"Naruto: My Ninja Skills"Chapter 151: Crimson Steam
Yūshin didn't hold much hope for finding Senju Butsuma. The chances of locating a missing ninja were already extremely low.
And within those slim possibilities, at most they might find a corpse or part of one.
Finding him alive? If Senju Butsuma were still breathing, he'd crawl back to the Senju village himself.
But precisely because of this, Yūshin had to put on a show—to spare the Senju brothers' feelings, he even had to make a genuine effort at pretending.
"Yūshin-sama, have you considered what we should do if we actually find Lord Senju Butsuma alive? Shouldn't we proceed cautiously?" Hatake Sakumo asked after a moment of silence.
The word "missing" was quite precise—it indicated Senju Butsuma's survival chances were very low, but not nonexistent.
So Sakumo's words carried deeper meaning. Having spent time in this era, he could clearly see where the obstacles to forming Konoha Village lay.
Honestly, he didn't want to do the dirty work of drawing blades in the shadows, but everything here had to follow Yūshin's lead.
"That would just be our bad luck. What else can we do? If he's unconscious, we'll turn a blind eye and let nature take its course...
If he's still conscious and discovers us, we'll still have to send him back... I mean, return him in his original condition."
To keep others from knowing, don't do it in the first place. Yūshin was extremely cautious about his relationship with the Senju brothers. As long as he didn't do anything unnecessary or leave any flaws, he had no possibility of failure. Under these circumstances, cautious action was definitely better than reckless behavior.
If he really encountered such misfortune, Yūshin would have to be magnanimous whether he wanted to or not... Fortunately, he wouldn't get the chance to make such a sacrifice.
Actually, there wasn't much to worry about on the Senju side. They wouldn't experience any turmoil from losing their clan head, because many people had long placed their hopes on Senju Hashirama.
Even if not Hashirama, it would be Tobirama—either way, the young were more reliable than the old.
As for the two brothers' emotions—honestly, they'd certainly be sad, but not that sad... at least not comparable to how they felt when losing their younger brother.
Cough, a clan head dying in battle was almost unavoidable fate. The two brothers simply had such psychological preparation—one shouldn't maliciously speculate about their thoughts.
After hearing Yūshin's words, Hatake Sakumo once again looked at the back of his head with immense admiration... Yūshin-sama truly lived up to his reputation. Even while caught in the situation, he could view problems so calmly.
In Hatake Sakumo's view, Yūshin's actual age was much younger than his own, yet at such a young age, he could always maintain rationality, never dominated by emotions or momentary gains and losses. One could only say Yūshin-sama was born leadership material.
Ninja who weren't greedy at crucial moments were indeed very rare.
Yūshin had no idea his character had once again been elevated in Hatake Sakumo's eyes. He carefully patrolled this area, but while walking, he suddenly stopped.
"Two o'clock direction—is that the sound of fighting?" After listening carefully, he asked Hatake Sakumo.
"It seems... it should be, yes." Hatake Sakumo also heard something abnormal.
The two exchanged glances, feeling somewhat unsettled... No way—had they really found Senju Butsuma?
"Let's approach and observe first."
Yūshin was quite decisive, but the closer he got to the battlefield ahead, the more ominous he felt... because along the way, he saw corpses of Uchiha ninja.
Who could fight the Uchiha to the death? Of course, the Senju.
This was bad.
Yūshin carefully approached forward. His mission was clearly search and rescue, but his movements revealed an intention to flee at any moment.
Of course, he wasn't unwilling to help Senju Butsuma—it was just that with only the two of them, they could hardly handle powerful Uchiha. At this time, they should return at maximum speed to call for reinforcements.
However, after approaching for some distance and observing from afar, Yūshin couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
The Uchiha were indeed besieging three ninja, but Senju Butsuma wasn't among these three—they weren't even Senju ninja at all.
"Should we help?"
"No need. It's a hopeless situation... More importantly, even if we approach now, we'll just be considered enemies by both sides." Yūshin shook his head.
He wasn't some bleeding heart—there was no reason to participate in warfare unrelated to his own interests.
But Yūshin was quickly proven wrong. He thought the three ninja at a disadvantage would soon be eliminated by the Uchiha, but the situation was exactly opposite—in desperate straits, one of the three ninja suddenly began powering up.
"Red steam... could it be..."
Red steam began pouring from that ninja's body, making Yūshin feel this was familiar...
Eight Gates Released Formation
Someone was opening the "Death Gate."
Uchiha, oh Uchiha—why do you always manage to create new situations? The Shinobi World's strangest events all seem to find you. Such good luck.
"Run, Forrest, run... We're too close to the battlefield. Be careful not to get caught in the aftermath."
Though Yūshin had never done anything as wicked as dropping objects from heights, to avoid taking a kick, he decided to distance himself from this place.
Steaming blood into vapor—if you don't get far away now, aren't you just asking for trouble?
Though ninja who open the Eight Gates differ from each other—not everyone can be ruthless enough to use techniques like "Night Guy"—the ninja before them was still heart-stopping.
This person couldn't possibly be as strong as Might Guy, but after opening the Eight Gates, how weak could they be?
Let the Uchiha enjoy such fortune.
Yūshin pulled Hatake Sakumo to quickly distance themselves from the area. Soon, the battle sounds reaching their ears changed from initial metallic clashing to some kind of thunderous roar.
"Uchiha... not even screams? After possessing the Sharingan, fate truly becomes colorful—they can even encounter 'rainbow-colored black,'" he muttered quietly.
Only three minutes passed before the battle sounds completely disappeared.
Compressing well-trained life quality into three minutes, then exploding it all out—the resulting effect was devastating.
But after such an explosion, even ninja powerful enough to be difficult to look at directly would lose all threatening capability.
Yūshin and Hatake Sakumo returned to the battlefield they'd just left. Now everyone on the battlefield had fallen.
He didn't look at the Uchiha ninja's miserable state, keeping his gaze fixed on the charcoal-like figure lying on the ground... Yūshin wasn't afraid of these Uchiha ninja—he was worried this "charcoal person" might suddenly jump up and kick him.
This person hadn't died yet. After seeing Yūshin, he could even make sounds with difficulty... This "burning quality" was inadequate—not completely burning out wasn't because his physique was stronger, but because his mastery of the "Eight Gates" was incomplete.
Nonsense—no one could practice fighting methods after opening the "Death Gate" in advance, right?
"You... who?"
"Don't worry, I'm not Uchiha, just someone passing by coincidentally... My name is Yūshin."
Yūshin didn't mind introducing himself to such a hardcore person, but saying more now seemed meaningless.
Unexpectedly, after hearing Yūshin's name, this person's eyes brightened with a final flash of clarity. Then, with extremely tenacious will, he raised his constantly crumbling arm and pointed toward an inconspicuous ninja tool pouch scattered at the battlefield's edge.
Hatake Sakumo quickly went over, picked up the ninja tool pouch, and handed it to Yūshin.
Looking back at that hardcore person, he had already breathed his last.
Yūshin opened the ninja tool pouch, and a scroll fell to the ground. He looked closely and saw four characters written on the scroll's cover—Eight Gates Released Formation.
"This works too?"
Yūshin picked up the scroll with one hand. At this moment, he felt no joy from this windfall—in fact, he only felt somewhat baffled.
"Winning hearts through virtue... Yūshin-sama, this is called winning hearts through virtue."
Unexpectedly, Hatake Sakumo nearby was already excited to the point of voice trembling, because this powerful ninja who died in battle had clearly offered up his secret technique upon hearing Yūshin's name in his final moments.
A person's reputation, a tree's shadow—in today's Shinobi World, besides Yūshin of the Fireflies, who could accomplish such things?
"Huh? This counts as winning hearts through virtue? I've won hearts through virtue before, but it was all quite different from this time."
Yūshin himself wasn't clear that he actually had quite widespread influence in the Shinobi World.
"Buddy, I was just passing by to watch the excitement—you really didn't need to give such a big gift directly... Honestly, I'm more accustomed to another kind of winning hearts through virtue." Yūshin looked at this charred corpse, silently thinking.
"Since we've taken someone's favor, Sakumo, let's help collect their remains."
"Yes, Yūshin-sama... It's rather unfortunate we didn't see how this person eliminated so many enemies."
Hatake Sakumo considered what he'd do if surrounded by powerful enemies—could he break through like this person... Hmm, I actually seem capable of doing it.
"What about the Uchiha corpses?"
"Change to sacks for packaging. They didn't pay protection fees, so they can only count as spoils of war."
"I understand."
Just as the two were cleaning up the battlefield, Senju Tobirama arrived quickly with two ninja.
"Tobirama, were you nearby just now?" Yūshin asked with a somewhat strange expression after seeing Tobirama.
"Yes, what happened here just now?"
Senju Tobirama couldn't read Yūshin's expression, just as he clearly didn't know what "having one's fortune stolen" meant yet had just experienced having his fortune stolen.
"Nothing much, just some powerful ninja and a batch of Uchiha ninja dying together, that's all."
Yūshin roughly explained what happened here, but omitted the most crucial part.
In the later Shinobi World, there were often rumors that the Second Hokage invented the "Eight Gates Released Formation," but he didn't invent it—he clearly picked up the "Eight Gates Released Formation."
Of course, theoretically, this time and place wasn't the scene where Tobirama picked up the Eight Gates, because without Yūshin, there definitely wouldn't be Sasuke in this timeline, and without Sasuke, Tobirama wouldn't appear here at this time.
So, the "Eight Gates Released Formation" here rightfully fell into Yūshin's hands. Tobirama hadn't lost anything, so he didn't need to pick anything up.
Even the events here gave Tobirama, who had been grieving for days, a rare moment of happiness—for no other reason than hearing Uchiha had died and seeing the Uchiha corpses here.
"Yūshin, good things always happen when I encounter you."
"Mm, I feel the same way."
Yūshin stuffed the scroll back into his ninja tool pouch, then continued asking:
"By the way, you've been investigating for several days now. How is it? Any discoveries?"
Tobirama shook his head:
"Nothing found. Though emotionally difficult to accept, rationally I've made full psychological preparations... Big brother wants to at least recover father's corpse, but now it seems very difficult to achieve."
"No intelligence from the Uchiha side either?"
"Big brother sent official envoys to the Uchiha for inquiries, but Madara denied recently attacking my father... In such matters, that person seems to have no need to lie. Based on intuition, I believe Madara spoke the truth."
With Uchiha Madara's personality, if he did it, he did it—he definitely wouldn't deliberately lie about it... The current Madara wasn't yet obsessed, so though Tobirama didn't trust Madara, he was willing to trust the Uchiha Clan's "template personality."
Uchiha brains simply couldn't hide things. Tobirama found Uchiha ninja's expressions disgusting, but at least they always spoke straightforwardly.
"Even if things here can't end immediately, Hashirama should still quickly take control of the Senju Clan... In the current situation, when it's time to look forward, one must look forward." Yūshin added.
Yūshin couldn't advise the brothers to stop looking for their father, but he had to remind Tobirama not to forget the main business.
But in fact, Tobirama didn't need Yūshin's reminder at all—he lacked neither strength nor brains, and certainly not determination.
"I know what to do. The Senju Clan will fade from the Shinobi World and become history... The Uchiha will do the same."
Tobirama's meaning certainly wasn't to eliminate the Senju Clan—he meant the Senju's history as an armed military entity was about to end. The future belonged to the era of ninja clan alliances.
When the Senju united with the Fireflies and even other ninja clans, what meaning would the three characters "Uchiha" still have?
If they continued to resist stubbornly, then their way of becoming history would definitely be different from the Senju's.
After Senju Hashirama became the Senju Clan's leader, all those previously unexecutable plans and reforms would be put on the agenda, and Tobirama could also fully display his abilities.
Yūshin and other Fireflies ninja executed the search and rescue mission for ten days. Ten days later, they completed their "token gesture" and ended this mission amid the Senju Clan's gratitude.
The Senju Clan itself extended the mission period by ten more days, but after the deadline, they still found nothing, so they were also forced to end this mission.
Though in official records, Senju Butsuma remained in missing status, everyone knew this clan leader could no longer return.
The Senju Clan was about to welcome the era belonging to Senju Hashirama.
No...
It should be said the entire Shinobi World was about to welcome the era belonging to Senju Hashirama.
🔥 Want to read the next 50+ chapters RIGHT NOW?
💎 Patreon members get instant access!
⚡ Limited-time offer currently running...
👉 [Join on - patreon.com/GoldenLong]