"Naruto: My Ninja Skills"Chapter 215: A Promising Disciple
In the current era, the "next generation" was attempting to assert itself, but Yūshin was already focusing on the "generation after next."
The logic was simple: Konoha's current Third Hokage had been trained by the First and Second, not by Yūshin. Whether he performed well or poorly bore no direct relation to Yūshin.
Yūshin had already fulfilled his promise to Senju Tobirama—Konoha's supreme authority had been smoothly transferred to Sarutobi Hiruzen's hands. As a living person, he had done right by those departed souls who had washed their hands of responsibility.
Hagūgen Aoi differed from other flashy Senju ninja—after all, her surname was Hagūgen.
"Come with me, Aoi."
As Yūshin spoke, his pupils underwent transformation, and subsequently a spatial portal manifested before him.
Naturally, Hagūgen Aoi had no possibility of participating in combat—Yūshin was merely taking her on an excursion, preventing her vision from being constrained by the village's limited scope and allowing her to broaden her horizons.
Aoi stared at Yūshin's Byakugan with complete shock—she had never heard of any blood relation between Yūshin and the Hyūga Clan.
Only then did she notice the spatial portal ahead.
She was about to inquire about something when Yūshin had already stepped forward into the passage.
Aoi wasn't afraid of danger—she was merely curious, so she followed closely behind and entered the alternate dimension.
"Lord Yūshin, is this Space-Time Ninjutsu?"
The two arrived within Yūshin's wooden house. Aoi curiously observed the slightly dim alternate dimension outside, addressing Yūshin with a voice full of wonder.
"Correct. Didn't Tobirama ever let you experience his Flying Thunder God?"
"No."
Flying Thunder God was a killing technique—Tobirama certainly wouldn't take his daughter to play with Flying Thunder God. Moreover, during those years Aoi had been quite young, making such activities age-inappropriate.
"So don't constantly feel Tobirama was worthless. Being able to develop Flying Thunder God as a post-natal technique already makes him quite remarkable."
"What about besides Flying Thunder God?"
"Uh, didn't I just say Flying Thunder God was already remarkable?"
While speaking, Yūshin had already sensed someone had visited his room—and this "someone" wasn't Shichimi, whom he'd brought here and who now treated the alternate dimension as "Poké Ball space."
Yūshin raised his hand to stop Aoi's continued questioning, saying:
"Something's wrong—someone's been here."
Subsequently, his sensory abilities swept the area... Actually, no full sweep was needed—he immediately discovered someone collapsed beneath the small God Tree.
Yūshin immediately went outside, then saw the unconscious Jiraiya.
"This white-haired kid looks familiar..."
After brief examination, Yūshin found no major problems—he'd simply gotten too close to the small God Tree and was experiencing a "transforming into spring mud to better nourish flowers" process.
Fortunately, Yūshin discovered this guy in time; otherwise, he would have long since become fertilizer.
"It's Jiraiya, Tsunade's classmate. Why is he here?"
Due to Tsunade's connection, Hagūgen Aoi was quite familiar with Jiraiya—she'd even disciplined him several times, leaving him completely submissive... Aoi was genuinely Konoha's number one menace, or for ninja of Jiraiya's age, Konoha's supreme bully.
"Jiraiya, huh... I roughly know how he got here."
"How?"
Yūshin shook his head, glanced at the distant mountain peaks, then finally said:
"Fortuitous coincidence, I suppose."
Damn it, Mount Myōboku's toads were somewhat too irresponsible—losing a child without even searching?
Blame-shifting was subconscious behavior, and the toads had no way to contact Yūshin anyway.
"Lord Yūshin, how interesting—I feel this glowing tree is absorbing my chakra... Oh no, my head's getting dizzy, feels like even my senses and mind are being drawn away."
"Ahem, if you don't want to end up collapsed beneath the tree like him, you'd better stay away from this tree."
Aoi was about to reach out and touch the small God Tree, but Yūshin's words made her immediately halt... After all, she was Tobirama's offspring—her perception remained quite sharp, at least preventing her from performing abstract behaviors like tree-climbing and contributing all her chakra.
Seeing Aoi obediently distance herself from the God Tree, Yūshin turned his attention back to the unconscious Jiraiya.
Fine, my fault. When children touch electrical outlets, play with stoves, or eat excrement, it's indeed the adult's responsibility—might as well provide some compensation... Yūshin thought thus.
Jiraiya had been honestly playing with toads at Mount Myōboku, but when Yūshin relocated mountains, he'd brought the guy here. Soil sampling became species sampling—Yūshin bore full responsibility.
Yūshin extended his right hand, placing his palm on Jiraiya's body. Using his high-intensity chakra and exquisite Yin-Yang Release, he restored and regulated Jiraiya's body, subtly improving his physical foundation and enhancing his "talent."
Soon, Jiraiya's face, drained gaunt by the small God Tree, recovered its original "plumpness."
Yūshin withdrew his hand, and Jiraiya opened his eyes.
"What happened to me... huh, Boss Lady?"
When Jiraiya opened his eyes, Yūshin had already vacated his previous position, while Aoi leaned in to observe the situation. Her face made Jiraiya shudder and instantly become fully alert.
Jiraiya rolled and stood up. Only then did he notice Yūshin standing nearby.
"Huh? Could you be Lord Yūshin?"
"You recognize me?"
Yūshin was somewhat surprised—ninja of Jiraiya's generation could hardly recognize him anymore, especially since Jiraiya wasn't even Fireflies-born.
"Of course! You're my idol... Lord Yūshin, where is this? Did you come to rescue me?"
Saying Yūshin came to rescue people was correct, but he'd first caused harm before rescuing.
"Just consider this Mount Myōboku's alternate dimension branch. Don't worry—I'll take you out soon."
Jiraiya wanted to ask more questions, but after Aoi glared at him, he immediately stood obediently aside... At thirteen, standing like a lackey.
Very good—this conformed to objective laws. Before puberty's second developmental phase, boys often couldn't defeat girls.
"Lord Yūshin, when do we depart?"
Jiraiya's interruption returned Aoi's attention from the alternate dimension to her original concern.
"Don't rush. We're taking shortcuts, much faster than regular large forces. We should wait for them to engage first... We must give the Hokage a chance to perform. If they can resolve the problem, I won't have opportunities to intervene—and you won't even get to watch the show."
"With Lord Sarutobi's strength..."
Hagūgen Aoi pursed her lips without saying more, but her meaning was already quite obvious.
"Lord Yūshin, surpassing the First Hokage is my goal. Why wouldn't I set my target as surpassing the Second and Third? This must have reasons."
Bullshit reasons—she simply set her sights too high, completely dismissing the Second and Third.
Yūshin smiled without correcting Aoi's statement. At her age, such ambition was normal. When elementary and middle school students discussed life ideals, weren't they all astronauts and scientists?
Jiraiya wanted to defend his Hokage teacher, yet lacked grounds for speaking... Boss Lady even criticized her deceased father—what did criticizing the Third matter?
"Aoi, if you want to become Hokage, let me teach you the most important principle—loving Konoha is meaningless; loving your own Konoha has meaning."
Yūshin's educational philosophy seemed incorrect. If Aoi were deeply influenced by such concepts, she could easily be cultivated into "Hagūgen Danzo." However, many of Danzo's ideas weren't necessarily wrong—his life had only one utterly mistaken aspect: lacking the strength to become Hokage.
"Lord Yūshin, I've memorized it."
Aoi didn't quite understand, but she committed Yūshin's words to heart.
Influenced by her mother Chihori, Aoi had always liked Yūshin. Yūshin was at least equivalent to a "maternal uncle." After Yūshin gave her two toys, her affection level skyrocketed again.
Jiraiya similarly didn't understand their exchange, but he felt he was witnessing some "scheming nature" being transmitted.
However, Yūshin definitely wouldn't acknowledge this. Aoi was Tobirama's daughter—being scheming was perfectly normal. Tobirama hadn't inherited Kekkei Genkai, but at least he should inherit some intelligence... Children belong to two people; he should have some participation.
...
Though Yūshin claimed this operation should center on the Third Hokage, merely one day later, he brought Hagūgen Aoi out of the alternate dimension.
Jiraiya desperately clung on and followed.
No choice—the child really didn't want to stay alone. The previous period had nearly given him claustrophobia.
Yūshin was indifferent—herding one sheep or releasing two made no difference.
The three appeared within the small nation called Land of Rice Fields north of Land of Fire—the "buffer zone" between Konoha and Kumogakure.
Unsurprisingly, there were large Kumogakure forces here. Yūshin effortlessly controlled several Kumogakure ninja, and after cross-verification, he confirmed his previous speculation.
"Jinchūriki defection is real—the Kinkaku and Ginkaku brothers' coup failed, forcing them to flee."
These brothers had played rather big—attempting coups was one thing, but they wanted to eliminate both the Second Raikage and his successor simultaneously. The result was failure, too amateurish... As everyone knew, the so-called "successor" was the later Third Raikage, historically the toughest Raikage, capable of passionate mutual combat with Tailed Beasts.
Examining ninja history, the Third Raikage's toughness ranked prominently. Without finding correct methods, ordinary ninja couldn't break his defenses... In the original timeline, his death method illustrated this perfectly—he died from ten thousand Iwagakure ninja's group beating.
Rather than being killed by Iwagakure, he was exhausted to death.
The Kinkaku brothers failing to eliminate both immediately meant coup failure... Coups occurring in Kumogakure with the Raikage surviving naturally allowed him to command all ninja to target the traitors.
Moreover, successive Raikages' styles were consistent—seemingly muscle-bound brainless characters, but actually extremely cunning, lacking great wisdom but possessing abundant small cleverness.
"Kumogakure is indeed deliberately driving traitors toward Land of Fire—still finding opportunities for selfish benefit amid danger. These people's minds work quite fast."
Yūshin glanced sideways at the two youngsters—good grief, both were flushed with excitement... No choice—when they rarely left the village, they immediately participated in such major schemes.
Aoi was manageable, at least knowing the background and understanding their current activities. Jiraiya was completely confused, only knowing he was involved in big events.
"You two—clean up our traces and eliminate these enemies... Handle the corpses as you see fit."
"Yes, Lord Yūshin!"
The pair instantly gained participation—they nearly saluted Yūshin.
Friends experienced in killing know: killing is easy, disposing of corpses is difficult... Ahem, well, this didn't apply to the Shinobi World. What was unbearable was these two—one thirteen, one fourteen—already participating in eliminating human bodies and purifying souls.
However, considering this was the Shinobi World, everything was perfectly normal. Aoi and Jiraiya lived in relatively good times—they weren't even skilled at such work.
Consider Yūshin—at their age, he was already being chased everywhere by the Tsugawa Clan like a street rat, truly living day-to-day.
Yūshin actually didn't care about traces or corpses—he was just arranging activities for these two inexperienced ninja.
However, "inexperienced" was only relatively so. Subsequently, these two dispatched several Kumogakure ninja with swift efficiency, their movements actually more agile than ten-year veteran fishmongers... They were simply less practiced than mature ninja.
"Boss Lady, use a scroll to collect the corpses?"
"How wasteful—can't you design some traps? Spill some blood to lure others over..."
"..."
Worthy of Tobirama's daughter—her methods were very Tobirama-esque.
After obtaining intelligence, Yūshin led the two toward Land of Fire.
Land of Rice Fields' Kumogakure ninja wouldn't pursue into Land of Fire territory—their purpose of stationing here was preventing the Kinkaku brothers from circling back... Having already diverted trouble eastward, they wouldn't eagerly help Konoha solve problems. Heh.
Another day passed, and Yūshin's trio witnessed Konoha ninja engaging Kumogakure traitors.
"Lord Yūshin, shouldn't we help... I mean, shouldn't you help?"
Once both sides engaged, blood naturally flew everywhere. Konoha had more people but more casualties, causing observing Jiraiya to immediately lose composure.
As Yūshin predicted, Sarutobi Hiruzen might restrain one of Kinkaku or Ginkaku, but what about the other?
Wait—was that Shimura Danzo charging forward?
Danzo went up, Danzo fell down. No choice—his strength was like that.
Hagūgen Aoi knocked Jiraiya's head: "Stop talking nonsense—don't you think before speaking?... This is the Third Hokage's led battle. If Lord Yūshin participated now, wouldn't that embarrass him?"
"Just because of embarrassment, you'd let our own ninja die?"
Jiraiya expressed incomprehension, however...
The facts were indeed thus.
Our ninja could die in battle, but Yūshin couldn't overstep boundaries—this concerned the Hokage's authority.
Aoi and Jiraiya had different backgrounds, creating different perspectives at this moment.
Yūshin glanced at Jiraiya: "You're quite suitable for becoming a Fireflies ninja."
Jiraiya was anxious but couldn't disobey Yūshin's orders.
After a while, once both sides' battle lines extended, Yūshin finally stood up: "Let's go rescue people... Don't forget, in Konoha's ninja hierarchy, I'm actually a medical unit."
"Both of you extend your hands... Try to treat anyone you see breathing."
Yūshin endowed these two with Yin-Yang Release chakra, making them battlefield medics.
As he said, using his power, as long as Konoha ninja were still breathing, no matter how severe their injuries, they could be saved.
Then, after some time, Aoi began treating the completely unconscious Shimura Danzo.
This guy had decent luck—actually waiting for rescue. Truly a case of disasters lasting a thousand years.
Looking at this person, Yūshin suddenly asked Aoi: "Aoi, compared to battlefield enemies, do you know how to handle political enemies?"
"Political enemies?"
Aoi thought briefly, then said: "Frame them first, then eliminate them?"
Hmm? Indeed, a promising disciple.
Yūshin first nodded, then shook his head: "Not entirely correct. It should be..."
"Eliminate first, then frame."
Vastly different—adjusting the sequence created vast differences. Aoi's approach seemed somewhat constrained; Yūshin's approach represented true boundless possibilities.
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