Chapter 231: Why Didn't the Jinchūriki Die
The appearance of [Hyūga Neji] also allowed Shiromo to confirm the point in time of the Limited Tsukuyomi.
This was the same time period as the "original" Limited Tsukuyomi, which was about two or three years after the present-day real world.
[Hyūga Neji]'s gruesome death in the middle of the street caused an uproar.
Even the female ninja inside the bathhouse, who had just taken off half their clothes in the changing room, hurriedly got dressed again and ran out to take a look.
"Ah!"
Ino, Tenten, and Sakura, who ran out, were all startled.
At this moment, Susanoo's arrow had already dissipated. Neji was lying face-down on the ground, his body forming a "flower of hope" pose, blood spreading everywhere.
"Is he really dead?"
Hinata, dressed rather provocatively and wearing a small vest and jacket draped over her shoulders, was the last to come out of the bathhouse. Looking at Neji's corpse, her first reaction was to step forward, grab Neji by the hair, and place her hand near his nose to check his breathing.
After confirming that he was truly dead, Hinata casually let go of Neji's hair. His head fell back onto the ground with a dull thud.
"Byakugan!"
Hinata activated her Byakugan and began scanning the surroundings, searching for the murderer.
Relying on the Byakugan's penetrating vision and perception, Hinata carefully examined the silhouettes of villagers fleeing in fear, filtering and eliminating them one by one.
At the same time, she did not forget to multitask and direct the others: "Tenten, hurry and notify the jōnin in the village. Ino, go into the bathhouse and get a white bath towel to cover Neji-nii."
"Hinata, aren't you scared or sad?"
Seeing how calm and decisive Hinata was, Sakura couldn't help but feel surprised.
"Scared of what? Sad about what? That guy Neji-nii deserved to die. Just one look and you can tell he was using the Byakugan to do perverted things and got retaliated against."
"It's good that he's dead. It saves him from disgracing the Hyūga clan every single day."
Hinata shot a cold glance at the corpse on the ground.
If she didn't know that spitting on him would count as a reward for Neji, she would have spat already.
At this moment, in the hidden audience seats in the sky, Hanabi's eyes lit up as she watched this scene: "Oh my god, this Hinata-nee is so cool!"
"These kids' personalities feel completely reversed, don't they?"
Kushina sharply picked up on the key point.
However, the discussion quickly ended.
Because after Hinata finished searching with her 360-degree, blind-spot-free Byakugan, she soon discovered Shiromo and the other two who were moving away through the sky.
Excluding the possibility that the murderer hid among the crowd to escape, and with no figures leaping across rooftops either, the three flying through the air were the most suspicious.
"You stay here. If Tenten brings the jōnin over, tell them that those three people are very likely the killers!"
After leaving these words behind, Hinata made several great leaps onto the rooftops and began pursuing Shiromo's group.
After dealing with Hyūga Neji, Shiromo and the other two, led by [Konan], arrived at a strange apartment attic.
Inside the apartment.
[Kushina], who was cooking dinner, saw the three people flying toward her through the window and immediately sensed that something was wrong.
But before [Kushina] could react, Konan raised her hand. Paper gathered beneath her wings, forming a white Pegasus.
The Pegasus smashed through the window, rammed Kushina, then broke through the ceiling, carrying Kushina into the air.
Then…
Bang!!!
The Pegasus exploded, turning into a fireball. Heat waves surged outward, lighting up the night sky.
The commotion was so huge that even if [Hinata] on the other side hadn't given instructions, the Konoha ninja should have already noticed their location and rushed over.
"Does this move count as 'your horse takes off', or 'your horse explodes'?"
Shiromo felt the double meaning fit rather well, especially considering that their target was the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki.
"By the way, why a horse? Isn't your organization's ideology about getting rid of all those… things?"
Uchiha Hikari asked [Konan], who had just made her move.
"That's why the horse exploded in the end."
[Konan] calmly gave an explanation that was reasonable to the extreme.
"And then? Is the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki not in the village, or is he hiding somewhere, so you're using this method to draw him out?"
Shiromo asked as he looked at the figure falling from the sky after the explosion ended.
"You're pretty much right. The Nine-Tails' jinchūriki indeed isn't in the village right now, so we need to use this person to find him."
[Konan] pointed at the falling [Kushina].
At the same time, a rotating ring of paper flew out from behind her, wrapping around [Kushina] and bringing her over to them.
[Namikaze Minato], who had used Flying Thunder God to instantly appear beside [Kushina], faced the rapidly spinning paper blades and couldn't get close at all. He could only watch helplessly as [Kushina] was taken away and then landed on the rooftop, kunai in hand, staring warily at the three of them.
"Who exactly are you people? Let Kushina go!"
[Namikaze Minato]'s expression was extremely vigilant, yet he didn't make any attacking moves at all.
Facing [Namikaze Minato]'s questioning, none of the three answered him.
"Is this tailed beast chakra?"
Shiromo noticed that [Kushina], who had been knocked unconscious by the explosion, was actually beginning to slowly leak tailed beast chakra, which started helping to heal her injuries.
Could it be that the Nine-Tails in this world had also been split into Yin Nine-Tails and Yang Nine-Tails?
But that didn't make sense either. What [Konan] had just said was clearly "the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki is not in the village". Whether it was Yin Nine-Tails or Yang Nine-Tails, wouldn't they both still count as Nine-Tails' jinchūriki?
"This is the previous Nine-Tails' jinchūriki. Now I just need to do this… and I can sense where the other Nine-Tails' jinchūriki is."
[Konan] raised her hand, condensed a white paper rod, and inserted it into [Kushina]'s body.
Uh.
Was this really not the same effect as the black rods created by Nagato's Rinnegan?
"The previous Nine-Tails' jinchūriki? She lost the tailed beast, so why is she still alive? Even if she's from the Uzumaki clan and has strong vitality, that shouldn't be enough, right?"
Uchiha Hikari voiced her doubts.
"Hm?"
[Konan], who was using the paper rod to sense the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki, turned her head toward the two of them in confusion. "You don't know? About tailed beast transfer and jinchūriki succession?"
"No, we don't. Can you explain it?"
Shiromo admitted it directly.
"I didn't expect you to hate tailed beasts so much, yet still not know this. Really… forget it. I'll tell you."
[Konan] began to explain the jinchūriki inheritance of this world.
Just like in the original world, a jinchūriki would die after having the tailed beast extracted.
But the difference was that this world had another method that could avoid this death.
That method was childbirth.
As long as the tailed beast was transferred into the baby inside the womb, and then the baby was born, the transfer of the tailed beast and the succession of the jinchūriki could be completed.
The original jinchūriki would not only keep their life, but would also gain the residual tailed beast chakra.
This allowed the village to effectively possess one large and one small tailed beast at the same time.
However, this kind of succession also had conditions.
That was, the jinchūriki had to conceive while in a fully tailed-beast-transformed state.
Even for a powerful tailed beast like the Nine-Tails, it had to be done when at least eight of its tails still had flesh and blood.
Which meant…
Namikaze Minato had to…
"Alright, I really don't want to stay in this sinful world for even one more second."
Uchiha Hikari was completely despairing.
(End of this chapter)