Kairen was eating and singing when suddenly the pager in his pocket got a signal. He took it out and answered.
It was Tsunade's call!
"Hello! Tsunade!"
"Where are you now?"
Kairen looked ahead to get a rough sense of direction. He was a complete road idiot and had no idea where he was.
"Probably… maybe… about 10 km away from the village?"
"You little bastard, Kikyo Pass is about to collapse and you're still taking it easy. Hurry up!"
Kairen nodded. "Alright! Alright! I'll speed up. Remember to warm my coconut milk."
"Got it!"
Kairen hung up the pager and slapped the back of Wolon, who was sitting beneath him.
"Accelerate!"
"Mmnh~"
Wolon suddenly went limp, collapsing straight onto the ground and absolutely refusing to move.
Kairen grabbed its panda fur and ordered, "Get up! We're going to war!"
"Mmnh~ (｀⌒´メ)"
Wolon was exhausted. Pandas felt tired just sitting around, let alone carrying Kairen on its back.
Kairen was helpless. His summon beasts were really not pulling their weight.
"You two, honestly. I can already fight the Sage of Six Paths, yet you two can barely walk a bit and even struggle against a single chūnin. You're really embarrassing me."
"Mmnh~"
Fenchu called out, indicating that they were still just babies.
Kairen shook his head. "Forget it. I'll boost your strength again."
As a sage, his mounts couldn't be too weak, or it would drag down his immortal status.
Kairen searched through the system space for treasures that could enhance their strength.
The curse mark transformation could raise Wolon and Fenchu's life quality, but that kind of cheat was too low-tier. If he was going to use one, it had to be high-end.
[One-Tail Chakra]
[Two-Tail Chakra]
…
[Dragon Vein Chakra]
[Hero Water]
Kairen's gaze focused on the final item.
[Chakra Fruit]
What was a Chakra Fruit?
A Chakra Fruit was the fruit borne by the Divine Tree, essentially a crystallization of the Ten-Tails' power.
Ōtsutsuki Kaguya ate a single Chakra Fruit and became an undying, immortal existence.
In immortal terminology, this was a heaven-and-earth rare treasure. Once it appeared, it would surely stir up a bloody storm.
Chakra Fruits came in varying qualities. The highest quality required over 100,000 experience points to exchange.
That kind of fruit was at least the level of what Kaguya had eaten.
Kairen couldn't afford it and could only stare at the lowest-grade one worth 10,000 experience points.
Even as the lowest grade, it still contained abundant chakra.
Kairen quickly exchanged for it. A fruit about the size of a dragon fruit fell into his hand.
Unlike the blood-red chakra fruit in the anime, this lowest-grade Chakra Fruit was golden yellow.
It carried a rich, fragrant aroma. Just one sniff felt like ascending to heaven.
Wolon and Fenchu, the two panda cubs, kept sniffing with their bear noses, crying out as they crowded in front of Kairen, opening their mouths to snatch it.
Kairen dodged aside and smiled at them. "You want it?"
"Mmnh~ (´◊ω◊｀)"
Wolon and Fenchu kept crying, begging Kairen to give them the fruit.
Their bodies were extremely greedy for the evolutionary energy within the Chakra Fruit.
Kairen smiled, then under the two panda cubs' desperate gazes, swallowed the Chakra Fruit in one bite.
"Mmnh~ ∑(°Д°)"
Like a sweet spring bursting forth in the desert, Kairen's Ōtsutsuki sage body continuously absorbed this evolutionary energy.
He could clearly feel his life level rising.
In the past, he had still been human. Now, with the Ōtsutsuki sage body and after eating the Chakra Fruit, Kairen was no longer human.
He had become an existence similar to Ōtsutsuki Kaguya herself—immortal and indestructible.
Perhaps there was even reproductive isolation between him and ordinary humans.
Moreover, the boost brought by the Chakra Fruit didn't stop there.
"The Sixth Gate, the Gate of View, has opened!"
Kairen murmured.
In truth, his body was already powerful to an astonishing degree. The physical limit he had just reached after evolving into an Ōtsutsuki sage body was raised once more.
Opening one more gate was nothing special.
The most terrifying thing was that the physical power within Kairen's body was continuously surging toward the Seventh Gate.
In just an instant, the membrane of the Seventh Gate shattered.
A layer of blue steam enveloped Kairen's body, granting him power as if he held the earth itself.
"Mmnh~ ꒦ິ^꒦ິ!"
The two panda cubs moved closer to Kairen, crying nonstop and asking him to produce another fruit like the one he had just eaten.
Kairen rubbed Wolon's and Fenchu's heads.
"I was afraid your bodies couldn't handle that kind of power, so I didn't give it to you."
"Mmnh~"
Wolon rolled around on the ground, shamelessly acting cute, while Fenchu hugged Kairen's leg and whimpered.
Kairen felt like he was raising a son and a daughter. As an old father, he was helpless.
Kairen bit his own finger and poked it into Wolon's mouth.
"My blood is Ōtsutsuki blood. It can give you extremely strong evolutionary energy. Absorb it."
Kairen's entire body was now treasure. Even his waste would be fought over by plants.
Let alone his firewood stick.
When he got back, he'd send Tsunade and the others straight to heaven.
Wolon was a bit disgusted by Kairen's blood. Although it was an omnivore, it mostly preferred green plants.
But once it tasted Kairen's blood, it couldn't stop, gulping it down mouthful after mouthful.
At the same time, its life level began to change.
Its fur started turning golden, and an aura of a beast king radiated from its body.
Before long, Wolon had transformed into a golden panda.
Kairen plucked one of its hairs and examined it closely—it was truly made of gold.
He rubbed Wolon's head. "You're a golden iron-eating beast now. You're basically a walking treasure."
"Mmnh~"
Fenchu came over, indicating it also wanted to switch to a golden skin.
Kairen bestowed his blood upon it as well.
Not long after, Kairen obtained two golden pandas.
Left and right, two great guardians, their strength comparable to elite jōnin.
Activating golden mode was basically an absolute defense—no matter how you attacked, you couldn't break through!
"Left and right guardians, activate flight mode. Full speed to Kikyo Pass."
"Mmnh~"
The two panda cubs' bodies expanded, eventually growing as large as a small bus. Carrying Kairen, they sped toward Kikyo Pass.
...
Kikyo Pass was a natural fortress within the Land of Fire.
Beside it was Kikyo City. Kairen had once freeloaded there, and the bounty notices were still posted to this day.
However, his shadow clones had played landlord games here and wiped out all that old dark history.
Kairen had also fulfilled his promise, delivering hope to the slum dwellers.
At this moment, a defensive line had been established on Kikyo Pass.
The defending soldiers were Kairen's shadow clones—about two hundred of them—stationed here from when they had played landlord.
The people of Sunagakure shouted from below, "We respect you as warriors, but you are facing the combined assault of the four great ninja nations."
"Lay down your weapons and do not resist. The Imperial Army will treat prisoners well."
Rasa gazed calmly at this natural fortress, his heart filled with exhilaration.
From the First Kazekage to the Fourth, the people of Sunagakure had all dreamed of driving north to hunt horses, to taste the delicacies of the continent's center.
After so many years, he had finally invaded the Land of Fire.
Once Kikyo Pass was breached, the Land of Fire would be his for the taking.
A single sentence shattered Rasa's fantasy.
"Rasa, I'll fuck your sage ancestor—give me a straight answer. Are you surrendering or not?!"