Reverse the Tide

Hiruko stared straight at Yakumo. Even the bandages wrapped around his jaw couldn't hide the corners of his mouth, which curled upward. He seemed delighted to have found something worth defiling, something worth destroying!

Yakumo felt a jolt of alarm but wasn't intimidated by Hiruko. She continued to remind Shinji in a low voice, "But he looks different from the intelligence we gathered before. He seems a little shorter."

Shinji gave a slight nod.

Hiruko had been a contemporary of Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru. He had to be at least in his forties or fifties, yet the Hiruko before them looked like a boy. His skin was unusually fair; he didn't look anything like a man in his forties or fifties.

There was only one explanation for this.

Hiruko had most likely completed his ritual, using the Chimera Technique to steal other people's Kekkei Genkai and gain immense power.

Then he may have mastered five Kekkei Genkai by now.

Shinji grew wary.

In the original timeline,

Naruto had interrupted Hiruko's ritual at the critical moment, rescuing Kakashi, who possessed the Sharingan and was the most important part of the ritual. As a result, Hiruko's ritual had never been completed perfectly!

Not only had Hiruko lost the Sharingan, the most important Kekkei Genkai in his plan, but the four Kekkei Genkai he had absorbed were left in an unbalanced state. He couldn't wield them at their full potential, and the seeds of his eventual defeat had been sown.

Even so, Hiruko, whose ritual had been interrupted in the original timeline, had been strong enough to utterly overwhelm Kakashi, Naruto, and the others. If he hadn't been so arrogant and insisted on showing off his newly acquired Nether Release, he would undoubtedly have emerged victorious!

Now, without Naruto's interference and with the