Tobirama Senju stood frowning in place for a while, then his brow finally relaxed...
No need to ask—his sensory attention had been focused on the fleeing Hagoromo clan leader, but now that was no longer necessary.
He looked up at Yūshin and said:
"Killing someone and destroying their spirit too? There's no need to take things to that extreme, is there?"
He felt that resolving an enemy leader in direct confrontation was more in line with ninja conduct. This kind of unnecessarily convoluted approach was like adding legs to a snake.
"I wouldn't call it killing and destroying spirit. I just wanted to give the opponent a death befitting his status... A very 'ninja' way to die."
Yūshin thought to himself that Tobirama Senju was still overly suspicious. I already let the guy escape—could he possibly survive? Did you really need to monitor the whole thing from start to finish?
Letting the opponent leave wasn't to help him escape, but to let him die more disgracefully. How could such a simple principle be so hard to understand?
It's over—even between beloved friends, the understanding was lost.
At this moment, chakra surged around Yūshin, gradually pushing out the half-broken "light sword" still embedded in his body... Storm Release really was impressive—actually using "water" to shape "lightning."
Based purely on stereotypical impressions, Yūshin somehow felt that Storm Release might be a relatively easier Kekkei Genkai to learn.
"What exactly do you take ninja for?" Tobirama Senju was somewhat displeased with Yūshin's statement.
Though it was true, as Yūshin's words implied, that most ninja died without honor or glory, filled with sorrow and resentment, but...
Tobirama felt Yūshin was different from ordinary ninja. This guy was clearly also a ninja, yet his words would occasionally reveal particularly contemptuous language toward ninja. Wasn't this equivalent to despising himself?
"Do you need the reputation of slaying the Hagoromo clan leader to increase your own prestige, then gain leverage to compete with your big brother for the next Senju clan leader position?"
Tobirama immediately fell silent. Was there such a possibility? This was no joke. Not to mention he'd always willingly served as his big brother's support—even if he truly had competitive intentions, by the time he finished off one clan leader, Hashirama could already handle a dozen clan leaders.
"So far, my mission is complete. What happens next is up to your Senju Clan... Don't count too much on those outside ninja—the assistance they can provide is very limited."
Yūshin had indeed completed his mission very well. What came next wasn't his responsibility, so he was planning to withdraw from the battlefield... Annihilation warfare was too cruel—he was kind-hearted and couldn't bear to watch such things.
"Hm? With your skills, you're not staying on the battlefield to continue helping? You're withdrawing now?"
Tobirama pressed further, feeling Yūshin should continue fully utilizing his combat power on the battlefield.
But Yūshin waved his hand and blocked Tobirama's mouth with one sentence:
"Come on, now that the dust has settled, if I continue staying on the battlefield I'm worried I'll become a target for your Senju Clan. After all, the one leading the attack on the Hagoromo Clan isn't your brother Hashirama Senju."
Tobirama: "..."
Tobirama was once again speechless. Considering his father's gloomy and selfish nature, he couldn't even give Yūshin any guarantees.
Friendly fire and backstabbing on the battlefield were possibilities in any era and any war—in fact, these were frequently occurring events.
"If I were my father... Wait, is there something wrong with thinking this way?"
Tobirama's train of thought was instantly interrupted by ethical concerns.
"Besides, I'm not abandoning everything. If I'm not mistaken, my people have already begun battlefield rescue operations... I brought a medical squad, mainly to assist your Senju Clan."
Tobirama was just about to split up with Yūshin—after all, though Yūshin was relaxed, he still had fighting ahead.
But after hearing this statement, Tobirama's steps immediately stopped.
"Medical squad? The leader is..."
"Chihori, of course. She personally has such strong intentions... After the last incident, I feel she's been deeply mired in self-blame, and this time she strongly requested to come to the battlefield."
Yūshin wasn't lying. Chihori felt her dragging the team down had forced teammates to come rescue her, even resulting in sacrifices, so she'd been immersed in self-blame during this period.
She had just recovered from serious injuries, and upon hearing about this mission, her inner emotions drove her to come here.
No matter how strong Tobirama's sensory abilities were, previously he would only use them on the battlefield. But now, after Yūshin's reminder, this person's expression became serious, his sensory abilities seemingly carefully picking and choosing in the distance.
After a while, he nodded: "I understand. Go handle things on your side."
He no longer complained, even urging Yūshin instead.
So Yūshin didn't need to worry about how devious the old man might be or what schemes he might pull, because he had ways to control the young one.
If there really were schemes, Butsuma Senju would have to taste the flavor of father-son opposition. What was that saying... there are no fathers and sons on the battlefield.
"That scroll of yours—better hide it a bit."
Finally, Tobirama couldn't help reminding Yūshin.
Though it was still far from the stage of dividing spoils, and Tobirama personally only wanted the Hagoromo's extinction and didn't care about any spoils, his not caring didn't mean others wouldn't care.
Yūshin understood the principle of everyone being happy and hadn't swept everything clean like a hamster moving house. But without asking, it was obvious the most valuable items had already fallen into his hands—the clan leader's attitude just now had explained everything.
Yūshin showed a surprised expression and immediately explained:
"This is the scroll I'm using to seal Nine-Tails chakra. Why hide it?"
Tobirama glanced at the chakra cloak on Yūshin that had already consumed more than half, couldn't help shaking his head. Fine, good excuse—whatever you say.
Both felt the other was being somewhat affected, so they stopped paying attention to each other. Yūshin quickly left the war-torn village and headed toward the medical squad's temporary camp.
Along the way he also saw their "Red Cross rescue team" and greeted them... Very good, only needing to rescue Senju ninja—they knew each other well, no need to worry about complications.
After leaving the village some distance, Yūshin paused slightly, then turned to look back.
The chaotic sounds of battle became barely detectable background noise, while flames and smoke danced quietly in the night.
Walking outside the battlefield and appreciating everything from this angle, revenge and vengeance seemed to become bloody yet artistically beautiful acts.
Soon, Yūshin found their temporary camp.
He scanned the situation in the camp and discovered everyone had already rescued about ten seriously wounded... No, it should be said they only intended to rescue about ten people.
What kind of leader produces what kind of organization members. Yūshin had always been cautious, so his subordinate ninja were also very cautious—there were only ten guards here, so they only rescued a corresponding number of people.
What if they rescued too many and those people suddenly turned violent? Yes, the probability was small, but what if?
Yūshin looked at those Senju ninja who could barely breathe and nodded inwardly, feeling everyone had done very well.
Being able to breathe was already good—what more could you want at this time?
"Remove the personnel limit. I'll also stay here to help."
"Yes, Lord Yūshin."
With Yūshin present, they no longer needed to be so cautious. Now was a good opportunity to increase favorability and expand their reputation. The wounded were all human loudspeakers—important propaganda resources that couldn't be wasted.
So the number of wounded in the temporary camp began increasing, with accelerating speed. But by near dawn, the rate decreased again.
"The enemy's final counterattack has ended? Looks like it's battlefield cleanup time now."
Fewer wounded meant decreased war intensity. Yūshin thought the battle had reached its conclusion.
However, he was overthinking this. How could eliminating a major ninja clan be as simple as eliminating small ninja clans? The reduction in wounded was because after fighting most of the night, everyone was tired and had consciously slowed the battle pace.
After some more time, a Yamanaka ninja responsible for monitoring the surroundings said to Yūshin:
"Lord Yūshin, the enemy group that lured away the Nine-Tails will soon return to the battlefield. The enemy will gain fresh fighting strength."
"I understand. It has nothing to do with us—everything depends on the Senju now."
Yūshin thought to himself that their return was good—not returning would be troublesome.
How capable were the Senju really, fighting back and forth with the Hagoromo remnants? It seemed they lacked decisive finishing ability and could only slowly nibble away... So why not go all out?
He felt the Senju Clan should have brought Hashirama Senju to the battlefield.
However, this was standing and talking without back pain. Yūshin knew to keep some capable ninja at the Fireflies base—didn't the Senju know to do this?
Send everyone out and get your base stolen?
Nobody was an idiot.
But if Hashirama Senju were on the battlefield, where would there be need for any war of attrition?
Let the Nine-Tails sweep through once, then Hashirama sweep through once—wouldn't everything be settled? Wouldn't that reduce massive casualties?
However, this was where Yūshin's thinking was problematic. He always considered casualty rates, but for this era's ninja clan leaders, exchanging lives for victory—wasn't that perfectly natural?
They weren't uncaring about clan members' lives and deaths, but felt clan members dying in battle was very normal. If you were so afraid of death, why not just stop fighting wars altogether?
The older generation ninja's thinking was cold-blooded to an almost comical degree, but this was the era's characteristic.
Butsuma Senju didn't feel heartache over clan members' deaths? Of course he felt heartache and cared, but he thought it was normal.
So Yūshin's inability to understand their thinking was also very normal.
The battle continued for another two days and nights. By the third day's evening, everything was finally settled.
At this time, Yūshin's group had already saved fifty or sixty people... Not that they didn't want to save more—they really couldn't squeeze out any more chakra.
Those who came to join the excitement and loot had all withdrawn by the second morning. The cleanup work was always handled by the Senju and three other clan ninja.
Yūshin roughly calculated that this battle saw the Senju and friendly forces invest a total of three hundred people. After the war ended, their death rate definitely exceeded one-third... This was still because the Fireflies organization had conducted battlefield rescue—otherwise more would have died.
Such a heavily favorable battle fought to this state—Yūshin wanted to ask Butsuma Senju why he didn't just die on the battlefield.
But Butsuma Senju didn't see it this way. They had indeed paid sacrifices, but had completely eliminated the Hagoromo Clan. Everything had to consider input-output ratio—comparing this way could make Butsuma feel happiness... Only one-third casualties—the numbers had never been so beautiful.
So if these old guys died earlier, that would be making outstanding contributions to ninja clan development.
After the war completely ended, bonfires were lit at the wounded camp. Butsuma Senju came to visit the wounded after completing celebrations with others.
Seeing Yūshin and his Fireflies ninja standing among the wounded, he knew he had to suppress whatever thoughts he should or shouldn't have.
"Is this how your Senju Clan fights wars?" Yūshin quietly asked Tobirama Senju, who was mixed in with the wounded.
Tobirama opened his mouth, ultimately achieving his third speechless moment in this war.
What could he say? He couldn't very well say he hoped his old father would die soon.
Never mind why Tobirama was among the wounded—couldn't he get injured? Yūshin patted his shoulder and said:
"Regardless, the victory I pursued has been achieved."
Tobirama was silent for a while before saying:
"I have a premonition that this old-style warfare is ending... Even the future situation in the Shinobi World will change because of this Hagoromo extinction battle."
What specific changes would occur, he couldn't say clearly, but he knew there would definitely be changes.
...
While this war was still raging, Sasuke Uchiha arrived at the Uchiha Clan's location.
Without needing a map, he could find this place himself.
This was the Uchiha ancestral land, theoretically also the outbreak site of the "Pacific War."
He briefly observed the village's situation, then directly appeared and walked toward the village's main gate.
"Stop! Who are you?"
The gate guards immediately challenged Sasuke's movement.
Though Sasuke faced unfamiliar-era Uchiha, it didn't matter—he had the highest clearance.
Sasuke's eyes turned red, displaying three tomoe, then transformed into the Mangekyō shape.
"Make way. I have business with Madara Uchiha."
"Mangekyō Sharingan... Who exactly are you?"
Even for this era's ninja, the Mangekyō Sharingan was extremely rare.
But this person was also very unfamiliar. Could he be an Uchiha lost outside? Had another Mangekyō been lost outside?
The guard ninja were somewhat intimidated.
"I am an Uchiha from the future... Just tell Madara Uchiha that."
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