Five Decay Technique

Yagura, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, saw Sarutobi Toru enter the arena, and bitterness returned to his face.

Yagura had a rough estimate of Sarutobi Toru's strength. If they truly fought, his chances of winning were not high.

Of course, the upside was that Sarutobi Toru would not be like Might Duy, unable to control his own moves.

Poor Suikazan Fuguki had been blasted so badly that they could only use a shovel to collect his remains.

Tightening his grip on the Hook Staff, Yagura stepped onto the ring one step at a time, gradually steadying his mindset.

Tsunade smiled and flashed Sarutobi Toru a V-sign before announcing the start of the battle.

In an instant, Sarutobi Toru vanished from Yagura's sight. A chill ran down Yagura's spine, and without thinking, he used the Body Flicker Technique to evade the opening killing move.

"Water Clone!" Yagura created two clones. With his clones back-to-back with him, the Hook Staffs in their hands whirled wildly, forcing back Sarutobi Toru's attack.

Having survived the first round of killing moves, Yagura finally caught his breath and formed hand seals. "Hidden Mist Technique!"

"Tch!" Sarutobi Toru clicked his tongue, helplessness appearing on his face.

That was the downside of leaked intelligence. Your opponent would tailor their tactics specifically against you. With an expert of Yagura's caliber fully on guard, his first-meeting kill would find it hard to work through Speed Chakra Mode alone.

But did Yagura really think that was all he could do? He was underestimating him.

Drawing a deep breath, Sarutobi Toru slowly activated the Hormone Fruit ability within his body. In an instant, he entered a state as still as a clear mirror and calm water, devoid of joy or sorrow.

By massively secreting the hormones governing rationality and calm while completely suppressing the hormones governing emotion and excitement, he forcibly entered a state of complete reason. This had originally been Sarutobi Toru's attempt to prepare himself to learn Sage Mode.

Of course, before his Chakra became Chakra Monster, Sarutobi Toru had no plans to visit the Three Great Sage Lands to study, especially since Mount Myōboku had an old toad capable of prophecy. At present, Sarutobi Toru avoided it whenever he could.

Still, preparations for Sage Mode had to be made in advance. He was highly confident in his future Chakra reserves and Chakra control, but he was also keenly aware of the shortcomings in his sensory abilities and temperament.

With his complicated nature, he clearly would not meet the requirements for entering Sage Mode. To that end, he had specifically developed this ultimate technique that manipulated the hormones in his body to achieve Absolute Reason.

In truth, Sarutobi Toru in this state was his true strongest form. His five senses were greatly heightened, his attention completely focused, and his battle instincts fully awakened, as though he had awakened special abilities like "intuition" and "mind's eye."

It was just that Sarutobi Toru himself was deeply wary of this state. He feared becoming addicted to it and eventually turning into a monster of Absolute Reason, so he rarely used it.

Yagura, who had been carefully feeling his way toward Sarutobi Toru, suddenly felt a chill in his heart. Without thinking, he rolled across the ground, narrowly dodging a flash of silver.

It was a Senbon. It had pierced three inches into the ground, leaving only a tiny bit of its tail exposed. Throwing such a thin, light Senbon with that much force showed just how skilled the thrower was.

But Yagura had no time to analyze any of that. As the sound of him dodging the Senbon rang out, the fog-shrouded arena suddenly churned with currents of mist. They were the trails formed by Sarutobi Toru moving at high speed through the fog.

Yagura only had time to raise his Hook Staff before him in a defensive stance when he felt a palm lightly brush over the hand gripping it. A cold, inorganic voice sounded by his ear. "Hormone Medical Ninjutsu—Five Decay Technique!"

In an instant, Yagura felt a chaotic mix of emotions well up within him. Ecstasy, grief, rage, terror, and sorrow all surged into his heart.

He knew he had been hit. He also knew he should fight back. But the overwhelming emotions utterly shattered his psychological defenses, leaving him completely unable to control his actions.

"Waaah, aaahhh! Hehehe, hahahaha, hehehe!"

Bursts of strange laughter, whimpering, and wailing echoed from within the thick fog. The audience, which had been clamoring because they could not see the match, was startled by the sound.

Soon, the dense mist, no longer sustained by Yagura's Chakra, dispersed. Yagura stood there with his hair disheveled and his expression utterly twisted, comparable to the famous abstract painting The Scream. Tears, snot, and drool covered his face. At times he rolled about on the ground; at others, he sprang up and shrieked bizarrely. He looked completely insane.

The inorganic feeling in Sarutobi Toru's eyes slowly faded. At once, he felt as if his mind had become several times slower, as though shackles had been placed all over his body. His five senses became far hazier, and the feeling of near omnipotence completely vanished, giving him the urge to disregard everything and enter the state of Absolute Reason again.

After taking a moment to recover and suppressing his impulse, Sarutobi Toru looked at Yagura with an inquisitive gaze.

The Five Decay Technique was a ninjutsu Sarutobi Toru had long envisioned. Through Chakra, he used his Fruit ability to affect the hormones governing the body's various emotions, causing a person to suffer an overwhelming assault of joy, anger, grief, sorrow, and fear. It instantly stripped an opponent of all ability to resist.

The concept was excellent, and the Fruit ability could certainly achieve it. The only problem was how to use the Fruit ability through Chakra.

The Hormone Fruit ability had to be injected through physical contact to truly be used. Otherwise, the only hormones it could alter were his own.

And if he could inject someone directly through physical contact, why bother using the Five Decay Technique? Wouldn't it be easier to use poison directly?

Thus, using Chakra to wield the Fruit ability became one of Sarutobi Toru's major research subjects. Yet the problem that had troubled him for so long had been effortlessly resolved while in the state of Absolute Reason. It truly left him both loving and fearing that state.

Tsunade glanced at Yagura in surprise, seeing that he was little different from a madman, then promptly announced Sarutobi Toru's victory.

Sarutobi Hiruzen in the stands was also quite surprised. He murmured, "When did Toru learn genjutsu?"

Judging from the effect, Sarutobi Toru's Five Decay Technique did indeed resemble a sophisticated genjutsu. However, unlike genjutsu, the Five Decay Technique would not leave any aftereffects on those struck by it. Once released, the victim could return to normal.

Of course, if the victim was not released from the Five Decay Technique, their internal organs would be damaged within a single day. As the saying went, excessive anger harmed the body. All kinds of extreme emotions inflicted enormous damage upon the internal organs. Even a ninja with a strong body could only endure for a while longer, which was why it was called the Five Decay Technique.

However, Chakra did not inject the Fruit ability directly, so it would not permanently alter the victim's endocrine system. At most, after a few hours, the Five Decay Technique would automatically be released.