"Naruto: My Ninja Skills"Chapter 157: Eternity
"Lord Yūshin, those Inuzuka ninja are making a fuss again."
In the temporary command room of the front-line camp, a reconnaissance ninja seriously reported the latest intelligence to Yūshin.
Three days had passed since the first battle, and during these three days, the Inuzuka ninja had grown increasingly frantic.
Because on the first day, they had deployed over seventy people and more than eighty dogs to launch a siege against the Fireflies ninja. The result was that their people suffered injuries at most—miraculously, no deaths occurred—but all their dogs were captured.
Honestly, after mixing in the Shinobi World for so many years, this was the first time the Inuzuka Clan had experienced such a bizarre war... They couldn't figure out whether the enemy didn't consider them human at all, or considered the ninja dogs too human.
"Are they still bringing dogs?" Yūshin asked.
"Some are bringing dogs, some are empty-handed," the reconnaissance ninja replied.
"Then continue catching dogs. When they have no more dogs to bring, we'll talk with them."
"Yes, Lord Yūshin."
It was impossible for the Inuzuka Clan to retrieve their ninja dogs without losses. On one hand, their ninja dogs were used differently from ordinary summoning beasts—they were almost all companion dogs that stayed by their side, rarely having summoning contracts signed... Very loyal, with a real sense of "where the person is, there the dog is; where the dog is, there the person is."
After all, some Pokémon just don't want to stay in their Pokéballs.
On the other hand, even if they had summoning contracts, they couldn't take the ninja dogs away, because before catching the dogs, Yūshin had already ordered the Uzumaki Clan to set up barriers that blocked summoning.
One could only say that to deal with a bunch of dogs, Yūshin really went to great lengths.
Actually, at this stage, Yūshin no longer cared whether ninja clans like the Inuzuka or Katō would choose to join the Fireflies and Konoha. As he said, his mission this time was to maintain border stability and peace.
Whether the Inuzuka were willing to join or willing to migrate and merge with other ninja clans to form small ninja villages, the result made no difference to Yūshin.
After arranging for his subordinates to continue catching dogs according to the original plan, Yūshin picked up again a secret record from the Katō Clan he had just been reading.
According to this document, the birth of the Spirit Transformation Technique was quite dramatic and legendary.
Long ago, a certain ancestor of the Katō Clan suffered severe injuries from enemies on the battlefield. He thought he was dead, but actually had only fallen into a state of severe injury and near-death.
In this state, he completely experienced a "near-death experience."
He felt his spirit enter the afterlife world—a world without time or space, frozen in an instant yet able to traverse eternity.
There, he met his long-dead ancestors and descendants who would die many years in the future, and had pleasant conversations with them.
However, he couldn't stay in the Pure Land forever. He didn't know how long he spent in the Pure Land, but in reality perhaps only a quarter-hour had passed. In any case, his gradually recovering body pulled his soul back to the present world.
Afterward, no matter how he tried, he could never return to that peaceful world.
But after returning from the Pure Land, he discovered his "soul"—or more accurately, his "spirit body"—had become very solid. After long exploration and training, he made his spirit body capable of leaving his physical body to act.
This was the origin of the Spirit Transformation Technique.
This person recorded the complete cultivation process, but the Spirit Transformation Technique had extremely high requirements for ninja aptitude, so very few Katō Clan ninja could successfully cultivate it.
After briefly reading this document, Yūshin felt the Spirit Transformation Technique had strong extensibility. Based purely on intuition, he sensed this technique was related to Impure World Reincarnation, Human Path: Soul Absorption Technique, and Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique.
It seemed worth studying, even if only to better use Impure World Reincarnation in the future.
After reading through the secret record, Yūshin thought briefly, then set it aside and began inspecting the front-line camp.
After walking around the camp and finding everyone conscientiously performing their duties with no one daring to show weakness, he came to the noisy "temporary prison."
Originally, the barking here was constant, and the angry emotions mixed in the sounds were easy to distinguish. However, when Yūshin arrived, these dogs instantly became well-behaved.
One by one, they crouched on all fours, buried their muzzles between their front paws, pressed their bellies to the ground, and tucked their tails tightly.
Yūshin stepped into the barrier, and just glancing at a few dogs at his feet nearly scared them into wetting themselves.
"You guys have no appeal to small animals. I heard the best hunters can become one with nature—looking at this, I clearly have more talent."
Small animals? The surrounding Uzumaki ninja thought these ninja dogs were as big as calves at the smallest, with fangs protruding—where was the appearance of small animals?
Moreover, what talent did Lord Yūshin have? Couldn't you smell the burnt odor on the ninja dogs? Guess where those smells came from?
These ninja dogs were scared to death upon seeing you—how dare they bark casually?
"You guys are barking so loudly it's giving people headaches. Does everyone still want to work? Whoever barks again, I'll stew them directly."
Ninja dogs could use chakra and were ultimately much smarter than ordinary dogs, so they could understand Yūshin's words. After hearing them, they buried their heads even lower.
"See? Most of the time, dogs understand human speech better than humans do and are more efficient at communication. After all, humans have too many thoughts—not as pure as dogs."
"..."
Dogs are pure? These dogs just aren't stupid, otherwise they really would be stewed.
After several more days, there were more and more dogs in the Fireflies' front-line camp, but Inuzuka Clan ninja could only come alone.
There were still a small number of ninja dogs in the Inuzuka village, but most were puppies. They no longer dared bring dogs out.
Without dogs, the Inuzuka's combat power and fighting spirit sharply declined. After symbolically fighting one or two more battles, they finally completely lost their temper.
Nara Hideyuki looked at the enemies slumped on the ground and began his prepared speech according to prior arrangements:
"We won't make things difficult for you. You have two choices: first, abandon your traditional sphere of influence and migrate further away. We'll return your ninja dogs to you and won't try to obtain any spoils of war from you; second..."
"No need to continue. We choose to surrender..."
The Inuzuka Clan leader said dejectedly:
"I previously heard people say the Fireflies organization's leader, Lord Yūshin, was someone who combined methods, intelligence, and courage, while his character, quality, and moral standards far exceeded ordinary ninja. I didn't believe such a person existed before, but now I understand I was the frog at the bottom of the well."
Nara Hideyuki thought, where were you earlier? You're quite good at talking, but what effect can praising people have now? If you hadn't been so stubborn, the treatment you could have received would definitely have been better.
The Inuzuka Clan wasn't needed for the upcoming battles since the team already had sufficient frontal combat power, so Yūshin directly decided to send the surrendered Inuzuka Clan back to the rear.
The Inuzuka might still be useful for reconnaissance and tracking, but Yūshin had better choices here—with so many Hyūga ninja available, why use the Inuzuka?
To be fair, the Hyūga Clan was actually quite proud in their bones, but they had one good point: they were willing to submit to the strong.
A little pride was understandable and far from incurable. After all, their ancestor was Hamura Ōtsutsuki, and the Byakugan was directly inherited from Kaguya Ōtsutsuki—with pure bloodline and thousand-year heritage, they could be a little proud. Not being proud would actually be abnormal.
In any case, these Hyūga ninja couldn't possibly act arrogant in front of Yūshin. On the contrary, they were quite happy to work with Yūshin.
Compared to the Hyūga Main Family, Yūshin was clearly fair in handling matters, sincere in treating people, powerful in strength, and had more leadership qualities.
In short, Yūshin's conquest operations were going very smoothly and could continue smoothly for some time, but wouldn't go smoothly forever.
Northwest of the camp, in what would later be the "Land of Waterfalls" territory—
Under the pressure of powerful external forces, several local ninja clans with relatively shallow mutual hatred gathered together, preparing for a meeting.
The leading "backbone" ninja clan was the Moriyasu Clan. This clan's abilities were somewhat similar to the Akimichi Clan, but instead of transforming their bodies, they rapidly mobilized chakra in battle, taking the route of "concentrated focus, extreme burst" close combat.
It was also somewhat similar to Tsunade's monstrous strength and Heavenly Foot of Pain, but certainly couldn't reach her level of power.
After barely gathering everyone together, the Moriyasu clan leader spoke:
"The Fireflies are coming aggressively with a very clear purpose—to absorb or drive away all small and medium ninja clans in this direction... Honestly, though the Fireflies organization is good, I have no intention of being subordinate to others, nor do I plan to give up the land we've always lived on."
There are always those types in the world who would rather be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix—this is normal. Being the boss is indeed addictive.
"But what can we do? The opponent's strength is obviously much greater," someone asked.
"What else can we do? Fight to the death, of course..."
"Wait, the Fireflies organization may not be impossible to communicate with. I'm willing to serve as a representative to talk with the Fireflies. Perhaps we can avoid war and protect our interests."
Suddenly, a ninja spoke up. Unlike other ninja clan leaders who were surrounded by followers, this person only had a half-grown boy behind him.
"You are..."
"My name is Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear."
The Moriyasu clan leader raised an eyebrow, clearly having heard of the words "Earth Grudge Fear."
Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear had no hatred toward Yūshin and the Fireflies. At that time, he was the only one who disagreed with assassinating Yūshin... After his clansmen failed to return, he went to the planned ambush location and saw a sea of trees, roughly guessing what had happened.
Honestly, dying at the hands of Hashirama Senju—there was simply nothing to complain about.
"Do you have confidence in persuading Lord Yūshin?"
"I have some confidence. You can see their purpose this time isn't to annihilate enemies—they're even showing goodwill to small and medium ninja clans to some extent, so I'm confident I can persuade them."
"But there's a prerequisite: you must guarantee that management of this land can be unified under one voice. Otherwise, if I persuade them but we can't meet their requirements..."
"Honestly, we won't have a second chance. However friendly they appear now, they'll become just as cruel then."
From being able to sell the Earth Grudge Fear secret technique, Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear knew Yūshin was someone who didn't follow conventional paths and wasn't bound by the Shinobi World's rules and regulations. Combined with Yūshin's good reputation, he felt these matters could all be negotiated.
But they had to guarantee the negotiated results could take effect, otherwise it would only backfire.
The Moriyasu clan leader could understand Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear's meaning. If they couldn't effectively manage this land and become the actual rulers, the Fireflies organization had no need to communicate with them at all.
A cold light flashed in this clan leader's eyes as he immediately said:
"I plan to follow the Fireflies organization's example and establish a ninja clan alliance to integrate strength and better control this land... Who agrees, who opposes? Those who agree can stand by my side."
Ryo of the Earth Grudge Fear immediately took his position with the Moriyasu Clan without a word.
"Fine, talking about a meeting to resist external enemies, so you were actually..."
"Attack!"
Why waste words if you won't unite? The meeting room directly became a crematorium.
...
Just as Yūshin was organizing the northwestern border of the Land of Fire in a relatively relaxed manner, the Senju Alliance, having completed integration, wasn't idle either—they erupted in a great battle with the Uchiha.
Strangely, in this battle, the Senju Alliance didn't deploy masters like Sasuke Sarutobi. At the beginning, even Senju Tobirama didn't appear on the battlefield.
Senju Hashirama faced the Uchiha brothers alone and appeared very comfortable... With Uchiha Madara's personality, he naturally wouldn't stoop to using a righteous two-on-one tactic against Hashirama. However, he couldn't help that Uchiha Izuna, who tried to attack other Senju ninja, was also intercepted by Hashirama.
So they were forced into a two-on-one.
But just as they were fighting intensely, Senju Tobirama circled around to the rear of the Uchiha Clan's formation, seemingly wanting to pull off some conspiracy and sneak attack from behind.
One could only say this fighting method was very Tobirama.
Uchiha Izuna had no choice but to pass through his own formation to face Senju Tobirama.
But Izuna didn't appreciate Tobirama's strategy and even felt Tobirama was at his wit's end... If Tobirama was confident his strength could still keep up with Izuna's, what was there to circle around for?
In one year, Uchiha Izuna's strength had advanced by leaps and bounds, while Senju Tobirama had stagnated, becoming somewhat ordinary.
Sure enough, as soon as they clashed, Tobirama felt immense pressure. After barely handling a few moves, he saw the situation was hopeless and immediately tried to flee the battlefield.
Uchiha Izuna sneered—this level? Without thinking, he pursued relentlessly.
Tobirama immediately took several cuts and could only limp forward in panicked flight... One had to say this guy was really too cunning—he was quite ruthless to himself, actually daring to get injured to show weakness to the enemy.
Or rather, compared to Uchiha Izuna's impetuousness, Tobirama was showing true confidence at this moment.
Both cautious and confident... How could someone be cunning to this degree?
Unknowingly, he had already lured Izuna far from Madara.
In his panicked flight, he was actually tripped by a vine. Uchiha Izuna, seeing this, was overjoyed and directly strode forward with his blade thrust... Honestly, Tobirama was overacting here—with his personality and style, how could he possibly be tripped?
However, Izuna had already determined Tobirama's strength had stagnated and he was now a weakling.
So he thrust at empty air.
Tobirama appeared behind him without warning, with just a gentle swing of his blade.
The blade edge stirred a slight spatial distortion.
"Flying Thunder God Slash"
Uchiha Izuna didn't know what had happened. He only knew the scenery in his vision was moving upward.
No, his field of view was "sliding down."
His upper body was separating from his lower body.
The price of arrogance actually wasn't too severe—it was just...
A simple bisection.
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