HGBW: Ch. 120

"ROOM!"

Tanaka immediately activated ROOM, covering himself within it.

As expected, with the awakening of Haki, his will transformed into Armament Haki. Not only could he see Haki with his Byakugan, but he could also sense it inside his body through ROOM.

With a slight thought, the Armament Haki dispersed from various parts of his body and instantly transferred to his right fist.

Then, it hardened and wrapped around.

"It works!"

He watched the Armament Haki enveloping his right fist with his Byakugan, and a wild joy surfaced on his face.

There was a difference between using one's consciousness to control the flow of spiritual energy and using the Op-Op Fruit to transfer it. While both seemed to result in Armament Haki wrapping around his fist, they were fundamentally different.

The biggest difference was the charge time of Haki.

For example, using mental willpower to drive and channel it to the fist took one second.

Using the Op-Op Fruit to transfer Haki was instantaneous.

With just a thought, Haki instantly moved to the fist, completing the hardening processed immediately.

If two people were in battle, while Person A's Haki was still charging, Person B's Armament Haki-coated fist was already smashing into Person A's face.

Beyond eliminating the charge time, he discovered another advantage of controlling Haki with ROOM—precision.

If his normal Haki control level was 10, then using ROOM to manipulate Haki raised it to 100.

No charge time, and complete micro-level control over every bit of Haki. The latter was especially important in his eyes. Because the chakra pathways and tenketsu are incredibly small.

Without precision control down to microscopic, even nanoscopic levels, how could one wrap Armament Haki around chakra pathways and tenketsu?

Even an Emperor or Admiral, due to the lack of Byakugan and the inability to see inside their bodies, could not coat their internal organs with Haki.

Let alone chakra pathway.

Without the Op-Op Fruit, even if he could see through his body with the Byakugan, Tanaka was certain it would take at least twenty years of training to achieve such precise Haki manipulation.

But with the Op-Op Fruit, as long as his Haki was strong enough, he could apply Haki-enhanced surgery to his entire body.

From muscles, skin, and bones, to organs, blood vessels, and chakra pathways, he could coat them all with Armament Haki.

And then, the Eight Inner Gates, without injury was possible.

Just thinking of it made Tanaka's heartbeat accelerate and his blood surge.

Injury-free Lotus.

Injury-free Reverse Lotus.

Injury-free Morning Peacock.

Injury-free Daytime Tiger.

Injury-free Evening Elephant.

And even injury-free Night Guy.

This was a path to Six Paths-level power, tailor-made for himself by combining Devil Fruits, Haki, and chakra into one system.

No need for the Sharingan.

No need for the Rinnegan.

No need for Wood Release.

Not even a chakra fruit was required.

With just his Byakugan, the Op-Op Fruit, Haki, and chakra, he could stand atop both worlds.

Regardless of whether Orochimaru became the ANBU Commander, or whether Hiruzen took his anger out on the Hyūga clan because of his son's downfall, Tanaka did not care about the political turmoil in Konoha.

As the clan heir of the Hyūga clan, aside from participating in the Great Ninja War, he did not need to perform missions.

Other than traveling to the One Piece world once a day, dispelling his shadow clone, retrieving memories to confirm whether Kalifa, Who's-Who, and the CP9 agents were still under control, and monitoring the Lvneel Kingdom's sea routes, he spent all his time training.

Armament Haki, Observation Haki, the Rokushiki, and swordsmanship. Each training area was assigned to a shadow clone, while his main body focused on developing the Op-Op Fruit.

Every day's schedule was packed to the brim. Even so, Tanaka still felt that shadow clones weren't enough.

Unfortunately, he wasn't Senju, wasn't Uzumaki, and definitely wasn't Kaido or Big Mom.

Even with the nourishment of Sea Kings' meat, and continuous training in Rokushiki and swordsmanship, his physique and spirit grew stronger by the day. But with five shadow clones plus his main body stacking five times the experience, that was already his current limit.

To go even further, he would have to at least reach age nine.

However, while Tanaka was growing steadily, traveling between Naruto and One Piece worlds, waiting for ships to arrive at the Lvneel Kingdom in the North Blue, a sudden piece of news disrupted everything.

That day, as usual, he brought five shadow clones, transforming into a training fiend.

Grinding Haki.

Grinding the Op-Op Fruit.

Grinding swordsmanship.

Grinding Rokushiki.

But before he could train much longer, Hizashi rushed in, interrupting him.

"What's wrong, Hizashi-sensei?"

Seeing Hizashi in such a hurry, Tanaka paused his training. He knew his teacher's personality very well.

If it was something Hizashi could handle himself, he would never have come to disturb him.

"The news of the White Fang's suicide can't be contained anymore."

Hizashi's expression was solemn—no, heavy.

"What did the Hokage say?"

Tanaka's gaze sharpened upon hearing that. At this moment, his foundation was still in the Naruto world. For both himself and the Hyūga clan, having a stable environment to grow was the most crucial factor.

"The ANBU just came by."

"He has summoned all major ninja clans to the Hokage Building for an immediate meeting. If nothing unexpected happens, the Third Great Ninja War is about to reignite."

Hizashi's face was full of worry.

The Sannin had only shattered Hanzō's dream of ruling as the Kage of Ame.

But Konoha's years of peace had been carved out by Sakumo's blade. Now that his suicide was public knowledge, war was inevitable.

It was just a matter of which of the Five Great Ninja Villages would make the first move.

"Let's go."

After a brief moment of thought, Tanaka dispelled all his shadow clones.

If he had just a few more years to grow in peace, he was confident he could dominate the ninja world.

No, if he really had those years, he wouldn't even need to act personally. Just his trained Hyūga clan, armed with Rokushiki, Sea King meat, and Armament Haki, would be enough to crush any one of the Five Great Ninja Villages.

But unfortunately, the other villages weren't willing to wait.

Since that was the case, then he would use his fists to make them willing.

Hizashi nodded, and without hesitation, the two hurried toward the Hokage Building.

Ten minutes later, the familiar meeting room and familiar faces appeared before them once more.

However, compared to the last time, there was a notable change in seating arrangement.

At the head seat was still Hiruzen.

To his left, in the first seat, sat Minato.

To his right, the seat that originally belonged to Shinnosuke was now occupied by Orochimaru.

Previously, thanks to the incompetence of the Hyūga main house, the Hyūga clan leader's seat had been placed near the bottom—barely above the small clans, and alongside the ostracized Uchiha clan.

But after the jonin exam incident, everything had changed.

Whether it was to win them over or out of fear of the Hyūga clan's increasing strength, Hizashi's seat this time was positioned just below the Sannin, on equal footing with the Hokage's loyalists—Ino-Shika-Chō.

This seating change was an enormous slap in the face to Fugaku and Setsuna.