-Shin'yawake no Mikoto!
One of Yu's Mangekyo ocular techniques, it could create a "training clone" with the same innate talent as his original body. The clone existed solely to train, had no independent consciousness, and drew none of the original body's power!
Once its training routine was set, the clone would practice tirelessly and feed its progress back to the original in "real time"!
Yu had agreed to compete with Sasuke in Shurikenjutsu three days later.
He treasured every moment and would never let training eat into his time for sleeping and playing, so he used Shin'yawake no Mikoto!
Shurikenjutsu was one of a ninja's fundamental skills. Simple as it looked, it took thousands upon thousands of repetitions to build muscle memory.
Sasuke had begun practicing Shurikenjutsu at a very young age, and Itachi had even coached him.
Even with Shin'yawake no Mikoto, surpassing Sasuke in three days would be difficult.
So he needed help from something else!
The "Book of the Gods" not only recorded all sorts of miraculous techniques, but also held some strange and curious things sealed within it.
One example was the unremarkable little house that stood in this mental world.
Although the Hyuga Clan had stopped keeping Yu under surveillance long ago, there were eyes everywhere, and he inevitably risked exposing himself in everyday life.
Yu had realized that he often needed an absolutely secret place where no one could discover him, but he had never found one.
Not until the previous year, when he had seen the "Book of the Gods" in his mental world through his own power.
A certain seal had also come undone at the same time. That was where the little house had come from.
It was the "Heavenly Stone House," similar to the "Hyperbolic Time Chamber" in Dragon Ball. Of course, its time dilation was not nearly that extreme. Time passed ten times faster inside the Heavenly Stone House than outside, so one day of training within equaled ten days' work.
Three days of training, then, would equal thirty days-a whole month!
"Hehe~ Sasuke, I'm not going to cheat. I'll take you on with just a month's practice!"
Yu was about to take his Shin'yawake no Mikoto clone, which looked exactly like him, into the Heavenly Stone House to train.
But just before entering, something suddenly occurred to him.
"Oh, right. Strictly speaking, this is my mental world. I can't bring shuriken in here, so what should I do...?"
Yu gazed pleadingly at the "Book of the Gods."
The "Book of the Gods" gave no response for a long while.
Clasping his hands before his chest, Yu said pitifully, "Boo-hoo, I want to get stronger through my own hard work, but you can't cook without ingredients. If only there were a way to make an endless supply of shuriken..."
Hum!
The "Book of the Gods" responded. A beam of red light shot out and knocked Yu flying!
Tumble~ tumble~ tumble~!
After rolling quite a distance, Yu climbed to his feet.
A red ring of light floated before him!
"Th-this is...?"
Yu reached out with his little hand. The instant he touched the ring, information flooded his mind!
-Armament: Pawēi God!
It could use chakra to create all kinds of weapons!
Yu was dazed. "Oh~~~! Isn't this that ring behind Kinshiki's big, fat head~~?"
With a thought, a red-light shuriken appeared in his hand. He hefted it and found its weight and feel identical to a standard ninja shuriken, but its power... was on an entirely different level!
"Hehe, now I won't have to worry about running out of shuriken. The Shin'yawake no Mikoto clone has unlimited chakra while training anyway, so it can make as many as it wants!"
Hum! The Pawēi God floated behind Yu's head and became his.
The "Pawēi God" also appeared behind the head of the "Shin'yawake no Mikoto clone," which was synchronized with his original body!
When he entered the Heavenly Stone House, two other clones were already training there. One was striking a training post to the east, while the other sat meditating to the west.
Yes, Yu had awakened his Mangekyo half a year earlier. This was not his first time using Shin'yawake no Mikoto.
Convenient as the technique was, it had one fatal flaw: once a training clone's routine was set, he could not dismiss it at will. It would only disappear once it had trained a skill to the point where no further improvement was possible!
Yu had not known that at first. His first clone, assigned to practice striking a training post, had been at it for five whole years inside the Heavenly Stone House and still had not stopped!
Fortunately, the number of Shin'yawake no Mikoto clones he could create increased as his power grew.
About three months earlier, Yu had become able to use a second clone-the one quietly meditating.
This time, Yu had been much more careful.
That clone was practicing a divine technique called "Diamond Body"!
Unlike the earlier techniques, which Yu could easily learn with a little effort, even he needed to practice this "Diamond Body" over a long period!
Because it was considered a core ability even among the Ōtsutsuki!
Any kids who had watched "the movie" or "Boruto: Naruto Next Generations" knew that after Momoshiki swallowed Kinshiki, his body became diamond-hard, allowing him to take Sasuke's Kusanagi Sword head-on!
That was actually a manifestation of the Diamond Body, but only a very rudimentary one!
The Diamond Body could be cultivated, granting unparalleled strength while making the body indestructible!
This art had ten levels of mastery. Each level multiplied the strength of the previous one, and the difficulty of training multiplied as well. It was said that even with an Ōtsutsuki's lifespan, reaching the tenth level within their lifetime was all but impossible!
Yu was working toward the first level of the "Diamond Body"!
Once he mastered the first level, he would gain an additional thousand jin of monstrous strength, along with a body that ordinary weapons could not harm!
That clone had already been practicing for three years.
"Hmm... at this rate, the first level should be done in another month or so."
He led the third clone to the south, where numerous targets had been set up specifically for practicing throwing techniques.
"Go, Shin'yawake no Mikoto..."
Hum!
Once its routine was set, the third clone began practicing Shurikenjutsu.
"Mm, all three clones are occupied now. Until I awaken a fourth Shin'yawake no Mikoto clone, I'll have to do everything myself..."
"Aaah, being an Ōtsutsuki isn't easy either. What am I supposed to do when I don't want to work hard anymore?"
"I want to laze around, but I'm not strong enough to afford it..."
"Let's do this. I'll set a little goal: become number one in the shinobi world first, then become a top-quality Ōtsutsuki."
"A peaceful life doesn't just fall into your lap. You have to fight for a quiet, happy life yourself."
"Sleepy time, sleepy time..."
Whoosh! Yu's thought-form vanished from his mental world as he truly drifted into dreams.
On a night so dark that one could not see a hand held before one's face, at the northwestern frontier of the shinobi world!
A group of uninvited guests arrived deep within an abandoned burial ground!
His subordinate, Kabuto Yakushi, said, "Lord Orochimaru, there it is. The container giving off that unknown chakra signature!"
As Orochimaru gazed at the mysterious, ancient coffin, intellect and madness swirled in his slit-pupiled eyes. His voice sounded especially husky and alluring in the wind. "Heh heh, I have a feeling that a whole new truth is beckoning to us~!"
Kabuto Yakushi asked, "How should we deal with the villagers who discovered this coffin?"
Orochimaru said, "Do you even need to ask? No one can be allowed to know this thing exists. Especially the Akatsuki, and especially 'that man'..."
Kabuto Yakushi's gaze darkened. "Understood!"
He signaled with his eyes to those behind him!
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The Sound Five vanished from the spot!
Not long afterward... the village that had discovered this coffin met with utter destruction!
Yes, this coffin was the very container in which Yu, that young Ōtsutsuki, had slept for fifteen hundred years. It was too heavy for him to take away after waking, so he had simply buried it deep underground.
But he had never expected a group of grave robbers to discover the coffin by noticing traces of disturbed earth. Then... word had reached Orochimaru, who was still in the "Akatsuki"!
Around this coffin, the seeds were thus sown for upheaval in the shinobi world and Konoha!
Before you continue