Mo Ke blinked in mild surprise at her words. He straightened his clothes and asked Kushina curiously:
"So you have fully mastered the power of a Shinigami already?"
"I've been used to it for a while," Kushina groaned, dropping onto the bed and clawing at her hair, "but no matter what I do, I cannot feel even a trace of chakra turning into a Zanpakuto."
"That should not be right. Let me take a look…"
Mo Ke sat down on the edge of the bed and gently took Kushina's hand, sensing the state of her new body.
"Try shaping your chakra into the form of a weapon," he said.
Kushina's entire being had already converted into a spirit-particle Shinigami body. The issue was that Mo Ke's own Zanpakuto had been a pure System reward, so he did not have a step by step method to copy.
Even so, the foundation of his Three Thousand Worlds was still chakra, and that he could clearly recognize.
"It does not work," Kushina muttered. "Even if I force chakra into the shape of a sword, it is only an empty shell. The moment I stop concentrating, it collapses."
She had clearly grown tired of trying. Everything Mo Ke was thinking of, she had already attempted in the past few days.
"Try again. Try again. Experiments are free."
Mo Ke wanted to see the process with his own eyes and analyze it.
He thought for a moment, then said very seriously:
"Right, I recall there is one method. Two people must face each other with absolute honesty, their palms pressed together, so that chakra and spiritual power can flow without obstruction…"
Kushina's lips curled in a cold, mocking smile.
"Should we stand behind a flower bush as well? Sounds like something out of Jade Maiden Heart Sutra."
"Aha… so I really did tell you about Return of the Condor Heroes, huh. Actually, the flowers are optional," Mo Ke coughed, scratching his forehead.
Kushina did not keep poking at him. She knew his personality far too well by now.
Over this period she had slowly adapted to Mo Ke's new appearance. In her mind, the giant yellow fox had gradually overlapped with the handsome young man before her. Their images no longer clashed.
Because of that, she was far more relaxed now. Letting Mo Ke take her hand to check her condition felt no more awkward than stretching out on his tails to nap back inside the seal.
Once, she would never have allowed a man into her bedroom at all.
She thought about it, then nodded to herself. It would be better to attempt the process with him present.
She gave Mo Ke a sharp look, signaling him to be serious, then closed her eyes and began gathering chakra in her heart.
Mo Ke watched her every move.
Ordinary chakra that left the body would disperse quickly unless anchored to chakra metal or a similar medium. But Kushina was now a Shinigami. She used her spiritual pressure to seal the chakra, preventing it from dissipating.
Before long, a small, faint, bluish tachi formed shakily in her palm.
This was pure, attribute-less chakra released outside, then fixed into shape by her reiatsu.
Kushina opened her eyes and looked at Mo Ke with a troubled expression.
"There. That is the best I can do. A weapon made from chakra form only. It is useless. If I relax my spiritual pressure, it falls apart."
Mo Ke held her small hand, feeling the flow of spiritual power in her body with one sense and stroking his chin with the other.
It should not be like this. A Zanpakuto is a shard of one's own soul. A Shinigami's spiritual power ought to naturally condense into that blade.
Asauchi were only training wheels. Blank blades forged from Shinigami souls to speed up the process of drawing out one's true Zanpakuto. If the Shinigami had high enough level and a suitable external energy, their spiritual power should be able to condense a Zanpakuto directly.
If not himself, then at least Ichigo had done exactly that. His blade had been born from his own power, not from an Asauchi.
Kushina's current form was already a pure soul. Her chakra easily adhered to her spiritual essence, yet her Shinigami power seemed to look down on that chakra, refusing to bond with it.
No, that was not quite right.
Mo Ke focused, tracing every swirl of Shinigami power inside Kushina. He realized it was not contempt at all.
It was more like a hand touching glass. Willing, yet unable.
Whenever her spiritual power tried to cling to her chakra, there were faint tremors as if something was missing. Every attempt ended in tiny failures.
It felt like… Kushina's chakra itself lacked a certain key component.
Because of that missing piece, her death god power could not use her chakra as material to create a Zanpakuto.
Create.
That word stirred something in Mo Ke's mind. Chakra too possessed creative authority.
Yin Release represented the power of the spirit. Yin techniques could create form from the abstract.
Yang Release represented the power of the body. Yang techniques could breathe life into those forms.
Together they became Yin–Yang Release, the sacred fusion that belonged to Six Paths level beings.
The Akimichi expansion techniques, the Nara shadow manipulation, all of those were rooted in Yin and Yang nature changes. True Yin–Yang Release, however, was an authority of the Sage tier.
A power that could create objects out of nothing.
What was the true difference between Kushina and the Nine-Tails' chakra
The tailed beasts themselves had been created by the Sage of Six Paths using Yin–Yang Release. Their souls already held the imprint of that higher power.
Perhaps he could try using his own chakra instead. As long as the owner allowed it, a tailed beast's chakra could merge freely into another person's body.
The only limit was how much a given body could withstand.
That was why he could stash chakra into Shisui's body and turn him into a pseudo jinchuriki.
And Kushina's constitution was special. She was a complete jinchuriki.
The method had a high chance of working. Even so, Mo Ke took the safe route and spoke first.
"Kushina, the problem might be your chakra itself. Try releasing the Vajra Seal on the clone. I will use the tailed beast chakra to test it."
He had no idea how much chakra was required to forge a Zanpakuto or whether it needed ordinary chakra or the fundamental "share" that made up a being like a tailed beast.
Using the clone's portion was safer.
Kushina tilted her head in curiosity but obeyed. She undid the Eight Trigrams bindings she had wrapped around the Nine-Tails clone.
She had locked it only to stop Mo Ke from spying through it, not because she truly feared that releasing the seal would harm her.
After three years together she already trusted the Yin Mo Ke deeply. She had loosened most of the Vajra Seals long ago. Otherwise, he would never have been able to walk out into Naruto's seal space and embarrass himself that day.
And while it looked like she could still bully the fox from time to time, she knew very well that unless she used the clone's power, Mo Ke could probably flatten her with one hand.
Inside her, the Nine-Tails clone opened its blood-red vertical pupils as the seals came away.
It pushed its power outward.
"Hurry, Kushina. Try using your spiritual pressure again."
She did not even need Mo Ke's reminder. The instant Kushina felt the torrent of crimson chakra surge from within, she began shaping her weapon.
Soon another chakra tachi formed in her hand.
This time the tailed beast's chakra allowed the Shinigami power to mold a real Zanpakuto.
Both Kushina and Mo Ke could feel it clearly. Yet the sword still hovered between illusion and reality. If she removed her reiatsu, the weapon still could not endure.
"As I thought, it still requires a share."
Mo Ke was not surprised. The chakra of a tailed beast did not automatically carry the might of Yin–Yang Release.
The only place a tailed beast touched that level of power was in its life share, its portion.
The clone began channeling its own life force into the half-formed Zanpakuto.
Not simple Yang vitality, but the true life essence of the Nine-Tails.
In Kushina's eyes, the sword slowly changed.
The crimson hue drained away. Black energy poured from the blade and coiled around it.
The chakra edge grew heavier and heavier in her hand. The feeling of weight against her fingers grew increasingly solid.
In midair, a physical blade was slowly being born.
Time passed. At last, as the black aura faded completely, a small, straight tachi appeared in Kushina's hand, fully realized in the world.
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