Chapter 901 : Yin Release!

Fujin extended his right arm forward and a blue fire lit in his palm! He thought, ‘When I absorbed Shukaku's chakra, my affinity to Wind and Earth grew. Since my affinity to Wind was already remarkable, the boost wasn't substantial, but the boost to my affinity to Earth was beyond what I imagined. With just a year of training, I could create a mess in Iwagakure with just my earth jutsus.

However, the boost my affinity to Earth received then isn't even comparable to the boost my affinity to Fire has received due to absorbing Matatabi's chakra! It's…’

When Fujin used elemental crystals to understand his affinities in more depth, his affinity to Fire was the third highest. It was considerably higher than his affinity to Earth, though it lacked behind his affinity to Lightning by a large margin too. Fujin also used a large portion of the Lightning crystals he stole from Kumogakure to improve his affinity further.

Yet, he could feel that his affinity to Fire was now considerably greater than his affinity to Lightning. The boost was so huge that even Fujin was left speechless for once. At the same time, something else caught Fujin's eye. He observed, ‘Exactly what are these blue flames? I can feel it is much hotter than my normal flames, but it feels like there's something more to it than just heat…’

Fujin carefully observed the blue flames in his palm. Since he was still in his inner world, Fujin's perception was far higher. Yet, he struggled to see through the flames, which proved that they weren't ordinary flames by any measure.

After a while, surprise appeared on his face as Fujin realized, ‘I see… These aren't just hotter flames after all. No, these flames look like the perfect fusion of Fire and Yin! To think Matatabi would possess something like this… Still, I don't understand. I've clashed with Matatabi several times. Why didn't I ever sense this? I could sense it easily when Hiruzen or Orochimaru infused Yin or Yang chakra in their flames…’

The obvious answer for Fujin's confusion was that Matatabi's method of infusing Yin chakra into Fire was more advanced than their methods. However, Fujin couldn't agree with it. The reason was simply because Matatabi's blue flames were weaker than Hiruzen's black flames and the difference wasn't miniscule.

Fujin fell into deep thought once again, trying to make sense of the situation. After a while, he realized, ‘Wait! Don't tell me…’

Fujin analyzed, ‘I don't think Matatabi would ever bother trying to infuse Yin chakra in her flames. Her Yin Flames must be a direct result of how the Ten Tails was split. So, even though the Yin chakra is near perfectly fused into her flames, she likely never tried to improve it further or hone it for combat.

The reason for it is rather obvious too. Why would someone as strong as her ever bother improving her strength? Since the Tailed Beasts didn't hunt each other, she likely had no threats for centuries. Even if an opponent could resist her blue flames, she had her Tailed Beast Bomb, something almost no ninja could survive head-on. So, she had no reason nor any ambition to improve her flames.

By comparison, both Hiruzen and Orochimaru have worked non-stop for decades to increase their strength. No wonder their fires are stronger. However…’

A smile appeared on Fujin's lips. He wasn't Matatabi. He didn't possess the arrogance, the overconfidence or the indifference of a Tailed Beast. Unlike Matatabi, who did little to nothing to improve this gift of hers, Fujin would do everything he could to make it disastrous for his enemies.

Fujin thought, ‘Less than three weeks ago, Hiruzen said that I wasn't ready to learn advanced methods of fusing Yin and Yang chakras in other elements. He wasn't wrong, but now I already possess a way to do it better than he can.

I'll deconstruct the blue flame and reverse engineer it to learn everything I can about how Yin chakra and Fire chakra fused so perfectly. I'll use that knowledge to improve my Wind, Lightning and Earth jutsus by infusing Yin chakra into them in a similar manner.

Once that is done, merging Yang chakra with those elements won't be difficult either. After all, Yin and Yang are two sides of the same coin. Hehe, my strength will soon receive another qualitative boost!’

While Fujin had made massive improvements with his Lightning and Earth Release, his Wind Release had stagnated despite the boost to his affinity to Wind from Shukaku's chakra. Fujin finally saw an opportunity to break past this bottleneck and raise his Wind Release to a whole new level!

Fujin quickly calmed himself and thought, ‘I shouldn't put the cart before the horse. With my previous experience with the Yin & Yang release, I can calculate that this will be a time consuming task. Though I have time to kill, I still have to put my earlier plans into motion.

For now, I'll focus on the Earth jutsus I got from Iwa and the blue flames simultaneously. I also need to modify some of my seals to warn me…’

During these 12 days, Fujin also practiced on his awareness and responsiveness while he refined a Tailed Beast's chakra. As he calculated, Matatabi's chakra failed to cause him much distraction. He could freely fight at his full strength. Even without Fujin suppressing it actively, her chakra couldn't break through the sphere. However, Fujin faced one issue.

Since refining Matatabi's chakra demanded so much attention and forced Fujin to be in his inner world, his attentiveness to the outside world was very low. It created a rare vulnerability for Fujin, a period where assassinating him would be relatively easy provided the assassin could sneak past Fujin's innumerable seals. It was a hidden danger Fujin absolutely loathed.

In truth, the danger wasn't as serious as Fujin considered it to be. The seals couldn't be destroyed with force or Fujin would know. Other than Obito, only a top-tier Fuinjutsu Grandmaster could have any hope of making it through Fujin's seals without alerting him. In addition, Fujin had several more traps set up in each of his bases to make this task nearly impossible.

However, Fujin valued his life too much. He didn't know if he'd transmigrate or reincarnate with his memories intact if he were to die. Needless to say, he wasn't too keen on finding it out. So, he created plans to eliminate this weakness.

Fujin thought, ‘I could always leave my Shadow Clones to watch over me, but that isn't enough and may not always be convenient since a clone popping and sending me memories can distract me from suppressing the Tailed Beast.

What I need is to modify some seals to warn me of any disturbance in my seal formation. Any attempt to tamper with my seals, no matter how miniscule, should warn me. That'll neutralize the threat of other Grandmasters. To neutralize Obito's threat, I should create a similar seal that warns me and forces me to act instinctively every time there's a spatial disturbance around me. With just these two simple modifications, the danger will reduce phenomenally and I can turn my seal formation into a hunting ground!’

Thanks to Matatabi's chakra slowly becoming a part of his body, Fujin wasn't tired or hungry despite staying up for over 12 days. He immediately started his training, sending some Shadow Clones to modify the seals, a few Shadow Clones to study the blue flames while he started practicing Earth jutsus.

——

Time continued marching as Fujin trained in isolation on the uninhabited island. Mei slowly stabilized her rule while Onoki ended most of the rumors and tried ending the gossip. Sunagakure and Kumogakure continued their rebuilding efforts.

Hoka made Sayaka and the rest experience the hellish rank D missions for a month before letting them join the Anbu. The five began their training under Monkey, who was assigned as their Anbu Captain to prevent more people from learning about their Kekkei Genkai. Since all the orphans in Fujin's compounds officially joined the Anbu, there was no reason for the Anbu Trainers to remain in his compound.

Under Tsunade, Konoha's Anbu had quietly but rapidly expanded, doubling its size in under a year since she took office! And, it was still growing at an even greater speed!

Much like the hidden villages, the other organizations were biding their time as well. Akatsuki stayed silent as usual while working in the background and looking for a replacement for Deidara. Orochimaru was silent as well. Despite looking for over a year, Jiraiya had failed to find his traces. Needless to say, he used that time to train Naruto.

In the tunnels under Konoha, the Root was slowly but steadily trying to gain its lost ground.