Chapter 153: S-Rank Precautions for an Unfriendly Era
Kimimaro walked back toward the cult's hideout at an unhurried pace, steam curling around his legs as his thoughts continued to sort themselves out.
His Yang Seal was filling steadily with each passing day. That alone was reassuring.
The obscene amount of chakra he had burned in Konoha had already been fully replenished.
More than replenished. The seal was doing exactly what it was always meant to do.
His sensory range had expanded as well.
At this point, he could feel across the entirety of the Land of Hot Water and brush the edges of neighboring countries beyond it.
Not in fine detail, not down to individual signatures, but the sheer breadth of it was undeniable.
That kind of range was Tobirama-tier.
At least in terms of distance covered.
As for precision, the Uzumaki had always been unmatched there.
But Kimimaro had been taught directly by Ashina himself, the secret principles behind Kagura's Mind Eye etched into him through years of practice and correction.
And then there was the seal.
Hidden beneath his hair, etched along his upper back, buried so deeply it would never be found unless he wanted it to be.
Yin Release: Soul Bastion.
Not flashy. Not impressive to look at. But brutally effective.
It used pre-sealed Yin Release to circulate around the brain constantly, forming a passive defensive lattice against genjutsu.
But that was only the beginning stage.
More than that, it expelled hostile Yin-based interference outward before it could properly take hold.
And if an enemy's genjutsu still made contact?
The residual Yin energy didn't just dissipate.
It was sealed.
Fed back into the technique itself, strengthening the Bastion further.
S-rank, without question.
Kimimaro had no intention of carrying weaknesses.
Especially not in a world that was so filled with Mangekyō Sharingan users, perhaps more than at any other point in history.
That technique, like many others, wasn't born of talent alone.
Ashina's influence was all over it.
At least half the credit belonged to him, if not more.
As for the techniques he had acquired back in Konoha, progress there had been smooth.
Shadow Clones had taken him only a few months to fully internalize. Unsurprising.
That jutsu was also too useful and too universal to keep to himself, so he passed it on to all four girls as well.
Each of them mastered it in time, adapting it to their own styles and limits.
Edo Tensei interested him, though not as a weapon right away.
Its connection to the Pure Land made it impossible to ignore.
He studied it carefully, alongside the Spirit Transformation Technique, further mapping the proper weaponization of souls.
Dan Katō himself was never particularly impressive.
Not weak by ordinary standards, but fundamentally limited.
His signature technique was built on trust, on comrades guarding his body while his soul wandered exposed, untethered, vulnerable.
A shinobi placing his life in other people's hands, betting everything on coordination, loyalty, and timing.
It was no surprise to Kimimaro how that story ended.
That kind of technique only made sense for someone who believed in the collective, in bonds strong enough to substitute for personal power.
Dan died because the world does not reward that belief. His body was unguarded for a moment, his soul displaced, and that was enough.
Kimimaro had no intention of emulating it.
Letting his core self drift free like that was inefficient, reckless, and beneath him.
But the principles behind it?
Those were interesting.
Dan Katō had proven one crucial thing: the soul could be externalized deliberately, not just sealed, summoned, or trapped, but projected.
Detached from the body without immediate collapse. Sustained by the chakra alone.
Kimimaro's interest wasn't in abandoning his body.
It was in refinement.
Why externalize the whole soul, when fragments would suffice?
Why risk the core, when aspects could be split, shaped, anchored, or layered elsewhere? Imprints. Autonomous shards.
Partial projections bound by Yin–Yang structure rather than faith in allies.
Dan's technique was crude, suicidal, and obsolete.
But as a proof of concept?
It was valuable.
And like most things born from weakness, it simply needed to be stripped down, inverted, and rebuilt into something that served strength instead.
Flying Raijin, on the other hand…
He had tried.
And then stopped.
For whatever reason, spatial intuition simply wasn't his strength.
Not every path was meant for him.
He left that one to Reika.
Unexpectedly, she had shown real talent there.
A natural sense for spatial anchors and transitions.
Combined with her long education in fūinjutsu and jutsu-shiki logic under Ashina, she grasped symbolic structures instinctively.
If she kept progressing at this pace, she might genuinely become a second Minato within a few years.
Kimimaro smirked faintly at the thought of Konoha's faces when that realization eventually hit them.
Slug Sage Mode remained an open question.
He hadn't abandoned it. Just postponed it.
First, his body needed to be pushed further.
Hashirama cell integration had to be completed properly.
His Sage Body needed reinforcement.
The Tenseigan had to be mastered, not merely accessed.
Only then would it be worth pursuing as the logical step.
And the timing would be perfect.
Right as the original plot began to move in earnest.
As Konoha's problems deepened.
As Tsunade's troubles fully surfaced.
That would be the moment to appear.
With solutions.
With leverage.
With offers that they couldn't refuse.
Another thread weighed on his mind as well.
Ashina's revival.
Only after Kimimaro finally committed to it in full, setting dozens of shadow clones to work day and night, did he truly grasp how absurdly difficult the problem was.
What remained of Ashina inside the pendant was not even a complete soul anymore.
It was a tethered imprint, a stabilized echo.
Before anything else, it had to be reconstructed into something that could be called a soul again.
Then came the vessel.
Guruguru was ideal in theory. Receptive. Malleable. Designed to be shaped.
And yet theory didn't make acceptance guaranteed.
Ashina's essence would have to be accepted, not forced, then allowed to overwrite and settle naturally, without rejection, without collapse.
None of it was simple.
Ashina himself was no less consumed by the problem, devoting nearly all his attention to devising solutions. After all, no one had more incentive to solve it than the man whose existence depended on it.
Kimimaro's own experience helped. His understanding of souls, born from transmigration, gave him angles no one else could have seen. Guruguru's strange nature helped. Some of Edo Tensei's unique insights helped. Ashina's fuinjutsu mastery helped.
Individually, each piece was powerful.
Together, they were still a nightmare to align.
It would take time.
Kimimaro accepted that calmly as he moved deeper into the hideout, already shifting his focus toward his next task.
He was due to meet Saya and go over the cult's daily operations.
As he walked, a stray thought surfaced, uninvited.
Naruto and Sasuke.
Destiny's chosen.
He almost laughed.
What were they doing now, he wondered. Training, probably. Struggling. Scraping their way upward. Not even Kage level yet.
The gap between them and him was… generous.
Still, he remembered how that worked.
Their growth wouldn't be linear.
Once the plot truly caught up to them, they'd accelerate fast, dragged forward by destiny whether they liked it or not.
He felt a faint, almost childish disappointment that he hadn't gotten a proper look at them during Konoha's invasion a year ago.
Ah well.
There would be opportunities.
Plenty of them.
Then another memory surfaced, and this time he actually smirked.
Gaara should be Kazekage by now.
That alone was hilarious.
Not because Gaara was weak in the end.
But the sheer audacity of Sunagakure.
Hating him one moment.
Fearing him the next.
Then turning around and begging him to become their leader despite his age.
Shinobi villages really were something else.
Kimimaro shook his head lightly, amusement lingering, and continued on.
There was work to do.