The New Nine-Tails Jinchuriki

Opening the Gate of Death in the Eight Gates could get you killed.

And... if the acupoints were something like the Eight Gates, then the chakra inside them couldn't be used.

Li Yao hurriedly controlled the chakra within the acupoint, trying to make it fly beyond its boundaries.

As expected, he failed.

No matter how Li Yao manipulated it, the Chakra Acupoint was like a sealed chamber, without the slightest crack through which chakra could escape.

The area around the acupoint was tightly bound by a powerful, invisible force, preventing chakra from flowing out.

Only Physical Energy and Spiritual Energy could enter and leave freely.

Li Yao then tried controlling the chakra in his other acupoints and found that they were all the same—firmly confined within, unable to emerge.

"This is really troublesome now!"

The acupoint at the Gate of Death was manageable enough; Li Yao could simply accumulate chakra in another acupoint.

But if the chakra in every acupoint couldn't get out, then no matter how much chakra he accumulated, it would be useless!

Wasn't that essentially the same as being sealed by the Eight Trigrams Seal?

Perhaps it was precisely because acupoints naturally possessed this ability to seal chakra that those who developed Sealing Techniques such as the Eight Trigrams Seal, which restrained and sealed chakra, had never considered acupoints.

Though Li Yao thought this, he was not overly anxious.

After a while, Li Yao calmed down.

The chakra within the acupoints was not permanently locked away and unusable.

The existence of the Eight Gates proved that Chakra Acupoints could be opened.

It was simply that Li Yao, who did not know the Eight Gates, had no idea how to open them.

But as long as he knew they could be opened, he could slowly figure it out.

After all, wasn't the Eight Gates developed by humans as well?

With his absolute control over chakra and unique chakra-sensing ability, as long as he worked hard, he would certainly find a way to open the gates of the acupoints.

Over the following days, Li Yao condensed chakra within the acupoints of the other seven gates outside the Gate of Death while controlling it to move through the acupoints. At the same time, he concentrated his sensory ability on the walls of the acupoints, thoroughly studying the invisible force that bound the chakra.

Days passed one after another.

In the blink of an eye, another half year had gone by, and spring of Konoha's thirty-fourth year arrived.

By then, a year and a half had passed since Li Yao came to this world.

He remained alone, quietly sealed inside Laboratory No. 2. No one studied him, and no one cared about him, as though he had been forgotten.

And that was indeed the case. At the Ninja Academy, aside from his "good friend" Minato Namikaze, everyone else's memories of Li Yao had become completely blurred.

On this day.

At Konoha's Ninja Academy, a girl with long, fiery red hair entered Minato's class.

From that moment on, the gears of fate began to turn.

Whether it was fate or Minato's powerful chakra-sensing ability, he would always silently appear nearby whenever the red-haired girl was bullied. He never helped—he merely watched.

Gradually, the red-haired girl became clearer and clearer in his heart.

The place once occupied by his old friend Kimura Yao was gradually replaced.

And on this day.

At the other end of the ninja world.

The Land of Earth.

Iwagakure.

The Tsuchikage Office Building.

The Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, sat atop a specially made high chair with his short, four-foot-three frame, frowning as he listened to the intelligence report from an Anbu ninja.

"So Konoha has acquired a new Nine-Tails Jinchuriki."

"Yes, Tsuchikage-sama."

The Anbu member Dōboku lowered his head slightly, his tone filled with shame as he blamed himself. "I failed to gather the intelligence properly. Please punish me, sir."

He had always been responsible for monitoring the Uzumaki Clan to see whether someone capable of inheriting the role of Nine-Tails Jinchuriki had been born.

Yet not only had he failed to discover and kill the Uzumaki Clan member capable of becoming the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki in the first place, he had only confirmed that the girl named Kushina Uzumaki possessed extraordinarily powerful sealing chakra—enough to suppress and seal the Nine-Tails—after she had already been sent to Konoha.

His mission could be said to have failed completely.

"Dōboku, there's no need to blame yourself. The Uzumaki Clan has always been difficult to monitor."

The Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, waved a hand and comforted the Anbu ninja named Dōboku, who was in fact his nephew.

And he was not wrong. The Uzumaki Clan were born with enormous chakra reserves and were highly skilled in Sealing Techniques and Medical Ninjutsu, possessing exceptional control over the finer aspects of chakra.

Generally speaking, someone who possessed massive chakra reserves while also having powerful fine control over chakra could easily master chakra-sensing abilities.

Thus, among all the ninja clans in the Ninja World, the Uzumaki Clan had the greatest number of ninja with Chakra sensory abilities.

Even the combined number of ninja with Chakra sensory abilities in an entire hidden village of a single nation did not surpass the number possessed by the Uzumaki Clan.

Naturally, it was difficult to closely and accurately monitor a clan with so many ninja capable of sensing Chakra.

Ōnoki completely understood how Dōboku had been deceived.

As long as he learned that the Uzumaki Clan had produced a new Jinchuriki capable of sealing the Nine-Tails, Dōboku's surveillance mission had not been in vain.

The most troublesome issue now was that Konoha had gained a new successor to the Nine-Tails.

Ōnoki knew very well just how powerful the Nine-Tails was.

It was a terrifying force that stood completely above the other eight tailed beasts.

That kind of overwhelming power—put it this way.

In the entire Ninja World, only an Uzumaki Clan genius born with even greater Chakra reserves than other Uzumaki could firmly seal the Nine-Tails within their body.

Other ninja simply could not seal the Nine-Tails into themselves. If they forcibly attempted it, they would instantly be eroded by the Nine-Tails' massive, evil Chakra and become food for the Nine-Tails.

This alone showed how powerful the Nine-Tails was.

And a Nine-Tails Jinchuriki who could firmly seal the Nine-Tails within their body without being eroded by its Chakra would naturally be even more terrifyingly powerful.

During the last Ninja World War, everyone had thought that with the First Hokage dead and the Second Hokage dead as well, the nations of the Ninja World could bite off a piece of the Land of Fire's fertile territory.

Yet the current Nine-Tails Jinchuriki—wife of the God of Shinobi, former princess of the Uzumaki Clan, Mito Uzumaki—had made only one move, showing the Ninja World what the greatest combat power in the Ninja World was after the God of Shinobi and the Asura of the Ninja World.

Even Ōnoki, who possessed the Kekkei Tōta ninjutsu Dust Release, admitted that he had no chance whatsoever of defeating Mito Uzumaki.

After all, she was not only an Uzumaki with immense Chakra reserves, but also the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, whose Chakra reserves were the most terrifying of all.

Ōnoki could not even describe just how vast Mito Uzumaki's Chakra reserves were.

On top of that, Mito Uzumaki was proficient in Sealing Technique, Medical Ninjutsu, barrier techniques, and more.

She was also a powerhouse who had lived through the Warring States Period, with equally abundant combat experience.

Ōnoki imagined several scenarios in which he fought Mito Uzumaki, and in none of them did he have any chance of winning. At best, he could only force a draw for a short time.

But if the battle dragged on, he would certainly lose.

Back during the Ninja World War, it was precisely because Mito Uzumaki had guarded the rear that the declining situation on the front lines had stabilized, allowing the Third Hokage and the others to gradually tip the scales of victory back toward Konoha. This completely extinguished the other nations' and hidden villages' ambitions to divide up the Land of Fire's territory, establishing the Land of Fire's current reputation as the strongest.

It could be said that as long as Mito Uzumaki remained alive, no other hidden village would consider sending troops to declare war on the Land of Fire.

Fortunately, Mito Uzumaki was growing old. Her Chakra reserves would diminish with time, and accordingly, sealing the Nine-Tails would become increasingly difficult.

By Ōnoki's estimation, ten years at most.

Mito Uzumaki could hold on for no more than ten years before she died from being unable to suppress the Nine-Tails within her body.

Once Mito Uzumaki died, no one would be able to seal the Nine-Tails again, and Konoha would inevitably fall into great turmoil.

Even if no great turmoil arose, Konoha without a Nine-Tails Jinchuriki would no longer pose any pressure to him or Iwagakure.

Ōnoki believed that after so many years under his management, Iwagakure's strength had long since surpassed Konoha's.

As long as Mito Uzumaki died, he would surely be able to lead Iwagakure to defeat the Land of Fire and bite off an enticing piece of its territory.

But now... with the emergence of a new Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, an unexpected variable had appeared in Ōnoki's plans.

Once Konoha had a Nine-Tails Jinchuriki again—and one from the Uzumaki Clan at that—who could say that little girl would not become the next Mito Uzumaki?

Even if she was not as powerful as Mito Uzumaki, she certainly would not be too far behind.

And... with a second Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, there could be a third and a fourth.

In the end, the existence of the Uzumaki Clan was simply too heaven-defying.

If only... hm!

A thought suddenly came to Ōnoki.

For example... what if they wiped out the Uzumaki Clan?

Then, without the Uzumaki Clan and their powerful Sealing Techniques and Chakra, the Nine-Tails would never have another Jinchuriki.

The more Ōnoki considered it, the better the idea seemed.

However, Iwagakure alone could not wipe out the Uzumaki Clan quickly enough to prevent Konoha from reacting. He would need the other hidden villages to join forces.

"I imagine Kumogakure and Kirigakure would also be more than happy to eliminate the Uzumaki Clan."

Ōnoki smiled inwardly. The Uzumaki Clan, which had allied with Konoha for generations, had always been thorns in the eyes of the major hidden villages. At the same time, they possessed the strongest Sealing Techniques in the Ninja World, making the other villages both wary and covetous.

It was best to eliminate such a fated enemy, and they could obtain powerful Sealing Techniques in the process.

Perhaps after acquiring stronger Sealing Techniques, their hidden villages' Jinchuriki could also become perfect Jinchuriki like Mito Uzumaki, capable of controlling the power of tailed beast Chakra.

During this era, aside from Konoha's Mito Uzumaki, the Jinchuriki of the other hidden villages were all incomplete and unable to wield the power of their tailed beasts.

Instead, because they had to constantly use Chakra to suppress the tailed beasts sealed within them, not only had their strength failed to increase, but they also had to worry about the tailed beasts going berserk and harming people from their own villages.

It could be said that the Jinchuriki of each village were super time bombs at this point, capable of displaying less strength than they had before becoming Jinchuriki.

Only Mito Uzumaki, relying on her powerful Sealing Techniques and immense Chakra reserves, could forcibly draw out the Nine-Tails' Chakra for her own use without worrying about the Nine-Tails going berserk.

This was something the Jinchuriki of other ninja villages could not accomplish.

If they possessed the Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Technique, perhaps they could do what Mito Uzumaki had done.

The more Ōnoki considered those possibilities, the more resolute he became in his decision to wipe out the Uzumaki Clan.

Before long, Ōnoki secretly sent people to contact Kumogakure and Kirigakure, discussing the possibility of joining forces to destroy the Uzumaki Clan.

Unexpectedly, Kumogakure and Kirigakure had been thinking the same thing.

They had also learned that Konoha had a new successor for the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. They, too, saw the Uzumaki Clan as a potential threat—and the enormous gains to be had from wiping them out.

The moment Iwagakure took the lead, Kumogakure and Kirigakure responded at once.

And so, a plan to exterminate the Uzumaki Clan slowly began to unfold.

What did any of this have to do with Li Yao?