chapter 94 part 3
The Third Raikage furiously smashed the office desk in front of him with a single punch.
After all that fuss, the Hidden Cloud Village's operation, which organized three hundred Ninja to invade the Land of Fire, actually turned into a clown's farce? Even without Tsukasa Kaede's glorious feat of single-handedly wiping out hundreds of them, they absolutely couldn't have successfully kidnapped Kushina, who had already become the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.
Konoha wouldn't allow it, and Kushina herself wouldn't sit idly by and wait for death.
In the end, these three hundred people would still have been annihilated by Konoha. A huge flaw had appeared in their Intel.
If one had to say what potential value could have been created, it would have been to find a way to provoke Kushina into losing control and rampaging within Konoha. But this was merely a fantasy; the reality was that their forces were single-handedly annihilated by Tsukasa Kaede.
The lives of three hundred Kumogakure Ninja established Tsukasa Kaede's great renown.
"My apologies, Father, if it weren't for me..." A clutched his right hand, his face filled with pain and torment.
"Kaedelence! An heir of the Yotsuki Clan would never wallow in self-blame and guilt! If you still consider yourself a man, then lift your head! This is an opportunity to survive, fought for by three hundred Comrades with their lives. Do you intend to face their departed spirits with such a dispirited expression?!"
"Yes, I will find a way to avenge them! I will definitely find an opportunity to kill Tsukasa Kaede!"
"Mm, that's right. Is your right hand still not working?" The Third Raikage frowned, looking at his son's right hand.
Honestly, it was troublesome. This hand was completely useless; it couldn't transmit Chakra or perform Hand Kaedegns. It was essentially Sealed.
"The Village still hasn't figured out what exactly the Jutsu that Sealed your right hand is. A strange Demon Spirit cut off part of your Soul and ate it. This should be a Sealing Jutsu that targets the Soul. That Tsukasa Kaede could actually use it through Corpses..."
The Third Raikage hadn't seen Tsukasa Kaede with his own eyes, but even after integrating various Intel and gaining an understanding, he felt it was troublesome.
Their Yotsuki Clan's Lightning Release Chakra Mode should have been the most unsolvable Nintaijutsu. Coupled with their naturally tall and strong bodies, they naturally stood at the peak of the Shinobi World, looking down upon ninety-nine percent of Ninja.
Attack, defense, and speed—they had no weaknesses in any aspect, capable of physically enduring enemy Ninjutsu bombardments. But now, a guy like Tsukasa Kaede had emerged? Controlling Corpses in battle wasn't an issue. Wearing their Lightning Release Chakra Mode, they were confident they could rampage through Corpse Hordes, killing countless enemies and emerging unscathed. But who would have thought Tsukasa Kaede would pull out such a trick?
If you can't damage the body, then just bypass the Physical Level and directly attack the Soul, right?
"No matter how much a body has been forged through countless trials, it can't deal with Soul-based attacks. Is this another type of Spirit Transformation Secret Technique? But that's not right; I've never heard that Dan Kato could use Soul-type Sealing Jutsu."
The Third Raikage repeatedly examined his son's right hand, occasionally transmitting some Lightning Style Chakra into it to stimulate it, but he still couldn't make the hand function again. The strange Rune attached to the palm was practically a visible Curse.
There was no way, absolutely no way. The Third Raikage was at his wit's end. Now he could only imagine the next time they encountered Tsukasa Kaede and how they should respond.
"Even if attacked by the Spirit Transformation Secret Technique, with our iron will and powerful Chakra, we would be able to resist, not completely powerless. But Tsukasa Kaede's Sealing Jutsu currently seems completely undefendable; we can only avoid being grabbed by his Corpses," the Third Raikage pondered.
A said in a deep voice, "Father, this is the key. He can single-handedly deploy a force. To kill him, we must strike quickly, rapidly eliminate all Corpses, and exhaust his Chakra in advance, so he has no way to use Space-Time Ninjutsu to escape over ultra-long distances, but..."
But, to eliminate the Corpse Horde, he would have to personally enter battle and rapidly clear them out using his Lightning Release Chakra Mode. This would lead to very easy close-range contact with the Zombies, and who knew which Zombie Tsukasa Kaede had arranged to perform the Jutsu?
What if every Corpse could become a Vessel for the Jutsu? It wasn't impossible, but it wasn't very likely. There couldn't be an unsolvable Jutsu; the more perfect it seemed, the greater the restrictions suffered during Jutsu execution and the greater the price paid afterward.
But they temporarily couldn't determine what that price was. A only saw his right hand and a mass of something from the Dead Soul Corpse being eaten by the Shinigami, but he was completely ignorant of Soul-related matters and couldn't judge what it actually was.
It couldn't possibly be the Soul of the Corpse, could it? That's too absurd. Was it Tsukasa Kaede's Chakra? It didn't look like it either.
The Third Raikage's head was aching from thinking. "Go call Dodai over. His brain is useful; we still need to discuss this matter carefully with him."
Dodai was a strategist-type talent promoted by the Third Raikage. In the future, he would also become the Fourth Raikage's brain trust, maintaining the operations of the Hidden Cloud Village and serving as the field commander for one battlefront during the Fourth Great Ninja War.
...
Training Ground 17.
During this period, Tsukasa Kaede fiercely tormented Hidan, causing the guy's proficiency in Taijutsu to rapidly increase.
In fact, given Hidan's current situation, he wouldn't temporarily encounter a bottleneck—his Physical Constitution, backed by Tsukasa Kaede and Jashin, was already at a high level. And with Tsukasa Kaede's Living Corpse Reincarnation Jutsu as a foundation, young Hidan's Physical Constitution would only be stronger than his peak period in the original Timeline!
So what Hidan needed to do was constantly hone his combat skills, without needing to enhance his physical strength through arduous training like Might Dai.
This meant Hidan was growing at an astonishing speed. Once his Taijutsu met the standard, Hidan would already be considered a powerful, usable Ninja.
Although there was still a lot of exaggeration and many shortcomings.
As Hidan once again collapsed from exhaustion, Tsukasa Kaede looked up towards the shade of the trees at the edge of the training ground.
A figure had been observing for some time.
"My apologies, Lord Tsukasa Kaede... I didn't intend to spy on your methods of training your disciple."
Minato Namikaze jumped down, an apologetic expression on his face.
Tsukasa Kaede waved his hand. "It's fine, many people passing by here have seen it. If I wanted to keep it a secret, I would have gone deep into the Konoha forest long ago... There's absolutely nothing that needs to be kept secret about this pure Taijutsu sparring."
Just as Tsukasa Kaede said, what he had been doing these past days was constantly tormenting Hidan with various Zombies. Besides someone like the Third Hokage, who could monitor the area for long periods with the Crystal Ball Jutsu and probably discern Hidan's characteristic of not dying, anyone else who occasionally glimpsed what was happening while passing by wouldn't be affected.
What? The training was brutal, and Hidan was left bloody? Isn't that normal? Lord Tsukasa Kaede is a Medical Ninja and a Corpse Release Ninja; isn't healing injuries normal? And for such a powerful Ninja to train a disciple, isn't it normal to be a bit strict?
"Are you looking for me for something?" Tsukasa Kaede asked.