Chapter 4: Windmill Manipulation
Shurikenjutsu: Manipulated Shuriken Technique.
It was one of the Uchiha clan's signature techniques, made possible by the Sharingan's extraordinary dynamic vision. Even ordinary Uchiha could learn it, provided they possessed sufficient skill.
Naturally, having the Sharingan made mastering the technique considerably easier.
Gōenji had already used a variation of it during his previous battle.
The three Cloud shinobi he had trapped had been caught in a web of steel wires and shuriken. By manipulating the wires, he had been able to control the battlefield from a distance.
Now, he was taking that technique a step further.
Buzz—! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The scattered shuriken lying throughout the surrounding area suddenly moved.
Under Gōenji's control, the steel wires snapped taut, wrapping around the Cloud shinobi from several directions before tightening in an instant.
"Damn it!"
Caught off guard, the Cloud shinobi found his arms and legs bound by the tightening wires. The more he struggled, the deeper the wires dug into his body.
Then Gōenji's chakra surged.
Boom!
A torrent of flames erupted from his mouth.
The fire raced along the steel wires, spreading through the entire formation.
Fire Release!
"No..."
Despair filled the Cloud shinobi's eyes.
The flames reached him.
BOOM!
A violent explosion engulfed his body.
Gōenji watched the flames spread through the wire formation and couldn't help smiling.
This technique was based on the same principle Sasuke had used against Orochimaru in the original story—combining manipulated shuriken with Fire Release to turn a simple wire trap into a deadly weapon.
Of course, the Cloud shinobi he had just killed was nowhere near Orochimaru's level.
One attack had been enough to finish him.
Fire Release really is powerful.
In the original anime, Fire Release had often seemed underwhelming.
But that was largely because its users were constantly fighting monsters far beyond the level of ordinary shinobi. Against opponents of comparable strength, Fire Release was anything but weak.
Gōenji still remembered how Aoba Yamashiro had used Fire Release during the Konoha invasion to kill multiple enemy shinobi.
And now that he was actually using it himself, he was beginning to understand why.
His comprehension of Fire Release was far greater than that of any other nature transformation.
With the theoretical knowledge from his previous life and a few practical applications, he had already begun reaching a level that would normally require years of training.
That was because this wasn't merely about increasing the amount of chakra in a technique.
The key was shape transformation.
Changing the form of the Great Fireball Technique so that the flames could travel along a thin steel wire required an extremely precise understanding of chakra.
The more he used Fire Release, the more he understood it.
"Fortunately, the Uchiha clan's chakra reserves are pretty substantial. Otherwise, I really wouldn't be able to use techniques like this more than a few times."
Gōenji sighed before turning toward Uchiha Tekka.
The other Uchiha was exhausted.
His chakra had been almost completely drained during the battle.
Gōenji stepped forward and helped him back to his feet.
Being born into the Uchiha clan certainly had its advantages.
Chakra was composed of physical and spiritual energy, and the Uchiha possessed exceptional qualities in both.
Sasuke, for example, had demonstrated remarkably large chakra reserves despite his relatively young age. The clan's bloodline gave its members a natural advantage in both physical energy and spiritual strength.
Whoosh!
With the two Uchiha fighting together, the remaining Cloud shinobi stood no chance.
Gōenji's Three-Tomoe Sharingan gave him an overwhelming advantage in reading his opponent's movements.
After several exchanges, a shuriken pierced the Cloud shinobi's head.
Pfft!
The enemy collapsed.
Only then did Tekka finally lose the strength to remain standing.
He fell heavily to the ground.
His chakra was completely exhausted.
He had survived the battle largely through taijutsu, relying on his physical abilities while coordinating with Gōenji to eliminate the enemy.
Tekka looked up at him.
Shock flashed across his eyes.
"I didn't know you'd already awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan."
He gave a tired laugh.
"You've become really strong."
Tekka had never doubted the strength of the Uchiha clan or the Sharingan.
And surprisingly, he felt no jealousy toward Gōenji.
An Uchiha was supposed to be strong.
If someone possessed the Three-Tomoe Sharingan and was still weak, that would have been strange.
"Yeah."
Gōenji's expression softened slightly.
"I awakened it after watching so many of our comrades die."
He remembered the emotions left behind by the previous owner of this body.
The memories of watching friends who had fought beside him for years die one after another still carried a painful weight.
For an Uchiha, whose emotions were closely tied to the evolution of the Sharingan, such experiences could be devastating.
And Gōenji's predecessor had been particularly emotional.
Hiss—!
The moment he thought about it too deeply, the pain from his injuries dragged him back to reality.
He grimaced.
Forget it.
There was no point dwelling on it.
Then—
BOOM!
A tremendous disturbance erupted from the center of the battlefield.
Gōenji immediately turned his head.
A gigantic figure had appeared in the distance, towering over the battlefield with a massive staff in his hands.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The enormous weapon swept through the ranks of the Cloud shinobi.
Every swing generated tremendous force, sending enemies flying and crushing everything in its path.
Gōenji's eyes narrowed.
"That's the Akimichi clan's secret technique."
He continued to disguise himself as a Cloud shinobi while observing the battlefield.
Unlike the Akimichi clan's relatively minor presence in the original story, what he was witnessing now gave him a completely different impression.
The Akimichi clan truly deserved its position as one of Konoha's major clans.
Their battlefield value was enormous.
In fact, the entire ninja world had a name for them.
Battlefield war machines.
The Akimichi weren't merely the "Butterfly" of Konoha's Ino-Shika-Chō formation.
That reputation had been earned through actual warfare.
Gōenji understood why.
Why were tailed beasts so terrifying?
Because their enormous bodies and overwhelming strength allowed them to completely dominate ordinary shinobi.
The Tailed Beast Bomb was only one part of that threat.
Large-scale warfare was different from small skirmishes.
When dozens of Akimichi shinobi expanded their bodies and unleashed their strength simultaneously, every punch, kick, and swing of a weapon could clear a huge area.
On the battlefield, they were essentially human tailed beasts.
At least, when surrounded by ordinary shinobi.
And right now, Gōenji was seeing that power firsthand.
His Sharingan clearly tracked the chakra circulating through Akimichi Dōtō's enlarged body.
As the Konoha jōnin unleashed his strength, Cloud shinobi were crushed beneath his attacks. One after another, their chakra signatures disappeared from Gōenji's vision.
"The Akimichi clan's secret techniques really are terrifying."
Especially in a large-scale battle.
Their techniques were practically designed for this kind of warfare.
A normal shinobi could survive a battle against another shinobi by relying on speed, tactics, and precision.
But being hit directly by Dōtō's massive staff was another matter entirely.
One clean strike could be fatal.
Gōenji carefully observed the circulation of chakra throughout Dōtō's body.
Unfortunately, he quickly realized that simply possessing the Sharingan didn't mean he could copy everything he saw.
There were too many intricate details involved.
The Akimichi clan's secret techniques weren't merely about manipulating chakra flow.
They involved specialized methods of manipulating the body's energy—knowledge that couldn't simply be reproduced by watching someone perform the techniques.
This was also one reason why the Sharingan's copying ability had limits.
It could reproduce many ordinary techniques, particularly those based on the five basic nature transformations.
But secret techniques and kekkei genkai were another matter entirely.
Watching them wasn't enough.
Still, Gōenji had learned something.
Even if he couldn't reproduce the Akimichi clan's techniques, observing their taijutsu gave him valuable information.
He could incorporate what he had seen into his own physical combat system.
Perhaps that knowledge would become useful someday.
Meanwhile, Konoha's counterattack was steadily pushing the Cloud forces back.
Having already advanced deep into Fire Country, the Kumogakure forces were now at a disadvantage.
Their attack gradually collapsed.
The Cloud shinobi began retreating.
Gōenji took advantage of the chaos to kill several more enemies before finally watching the last groups of Cloud shinobi disappear into the distance.
What they left behind was a battlefield covered in corpses.
Konoha shinobi.
Cloud shinobi.
It was impossible to tell where one side ended and the other began.
Some had been decapitated.
Others had been burned beyond recognition.
Some had been cut in half.
Others had kunai buried in their skulls.
Every corpse was another reminder of the cruelty of war.
And this...
Was only one small part of the Third Shinobi World War.
The sight strengthened Gōenji's determination to become stronger.
He hadn't come to this world merely to die on some nameless battlefield.
He hadn't even had the chance to experience the wonders of the shinobi world yet.
He wanted to live.
Gōenji helped Tekka back toward the gathering point.
As they approached, he noticed that Dōtō had become noticeably thinner.
The enormous expansion of his body had come at a considerable cost.
If Gōenji wasn't mistaken, he might even have used some kind of secret medicine to sustain his chakra consumption.
Not everyone possessed the talent of Akimichi Chōza or Chōji.
Those two were exceptional even among their own clan.
Gōenji looked around.
The original force had numbered around seventy or eighty shinobi.
Now...
Only a little over twenty remained capable of fighting.
This wasn't some minor skirmish.
For the first time, Gōenji truly understood the scale of the Third Shinobi World War.
This was war.
And if he wanted to survive it, becoming stronger wasn't optional.