"Is it possible to annihilate all these enemies?" Yūshin turned and asked Tobirama Senju.
With the enemies having a speed advantage, they essentially held the initiative in battle. Compared to Yūshin and Tobirama's duo, the Hagoromo Clan could roughly be compared to cavalry versus infantry—whether to fight or retreat was naturally up to the former.
The enemy's individual strength was quite good, and they held an absolute numerical advantage. Even if Yūshin and Tobirama eliminated several enemies, it wouldn't change their situation of being surrounded.
Under these circumstances, talking about annihilating all enemies was naturally a fool's dream.
However, Tobirama immediately understood Yūshin's real meaning and said: "Can't be done."
Yūshin's true question was asking whether Tobirama Senju could get support from the Senju Clan in a short time—preferably someone named Hashirama—but Tobirama's answer was clear: support? There would be no support.
Then they had to consider retreating... Yūshin thought silently.
The current battle didn't concern Yūshin's core interests, so he had no need to fight desperately with these ninja here—it simply wasn't worth it.
His purpose was merely to save Tobirama—such a goal was obviously much more realistic.
You couldn't blame Yūshin for having blind confidence in Hashirama Senju's strength. In fact, when the Senju brothers' father was naming his children, he had clearly indicated who could become the towering pillar supporting the entire Senju Clan.
Hashirama, Tobirama, Banma, Wama—these four brothers were obviously a family of "building materials." "Hashira" (pillar) was naturally the main support beam; without the "pillar," the "doors," "planks," and "tiles" definitely wouldn't work.
Without him, this house would collapse.
Tobirama Senju watched the white vapor continuously emanating from half of Yūshin's body. This was clearly different from the initial steam—it was some kind of change brought about by highly activated cells.
Tobirama wasn't unfamiliar with this scene, because he often saw similar sights on his big brother.
In his perception, a high-density life energy was gathering in half of Yūshin's body, repairing the injuries caused by the enemy's Storm Release at extremely high speed.
Something's not right with you, is it?
Tobirama could understand and wouldn't find it problematic if this happened to his big brother, but why did Yūshin have such strong self-healing ability?
It had only been about ten months since Tobirama last encountered Yūshin. What kind of weakling was Yūshin back then? You could say he was almost completely useless except for sneak attacks. But what about the current Yūshin?
Did he take growth hormones? Or was he injected with particularly high-quality organic fertilizer?
"Want to give it a try?"
Because Yūshin's strength exceeded expectations, Tobirama Senju wanted to test whether they could completely eliminate the enemies here, while also wanting to further observe Yūshin's capabilities.
"Try what? Pull off one more big job, then retreat!"
Yūshin thought to himself: I came to save your life, not to risk mine for you. However, having him retreat in such a sorry state also made Yūshin feel somewhat unwilling... Although retreating was important, he wanted to bite off another chunk of flesh from the enemy first.
"Alright."
Tobirama couldn't demand anything from Yūshin, and he also knew his earlier idea was too unrealistic.
After unifying their thoughts, Tobirama charged straight toward a certain enemy. You could say he was cunning—after understanding Yūshin's meaning, he was very calculating when selecting targets.
First, this enemy had high status and strong abilities, being one of the main commanders among the enemies here.
Second, this person didn't know Swift Release, making him a quality target.
Yūshin watched Tobirama Senju's movements, understood what to do next, and began maneuvering with the surrounding Hagoromo ninja while secretly accumulating chakra.
After continuously adjusting enemy and ally positions, he suddenly released large amounts of acid mist again.
But such ninjutsu only achieved maximum combat effectiveness when used for the first time, catching opponents off guard. Now these enemies had all witnessed this technique's insidious nature, so they immediately chose to retreat.
However, after forcing them back, Yūshin's purpose was achieved.
Boom!
With a tremendous sound, massive amounts of steam erupted, and Yūshin shot out diagonally like he was sitting in a guided missile seat!
And his attack direction, needless to say, was toward Tobirama Senju's position not far away.
Momentum, speed, power—after everything climbed to its limit, Yūshin no longer needed superfluous attack movements. Simple and direct was most lethal; otherwise it would be gilding the lily.
Precisely because he appeared clumsy, once he charged up, he became unstoppable.
Yūshin adjusted his body position, raising his right arm horizontally to shoulder height, right hand clenched in a fist, elbow bent forward in an arc.
The target enemy naturally noticed Yūshin's movement, but just as he wanted to dodge sideways, Tobirama Senju extended both hands to brace against his back.
Bang!
Yūshin's armored right arm was merely a blunt blade that could never be sharp, but under his unstoppable momentum, it instantly severed the enemy's neck, causing his skull to crash violently against his spine.
After one strike, he lowered his body and passed by the enemy's side, digging his feet into the soil to resist his own inertia with all his might.
Tobirama Senju's cooperation just now was quite good, but obviously wasn't the kind of cooperation Yūshin wanted. You could only say the two sides had no coordination whatsoever... This was clearly a chance to use the combination technique "Double Lariat," but Tobirama wasted it.
Forget it. Since Double Lariat didn't work, Yūshin would just consider his move "Heavenly Tyrant Horizontal Blast."
After stopping his body, Yūshin quickly returned. After reaching Tobirama Senju's side, he pressed down on the other's shoulder:
"Lend me some chakra."
Tobirama Senju was stunned. Borrowing chakra from a severely wounded person—wasn't that a bit inhumane?
Moreover, Yūshin wasn't borrowing; he was clearly robbing.
But Yūshin had no choice. Wide-range release of techniques like "Skillful Mist Technique" was already very chakra-consuming, and Yūshin needed to maintain control over the acid mist, requiring him to mix in even more of his own chakra, or else he might harm both friend and foe... So chakra consumption directly doubled.
Additionally, he wanted to maintain his own combat power and thus didn't want to over-consume his own chakra.
With a "mobile power source" right beside him, why not use it? Consider it protection money.
Hiss... hiss...
As the uncomfortable sound continued, acid mist covered this battlefield on a large scale.
Taking this opportunity, Yūshin quickly withdrew with Tobirama Senju. The latter could even take advantage to bring along his fallen comrade's corpse, while Yūshin also swiftly collected two "experimental materials."
However, Tobirama Senju was already in terrible condition, and after Yūshin's ruthless plundering of his remaining chakra, he could barely hold on by the time they retreated to the battlefield's edge.
Fortunately, Yūshin had someone responsible for backup. He paused for five seconds and swiftly stuffed the experimental materials into storage scrolls.
Akimichi Ninsei carried Tobirama Senju on his back, while Tobirama still carried his clansman's corpse behind him. The scene was tragic but also somewhat comical.
Tobirama Senju remained conscious. Yūshin naturally couldn't touch the Senju clansman's corpse, so the three of them retreated rapidly southward.
...
"That's enough, let's rest for a bit." After running for quite a while, Tobirama Senju spoke up.
Not knowing whether his sensory abilities could still be as reliable as normal after nearly exhausting his chakra.
But regardless, Tobirama was the only one among the three with long-distance sensory abilities, so naturally they followed his judgment at this time.
Yūshin helped unload that Senju ninja's corpse. Tobirama struggled to climb down from Akimichi Ninsei's back, then leaned against a rock and began treating his own wounds.
"Thank you very much for your help... One should look at others with fresh eyes after three days apart. It hasn't even been a year, yet I didn't expect your strength to improve so remarkably."
Although Tobirama was flustered, he still earnestly thanked Yūshin.
Akimichi Ninsei looked at Yūshin. He knew Yūshin could use medical ninjutsu, but didn't understand why Yūshin wouldn't directly provide help to the injured.
Wasn't this person supposed to be important?
Having no choice, he could only step forward actively to help Tobirama treat his wounds.
"Thank you." Tobirama also thanked Akimichi Ninsei.
Akimichi Ninsei just shook his head. Not understanding Yūshin's intentions, he simply spoke less to avoid disrupting Yūshin's plans.
"Along the way, I've received quite a bit of... well, help from people."
Yūshin spoke ambiguously, but Tobirama was a smart person, so Yūshin's specific growth reasons could be completely left to Tobirama's imagination to explain.
Tobirama indeed stopped inquiring about this aspect and began probing indirectly:
"The ability you just used—if we saw correctly—should be Kekkei Genkai: Boil Release, right?"
Yūshin nodded and said: "Correct. The two techniques I used are called 'Mihane String: Arrow Flame' and 'Mihane String: Etch.' They both belong to different applications of Boil Release."
Actually, they were "Unmatched Strength" and "Skillful Mist Technique," but since Yūshin was the first to use these techniques, he had naming rights. After naming them, he explained he was using authentic ninjutsu.
Actually, after learning Kekkei Genkai, Yūshin's use of regular escape techniques in combat greatly decreased. His fighting style was transforming toward the "ordinary and unremarkable" direction he anticipated.
His previously beloved Water Severing Wave didn't seem as appealing as before.
Tobirama Senju nodded silently. He appreciated Yūshin's frankness while also being pleased to gather new intelligence.
Honestly, he was the type with particularly deep thoughts and severe paranoia. Very few people could gain his complete trust, so even though Yūshin was his temporary teammate, he hoped to understand Yūshin's capabilities as much as possible.
Yūshin roughly understood the other's thoughts but didn't mind. However, at this moment, he felt Tobirama Senju's personality was very representative, even somewhat similar to certain other fictional characters.
For example, Tobirama at this moment wanted nothing more than to pull out a little notebook and write down something like "Yūshin's weakness is kryptonite" on the spot.
You could only say that people like Tobirama Senju probably couldn't make a single friend who truly understood him throughout their entire lives.
Yūshin felt very sad about this and even developed pity for Tobirama Senju.
However, when one person evaluates another, it's not necessarily "evaluation"—sometimes it's looking in a mirror.
Yūshin felt Tobirama Senju was the type who would die alone, but what about himself? Did he have or would he have any close friends?
Everyone was about the same—nobody should criticize anybody else.
As Tobirama Senju chatted, his hand speed ultimately couldn't match his bleeding rate. Before he knew it, he had fainted.
"Yūshin-sama, he's fainted." After confirming, Akimichi Ninsei said to Yūshin.
Yūshin nodded and said: "Good that he fainted."
Only then did he begin helping Tobirama Senju treat his injuries.
"Yūshin-sama, why didn't you act earlier?" Akimichi Ninsei made space beside Tobirama Senju for Yūshin, and finally couldn't help asking this.
"Because people don't chatter after they faint," Yūshin said.
However, the truth was that Yūshin hoped Tobirama Senju would be as miserable as possible without life-threatening danger.
The more miserable Tobirama Senju was, the greater Yūshin's help to him appeared, and the more favors Tobirama owed.
So fainting was better than staying conscious. If Yūshin didn't care for him now, wouldn't he possibly just die like this?
Saving once on the battlefield, then saving again afterward—didn't that mean Tobirama Senju owed Yūshin two lives?
Look, Yūshin understood how to make favors appreciate in value, with quite substantial appreciation.
So he really had been looking in a mirror all along. He considered Tobirama Senju cunning and psychologically dark, but he himself was no better—he might even be more cunning than Tobirama Senju.
After simply treating Tobirama Senju's injuries and confirming this person wouldn't wake up soon, Yūshin casually "packaged" the other Senju ninja's corpse and signaled Akimichi Ninsei to carry him again.
"Let's go, continue executing our mission."
"Huh? Taking someone like this to the Nara Clan?"
"Of course... it's fine. He can't possibly sabotage our mission anyway... Because of him, we've already wasted quite a bit of time. We need to act now."
What could Tobirama Senju sabotage? Even if he woke up halfway, Yūshin could slap him unconscious again.
"Under... understood."
...
Just as Yūshin's group set out again, two Senju Clan ninja appeared at the recent battlefield.
The leader was tall, plain-looking, wearing red armor, with a very distinctive hairstyle—smooth, straight black hair.
This person was none other than Hashirama Senju, whom Yūshin had been thinking about constantly.
"Is it over? Where are Tobirama and Himaru?" Hashirama Senju asked.
Since this was open terrain, Yūshin's acid mist showed effects of wide range but shallow depth on the environment. But regardless, not seeing Tobirama Senju, Hashirama Senju was somewhat anxious at this moment.
"Could they have been taken away by the Hagoromo Clan?"
Another Senju ninja said this.
"Haha... how is that possible... Pursue!"
Hashirama Senju's emotions went through ups and downs, and he finally launched a direct pursuit in the direction the main force had departed.
Who knew whether those Hagoromo Clan members' luck could surpass this era's protagonist... If they were lucky, Hashirama Senju might not catch up to them.
What about strength?
Well, strength wasn't convenient to compare.
Although the God of Shinobi wasn't yet the God of Shinobi, don't forget—Hashirama Senju was Asura's reincarnation.
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