The Hakimaster of Naruto

Chapter 259 259: The Path to Six Paths

Rain Forest — Perimeter

"Did you see that just now?"

"I saw it."

"Such an enormous... terrifying presence!"

"Could it be the Five-Tails? The one that escaped not long ago?"

Several Rain shinobi crouched in the dense jungle undergrowth, their heads barely peeking above the ferns. Their voices were hushed, but their pupils betrayed the raw terror clawing at their throats.

"It's horrifying. Why did it suddenly appear here?"

"We need to withdraw. Now. Lord Hanzō must be informed immediately."

The shinobi cast one final, nervous glance toward the distant silhouette of the colossal beast before melting back into the shadows of the forest. Compared to a Tailed Beast, humans were insignificant. Weak. Utterly outmatched.

Some Distance Away

The instigator of all this commotion, the Five-Tails herself, remained blissfully unaware that her dramatic entrance had sent an entire shinobi patrol scrambling for their lives. Her mood was, for the first time in months, genuinely pleasant.

She had found a master. A Jinchūriki.

And not just any Jinchūriki—this one was powerful. The strongest human she had encountered since the Sage of Six Paths himself.

The only unpleasant part of the entire arrangement was what had happened immediately after she shrank down. The human had picked her up. Turned her over. Examined her from angles no Tailed Beast had ever been examined from before. And then—then—he had the audacity to ask if she was male or female.

Ridiculous! Isn't it obvious?!

With such a delicate, adorable appearance, of course she was a girl!

...Well, truthfully, in the worldview of the Tailed Beasts, the concepts of male and female didn't truly exist. They were beings of pure chakra, after all—fragments of the Ten-Tails' essence given form by the Sage's imagination. But she had lived among humans for so long, shuffled between Jinchūriki after Jinchūriki, that she had absorbed their understanding of such things. And she had decided, somewhere along the centuries, that she preferred being perceived as feminine.

Ragnar walked steadily toward a distant wooden cabin tucked beneath the canopy. He had not yet formalized the contract. The Five-Tails was currently roaming freely outside his body. For now, she could serve as a pet. An oversized, dolphin-horse hybrid, steam-venting, mountain-shattering pet.

The full integration of a Tailed Beast's power could not be rushed. It required preparation. Strategy. He would not stumble blindly into a sealing ritual without understanding every variable.

As for the possibility of Kokuō attempting to backstab him?

She could try. He would welcome the entertainment. Killing her again would be... easy.

"Where are we going now, human?" Kokuō chirped, trotting along beside him with her five tails swaying rhythmically.

"To meet some people. Then we leave the Rain Country," Ragnar said casually.

"Oh! What kind of people? Are they as powerful as you?"

"No."

Ragnar shot her a sidelong glance. He could already sense the barrage of follow-up questions forming in her mind. "You talk too much. And stop calling me 'human.' If you've chosen to follow me, you will address me as Rakshasa from now on."

"Rakshasa? Does that word have a special meaning?"

"..."

Ragnar's eye twitched.

Damn it, has this Tailed Beast been holding in her words for too long? She's become a complete chatterbox.

Deciding that further conversation would only encourage her, Ragnar channeled chakra to his feet. In an instant, his body became weightless, and he launched himself into the air. He soared over the treetops like a great bird of prey—a roc slicing through the misty sky with effortless speed.

Kokuō's eyes widened.

Oh! A race!

Steam burst from vents along her body in a pressurized jet. She rocketed upward, a living missile trailing white vapor, following close behind her new master.

Boil Release.

It was one of the rarest nature transformations in existence—a Kekkei Genkai formed from the simultaneous fusion of Fire and Water chakra. The Five-Tails' previous Jinchūriki, a man named Han, had not been born with the ability. He had gained it through sharing the Tailed Beast's chakra attributes after the contract was sealed. In a way, the Tailed Beast could gift a portion of its bloodline to its host.

But Kokuō's chakra was not limited to Boil Release alone. She also possessed Fire Release and Water Release as independent elements. Her current mode of flight—the pressurized steam propulsion—was identical to the technique Han had used as the "Steam Ninja."

Ragnar glanced back at the steaming creature hurtling after him.

Tailed Beasts possessed chakra reserves that were essentially nuclear in scale. Their raw destructive power was undeniable.

But their mastery of that power?

Pathetic.

It was the age-old problem of innate strength without discipline. They wielded their chakra like children swinging battle-axes—wildly, inefficiently, with tremendous noise but minimal precision. This was precisely why Tailed Beasts were so easily suppressed by abilities like the Sharingan, the Rinnegan, and high-level sealing techniques. In the face of such refined ocular powers, the beasts had almost no capacity to resist.

And yet, Tailed Beasts were effectively immortal. Their lifespans were practically infinite. They had thousands upon thousands of years to observe, to learn, to develop countermeasures. With all that time, could they not have created methods to defend against the Sharingan's control?

Perhaps they simply couldn't.

They were creatures of instinct. Survival, to them, was reactive, not proactive. Their animal nature bound them to the present moment, preventing them from ever reaching for something greater. They could not innovate. They could not plan. They could only be.

God opens one door for you, and simultaneously slams shut every other.

It was a form of cosmic balance. Cause and effect.

Ragnar's thoughts spiraled deeper as he flew.

Everything—everything—in this world eventually circled back to the Tailed Beasts. The wars. The weapons. The ancient bloodlines. The final, apocalyptic battles that awaited in the future. To face the crises on the horizon, Devil Fruit abilities and Haki alone might not be sufficient.

He was in the world of Naruto now. Perhaps it was time to invest more heavily in the development of the shinobi's true power: chakra. Specifically, the Sage's legacy.

Six Paths Senjutsu.

The Sage of Six Paths had created it specifically to suppress the Ten-Tails. At its core, Six Paths Senjutsu was the fusion of Tailed Beast chakra and natural energy. Every technique born from this union possessed power on a celestial scale—power that could alter geography, bend reality, even create and destroy worlds.

Possessing the Rinnegan's ocular power did not automatically grant one the ability to use Six Paths Senjutsu. And conversely, learning Six Paths Senjutsu did not require the Rinnegan.

Senjutsu chakra was, fundamentally, natural energy. And Tailed Beast chakra was now readily available to him in the form of the miniature chatterbox rocketing along behind him. Ragnar already possessed both of the essential components. The conditions were set.

But his ambition stretched further than mere Six Paths Senjutsu.

Bloodline Snare.

In the later stages of the story he remembered, practically every shinobi who stood at the level of the Sage's power possessed the Rinnegan. And their abilities—their most devastating, reality-defining techniques—were invariably classified under the Bloodline Snare. The fusion of all seven chakra natures: Fire, Earth, Wind, Water, Lightning, Yin, and Yang.

The All-Killing Ash Bones. The Expansive Truth-Seeker Orbs. The creation of dimensions.

These were the techniques wielded by gods. And on the surface, they appeared to be the exclusive domain of the Rinnegan.

But peel back the layers. Look beyond the surface. The truth was simpler and far more profound: you did not need the Rinnegan. You only needed mastery over all seven chakra attributes and the ability to fuse them into one.

Ragnar's current chakra affinities were Fire, Wind, and Lightning. A three-attribute ninja. By normal standards, that was already an excellent talent.

With the Five-Tails now bound to him, he would gain access to Water Release and the Boil Release fusion. Two more elements. The gaps were closing.

The Fourth Great Ninja War was still at least twenty years away. Two decades. An eternity by shinobi standards.

In that time, Ragnar could transform himself completely. He could become a full seven-attribute chakra user. And the Five-Tails could serve as the bridge—a living medium through which he could harvest the chakra signatures of every other Tailed Beast.

The first target was obvious.

The Nine-Tails. Sealed within Konoha. The Nine-Tails' chakra contained Yin and Yang attributes—the two most elusive and critical pieces of the puzzle. And his connection to Kushina gave him a direct, uncomplicated path to obtaining that power.

And if the Nine-Tailed Fox refused to cooperate?

Then force would suffice.

Hmph.

Ragnar glanced back at Kokuō, who was valiantly maintaining her steam-powered pursuit. A faint smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.

Time was on his side. He could afford to plan. To prepare. To scheme. And this naive, chatterbox of a Tailed Beast had quite literally thrown herself into his arms—a willing test subject for experiments she could not yet fathom.

Kokuō, mid-flight, suddenly experienced a strange, inexplicable sensation.

A chill. A malice. It radiated from somewhere deep and unseen, as if the universe itself was laughing at a joke she didn't understand.

The steam jets from her hindquarters sputtered. Stuttered. She wobbled violently in the air, nearly plummeting from the sky in undignified panic.

Wha—what was that?!

She scanned the area frantically, her large dolphin-like eyes wide with confusion. There was nothing there. No enemy. No threat. Just the wind and the trees and the back of her new master's head.

But the feeling lingered.

Unsettled, she accelerated to fly closer to Ragnar. Instinct told her that, for better or worse, staying near this terrifying human was the safest place in the world.

End of Chapter

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