Limitless

Hashirama and Tobirama stood side by side on the training ground. Itama's childish declaration during their midday training three days ago echoed in their ears: "I was the one who first taught big sister ninjutsu! Even though I only taught her the basics."

Those words were no longer a child's boast, but a suffocatingly heavy truth weighing on the Senju brothers' minds.

Utsusemi stood in the middle of the field, having reluctantly shown up only after three invitations. Her chakra...

The instrument in Tobirama's hand was almost overheating from the stream of data.

Chakra of every nature flowed through her meridians in perfect harmony, as if she herself were a vessel sculpted from chakra.

In particular, Yin Release Chakra, a power not even Hashirama possessed, circulated in balance within her.

"Brother, watch closely." Tobirama had lost his usual composure, a rare occurrence.

He adjusted the complex instrument. "The force field around Utsusemi is distorted... This is nothing like a conventional defensive barrier."

Hashirama had hurled several shuriken at supersonic speed. They sliced through the air, aimed straight at Utsusemi's back.

Just an inch from her back, the speeding blades struck an invisible wall built from "existence" itself.

There was no roar, no tremor, not even a deflection in their paths.

There was only a chilling "erasure," as if they had never been meant to appear at all.

This was the technique she said paid tribute to a certain "Teacher Go*" she respected,

"Limitless Cursed Technique."

Any attack, whether physical or energy-based, would have the very foundation of its existence utterly negated upon touching the absolute domain built from the concept of "rejection."

"Limitless" manifested in two forms:

The first was "space erasure": anything entering the domain had its very existence utterly erased.

The second was "space defense": it did not erase, but it provided absolute isolation.

Hashirama Senju stared at the scene before him. It was a power of rules that ninjutsu could not explain, one that touched the edge of comprehension.

Utsusemi brought her hands lightly together and murmured, "Flower Release: Strangler Fig."

In an instant, countless double-petaled camellias bloomed out of thin air, layer upon layer.

A faint light flowed along the edge of each petal, like starlight adorning the flowers, tracing graceful yet deadly arcs through the air.

Within that exquisite beauty lay a terrifying strangling force.

Their target was the enormous wooden post Hashirama had left in the center of the field, so thick it took three people to encircle it with their arms.

The petals settled lightly against it, then coiled around it and tightened like living things.

A succession of low, rapid creaks rang out, like bones being crushed inch by inch.

In that seemingly harmless dance of flowers, the indestructible timber was ground into fine wood chips.

Even Hashirama himself felt a powerful binding force the moment a petal brushed his shoulder.

It was as if countless tiny roots were trying to burrow into his chakra pathways and draw out his life force.

More surprising still, Wood Release did not resist. Like an ancient tree welcoming the vines that twined around it, it gladly accepted the flowers adorning it.

Hashirama Senju's pupils contracted sharply. Driven by instinct, he unleashed a vast surge of chakra and finally broke free of the invisible but deadly restraint.

"This power..." Hashirama wiped the sweat from his temple. "It's simply... unreasonable."

If not for a ninja's instinctive vigilance, he actually... wanted those flowers to keep twining around him?

To adorn his shoulders and crown him?

Though Flower Release was a subordinate kekkei genkai to Wood Release, its offensive and destructive power was in no way inferior.

Instead, it was subtler and more insidious, excelling at entanglement and sustained suppression.

In particular, there was a resonance between Wood Release and Flower Release on the level of chakra.

Because their natures attracted each other, Hashirama instinctively felt a strong fondness for Utsusemi.

In particular, the physiological instinct of attraction between the opposite sexes combined with the chakra resonance, making his feelings even harder to control, an attraction that was almost instinctive.

"It even has a mental effect?" Tobirama sketched rapidly in his notebook. He had noticed that his elder brother's affection for Utsusemi went far beyond reason.

It was not merely admiration for someone strong, nor merely a desire to protect a pure and flawless noble lady.

Even their youngest brother Itama, who also possessed Flower Release, had never received such doting affection.

Could the mutual attraction between kekkei genkai actually affect emotions too?

If they were on a battlefield, could an enemy exploit this resonance?

Did that mean a ninja's will could also be controlled by the nature of chakra?

Utsusemi's subsequent attempts at learning dispelled both men's worries.

The previously solemn atmosphere fell apart amid her clumsy attempts.

Utsusemi stood in the center of the training ground, slowly forming hand seals as she tried to replicate the Clone Technique Tobirama had just demonstrated.

She moved sluggishly, forming one hand seal per second. A slight error in one crucial seal sent her chakra flow into disarray.

"Clone Technique!" With a sharp cry, she completed the hand seals.

A blurry figure emerged from behind her, but lasted less than two seconds before vanishing with a pop.

The "clone" was not only crooked and misshapen, with limbs out of proportion like a toad's, but its facial features were also indistinct.

"Tobirama, look!" Hashirama clutched his stomach and burst out laughing, his laughter echoing across the empty training ground. "This is much more entertaining than when we were learning!"

"Big brother, be serious." The twitch at the corner of Tobirama's mouth betrayed him. "That chakra control..."

Her subsequent ninjutsu lessons were also full of mishaps.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!" Utsusemi's clear shout had barely faded when the blazing flames, which should have roared from her mouth and incinerated the target ahead, went out of control as she formed the final seal.

Her chakra lost its guidance, and the fire-natured chakra exploded less than a meter in front of her!

"Bang! Boom!"

The fireball swelled into a charred black mushroom cloud, and a scorching blast spread outward, carrying smoke and dust with it.

A shallow crater was scorched into the ground, and broken stones flew through the air.

At the center of the explosion, Utsusemi's figure was briefly swallowed by the firelight.

The thick smoke slowly cleared, revealing Utsusemi standing unharmed where she had been, without a single burn on her.

The Limitless Cursed Technique she had activated instinctively protected her the instant the explosion occurred.

With absolute spatial repulsion, it kept all the heat, shock waves, and flying debris away from her body.