"Naruto: My Ninja Skills"Chapter 183: Fragments (3)
After tearfully embracing his younger brother, Akimichi Nin-sei soon reunited with the rest of his family, naturally leading to another outpouring of genuine emotion.
Many hope that ninja could be as cold and ruthless as killing machines, but scenes like this prove that ninja are ultimately just human beings.
Incredibly fragile human beings, unable to escape the dominion of their emotions.
Three days later, news of a ninja transported from the past to the present through Space-Time Ninjutsu had reached nearly every ninja's ears in the village.
Upon hearing of this, Hashirama Senju made special time to personally receive Akimichi Nin-sei, subsequently granting this Fireflies elder official Konoha ninja status.
Such a miraculous event naturally attracted considerable attention, making Akimichi Nin-sei a ninja of considerable renown.
In Konoha Year Seventeen, Tobirama Senju—long considered a confirmed bachelor—finally had a daughter, whom he named "Hagūgen Aoi."
This was a landmark event, as his daughter chose her maternal surname over her paternal one... In fact, over these years, ninja bearing the Senju name had been gradually decreasing.
Clearly, the Senju Clan had altered their survival and continuity strategy, beginning to abandon their surname and fully integrate into the village.
The Senju became Konoha's foundation, and simultaneously, as long as the village wasn't destroyed, the Senju wouldn't be destroyed... In a sense, this was an extremely clever survival strategy.
The Senju of the Forest, nurturing woods without cease, hiding trees within the forest, were gradually becoming the true vessel of the "Will of Fire."
Also that year, the Hokage's daughter—Konoha Princess Senju D—married. Compared to her illustrious status, her husband could only be described as an "ordinary company employee."
The following year, Konoha Year Eighteen, Senju D's daughter was born.
Given the maternal-dominance, paternal-weakness dynamic, theoretically this daughter should have borne the Senju name, but based on the Senju Clan's current policy, she was given no surname—simply called "Tsunade."
Konoha Year Twenty-One, the legendary ninja of the warring era, Sasuke Sarutobi, passed away.
Konoha Year Twenty-Two, the "God of Shinobi," First Hokage Hashirama Senju's life also reached its end, at the age of not yet fifty.
This age seemed somewhat abrupt but didn't exceed normal parameters.
On one hand, the strong don't necessarily live long—Hashirama's situation was equivalent to a Super Saiyan with viral heart disease.
On the other hand, overusing chakra naturally shortens lifespan. Ninja emerging from the warring era all overused chakra without exception—living to fifty already counted as dying peacefully of natural causes.
Sasuke Sarutobi was such a case, as was Hashirama Senju.
Consider this: before death, Hashirama still managed to teach his granddaughter all his "exquisite" gambling techniques, showing his later years were actually quite happy... A person's life value and lifelong achievements don't necessarily correlate positively with age.
Tsunade's situation—being both terrible at gambling yet loving it—exemplified "gambling education from infancy," utterly hopeless.
The funeral had ended. Yūshin and Tobirama, both in black attire, stood vigil before Hashirama's coffin.
In a sense, with the First Hokage's passing, Konoha's most spiritually glorious era had simultaneously ended. That pioneering spirit of blazing trails and united determination to create a new age was gradually dying.
From here forward, Konoha's internal contradictions would gradually intensify. Based on the universal law that "the more something is lacking, the louder the slogans must be shouted," Konoha's leadership would soon keep the "Will of Fire" constantly on their lips.
"The originator of this mess—may he have no descendants. Let me handle this. That ridiculous jutsu you created isn't something humans should manipulate. To avoid the worst-case scenario, Hashirama's genetic material must be sealed..."
"The original Hashirama cells at Konoha Hospital were completely destroyed long ago. Current prosthetics can't possibly be traced back to Hashirama."
Both were in low spirits, the atmosphere extremely heavy. Yūshin was simultaneously criticizing Tobirama for creating Edo Tensei while learning Edo Tensei himself.
Moreover, his desire to seal Hashirama's body wasn't to prevent Hashirama's summoning... In fact, Hashirama cells had long since leaked out—what use were measures taken now?
Tobirama sighed and said:
"I understand. Go ahead."
After receiving Tobirama's permission, Yūshin completely froze Hashirama's remains. Henceforth Hashirama wouldn't be buried in a public tomb but would be secretly interred.
"Konoha depends on you now... Tobirama, war is beginning."
Yūshin patted Tobirama's shoulder, then turned and left.
After the shinobi world lost the First Hokage's deterrence, certain restless individuals could no longer suppress their urge to start wars.
Following Hashirama's death, Yūshin—who had maintained a non-interference pact with Black Zetsu and White Zetsu for years—again began secretly capturing White Zetsu while attempting to gather intelligence about Madara Uchiha.
Since Yūshin didn't compete with Tobirama, Tobirama naturally became the Second Hokage. After becoming Hokage, facing the imminent upheaval in the shinobi world, he immediately implemented two policies:
First, the ninja registration system—every Konoha ninja would receive a unique code, equivalent to an ID number.
Second, the ANBU system.
After another two months, the major ninja villages finally confirmed the First Hokage's death wasn't false news, and the shinobi world instantly became tempestuous.
First Tsuchikage Mū struck first without declaration, launching a preemptive attack.
He boldly left the Land of Earth, personally leading a squad deep into enemy territory. First, he caught Kirigakure off-guard and reclaimed the Five-Tails, then during retreat, seized the Four-Tails from Kumogakure with lightning speed.
His developed "Kekkei Tōta" Dust Release caused chaos in both Kumogakure and Kirigakure with merely two external strikes.
Mū was extremely confident, believing that since he could unify the Land of Earth with Dust Release, he could also win the shinobi world war with Dust Release.
After capturing two Tailed Beasts and returning to Iwagakure, the Land of Earth formally declared war on the Lands of Wind and Waterfall, aiming to restore their original territorial sphere of influence.
Kumogakure declared war on Iwagakure and Konoha—the former due to suffering Iwagakure's attack and demanding Tailed Beast return, the latter... simply wanting to opportunistically claim territory.
When the First Hokage was alive, Konoha occupied such excellent land. Now that the First Hokage was dead, Kumogakure had to ask... why should this continue?
Kirigakure declared war on Iwagakure and Sunagakure—the former for reasons similar to Kumogakure, the latter apparently due to certain economic disputes... Kirigakure was quite abstract, engaging in distant attacks while befriending neighbors.
Konoha declared war on Kumogakure, and simultaneously, to protect the shinobi world system left by the First Hokage, announced support for Takigakure—effectively entering indirect warfare with Iwagakure.
Sunagakure declared war on Iwagakure and Kirigakure—they certainly couldn't retreat to Land of Earth territory without firing a single shot.
Thus, the First Shinobi World War officially erupted.
Simultaneously, fierce conflict erupted within Konoha, as Yūshin unified The Fireflies and other ninja clans' opinions, proposing to the Hokage a strict prohibition on ninja under fifteen participating in war.
The Second Hokage always preferred imagining worst-case scenarios before formulating battle plans, so after the shinobi world war erupted, he immediately began total mobilization... Since it was total mobilization, young ninja had to be counted too.
Therefore his opinion conflicted with Yūshin's.
However, he couldn't resist Yūshin's power, as Yūshin held moral authority. Reluctantly, Tobirama Senju agreed to the fifteen-year threshold.
But Yūshin wasn't optimistic, knowing he'd only achieved temporary victory—Tobirama would ultimately prevail on this matter.
In the First Shinobi World War, the main attackers were Iwagakure, so Konoha faced relatively little pressure. After unifying opinions, the Second Hokage led his forces north.
The north required fighting, the northwest needed support, while remaining directions only needed defense... The Land of Fire, as the central great nation, surprisingly had an excellent strategic environment.
Especially with the entire shinobi world in chaos, Konoha's situation was remarkably orderly.
...
Land of Fire and Land of Wind border, boundary marker.
A squad of Sunagakure ninja observed from afar. Besides sensory ninja, some used binoculars for surveillance.
"Did you see clearly?"
"Yes, clearly."
A Sunagakure ninja handed the binoculars to another.
"Where?"
"Atop the boundary marker."
The ninja with binoculars adjusted direction, then saw a person sitting on the marker's summit.
"Is that really... Lord Yūshin?"
The sight made this ninja's mouth go dry... A person's reputation precedes them—at this point, absolutely no one could mistake Yūshin for a nobody.
"Yes, definitely him."
Although Konoha and Sunagakure maintained friendly relations, in a shinobi world war situation, Konoha would be brain-damaged to remain completely unguarded against Sunagakure.
But Konoha's main forces needed to fight northward, making it impossible to invest too many troops in the lower-risk western front, therefore...
Yūshin was perfectly suited for this mission—he alone was sufficient.
Both sides' actions were restrained and rational. Sunagakure also dispatched ninja to the border to watch Konoha, but they hadn't expected Konoha to take this so seriously—immediately deploying a legendary-level ninja.
"Right, at least this war doesn't require our two sides to fight..."
Yūshin naturally sensed someone observing him, so he prepared to raise the stakes...
Vines began spreading across that massive boundary marker, and soon he'd created "artistic flower arrangement."
Thick vines nearly covered the entire marker, leaving only a circular space in the center... The marker's center bore The Fireflies' symbol.
This marker, viewed from east to west—that is, from Konoha's side—showed the Kōji Clan's emblem, while from Sunagakure looking east, one saw The Fireflies' symbol... This inherently carried mutual warning significance—do not cross the boundary marker.
Not to mention the marker now hosted The Fireflies' creator himself.
"That's... Wood Release, the First Hokage's Wood Release."
"What? Lord Yūshin can use the First Hokage's Wood Release? Is that possible?"
"Possible or impossible—what's there to discuss? He's clearly using Wood Release."
Yūshin's "three-bedroom, two-living-room technique" differed from Hashirama's "mecha technique," but this didn't prevent even a silver-plated spear tip from intimidating people... The First Hokage's influence hadn't yet dissipated.
With this Wood Release display alone, Sunagakure would completely calm down... This was Yūshin's Wood Release performing at its absolute best.
As long as it was used for landscaping and image projects rather than combat, no one would discover this Wood Release's true nature.
Of course, Yūshin's Wood Release worked fine in application—devouring ordinary ninja was no problem.
"Report this situation to the Kazekage."
"Mm, Konoha's making a mountain out of a molehill. We never had combat plans against the Land of Fire anyway..."
"Shut up. If you can't speak properly, don't open your mouth."
Yūshin sitting on the boundary marker made the local ninja extremely nervous.
He squatted there for a full year, causing the western front to be unusually quiet during the First Shinobi World War's most intense period... The western front saw no warfare.
During this year, Konoha brutally attacked Kumogakure on the northern front, while Iwagakure brutally attacked Kumogakure on their eastern front.
Because the so-called Lightning Release Chakra Mode, though appearing tough, could neither block the spatially-cutting Flying Thunder God Slash nor the annihilating Dust Release... This again proved that "absolute defense" exists precisely for others to break.
Iwagakure, with the Tsuchikage's Dust Release as their spearhead, was temporarily unstoppable. Following the principle of "first solve the weakest enemy," during the war's initial phase, they continuously hammered Takigakure.
The Land of Waterfall continuously lost territory, facing national extinction, but at the last moment, Iwagakure suddenly stopped... The reason was simple—after eliminating Takigakure, Iwagakure would directly face Konoha.
Iwagakure was already fighting on multiple fronts; if they destroyed Takigakure, they'd face a one-versus-four situation—frankly, that would be excessively arrogant.
Mū's evolution from Second Tsuchikage to First Tsuchikage involved different pressures, maturity levels, and intelligence.
Therefore, within a year, Takigakure ceded territory to exit, signing a ceasefire agreement with Iwagakure at the cost of losing half their nation, withdrawing from the war.
After ending combat with Takigakure, the First Tsuchikage led rapid in-and-out strikes, first severely stabbing Kumogakure, then quickly retreating and shifting strategic focus to Sunagakure.
Then...
Magnet Release also couldn't withstand Dust Release.
For ninja, insufficient strength means everything fails.
When Iwagakure shifted combat objectives, Sunagakure's frontline forces nearly collapsed within a single day.
Subsequently, though they avoided collapse through reinforcements, their entire battle line and national borders had to continuously retreat.
One could only say that land outside deserts was incompatible with Sunagakure—you're called Sunagakure, shouldn't you honestly stay in the desert?
In summary, one year after the shinobi world war began, though final results remained unknown, at least one point was definitively established:
All nations and major ninja villages acknowledged the Land of Earth's great nation status, recognized Iwagakure as the fifth great ninja village alongside the four others, and accepted that "Mū" could obtain the genuine title of "Kage."
For no other reason than his Kekkei Tōta ・ Dust Release.
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