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Chapter 235 Naruto vs Hiruzen part 2
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Oscar rolled forward across the sand like a cannonball.
Water Style: Starch Syrup Capturing Field
Hiruzen expelled a wide stream of high-viscosity water from his mouth, at where Oscar was going to be. The adhesive liquid hit the sand in a spreading pool. Oscar's momentum was cut dead as the sticky mass closed around him like a second skin.
The lizard assessed the situation for exactly one second. In the next moment, a wall of crystal erupted from the ground in a wide arc around the area.
Hiruzen understood the wall was not a counterattack. It was a cage for him.
He turned back toward the smoke where Naruto had been.
There was a red glow in it. A single point of light sitting somewhere at the level of an outstretched hand.
The old man felt a force with no texture.
Because elemental chakra always had texture. Fire was obvious. Lightning left a static charge on the skin. Even earth release carried a faint mineral cold when it moved through the body. This had none of that. It was simply a force pulling him towards Naruto.
The red eye sat open in the boy's palm, and the pull was consistent with his focus on it. Hiruzen deduced that the mechanism was external to Naruto's own chakra system entirely.
Considering how it needed to be open to operated. Maybe he should forcefully close it. One problem with that, Hiruzen couldn't raise his hands. Every muscle he tried to engage met the same distributed resistance from every angle simultaneously. The pull of telekinesis was so evenly applied that there was no axis left to push from.
That closed down alot of options except his mouth.
Hiruzen turned raw chakra into earth nature as he expelled it out to create a wall directly in his path. The moment hiruzen's body hit, the connection broke instantly.
Across the beach, Naruto jerked his hand back.
The red eye had never failed him before. He looked at the wall and understood. It had given his body something to resist against. An anchor that forcefully stopped his magic from finishing. Despite the frustration, this was the point of the spar. Naruto learned just as much as Hiruzen about himself anf his abilities. These lessons were going to help Naruto improve.
Fire Style: Smoking Illusion of Buddha's Palm.
A strange smoke rolled out from Hiruzen's mouth. It spread across the entire beach in a low blanket.
Then the world changed for Naruto.
He found himself standing at the edge of the universe. Vast pillars rose around him in every direction.
The pillars were fingers.
He was standing in an open palm of Buddha.
This is a genjutsu. Naruto thought as he didn't bother breaking it. He just had a crazy idea.
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The genjutsu passed through Oscar as Hiruzen couldn't exactly influence the chakra inside the lizard for some reason.
The lizard responded by throwing the zweihander toward Hiruzen in a single clean motion.
The old man caught it without thinking. It was extraordinary. The craftsmanship was unlike anything produced in the Elemental Nations. It was in the same territory as his Adamantine Staff.
He deflected Oscar's first lunge without breaking his study of the blade. The second came lower and he sidestepped third he redirected with the flat of the Zweihander and Oscar spun away and reset without pause.
Even know the genjutsu on Naruto hadn't broken.
Hiruzen allowed himself one moment of relaxation before the sand beside him detonated.
Not an explosion.
Rather a force drove the packed sand towards him. Hiruzen didn't recognize any earth chakra.
Did Oscar do this? But how? This looks like Naruto's strange telekinesis but I feel him trapped in my genjutsu. Hiruzen was more confused when a crowd of Narutos came rushed him. They held spears with burning tips coated in some kind of Resin.
Hiruzen used the Zweihander as crowd control for a second before the Zweihander left.
"You're still haven't broken the genjutsu on you." He said, seeing Naruto's dull eyes despite how he was moving.
Shadow Shuriken Clone Jutsu.
One Zweihander became hundreds from the small sliver of chakra left on it.
The copies passed through the spear formation like a current through water. Clone bodies burst into smoke in clusters.
Wind Style: Blade of Wind.
Invisible slashes cut through what remained of the copies in a clean diagonal sweep. The real Zweihander fell from the dispersing mass and Naruto caught it by the grip without looking.
"So what do you think, Jiji?" Naruto said, the genjutsu still running behind his eyes while the Knight's Crest showed him the real world. "I'm not someone you should underestimate."
"I was aware of your capabilities through Kakashi's report." Hiruzen said. "Experiencing them directly is something else." He paused. "You still have a great deal to learn about how to improve what you already have."
"Then keep teaching me." Naruto said, and threw a handful of scrolls onto the sand.
Telekinesis pulled rocks from the beach towards himself. Hiruzen was conveniently happened to be standing in their path.
At the same moment, Storage seals detonated across the beach in sequence.
What came out of them were Clone squads. Each one wearing real armour pulled from Lordran's endless supply of the dead.
Hiruzen assessed the field in one sweep.
Each squad had a similar formation.
A Heavy suited clone in the front with tower shields. Archers positioned behind the squad. Strikers moving along the flanks, wind chakra already running along their blades. A clone holding what looked like piece of cloth. And through the shadow, some clones were laying traps of tripwires, seal tags and patches of chakra-treated ground that would turn solid footing into quicksand the moment weight landed on it wrong.
Hiruzen took the first arrow on a redirected wind jutsu, broke left toward the shield wall, and sent a fireball. The archers adjusted their angles and he was already gone. Body flicker to come around the back of the formation toward the strikers. A blade of wind came from the left. He sensed it and ducked under, drove earth chakra into the sand beneath the nearest striker's feet, and watched him drop knee-deep before the earth released him. The healers pulled their formation back and he turned toward them and found the tripwires.
He stopped just short of the first one.
Found the second one two feet to his left.
Found the third one directly behind him.
When did they set these?
He went up instead, launching vertically, and the archers tracked him. He was already throwing a water jutsu downward that turned the sand beneath some of them into mud before they could release. He landed behind the shield wall, drove his shoulder into the back of the nearest tank clone, and felt the armour absorb the impact like hitting a door.
For a moment, standing in the middle of it with attacks coming from four directions and a healing rotation running behind the front line and tripwires mapping every retreat path, Hiruzen felt something he hadn't felt since the Third Shinobi War.
He felt like he was fighting a malestrom.
Fighting Naruto was like fighting a whirlpool from the inside. The longer you pushed against it the more surface you gave it to work with. Every new angle you opened became another current pulling in its own direction. Fight the shields and the archers adjusted. Fight the archers and the strikers flanked. Fight the strikers and you were standing in a trap field with healers keeping the casualties walking. Every response generated a new problem because the boy had built a system.
The deeper you went the stronger the pull became.
"Did you know that the Second Hokage created the Shadow Clone Jutsu?" Hiruzen said, chakra control doing its best work so his weakened reserves could maintain its maximum output. "Just as your father surpassed the Second when it came to the Flying Thunder God, I surpassed my master when it came to this technique."
"Wow wow wow." Naruto said, genuine admiration in his voice. "Wait. What about me? Have I surpassed your usage?"
"You rival it." Hiruzen said. "But let me show you how I surpassed my master."
He raised one hand and ran two fingers slowly through his hair.
Wind chakra coated the length. The hair cut itself where his fingers passed, as the wind scattered them across the beach. Naruto's hawkeyes watched it drift and then widen.
One strand landed beside the nearest tank clone's boot.
Hiruzen made a hand sign.
The strand grew. In the time it took to blink it had gone from a single hair to a full human shape, performing the primary lotus that caught the tank clone on the chin.
Ninja Art: Hair Clone Jutsu.
Dozens of hair clones formed across the entire beach simultaneously, dropping into Naruto's squads while performing an attack. The formations broke apart trying to respond to an attack that hadn't existed a second ago. Armour and weapons accumulated in piles across the sand as clone after clone burst into smoke under the assault.
In an instant, Naruto was surrounded.
"So that's how it feels from the recieving end of clones."
He looked at Oscar.
"Oscar, if you will please."
The crystal lizard breathed out a white mist in a wave. The moment the first hair clone stepped into it crystal formations came and then exploded as the mist interacted with the clones' chakra. A chain of small explosions rolling across the beach in sequence that sent the surviving clones jumping upward to clear the fog.
Naruto's Blade of Wind met them at the apex of their jumps.
The beach went quiet again.
Hiruzen was not in the air. The old man was in the ground.
Earth Style: Hiding Like a Mole Jutsu.
Using the technique Hiruzen change earth into fine sand, allowing him to dig through it like a mole. A special trait of jutsu was that Hiruzen could pinpoint where he was by sensing the magnetic forces. He can also sense what is happening on the surface.
Hiruzen strangely sensed that Oscar was running away from the beach.
What exactly are you gonna do next, Naruto?
In the sky, the drake slaying bow came out of the inventory. An arrow nocked, drawn, and released in one motion. The arrow broke the sound barrier on its way down as Naruto cast the jutsu he got from Sasuke. One that was Jiraya's gift for the chunin exams.
Ninja Art: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu.
One arrow became hundreds.
Each copy carrying the same velocity as the source. The bright sky above darkened under them as the bombardment fell.
The beach ceased to exist.
The first volley hit the sand. The impacts overlapped before the sound of any single one could separate from the rest. The detonations combining into a continuous rolling concussion that moved through the ground in waves. Sand erupted in columns that connected into a wall of displaced earth stretching the full width of the impact zone. The trees at the treeline lost their upper canopy in a single breath. The shockwaves stripping branches and sending them spinning outward over the water. The shoreline churned as the impacts was close enough to the waterline that the sea itself recoiled. A wave pushing outward from the beach in a ring that kept expanding long after the arrows had landed.
When the columns fell back down the beach was unrecognizable.
Craters overlapping craters. The sand turned into glass in places where enough impacts had concentrated heat. The water rolling back in to fill the lowest points.
Enma watched the dust settle over what was left of the beach, now something closer to a geological event.
He turned and walked back toward the palace without a word.
He needed to calm down the monkey clan so they don't start preparing for war. The elders were going to be unbearable about this.
The monkey king was already tired of the conversation he hadn't had yet.
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On the "beach", in the middle of the crater field likewas a Buddhist statue.
Earth Style: Zen Mode.
This was one of the strongest defensive techniques in the world. A shell harder than diamond. An A-rank lightning technique would barely make a dent on it.
Naruto landed and formed a dozen clones around the statue in a tight ring.
"Rasengan."
All twelve hit simultaneously.
The Rasengans hit the statue forming a dent. The force transferred into the shell and out.
The statue burst from within.
Empty.
"Where are you hiding, old man?"
As if answering his question, hiruzen's two shadow clone came out of the ground in a formation.
"Sealing Jutsu: Triangle Seal."
The white pyramidal barrier snapped around Naruto before he could dodge. Suddenly a white light built at the base, pressure accumulating upward through the structure, and then it released all of it in a single vertical burst that launched Naruto straight into the sky.
The real Hiruzen was about to hit airborne Naruto but Oscar intervened.
The laser caught the old man's trajectory at an angle that forced him to abandon the jump entirely. He landed, and came at the lizard instead.
Oscar rushed him without hesitation.
In the air, Naruto's eyes opened. He was briefly knocked out by the white blast. The knight's crest locked onto the old man.
He needed to hit him hard and fast.
Naruto reached into his inventory and took out the talisman.
The cracking came first. The specific sound of lightning being born from faith. A sustained electric fracture that built in pitch as the spear formed above his palm. Yellow-white. The light of it casting shadows straight down onto the beach below.
Poof. Poof. Poof.
Six clones appeared in the air around him in a loose arc. Each one creating their own spear. The combined light of seven lightning miracles turning the sky above the beach into something that belonged in a different world entirely.
"Radiance of the firstborn, lance of sundering light, pierce through scale, sorcery and flame." Naruto pulled in a breath. "Naruto Uzumaki Combo: Halo of Thunder and Lightning Clone Barrage!"
Seven lightning spears left seven hands at the same instant.
Even though the spears moved at the speed of lightning, Hiruzen casted a jutsu.
Wind Style: Divine Wind.
A gust formed several small tornadoes. Each one finding the others and combining, the merged funnel rising off the beach in a defensive column.
Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu.
The funnel ate it.
This caused the color of the tornade to shift from grey-white to orange-red to a deep churning gold. The heat coming off it hit Naruto's face from a hundred feet away. The fire devil pulled the incoming lightning spears into its rotation the way a drain pulled water.
Lightning entered the fire tornado.
The bolts hit the outer rotation and the wind shredded them into branching threads that spread through every layer of the funnel at once. The fire and the lightning found each other inside the rotation.
The result was not an explosion.
It was worse than an explosion.
The tornado became a column of continuous discharge, lightning branching outward from the funnel in every direction in jagged arcing forks while the fire at its core burned hotter than it had any right to burn. The whole structure spun, cracked and illuminated the island below it in a strobing white-gold light that made everything look like it was being seen between blinks.
The shockwave came after.
Naruto hit the beach and stayed down for a moment.
The chant had done had exhausted his soul.
I shouldn't have used the chant. Naruto thought as he pushed his visor up to breath. Suddenly four kunai hit the sand around him before he could think of standing up. The sealing tags on each one flared simultaneously.
Sealing Art: Monkey Yang Suppression.
An ethereal hand came down from nowhere and pinned him where he stood. The pressure distributed across his entire body, his arms locked at his sides and his feet sealed to the ground.
Naruto was aware that giving up was an option that existed. But a knight doesn't give up so easily.
Oscar was already forming a crystal clone, the copy launching toward the nearest sealing tag with a crystal shuriken raised. Hiruzen stepped in front of it. A kunai redirected the shuriken wide. Oscar sent a wave of crystal shards toward the second tag. An earth wall. Every time Oscar went for the tags, Hiruzen blocked it.
Seeing his partner fighting, Naruto decided his incomplete whistle technique.
The result was the same as last time. His throat tore from the inside as the boy vomited out blood.
"Naruto." Hiruzen turned at the sound, alarm crossing his face. "What are you doing? Stop trying to push air through your vocal cords. A whistle isn't made there. You force air through a constricted opening between your lips. That's where the whistle comes from."
Naruto made a series of strange noises that communicated processing, understanding and then the specific excitement of someone who had just realized what they had been doing wrong.
He pushed air through his mouth like how you'd do the fireball.
Naruto changed the air as it moved through the gap into wind chakra. Using sound as a medium, a thin invisible blade of wind cut through nearest sealing tag.
The ethereal hand flickered.
Naruto hit the ground on both feet and raised both arms above his head. His vocal cords were gone. So the cheer came out, more of an enthusiastic exhalation with pride behind it.
Oscar looked at him.
Naruto pointed at the tag on the ground, then at his mouth, then gave a thumbs up.
Oscar chirped in acknowledgment before seeing two rings appearing on Naruto's fingers.
The Red Tearstone Ring.
The Blue Tearstone Ring.
A red and blue aura formed around Naruto's body. Before a second skin of purple formed in response to low HP.
So that red is what Guren mistook for the Kyuubi's chakra? Hiruzen thought and watched Naruto exchange the Zweihander for the Black Knight Halberd. That weapon made Hiruzen's skin crawl.
Oscar lowered himself.
Naruto backflipped onto his back without looking, bringing the halberd across his body in a loose ready grip.
Hiruzen exhaled and decided to see where this went.
The duo rushed forward.
Hiruzen sensed the chakra spike before he saw the movement. The specific compressed bloom of a Shadow Clone forming, but the direction was... above.
He threw himself sideways.
A clone of Naruto and Oscar hit the ground where he had been standing with enough force to crack the compacted rock.
The trick was the hair clone principle inverted. Hiruzen had dropped his hair clones from the air, attacking from angles the enemy defenses couldn't naturally cover. Naruto had watched it and understood the underlying logic immediately. By applying it to Shadow Clones through one-handed seals mid-charge, pushing the clone's formation point to a position near the target so that the arrival came from the one direction a shinobi's attention naturally abandoned when tracking an incoming threat.
Straightforward. Elegant. Extremely dangerous against anyone who hadn't seen it before.
The real Naruto and Oscar came in from the left flank. Hiruzen tracked them and felt the chakra spike again. A different direction this time, low and to his right, and the clone hit the ground on his right side simultaneously with Oscar's approach. The halberd swinging in a wide lateral arc at hip height that covered the full right side of the zone. He stepped into the swing, body flickering through the inside of the arc, coming up at Oscar's front shoulder where the reach couldn't follow.
Oscar reared.
The halberd came down in a rearing slam, driving toward the ground, and Hiruzen stepped right to clear the shockwave. He got one hit against Oscar's shoulder while the lizard was still ascending.
Behind him and above.
He ducked without turning. The clone's counterclockwise swing passed over his head close enough that the wind from it moved his hair. He flickered left, creating distance, watching the duo reset.
He was starting to map the sequence.
Each attack was positioned to close a specific option. The clone on the right forced him left. The left approach forced him right into the clone. The rearing slam herded him forward into whatever was already forming ahead of him. The pattern was not random. Every move was a wall being built around him one panel at a time.
Naruto urged Oscar into a full charge.
In the span of twelve exchanges Naruto had formed eight clones from eight different formation points. Above. Below at an angle. Behind at ground level. Dropping from the left mid-charge. Rising from the right during a rearing move. Forming directly ahead during the retreat window. Each one placed at the specific angle that the previous attack's dodge made available, the clone appearing in the exact space that Hiruzen's response to the main attack had just moved him toward.
Against a lesser shinobi, the sequence would have ended inside the first exchange.
The old Kage knew the duo were at their strongest here, so he dodged without attacking. He wanted to see how Naruto would react when he didn't bother even using ninjutsu.
"Plan B." He called out.
The clones on all flanks stopped their approach simultaneously and cast Hidden Body Spell. They turned invisible and the beach suddenly feeling emptier than it was.
"I genuinely feel sorry for whoever draws you in the Chunin Exams." Hiruzen said shaking his head. He reached into his pouch and pulled out a handful of kunai. Even if the enemy was invisible, Hiruzen had honed his senses to be able to fight even if he was completely blinded.
He threw the kunais.
Cling. Clang. Cling.
The blades bounced off each other in mid-air, and the shadow clones they hit burst into smoke one after another as the impacts found them. Hiruzen used other cues like the air being displacement, soul of steps being taken or even the built up of chakra.
But Hiruzen knew that he had missed the original.
He went still while listening and found nothing for a full minute.
Hiruzen looked around in all direction becuase he caught it.
A interaction of light that was wrong. A bend at the edge of his vision, a strange distortion of something that should not have been in the air interrupting the way the sky looked behind it.
When did Naruto learn to fly? Hiruzen wondered. He wouldn't be surprised, but still.
The Hidden Body Spell ran out as the old man watched with his jaw dropping at how Naruto was flying. His red hair stretched outward in long ropes that ran to the cliffside in both directions. The strands anchored to the rock face and holding his entire body suspended above the beach. His legs were locked around Oscar's massive form, the crystal lizard's ravenous state hanging beneath him, held up by Naruto's core and legs alone.
This was a comical yet serious sight.
Hiruzen tried not to laugh but focused on the fact that Naruto was channeling chakra into Oscar with his hands.
The buildup was so significant that Hiruzen's instincts told him to stop it.
His assessment told him that jumping toward them would allow him to get him. With no way to know what it was, Hiruzen decided to not take the chance
He had one technique he hadn't used in this spar and had not planned to use. A technique he didn't use in normal combat because the vulnerability it created was absolute.
He reached for it anyway.
"Ninja Art: Ghost Transformation Jutsu."
The technique that allowed the user's soul to leave the body entirely, becoming an apparition capable of possession, capable of suppressing the target's own spirit and collapsing it from within. The physical body it left behind was helpless. That was the bargain the technique required and the reason he kept it as a last resort.
The apparition of the Third Hokage tore free of his body and moved toward Naruto.
"Wait... there are soul jutsu?"
Naruto's brain finally connected the dots.
"...Oh."
"...OH."
"...I'M AN IDIOT!"
"I didn't weave hand signs. I didn't control the flow. I just shoved raw chakra into soul sorcery and hoped for the best!" He slapped a hand over his face. "I basically looked at two different systems and said, 'Fight.'"
He groaned loud enough to annoy Oscar.
"Dammit."
A one handed Shadow Clone jumped toward the ghost, and Hiruzen watched it come without concern. Ghost Transformation Jutsu wasn't something that could be physically interacted with. That was the fundamental nature of the technique.
Slice.
The clone stabbed Hiruzen's ghost form.
It was not pain the way physical pain was pain. What happened when the blade connected was that the soul becaming briefly, completely aware of its own shape. The boundary between self and not-self sharpened into something razor thin and unknown. The violation of a border that was supposed to be inviolable. It spread from the point of contact outward through his spirit the way dye spread through water, changing the color of everything it reached.
"...how?"
"I have fought ghosts in Lordran." The clone said takibg out the soul daggrr. "I have weapons that cut the soul."
Hiruzen's spirit was dragged back to his body like a hooked fish being pulled upstream. The reconnection was not gentle. He hit the ground and coughed up blood. The physical body registering the spiritual damage in the only language it had available.
This is what I get.
Hiruzen had known better than to underestimate the boy. He had done like any average shinobi. By assuming the limits of their own toolkit were the limits of the encounter. Ghost Transformation Jutsu had no counter ever discovered in the Elemental Nations. He had simply assumed that was still true.
He raised his head.
Naruto and Oscar had a clear shot. Naruto's chakra and Oscar's breath attack combined into a single beam. The two energies braided around each other, and it came down from the sky with the weight of everything that had been charged into it.
"Goddamnit, Hiruzen. You're embarrassing yourself."
Enma's voice came from the cliff above as the monkey king jumped.
"Ninja Art of Transformation: Adamantine Staff."
The monkey king became a staff in mid-air. Glossy black with a metallic finish, gold caps on both ends. Hiruzen caught it on instinct and he took one step forward. He extended it toward the incoming beam.
Enma lengthened.
The tip of the staff met the beam and the impact came up through the metal and into Hiruzen's hands. The force of it continuous and building. Enma roared from pain as he still pushed back.
The beam deflected against the adamantine surface and spread. The beam began searing lines into the cliff face and the water. Hiruzen set his feet deeper into the sand and leaned into it. He felt his age in his chakra reserves in a way he did not often let himself feel.
Still the old man pulled every last scrap of chakra he had and pushed on.
The staff won the exchange.
As it smashed through Oscar's ravenous crystal skull and hit Naruto in the same continuous motion. The duo went flew into the ocean was a giant detonation of force.
Hiruzen lowered the staff.
Enma reformed beside him in silence, looking at the water, then at Hiruzen who was using the Mystical Palm Jutsu to heal himself.
"You really let yourself go." He said. "If some kid can reduce you to that state."
"I was caught off guard once." Hiruzen said. He heard the excuse in it as he said it.
"Once is all it takes," Enma said. He looked at the water again. "You picked a student that is like you. He fights melee with a partner while dipping his toes into most shinobi arts. It's like looking at your tiny mirror self."
"I can see it," Hiruzen nodded. "Even without me, it would take the boy a few years at most to surpass my prime on his own. That's how much potential he has."
He said it with a smile.
On the beach, two shapes washed up with the next wave. Naruto on his back with Oscar unconscious on his chest.
"I lost."
"There is no shame in it." Hiruzen said, walking over. "You learn as much from losing as you do from winning. Sometimes more."
Naruto was quiet for a moment. He reached into his inventory and uncorked an Estus flask. The golden light moving through him and Oscar both.
"How did I do?"
"Naruto." Hiruzen said, and paused in the way he paused when he was choosing the exact weight of the next words. "You are jonin level. But you are not jonin level."
Naruto sat up slowly.
"What does that mean?"
Hiruzen turned and walked back toward the palace with Enma.
"You need to find the answer yourself."
Naruto closed his eyes and laid there.
"I am jonin level but I am not jonin level."
It did not make more sense the first time.
"I am jonin level but I am not jonin level."
Still nothing.
Oscar opened one eye, looked at him, and closed it again.
"I am jonin level but I am not jonin level."
The ocean rolled in and covered his boots and pulled back out.
It still didn"t make sense the third time he said it. Naruto just concluded that Hiruzen was just suffering from dementia.
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Author Note: With that, this spar is done. Let me know what you guys think.
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Q: How can Naruto be in the Chunin Exams if he is on the same level as Jiraiya and Hiruzen?
This came up in a few reviews and I want to clear it up.
Naruto is not on the level of Hiruzen or Jiraiya.
Against Jiraiya, Naruto got his ass kicked. Against Hiruzen, the old man was teaching and testing him, deliberately bringing himself down to Naruto's level rather than fighting at full capacity. I feel like the chapter made that fairly clear, but just in case it didn't, now it is.
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Q: Does Hiruzen use Shadow Clones in battle?
This is my own headcanon but I genuinely believe Hiruzen is the second best Shadow Clone user in the series outside of Naruto. Tobirama invented the technique but doesn't lean on it heavily in combat. Hiruzen canonically uses clones to match Guruguru Zetsu with elemental techniques and uses the Reaper Death Seal with clones.
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Q: Is Mount Huaguo a reference to Sun Wukong?
Yes. Mount Huaguo is the legendary birthplace and home of the Monkey King in Chinese mythology. Since Enma is already a reference to Wukong, I wanted to push that further and give the monkey clan their own equivalent of Mt. Myoboku. It felt like a natural fit.
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Q: Is the Hair Clone a reference to Sun Wukong?
Yes.
In the original 16th century novel Journey to the West, Sun Wukong's hair cloning ability is called the Method of the Body Beyond the Body. Because he achieved Taoist immortality, every one of the 84,000 hairs on his body is infused with immortal breath and can transform into whatever he desires.
I wanted to use this as a way to show how Hiruzen surpassed Tobirama by developing his own original jutsu rather than just mastering what came before him. And as a bonus headcanon for this fic, feel free to imagine Hiruzen taughts hair techniques to Jiraiya.
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Q: Fire Style: Smoking Illusion of Buddha's Palm. Is this a reference to Sun Wukong? Is it even possible?
The reference should be obvious but I'll explain it anyway because the original myth is genuinely one of the best scenes in Journey to the West.
When Sun Wukong demanded the Jade Emperor's throne, the Buddha intervened and offered a wager. If Wukong could leap entirely out of his palm, he could rule the cosmos. Confident in his ability to travel 108,000 leagues in a single somersault, Wukong flew to what he believed was the edge of the universe, found five massive pillars, wrote his name on one of them, and returned to claim victory. The Buddha then opened his hand and revealed that Wukong had never left his palm at all. The pillars were his fingers. The Buddha then flipped his hand, cast Wukong down to earth, and sealed him under a mountain for five hundred years.
As for whether the technique is possible in Naruto, yes. The Lightning Release: Lightning Illusion Flash of Lightning Pillar is a canon genjutsu that uses lightning-natured chakra to disorient targets and implant images. I made a fire style version of that principle.
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Q: Can Ghost Daggers counter Edo Tensei?
When the ghost daggers first appeared this was the most frequently asked question I got, and trying to find a canon adjacent answer is actually what led me to discover the Ghost Transformation Jutsu, which is Dan Kato's technique. Tsunade's lover. Look it up because it is genuinely one of the most insane jutsu in the series.
To answer the question directly, ghost daggers do extra damage to Edo Tensei revenants but they don't hard counter the technique. The soul is still bound. The damage is real but it isn't a clean solution.
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Q: Can Hiruzen instantly deduce the impending technique simply from the hand seals?
This is actually canon.
In the fourth and latest databook, Jin no Sho, it is stated that Hiruzen could instantly deduce any impending technique simply from observing the hand seals. Even when he encountered something entirely new, like the Truth-Seeking Balls, he could discern their attributes and limitations from a brief observation alone.
This leads me to a headcanon I have been sitting on for a while.
Why is Hiruzen called the God of Shinobi?
Compared to Hashirama, Hiruzen is lacking. But he is the only other shinobi to ever carry that title. You can argue Hashirama was retconned into being the god of shinobi, but ultimately it is a title. And titles come from somewhere. So rather than looking at it from a meta perspective, let us look at it from an in universe one.
Why would people inside the world of Naruto call someone the God of Shinobi?
The average shinobi did not watch Hashirama versus Madara at the Final Valley. Their understanding of who deserves that title comes from rumours, word of mouth, and feats the world actually witnessed. So what did the world witness from Hiruzen?
From the perspective of the average ninja, Hiruzen is the longest reigning Hokage in Konoha history. He led the village through two wars. He was a direct student of both Hashirama and Tobirama. He trained the Sannin. He is known for having mastered all five chakra natures and learning every jutsu in Konoha ( doesn't matter if he has or not, they would hear rumours about it ). He is an expert across almost every form of shinobi combat.
Now take all of that and imagine the reports coming back from shinobi who actually fought him.
He countered every jutsu they threw before they finished the hand seals. He seemed to already know what they were going to do before they did it. To anyone on the receiving end of that, Hiruzen is like a god. Someone who has already seen everything and already has an answer for everything.
Yes, we as the audience know that Hashirama surpasses him. We know there are dozens of characters stronger than Hiruzen. But in universe, to the average shinobi who never fought Hashirama and never will, Hiruzen is the closest to a god of shinobi. Hence the title.
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That's It… For Now.
I want to thank you all for taking the time to read, comment, and follow along with this story. Your feedback means more than you know, and it helps push me to make each chapter bigger, sharper, and more true to the worlds of Naruto and Dark Souls.
Until next time,
Praise the Sun.
\-Adam-/
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[ Personal Note: First off, thanks a ton to all of you for sticking with this story. Seriously, you guys are awesome. Now, if you're interested in supporting me on P@treon, let me just say that over there, I post these massive 15k-word chapters. But heads up, if you're jumping to P@treon, you'll need to start from Chapter 102, since that's where this chapter lines up with the content there.
To everyone here just reading along, please don't forget to leave a comment! Honestly, your comments make my day, and they let me know you're as invested in this story as I am. So yeah, thanks again, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day!