Naruto: My Ninja Skills-Chapter 233: The One from Above (Part 1)
The First Tsuchikage's three guards searched and found nothing. They hurriedly withdrew from the Land of Rain, rushed to Iwagakure's frontline against Sunagakure at top speed, and secretly met Ōnoki.
They reported everything that had happened in the Land of Rain to Iwagakure's second-in-command.
"You mean the Tsuchikage used his final self-destruction measure… and died together with an unidentified enemy?"
Ōnoki's face was dark, but his real emotions stayed buried. These three were the Tsuchikage's guards, yes. But if the Tsuchikage was truly gone, were their words still trustworthy?
"What were you doing during the battle? Aren't you his guards?"
That was the interesting part. In theory, guards should die before their charge—not survive after him. Let alone live on in disgrace.
The three felt the suspicion in Ōnoki's gaze.
"The Tsuchikage seemed to recognize the enemy from the start. He acknowledged the enemy's strength and believed we wouldn't be able to help in the fight, so he forbade us from taking part…"
It was a reasonable explanation, but it sounded thin. As they spoke, they handed Ōnoki a sketch.
"This is?"
"The enemy's portrait."
Ōnoki had no impression of Yūshin. They had never crossed paths. He only looked once, then lightly clapped his hands.
Several shinobi appeared in the tent. Ōnoki pointed at the three guards first.
"Take them away. Verify whether what they said is true or false. Keep it secret."
"Yes, Ōnoki-sama."
The guards' faces were full of helplessness, and their eyes carried a look that said, Of course. That was how it went. A shinobi who botched a job got the full interrogation pipeline.
And this wasn't a normal botch. By the rules of the shinobi world, when the big boss gets killed, the little brothers either die—or at least get skinned alive.
After the three were taken away, Ōnoki passed the portrait to the ANBU captain standing behind him.
"Find out who this person is. Check whether the village has any relevant intelligence."
"Yes!"
Ōnoki was supposed to lead an attack today. With Sunagakure in chaos and their command structure failing, Iwagakure should have seized the chance to expand their gains.
But this sudden incident left him no choice. He temporarily abandoned the plan and ordered the frontline to hold.
Half a day later, the compiled intelligence returned to Ōnoki.
The ANBU captain reported, "Ōnoki-sama, what those three said should all be true. The Tsuchikage has unfortunately fallen."
This was credible. It wasn't because the three guards had talked—it was because ANBU had scraped it out of their cerebral cortex.
The bad news dragged Ōnoki into silence. The ANBU captain didn't rush. He waited for Ōnoki to steady himself.
"The enemy's identity. Who could possibly be worth the Tsuchikage doing that?"
"Based on the portrait, the enemy is very likely the legendary shinobi Yūshin… the former founder of The Fireflies, known in the turbulent era as the 'Flame Shadow'…"
Ōnoki snapped his head around. He stared at the ANBU captain and spoke word by word:
"So the man who killed the old man decades ago… killed the Tsuchikage decades later?"
Wasn't that too absurd?
"Though Ishikawa-sama's fate was unfortunate, the Tsuchikage can't be said to have failed," the ANBU captain said. "He removed a powerful enemy for Iwagakure. No one escapes the Tsuchikage's final technique."
That wasn't just comfort. He genuinely admired the Tsuchikage's willingness to die. Two people died together—how could that be called failure? It was even.
Ōnoki fell silent again. He thought it through and weighed everything. Then he made his decision.
"Impersonate me. Stabilize the line. Switch from offense to defense for now. I'm returning to Iwagakure in secret."
"I understand, Ōnoki-sama."
Compared to Sunagakure, Iwagakure's situation was different, even though both had lost their highest leader.
Only a small handful knew the Tsuchikage was dead. The news could be contained. It wouldn't throw the whole village into panic.
And Iwagakure's internal hierarchy was rigid to the extreme. With the Tsuchikage gone, Ōnoki only needed a little maneuvering to keep the entire village in his grip.
To ensure power transferred into his hands without loss, Ōnoki temporarily gave up on gains and losses of territory. He had to get back to Iwagakure as fast as possible. The priorities were obvious.
Ōnoki's competence was beyond doubt. One week after he returned in secret, Iwagakure released a bombshell—The First Tsuchikage had died of illness. Ōnoki succeeded him as the Second Tsuchikage.
Honestly, compared to the First Tsuchikage blowing himself up like some kind of performance art, "died of illness" wasn't much of a bombshell. It was bland.
Given the First Tsuchikage's age, "died of illness" was perfectly reasonable.
So far, the Second Shinobi World War was still gathering momentum, yet aside from Konoha and Kirigakure, the other three great villages had all replaced their leadership once already—like some kind of election cycle.
...
The Fireflies base, cold and deserted for decades, became busy again.
Konoha and Sunagakure had their first major clash, and the Fireflies base near the front naturally expanded into a logistics hub and supply transfer point.
A frontline hospital was also established here. Injured shinobi could receive treatment here. Even shinobi who lost arms or legs could get "replaced with new ones."
As the era advanced, Konoha shinobi no longer outperformed other villages by a wide margin on the main battlefield. But Konoha's combat structure, logistics, and medical systems remained more systematic, each link running more smoothly. Objectively, the longer a war dragged on, the more this unremarkable advantage would show—and it could decide the final victory.
Unfortunately, this place was too far from the Land of Rain to see that enormous pillar of light rising into the sky.
Not long after he finished "opening the sea" in the Land of Rain, Yūshin appeared at the Fireflies base without a sound.
He watched the shinobi move through orderly chaos, each step steady and practiced. It made him feel Konoha couldn't lose this war.
These Konoha shinobi arrived at the Fireflies base as if they were coming home. Their spirits were high, their posture bright. That was how it went at the beginning of a war. If the fighting dragged on for years, that borrowed morale would be worn down to nothing in the end.
Yūshin only observed for a moment. He wasn't here to lecture Konoha about how to fight. He came because he had received a message from Nara Hideyuki.
"Did you hear? Hatake-sama beat back Sunagakure's push again today…"
"On the northern line, Shin Hagūgen-sama seems to have punched through Kumogakure's defenses again…"
As he walked, Yūshin heard shinobi discussing the situation. They weren't talking about old fossils like Nara Hideyuki, but about the new generation growing up on the battlefield.
"New faces replacing the old…"
Given what he was about to do, the thought came naturally.
He crossed streets and buildings alone, entered the forest from a side path, and walked several kilometers. Only then did he see a small cabin hidden by the trees—someone's secluded home.
Then he saw a figure on the veranda, lying back in a reclining chair and basking in the sun.
Yūshin slowed. Outside, the world was burning with war. Here, it was quiet enough to feel like time had stopped. That was how an old person's time moved—slow, almost congealed.
In Yūshin's memory, Ran had always been a petite girl. Now she was a little old woman.
"Is that… Yūshin-sama?"
Ran's eyes had been healed before Orochimaru's defection, but age had blurred her sight until she could hardly see at all. Still, by instinct, she felt the person who had arrived was Yūshin.
When someone was close to the end, their senses sometimes became sharper instead.
"Just call me Yūshin," he said. "Ran, it's been a long time."
He stepped in front of her, careful not to block the sunlight falling on her.
"Since Sister Chiho's funeral, I think… How many years ago was that?" Ran's mind was still clear, but she looked so drowsy she could barely keep her eyes open.
Since Chihori and Tobirama's funerals… Yūshin thought. For me, that was a thousand years ago.
He didn't want the mood to slide into something too heavy, so he spoke first.
"Ran, I only came to ask you a few questions."
"Questions? Sure. I can probably still answer, for now."
"Good. First question. Do you have any regrets in your life?"
"Regrets… Life is always full of regrets."
"Second question. Looking back over your life, is there anything you repent?"
That seemed to touch something. Ran's shoulders jerked, as if she had been startled.
"Not just repentance. It's… beyond that. Something I can't make up for."
"Last question. The past can't be chased, but looking forward—do you want to be compensated for it?"
"Compensated? For life's regrets?" Ran murmured. "Of course I want that. But what's the point of talking about it now?"
"There's still a point." Yūshin smiled faintly. "Go to sleep. Sleep, and everything will be fine."
For Ran, focusing on his questions and answering them already consumed enormous energy. She felt exhausted. His last words seemed to carry a hypnotic pull. With warm sunlight on her face and a breeze carrying a hint of heat, she quickly fell asleep.
She slept for a full day.
When Ran woke again, she opened her eyes and saw the cabin ceiling.
Huh? Why is the wood grain so clear?
She realized at once that something had changed. Not only could she see and hear clearly—she felt brimming with energy after waking, as if she had returned to her prime.
"Hm?"
Ran jolted upright. She touched her face in disbelief, then pulled a small round mirror from the dresser drawer.
The face reflected there looked fourteen or fifteen.
Then she turned her head toward the opposite wall by instinct. The chakra longblade "Fish Staff" that used to hang there was gone.
Ran the shinobi had died. At the same time, she had gained a new life.
"I… understand."
That morning, a shinobi from The Fireflies who had been caring for Ran approached the cabin with a heavy expression. She lightly patted her cheeks, forced a smile, then knocked and stepped inside.
"Ran-sama, you—"
She searched around the room, but Ran was nowhere to be found.
...
"My dōjutsu recovered without me even noticing…"
"Saving lives" had been an interlude. Even the Shinobi World War was an interlude. Yūshin had only nudged the war's progress a little at the start. Fundamentally, even if he hadn't interfered, Konoha could have handled this war on its own.
Judging by the original timeline, the Second Shinobi World War would never be a complete war. Or put another way—the Second and Third Shinobi World Wars were, in essence, one war, with an intermission in between.
Now that his ocular power had recovered, Yūshin could seriously prepare for his own war.
To face the coming enemy, the Sharingan was crucial. More precisely, Shichimi Uchiha's Mangekyō Sharingan was crucial.
Preparing the battlefield was simple. Kaguya's Amenominaka dimension would do. It was practically an ideal arena. People could beat each other until brains turned to mush, and no one outside would notice a thing.
Yūshin gave the Ōtsutsuki and the Rinnegan enough respect. Given how risky this fight was, he prepared multiple layers of insurance.
First, if things became impossible, he could send the enemy back where they came from. He could use Umashikami to "receive" and "see off."
Of course, that was the last resort. He might not need it. Even if he did, it might not work. The enemy's abilities were unusual.
Second, he had backups. If he couldn't break the stalemate alone, he could summon Hashirama. If even with Hashirama it was still four hands against two fists and losing, then there was "4+9."
Future Kurama counted as combat power that could fight an Ōtsutsuki. Yūshin had already made an agreement with him: help each other when necessary.
Foxes never outplay hunters. Before Yūshin ever made that agreement, he had already mapped out an "Ōtsutsuki hunting plan." Grind monsters for levels—Ōtsutsuki were the best monsters.
Hard to kill, but the experience points were high.
After he finished all preparations, Yūshin returned to the super-gravity space and used the Mangekyō Sharingan to observe the timeline.
He watched the starlight in the galaxy and muttered to himself:
"No matter what you say, starlight's brightness can't lie. 'Bloodline Encompassing'? You think you're worthy?"
He had already decided how he would fight before he summoned them. As he thought it through, he suddenly laughed.
"Same inside, different outside. I'm still the same me. Consistent from start to finish, never forgetting why I began…"
I'm still me. The one who openly—
Ahem.
The one who openly ambushes.
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