Natsuki let out a slow breath.
The Hogyoku granted the desires of whoever wielded it — with one condition attached. The user had to possess the potential to reach that desire in the first place.
And, of course, enough energy to fuel it. Which in this world meant chakra.
Natsuki thought about the Otsutsuki clan and the full spread of ocular techniques they commanded.
He'd already awakened both the Rinnegan and the Byakugan, which proved the potential was there.
Which meant, in theory, he could learn every one of them.
Everything except the abilities native to the Rinne Sharingan.
And in the original story, only two techniques actually belonged to the Rinne Sharingan: the Infinite Tsukuyomi, and Amenominaka.
Natsuki left the office and made for a nearby training ground.
He raised a hand.
All-Killing Ash Bones!
Two shards of bone launched from his palms and tore across the field at blistering speed. They struck a tree in the distance, and the tree simply came apart into drifting ash.
Natsuki felt his mood climb.
His guess had been right.
Which meant mastering the Six Red Yang Formation worked on exactly the same principle.
[Congratulations! Host has unlocked Gojo Satoru's Ability 4 — Domain Expansion: Unlimited Void.]
The line appeared a moment later.
He'd mastered the Six Red Yang Formation, and the Domain had unlocked with it.
Natsuki nodded, satisfied.
Unlimited Void was an extraordinarily useful mental attack. It ought to work beautifully on Black Zetsu.
By the time noon rolled around, Natsuki had spent the better part of the day experimenting and still wasn't finished with it.
Holding the Hogyoku made stopping nearly impossible. Anything he could conceive of, he could do. It felt close to omnipotence.
Though the real reason, of course, was that stacking template on template had driven his raw potential somewhere frankly terrifying.
"Natsuki."
Uchiha Mikoto's voice pulled him back.
"When did you get here?"
"Just now," she said softly.
Looking at her, a thought occurred to him.
The Hogyoku didn't only work on himself. He could use it on others.
The condition was unchanged, though. They had to have the potential.
Did Mikoto have the potential to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan?
"Don't fight it."
Natsuki reached out and pressed a hand to her forehead.
Mikoto had barely opened her mouth to ask what he meant when her whole body jolted. Energy poured into her — so much of it that it made her feel like an insect standing under a waterfall.
A heartbeat later, three tomoe surfaced in her eyes on their own.
They began to spin, and a faint pattern took shape between them.
Mikoto went very still.
Information she had never learned appeared fully formed in her mind, and when she'd finished absorbing it, shock spread across her face.
Natsuki could force a Mangekyo awakening?
If word of this ever reached the Uchiha clan, it would drive every last one of them out of their minds.
"Congratulations." Natsuki smiled.
That Mikoto had the talent for it didn't surprise him in the least. She was a prodigy of her clan by birth.
More than that, he suspected the Mangekyo depended less on talent than on receiving the right emotional trigger. In the original story she'd never awakened it — most likely because that trigger had never come.
"Thank you!" Mikoto sounded genuinely delighted.
"Don't mention it."
Natsuki stepped in and put his hands on her, and Mikoto looked up at him with her eyes going soft and unfocused.
"It's noon. Go get lunch first." He withdrew.
"Yes." She nodded obediently — though the disappointment showed.
Once she'd gone, Natsuki headed for Uzumaki Kushina's office.
"Natsuki." She came over immediately, curiosity all over her face. "Now that you've absorbed all nine, are you actually stronger?"
She asked because he'd rushed off that morning, leaving only a note saying he needed time to adjust to the Tailed Beasts' power.
"Considerably."
Natsuki raised a hand and set it against her forehead.
Kushina froze in place as her body began to change.
"How does it feel?"
"My body — my physical strength went up. A lot." Kushina looked at her own hands in disbelief.
Natsuki considered that.
The Uzumaki clan's defining traits were physical vitality and enormous chakra reserves. In a word: Yang Release. Much like the Senju.
The Uchiha were the opposite pole — the Sharingan and genjutsu, the emblems of Yin Release.
Kushina had described it loosely, but it was possible she now possessed something approaching a Sage Body — the physical constitution of the Sage of Six Paths himself.
In the original story, Hashirama's body had come closest to that standard.
Kushina's, at this point, probably wasn't far behind.
"Let's test it," Natsuki said.
"How?" She was all enthusiasm.
Natsuki didn't answer. He stepped forward and caught her by the waist.
Kushina's feet left the floor. She realized what was happening and shot him a look — but she had little choice except to lock her arms around his neck and let herself be pulled in, legs crossing behind him, clinging to him like an octopus.
The lunch hour went by fast.
"I'm incredible now!" Kushina sat perched on the desk, thrilled with herself, her legs swinging with her mood.
She hadn't slept a minute of the break and still felt full of energy. The old Kushina would have been flat on her back by now.
"And your skin's softer than it was, too," Natsuki observed.
"Really?" Kushina leaned in on instinct.
For a woman, that was an irresistible sort of bait.
"Would I lie to you?" Natsuki raised an eyebrow.
He had, after all, just conducted extensive firsthand research.
"Thank you!" Kushina hopped off the desk and threw herself into his arms.
"Get dressed." He felt her land against him. "Otherwise neither of us is getting any work done this afternoon."
"And whose fault is the method?" Kushina rolled her eyes. "I thought you were going to spar with me."
"That was a form of sparring," Natsuki said, not a flicker of shame anywhere on him.
"That's nonsense!" She planted her hands on her hips.
"We can revisit the question tonight."
Natsuki gathered her clothes off the floor and handed them over.
He changed and returned to the Hokage's office.
"Natsuki-sensei." Konan handed him an envelope.
It was a wedding invitation. Minato and Uzumaki Kanae, February 10th.
Nine days out.
"Where's Minato?"
"He stopped by, saw you were out, and left it," Konan said.
"Your birthday's the twentieth, isn't it?" The thought surfaced as he looked at her.
"Mm."
"Time really does move." Natsuki sounded almost wistful. "You're not a kid anymore."
After the twentieth, Konan would officially be eighteen.
"I haven't been a kid for a long time," she corrected.
"Fair enough." Natsuki looked her over once. "You've grown into a genuinely striking woman."
Konan stilled, something turning over in her chest.
"So — birthday. Do you want to go back to the Hidden Rain, or stay in Konoha?"
"Either." She recovered herself. "Whatever you decide, Natsuki-sensei."
"And you claim you're not a kid." Natsuki reached over and pinched her cheek. "Shouldn't you be the one planning your own birthday?"
"I..." Konan looked away, hesitated. "The Hidden Rain."
"Good girl." Natsuki laughed. "Go on, then."
"Mm." She glanced at him once, turned, and left.
Natsuki stroked his chin.
At his current strength, handling Madara and Black Zetsu was well within reach.
Black Zetsu was the awkward one. Its movements were erratic — sometimes even White Zetsu couldn't say where it was.
He'd need bait, and Nagato was the obvious choice. Once Minato's wedding was behind them, he could send Nagato on a trip and give Black Zetsu an opening it couldn't ignore.
Madara was the easy half. He couldn't leave the Gedo Statue, which pinned his location down permanently.
February 10th arrived quickly.
Minato was a senior figure in the village, so his wedding was never going to be a small affair. Natsuki had set aside a large plot of land for the reception, mostly because the place Minato lived was far too cramped for it.
"Didn't expect Minato to be the first of us to get married," Nawaki mused.
"Who did you have money on?" Natsuki asked idly.
Nawaki opened his mouth, glanced at Kushina and Nonou, and thought better of it.
"Speaking of marriage," Tsunade said suddenly, "you should start thinking about that yourself."
"How's the little brother supposed to marry before the big sister?" Nawaki shot back.
"You carry the burden of restoring the Senju clan." Tsunade glared at him.
"Sis, that's not even fair."
The Senju clan hadn't been wiped out. What exactly was he supposed to be restoring?
"Ahem." Natsuki cut in at the right moment. "It's Minato's wedding day. Let's shelve this one."
"What did everyone get them?" Nonou asked, taking the exit.
"A ninja tool set. For their future kid!" Nawaki said instantly.
"A whole new wardrobe for Kanae," Kushina followed.
"And you, Natsuki?" Tsunade looked over, curious.
"You'll see." Natsuki blinked at her.
"So mysterious." Tsunade snorted and let it drop.
They talked the rest of the way, and before long the venue came into view.
Every seat was taken. Practically every Jonin in the village had come, along with a great many Chunin and Genin. The tables and chairs stretched the length of an entire street.
"Lord Hokage."
Reception duty had fallen to Minato's three students — Hatake Kakashi, Nohara Rin, and Uchiha Obito — since the bride and groom weren't due to appear yet.
Rin showed Natsuki's party to their table.
He was Hokage, so even at Minato's wedding, the head seat was his. Tsunade, Kushina, Nawaki, and the others filled in around him.
Might Guy, Shizune, Kurenai, and a stream of others came over to pay their respects before returning to their own tables.
The ceremony began, and the afternoon unwound.
As it drew toward its close, Minato and Kanae emerged in traditional wedding attire — montsuki haori hakama and shiromuku.
"Those clothes are beautiful," Kushina said quietly, eyes on the shiromuku.
And something warm bloomed in her chest at the sight.
When she married Natsuki, she'd get to wear one too.
She just didn't know when that was going to be.
Tsunade glanced sideways at her and then looked away, feeling something complicated settle in her stomach.
She couldn't tell Kushina or any of the others how she felt about Natsuki. That much was certain.
But cutting it off cleanly — she couldn't bring herself to do that either.
"Let the banquet begin!"
Minato finished his announcement and led Kanae over to Natsuki's table.
"Congratulations!" Nawaki got there first, and the rest followed with their own well-wishes.
Once the pleasantries had run their course, everyone settled in to eat.
After the meal came the gifts.
Nawaki and the others presented theirs first, then turned as one to look at Natsuki.
He'd been so cryptic earlier that the whole table was curious.
"Your turn, Natsuki!" Nawaki urged.
"My gift is an evolution."
Natsuki walked over to Minato and raised a hand.
Tsunade and Nawaki exchanged blank looks. Only Kushina and Nonou understood, because he'd already done it to both of them — and the boost to their strength had been enormous. Enough, arguably, to push them straight to their ceilings. Barring outside intervention, neither of them would ever go further.
Minato went rigid, then his eyes went wide as he felt his own body change.
Natsuki smiled and used the Hogyoku on Kanae as well.
"Natsuki, what did you just do?" Nawaki couldn't hold it in. "Why do their chakra signatures feel completely different?"
"A technique I developed. It raises your strength according to whatever potential you already have. Call it evolution." Natsuki paused. "The only real drawback is the chakra cost. Fortunately, I have nine Tailed Beasts."
"Can I get one?" Nawaki was practically vibrating.
"Of course."
Natsuki raised both hands.
Nawaki and Tsunade shuddered in unison as the change ran through them.
A moment later, a scattering of tiny cells surfaced in the air in front of them.
"Those are the First Hokage's cells." Natsuki blinked. "Looks like you've both awakened genuine Wood Style. Your bodies rejected them on their own."
"Thank you." Tsunade came back to herself.
She and Nawaki now owed Natsuki yet another debt.