Waking to Reality and Extracting the Uzumaki Clan Sage Body

"Snap!"

The hard wooden handle of the kunai shattered into fine splinters between Baishi's teeth.

In the dim underground safe house, there were no blinding light effects, nor any sense of warm envelopment. The moment that dark red sphere of light—representing the "Uzumaki Clan Sage Body (Incomplete Version)"—slammed into his chest, Baishi was met only with the purest, most violent destruction.

His heart skipped a beat.

The next second, his blood temperature skyrocketed, burning through his existing vessel walls like molten magma. Dense, intricate red capillaries instantly surfaced on his skin, a complex web of crimson veins locking his entire body in a tight grip.

"Ugh—"

A muffled groan, like that of a wounded beast, rolled from Baishi's throat. He clawed desperately at the stone floor beneath him, his fingernails snapping off on impact as blood seeped into the cracks of the earth.

Pain.

A agony that surpassed the torment of a thousand cuts.

His muscle fibers were torn apart, strand by strand, by an incredibly tyrannical force, only to be forcibly reconnected by the surge of overwhelming vitality. The newly formed muscles were of extreme density, ruthlessly compressing the surrounding bones until a series of popping sounds, like roasting beans, echoed from his joints. Every single cell in his body was undergoing a cycle of tearing and reconstruction.

Baishi gritted his teeth, refusing to let a scream escape.

He understood the underlying logic of this world all too well. There were no free lunches; every gift bestowed by fate had its price marked in the shadows. If he didn't want to be cannon fodder, if he wanted to trample those high-and-mighty Kage-level powerhouses under his feet, he had to be willing to peel off a layer of his own skin first.

Compared to being used as a disposable pawn by Danzo on the battlefield, or having his internal organs pierced by a kunai and dying like a stray dog, this pain—which could be exchanged for power—was an absolute bargain!

"Give it to me... merge!"

Baishi's eyes were bloodshot, and through sheer rationality and ruthlessness, he endured the agonizing half-hour.

As the final trace of dark red light completely fused into his bone marrow, the high temperature on his skin finally began to subside. His sweat evaporated into a thick white mist the moment it touched the air.

"Pah."

Baishi spat out the two halves of the wooden handle, mixed with blood, onto the floor.

He stood up shakily and rolled his shoulders. His bones emitted a series of dull, popping sounds. His lean frame had grown two inches taller; his muscle definition wasn't exaggerated, but it radiated a sense of danger as lethal as a panther. The old injuries and scars left behind from years of executing missions in the ANBU peeled away like dead tree bark, revealing the tough, newborn skin beneath.

Baishi picked up the sharp ANBU short blade from the floor and, without hesitation, sliced a three-inch-long gash into his left arm.

Flesh curled back and blood gushed out. Yet, he didn't even frown, merely staring coldly at the wound.

Visible to the naked eye, the granulation tissue at the wound began to writhe frantically. In less than ten seconds, the severed flesh closed back up, the scab fell away, and only a faint white mark remained.

"This is the foundation of the Uzumaki Clan Sage Body." A satisfied, cold smirk tugged at the corner of Baishi's mouth.

Only with a thicker health bar could he afford a higher margin for error. In a world where a single Explosive Tag stuck to one's face could blow an elite jonin to pieces, monstrous regenerative ability was the greatest asset for survival.

Taking a deep breath, Baishi turned his gaze toward the silver-blue sphere of light remaining in mid-air.

"System, extract the second reward."

The silver-blue orb transformed into a stream of light, precisely sinking into the center of his brow.

A sharp, stinging pain pierced the depths of his brain, but compared to the cellular reconstruction he had just endured, this discomfort was not worth mentioning.

The world changed in Baishi's eyes.

The once rigid three-dimensional space now possessed faint "strings" that could be perceived and manipulated. He could clearly detect the subtle spatial folding in the corner of the basement, and could even sense the spatial ripples caused by a bird flying past a hundred meters away.

This was the Space-time Talent that Namikaze Minato was so proud of!

At the same time, the massive amount of chakra accumulated through life-and-death struggles within the simulated body surged like a bursting dam, flooding into the meridians that had been widened by his Sage Body.

His chakra reserves had increased several times over!

If the previous Baishi had barely touched the threshold of a quasi-jonin thanks to his maxed-out Lightning Release, then now, relying solely on these bottomless chakra reserves and his Sage Body, he stood firmly at the peak of the jonin level, even touching the edge of the Kage level.

Baishi clenched his right fist tightly.

"Bang!"

The air was instantly compressed by the extreme force and speed, emitting a dull sonic boom.

"Now, even if I face Namikaze Minato again, even if I can't beat him, he won't be able to keep me here." Baishi felt the surging power within his body, a trace of ambition flashing in his dark eyes.

The fate of cannon fodder had been completely crushed by him from this moment on.

He turned, preparing to use Lightning Release to clear away the bloodstains and traces in the basement, erasing all clues of his transformation.

However, the moment he began to weave the hand signs.

A sudden change occurred.

His newly acquired Space-time Perception Ability made him extremely sensitive to external energy fluctuations. The stone floor beneath his feet suddenly began to vibrate at a high frequency—not an earthquake, but a form of extremely violent energy resonance.

Baishi whipped his head around, his gaze locked firmly in the direction of the Konoha Village Center.

A dark red chakra, extremely tyrannical, evil, and filled with a destructive aura, slammed into his sensory nerves like an invisible heavy hammer. The purity of that chakra was so high that even the natural energy around the basement was being frantically repelled.

The air became suffocatingly heavy, and even breathing carried a burning sensation.

"Nine-Tails..." Baishi's eyelid twitched.

No.

The timeline for the Night of the Nine-Tails hadn't arrived yet, and Obito was still lingering in some dark, damp cave. In the entire ninja world, there was only one person capable of erupting with this level of Nine-Tails chakra right now.

Uzumaki Kushina.

The simulation's end flashed through Baishi's mind: Kushina's eyes outside the Four Red Yang Formation barrier, desperate to the point of madness, her eye corners torn and bleeding.

"The side effects of an ultimate exchange, coming this fast?"

Baishi's expression shifted slightly. He knew the Simulator's memories would feed back to his bonded targets in reality, but he had severely underestimated the destructive power of "taking a death for another" combined with the dying words, "Live on for my sake too," on a woman already in an emotionally unstable period.

Kushina couldn't distinguish between reality and simulation.

In her perception, the man named Baishi had just been incinerated to ashes in the light of a Tailed Beast Bomb while saving her!

Without a moment's hesitation, Baishi kicked open the hidden door to the basement and rushed towards the surface through the tunnel.

He pushed aside the massive rock covering the tunnel entrance, his legs exerting force. The man shot up from the ground like a black lightning bolt, instantly rising into the air and flipping onto the crown of the tallest giant tree on the back mountain.

The night wind howled.

Baishi stood on the treetop, gazing towards the distant center of Konoha.

With just one glance, the mask of absolute rationality he always maintained nearly cracked.

The night sky in the distance had already been dyed a suffocating blood red. A thick pillar of Dark Red Chakra shot straight into the clouds, illuminating more than half of Konoha village as if it were broad daylight.

The highest-level air-raid siren in the center of the village pierced the night sky with a mournful wail.

And within that rolling scarlet storm, one could vaguely hear an extremely shrill roar, filled with endless despair and violent killing intent.

"Baishi—!!!"

The sound penetrated half of Konoha village, striking Baishi's eardrums with clarity. Accompanying it were the continuous sounds of collapsing buildings and the panicked shouts of ANBU ninjas.

Kushina, in her Partial Tailed Beast Transformation, wielding the destructive Nine-Tails Chakra, was barreling forward in a straight, furious line, crushing everything in her path into ruins.

And her direction of advance was precisely towards the main gate of the Konoha ANBU base!

Baishi stood on the treetop, feeling the world-ending, obsessive killing intent, and his lips couldn't help but twitch violently.

Wanted by the entire village.

This time, he had completely messed up.