Reverse Pill Refinement

The Sage Art Wood Release and Susanoo combined into the Thousand-Armed Guanyin, which struck with a thunderous blow.

The fight looked more like a demolition job.

Urashiki's golden glow was as fragile as glass beneath the enormous wooden palm that blotted out the sky. After a series of earth-shaking crashes, the force sent him flying until he vanished beyond the eastern horizon. The only trace he left behind was the fading sound of trees snapping and rocks shattering.

A few seconds later, a loud crash echoed from the distance.

Young Qianyu stood atop the wooden Buddha as it slowly lowered its arms. He leaned forward to peer at the smoke and vapor rising in the east, then raised an eyebrow. "Well, that was quite a commotion. From the sound of it... did he hit water? Don't tell me he made a hot spring. Tsk, looks like I've added a tourist attraction to the old hometown."

Beside him, Sasuke Uchiha's brows were knitted so tightly they could have crushed a fly. His Rinnegan remained fixed on the black-haired young man beside him, his eyes full of shock and suspicion: Who the hell is this? Where did he come from? Wood Release can do that?! This power and this technique were entirely beyond anything he knew.

Below, the boy Qianyu, whom Tsunade had shielded, felt his heart pounding. "Optimus Prime," "Gundam"... and Wood Release that shared his own origins, yet was so powerful it inspired despair.

Confirmed. Love you, me.

"It's not over," Sasuke warned coldly, his Rinnegan locked on the east. The chilling chakra of the Otsutsuki carried a hint of the madness of someone on the brink of death.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Young Qianyu dug a finger in his ear, looking annoyed. "These Otsutsuki are like cockroaches. They're ridiculously hard to kill, and they always try to make one last move before they die."

As soon as he finished speaking, the two of them vanished.

At the edge of the freshly made hot spring, Urashiki was submerged in the water, his clothes in tatters and his body covered in cracks. His golden Rinnegan had dimmed, but it still burned with one last flicker of malice. When he saw the newcomers, a strange "heh-heh" rasp rose from his throat.

"Pointless struggle." Young Qianyu pursed his lips. He couldn't even be bothered to form Hand Seals; he simply pointed with one hand.

With a sudden rustle, countless wooden tendrils burst from the bottom and sides of the crater, binding Urashiki like a dumpling. They even snuffed out the dangerous red glow that had just flared at his fingertips.

Urashiki's eyes brimmed with resentment and hatred. He stared hard in the direction of the boy Qianyu, his lips moving soundlessly.

At that very moment—

Urashiki's form suddenly blurred, as though he were about to dissolve into the air.

"Tsk. I knew it." Young Qianyu sighed as if he'd expected this all along. He spread his fingers and aimed them at the spot where Urashiki's fading form lingered.

An indescribable force of attraction erupted! It didn't feel like ninjutsu.

"Forbidden Technique: Reverse Pill Refinement."

He murmured the words. Urashiki's fading form abruptly froze, as if an invisible hand had forcibly plucked him out of a crack in space-time! For the first time, a look close to terror crossed his face. His body began to shudder and contract violently against his will.

The mark of the "Karma" that he had been about to place on the boy Qianyu warped and shifted in midair. As Urashiki's body shrank, it was forcibly condensed and compressed along with him.

"The stuff Orochimaru comes up with sure is useful," young Qianyu remarked casually.

As everyone watched in shock, the once-arrogant Urashiki Otsutsuki—along with his final curse and power—was forcibly compressed and refined.

After a few breaths, all that remained was a pill the size of a dragon's eye. It was dark red, with a faint shimmer of light turning within it.

Sasuke's Rinnegan widened. That works too?

Young Qianyu reached out, and the red pill drifted lightly into his palm. He held it up to the light, examined it, and gave a fairly satisfied nod.

He dispelled the wooden Buddha and Susanoo, then strolled back to the others. His gaze went straight to the boy Qianyu, who stood behind Tsunade, watching him with a complicated expression.

"Hey, you over there, kid." He crooked a finger, a hint of teasing in his voice. "Come here and eat this."

The boy Qianyu's mouth twitched. "..." Eat it? Eat this thing refined from Urashiki? Has my future self completely lost his standards?!

Tsunade instinctively moved the boy Qianyu farther behind her, her eyes full of caution. This young man was absurdly powerful, and his methods were bizarre. He had saved them all, but she knew nothing about his origins or intentions. Then her gaze passed over his chest and suddenly stopped.

A familiar dark cord peeked out from beneath his slightly open collar.

The one she had put around the boy Qianyu's neck herself!

Tsunade's pupils contracted. She looked at the necklace on the young man's chest, then abruptly lowered her head to look at the boy Qianyu's neck behind her.

Shock crashed over her like a wave. And when she thought of his Wood Release, which shared her grandfather's origins yet seemed even more profound, and the strange familiarity with which he treated the boy Qianyu...

One absurd, yet seemingly only plausible, explanation forced its way into her mind.

She opened her mouth. She looked at the young man's handsome face, so strikingly similar to Madara Uchiha's and yet so different, then at the reflection of her own younger face in his dark eyes... At last, she slowly lowered the hand she had used to shield the boy Qianyu. Her expression mingled shock, dawning understanding, and a complicated look that said, So that's how it is.

"You..." Tsunade's voice was a little hoarse.

Young Qianyu winked at her, the playful smile at the corner of his mouth deepening.

He didn't explain. He merely gave the red pill another little shake and looked at the boy Qianyu, who was clearly reluctant.

"What are you waiting for? It's a powerful tonic. It'll do you good. Don't worry, it's not poisonous. It might just taste a little strange."

The atmosphere turned strange. The boy Qianyu's reluctance was written all over his face.

Just as the boy Qianyu steeled himself, grimaced, and prepared to shove the pill into his mouth—

A sudden change occurred!

From the shadow of a broken wall behind them, battered by Wood Release, a black figure that had been lying in wait sprang out like a venomous snake. The target was clear, the movement swift as a ghost: the pill in the boy Qianyu's hand! The cold, murky chakra was familiar to every powerful shinobi present!

"Old geezer, had enough of watching the show? Now you want to swoop in and take the spoils?" Young Qianyu scoffed, seemingly unsurprised. He didn't even turn around. He simply opened his hand.

"Whoosh!"

A black rod of Yin-Yang Release appeared out of thin air and shot toward him.

"Thwack!"

It pierced the black figure cleanly through the shoulder and pinned him firmly to the ground! The force was so great that the figure grunted and couldn't move. The Kunai in his hand clattered to the ground.