Toyomiketsunomikoto

5:02 a.m.

The closing rain over Tianmen Mountain in the Land of Lightning was still falling without pause.

Naruto sat on the walkway outside the house, with a half-eaten bento box beside him.

A dark figure raced into view before the Pine Forest.

Stepping through puddles of collected rainwater, Sasuke landed before Naruto and shook the droplets from his black cloak with his single arm.

"How did it go?"

"We've ruled out the possibility that Darui is being controlled by genjutsu."

Naruto let out a long breath. If even the Raikage of one of the Five Great Nations had been controlled by genjutsu, the implications would be far too extensive.

When had he been controlled? What critical shinobi-world plans had he participated in afterward, and what decisions had he issued? Could the other Kage have been affected too? Investigating them one by one would instantly become an earthquake sweeping across the Five Great Nations.

For now, the problem remained between Konoha and Chen. With him and Sasuke handling it, a single battle could resolve it, just as they had resolved the issue with Shin Uchiha yesterday.

"However, I learned some new information about Chen. He had a younger brother, didn't he?"

"Yeah. Shikamaru mentioned him. His name was Jin."

"Darui said Jin was married to Samui, a former Kumogakure shinobi. They even had children."

"Huh? Something like that happened?" Naruto's mouth fell open in surprise, and an image surfaced in his mind—those mountains even more spectacular than Hinata's, or even Tsunade's.

Sasuke said, "After Jin died, Samui requested to return to civilian status. She left Kumogakure with her younger brother Atsui and her two children, and no one knew what happened to them afterward..."

"But that doesn't sound like it has anything to do with Chen, does it?"

Sasuke shook his head and said cautiously, "I don't know much about Samui, but supposedly, she was an experienced shinobi who participated in the Fourth Great Ninja War."

"It's difficult to imagine someone like that leaving the village that had trained her for so many years. Besides, she had two children. Staying in Kumogakure would have given them the greatest security in life, wouldn't it?"

Naruto stroked his chin and nodded thoughtfully. "Mm... that does make sense."

Sasuke swept back his cloak and sat down beside Naruto. "So I was thinking—could Chen have had something to do with Samui's unusual actions?"

"According to Shikamaru's intelligence, Chen amassed an enormous fortune. Yet his own residence was perfectly ordinary. If such a vast amount of money wasn't being used to indulge himself, where did it go? That's hard not to wonder about..."

"In short, Chen's background may be more complicated than we imagined!"

"It's fine. Once tonight is over, we'll knock him flat and take him back to Konoha so Ibiki can interrogate him." Naruto smiled as he picked up the bento box and handed it to Sasuke.

Chen's affairs apparently mattered less than getting Sasuke to eat something.

Sasuke accepted the bento box and laid it flat on his lap. Holding the chopsticks in one hand, he said pensively, "I don't think Ibiki can handle someone like Chen. When the time comes, I'll do it myself. I'll use the Rinnegan to make him reveal everything—his background, where his wealth went, and why he stole Madara's corpse. Then we'll decide how to deal with him."

After saying that, he lowered his head and began eating... but a piece of tamagoyaki stopped just before reaching his mouth.

He and Naruto simultaneously looked up toward the far end of the Pine Forest through the rain.

"Whoosh!" The Black Vortex settled, and Chen glanced at his watch. 5:07:43.

He spoke to the empty air behind him. "You two, please go somewhere as far away from me as possible."

Madara and Obito had both had their sense of presence erased by Haniyasu. After exchanging a glance, they flashed away!

Chen slowly raised his face.

At that very moment, a bolt of lightning tore through the night sky, illuminating a pair of breathtaking Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan!

"Then, next..."

Boom!! Naruto landed in the torrential rain before the house. Brilliant golden light blazed all over his body, forming the golden cloak of Kurama Chakra Mode. The Chakra storm spreading in every direction even slowed the rainfall from the sky!

"Sasuke, finish your bento first. I'll go have a word with this troublemaker~!"

"I'm going with you!" Sasuke put down the bento box.

"No!" Naruto stopped him sharply. "That's Sakura's loving-wife bento for you. Don't waste it!"

Sasuke said, "But he has Mangekyō Sharingan dojutsu!"

Naruto's eyes gleamed. "Yeah, I know! But the one thing in this world that can't be countered is overwhelming 'speed'! When Shin stabbed me yesterday, I felt like I finally got my 'reflexes' back after all this time!"

"I'm going to use speed beyond the reflexes of his dojutsu to knock him down in an instant!"

As his words fell, Naruto transformed into a golden rainbow of light, sweeping through the forest as he charged forward!

"Let's go, Kurama!!"

"Don't let your guard down! I can sense that his Chakra is extremely powerful!"

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing!!"

The face that suddenly entered his view filled Naruto's eyes with anger!

"Where did you take Uchiha Madara's corpse? Spill it!"

"Whoosh!" The fist blazing with golden light abruptly slowed when it was only a foot from Chen's face!

"Sorry. Within a foot of me is my world."

Chen merely swayed lightly and avoided it.

Watching from the peak above, Madara could not help but sneer. Heh, Chen can even evade Rinbo. Your Body Flicker is nothing to him, Naruto. If it were you from fifteen years ago... you might have had a chance of touching Chen!

Boom!

The golden light smashed apart a massive boulder rooted in the ground.

Naruto crouched amid the rubble, his expression filled with uncertainty. "What was that... that feeling of 'delay' just now?"

Chen turned his face and murmured, "You truly live up to being the number one most unpredictable ninja, Naruto. You gave me an incredibly satisfying opening move."

Naruto, as long as you don't activate Baryon Mode, you're nothing but a stat monster in my eyes.

Like Obito's Kamui, my mechanics naturally counter stat monsters in every respect.

Sasuke's Rinnegan is the only thing that can give me a little trouble.

"Crackle!" Chen's right eye focused on Naruto, flashing with cinnabar-red light!

—Toyomiketsunomikoto!

"Clack!" A Bone Palm burning with a dim silver aura tightly gripped Naruto's body from behind!

Naruto stared at the skeletal Susanoo that had appeared out of nowhere behind him, his face changing drastically. "Susanoo? How did it appear behind me out of thin air!?"

Toyomiketsunomikoto was the third dojutsu of Chen's right eye.

Like Mizuha, it had been inherited from his younger brother Jin's Mangekyō Sharingan.

This technique possessed two major traits: [Energy Storage] and [Flash Strike].

[Energy Storage] meant storing Chakra itself or Casting Formulas within the eye, while [Flash Strike] meant launching the stored techniques at the point where his gaze focused, in the form of a dojutsu [Flash Strike]!

With Toyomiketsunomikoto, Chen could store techniques in his right eye ahead of time during his daily life, then release them freely in battle. What it consumed was merely the Dojutsu Power required to use Toyomiketsunomikoto, rather than his current Chakra!

Susanoo, the five elemental ninjutsu, secret techniques—so long as they were techniques constructed from Chakra, all of them could be [Energy Storage].

Of course... Senjutsu Chakra was no exception.

"Next, I'll be using dojutsu relentlessly. This mode is indispensable."

"Crackle!" The sclera of Chen's eyes turned dark gray, and mithril-colored eyeshadow formed around the bridge of his nose and his eyelids. His Chakra and presence became even more unfathomable!

"Chen, you really did..." Madara narrowed his eyes deeply.

—Shikkotsurin Sage Mode!