One Year Later

The "Sand Ninja" attack sent shock waves through Konoha. Of the Ninja Academy's more than four hundred students and teachers, only a little over a hundred survived the slaughter. But if attacking students was insidious and vicious, then attacking Konoha's stationed Uchiha forces was utterly deranged!

Since the decline of the Senju Clan, the Uchiha had become not only Konoha's foremost noble clan, but also the strongest ninja family in the Shinobi World, without equal. The clan possessed vast reserves of resources for training in Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Taijutsu, and much more. Its population was enormous, and its number of ninja could even rival the entire ninja population of some smaller villages.

To outsiders, provoking such a behemoth was plainly an act of extreme madness.

The Uchiha reacted exactly as expected. According to the report of the sole survivor, Uchiha Hezi, the enemy had been "Sand Ninja." The Uchiha erupted, vowing to fight the Sand Ninja until one side was dead.

The Sand Ninja were equally baffled and publicly declared that nothing of the sort had happened. But faced with the conclusive "evidence" gathered by Konoha's Root Anbu, they had no way to refute it.

The Konoha authorities maneuvered between the Uchiha and the Sand Ninja, placating the Uchiha on one hand while condemning the Sand Ninja through diplomatic channels on the other, seeking to profit from the affair. After this incident, the Uchiha came to hate the Sand Ninja, while the Sand Ninja focused their anger toward Konoha on the Uchiha Clan.

Shunren, who knew every detail of the incident, breathed not a word of it to anyone. The Anbu had also invited him over for tea; those who understood naturally understood, and Shunren wasn't about to court death. As for Kurenai and Shizune, their situations were probably much the same as his, and after the Anbu's warning, they naturally didn't dare say much either.

The incident had a tremendous impact in both Konoha and the wider Shinobi World. It also added fuel to the fire in a world where undercurrents were already surging, pushing it further toward the brink of war.

The Third Shinobi World War was imminent. With the flames of war spreading, no one could escape unscathed, and Shunren wouldn't claim that any of it had nothing to do with him. All in all, given the way things were going, the only thing he could do was improve his strength and increase his chances of surviving the turmoil.

One year later.

On the mountain behind the Uchiha grounds, Shunren trained as he always did, day after day, come rain or shine.

Shunren formed the "Ram" seal with both hands.

This seal signified the concentration of mental energy. In Genjutsu, the "Ram" seal was a hand seal found in almost every technique. It was also the seal formed to achieve the intense concentration needed to reflect a Genjutsu, for the same reason.

The shape of the object he intended to create appeared in his mind.

Every last detail had to be absolutely precise.

Even the slightest error meant failure.

Shunren opened both hands and made a summoning gesture. A blue-green light flashed in his palms.

"Yin Release: Projection!"

Kanshou and Bakuya, the paired black-and-white swords, appeared in his hands!

After his last real battle against the Root Anbu ninja, followed by a year of arduous training, Shunren's control over the power of Yin Release had grown by leaps and bounds. In particular, he could now maintain swords like the Kanshou and Bakuya in his hands for at least five minutes.

He could also successfully project an increasing number of two-dimensional weapons.

Of these, the pair he used most skillfully and could maintain the longest was still Kanshou and Bakuya. The reason was simple: aside from being a little sharper, they had no other special abilities.

Given Shunren's current strength, weapons like these were actually the best suited to him.

They were exquisite and lightweight, with their sharpness concealed within, and most importantly, projecting Kanshou and Bakuya didn't require much Chakra.

Weapons like the Zanpakuto Zangetsu, however, consumed more than a third of Shunren's Chakra just to project. A single Getsuga Tenshō could drain his Chakra entirely. Of course, its destructive power was also quite frightening.

Even an ordinary Jonin would probably have to step aside and avoid its edge. Felling four Anbu with a single slash was no joke!

There was some exaggeration to that, though, because Shunren had caught them by surprise. After all, by the standards of the ninja world, no one would have imagined that a brat who wasn't even a Genin could unleash a slash like that. His opponents had only fallen because they were caught off guard.

Shunren understood this well. No matter how powerful a move was, it was meaningless if it couldn't hit anyone.

Thus, Shunren regarded the Zanpakuto Zangetsu as a hidden, unconventional measure, one he wouldn't use lightly unless he had no other choice.

Beneath a large tree, Shunren stood with a sword in each hand and looked up at the sky, hidden by dense branches and leaves. A light breeze was blowing through the woods. At once, the rustling of branches and leaves reached his ears, and at the same time, falling leaves...

When one falling leaf descended to the level of his eyes,

Shunren abruptly raised his right hand and slashed forward.

"Whoosh~"

The sharp blade split the tiny leaf, no larger than a fingernail, in two along the vein running through its green center.

The two halves of the severed leaf drifted down, one to the left and one to the right. Blown by the gentle breeze, they fell along irregular paths at different speeds.

At that instant, Shunren couldn't help wondering, If an enemy skilled in Shuriken Jutsu threw Shuriken at me, how would I deal with them?

He concentrated and locked his attention onto the two halves of the leaf before him.

One to the left, one to the right; one low, one high.

Shunren tightened his left-hand grip and swept his sword upward at an angle, from bottom to top and left to right!

The keen blade seemed to leave an invisible edge in the air, and the two tiny halves of the leaf happened to lie right in its path!

The fingernail-sized leaf was split from two pieces into four.

Then leaves filled the sky, falling at five centimeters per second.

Shunren's twin swords danced fiercely among them!

Treating every falling leaf as a Shuriken thrown by an enemy, Shunren used the swords in his hands to cut them down one by one.

His seemingly disorderly swings could hardly be called swordsmanship, and there was no technique to speak of.

In this ninja world, famous schools included Konoha-Style Kenjutsu and Cloud Ninja-Style Kenjutsu. The Second Hokage and Hatake Sakumo were both ninja who stood at the pinnacle of swordsmanship.

Given Shunren's status, he had no opportunity to study swordsmanship. He could only feel his way forward alone, one step at a time.

For that very reason, when Shunren practiced the sword, he paid particular attention to its basic strikes, such as chopping, thrusting, pointing, lifting, and snapping strikes.

He honed every sword movement thousands upon thousands of times. Practice made perfect, and Shunren also believed in returning to simplicity: once the fundamentals of swordsmanship had been tempered through countless trials, even the movement of a foot could unleash tremendous power.