Naruto: This Genius is Somewhat Ordinary-Chapter 359

"Hmph. You should’ve used me earlier," Kurama snorted. "If you’d brought me out during your fight with that bastard, he’d already be sealed."

Tōma smiled faintly, eyes on the distant horizon.

"That would’ve been boring."

He wasn’t lying.

Sealing Madara early would’ve ended things neatly, but that wasn’t what he wanted. More importantly, it wasn’t what the situation demanded. The Ten-Tails was still incomplete then. Cutting Madara down too soon would’ve robbed Tōma of something far more valuable.

Now, with the sky tearing itself apart and the land screaming in response, it was obvious.

The Ten-Tails was approaching its final form.

Perfect timing, Tōma thought. I’ve waited long enough. Time to collect some interest.

"Are you really prioritizing your curiosity over the survival of the shinobi world?" Kurama muttered.

"Both matter," Tōma replied calmly. "Saving the world while satisfying my curiosity is just efficiency."

Kurama glanced at him, then looked away.

If it were anyone else, he’d be roaring by now. But this human was different. Stronger. Clearer. Annoyingly hard to argue with.

Besides, Kurama could feel it too.

Far away, another presence. His other half. Unleashed, raging, yet... not hostile.

So the other me really made peace with a human, Kurama mused. Minato’s kid, right?

Tōma chuckled and started moving, unhurried. According to the information from his main body, Naruto wasn’t in immediate danger. There was time.

More importantly, Tōma needed time to process what he’d just learned.

Five elemental forces. Lightning, wind, fire, earth, water. Not chakra constructs, but raw natural phenomena, laid bare by the Ten-Tails’ emergence.

He hadn’t expected that.

If he had known the Ten-Tails would trigger something like this, he might’ve thanked it personally.

Nature itself had demonstrated the path he was already walking. No guesswork. No trial and error. A massive shortcut laid out in thunder, flood, quake, and flame.

How could he not be grateful?

As for why Kurama was now inside him, that explained his delayed arrival against Madara earlier.

After wiping out the White Zetsu army, Tōma had gone to handle something personal.

He had retrieved Kurama’s chakra from the Shinigami.

And while he was at it, he’d finally tested a long-standing question.

Could Hidan’s so-called immortality survive soul destruction?

Turns out, no.

Outside Konoha, at the Uzumaki clan’s Mask Storage Hall, Tōma stood before a wall lined with dozens of masks.

Only one mattered.

The others were camouflage. Distractions. The Uzumaki weren’t fools.

If every mask represented a god, their annihilation would’ve been impossible. The truth was simpler. Hide the Shinigami’s mask among many, and hope no one knew which one it was.

Unfortunately for them, Tōma did.

Nearby, Hidan screamed.

"Let me go! Fight me properly! That fish-faced traitor jumped me!"

Tōma ignored him.

He lifted a feral-looking mask from the wall and turned.

Hidan’s bravado shattered instantly.

"W-Wait—don’t come any closer!"

Instinct screamed at him. That mask was death. Real death. The kind his rituals couldn’t dodge.

Tōma pressed it onto Hidan’s face anyway.

His secondary soul slipped free from the shadow clone and invaded Hidan’s body, taking control with ease.

"Reaper Death Seal."

Hidan’s resistance was laughable.

The temperature dropped.

Behind Hidan, the Shinigami emerged. Wild hair. Purple skin. Horns and fangs. A grotesque executioner given form.

Tōma didn’t hesitate.

Using Hidan’s body, he cut open the abdomen.

The Shinigami mirrored the motion.

A blue soul emerged from the reaper’s stomach. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Minato Namikaze.

The exchange completed, Tōma withdrew, returning to the clone. The Shinigami lingered briefly, its gaze brushing past him.

Tōma met it calmly.

If Orochimaru could cheat the Reaper, so could he.

The Shinigami turned away and consumed its offering.

Hidan’s eyes went blank.

His body collapsed, lifeless.

"So that answers that," Tōma murmured. "Immortality doesn’t mean much when the soul’s gone."

Watching the Shinigami vanish, Tōma felt a twinge of regret.

That blade could sever souls. If he could’ve taken it, fused it with his own sword, it would’ve been devastating.

A shame.

He turned his attention to Minato’s soul instead.

They spoke briefly. Enough to confirm identities. Enough to explain the state of the war.

Minato didn’t hesitate.

He entrusted Kurama to Tōma without resistance.

Tōma didn’t even bother with a seal. He simply created a space and let Kurama reside within it.

At this point, containment was unnecessary.

Once, Tōma had sworn never to become a jinchūriki. Too many risks. Too much attention. Too many unknowns.

That was then.

Now, every concern he once had was irrelevant.

As for mutual understanding with a tailed beast... that could wait. Naruto could help smooth that out later.

The command hall was quiet.

Too quiet.

Tōma set his cup down and glanced around. Everyone was gone.

The Fourth Raikage had already left without a word, using the Lightning Release Transport Technique to reach Naruto’s battlefield.

He probably assumed Tōma was just a clone.

Tōma didn’t care.

He stepped to the window and looked toward the final battlefield.

Soon.

This shadow clone had gone further than he’d expected. But there were limits.

Against monsters like Madara and the Ten-Tails, the lack of a true body mattered.

Still...

"Edo Madara was weaker than the legend," Tōma murmured.

Stronger than Madara in life, yes. The Rinnegan made sure of that.

But still not enough.

If Madara revived fully, young and whole, Rinnegan intact, without becoming the Ten-Tails’ host... that would be a different problem entirely.

Limbo alone would erase most Kage-level fighters from relevance.

So how far could a shadow clone really go?

Tōma smiled faintly.

"With Kurama onboard..."

He turned away from the window.

"Let’s set a goal," he said quietly. "End the Fourth War without the Sage of Six Paths’ help."