Fortunately, Akira's physical strength and compatibility were absurdly high. If it had been anyone else, their body would have burst apart long ago. They would not have been like him, merely gritting their teeth and cursing through the pain.
Once he realized it was an evolution, Akira clenched his fist and felt the power surging through him.
"My chakra actually tripled. The Rinnegan's amplification is completely unreasonable."
As his spiritual energy grew by several orders of magnitude, his physical strength rose alongside it. The sensation was almost like having an advanced stage of the Eight Gates active as his normal state.
His constitution had been elevated directly to Hashirama Senju's monstrous level.
And because the vessel had grown larger, his chakra reserves naturally rose with it.
Akira frowned slightly. Just now, he had vaguely sensed Tsunade trying to break through the barrier from outside.
At the moment, the entire interior of the barrier was filled with violent energy turbulence. Anyone who forced their way in now would be in serious danger.
He gritted his teeth and endured the burning pain in his eye sockets.
"I remember the Sage of Six Paths awakening the Rinnegan as if it were the most natural thing in the world. So why does it feel like I'm surviving a divine punishment?"
Akira was helplessly frustrated.
What he did not know was that the Sage of Six Paths was Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's own son. He was born with a divine body and backed by the power of the Divine Tree's fruit. Awakening those eyes was as natural to him as breathing.
Even without the incident of nearly killing his own brother, those eyes would have belonged to him sooner or later. They were written into his blood.
Akira was different.
His power was acquired through an unnatural climb. His body was powerful, but it was not originally Ōtsutsuki by nature.
To carry a divine power like the Rinnegan, his body first had to undergo a complete rebirth.
The energy required for that transformation was astronomical. What he had stored inside was nowhere near enough, so his body could only frantically seize natural energy from the outside world to fill the gap.
At that moment, Akira's Sage Mode activated automatically to protect him.
Complex, mysterious markings appeared across his face.
Unlike Kabuto's imperfect version, Akira's Sage Mode was flawless. His body showed no inhuman mutations, only a series of strange and elegant markings.
By now, Tsunade had already rushed back to the edge of the barrier. The tear she had opened before had healed on its own.
Just as she prepared to force it open again, Akira's voice pierced through the barrier.
"Don't come in! I'm fine! My eyes are just evolving. The energy in here is too unstable. You'll get hurt!"
"Trust me, this is a good thing. Tsunade, step back!"
This time, Akira even dropped the "Hime" from her title. His tone carried an authority that allowed no argument.
Tsunade's half-formed hand seal froze in place. She stood there stunned.
"His eyes… are evolving? Is there really another stage beyond the Mangekyō Sharingan?"
Although the earlier burst of energy had injured her internally, the Strength of a Hundred Seal had already healed most of the damage in moments.
Tsunade stood outside the barrier with a trace of blood still at the corner of her mouth, her eyes full of anxiety.
After shouting that one warning, Akira fell silent again.
That only made her panic more.
Inside the barrier, Akira was still madly absorbing the surrounding lightning.
More accurately, his eyes were feeding.
This was not ordinary lightning. It was a special lightning infused with Rinnegan ocular power.
Akira's Rinnegan seemed to have a particular affinity for lightning nature, even enhancing it.
Perhaps because he had always relied heavily on Lightning Style, his body's evolution had also rushed toward greater compatibility with lightning.
Sakura finally staggered over as well. Aside from being dusty and slightly limping, she was not seriously injured.
Seeing Tsunade staring tensely at empty air, Sakura suddenly felt something strange.
Was sensei's concern for Akira… a little too much?
Time passed second by second.
A full hour dragged by.
Tsunade's palms were covered in sweat. Her nails were nearly digging into her flesh.
"Don't let anything happen… please…"
Akira had sounded casual earlier, but Tsunade still could not relax.
She was truly afraid.
Afraid of losing someone important again.
Just as Tsunade was nearing the point of forcing her way in regardless of the risk, the barrier finally dissolved like a bubble.
Akira slowly walked out.
His clothes had already been shredded by the energy storm, but fortunately, he always carried spare clothes in a storage scroll. He had already changed into a fresh set.
It was an outfit Tsunade had once picked out for him, one he had never been willing to wear until now.
The moment she saw Akira safe and unharmed, Tsunade's tense nerves finally loosened.
If Sakura had not been there, she would have already rushed over to check whether he was missing even a piece of skin.
Her body was trembling slightly, purely from relief.
Sakura let out a long breath and patted her chest.
"Sensei, Akira really looks fine. That scared me to death."
Tsunade took two deep breaths, forcibly suppressing the emotions surging inside her. She squeezed out a smile.
"Good. As long as he's fine."
She looked calm on the surface, but inside, her heart was still storming.
Akira quickly stepped forward. His gaze fell on the blood at the corner of Tsunade's mouth, and his expression sharpened.
Without another word, he took out a delicate little porcelain bottle from his storage scroll.
"There are two left. Take one now."
It was a healing medicine he had refined in his spare time, a precious emergency remedy he had been saving.
Tsunade took the clear, jewel-like pill and studied it curiously.
"What is this?"
As the greatest medical ninja in the world, she had seen countless medicines, but this was the first time she had seen a pill with such a vivid medicinal aura.
Akira explained gently, "Something I refined myself through trial and error. It's for internal injuries. It restores the body very quickly. Guy and Yamato tried it before. The results were excellent."
Tsunade did not stand on ceremony. She tossed it into her mouth and swallowed.
The moment the pill entered her stomach, a warm current burst through her body. Her internal organs, which had still been slowly healing, recovered completely in an instant.
Tsunade's eyes lit up.
"This is amazing! The effect is incredible. Can you mass-produce it?"
Akira smiled wryly and shook his head.
"No chance. The ingredients are ridiculously rare. It took me years to gather enough for just a few pills. This is almost the last of my stock."
Tsunade looked regretful.
If this could be supplied to Konoha's forces, the survival rate of its shinobi would rise several times over. It was infinitely better than those awful soldier pills.
Sakura stood nearby, staring at the bottle with eager eyes. One lonely pill still remained inside.
After her injuries healed, Tsunade finally turned her attention back to Akira and lowered her voice.
"So? What happened?"
Akira gave a slight nod.
The two understood each other without needing to say more.
Even so, the joy in Tsunade's eyes was impossible to hide.
After exchanging a few brief words, Sakura, who had always been good at reading the room, suddenly felt like a third wheel and found an excuse to leave first.
She could not shake the feeling that the way her master looked at Akira was not entirely innocent.
Only after Sakura had gone far away did Akira slowly release the seal over his eyes.