A Terrible Idea Born of Accident

Seeing the person before her unleash the Wood Clone technique of the First Hokage, Hanabi's face remained completely devoid of ripples.

Instead, a strange feeling of being fully trusted by him welled up inside her.

She watched quietly as the *Wood Clone*s he had created quickly took their positions around the various small Eight Trigrams Sealing arrays.

Qiuyang himself sat cross-legged in the largest array at the center, swallowing hard—

He remembered that in the original story, when Kakashi helped Sasuke use the Evil Sealing Method to seal the Cursed Seal, the pain was so intense that he had collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Now that he had to seal even more than Sasuke did, would he end up rolling on the ground in agony? Wouldn't that be a huge loss of face in front of the little girl?

I wonder if I can hold out?

"Hey, main body, don't be afraid just because it hurts. Remember, you can definitely do this."

The Wood Clone beside Qiuyang seemed to sense his main body's embarrassment, patting his shoulder in encouragement.

Qiuyang retorted irritably, "It's not you who's in pain, so of course it's easy for you to talk."

"Sigh :-(, that's not right. What do you mean it's not me? I am you, and you are me. Pain in your body is pain in mine."

After the Wood Clone finished speaking with a serious air, it turned its head to add to Hanabi, "Right, little Hanabi?"

Hanabi: "..."

Must I say, Brother Qiuyang, are you and your clones always this long-winded?

Can't you be serious for once in such a solemn situation?

Qiuyang gritted his teeth: "Come on, let's start!"

All the clones watching the spectacle immediately straightened up. The clone guarding the part containing Shukaku began to weave complex hand seals at high speed, slamming its hands onto the ground once finished.

The black seal on the ground came to life, wrapping around the tail of Shukaku at the center of the small Eight Trigrams Sealing array, before surging madly into Qiuyang at the center...

As expected, an Eight Trigrams Sealing containing actual objects was far more painful than the empty one Jiraiya had implanted in him back then.

Qiuyang glanced at Hanabi, who was observing the situation of the seals on the ground intently, and decided to hold back any sound.

The clone guarding his side: "Tch—"

It nearly caused Qiuyang, who was enduring the agony, to break his composure.

By the time the first seal had fully entered his body, Qiuyang was already drenched in sweat. Thinking of the nine seals still waiting for him, he felt like crying but had no tears.

If I had known, I should have considered sealing them one by one over time. Why did I have to do it all at once?

Great, now I'm stuck in a situation I can't back out of!

It seems that for Naruto to successfully seal the Nine-Tails in his infancy, besides his powerful Uzumaki constitution, Minato must have used some secret technique to transfer most of the side effects; otherwise, it would not have been something an infant could withstand.

If he, a grown man, could barely endure it, how could a newborn child?

Once the first seal was complete, that Wood Clone of Qiuyang exhausted its chakra and transformed into a tree on the spot.

There was no help for it; the sealing process consumed too much chakra, and he had to calculate his usage precisely to ensure some remained for emergencies.

Qiuyang nodded to the clone at the second position, who understood and began weaving seals... Since this one didn't contain a part of a Tailed Beast, the pain of sealing it was significantly reduced.

Three hours passed in the blink of an eye.

Regardless of how much pain Qiuyang had experienced during this time, the nine small Eight Trigrams Sealing arrays had finally formed a circle around his midsection.

Now, only the miniature Demonic Statue of the Outer Path remained to be placed at the very center of his abdomen.

"Brother Qiuyang..."

Hanabi had noticed his abnormality when the third seal was being applied. At this moment, she looked at the man trembling slightly all over with great concern, wondering if she should try to persuade him to stop.

Qiuyang managed to pull off an "I'm fine" smile, nodding to the clone that was also watching him with a serious expression:

"There is no turning back now. Let's do it!"

"Alright, hold on, main body."

Qiuyang had allocated the most chakra to this Wood Clone responsible for the final step. Hearing that his main body intended to continue, it didn't hesitate, weaving the seals and pressing its hand directly onto his abdomen.

The contact was necessary to allow this final main seal to resonate with the other small Eight Trigrams Sealing arrays and establish a channel.

Qiuyang, who had already endured pain beyond what a normal person could bear, could no longer hold back this time, letting out an agonizing, "Ah-ugh..."

Hearing the scream, the young girl bit her lip and remained silent, her eyes filled with concern as she watched Qiuyang, as if silently encouraging him to hold on.

"Roar..."

But just as the container was about to be compressed and enter along with the Cursed Seal, an accident occurred: the miniature Demonic Statue of the Outer Path inside suddenly let out a roar and began to struggle.

No... no... this damn thing really isn't an inanimate object.

Qiuyang groaned in misery, feeling as if he were about to shatter completely.

He hadn't expected an accident at the final step, and now neither he nor the Wood Clone could move, with very little chakra left to use.

Hanabi, of course, noticed this detail through her Byakugan. Gritting her teeth, she walked behind Qiuyang and transmitted her own meager chakra through her palms to her Brother Qiuyang.

Strangely, when Hanabi's chakra mixed into the seal suppressing the miniature Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, the statue suddenly ceased its struggle and allowed itself to be sealed into his body obediently.

Qiuyang had no time to ponder the reason, focusing his entire being on the final closing stage of the seal...

When he entered his mental space once more, he saw a massive sealing formation floating above, with nine smaller sealing formations circling around him.

It's done, I actually did it, haha!

However, it could not be activated just yet; he would have to wait until he had gathered the parts of the Two-Tails, Four-Tails, and Nine-Tails first!

Qiuyang exited his mental space, ignoring his exhaustion, and turned to ruffle the little girl's hair like he was petting a cat to express his joy:

"I told you bringing Hanabi along was the right choice. I've decided that from now on, I'll be your teacher, hmm..."

Hanabi looked delighted to hear this, though she felt she might have gotten the short end of the stick; after all, she could have already switched between calling him "Brother Qiuyang" and "Teacher" whenever she wanted!

But seeing him so happy, the little girl stopped dwelling on the issue and began to laugh happily as well.

It was already night by the time Qiuyang returned Hanabi to the Hyuga compound, and he had originally intended to speak with Hiashi regarding Hanabi's future studies.

However, seeing Hiashi's perpetually stern face, he hurriedly winked at Hanabi and took his leave.

Regardless, even if a parent like Hiashi didn't agree, he had plenty of ways to make him change his mind.

That night, as Qiuyang lay in bed resting, he seriously contemplated the anomaly caused by Hanabi's chakra entering his body, eventually deducing a conclusion that broke him out in a cold sweat:

Before the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path was summoned by Madara and Nagato, it had been kept on the moon; he surmised that the chakra of Hamura Otsutsuki naturally possessed a suppressive effect on it.

But even so, such a small amount of chakra shouldn't have been enough to make it completely docile; the more important reason...

Perhaps the mixture of chakra from the descendants of Hagoromo Otsutsuki and Hamura Otsutsuki had produced a brand-new change, one capable of suppressing things related to the Tailed Beasts.

Thinking of this, Qiuyang sat bolt upright, the image of Pineapple Head's white Jōgan, which could see the future, suddenly flashing before his eyes.

If that were the case, perhaps if he were to transplant Hanabi's Byakugan—which possessed the potential to evolve into the Tenseigan—into his own eyes, they might undergo an even more extraordinary transformation.

Qiuyang was startled by this terrifying thought and hurriedly muttered to himself that Hanabi was his student and he couldn't mess around...

His current mission was to replenish the Tailed Beast parts!

However, just a few days later, as Qiuyang was preparing to depart from Konoha to secure the remaining Tailed Beast parts before the Akatsuki could capture them, that Anbu wearing the mole mask found him once again:

"Lord Qiuyang, Lady Tsunade and Lord Jiraiya have matters to discuss with you. Please head to the Hokage's office."

Qiuyang's brow twitched; he had a feeling this wouldn't be anything good.