Dark Release!

Mo slowly closed his eyes and withdrew his gaze.

When Madara had turned his head just now, Mo had not immediately looked away. Instead, he shifted his focus onto the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path and continued monitoring the cave with his peripheral vision.

Madara Uchiha truly deserved to be called a legendary ninja. Even though he was so old that walking was difficult, he still possessed such powerful perception—or perhaps intuition...

Mo had previously used Clairvoyance to observe many people: Orochimaru, Danzo, Killer B, Hiruzen Sarutobi... But Madara Uchiha was the first person to notice his gaze.

"Old bastard..."

Mo frowned and snorted coldly.

When using Clairvoyance, he concealed his presence even more perfectly than usual. But since even Madara Uchiha could detect it, his experiments in the Pure Land and the three great sacred lands would have to be postponed for now. At the very least, he needed to wait until his concealment abilities reached White Zetsu's level.

"What a pain."

Madara Uchiha was one of the few ninjas in the Ninja World who possessed all seven chakra natures, and he was currently the person who could provide Mo with the greatest improvement.

More importantly, beneath the Six Paths, no one possessed greater mastery of Fire Release and Yin-Yang Release than Madara.

Mo had once considered forcing Nagato to summon the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path early and pulling out Madara's tubes. But after considering it, he realized that method clearly would not grant proficiency, so he naturally abandoned it.

Moreover, there was another difficulty in killing Madara now: Madara had to arrange the Eye of the Moon Plan before he could die.

It was not because Mo feared the plot collapsing and causing him to lose his advantage. Rather, judging from the panel's rate of decline, there were likely another two layers of decay ahead. And as that decay progressed, the panel's requirements for proficiency providers had become increasingly demanding.

Take Lightning Release, which had long reached fifty percent, for example. Now, unless Mo killed a ninja with at least Jonin-level Lightning Release mastery, his Lightning Release proficiency would not increase at all!

Faced with this situation, Mo could not give up on Kaguya Otsutsuki, the progenitor of chakra. If conditions allowed, he would even have to actively help Kaguya revive, increase the number of Ten-Tails Jinchūriki, and test whether Infinite Tsukuyomi could bring the Ninja World up to the final mission's standard.

The more he thought about it, the more problems arose. Mo irritably exhaled and rubbed his temples, no longer willing to think about it.

But at the instant Mo relaxed, his eyes abruptly turned scarlet, and the three tomoe began spinning at high speed!

The black tomoe nearly formed a line within his scarlet pupils and rapidly extended outward. Just as a new pattern was about to take shape, Mo instantly snapped awake!

He felt his ocular power rising madly, while an extremely cold aura began spreading through his body.

"Whoosh—!"

Mo immediately drew Futsunomitama from his waist. Using the gleaming blade to observe the changes in his eyes, he simultaneously mobilized the chakra in his body to coordinate with the increase in ocular power.

The tomoe continued rotating. An octagonal symmetrical pattern was about to fully form, but during the next rotation, the pattern suddenly collapsed and reverted to three tomoe. Their speed was instantly cut in half!

The increase in ocular power stopped as well, as though everything had merely been a farce...

"Hm?"

Mo stared at his reflection on the blade in astonishment. After a while, he finally came back to himself and sheathed Futsunomitama again.

"..."

Yin Release Proficiency: 52.13%

Yang Release Proficiency: 41.91%

Mo was certain that his ocular power had absolutely reached the strength of the Mangekyō Sharingan, and his Yang Release was enough to support the fusion of that ocular power. What had happened just now was also unquestionably the normal manifestation of awakening the Mangekyō.

Yet at the final moment, everything had inexplicably stopped...

After pondering for a while without finding any clues, Mo shook his head and stood up.

"Since my ocular power is sufficient, it's time to try some things again!"

As he spoke, he stretched his body. Then, after using Clairvoyance to inspect the surroundings and confirming that no one was nearby, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

A moment later...

"!"

Mo abruptly opened his scarlet eyes and gathered Fire Release chakra in his raised left hand. At the same time, another extremely cold chakra instantly became active.

The two completely different chakras swiftly converged within his body, tangling and fusing together under Mo's control!

"Flame Release!"

"Boom!"

With a low shout, pitch-black flames suddenly ignited in Mo's left palm.

The Black Flame flickered gently, burning in utter silence. It was nothing like the violent eruption of ordinary fire, yet the faintly leaking deadly aura far surpassed it.

With the boost of Fire Control, the Black Flame was exceptionally obedient.

The tomoe in Mo's eyes slowly rotated as he stared expressionlessly at the Black Flame in his hand.

Next, he would harmonize and merge the chakra nature transformation of Lightning Release into Flame Release, thereby creating a Kekkei Tōta fused from Fire Release, Yin Release, and Lightning Release!

Mo had prepared for this training for a full year and a half. In theory, the only thing he had lacked back then was ocular power—or rather, Yin Release mastery. Now that his Yin Release proficiency had exceeded fifty percent, he could finally begin.

After observing for a while and confirming that Flame Release had completely stabilized, Mo extinguished the Black Flame in his hand. Then he slowly mobilized Lightning Release chakra and, following the proportions and degree of Lightning Release nature transformation he had long determined, tentatively brought it into contact with his Flame Release chakra.

This time, the two did not remain distinctly separated.

The instant blue and black came into contact, they fiercely entwined!

As Mo continuously supplied chakra, the two converged faster and faster, becoming more deeply intertwined! Then, a third entirely different chakra aura, distinct from Fire Release, Lightning Release, and Yin Release, was born within Mo's body!

Scorching yet cold, violent yet silent...

Mo did not know how to describe this contradictory and bizarre state, but he knew he had succeeded! And this Kekkei Tōta was exceptionally powerful!

It was not merely powerful as a release technique. Yin Release, Fire Release, and Lightning Release were already the three highest-quality chakra natures within Mo's body, which made the fused Kekkei Tōta equally formidable...

Yin Release Proficiency +1.54%

Fire Release Proficiency +0.93%

Lightning Release Proficiency +0.96%

"Heh~"

Mo let out a soft laugh.

After a year and a half of preparation, he had finally succeeded today. Even he could not suppress the joy welling up inside him.

"Dark Release: Red Scorch!"

"Boom—rumble!"

The muffled sound resembled flames suddenly bursting into life, yet also like distant thunder high in the heavens. Along with that strange sound, Mo's entire arm changed!

A pitch-black substance coiled down from Mo's shoulder, flowing across his entire arm until it gathered in his palm, where it trembled madly in the shape of lightning!

As it flowed, it occasionally shuddered like an electric arc with crackling sounds. It looked neither like lightning nor fire, but more like burning lightning, or flames taking the form of lightning...

Chapter 70: Dark Release!

The air rippled faintly under the heat, while the powerful chakra aura stirred the heart.

Mo stared intently at his palm. He could sense a palpitating aura from it.

Now it was time to test the results!

As for how to test it... for Mo, it was very simple.

He flicked his wrist to disperse the chakra, formed a cross with his fingers, and instantly split off half his chakra.

"Shadow Clone Technique!"

"Poof!"

Smoke burst forth, and a Shadow Clone appeared.

When a Shadow Clone died, its sensations and memories would be transmitted back to the original body. Naturally, it became Mo's best tool for experimentation.

The two Mos looked at each other. The Shadow Clone, already understanding his mission, nodded and voluntarily walked directly in front of Mo.

"Red Scorch!"

Black Yin Fire Lightning appeared once more. Mo mercilessly thrust his right hand toward the Shadow Clone!

"Psh! Boom—!"

Blood splattered as Mo's right arm instantly pierced through the Shadow Clone's entire chest!

The wound resembled one inflicted by a sharp weapon, yet it also carried the texture of melting candle wax. Immediately afterward, white flames ignited upon it. Mo's eyes shifted as he prepared to observe further...

"Poof!"

The Shadow Clone had reached its limit. It exploded into smoke and vanished, its memories returning to Mo's mind. He frowned and dispersed the chakra in his hand.

Mo stood still and slowly recalled what he had felt just now.

The attacking nature of this power was unlike traditional Lightning Release or Fire Release. It was more like lightning with intense heat, or fire with sharpness—just like its appearance.

Its piercing power exceeded Lightning Release: Chidori, and its paralysis effect was even stronger. The fire damage was also far greater than ordinary Fire Release, while those white flames seemed somewhat similar in nature to Flame Release...

Flame Release flames never went out, but those white flames could violently complete their entire burning process in an instant, rapidly dealing all their damage.

In summary, the new Kekkei Tōta not only inherited the advantages of both lightning and fire, but due to Yin Release, each of their characteristics had also been optimized to a certain extent!

Mo nodded in satisfaction. His efforts had clearly not been wasted.

With these traits, any damage he dealt would become exceptionally troublesome. Lightning's piercing enhancement could make fire's explosions erupt more easily within an enemy's body, and techniques such as Scattering Fire Needles and Red Radiance Spear could benefit from this effect.

Meanwhile, fire's burning and melting could strengthen lightning's cutting and piercing damage, making Red Scorch's ninja blade coating even more lethal.

Most importantly, with Dark Release, he would no longer need to frequently switch between Chidori and Red Scorch to handle different kinds of enemies. Furthermore, Fire Control and Lightning Manipulation would allow him to control Dark Release's chakra form transformations as easily as moving his own limbs!

After roughly understanding his new ability, Mo began testing his various ninjutsu in the open space. To allow Red Scorch to fully unleash Dark Release's power, he still needed to adjust details from his old techniques that were too heavily biased toward Fire Release.

He also needed to create a new ninjutsu that could fully unleash every aspect of Dark Release's destructive power and decide a battle in one strike.

Half a year slowly passed, and the time came to Hidden Leaf Year 48.

After Yugito's death, Hidden Cloud indeed launched even more frenzied attacks. On the surface, the combination of Uchiha Mo and Minato Namikaze should have been able to crush Hidden Cloud's high-end combat power head-on.

Yet Hidden Leaf, which should theoretically have held an absolute advantage, had not created much of an advantage...

The reason was none other than Nara Shikaku, who, for some unknown reason, shortly after that battle had ordered Mo and the two teams under his command not to approach the frontmost battlefield, citing Mo's status as Hidden Leaf's most important genius and the need to protect him from loss.

Mo was only allowed to lead the two teams in fighting behind the front lines.

Of course, Mo did not know why, but he was no obedient little child.

After killing Yugito, the only people on the entire Hidden Cloud front worth putting effort into were Killer B and the future Fourth Raikage, A. Naturally, Mo could not avoid the front lines. Yet for some reason, Killer B and A remained extremely wary of him.

As long as Mo appeared near either of their battlefields, the dark-skinned brothers would swiftly retreat, never giving him a chance to strike!

Helplessly, although Mo had never stopped trying over the past half year, and even Minato Namikaze secretly tried to keep the two behind after seeing this, their determination to retreat was exceptionally firm. They simply would not give Mo an opportunity to attack.

Now, half a year had passed. Hidden Stone had declared war on Hidden Leaf. Although they were still in the probing stage, there were temporarily no opportunities to be found on the Hidden Cloud side. Jonin avoided Mo, while killing Chunin and Genin brought no gains. Thus, Mo took the initiative to apply to return to the village.

In truth, anyone who had normally fought on the front lines for more than three months needed to rotate back for relief, but they had to submit an application themselves. This was the first time Mo had submitted one.

The application was quickly approved, and Team 7 was also ordered to return together.

Thus, Mo set out on the road back to the village with his six teammates.

"We're finally going back! I feel like my body is going to fall apart if I don't rest for a while." Kurenai Yuhi stretched lazily, letting out a comfortable hum as she turned her gaze toward Mo.

"Huh? Isn't it because you haven't been able to drink?" Obito scratched his head and asked in confusion.

The instant those words fell, the air went silent for a moment. Then Kurenai Yuhi angrily turned her head and glared at Obito.

"Of course not! Obito, if you keep talking nonsense, I'll cut out your tongue!"

"Eek?!"

Obito shuddered and hurriedly hid behind Rin Nohara, muttering softly:

"Why are you so fierce... Wasn't I telling the truth?"

Kurenai Yuhi snorted and turned away, no longer paying him any attention.

Rin Nohara looked at Obito and gently comforted him: