A short sword pierced Yūshin's shoulder from behind, but its tip was blocked by the inner surface of his chest armor. The collision produced a teeth-grinding, sharp metallic scraping sound.
Yūshin violently slapped his left hand against the chest armor at his left shoulder. The tremendous force directly knocked the blade stuck in his body backward, while he twisted right. Scorching steam erupted from his right arm guard—internal and external forces working together for a lightning-fast backhand strike.
However, he struck empty air.
He had charged out intending to seize the initiative and eliminate an enemy, but unexpectedly, he didn't even touch the enemy and instead took a blade himself.
This left Tobirama Senju somewhat puzzled... Are you here to save the day or to provide comic relief?
The problem was this enemy's speed was too fast, making Yūshin appear rather clumsy. After receiving Tobirama Senju's warning, he understood the enemy's identity, origins, and special abilities.
Swift Release, as the name suggests, is a Kekkei Genkai that can establish speed advantages.
Connecting this to the phrase "swift as wind and thunder, fast as flowing water," "fast as flowing water" refers to Storm Release—a Kekkei Genkai formed by fusing Water and Lightning Release chakra.
So "swift as wind and thunder" refers to Swift Release, meaning Swift Release requires Wind and Lightning chakra attributes?
As for the Hagoromo Clan, with Tobirama Senju's reminder, Yūshin recalled part of the plot.
Once, when the invincible Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha were young, they had witnessed together a scene of "the deceased flowing like water, never ceasing day or night."
Translated, this means "the benevolent are invincible—just sit by the river and enemy corpses will float by day and night."
The corpse floating by in that scene was a Hagoromo Clan ninja.
Furthermore, Yūshin remembered seeing the Hagoromo Clan's emblem about a year ago... still in "Big Brother Town." When he went to rescue Chihori, there was a particularly arrogant fellow who actively sought death just as he was about to be saved, and then died.
That fool seemed to be saying he came from some great ninja clan? So this so-called great ninja clan was the Hagoromo Clan?
You could only say that people's qualities can't be generalized, and individual strength within elite groups varies greatly—even the most powerful ninja clans have stains, fools, and weaklings.
Or perhaps it's precisely because they're born into powerful ninja clans that the incompetent ones become more easily highlighted.
That ninja had only given Yūshin the impression of a "paramecium, capable only of simple life activities." That guy was completely different from these Hagoromo Clan ninja before him.
The Hagoromo Clan was undoubtedly a powerful ninja clan, not even considering the two Kekkei Genkai they mastered.
On one hand, they maintained good relations with the Uchiha Clan—after all, with the Uchiha's strength and proud attitude, they couldn't possibly play with weaklings.
On the other hand, Tobirama Senju's two younger brothers died at Uchiha and Hagoromo hands respectively. Weaklings wouldn't dare directly face the Forest Senju... although what the Hagoromo Clan did was "beating up kindergarteners"—numerous adult ninja surrounding and killing the seven-year-old Senju Wama.
Finally, from the surname Hagoromo alone, you could see where the blood flowing in these people's bodies originated.
But you couldn't blame Yūshin for having little impression of this clan, because even now when he carefully recalled, he could only find that the Hagoromo Clan's great achievements in his memory were just killing Senju Wama and joining with the Uchiha to kill Senju Banma... Honestly, it was somewhat embarrassing, wasn't it?
But regardless, the alliances and subsequent conflicts between Uchiha and Hagoromo, Senju and Hyūga—this form of warfare involving coalitions beyond single ninja clans—almost represented future development trends and could even be seen as the origin of the ninja village system... if you didn't count Yūshin's Fireflies organization.
But compared to the Fireflies leader who was striding forward boldly, this alliance method seemed too petty.
Most of the time, Tobirama Senju was rational, cunning, and liked calculating gains and losses, but only when facing Uchiha and Hagoromo would he become full of hostility, overly emotional, even falling into situations where emotion dominated reason.
Because the current ninja clan leaders, whether Tajima Uchiha or Senju Butsuma, were essentially no different. Their leadership methods were simple, crude, brutal, and cold-blooded, treating sacrifice as nothing.
Compared to such elders, brotherhood was actually more genuine. Whether Madara Uchiha, Hashirama Senju, or Tobirama Senju, they often loved their brothers more than their fathers.
If their father died, it actually didn't matter much, but if a brother died, that was truly heartbreaking.
Long ago, Tobirama Senju had ideas about forming alliances with other ninja clans to avoid endless wars, but after both his younger brothers died, he could no longer easily speak such words.
The naturally evil Hagoromo Clan and the naturally more evil Uchiha Clan were both tumors of the Shinobi World. Only by completely eliminating them could the Senju Clan have a day of peace... Such vows were recorded in Tobirama Senju's little notebook.
However...
Thinking about it this way, the unreasonable aspects of certain later ninja stemmed from bloodline inheritance—like Tsunade, like Itachi Uchiha. The difference was the former's condition was very mild, while the latter was terminally ill.
Tobirama Senju didn't know how long a mental journey Yūshin had completed in an instant. He forced back the enemy before him and shouted loudly to Yūshin:
"Can you handle this or not?"
Yūshin certainly had no problem. In fact, the wound on his shoulder had already begun healing. His current recovery ability, if not comparable to Hashirama Senju's "seal-less self-healing," was at least equivalent to Naruto enhanced by Nine-Tails chakra, and without side effects.
So he ignored this pointless question and asked Tobirama Senju: "Do all these guys excel at two Kekkei Genkai?"
"No, although most of them possess Wind, Water, and Lightning attributes, some excel at Swift Release, some at Storm Release, and only a few have both Kekkei Genkai," Tobirama Senju said.
Why did it sound like the Hagoromo Clan's Kekkei Genkai awakening rate was even higher than the Uchiha Clan's eye-opening rate? Yūshin again raised his vigilance toward these enemies.
"What about your... Body Flicker Technique? Why are you being suppressed? Are you not fast enough?"
Yūshin actually wanted to ask "Where's your Flying Thunder God?" but the current Tobirama Senju didn't seem to know Flying Thunder God, so he had to change his words temporarily.
Tobirama Senju was already holding back anger and was nearly stimulated to confusion by Yūshin's question. His face flushed red, but he couldn't refute... Of course, no matter how fast Body Flicker Technique is, it can't be faster than Swift Release.
During their conversation, Tobirama Senju could still maneuver against enemies using his skillful Body Flicker Technique, while Yūshin once again punched empty air fiercely.
Am I... too stupid?
The speed disadvantage was too obvious. Yūshin only felt like a swarm of mosquitoes was circling around him. His strength had nowhere to be applied, but the mosquitoes could occasionally rush over for a bite.
It seemed seeking direct combat was a wrong decision. Yūshin felt he should have acted covertly.
The enemies had very rich combat experience. They immediately discovered that Yūshin was just a clumsy cannon platform role. Although he looked quite powerful, what use was it if he couldn't hit anyone?
Moreover, since Yūshin was even less agile than Tobirama Senju, he gradually became the main damage-taking unit between the two, forced to take on the "tank" role.
Damn Tobirama—it doesn't matter if you're slower than the enemy, as long as you're faster than your teammate, right?
Bang!
With a sticky flesh-piercing sound, Yūshin felt sharp pain in his thigh. Looking down, he found something had penetrated his thigh.
Looking backward from the wound, he discovered the "murder weapon"... it was just a steel ball.
A young Hagoromo Clan ninja, maintaining distance over twenty meters away, kept changing positions while using a special weapon to launch sneak attacks.
A... slingshot?
This person wore a malicious smile, continuously using the slingshot to shoot Yūshin's limbs and back. He utilized Swift Release ability to continuously toy with the "prey" struggling helplessly.
All his behavior seemed to say he came to the battlefield not to kill enemies, but because doing certain things was very interesting.
Honestly, Yūshin had always maintained a relatively rational attitude toward war. On the battlefield, win and you live, lose due to inferior skills and you reincarnate quickly. His thoughts about enemies at most only reached hatred.
You could say he rarely felt irritated or disgusted toward enemies.
Are you fucking sick?
Tobirama Senju was right—there really are naturally evil brats in this world.
After adapting for a while, Yūshin could gradually track Swift Release trajectories... After all, the enemy kept moving within his sensory range. No matter how stupid he was, he could collect some combat information.
Swift Release wasn't Flying Thunder God after all. Flying Thunder God is a space-time ninjutsu with only beginning and ending points, no intermediate movement process.
But Swift Release was different. Swift Release ninja just ran a bit faster, but no matter how fast they ran, they still had physical form during movement.
Taking advantage of that slingshot kid changing positions again, Yūshin "pre-aimed" while gathering large amounts of chakra toward his legs.
Now's the time.
Just as the opponent stopped again, driven by erupting steam, Yūshin suddenly kicked toward the ground in front of him.
Large amounts of debris and soil shot forward like shrapnel at extremely high speed toward the fan-shaped area ahead. At this point, even if that enemy wanted to use Swift Release to change positions again, he couldn't escape Yūshin's attack range.
Had enough yet?
Continuous flesh-piercing sounds came. No matter how many steel balls this enemy had just shot into Yūshin, Yūshin now returned them with interest.
This person instantly became a bloody gourd, standing there dazed. He looked miserable, but since Yūshin's attack was very scattered, the enemy was severely injured but not necessarily fatally.
However, in this moment of distraction, Tobirama Senju appeared behind the opponent and skillfully slit his throat with a kunai.
Now this person had truly had enough.
You could only say, worthy of Tobirama Senju—truly excellent at finishing blows.
This sudden scene made a certain ninja among the enemies furious with rage. He somewhat lost his reason and charged straight toward Yūshin.
Clang!
Yūshin used a short sword to block the enemy's kunai. The opponent wanted to use brute force to press down the blade's edge, but no matter how hard he tried, his weapon couldn't advance even half an inch.
Yūshin tilted his head, used his chin to point toward where the evil brat's corpse lay, then asked:
"Your son?"
That ninja glanced at the mark on Yūshin's short sword and asked through gritted teeth:
"Sarutobi Clan?"
As everyone knows, the Sarutobi Clan maintains good relations with the Senju Clan, so Sarutobi Clan coming to rescue Tobirama Senju was reasonable... But he didn't think that if Yūshin were really a Sarutobi ninja, how could he be so ignorant about the Hagoromo Clan?
But since the enemy dared make a judgment, Yūshin dared accept it.
"Mm, I'm Sasuke Sarutobi's younger brother, Yūsuke Sarutobi."
While he spoke, the enemy suddenly threw a punch, which Yūshin caught with his armored right hand—such a monotonous and weak attack.
"Die, Yūsuke Sarutobi!"
The next moment, brilliant blue lightning erupted from this ninja, following his fist and beginning to penetrate toward Yūshin's body.
This was a Storm Release taijutsu, similar to Lightning Release's Chidori Stream, but due to Storm Release's characteristics, it had stronger controllability and directional properties.
Yūshin instantly felt his body go soft, half his body electrocuted to a crisp.
However, fortunately, while the enemy attacked, Yūshin had already prepared his own technique first.
The moment before he met the enemy's fist with one hand, he had already taken several deep breaths. Now was the time to exhale!
Bang!
A large cloud of acid mist shot straight at the enemy's face like an arrow. In the blink of an eye, this person's facial features began dissolving, making it impossible for him to even scream.
The more painful he was, the more violently he struggled.
The more violently he struggled, the more rapidly he had to breathe.
Unfortunately, in front of Yūshin, the more you gasp and show off your lung capacity, the faster you die.
Acid mist instantly flooded this ninja's lungs. After burning his lungs full of holes, it began spreading widely through his chest cavity.
In just such a brief moment, he was dead beyond saving.
Kekkei Genkai? As if anyone doesn't know them. Although Yūshin only had one Kekkei Genkai, this Kekkei Genkai had two usage methods... No matter how fast your speed, what use is it against large-area acid mist?
"Don't you know our Sarutobi Clan excels at Fire Release? This move... uh, Fire Release: Ash Burn—how's the power?"
Ash Burn was a ninjutsu developed by a Sarutobi smoker in later generations, a move demonstrating "we smokers have power." It didn't exist in this era, so Yūshin could make things up without problems.
"If the one who just died was your son, then that's truly unfortunate. Sorry, all I can do is reunite your family once more—nothing more."
Tobirama Senju over there finally couldn't hold back. He said:
"That's about enough. The battle isn't over yet."
How could Yūshin impersonate a Sarutobi Clan ninja in front of him? The Senju and Sarutobi had very good relations. Tobirama Senju didn't want to cause trouble for the Sarutobi Clan for no reason.
He understood why Yūshin put on a disguise, and given that Yūshin came to help him, he couldn't directly expose Yūshin's true identity.
What does this have to do with the Sarutobi Clan? Tobirama Senju would rather Yūshin impersonate a Senju Clan ninja at this moment.
You could only say Tobirama Senju's considerations were very rational, instinctively protecting Senju and Sarutobi relations.
However...
What does any of this have to do with Yūshin?
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