A Real Ruthless One

Nuclear Release!

This was the name Genitsu had given to the unique power he possessed.

Wielding the power of the nucleus with a body of flesh and blood was unprecedented—utterly insane.

Using Chakra as a medium and driving force, commanding atomic-level collisions with powerful willpower and a robust body, unleashing terrifying destructive force.

This was Nuclear Release.

It was the most unusual Kekkei Genkai, a special bloodline belonging solely to Genitsu.

However, the Nuclear Release Kekkei Genkai was far from perfect, and the problems Genitsu faced were equally severe.

"Even using the most basic form of Nuclear Release consumes an astonishing amount of mental and physical energy..."

Genitsu sat cross-legged on his bed, sensing the small amount of nuclear power gathering within him, and remained silent.

The most fundamental aspect of the nucleus involved atomic-level changes. The difficulty and strain of forcing that process through human effort were easy to imagine.

If not for Godzilla gradually transforming his body through symbiosis, Genitsu would have died long ago, much less attempted to cultivate Nuclear Release.

"Godzilla can naturally control nuclear fission or fusion. It even has a specialized organ inside its body. Some Godzillas can achieve endless nuclear fusion simply by consuming air and water as energy..."

Genitsu could not help rubbing his brow.

That organ was called an "Atomic Furnace."

It could literally grow stronger just by breathing.

Genitsu did not have such an organ, but thanks to Godzilla, he had survived the most difficult adaptation phase and was already beginning to touch the threshold of "controlled nuclear power."

"I think I understand Yamato's predicament when he first used Wood Release in the original story. After all that effort, he only managed to create a dry wooden stake. Even Danzo was speechless."

Genitsu sighed and looked out the window. Outside was nothing but darkness.

Difficulty was only one aspect.

The other was danger.

A year ago, after his ability to control the nuclear radiation inside his body had gradually stabilized, Genitsu had tried to further develop the power of Nuclear Release. The result had nearly killed him!

That had merely been a preliminary attempt, yet horrifying burns had instantly spread across his arm, while the surging nuclear radiation viciously eroded his body.

Fortunately, his astonishing self-healing ability, combined with his habit of keeping himself wrapped in bandages, had prevented anyone from noticing and spared him even more troublesome consequences.

The technique he had envisioned back then had not even been capable of being used. If he had forcibly continued, it would only have ended with him being blown to pieces.

That technique was also one of Godzilla's signature abilities, as well as the trump card Genitsu had envisioned for his early stages.

"Before, I couldn't even use that technique, much less anything else. Nearly every technique unleashed through Nuclear Release could be considered a Forbidden Technique..."

Genitsu fell into thought.

Rather than being difficult to learn, Forbidden Techniques were simply too dangerous and could easily harm the user.

The Multiple Shadow Clone Technique and Wind Release: Rasenshuriken had both been classified as Forbidden Techniques.

As for Genitsu's techniques, setting aside their destructive power, the nuclear radiation they spread alone would be enough to give any enemy hell.

Fortunately, he now possessed the ability to control nuclear radiation.

"It should be possible now. Although I'll still have to pay a price, using Nuclear Release successfully shouldn't be a problem... probably..."

Genitsu continued refining Chakra while continuously adapting to his Nuclear Release Kekkei Genkai.

Dawn arrived.

Some hidden dangers could now be dealt with as well.

Genitsu had not slept all night, but his mental state had recovered, and his physical condition was exceptionally good. He got up an hour earlier than usual and entered the woods beside the village.

Before school, Genitsu had always made a habit of studying and training, and he especially enjoyed sneaking off into the woods.

Holding several books personally written by the Third Hokage, such as Theory of the Will of Fire and Will of the First Hokage, Genitsu loved reading this sort of material most.

He would read them dozens of times, then solemnly add a pile of annotations.

He especially valued Third Hokage's Quotations, filling it with densely packed notes until, by the end, even Genitsu himself had no idea what the hell he had written.

Anyway, he just had to scribble some bullshit. It was not like he had written it for himself to read.

"Every time I open these books, I feel that this theory of village-building is just a heap of pretty but useless rhetoric—nothing but hollow theories piled high and crude, straightforward examples used as proof."

Genitsu scratched his head.

For example, in the chapter titled "One Village, Loving Like Family," a certain member of the Senju Clan had voluntarily cast aside his empty reputation and entered the Ninja Academy, where he shone brightly. He loved helping others and often went next door to assist a widow who had lost her husband in the war.

In the end, the two shamelessly lived happily ever after.

Genitsu had later specifically investigated the matter. Not long after becoming a father, that Senju clansman had died in the Second Shinobi World War.

Of course, that latter part had not been recorded in the book.

"Without a stable pyramid structure or any concrete guiding framework, it all relies on the Third Hokage's leaf theory as its central principle..."

Genitsu wore a look of disgust. He was genuinely forcing himself to stomach this childish nonsense.

Swish, swish, swish!

At that moment.

ANBU from the village appeared in the area while conducting a secret patrol.

He glanced at Genitsu, who was studying hard with a furrowed brow, and could not help nodding to himself.

"How wonderful. It's that child again..."

Beneath his fox mask, the man wore an extremely strange expression.

(*￣︶￣)

So this is the child whose theory class grades broke the village record? Even the Hokage praised him. He's as diligent as ever.

What a pity he's working in the wrong direction. He would be better off spending this time training his ninjutsu.

Very quickly, the ANBU vanished without a sound.

Two whole hours passed.

With a snap, Genitsu closed his book.

Then he rose from the rock and stretched fiercely toward the rising sun.

"Another wonderful day. But why haven't I seen Mr. Duy this morning? If he didn't train here so often, I wouldn't have chosen this place."

Whenever Genitsu went several hours without seeing Might Duy, the eternal genin, he felt particularly unsafe.

It was as though enemy spies could appear beside him at any moment and slit the throat of an innocent child like him.

Might Duy was publicly acknowledged as an eternal genin. Every day, he brought his son, Might Guy, through self-torturous training, enduring endless discrimination and ridicule.

However, Genitsu would never mock them.

He even hoped everyone would humiliate Duy and Guy, so he could take advantage of the opening.

At this time, because Duy only knew taijutsu and could use neither ninjutsu nor genjutsu, he was not valued. People thought even using him as cannon fodder would be excessive. Thus, he would occasionally go to the battlefield as a logistics worker, but he spent most of his time in the village.

Moreover, as the war situation grew increasingly grim and missions became scarcer, the number of solo missions Duy could receive had dropped sharply. He could not even get trash missions like pulling weeds or finding cats.

And no one was willing to team up with a "useless" person like Duy to take higher-ranked missions.

In the original story, when the three-man team of Guy, Genma, and Ebisu encountered the infiltrating Mist Seven Swordsmen within the Land of Fire, Might Duy had gone alone to rescue them.

One could imagine just how difficult life was for the father and son in Konoha at this time.

On top of that, the amount of training they did placed extremely high demands on both the quality and quantity of their food.

When their lives had fallen into tremendous hardship, Genitsu decisively stepped in.

At the time, Genitsu had not hesitated to use what little savings his family possessed to specifically issue trash missions for Duy and Guy—chopping firewood, doing household chores, cleaning rooftops, and the like—making his already poor household even poorer.

Over the past two years, Genitsu had gone from being modestly well-off to utterly penniless, practically bankrupting himself to support Duy and Guy.

Even so, he had once earned the villagers' praise. Everyone thought Genitsu's awareness was incredibly high, that he spared no effort in aiding his companions. He truly was a perfect seedling who had inherited the Will of Fire.

Even if he had to do it all again, Genitsu would still make the same choice.

What was money but garbage?

Was gaining one Kage-level fighter and one super Kage-level fighter really a loss?

"With Mr. Duy as my loyal death warrior, I can finally feel safe. But where is he right now?"

Genitsu yawned. It was about time to go to school.

He walked out of the training woods and casually strolled through the forest around Konoha's outskirts. He had always done this in the past.

But today was a little different.

"Hmm? There's actually someone over there?" Genitsu's expression shifted slightly as he glanced from the corner of his eye toward an inconspicuous patch of woods.

That was where Genitsu had secretly trained while developing that extremely dangerous technique.

The failure a year ago had filled the place with a certain amount of radiation clouds. Genitsu had always treated it as a forbidden area. Anyone besides him who entered would suffer the effects of nuclear radiation.

Today, Genitsu had come to reclaim the radiation.

"So early in the morning, why would someone happen to appear in a place like this..."

Genitsu fell silent, finding the situation troublesome. After pondering for a moment,

he ultimately approached cautiously. Through a gap between the trees, he caught a fleeting glimpse of...

Uchiha Kazue, the older sister of Uchiha Izumi, who would one day become Itachi's lover.

The woman was drenched in sweat as she trained, breathing heavily. She had clearly been cultivating for quite some time. After finishing her training, she took out a boxed meal and began eating on the spot.

At first glance, nothing seemed wrong.

However, when Genitsu saw the woman use her dust-covered hand to scatter dirt into her boxed meal—seemingly absentmindedly, but actually deliberately—before stuffing it into her mouth, he understood.

She was a real ruthless one.

The nuclear radiation dispersed in the air had mostly faded after more than a year. The truly concentrated portion had long since seeped deep into the soil.

"Who's there?!"

Kazue suddenly turned around, pulled out a kunai, and hurled it viciously.