The heaven-and-earth disturbance caused by the Mini Ten-Tails came swiftly and left just as quickly—after all, its body was still too small.
After experiencing a second "shell-breaking," the Mini Ten-Tails had grown significantly. When it first emerged, it was the same size as a person.
This time, it looked roughly the size of the Hokage Building in Konoha.
It was comparable in scale to the larger monsters spawned from the original Ten-Tails in the source material.
Furthermore, the Mini Ten-Tails' appearance had also changed. At first glance, it didn't look much different from the original Ten-Tails, but upon closer inspection, its form appeared far more "gentle" than the one depicted in the original series.
Its chakra amount had also increased greatly compared to earlier.
When it first broke its shell, its chakra wasn't even at tailed beast level—not even as much as Uchiha Yuan currently had.
Now, however, the Mini Ten-Tails' chakra had grown considerably, about equal to the level of the newborn tailed beast inside Naruto—that is, the Seven-Tails' chakra level.
Just as Uchiha Yuan was pondering how to communicate with the Mini Ten-Tails, it spoke first: "Are you my creator?"
The voice of the Mini Ten-Tails was clearly that of a young girl, evidently due to the soul copy of Uzumaki Mito, although the voice didn't resemble Mito's at all—sounding more like a 7- or 8-year-old girl.
"That's right. I'm your creator," Uchiha Yuan replied.
"I see! Then there's no problem!" said the Mini Ten-Tails as it dove directly into Uchiha Yuan's body.
This was a preset that Uchiha Yuan had embedded when modifying the soul—the Mini Ten-Tails was created specifically so that its creator would become the perfect Ten-Tails Jinchuriki.
As the Mini Ten-Tails entered him, Uchiha Yuan's chakra, physical constitution, and vitality surged drastically. Reflected in his status panel, his level shot up by 10 ranks, from 63 to 73.
Chakra: 2100
Constitution: 500
Ocular Power: 1795
Vitality: 1000
Nature Affinity: 4
Level: Lv73 (106/200)
Attribute Points: 0
At that moment, Uchiha Yuan could clearly feel that he had become an entirely different being from before.
Moreover, with the Mini Ten-Tails' power, Uchiha Yuan realized he was gradually gaining control over the power of the Kekkei Mora.
Take Ice Release, for instance. Previously, Uchiha Yuan had acquired Ice Release ninjutsu from Qing.
Unfortunately, though he possessed both Water and Wind elements, he'd been unable to combine them into Ice Release.
Now, Uchiha Yuan had a strong sense that he could finally perform Ice Release ninjutsu.
Following that intuition, he formed hand seals, and a row of ice mirrors suddenly appeared around him.
With a single thought, an ice wall materialized out of thin air.
"This is Kekkei Mora, right?" Hyuga Asana body flickered to Uchiha Yuan's side and asked.
Uchiha Yuan shook his head. "Not yet. I've only just fused with the Mini Ten-Tails. It'll still take some time before I truly master Kekkei Mora's power.
This Ice Release is something I had already been working on by trying to combine Water and Wind. Now, with the Mini Ten-Tails' help, I can finally cast it."
"I see. By the way, Yuan, my Byakugan noticed your chakra levels increased quite a bit. That's also due to the Ten-Tails?" she asked.
"Mm. I'm now a perfect Ten-Tails Jinchuriki. The Ten-Tails' chakra is now my chakra. So of course my chakra reserves have increased."
Hyuga Asana nodded and didn't pursue the topic further.
Suddenly, Uchiha Yuan sensed spatial fluctuations nearby. He looked up toward the front-right, and a man wearing an orange spiral mask appeared out of thin air.
"Uchiha Yuan? What are you doing here? Don't tell me that chakra upheaval earlier was your doing?" Uchiha Obito asked, his voice low.
"You again? You really are like a lingering ghost!" Hyuga Asana pouted unhappily.
Hearing Hyuga Asana's voice, Obito was stunned. He finally realized the white-haired woman beside Uchiha Yuan was Hyuga Asana.
"You're Hyuga Asana? What happened to you? Your Caged Bird Seal is gone?"
"That has nothing to do with you!" she snapped, launching a Gentle Fist: Vacuum Palm at Obito.
Obito phased out to dodge the attack, then strutted toward the two with confidence.
Seeing this, Uchiha Yuan smiled faintly. "You really don't learn, do you?"
"Last time you managed to hit me only because I let my guard down. This time, I don't think you'll get that chance," Obito said.
"Oh really? You sure are confident." With that, Uchiha Yuan vanished from where he stood.
On instinct, Obito fully phased out, and Yuan's slash passed right through him.
Seeing this, Obito considered it a good opportunity and immediately used Kamui to pull Uchiha Yuan into the Kamui dimension.
"Heh! So much for Uchiha Yuan!" Obito sneered.
"Tsk tsk! Celebrating halfway through the match is a bad habit, you know," Uchiha Yuan's voice rang out behind him.
Startled, Obito quickly re-entered his intangibility.
"That was a Shadow Clone? When did you form the seal?" Obito asked in shock.
"It wasn't a Shadow Clone—it was an Ice Clone. Didn't you notice? We're surrounded by Ice Release traces."
Obito was momentarily stunned, unable to process what Yuan meant.
Yuan didn't bother chatting anymore and directly attacked, swinging his sword at Obito's head.
Obito remained calm—he was intangible and not worried at all about Yuan's attacks.
But in the next instant, he felt a heavy punch land on his abdomen.
Only then did he remember that Yuan's Ice Clone had been absorbed into the Kamui space earlier.
"Your clone let me absorb it on purpose?"
"That's right."
"But the Kamui space is huge. How could you possibly—"
"Hey, hey! Don't tell me you think you're the only person in this world who can use space-time ninjutsu?
When your body enters the space-time dimension, it creates spatial ripples. My clone tracked those ripples and used successive teleportations to appear before you.
Now what will you do? Without your phasing ability, you don't stand a chance against me."
Obito's face darkened. He never imagined Yuan would counter Kamui this way.
"This time I lost. We'll meet again," he said, retreating into the Kamui space.
Just as Uchiha Yuan said, without phasing, Obito stood no chance, so he had to eliminate Yuan's clone first.
And the clone, seeing Obito fully enter Kamui space, immediately used teleportation to escape.
After all, he was just a clone—not strong enough to fight Obito—but could still mess with him for a while.
(To Be Continued...)