Let's Learn Immortality Together

The eight-headed serpent was merely the superficial manifestation of the Eight-Headed Technique; the principles underpinning this jutsu were what truly fascinated Kisame.

Human beings were, after all, frail creatures, exceptionally vulnerable in their vitality.

This was doubly true for the shinobi community.

No matter how formidable a ninja might be, even should they possess the power to shatter mountains and rend the earth, they would still perish if a lowly kunai slit their throat.

Even someone as mighty as Madara of the Six Paths could not withstand an unpretentious, straightforward heart-plucking strike, falling easily to a stealth assassination by Black Zetsu.

Therefore, certain shinobi who recognized this flaw had bravely embarked upon an "inhuman" path.

Take, for instance, Sasori of the Hidden Sand, who discarded all his fragile organs, leaving only a single heart, replacing his physical body with a mechanical puppet and thereby achieving immortality.

Or Kakuzu, who used the forbidden technique Earth Grudge Fear to usurp the hearts of others, turning himself into a stitched-together monstrosity and thereby attaining eternal life.

Then there was someone like Hidan, who took an eccentric route, gaining power through the worship of an evil god to become impervious to death.

Now, Kisame had also set foot upon this path.

Yet for him, whether it meant sealing oneself inside an iron shell, plundering the hearts of others, or relying on the charity of a malevolent deity, none of these constituted the art of eternal life he desired.

None of these methods possessed sufficient "freedom."

In contrast, Orochimaru's philosophy resonated deeply with Kisame's own.

At this thought, Kisame produced a brush and a sheet of blank paper, beginning to conceptualize: if he were to cease being human and borrow the principles of the Eight-Headed Technique to evolve into a novel creature, what would the ideal form look like?

Apart from humans, the creature Kisame was most familiar with was undoubtedly the shark; possessing fish gills and a shark's tail himself, continuing his evolution in this direction was the safest bet.

Since Orochimaru could transform into an eight-headed serpent, Kisame could likewise transform into a colossal shark hundreds or even thousands of meters in length, roaming freely through the boundless ocean.

Alternatively, should he choose a radical evolutionary path, he could transform himself into a massive ball of flesh covered in hundreds or thousands of tentacles, with each tentacle serving to wield a different ability.

In his mind, this was the ultimate form of the perfect organism.

*Swish, swish, swish.*

The brush moved across the paper in Kisame's hand, and soon he had sketched rough drafts of both the giant shark and the tentacled flesh-monster.

Regardless of which route he ultimately chose, as long as he successfully completed his evolution, he would carve out a path entirely his own.

The following days.

From dawn till dusk, Kisame immersed himself in his study, dedicating his time to researching the Eight-Headed Technique and gaining a preliminary understanding of the art. However, actually beginning to practice it would be a protracted process—taking anywhere from several years to over a decade to stand any chance of success.

Therefore, Kisame was in no rush, occasionally taking time to relax and play joyful games with the Yuki-onna.

Time flew like a shuttle, the months and years passing swiftly.

Inside the room, Tsunade slowly opened her eyes, rousing from a prolonged slumber.

"Lady Tsunade, you're finally awake." Shizune hurried to the bedside, her face a picture of delighted surprise.

"How long have I been asleep?"

Tsunade asked as she massaged her temples and got out of bed.

"Today marks exactly one week. Lady Tsunade, how do you feel right now?" Shizune asked curiously, sensing that Tsunade had changed somewhat from before.

"A full week, is it? No wonder I feel so stiff all over. Let's go outside and stretch a bit."

Tsunade twisted her neck, cracking her knuckles with sharp pops.

Just at that moment.

"Shizune, do you hear a strange noise?" Tsunade asked abruptly, her brow furrowing as she perked up her ears.

She seemed to hear sounds coming from the adjacent room—the Yuki-onna and Kisame—though those noises sounded somewhat peculiar.

"Ahem..." Shizune merely lowered her head and coughed, her face burning red. Clearly, during Tsunade's coma, this was not the first time she had heard such sounds.

Tsunade quickly caught on as well. Hmphing coldly toward the neighboring room, she pushed open the door and stepped out.

The two of them left the small courtyard, heading toward the outskirts of the Hidden Mist Village.

Yugao appeared soundlessly, glanced at the retreating backs of Tsunade and Shizune, and then strode quickly over to Kisame's doorway.

She hesitated for a moment. Once the noises inside had subsided, just as she raised her hand to knock, she heard a soft creak.

Kisame pushed open the door himself, stepping out with a refreshed expression, and said to Yugao, "I already know Tsunade is awake. I was just about to go find her to play."

The words had barely left his lips when his figure flickered and vanished on the spot.

Outside the Hidden Mist Village, in a vast, open clearing.

Tsunade had no intention of fleeing; rather, as she had stated, she simply wanted to stretch her muscles.

"Shizune, step back a bit."

She instructed Shizune. Once the latter had retreated to the side, Tsunade raised both hands, formed hand seals with a serious expression, and slammed her palm down onto the ground.

*Rumble...*

Amidst violent tremors, a row of thick wooden pillars erupted from beneath the earth, each exceeding a meter in diameter and reaching ten meters in length, forming a massive wooden wall.

"So this is Wood Release..." Tsunade murmured, gazing up at the magnificent timber barrier.

Clearly, her Hashirama cell transplantation surgery had been an overwhelming success.

Yet in truth, during those seven days of unconsciousness, Tsunade's gains extended far beyond this.

"Hah!"

With a crisp shout, a powerful surge of purple aura suddenly erupted around her whole body, and she smashed a fist down onto the earth.

Thousand Hands: Enhanced Strength.

*Boom!*

Under Tsunade's punch, the ground within a radius of dozens of meters shuddered heavily, as if struck by an earthquake.

The next second, centered on her fist, a web of spider-crack fissures spread in all directions, causing the entire clearing to sink by several centimeters.

"Lady Tsunade's strength is two or three times greater than before."

Seeing this, Shizune dropped her jaw in astonishment. In her perception, since waking up, the volume of chakra within Tsunade had vastly increased, reaching a truly staggering level.

Tsunade stood up, looking at her own fist with a sense of disbelief, seemingly frightened by her own power.

Following that, she produced a kunai and, under Shizune's puzzled gaze, slashed across her own fair arm.

A wound several centimeters long appeared, blood welling out immediately.

However, Tsunade made no move to treat the injury, for no action on her part was required. Merely seconds later, a puff of white smoke rose from the cut, and it healed automatically.

An injury healed entirely on its own without the need for hand seals.

Such a constitution was something Tsunade had only ever witnessed in her grandfather, Senju Hashirama.

In fact, as far as Tsunade knew, among the numerous geniuses born throughout the thousand-year history of the Senju clan, those who possessed this monstrous physique were exceedingly rare, numbering only a handful.

In her youth, she had heard her grandfather say that the reason he was so powerful was due to genetic reversion, having inherited the strength of their primordial ancestors.

Had that miracle now repeated itself within her own body?

Just as Tsunade fell into deep thought, Kisame and a masked Yugao approached from a distance.

*Clap, clap, clap.*

Clapping his hands, Kisame said to Tsunade, "Congratulations, congratulations. It seems everything went smoothly."

The words had barely settled when he suddenly kicked off the ground, launching himself toward Tsunade like a cannonball fired from a barrel.

*Oh?*

Tsunade's gaze sharpened. She kicked off the earth in turn and threw a punch without a single moment of hesitation, kicking up a powerful gale with an irresistible momentum.

*Bang!*

Their fists collided heavily with a dull thud.

In an instant, centered upon the two of them, a shockwave rippled outward, forming a violent gale that forced both Shizune and Yugao to stagger backward more than a dozen paces, unable to keep their footing.

The ground beneath their feet could not bear the force, fracturing into countless splits.

The opening exchange ended in a deadlock.

*Swish.*

Tsunade and Kisame leaped backward simultaneously, and simultaneously began forming hand seals—even matching the exact sequence of mudras—before slamming their palms down onto the ground together.

Wood Release: Nativity of a Sea of Trees.

Both of them deployed this jutsu without prior consultation.

*Rumble...*

Nourished by their chakra, the trees slumbering deep beneath the earth burst forth from the soil, growing at a frantic pace and rapidly forming a lush forest.

The trees within this woods were controlled respectively by Kisame and Tsunade, causing them to rapidly entwine, thrashing about like a horde of dancing demons.

*Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.*

Under their manipulation, a multitude of trees attacked one another, repeatedly snapping in half only to regenerate the very next instant, sinking into an increasingly fierce entanglement.

This was a battle between Wood Release users.

"Hah!"

Unwilling to lose, Tsunade let out another sharp cry, pouring even more chakra into the ground. The trees under her control surged frantically, finally succeeding in suppressing Kisame's Wood Release.

Before long, Tsunade seized complete control of the wooden forest.

"Hmph."

She emitted a soft hum, a cold smile crossing her lips as she spotted Kisame surrounded by timber.

Tsunade intended to give him a taste of his own medicine.

Whereas Kisame had previously bound her into the shape of the character "Da" (大) with Wood Release, she now planned to bind Kisame into the shape of the character "Tai" (太) and hang him from the trees here for a day and a night.

To vent the hatred festering in her heart.

Alas, Tsunade's wish was destined to go unfulfilled.

Faced with the trees surging madly from all directions, Kisame unhurriedly reached behind his back and drew out his spine, which had transformed into the Sword of Nunoboko.

With the bone blade in hand, a thought crossed his mind, and the weapon extended forward with a *swish*, instantly lengthening by over forty meters. The chilling tip of the blade thrust straight toward Tsunade's face.

Tsunade was startled, dodging to the side to evade the strike.

"Hehe."

Kisame chuckled, gripping the forty-meter-long lethal blade with both hands and spinning his entire body three hundred and sixty degrees in place, executing a sweeping strike that could clear an entire army.

*Thwack, thwack, thwack, thwack.*

As Kisame's spinning body drove the bone sword through the air, it met zero resistance along its path, slicing the vast majority of the forest's trees cleanly in half at the waist with effortless ease.

The sharpness of the Sword of Nunoboko could cut through iron like mud; ordinary trees were of course no exception.

*How is this possible?*

Tsunade stared in dumbfounded shock as the Nativity of a Sea of Trees was dismantled by Kisame, failing to recover her senses for a moment.

Kisame seized the opportunity to launch a counterattack.

He willed it once more, and the bone blade rapidly shrank back down to its original length of just over a meter. Following that, Kisame hurled the blade like a spear, shooting toward Tsunade like an arrow released from a taut bow string.

Blade of the Void.

Remotely manipulated by Kisame's will, this bone sword was as agile as a serpent, darting up, down, left, and right through the air, launching assaults on Tsunade from every conceivable angle.

Tsunade's expression shifted; acutely aware of the blade's lethal edge, she had no choice but to temporarily yield the initiative and dodge continuously.

Amidst this flurry, she still exposed an opening. Kisame seized the chance, using the bone blade to slice through the fabric of her trousers at the thigh, leaving a long scratch across her skin.

Tsunade drew in a sharp breath. Amidst the intense, searing pain, she dropped to one knee upon the ground.

*Whoosh.*

Seeing this, Kisame extended a hand forward, whereupon the bone blade ceased its attack on Tsunade, automatically flying back to merge once more into his body.

"Even after transplanting Hashirama's cells, this is the extent of your strength?"

He walked up to Tsunade, looking down at her from his usual elevated vantage point, and delivered a merciless taunt.
"It's not over yet, you bastard."

Tsunade ground her teeth as she spoke. The terrifying wound on her thigh had already closed up on its own, leaving behind not even a trace of a scar.

The next second, she leaped up from the ground, launching a ferocious uppercut straight at Kisame's jaw.

Yet Kisame had long since prepared for this.

He stepped back a pace and thrust his right hand toward Tsunade. In an instant, his right hand was coated in a layer of bark, transforming into a massive hand over a meter in diameter that snatched Tsunade out of the air in a tight grip.

"You still wish to resist me. Tsunade, I told you—in the eyes of Hoshigaki Kisame, you are nothing more than a humanoid doll."

Kisame smiled coldly, his massive hand tightening its grip. The pressure immediately forced a muffled grunt from Tsunade, cold sweat beading on her skin.

He had merely acted on a whim earlier, wishing to see whether Tsunade's strength had improved while testing out his two newly acquired abilities.

"You bastard... let me go!"

Unable to move a muscle across her entire body, Tsunade was left with only her mouth to stubbornly glare at Kisame and hurl curses.

In truth, however, her heart was filled with profound shock.

The methods Kisame had employed just now were ones she had never witnessed before. It was hard to imagine just how many abilities this fellow kept hidden; he was quite simply the most unfathomable ninja she had ever encountered.

"Very well, playtime is over. It's time to discuss serious matters."

With a stern expression, Kisame relaxed his grip, releasing Tsunade and letting her drop to the ground.

Tsunade fell heavily to the earth, aching and drained of strength, unable to stand up immediately. She was forced to sit in a duck-sit posture, head bowed as she panted for breath.

Seeing this, Kisame simply crossed his legs and sat down directly opposite her, speaking with utmost seriousness beneath Tsunade's infuriated, murderous glare:

"I have a proposal. Let's go to the Shikkotsu Forest together to find Lord Slug and learn senjutsu from her, shall we?"

Kisame was a man with a profound sense of crisis, constantly feeling day and night that someone was plotting to kill him.

Admittedly, he now stood at the pinnacle of the ninja world, hailed as the new demigod, but looking across the entire shinobi world, there were still no small number of enemies capable of posing a threat to him.

For instance, the sages of the Three Great Sage Regions, Jiraiya the Sage, Nagato with his Rinnegan, and Namikaze Minato, who had mastered a technique like the Dead Demon Consuming Seal.

Should he lower his guard even slightly, any of these individuals might manage to kill him.

Whether one was a Demigod of the Ninja World or the God of Shinobi, death came for them all—yet Kisame had no desire to die.

Therefore, by hook or by crook, he had to master senjutsu, for senjutsu alone could trigger another explosive growth in his strength within a short span of time.

Kisame's objective was to use the arts of the Shikkotsu Forest to become the second God of Shinobi.

When that day arrived, he would become a second Senju Hashirama—or perhaps even surpass him!