Kaede Kitahara was not a native of the ninja world. Even if only his soul had crossed over, he was still a pure Earthling at heart. His way of thinking was never going to be brainwashed by the ninja world's logic.
And Gato was a villain to begin with. Kaede Kitahara felt absolutely no psychological burden targeting him.
"You damn brat, how dare you look down on me?" Rokusho Aoi exploded with rage. He immediately drew the hilt of the Sword of the Thunder God. The moment he poured chakra into it, a blade of blazing yellow light formed in his hand.
"Oh? So this is the legendary Second Hokage's personal sword, the Sword of the Thunder God?" Momochi Zabuza said, sensing the immense chakra surging from the weapon. "Interesting."
Once he remembered whose sword it was rumored to be, everything made sense.
Rokusho Aoi glanced at Kaede Kitahara's squad. They all looked fifteen or sixteen at most. Just a bunch of brats who had not even finished growing, yet they dared to look down on him. That only made his fury burn hotter.
"What is this, some kind of space marine?" Kaede Kitahara muttered from afar, staring at the glowing blade. The powerful chakra contained within it was almost visible to the naked eye.
This kind of tool did not feel like something Senju Tobirama would have developed. It felt far more like Orochimaru's handiwork.
By that logic, it probably counted as Scientific Ninja Tools.
"Looking to die!"
Rokusho Aoi clearly realized that Kaede Kitahara was not taking him seriously at all. With a roar, he charged straight toward Kaede Kitahara, Sword of the Thunder God in hand.
"Your opponent is us."
Amakusa Ryuji fired a projectile that forced Rokusho Aoi to halt in his tracks.
At the same time, Hyuga Keiko shouted, "Byakugan, activate!"
She surged forward the instant her Byakugan opened.
"Eight Trigrams, Two Palms!"
Kaede Kitahara watched as Hyuga Keiko unleashed the Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist Eight Trigrams Palms. At the same time, he quietly activated his Sharingan, copying every detail of the technique.
This Gentle Fist style was one of the Hyuga Clan's core secrets. Once activated, a massive Eight Trigrams diagram appeared in the user's vision.
Anyone who entered the diagram was within the attack range of the Eight Trigrams Palms.
From there, the user could rapidly strike the opponent's chakra points, disrupting their chakra flow and leaving them unable to move. It could even target internal organs. After all, no matter how powerful a ninja was, their internal organs were still fragile. A direct hit meant death or severe injury.
Kaede Kitahara had always been interested in this distinctly Eastern-style Gentle Fist, but he had never had the chance to study it properly.
However, the true core of this fighting style lay in the Byakugan. More precisely, it was a taijutsu derived from ocular techniques centered around the Byakugan, much like the Uchiha throwing techniques that required the Sharingan's extraordinary perception to execute properly.
In a sense, it was a clan secret art. Even if you learned it, it was useless without the Byakugan. You simply could not bring out the Gentle Fist's true power.
But Kaede Kitahara was different. He had the Sharingan. And who knew? He might even acquire Hyuga blood in the future.
If he ever directly awakened the Otsutsuki Clan's Byakugan, would that not be an instant ascension?
Judging from later manga developments, the Byakugan was likely the Otsutsuki Clan's most fundamental eye. Its true power was far beyond what the Hyuga Clan displayed. The Hyuga bloodline had clearly degraded over countless generations.
As for the Sharingan, Rinnegan, Tenseigan, Jogan, and the rest, they were all evolutions built upon the Byakugan. With the Byakugan as a base, countless evolutionary paths became possible.
Rokusho Aoi's original target had been Kaede Kitahara, but he was blocked by Amakusa Ryuji and Hyuga Keiko instead. Enraged, he swung the Sword of the Thunder God and clashed with the two of them.
The moment they exchanged blows, both of them immediately realized how troublesome Rokusho Aoi truly was.
At minimum, Rokusho Aoi possessed elite Chunin strength, already close to Tokubetsu Jonin. That alone put him above them. With the Sword of the Thunder God amplifying his power, his combat ability was not far behind an ordinary Jonin.
Worse still, just getting close to the blade meant enduring endless torment from raging lightning.
Uzumaki Naruto had eventually defeated him through relentless offense, but that was only because Naruto was the protagonist with a special constitution. Amakusa Ryuji and Hyuga Keiko immediately understood what it meant to be suppressed by a superior weapon.
Even the Hyuga Clan's taijutsu advantages could not be brought into play.
"Hahaha! No one can stand against the Sword of the Thunder God!" Rokusho Aoi laughed triumphantly. "You're all going to die!"
On the other side of the battlefield, Hatake Kakashi and Momochi Zabuza had already moved far away. A chaotic melee like this did not give Jonin of their level enough room to fight freely.
"Naruto, it's our turn," Uchiha Sasuke said, glancing at Uzumaki Naruto.
Behind him, Sakura was escorting Tazuna away from the battlefield.
"Yeah, leave it to me," Naruto replied with a nod. He had just defeated one of the Demon Brothers a few days ago, a genuine Chunin. His confidence was soaring.
"Ninja Art, Multiple Shadow Clone!"
With a shout, Naruto instantly created dozens upon dozens of shadow clones.
Naruto's chakra reserves were genuinely astonishing.
Kaede Kitahara glanced at him from afar and noticed Naruto's chakra recovering at an incredible speed.
Kaede Kitahara himself possessed a basic Sage Body from the Uzumaki Clan, but it was clearly far inferior to Naruto's.
Lately, Kaede Kitahara could feel his physical constitution and chakra nearing their limit. At most, he would probably reach ten times the chakra of an elite Jonin, roughly what people called ten units of chakra.
That was already terrifying and firmly within Kage Level territory.
Yet compared to Uzumaki Naruto, it was only one-tenth of Naruto's reserves.
And this was just Naruto at this stage of growth. Over the next few years would come an explosive period of chakra expansion. Ten years later, once he fully matured, even without the Nine-Tails, his natural chakra alone would be enough to drive ordinary people to despair.
So while Naruto seemed to lack any obvious Kekkei Genkai, that was only because his bloodline abilities did not manifest outwardly. The physical constitutions of the Uzumaki Clan and Senju Clan were themselves a form of Kekkei Genkai.
By that logic, Naruto had to possess at least an advanced Sage Body to reach this level. And Senju Hashirama? What kind of Sage Body did he have to overpower Uchiha Madara like that? It was unimaginable.
Tsunade's ultimate healing technique was something Hashirama effectively had as a passive ability.
"I don't want to hurt anyone," Haku sighed softly. "But if this is Zabuza-sama's will, then I can do it."
He began forming hand seals.
"Secret Art, Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals!"
In an instant, walls of crystalline ice formed throughout the surrounding space, trapping Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto inside.
Haku vanished into the ice mirrors.
In the blink of an eye, his figure appeared within every single mirror.
"What's going on?" Naruto exclaimed in shock.
"What is this?" Sasuke was just as stunned. He had never seen Haku fight in Kaede Kitahara's diary. The only glimpse he had was during the moment Kakashi used Raikiri, and even that never mentioned Haku using Ice Release.
"Who cares? Let's fight first," Naruto declared, charging in headfirst as his shadow clones prepared to attack.
At that moment, countless senbon shot out from all directions within the ice prison.
The shadow clones were instantly pierced and burst into clouds of smoke.
"Damn it."
This time, Sasuke was not turned into a pincushion. With his Sharingan active, even a single tomoe provided a fundamental leap in perception.
Naruto could not see how the attacks were happening at all. His clones were destroyed before he could react.
But Sasuke could vaguely track Haku's movements. He could see Haku flashing between the mirrors.
He could even see the motion of Haku throwing the senbon.
This was not a ninjutsu or some shuriken shadow clone trick. It was simply terrifying speed. Haku was throwing senbon so fast that it created the illusion of simultaneous attacks.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Sasuke deflected the senbon aimed at his vital points, but he could not block everything. Some struck less critical areas, grazing his cheek and arms, leaving thin cuts as blood sprayed outward.
Kaede Kitahara stood on a tree branch, watching the scene with fascination. He had already grown numb to seeing Sasuke awaken his Sharingan ahead of schedule. The changes were piling up, and the storm stirred by his butterfly wings was growing stronger and stronger.
Still, Sasuke being stronger than in the original timeline was not necessarily a bad thing.
Compared to Sasuke's struggle, Naruto's situation was far worse. He was relying purely on his body to tank the attacks and was quickly turned into a human pincushion.
On the other battlefield, Rokusho Aoi was being held back by Amakusa Ryuji and Hyuga Keiko. They were barely holding on as he pressed forward aggressively.
"You bastard! If you've got the guts, come down and fight me!" Rokusho Aoi shouted. "Stop hiding like a coward!"
Kaede Kitahara had only wanted to temper his two teammates, but they were completely suppressed by the Sword of the Thunder God. No wonder Rokusho Aoi believed he was unstoppable with that weapon in hand.
His vision was simply too narrow. He had no idea how deep the waters of the ninja world truly were. He genuinely thought that wielding Senju Tobirama's personal sword made him invincible.
And yet, in the end, he would be defeated by Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke, two genin.