Chapter 328 – Tailed Beast Chakra
"It seems… I really can absorb tailed-beast chakra at will now."
Kei watched as the last traces of the Three-Tails' chakra vanished into his Susanoo.
He closed his eyes, quietly examining the changes inside the giant construct.
Truth be told, he should have checked this immediately after the first occurrence—
back when it happened in Hidden Mist, during that brutal battle.
But he had been preoccupied with staying alive.
Even after returning to Konoha, Kei preferred to recreate the conditions of the original event, to understand exactly what had happened.
And now, during this controlled test, he could clearly feel it:
The Three-Tails' chakra behaved similarly to Amaterasu.
Not in destructive power—
but in the target it chose to cling to.
It didn't attach to Kei's body.
It attached directly to his Susanoo.
But unlike Amaterasu, which bonded with the Susanoo's weapons,
the Three-Tails' chakra was merging into Susanoo's core body.
Kei searched within the construct, trying to pinpoint the foreign chakra.
After a long moment, he opened his eyes—puzzled.
He found it.
The mass of Three-Tails chakra was nestled in the Susanoo's chest,
resonating in sync with the construct's own chakra.
Even stranger:
it was slowly becoming similar to Susanoo's chakra.
Not entirely transforming—
but parts of it now carried the same "flavor" as Kei's Susanoo.
A hybridization in progress.
"And…" Kei frowned.
"These chakra reserves are usable. I can draw on them."
That was the good news.
The bad news:
"Once I use them up… they're gone. Then what? Go back to Hidden Mist for a refill?"
Obviously impossible.
He wasn't going to storm Kirigakure again just to milk Isobu.
Even if he found a testing ground, the chakra he used wouldn't replenish itself.
Unless…
His thoughts drifted to someone.
To Sora—the pseudo-Jinchūriki who eventually developed a self-growing "new Nine-Tails chakra."
If that artificial chakra could evolve and reproduce on its own…
"Could these Three-Tails chakra fragments evolve the same way?"
If they formed a self-sustaining chakra loop, growing more over time…
That would be ideal.
As long as—
they didn't develop a consciousness.
Kei absolutely refused to let a tailed beast hitch a ride in his chakra system.
One Kurama in Minato was enough trouble.
He shook his head, refocusing.
The goal:
Force a positive feedback loop.
A self-replicating chakra cycle.
Not wait passively and hope it happened on its own.
"There is a way."
Kei crossed his arms, considering the options.
Three-Tails chakra needed fuel.
Energy.
Stimulus.
The Dragon Vein was perfect.
Massive chakra, practically inexhaustible.
Minato's seal kept it stable… but destroying the seal?
That could alert Minato immediately.
The current Minato, empowered by the Nine-Tails, was not someone Kei wanted unexpectedly arriving mid-experiment.
If Kei couldn't reseal the Dragon Vein in time, Minato would know instantly.
And Kei was not a sealing master.
If he were, he wouldn't have been stumped by a simple barrier in Hidden Mist back then.
Other sources?
The Fallen Star in Hoshigakure — too many side effects.
The Box of Ultimate Bliss — six paths–linked, possibly containing chakra remnants.
But Kei doubted it.
The monster sealed within was more trouble than it was worth—
and worse, it could fly.
He wasn't eager to fight a giant airborne creature using Susanoo, broadcasting his presence across nations.
Every path had drawbacks.
"It seems I'll have to stay patient for now," Kei muttered with a sigh.
Then he looked up at his towering, black-armored Susanoo—
and a thin smile appeared on his face.
"But… who needs external energy sources?"
Susanoo itself is a colossal chakra entity.
A perfect test subject.
If he injected Susanoo's own chakra into the Three-Tails chakra,
nudged it, stimulated it, guided it…
Perhaps he could jumpstart the loop manually.
Especially since the two were already resonating.
If he could push the resonance to the point where Three-Tails chakra began to cycle and renew itself…
He would have a permanent, renewable tailed-beast battery.
With that thought, Kei directed his Susanoo's chakra inward,
letting the black energy seep into the Three-Tails chakra cluster.
The borrowed chakra resisted at first,
but the shared resonance pacified it immediately.
Soon—
The dark Susanoo chakra slipped in smoothly,
melding into the Three-Tails chakra without obstruction.
Kei controlled the process with absolute precision.
He couldn't afford to overdo it.
Too much Susanoo chakra could destabilize both systems.
The experiment had only just begun.
If he pushed too much chakra into the system, there was a risk—
the Three-Tails chakra might scatter or be completely devoured.
That was the last thing Uchiha Kei wanted.
He had finally stumbled onto something new and valuable.
If carelessness caused his limited supply to collapse, it would be a devastating loss.
As he continued feeding chakra into the cluster, Kei made a second discovery:
As long as he regulated the output carefully…
the Three-Tails chakra could devour the chakra of his Susanoo.
The devouring speed was slow, but only because Kei intentionally kept it that way.
He didn't want accelerated growth to trigger unexpected mutations.
Time passed in silence.
Eventually, the Three-Tails chakra embedded in Susanoo reached a clear limit.
Kei frowned.
That limit was tied to Susanoo's current developmental stage—
it simply couldn't house more tailed-beast chakra yet.
"Or maybe," Kei thought,
"it's reserving space in case I absorb chakra from the other beasts."
When the Three-Tails chakra reached saturation, he released his control and stopped.
After gathering himself, Kei attempted to activate the Three-Tails chakra inside him.
He wasn't going to fire off an attack—
but he could at least gauge the raw strength.
In moments, through Susanoo, he made contact with the new chakra.
A familiar sensation washed over him.
Three-Tails chakra.
The same oppressive, oceanic power he had commanded once before in the Land of Water.
The chakra surged within Susanoo's frame—
and suddenly, Kei's expression shifted.
Because he could feel it clearly:
The Three-Tails chakra was amplifying his Susanoo.
The enhancement wasn't explosive, but the power boost was unmistakable.
Susanoo remained pitch-black, its size unchanged—
But the force inside it far surpassed what Kei had wielded in the Land of Water.
Most importantly…
His eyes… were reacting.
The slow, steady evolution he had been experiencing suddenly accelerated.
With this new information, Kei's hesitation evaporated.
The conclusion was simple:
He needed to collect chakra from all the tailed beasts.
It would be a long-term plan—
and ironically, he owed the difficulty to the First Hokage.
If Hashirama hadn't captured the beasts and then "kindly distributed" them to other villages,
Kei wouldn't be forced to hunt chakra across the entire continent.
Then again, even if the beasts had remained in Konoha, they'd still be sealed inside Jinchūriki.
Taking chakra from them would have been just as troublesome.
At least scattered across the nations, Kei had more opportunities.
He recited the list in his head:
One-Tail – already likely inside Gaara.
Two-Tails and Eight-Tails – in Kumogakure.
Four-Tails and Five-Tails – in Iwagakure. (Shame he didn't get Son Gokū's chakra before…)
Six-Tails – in Kirigakure; possible to coordinate with Obito.
Seven-Tails – trickier. Needs planning.
Kei knew all their locations and hosts.
That alone gave him a massive advantage.
He wasn't planning to take the beasts themselves—
just a sample of their chakra.
The One-Tail could wait.
The Two-Tails and Eight-Tails, however, might become accessible soon.
Kumo was always eager to provoke conflict.
And with Konoha still recovering from the war…
A reckless border incident wasn't impossible.
Not destiny.
Not "worldline correction."
Just politics, muscle-flexing, and profit.
The only uncertain variable was Minato.
With the Fourth Hokage still alive, some outcomes could change.
But Kei knew the mentality of the Cloud shinobi:
If humiliating Konoha brought them advantage, they'd try.
Casualties didn't matter.
On the shinobi continent, lives were cheap—
a grim but undeniable truth.
"Seems like I should prepare for the Cloud," Kei thought.
Not just for himself and Imai Kenta—
Minato needed to prepare too.
Cloud's "military posturing" often became real military action.
And Minato wasn't like Hiruzen.
He wouldn't allow his authority to weaken.
If anything, such a controlled conflict would strengthen his position as Hokage.
But only if the situation was managed within safe boundaries.
"As for the Four-Tails and Five-Tails… no chance for now."
Kei sighed.
"When the Akatsuki starts moving in the future, they might unintentionally help me.
The One-Tail, the Seven-Tails—
all of them might become accessible."
Having Obito under his thumb was turning out to be one of Kei's smartest decisions.
Originally he only wanted intel and a contingency in case Minato surviving changed major events.
Now Obito was practically a walking toolbox of opportunities.
"As for the Nine-Tails…
I'll have to visit the Capital, or that Fire Temple."
His eyes grew cold.
"A bunch of weaklings with delusional beliefs…
but useful.
Thanks to their nonsense, I have a chance to obtain Nine-Tails chakra."
The Nine-Tails' power was scattered across multiple individuals:
The Kinkaku–Ginkaku brothers
Minato's entire family
Sora, the artificial pseudo-Jinchūriki
And possibly Kazuma, his father
All of them were based near the Fire Daimyō.
Attacking the Daimyō's guardians was technically "politically sensitive,"
but in reality?
A Kage-level shinobi never feared a Daimyō.
A sovereign with no power meant nothing to someone like Kei.
Danzo had made that obvious.
Daimyō were figureheads—
like the powerless monarchs of old countries in his past life.
If they got in the way?
Crushing them would be effortless.
Their "Guardian Ninja Twelve" were coordinated,
but hardly elite by Kei's standards.
"Still, I should see how Minato reacts," Kei thought.
He dismissed Susanoo, closing his eyes again.
"Before I make any moves…
I should focus on my eyes."
Because he could feel it:
The fusion within his Mangekyō was boiling.
Awakening.
Advancing.
The Three-Tails chakra wasn't just empowering Susanoo—
it was stimulating the mutating cells in his eyes as well.
Kei knew the sensation was partly psychological,
but the acceleration was very real.
He had to monitor it carefully.
These eyes were the foundation of everything he'd achieved.
Without them, he would have died long ago—
perhaps beneath the heel of someone like Ayaka.
Even now his eyes were powerful,
but no shinobi ever disliked having more power.
And Kei knew better than anyone:
He wasn't especially talented.
He only grew strong through obsession, training, and time.
A slow bird must fly early.
This new surge of ocular activity startled him—
but also excited him.
Could this evolution push him beyond the third stage of Susanoo?
Perhaps even surpass the fourth stage?
A full-body Susanoo—complete with armor and flight?
The realm of gods.
He had witnessed Uchiha Madara's power.
That was divinity incarnate.
Nagato, with his borrowed Rinnegan, was nothing in comparison.
"But even Madara got pummeled by the First Hokage," Kei muttered.
"The power level of those Warring States monsters… insane."
Still, he had to stay grounded.
His Eternal Mangekyō was acquired through unusual means.
He needed time and mastery—step by step.
Even if he gained the full-body form,
if he couldn't control it, what was the point?
Obito was a perfect example.
The man awakened a Mangekyō with an absurd spatial ability—
yet Kei could beat him bloody without even using his own Mangekyō techniques.
Power meant nothing if you couldn't use it.
Mastery, not possession, was the true measure of strength.