Chapter 539: Seed
Land of Rivers.
Every single living entity had been plunged strictly into the boundless dream matrix generated by the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Human bodies were scattered haphazardly across the dirt in a chaotic sprawl, their consciousnesses actively experiencing a completely alternative biological trajectory within the dreamscape.
Ryo was explicitly absent from these dreams.
Right at that exact fraction of a second, breaking the profound, absolute silence of the perimeter, two distinct groans abruptly echoed out. Subsequent to that, Naruto and Sasuke violently vaulted upright with a velocity exponentially faster than lightning, instantaneously forming a tight tactical encirclement squarely around Kaguya, whose dual eyes remained tightly shut.
"Sasuke, were the parameters articulated by that old man Six Paths genuinely, flawlessly accurate?"
The current iteration of Naruto was completely enveloped in a blazing golden Nine-Tails chakra cloak. His dual eyes had morphed into piercing golden cross-shaped pupils, and a singular, pitch-black Truth-Seeking Ball floated gracefully directly behind his back.
"We fundamentally cannot place absolute trust in his words. However, the unvarnished reality that she successfully launched that so-called Infinite Tsukuyomi against our forces is undeniably true; Brother Itachi and the rest of the vanguard have completely succumbed to the comatose state!"
The current iteration of Sasuke strictly commanded a singular six-tomoe Rinne Sharingan anchored in one eye socket, while his alternative eye remained a standard Mangekyo Sharingan.
Naruto extended his right hand forward: "Provided our dual hands successfully strike her physical vessel simultaneously using these specific chakra marks, her matrix will be permanently sealed away? Analyzing the logistics, it sounds monumentally simple."
"Discard your arrogance; her baseline combat output successfully forced the Great Ancestor into a monumentally disheveled, battered state!"
Within the Pure Land, the Sage of Six Paths' spiritual projection fluctuated violently and erratically. The underworld itself continuously sustained violent seismic tremors.
"Even actively sacrificing the structural integrity of my own soul to the absolute point of terminal dissolution, was my matrix strictly capable of lending this meager volume of power to the reincarnations of Asura and Indra? I desperately pray their execution secures a terminal win... Ryo Uzumaki, you absolute idiot!"
Naruto and Sasuke exchanged a rapid, synchronized glance, establishing a flawless tactical consensus before simultaneously launching a maximum-velocity Body Flicker straight toward Kaguya. Right at the absolute fraction of a second their right hands were poised to physically strike Kaguya's vessel, Kaguya abruptly snapped her dual eyes open, her physical frame aggressively violently launching straight up from the dirt.
Her dual eyes were overflowing with tears as she articulated with profound, agonizing sorrow: "It is currently strictly my consciousness... he... has already departed."
Naruto and Sasuke stared at each other in absolute, blank confusion. Why on earth was she violently crying before they had even launched a kinetic strike? Who was it? Who exactly had departed?
Infinite Tsukuyomi: RELEASE!
A highly anomalous, rippling chakra oscillation violently erupted straight from the nine-tomoe Rinne Sharingan anchored upon Kaguya's forehead, rapidly sweeping across the absolute entirety of the shinobi world. The astronomical multitude of individuals trapped within the dream matrix simultaneously began to aggressively awaken!
Nagato, Minato, and the collective vanguard released low groans, slowly peeling their dual eyes open, their facial complexions painted with deep, lingering bewilderment.
"Naruto, Sasuke, what exactly did the two of you... what in the world just transpired?!"
Within the Pure Land.
The Sage of Six Paths: ???
Meticulously auditing his actively dissolving consciousness, and subsequently evaluating the catastrophic magnitude-seven earthquake currently ripping through the underworld, he instantly calculated that attempting to aggressively claw back the lent power would definitively miss the chronological window... The Sage of Six Paths finally and completely lost his absolute rational sanity.
"Ryo Uzumaki's Shadow Clone proxy is an absolute idiot! Ryo Uzumaki is an absolute idiot! Tenji is an absolute idiot! Orochimaru is an absolute idiot! I am a f*cking absolute idiot! Every single one of us is an astronomical, terminal idiot!!!"
...
The Border of the Land of Rivers.
"Jiraiya, wake up! Terminate your sleep cycle!" Tsunade aggressively violently shoved Jiraiya's frame.
"Cease your interference, Tsunade and my matrix are actively entering the bridal chamber..."
Tsunade's facial complexion instantly turned a dark shade of black. She aggressively launched a kinetic punch, violently smashing Jiraiya's head dead straight into the dirt: "Absolute idiot!"
"Ah! What exact operational maneuver are your hands executing?! I was strictly one fraction of a metric away, just one fraction... Eh?"
Jiraiya sat up in absolute, dazed confusion. He cast a rapid visual sweep across the surrounding perimeter before letting out a heavy sigh: "So it was strictly a dream matrix. What a profound pity... Eh, wait a micro-second, negative! Weren't our parameters actively executing a maximum-velocity sprint straight toward the Land of Rivers battlefield? Exactly how on earth did my consciousness abruptly slip into a comatose state?!"
"Idiot, the unvarnished reality dictates our forces highly probable sustained a catastrophic, long-range assault from the enemy vanguard, forcing our matrices into an involuntary comatose loop."
"Assault?" Jiraiya violently furrowed his brows. "Exactly where did the kinetic vector originate from? However, analyzing that specific dream matrix... its simulation parameters were monumentally, terrifyingly realistic. My consciousness actually successfully audited a timeline where I officially married your presence, hahahahaha...!"
"Our matrices were explicitly trapped within the exact same shared dream simulation."
Jiraiya stood momentarily stunned: "The exact same dream matrix? In that specific logistical scenario, did Orochimaru's presence abruptly materialize to execute a theatrical magic trick in your simulation? That bastard even vocalized profound blessings for our happy wedding..."
"Ah." Tsunade offered a flat, deadpan response.
"So it genuinely mapped to the exact same shared dream matrix." Jiraiya's facial expression became profoundly dazed, his vocal cadence abruptly shifting into a hoarse, melancholic aesthetic: "When Orochimaru executed his theatrical dissolution, exactly what emotional vector did your heart parameters register?"
"...A minor trace of profound sorrow."
Jiraiya blinked his dry, strained eyes: "Flawlessly identical to my internal metrics! What an astronomical coincidence! Hahahahahaha..."
"Idiot, let us mobilize our sprint block and audit the unvarnished reality."
...
Hovering directly above the boundless, roaring ocean, Ryo, completely submerged within his evolutionary loop, remained absolutely, flawlessly oblivious to the catastrophic drama that had just transpired.
Having structurally morphed into an Expansive Truth-Seeking Ball, Ryo's physical framework continuously, aggressively expanded and inflated, its sheer volumetric mass causing the surrounding spatial dimensions to violently manifest microscopic structural fractures.
The oceanic waters roared and surged in reverse! The atmospheric sky blocks violently tore open, unleashing catastrophic lightning and deafening thunder! The apocalyptic aesthetic flawlessly mirrored the tribulation zone of a supreme deity...
The spatial dimension continuously emitted crisp, sharp acoustics mirroring shattering glass. It wasn't until a full twenty-four-hour cycle had flawlessly concluded that the colossal Expansive Truth-Seeking Ball—which had scaled to the astronomical size of a sovereign island—abruptly violently contracted, rapidly shrinking downward flawlessly mirroring a deflating balloon...
It ultimately compressed down to a standard, baseline volume, physically identical to the Truth-Seeking Ball currently floating behind Naruto's back.
However, this highly specific Truth-Seeking Ball was densely etched with an intricate, astronomically complex array of structural patterns, and a roaring, boundless wave of biological vitality continuously pulsed straight from its core. Rather than projecting the aesthetic of a standard Truth-Seeking Ball, it fundamentally resembled an absolute, pitch-black spherical seed!
The pitch-black seed remained suspended within the high-altitude air blocks for a long moment before the spatial parameters violently rippled. The seed instantaneously vanished, seamlessly diving straight into an alternative spatial dimension.
In the very next absolute micro-second, a human leg smoothly stepped out from that specific spatial void, followed seamlessly by a secondary leg. Ryo's physical framework, boasting a monumentally distinct, upgraded aesthetic, officially debuted his presence back into the shinobi world!
Evaluating his current physical parameters, his biological height scaled to approximately 185 centimeters, his anatomical build was flawlessly slender and perfectly proportioned, and his facial profile—strictly tied to a baseline biological age of 15—projected a minor trace of youthful innocence. Yet, the texture was exponentially smoother and astronomically more handsome than his previous iteration. A subtle, highly charismatic smile belonging exclusively to a mature veteran rested upon the corner of his mouth; this stark, profound contrast successfully boosted his overall handsome metric by a solid thirty percent.
Analyzing strictly on the axis of sheer visual aesthetic and physical attractiveness, his current baseline absolutely refused to lose to Minato!
(The preceding dual paragraphs were strictly internally generated and aggressively hallucinated by Ryo's cognitive loops as his dual eyes audited his own physical reflection projected upon the ocean surface...)
"My, my, the Great Ancestor has successfully scaled into an even more handsome vertex! My internal parameters are monumentally, profoundly satisfied with this specific evolutionary block!" Ryo muttered to himself. "Moving forward, I am profoundly afraid the Great Ancestor fundamentally won't need to rely on sheer talent; I can successfully secure my livelihood strictly utilizing my flawless facial aesthetic!"
The absolute micro-second he shifted his visual focus straight to his attribute panel, the radiant smile painted across Ryo's face violently froze.
Name: Ryo Uzumaki
Age: 15 Years Old (+)
Ninjutsu: Unknown
Taijutsu: Unknown
Genjutsu: Unknown
...
"Does this explicitly translate to the reality that the systemic interface has completely lost the technical capacity to successfully quantify the absolute limits of my sovereign strength?" Ryo projected an adorably dumbfounded, blank expression. "Then exactly how astronomically powerful has my baseline become?!"
Setting aside the vast multitude of 'Unknown' variables, a minor handful of metrics still successfully displayed their parameters. For instance, his Gambling attribute remained solidly locked at Level 10, and his spatial capacity had successfully upgraded to (8/8)... But exactly what operational utility did those specific stats provide?
Even his baseline Strength Rating had catastrophically morphed into 'Unknown'!
Lacking alternative operational logistics, since the systemic interface flatly declined to display the metrics, Ryo was structurally forced to manually audit his own internal parameters. Yet, after continuously running his sensory diagnostics for a monumentally long window, he successfully derived strictly a three-word terminal conclusion: I am genuinely, astronomically strong.
As for quantifying exactly how strong?
"Does my raw output command the capacity to comfortably obliterate ten identical iterations of my pre-upgrade baseline? This internal chakra repository projects the aesthetic of an absolutely boundless, infinite ocean; my parameters calculate that even if Kaguya successfully executed a complete, global extraction loop to drain the absolute entirety of the shinobi world's chakra, her terminal reserves still highly probable wouldn't eclipse my current volume."
"Ah~ Ryo~ Your parameters scale exponentially higher than the Divine Tree~
Ah~ Ryo~ Your output can easily string Kaguya up and administer a severe physical beating~"
Ryo cheerfully hummed the melody of the Five Rings Song.
Right in the middle of his vocal performance, Ryo's cognitive parameters executed another violent standstill. His dual eyes had successfully audited a highly anomalous, bizarre structural detail anchored at the absolute bottom of his attribute panel.
Witness Points: 0 Points
Seed: Detachable
"Seed?" Ryo stood completely stunned for a brief fraction of a second. Auditing the reality that the specific text 'Detachable' ostensibly functioned as an interactive button, he fundamentally lost the technical capacity to suppress his internal curiosity, manually guiding his consciousness to click the icon.
HURK!
The absolute micro-second the click registered, Ryo violently and uncontrollably unhinged his jaw, aggressively vomiting out a minuscule, pitch-black spherical object. The tiny sphere pulsed with an astronomical density of roaring biological vitality, flawlessly projecting the aesthetic of... a pitch-black seed?
"Exactly what catastrophic anomaly is this object?" Ryo violently furrowed his brows, pivoting his visual focus straight back to the attribute panel, only to sustain a sharp, freezing jolt of absolute horror.
The absolute entirety of the attribute panel... had completely vanished!