The Proper Way to Keep a Summoning Beast (2)

Hearing himself being saddled with the title White Yaksha, Hagoromo instinctively imitated that dead-fish-eyed look from his memories.

With that rugged prince-like face plus those magical dead fish eyes... for some reason, Rin felt like her eyes had gone blind for a moment just now.

What a bizarre supernatural phenomenon.

Yes, when White Yaksha was first mentioned, his image had been pretty cool—after all, he had chopped up aliens with a sword and all that.

Later on, he could still be cool when the moment called for it, but most of the time, he faithfully played the role of a hopeless good-for-nothing.

Seriously, who had spread that nickname? White Yaksha? Do you even know Justwe?

Meanwhile, Rin continued her introduction.

"Lots of people are talking about you now. They say you're one of the three geniuses of the new generation."

"Wait, what do you mean, the three geniuses of the new generation?" Hagoromo felt that something was increasingly off. Being called a genius might sound nice, but on the battlefield, young ninja carrying the title of genius were, without exception, priority targets for enemy nations.

Whoever called him a genius clearly had no good intentions, right?

Or was this another one of Konoha's star-making schemes?

If it was the latter, he truly could not agree. A ninja like Minato Namikaze could intimidate the entire ninja world under the name Yellow Flash because he possessed real, undeniable strength. Konoha could brag about him all it wanted.

"Upon encountering the Yellow Flash, you may regard the mission as failed and retreat." That one sentence alone demonstrated his deterrent power.

But even Minato could not guarantee that he would emerge unscathed from every battle. Hagoromo felt that his skinny neck could not bear a title like genius.

To put it bluntly, although he could unleash AOE attacks, he was just a glass cannon with high attack and low defense. In terms of ninja strength, he was definitely still below Jonin level. The only reason he could hold his own on the battlefield was his proficient Lightning Release. If his Lightning Release were sealed, his ability would immediately plummet.

The ninja world was terrifying. Hagoromo was no powerhouse; calling him a genius meant he could easily get killed. What if a high-speed ninja like Minato suddenly appeared behind him and slit his throat? What if he accidentally got hit by Dust Release? Or Boil Release? What if some taijutsu master capable of opening the Gates kicked him once?

So at that moment, he was a little shell-shocked, gripped by the delusion that everyone was out to get him.

Actually, it had nothing to do with anyone else. That night, he had beaten Shukaku senseless in front of so many people. Many had never seen a scene like that in their lives—how could they possibly forget him?

That spectacle of intimidating both friend and foe made calling him a yaksha far from excessive.

It was not as though no one could tell that Kushina had actually contributed more to subduing Shukaku, but Hagoromo's barrage of attacks had simply been too domineering. As for Kushina, most people subconsciously chose to forget about her.

These were all things Hagoromo had never expected.

"On Konoha's front against Kirigakure: the Uchiha Clan's young genius, an elite among elite ninja, Uchiha Shisui, who excels at Genjutsu and possesses unfathomable movement techniques. He is known as Body Flicker Shisui."

"On Konoha's fronts against Iwagakure and Kumogakure: the disciple of Konoha's Yellow Flash, the son of the White Fang, Kakashi Hatake." As she spoke, Rin glanced at Kakashi. Yet when she introduced him, he did not react at all.

"And on Konoha's front against Sunagakure: the disciple of Kushina Uzumaki, descendant of the Uzumaki Clan; the White Yaksha who excels at Lightning Release and defeated the One-Tail Shukaku, Kamishiro Hagoromo."

Hagoromo was already speechless. Placing him alongside Kakashi and Uchiha Shisui was clearly putting him on the enemy's kill-on-sight list...

It meant that whenever he went to the battlefield in the future, he would have to be careful, careful, and even more careful.

Just thinking about it gave him a headache. Keeping a low profile really was the way to go. Since Konoha was spreading it like this, Sunagakure was likely saying something similar. And the various ninja villages all had spies in one another's ranks. If the Sand Ninja were saying it, the other villages would learn of it too.

This might even reach the ears of someone as important as the Raikage. And by the time it reached his ears, it might become: some young brat from Konoha called the White Yaksha had single-handedly blown Shukaku apart...

The more he thought about it, the worse it seemed. Hagoromo forcibly pulled himself out of that train of thought.

"How is the situation on the battlefield now?"

He needed some other information to dilute those thoughts.

"During the surprise operation launched by the Sand Ninja that night, we suffered enormous losses. Of course, the Sand Ninja did not get off easily either. By rough estimates, they suffered more than two thousand ninja casualties. As for how many were dead and how many were wounded, I don't know that kind of intelligence."

Rin said.

"Then their losses are substantial. They won't be unable to recover from this in the war, will they? Tsunade-sama has always wanted to take the offensive. Perhaps now is a good opportunity?" Hagoromo said.

To his surprise, Rin shook her head. "Our losses were significant as well. Ninja casualty figures are highly classified, so I don't know them, but I estimate they are not much better than the Sand Ninja's. More importantly, more than half of our logistics department and a large number of noncombat personnel have been killed or wounded. We can barely even maintain logistical support, let alone launch a surprise attack."

"So we still have to remain deadlocked." Hagoromo patted his forehead and spoke helplessly. When would this stalemate ever end? Without a strategic victory or defeat, the war would never come to an end.

Unexpectedly, Kakashi spoke at that moment.

He closed the book in his hand and placed it into the Ninja Tool Pouch behind his waist, then turned his face toward Hagoromo.

"The Third Hokage has already resolved to end the fighting with the Sand Ninja. He is now leading Konoha's last mobile force—around three thousand ninja—to this front. Once the Hokage arrives, we will launch an all-out strike against the Sand Ninja!"

"The Third Hokage is personally going to the battlefield?" Hagoromo's expression became one of great surprise.

He did not question Kakashi's source of intelligence. Because of Minato, Kakashi certainly knew more about high-level matters than he did.

What worried him was that the Hokage was taking Konoha's last remaining forces out of the village. What would happen to Konoha's defenses then? While it would be difficult for a large enemy force to bypass Konoha's three defensive lines and launch a surprise attack on the village, small-scale infiltration and sabotage could always be carried out, couldn't they?

There were plenty of ninja willing to die. Ninja capable of carrying out suicidal infiltration and sabotage missions were everywhere.

Hagoromo's concern was reasonable. At this time, Konoha's defenses rested entirely in the hands of the Root under Shimura Danzo, along with part of the Uchiha Military Police Force.

The Third Hokage, along with the most elite Hokage Direct Anbu, was indeed rushing straight toward this front.