Shion's Change

Time flies, and two years have passed in the blink of an eye. During these two years, the overall situation in the Ninja World has been relatively peaceful, and no major wars have broken out.

However, there is no peace in some areas, and small-scale conflicts have never ceased.

Beneath the veneer of peace, the ninjas' battles continue.

Initially, small-scale conflicts continued between the Iwa ninja and Konoha ninja at the border.

The Iwa ninja often travel in groups of two or three along the long border of the Land of Fire, constantly searching for and attacking any lone Konoha teams.

The Iwa ninja are numerous and can be divided into many small ninja teams to infiltrate the Land of Fire from different directions.

Faced with the superior strength of the Iwa ninja, the undermanned Konoha could only barely defend a few key positions, but was powerless to hold the long border.

Therefore, for the first six months, Konoha was constantly being suppressed by Iwa ninja, and every few days news would come back to Konoha that small teams had been attacked by Iwa ninja within their territory.

As time went on, the situation in Konoha not only failed to improve, but actually became worse.

In six months, the Iwa ninja finally digested the entire Land of Lightning and basically completed the cleanup of all remaining Cloud ninja within the Land of Lightning.

With the war in the Land of Lightning finally over, many Iwa ninja were able to free up their resources to intensify their attacks on Konoha.

This nearly caused Konoha's situation to collapse, with its borders completely lost, and many Iwa ninja squads began to openly infiltrate the Land of Fire.

It can be said that, for the Konoha ninja, the half of the Land of Fire to the north of Konoha was no longer safe.

The number of missions in this area has been greatly reduced, and most of the remaining mission requests are now in the hands of the Iwa ninja.

Konoha's control over this area has become merely nominal. In some border towns, even the administrative personnel have been replaced by Tsuchikage.

That's not the most important thing. The most serious problem for Konoha is that they've lost too many ninja.

Based on the timeline after the last Joint Chunin Exams, the total number of combat-capable ninjas that Konoha could send out at that time was only six thousand.

Sending more ninjas would make it impossible to maintain normal operations within Konoha.

In the past two years, more than half of Konoha's 6,000 ninjas have been killed in battle or rendered incapacitated. On average, a squad of Konoha ninja has died in battle every day.

To address the shortage of personnel, students at the Konoha Ninja Academy graduated early twice.

Originally, like the Konoha Stone Ninja Academy, Konoha's Ninja Academy graduates were around ten years old. But now, Konoha's eight-year-old students are forced to embark on missions.

Fortunately, Kakashi was still rational. Most of these new recruits were on missions in the southern half of the Land of Fire and were less involved in the conflicts between the northern half and the Iwa ninja.

Therefore, among the ninjas currently dispatched by Konoha on missions, the number of those who have graduated for more than two years is less than three thousand.

The vast majority of the ninjas were under twelve years old and had graduated less than two years prior.

Similarly, in order to maintain the normal operation of Konoha as a military institution, many ninjas who did not meet the required strength were also awarded titles such as Chunin and Jonin.

In short, the average combat strength of Konoha ninja has decreased significantly.

However, Konoha also has its advantages. After Kakashi fully opened up the secret techniques that were originally only available to those ninja clans, Konoha ninja have more methods at their disposal.

Although they lacked raw strength, their unorthodox methods gave the newcomers a bit more Trump Card.

In the battles between groups of a few or a dozen people from both sides, many well-known ninjas from Konoha and Iwa ninja World.

The Iwa ninja side is led by Neji, Haku, and Shion, with Karin, Sakura, Kurotsuchi, and others as the core members—a group of young elite ninjas.

In order to avoid pushing Konoha to the point of war and ultimately attracting the intervention of the Sage of Six Paths, Yichen did not send too many established ninjas.

Yichen, represented by Neji, is training young people.

Yichen's strategy was to slowly boil the frog, killing only a few or a dozen Konoha ninja each day. Even when a larger-scale conflict broke out, only about a hundred people died.

The daily losses suffered by Konoha are not enough to provoke the Sage of Sage of Six Paths' wrath.

However, over the years, Konoha's foundation has been gradually eroded!

On the Iwa ninja side Neji and the others basically fought individually, without much distinction between primary and secondary roles.

He, Haku, and Shion were jokingly referred to as the Iwa's Three Whites by busybodies because of their outstanding battle record.

Neji is because the Hyuga clan has Byakugan, Minazuki Haku is because there is a white character in his name, and Shion is because she is good-looking and has fair skin.

Although the three Iwa ninja were the strongest, in terms of personnel arrangements and battle command, everyone listened to Aono Shinichi, Minamoto Shizuka, and Rion.

Meanwhile, Konoha also had heroes temporarily supporting the team: Hinata, Sasuke, and Naruto led the charge, with Shikamaru Nara, Rock Lee Shino Aburame, and others as supporters.

Among the Konoha's elite fighters, Sasuke and Naruto only knew how to charge and fight recklessly on their own, Hinata was the true leader.

Hinata has become the de facto leader of these young heroes.

Hinata, Sasuke, and Naruto were also given a nickname by outsiders: the "Konoha's Three Blacks."

Sasuke's Amaterasu black flames can burn anything, Naruto's black and red state when he's in his Partial Tailed Beast Transformation, and Hinata's corruption!

As Hinata's fame grew, her past personality traits were brought up as fodder for conversation.

A simple, kind, and shy princess, after experiencing a dramatic change in her family, rapidly transforms into a cold-blooded, domineering, and absolute queen.

In particular, Naruto never kills intentionally or proactively, and Sasuke rarely kills. Among the Konoha's Three Blacks, only Hinata never leaves anyone alive.

Whether it was the people of the Land of Fire, their rivals from the Land of Earth, or other spectators, everyone was talking about it with great interest.

In the chaotic battle zone north of Konoha in the Land of Fire, the Konoha temporary Command Center is currently filled with Konoha's Three Blacks and many elites Shikamaru Nara.

At that moment, Naruto and Kiba Inuzuka were having a heated argument.

"Naruto, you idiot! The west side is definitely a fake target set up by the Iwa ninja. Neji Hyuga and the others are definitely in the east!" Kiba Inuzuka shouted.

Naruto, however, remained unyielding, saying, "How could it be in the east? There's clearly no movement in the east."

Kiba Inuzuka said in a tone as if he were talking to an idiot, "It's abnormal that there's no movement from the east. When has the Iwa ninja ever been quiet in the last two years?"

Naruto's intelligence clearly couldn't accept this explanation, so he quickly found a reason for himself. "Because I, Naruto Uzumaki, am here!"

"The Iwa ninja are clearly afraid of me; they dare not show their faces in the east."

Kiba Inuzuka immediately retorted, "Then why are they still showing up in the west?"

Naruto's eyes caught sight of the map, then lit up as he exclaimed, "Because the west is far from here!"

That's not entirely wrong; Konoha's temporary Command Center was indeed located relatively far to the east.

But the difference in distance isn't that much.

The two were arguing loudly, but almost no one else paid them any attention.

Only Choji Akimichi and Rock Lee ate their food while watching the two of them, and it was unclear whether the two of them were even thinking.

Meanwhile, Shino Aburame, Sai, Ino Yamanaka, and Tenten all turned their attention to Shikamaru Nara.

Shikamaru Nara looked at Hinata was also looking at him. His heart skipped a beat for a moment, then he quickly said, "I don't think we need to get hung up on Neji others' specific route of advance."

"This intelligence indicates that Neji have all left the Iwa ninja temporary Command Center, so their target will only be here."

"The Iwa's Three Whites have all gathered, and Kurotsuchi and the others have also come; this situation is rare."

"They don't need to send out their entire force to deal with scattered small teams, and given the current situation, they won't risk crossing us into the southern part of the Land of Fire."

"Therefore, I judge that Neji others are targeting us. All we need to do is defend this place."

Hinata, seated at the head of the table, thought for a moment, then nodded firmly. In a completely emotionless tone, she said, "In that case, we can't go anywhere."

"We'll stay here and wait for the Iwa ninja to attack. But we can't be careless; we need to send out more scout ninjas to gather intelligence from all sides."

Seeing Hinata speak, Shikamaru Nara and the others did not hesitate and quickly agreed.

Shikamaru Nara immediately got up to arrange for reconnaissance ninjas.

Kiba Inuzuka dared not disobey Hinata's orders and lowered his head, choosing to acquiesce.

Only Naruto muttered a few words, expressing his dissatisfaction that his opinions were not being taken seriously.

As for Sasuke, he kept his eyes closed the entire time, sitting in the corner without saying a word.

Sasuke the most thoughtful. During his time with Naruto, he gradually gave up the idea of leaving Konoha for Iwagakure.

However, his desire to revitalize the Uchiha Clan remained unchanged.

Sasuke didn't care about the other Iwa ninja of his age; he only cared about Neji, the man who had brought him shame during the Joint Chunin Exams!

Therefore, Sasuke didn't care about Shikamaru Nara's analysis or Hinata's decision; all he wanted was to face Neji.

Moreover, given Sasuke's arrogance, the fact that he's willing to sit here and listen to this bunch of trash discuss is already giving them a lot of face.

Once he defeats Neji and completely washes away his shame, he will go solo.

There's nothing in Konoha that I should stay for!

Just as he thought of this, Sasuke couldn't help but open his eyes and glance at that idiot Naruto.

Naruto noticed and immediately shouted at Sasuke, "Sasuke, you bastard, are you mocking me again?"

"Idiot!" Sasuke coldly replied with just two words before closing his eyes.

After that, no matter how much Naruto roared, Sasuke ignored him.

But what tactics should be used to deal with Neji? Sasuke began to recall his several battles with Neji over the past two years.

Sasuke has been defeated by Neji multiple times, and with the continuous use of the Mangekyō Sharingan, Sasuke has also discovered a serious decline in his eyesight.

Of course, Sasuke didn't tell anyone about this, and he didn't know that the Mangekyō Sharingan could be upgraded to the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.

He was completely unaware that Kakashi possessed another pair of Mangekyō Sharingan, the very ones he needed to upgrade his eyes.

Meanwhile, just as Shikamaru Nara had guessed, Neji, Haku, Shion, Kurotsuchi, Sakura, Kamizuru Tsuruhime, Fujii Kusaka, and others were slowly approaching Konoha's temporary camp.

In addition to these young people, Chiga was also part of the accompanying group.

Karin and Sakura took turns guarding Iwagakure as usual, while Yakumo Kurama, unwilling to confront Konoha directly, stayed at the Land of Land of Lightning's branch.

Neji walked at the very front of the group. He had experienced several fetal movements in the past two years, having just completed one recently, which further enhanced his strength.

According to his and Yichen's estimates, they should only need one last effort to fully awaken the Tenseigan.

Neji's evolution was slower than Yichen had imagined; in the original story, it didn't take Otsutsuki Toneri long to awaken the Tenseigan.

Yichen thought it might be because Neji's Byakugan purity was not as high as Hanabi Hyuga's.

Neji may not have been inferior to Hanabi Hyuga, but his Byakugan was always restricted by the Caged Bird Seal, so his advancement was slower.

It's also possible that Neji's compatibility with the Giant Tenseigan wasn't as close as Otsutsuki Toneri's, as he didn't receive the Tenseigan Chakra baptism from a young age like Otsutsuki Toneri.

Besides these two possibilities, Yichen believes the most likely explanation is that the Sage of Six Paths behind it all, perhaps buying time for Sasuke and Naruto.

Neji initiated this operation, aiming not only to destroy Konoha's temporary camp and damage Konoha's morale.

More importantly, it's to test the power of his Tenseigan at this stage.

Once he reaches Neji's level, normal sparring becomes largely ineffective. With his strength rapidly increasing, he can only adapt to his new power through combat.

Neji looked at Chiga and asked, "Chiga- senpai, is there any news from Konoha?"

Chiga said, "Naruto Uzumaki has been at the Konoha camp the whole time and has never left!"

For reasons unknown, Yichen would swallow blood from Chiga Uzumaki clan members every few days in order to track Naruto's whereabouts.

Over the past two years, Naruto has visited Mount Myōboku, and Chiga has also helped Yichen pinpoint its exact Mount Myōboku.

However, Yichen did not tell Chiga to stop, but instead asked her to pay closer attention to Naruto's movements.

Neji brought Chiga this time because he wanted to gauge Konoha's reaction by knowing Naruto's location.

Upon hearing that Naruto was in the direction of Konoha's temporary Command Center, Neji nodded.

Perfect, let's take care of the Konoha ninja all at once and easily destroy that temporary Command Center in Konoha.

Neji was still young, and although he had become Kage Level ninja, he had not joined the Iwagakure Advisor Group.

Therefore, he was unaware that the Sage of Six Paths was behind Konoha, which is why he said such a thing.

However, precisely because Neji was unaware of the Sage of Sage of Six Paths' existence, Yichen entrusted him with the main task of dealing with ordinary Konoha ninjas.

If you asked Sokai and Izumi Uchiha do it, they would definitely be constrained.

At the very back of the line were Bai and Shion.

Haku's expression was rather calm. He was a normal ninja, having risen through the ranks from Genin to Chunin, then to Jonin, Elite Jonin, and finally to Kage Level.

Bai's growth has been very solid, taking one step at a time. So, although his strength has steadily reached the Kage Level, his mindset remains very calm.

But Shion, who was beside him, was completely different; she seemed eager to participate in the upcoming war.

Shion advanced to the next round six months ago.

That night, Yichen was diligently studying his Five Elements Fusion.

Because the Little White Ball Research Group wasn't making enough progress, Yichen himself joined in the past two years.

This can speed up the research process, after all, Yichen's strength and knowledge are undeniable, and the work efficiency of others is far lower than his.

This will also allow Yichen to hone his Soul Power, which has surged dramatically over the past two years.

As usual, Yichen was working late into the night in the laboratory outside the village when he suddenly sensed a violent fluctuation of Yin Release within the village.

Yichen was startled and immediately put down his work, rushing to the source of the disturbance.

There are quite a few Kage Level Iwagakure, but their mastery of Yin Release is far inferior to Yichen's, and they also lack Yichen's perception.

So these people only felt that there was something strange happening in the village, but they couldn't figure out what was going on, nor could they pinpoint the source of the disturbance for the time being.

They pinpointed the source when they saw Yichen flying rapidly towards Shion's residence.

Therefore, Yichen was the first to see Shion in a bad state.

Shion lay on the bed, wearing fluffy pajamas, her expression pained.

After a brief examination, Yichen quickly determined the cause: the Moryo within Shion's body had launched a counterattack.

As Shion's strength grows, her ability to suppress and digest Moryo also increases.

However, logically speaking, the Moryo shouldn't have had a chance to retaliate, as its consciousness had been destroyed by Moryo Yichen long ago.

After observing for a while, Yichen waited until Han arrived first, gave him a few instructions, and then used the Spirit Transformation Jutsu to enter Shion's body.

After entering Shion's body, Yichen quickly found her soul.

Shion's soul was visibly excited to see Yichen arrive.

Although Shion, in her soul form, couldn't speak, she still used gestures to express her unease to Yichen and ask for help.

Around Shion's soul form, numerous Moryo tentacles were wrapped around it.

The other end of the tentacle led to a place resembling Tailed Beast seal.

There were continuous runes there, emitting a special purplish-red glow, making it look beautiful and magical, like a fairyland.

Yichen only knew that on the other side of the seal lay an incomparably ugly and ferocious Moryo.

Yichen turned his gaze back to Shion and realized that rather than the tentacles wrapping around her, they had become one with her.

Shion and the Moryo are vying for control of these tentacles, and Shion is clearly at a disadvantage.

Upon seeing this, Yichen understood what was going on.

Shion has likely absorbed enough Soul Power and is about to advance to the third stage.

This can be seen from Shion's ability to control her soul.

Because her soul strength was strong enough, Shion could see Yichen and was able to send out distress signals.

But it was precisely because of this that Shion saw the ugly true face of the Moryo.

Although Shion had always known that there was a monster inside her, thanks to the propaganda about Jinchuriki in Iwagakure, she didn't find it particularly awkward.

However, when she truly saw the Moryo in her spirit form, and her soul became deeply entangled with Moryo, the nauseating feeling was unbearable.

Shion's mind went blank. At that moment, she was driven only by Hon resisting those disgusting tentacles.

She had completely forgotten how to use the Miko Power.

Fortunately, the Moryo had lost consciousness after being severely injured by Yichen. Its counterattack was unconscious and a Hon behavior.

That's why Shion was able to hold out until Yichen arrived; otherwise, Moryo would have already merged with Shion by then.

Yichen quickly stepped forward and severed all the tentacles in a few swift movements.

Yichen's current level is no different from that of Moryo in its prime, only in number.

Therefore, dealing with these tentacles is a piece of cake.

After severing the tentacles, Yichen cast a Soul Seal around Shion to block the tentacles that were extending again from the Miko Seal.

Then Yichen said to Shion, "Shion, calm down, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and adjust your mindset."

"Don't worry, with me here, nothing will happen."

Yichen's current soul level is high enough to convey information to Shion, who is also a soul entity; however, Shion can only listen and cannot speak.

Shion trusted Yichen's words completely, and she quickly closed her eyes and began to take deep breaths as Yichen instructed.

Although she wasn't breathing in her soul form, this action still helped Shion calm down gradually.

Then Yichen said, "Very good, let's continue. Try to use the Miko Power to suppress these tentacles on your body."

Once she calmed down, Shion quickly demonstrated the Miko's ability to control the Moryo. After unleashing her Miko Power, the severed tentacles on her body were absorbed at a visible speed.

A moment later, the tentacles were completely absorbed, and then Yichen said, "Alright, Awakening Eyes and take a look at the Moryo."

Upon hearing this, Shion Awakening Eyes and looked in the direction of the Miko Seal.

Yichen said, "This should be the first time you've seen Moryo since you grew up. You don't need to be afraid at all."

"For you, the Moryo is just a special kind of Chakra; you've been absorbing this Chakra since you were a child."

Shion was still a little scared and disgusted when she saw the Moryo again, but she was generally fine now.

After Shion had adjusted for a while, Yichen said, "Alright, get ready. I'm going to break the seal and let these tentacles in. Use your Miko Power to absorb the power in these tentacles."

Shion nodded, her hands forming a special gesture. Then, her Miko Power instantly reached its peak, and a purplish-red light surrounded her.

Yichen smiled. The fact that they made such a big fuss showed that Shion was still a little scared, but it didn't matter.

Yichen released the Soul Seal, the tentacles of those Moryo Hon wrapped around Shion once again.

However, these tentacles were immediately digested and absorbed by Shion's Miko Power before they could even get close.

This time, these tentacles continuously transmitted the Moryo's Power, which was then quickly digested and absorbed by Shion.

As time went on, Shion's Miko Power grew stronger and stronger.

The power transmitted Hon the Moryo was no longer enough for Shion, so she began to actively draw power from the Moryo through her tentacles.

As Shion actively absorbed the energy, the Moryo's Miko Seal trembled slightly.

Just as Yichen was worried that the Miko Seal might malfunction, the Miko Seal unexpectedly resonated with the Miko Power within Shion.

The next moment, the beautiful and enchanting Miko Seal shone brightly, and then a large amount of Moryo power began to directly transform into the Miko Power.

This transformation occurred inside the seal, specifically at the location of the Moryo's main body.

Yichen was stunned. So the Miko Seal had this kind of power?

If the Moryo had a conscious mind, it would be in great pain at this moment, but the Moryo sealed within was very calm, allowing the Miko Power to transform it.

After a while, Shion opened her eyes.

Yichen sensed it and immediately confirmed that Shion had reached the third stage of Yin Release.

I was too tired from work the day before yesterday, and my body couldn't take it anymore. I also had insomnia last night, so I didn't update yesterday. Sorry!