Seizing the Tailed Beast's Origin, Sosuke's God-Making Plan Takes Shape

The raging winds seemed to come to a standstill at that moment.

The earthen-yellow sphere of light was as large as a millstone, its surface churning violently with dense sandstorms and frenzied Wind Release chakra. This was the core origin Shukaku had condensed over decades, the true embodiment of a tailed beast's power.

"Ahhh—! Human! You dare steal this lord's origin! That old man of the Six Paths won't let you get away with this!"

Shukaku's once mountain-sized body now resembled a deflated sack, shrinking rapidly at a visible rate. For the first time, its enormous bloodshot eyes were filled with pure terror. Losing this origin would not kill it completely, but gathering chakra on this scale again would require at least decades of slumber.

"Too noisy."

Sosuke lowered his eyelids slightly, and the five fingers of his right hand pressed against Shukaku's forehead suddenly clenched inward.

The black Yin-Yang Release rune in his palm erupted with terrifying devouring force, transforming into countless black chakra chains that forcibly pierced the earthen-yellow sphere and violently tore it completely out of Shukaku's body!

Bang!

With a muffled burst of air, Shukaku, stripped of its origin, let out an exceptionally weak cry. Its massive body of sand instantly collapsed, turning into lifeless yellow grains that crashed like a waterfall into the mud at the bottom of the canyon.

Only a tiny tanuki, no more than half a meter long and covered in dull fur, remained in midair before weakly falling into a pile of sand. It no longer even had the strength to open its eyes. Hidden Sand Village's ultimate weapon was now inferior even to an ordinary summoning beast.

Sosuke did not spare the useless tanuki another glance. Standing steadily atop the Wood Dragon's head, he held up the violently struggling earthen-yellow sphere with one hand.

The origin was filled with Shukaku's hatred and brutality toward humanity. Ordinary shinobi could not possibly absorb it; merely approaching it would twist their minds into madness under the influence of that evil chakra.

But in Sosuke's eyes, it was merely an unpolished piece of rough ore.

"System, erase the tailed beast's will and purify it." Sosuke issued the cold command in his mind.

Bzzzt—!

The emerald-green Yang Release chakra of his perfected Sage Body, mixed with the domineering rules granted by the system, instantly enveloped the earthen-yellow sphere.

An extremely faint yet piercing shriek, like the sound of a soul being crushed, came from within the sphere. In only a few seconds, the murky sandstorms and savage red glow on its surface were peeled away layer by layer and evaporated, becoming wisps of black smoke that dissipated into the air.

In the end, what remained in Sosuke's palm was no longer that frenzied tailed beast origin, but a fist-sized chakra crystal of pure amber, radiating an incomparably gentle yet abyssal and immense energy!

Sosuke lightly rubbed the crystal with his slender fingers, sensing the utterly pure Wind and Earth chakra within it. A satisfied curve lifted at the corner of his mouth.

"The quality is barely acceptable."

He casually tossed the crystal up and down as though playing with an ordinary trinket.

"The little one in Mikoto's belly is a miracle born with the dual bloodlines of the Senju clan and Uchiha clan. How could ordinary resources possibly be worthy of my eldest son? This purified One-Tail origin will serve as the 'power bank' his father prepared in advance."

The eyes beneath Sosuke's brow gleamed with the ambition of a tyrant.

From the moment he awakened the system, his goal had never been the laughable position of Hokage. What he wanted was to create a Senju divine clan that stood above every shinobi village, and even above the entire shinobi world!

This tailed beast crystal was merely the beginning of his "God-Making Plan." In the future, he would drain the origins of all nine tailed beasts dry, and even drag down the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path within the moon to serve as nourishment for cleansing and strengthening his descendants' bodies!

At the edge of the canyon.

Uchiha Fugaku had personally witnessed the entire process of Sosuke draining One-Tail Shukaku and forming a chakra crystal with his bare hands.

The current head of the Uchiha clan felt his knees go weak and collapsed to his knees in the mud. His three-tomoe Sharingan trembled wildly, and his mind had lost the ability to think.

Treating a tailed beast like prey to be skinned and gutted, even casually toying with chakra that terrified great nations...

This was no longer within the realm of humanity.

Fugaku finally understood how utterly foolish he had been to try using the Uchiha clan's pride to provoke Sosuke. Before that godlike, tyrannical Wood Release, the Uchiha clan's Sharingan was nothing more than a child's toy.

"Senju Sosuke... Hidden Leaf... No, the skies of the entire shinobi world are about to change..." Fugaku murmured, his voice containing nothing but profound awe and submission.

At the same time, atop a concealed rise several kilometers from the heart of the battlefield.

The wind and sand gradually settled, and sunlight once again spilled over the craggy canyon walls.

An elderly woman clad in Hidden Sand's traditional robes lay prone within a rocky crevice. Her cloudy eyes were wide open, while the muscles around them twitched madly from extreme terror.

Hidden Sand Village's highest-ranking commander on the front lines, Chiyo.

Her original plan had been to unleash Shukaku and create chaos, burying Hidden Leaf's reinforcements along with that surviving Senju rumored to possess Wood Release. When Shukaku went berserk, she had even secretly hidden behind a distant sand dune, prepared to use puppetry to deliver a fatal blow to the surviving Hidden Leaf shinobi.

But what had she seen?

The supposedly terminally ill Senju Sosuke had not only survived, but summoned a terrifying Wood Dragon and pummeled Shukaku into the ground! Even more terrifying, he had used an unheard-of method to directly drain Shukaku's origin!

Cold sweat ran down Chiyo's wrinkled cheeks, falling onto the scorching rocks and instantly evaporating.

"Impossible... This is absolutely impossible..."

Chiyo's withered hands gripped the rock's edge tightly. Her nails split from the excessive force, seeping threads of blood.

"Shukaku's origin has been taken... That is the foundation that allows Hidden Sand Village to establish itself in the Land of Wind and deter the other four great nations!"

Despair coiled tightly around Chiyo's heart like a venomous snake.

Without Shukaku's deterrence, resource-poor Hidden Sand Village would inevitably become meat on the chopping block for the other great nations. Hidden Leaf, Hidden Stone, Hidden Cloud... Those greedy wolves would surely seize this chance to tear Hidden Sand Village to pieces!

"I cannot let this happen! I absolutely cannot let that Senju brat leave alive with Shukaku's origin!"

After a brief moment of shock and despair, Chiyo's gaze swiftly transformed into desperate madness and resolve.

She abruptly rose to her feet and tore off the sand-colored cloak used for camouflage, revealing her shriveled body wrapped in bandages beneath.

As Hidden Sand Village's greatest puppet master, she knew perfectly well that against a monster capable of beating a tailed beast like a pet, conventional puppetry and poisons were utterly meaningless.

To reclaim the origin and preserve Hidden Sand's future, she could only use that thing. The creation left behind by the First Puppet Master, something even she could not fully control and which might even devour her in return!

Chiyo reached into her robes and solemnly drew out a dark-red scroll wrapped in layer upon layer of seals.

On its surface, an enormous character for "White" was written in ancient Hidden Sand script.

Without hesitation, she put her thumb into her mouth and bit down hard. Bright red blood flowed down from her fingertip.

"Senju Sosuke... Even if you truly are Senju Hashirama reincarnated, this old woman will drag you down to hell with me today!"

Chiyo let out a shrill roar and slammed her blood-soaked palm against the dark-red scroll.

White Secret Technique!

Following Chiyo's furious shout, the sealing formula on the scroll instantly lit up with blinding white light. Ten streams of exceedingly cold and powerful chakra, carrying the weight of ancient history, shot forth like ten unsheathed blades and instantly locked onto Sosuke standing atop the Wood Dragon in the distance.