutsu.
On the way home, feeling slightly guilty, Kushina awkwardly smiled and said, "Naruto, don't be mad at Mom. I'll make you a special bowl of ramen when we get back."
"If possible, I'd rather have Ichiraku Ramen... I mean, your ramen is great too," Naruto quickly corrected himself upon seeing Kushina's hair begin to float ominously.
As they neared home, they noticed the lights on in the house next door. Naruto lit up and said, "Hey Mom, Aunt Ayaka's back! Let's invite her over!"
Bonk.
Kushina smacked him again and rolled her eyes. "Idiot Naruto, now I have to cook for one more person because of your big mouth!"
Despite her words, she still brought Naruto over. The Uzumaki clan had large appetites—just the three of them could keep Kushina busy in the kitchen for over an hour.
But upon entering, they realized someone else was inside.
"Uncle Mirai, it's you! I thought it was Aunt Ayaka!"
Naruto grinned and plopped down next to Hyuga Mirai's clone. "Uncle Mirai, have you eaten? Want to try my mom's ramen? It's only a little worse than Ichiraku—"
Bonk.
Naruto was silenced again by a punch from Kushina.
Hyuga Mirai's Shikotsumyaku clone smiled and declined politely. "I'm just a clone. No need. The main body is training and I'm here as a guard."
"That's a shame. But once you're done training…" Before Naruto could finish, Kushina covered his mouth again.
"Idiot, show some manners!"
Seeing the usual antics starting up again, the clone cut in, "Next time, when the main body wakes up, we'll have a chance."
He used Yang Release to heal Naruto's wounds a bit, and Kushina blushed as she thanked him, dragging Naruto away by the collar.
(End of Chapter)