That night, Yusuke didn't sleep. Instead, he sat cross-legged with his sword resting across his lap.
With his eyes closed, he kept visualizing the battle style of the Fourth Raikage from earlier in the night.
The Lightning Armor was a taijutsu technique, and while the Raikage didn't know anything about swordsmanship, the way the Lightning Armor merged power with speed was similar in essence to what Yusuke was aiming for by combining his Dragon Slash and Dragonfly Cut techniques.
Thus, it was something from which he could draw inspiration.
Although Yusuke's chakra levels were only on the level of a high-ranking Jonin, his swordsmanship had reached a profound stage.
For Yusuke at this point, further improving his skills wasn't just about training harder—it was about understanding and insights.
Again and again, he replayed in his mind how the Raikage balanced power and speed while using the Lightning Armor.
At the same time, he continued comparing the two styles of swordsmanship, Dragon Slash and Dragonfly Cut, in his mind.
He felt as if he was on the verge of grasping something, but each time he tried to pin it down, it seemed elusive.
It was like water slowly wearing away at stone. At first, you couldn't see anything happening.
While Yusuke sat in his room, meditating on his swordsmanship, suddenly the space in front of him began to twist, as if a spiral vortex had appeared!
Noticing the space distortion before him, Yusuke opened his eyes, and his expression changed slightly.
A masked figure, with a spiraling mask and a Sharingan glowing in his right eye... This person—he was the legendary...
Before Yusuke could draw his sword, the three tomoe in Tobi's Sharingan began to spin.
Staring at the spinning tomoe, Yusuke felt the world spinning around him, and his consciousness was pulled into it!
Facing Tobi, Yusuke's hand stopped reaching for his sword, and his eyes glazed over.
"Not bad. It seems you truly caught Akira's eye, just as I expected," Tobi said, satisfied as he used the power of the Sharingan to manipulate Yusuke.
In fact, Yusuke joining the Leaf Village had all been part of Tobi's secret plan!
Now, with everything reaching a critical stage, Tobi believed it was time for Yusuke to serve his purpose.
He placed a pre-prepared transference seal on Yusuke, using the Sharingan to control him completely.
While Yusuke was being controlled in complete secrecy, Akira had no idea.
At that moment, Akira was resting in his room, drifting off into sleep.
The next morning, Akira woke up early.
He extracted some of the training simulations from his Life Simulator and found that his swordsmanship had improved quite a bit!
After that, another ten million ryo disappeared as he activated his Life Simulator once more.
[Today, you lead Naruto and others to the True Waterfall for training.]
[Roshi and Han failed the trial at the True Waterfall.]
[Naruto succeeded in passing the trial at the True Waterfall and proceeded with the next stage of his training.]
[You stood in front of the True Waterfall, but no dark version of yourself emerged.]
[Yusuke attacked you, and you were injured!]
[Almost at the same moment, Tobi appeared and ambushed you. But it turned out that what was standing at the waterfall was only one of your Wood Clones, prepared in advance!]
[You subdued Yusuke and discovered he was under a Sharingan illusion.]
[Seeing that things had gone awry, Tobi tried to leave, but you managed to block his escape!]
[You used a sealing technique and successfully sealed Tobi's actions.]
[However, Black Zetsu sneaked up and possessed you, using his immense mental power to control your body!]
[Taking the chance, Tobi used Kamui to drag you into the Kamui dimension!]
[One month later, you starved to death.]
Seeing the results from his Life Simulator, Akira couldn't help but smile bitterly.
Despite being well-prepared, even sealing Tobi, Black Zetsu—that cunning old fox—still managed to pop out and take control of him!
To be fair, Black Zetsu had been around for over a thousand years.
Though his strength was not on par with his elder brothers, Hagoromo and Hamura, once he possessed someone, his mental control was nearly impossible to resist!
Even in the original storyline, Obito, in his Six Paths form, was controlled by Black Zetsu to perform the Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique.
Though Obito was severely injured at the time, it was still his Six Paths form!
This showed how troublesome Black Zetsu could be.
And worst of all, Akira died from starvation!
So, the Kamui technique was quite formidable. Besides its unique advantages in combat, Tobi used it to trap people in the Kamui dimension and let them starve to death.
That kind of tactic was truly terrifying!
"If I had known this would happen, I would've warned Kakashi to use his left eye every now and then to throw some supplies into the Kamui dimension!" Akira muttered to himself.
Thinking of how Kakashi's Kamui was linked to Tobi's, Akira realized he had underestimated the situation.
If only he had discussed contingency plans with Kakashi in advance—having Kakashi send in food supplies would have at least prevented him from starving to death in the Kamui dimension.
Of course, Akira didn't extract anything from the Life Simulator at that moment. He got up, washed, and prepared for the day.
Soon, Killer Bee arrived.
Although Bee had been forced to agree, Cloud Village was full of warriors. Once they agreed, they didn't hesitate.
After Akira and the others had breakfast, Killer Bee led them to the True Waterfall.
Although Akira wasn't a Jinchūriki, Hinata and the others were curious about how Jinchūriki trained, so they followed along.
It didn't take long for Akira's group to follow Killer Bee to the True Waterfall.
Killer Bee explained what the True Waterfall was all about. After some thought, Naruto decided he would be the first to face the trial!
Naruto walked up to the True Waterfall, and just like a reflection in a mirror, a figure emerged from the waterfall!
That figure turned out to be Naruto himself.
But this Naruto looked evil.
Neither Killer Bee nor Akira moved. They knew that the reflection from the True Waterfall would only affect the original.
No matter what happened, they were only there to observe.
And so, under Akira's watchful eye, Naruto successfully passed the trial of the True Waterfall!
"Unbelievable! The trial at the True Waterfall is extremely difficult, but this kid actually succeeded!" Killer Bee exclaimed, visibly surprised by Naruto's achievement.
Truthfully, it was challenging to pass the trial. Both the Fourth Raikage and Killer Bee had assumed that the odds of success for the Leaf's Jinchūriki were slim. They never imagined Naruto would succeed on the first try.
"Alright, my turn now!" After Naruto's success, Roshi and Han seemed more confident. Roshi was the next to step forward, standing before the True Waterfall.
But just as the Life Simulator had predicted, Roshi failed.
Then Han tried, but he too failed.
Thus, out of the three Jinchūriki, only Naruto passed the True Waterfall's trial!
"Brother-in-law, may I try as well?" After the three Jinchūriki finished, Hanabi suddenly spoke up, curious.
"Yes, this looks interesting!" Hinata also nodded in agreement.
"Alright, if you both want to give it a try, go ahead." Akira nodded, not rejecting their request.
Since they were already there, and it didn't require any resources to just stand in front of the True Waterfall, Akira was curious to see how Hanabi and Hinata would handle their own inner darkness.
Hanabi stood before the True Waterfall, curious. Soon, a dark version of Hanabi emerged.
After a short battle, it was clear that Hanabi was no match for her darker self, resulting in her failure.
"So, it really is 'Darkness grows threefold, while purity weakens by a third,' huh?" Akira murmured to himself.
Even though the dark version shared the same amount of chakra and techniques, it seemed to be much stronger.
He recalled that in an earlier simulation, he too had been defeated by his dark self.
Shaking his head, Akira watched as Hinata stepped forward after Hanabi's failure, his interest piqued.
He wondered, what would a darkened Hinata look like?