Prisoner Kuro: Yay! I Can Live!!
"This, this power..."
Kouchi gently touched his eyes, feeling the immense, almost overflowing, ocular power within his Mangekyō Sharingan, something he had never experienced before. As if confirming something, he whispered to himself:
"This is... the Eternal Mangekyo?! The Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan?!"
No, not just the Eternal Eye!
The moment the thought crossed his mind, Kou snapped back to reality and immediately focused his attention on himself, carefully sensing every change occurring within his body.
The results of this investigation were so shocking that even he himself was taken aback.
Not only did his Mangekyō Sharingan undergo a qualitative evolution, but under the comprehensive sublimation of the boundless vitality of the God Tree, his physical strength and Chakra reserves also experienced a tremendous leap.
Even by the most stringent standards, his current physical strength and Chakra reserves have firmly reached the level of Tailed Beast.
"A body with the strength and Chakra reserves of Tailed Beast, coupled with a considerable and powerful regenerative ability that, while not quite reaching the level of Sage Body, is still formidable, plus the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan..."
A dreamlike thought silently surfaced in Kou's heart.
"I... I've reached the Super Kage realm?"
Kou stood there, stunned, for several seconds.
The clarity in his Mangekyō Sharingan was instantly replaced by an overwhelming ecstasy that nearly engulfed him.
"Ha, hahaha--hahahaha!!!"
He laughed unrestrainedly, as if releasing pent-up stress.
"Hahaha, twenty-two years! Hahaha, twenty-two years! Finally!!"
Hahaha, waaaaah! Waaaaah...
Two streams of hot tears, unbeknownst to him, had already spilled from Kou's eyes, flowing freely down his handsome face, which was contorted with ecstasy.
Where is the kowtow? The kowtow is already filled with tears!
He choked back tears, a mixture of laughter and tears, as his mind uncontrollably conjured up images of his twenty-two years—far exceeding the seventeen years of his previous life—since he transmigrated to this Ninja World.
Before the age of six, from initially being full of expectations for the future to experiencing the death of his parents and awakening the One-Tomoe Sharingan, he felt the cruelty of the Ninja World for the first time, and restrained his arrogance and fantasies as a transmigrator.
After entering the Ninja Academy at the age of six, he realized his lack of talent and put on a mask of disguise. No matter how much he resisted in his heart, he seriously practiced the art of killing and tried every means to become stronger, just to survive in this cruel Ninja World!
From the intense guilt she felt when she killed for the first time at the age of eight, to now being able to slaughter lives without batting an eye...
In these twenty-two long years of life, only the first six years can truly be called "living".
All the remaining time has been spent living cautiously, wearing a false mask, in fear of "insufficient strength."
"Waaaaah!! Twenty-two years! I've finally made it through! I can finally live again!!"
In this silent, unknown tomb, Kou wailed without restraint, as if he wanted to pour out all the pain that had been building up in his heart over the years, all the fears that he could not tell anyone!
"Hehe, hehe... I can survive! Hehe, haha, I can finally survive!!"
Kou jumped and leaped about wildly in the tomb, his face full of joy, almost to the point of being morbid.
He completely disregarded the fact that he was in a tomb, and paid no attention to the armor that had been trampled and damaged and the weapons that were stained with blood beneath his feet.
Orochimaru stood not far away, staring blankly at the man in front of him who was crying, laughing, jumping, and bouncing around.
In the depths of his eyes, which should have been firmly controlled by the Mangekyō Sharingan and should not have shown any extra emotions, an extremely subtle ripple, one that should not have appeared, stirred.
In his near-mad state, Kou had completely forgotten that Orochimaru was standing next to him.
He instinctively grabbed the pale figure beside him and shouted excitedly:
"I'm Super Kage! Hahaha, I'm Super Kage!"
I can do whatever I want! I can live... Hmm? What's that stench of urine?!
Just as Kou's mental state was about to reach its limit, his nose caught a very familiar scent.
It was coming from the Akatsuki robe hanging on Orochimaru's head—a strong smell of cat urine.
The pungent smell of cat urine instantly snapped Kou back to his senses!
He abruptly released his arms from Orochimaru, his face still flushed with joy and tears, but his body reacted instinctively.
"Go to hell! Night Knock!!"
Kō instinctively kicked Orochimaru, sending him flying.
"Boom--!!"
Under that terrifying force, Orochimaru was kicked away and crashed heavily into the blue stone wall deep inside the tomb.
The ancient stone wall, which could be considered an antique, shattered with a deafening roar, and countless fragments of stone crashed down, raising a cloud of grayish-white dust.
Orochimaru was innocently shot, is now in critical condition.
Now that Kou had finally come to his full senses from his previous frenzied state, he naturally had no time to pay attention to Orochimaru, whom he had kicked away.
He pounded his head in fear, panting heavily, his voice still tinged with the echoes of his earlier loss of control.
"Oh my god, what just happened to me?!"
He muttered to himself as he quickly tried to calm his chaotic emotions.
After a long while, the fluctuations in his Mangekyō Sharingan finally subsided, and his eyes returned to their original clarity.
"Was it because you had been bottling up your emotions for so long that you couldn't control them and they suddenly exploded?"
Kou shook his head with a bitter smile, raising his hand to forcefully wipe away the still-wet tear stains on his face.
"Although I knew my mental state wasn't very healthy, I never imagined it had reached this level..."
"Ugh, it's all this shitty Ninja World's fault!"
After habitually shifting the blame to the entire Ninja World, Koko slowly exhaled a breath of stale air.
The initial joy and sense of security brought about by the sudden increase in strength have slowly faded after this out-of-control outburst.
What followed was something he had never had the chance to face before.
It was an indescribable, bottomless emptiness.
Kou stood amidst the rubble he had trampled, staring at the shattered armor and scattered weapons, remaining silent for a long time.
"... With my current strength, in the Ninja World today, there shouldn't be anyone who can do anything to me."
He murmured softly, as if confirming a fact that no longer needed to be confirmed.
In the current timeline, let alone Shippuden, Naruto and Sasuke are still just two kids who have just entered the Ninja Academy.
The Akatsuki hasn't even assembled all its members yet, and Prisoner Madara is still in a revival match against Iced Tea!
The strongest Ninja World right now is nothing more than a bunch of weaklings, Ninja World who can only rely on the Six Paths of Pain Nagato of Pain to get by.
As for himself, who knew all about Nagato's information, Nagato's threat was not even as great as Obito, whom he had completely countered.
Right now, I am the strongest in the Ninja World, and no one can threaten my life.
I have achieved the greatest goal of my life in the past twenty-two years—to survive!
"But... what happens after that?"
He asked himself in a low voice, his eyes filled with deep weariness.
In this godforsaken Ninja World, after twenty-two years of hardship, he finally gained the strength to control his own destiny.
Finally, I don't have to worry about anyone's opinion anymore, and I can finally truly live my own life!
But what is the real me like...?
Standing in the tomb, gazing at the dark entrance in the distance, a question involuntarily surfaced in his mind: the question that had been weighing heavily on him ever since he arrived in this Ninja World, a question he had never had the time to seriously consider, a question that had never been properly addressed by the pressure of "survival."
"How am I supposed to live?"