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"Not fully puppetized yet!"
Soon, Kenshi arrived at a secret chamber underground, hidden within the wall, sensing Hyakushoku sitting there at close range.
Hyakushoku's body was not fully puppetized-half of his flesh still remained.
Along the way, Kenshi had not sensed Naruto and the others' souls.
From this, Kenshi inferred he had arrived here one or two, maybe two or three years earlier than Naruto and the others.
"One or two years… that sounds about right."
Kenshi thought to himself, then reincarnated and left without killing Hyakushoku immediately.
He planned to study the dragon vein first, and once Hyakushoku developed a complete human puppetization ninjutsu, Kenshi would return to absorb Hyakushoku's soul and gain everything.
After all, with him around, the dragon vein would not be destroyed.
Passing through underground rock layers, Kenshi reached the base of a tall tower.
A familiar huge circular pool lay before him, with a suspended walkway connecting to a central pillar-the sealing jutsu altar controlling the dragon vein, called the "Eye Box."
At this moment, black jutsu patterns appeared on the altar. The dragon vein was open, its chakra continuously extracted and sent to the top of the tower for storage.
Kenshi emerged from the wall; there was no one here, no puppets.
Hyakushoku's puppet production factory was on the other side, also the hub connecting the city's puppet chakra threads and Hyakushoku's hiding place.
Kenshi approached the pool's edge. The dragon vein chakra below was pale purple, like molten lava, radiating waves of heat.
"It really is chakra!"
"This is fantastic!"
That the dragon vein's power existed in chakra form was something Kenshi had never imagined before.
When in his original world, the dragon vein energy fluctuations he sensed were completely different from chakra fluctuations.
So at first, he thought the dragon vein was a special energy similar to natural energy.
But after coming to this world and sensing the dragon vein energy more clearly, especially up close, he confirmed it was chakra-a highly variable chakra with a complex composition.
Within the dragon vein chakra, Kenshi distinctly sensed some property changes similar to his black hole space chakra.
Besides that, there were also some fire-natured chakra variations.
He hadn't yet detected other natures.
Currently, it seemed the dragon vein chakra contained time, space, and fire nature variations.
It felt as if the dragon vein chakra was a combined ninjutsu-not a new chakra nature formed by fusing three chakra types like a bloodline limit, but a mixed chakra blending three natures together.
However, this mixed chakra seemed to have undergone some mutation, making it appear no different from a single chakra nature.
What manifested was the dragon vein chakra nature.
Boom!
Kenshi created a shadow clone, sending it down into the pool to touch the chakra.
Hot!
Scorching hot!
Like touching real molten lava, but still bearable. Aside from that, there seemed to be no other effects.
Clearly, the "Eye Box" sealing device stabilized the dragon vein energy.
This allowed Kenshi to personally contact the dragon vein chakra.
He feared that rash contact might cause the time-space power to send him back to his original world, so he sent the shadow clone first.
Now that it was safe, he relaxed.
"Thank goodness the dragon vein is chakra!"
Kenshi smiled, immediately recalled the shadow clone, and personally floated above the pool, gently touching the dragon vein chakra.
In an instant, the complex structural variations of the dragon vein chakra entered his chakra perception.
Complex!
Profound!
And immense!
This was Kenshi's first impression of the dragon vein chakra's nature changes.
The complexity was such that he felt he couldn't fully understand it in one or two years.
Moreover, it was so profound that many variations didn't belong to the seven basic chakra natures but were spatial and temporal.
If the dragon vein weren't in chakra form, even sensing its energy fluctuations' mysteries, Kenshi would find it very difficult to convert them into time-space chakra ninjutsu.
Kenshi admitted he lacked Tobirama's ninjutsu development talent; he only possessed absolute chakra control.
He was adept at learning existing ninjutsu, mastering them almost instantly.
But for developing ninjutsu, after so many years since crossing over, he had only created a black iron chain, will purification technique, and black hole space ninjutsu-his truly original creations.
Other techniques like ink-style ninjutsu were expansions of existing ones, not his own inventions.
Clearly, Kenshi's ninjutsu development talent existed but was limited.
"Luckily, the dragon vein energy is chakra!"
Kenshi once again marveled at his fortune.
Fortunately, since the dragon vein energy was chakra, he didn't need to research the time-space mysteries. He just needed to replicate and condense his own dragon vein chakra, then naturally wield its unique time-space power.
"The only problem is the dragon vein chakra's nature changes are too vast-or rather, too many!"
"Many" and "complex" differ.
Complex means structural complexity; many means numerous variations.
The dragon vein chakra's nature changes were both extremely complex and numerous.
Kenshi's ideal estimate was one or two years to sort out and replicate the dragon vein chakra, but he couldn't guarantee how long it would actually take.
Regardless of years, Kenshi was determined to replicate the dragon vein chakra.
For the time being, Kenshi settled here by the dragon vein. When he needed food, his shadow clone went out to find some. Kenshi himself maintained contact with the dragon vein, sensing its chakra's nature changes.
In the blink of an eye.
A year passed.
Kenshi was still immersed in perceiving the dragon vein chakra's nature changes.
In the original world, Yayuki also guarded the desert above the mirage for a year.
Even though Kenshi's shadow clone told her the original body could use Flying Thunder God to appear beside her once returned, she did not leave.
Yayuki didn't want any more accidents.
Last time they agreed to enter another world together, but something went wrong. This time, she wanted to prevent any accidents, so she stayed.
Because Kenshi could sense his own chakra consciousness in this world, the time flow rates of both worlds were linked, so time passed equally.
A year passed in Kenshi's world, and a year passed here.
That year, the Fourth Great Ninja War broke out.
Ironically, Kenshi himself was the spark.
To help his Wind Release clone ascend, he personally attacked Sunagakure after many years. The commotion was immense, especially because he killed many ninja from the Ten Great Clans, causing Sunagakure's strength to plummet.
Sunagakure's Ten Great Clans collectively represented most of its power.
Like Konoha's Twelve Great Clans, whose combined strength represented Konoha's power.
Imagine if half the ninja from Konoha's great clans-Hyuga, Ino-Shika-Cho, Sarutobi, Uchiha, Senju, and others-suddenly died. How strong would Konoha be?
Sunagakure was the same. With the Ten Great Clans targeted by Kenshi and suffering heavy casualties, the village's overall strength naturally dropped by half.
Such a severe decline could not be ignored by the great nations, especially Sunagakure's mortal enemies Iwagakure and Kirigakure.
Thus, three months after Kenshi's Wind Release clone became the Fourth Kazekage, the Third Great Ninja War began, with Sunagakure simultaneously fighting Iwagakure and Kirigakure.
A month later, under Danzo's scheming, Konoha attacked Iwagakure and joined the war.
Finally, Kumogakure, seeking revenge for the Third Raikage's lost arm, launched a surprise attack on the Land of Earth and also joined the war.
From then on, the Third Great Ninja War escalated into a white-hot conflict.
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