The evening breeze swept through the forest, rustling the leaves.
Two Cloud Village shinobi grew wary when Touma suddenly appeared before them.
They hadn't noticed anyone approaching.
Still, the kid in front of them was obviously another Ninja Academy student.
For two experienced Cloud Village Chunin like them, there wasn't much difference between dealing with two kids and dealing with three.
So, to avoid wasting time and inviting complications,
they exchanged a glance and attacked in perfect sync!
Touma usually preferred to keep a low profile, but that didn't mean he lacked the courage to draw his weapon against an enemy.
Facing these two dark-skinned Cloud Village shinobi, he felt a fighting spirit rise within him for no apparent reason.
Perhaps it was the confidence his cheat had given him. Or perhaps it was the memory of the life-and-death experiences he had gone through in his previous life under the wheels of a massive truck.
Touma didn't try to dodge. Instead, he pulled the black iron staff from his back and charged straight at them!
His Taijutsu really wasn't bad.
He'd never shown off at school, but he still kept up a certain amount of training at home.
That was mainly because his mother, Takako, watched over him and insisted he inherit his late father's legacy.
In Touma's eyes, his late father Dou Huan's staff techniques weren't especially sophisticated, but they were practical enough.
There were six forms in all: three for a short staff and three for a long staff. Each could be enhanced with chakra to produce effects comparable to ninjutsu.
As the two Cloud Village shinobi charged, the short staff in Touma's hand quivered, lengthening from fifty centimeters to a full 180.
"Martial Combat Style: Crescent Moon Form!"
The long staff shot out like a nimble serpent. The chaotic shadows of the staff suddenly became solid, sweeping down from every direction.
The Cloud Village shinobi who charged first was dazzled by the countless staff shadows. Even his exquisite Cloud Style Swordsmanship grew sluggish, losing the fluidity it had moments earlier.
Touma was only eleven, but his strength wasn't nearly as low as the Cloud Village shinobi had expected.
Especially after he had completed the initial transformation of his Yang Release Chakra, his strength had been growing at a furious pace with every passing second.
The staff shadows he failed to block left bruises across his body.
After only a few exchanges, the once-confident Cloud Village shinobi was sent flying by the staff shadows.
The other Cloud Village shinobi, who hadn't yet engaged, was startled.
He truly hadn't expected such a small child to unleash so much power.
He couldn't help but question it in his heart.
Why did the Land of Fire have such abundant resources?!
Why did Konoha produce so many young prodigies?!
Why had he been born in the godforsaken Cloud Village, forced to train endlessly and pile new injuries on top of old ones just to earn a mission to sneak into an enemy country and seize a Jinchūriki as a test subject?!
His questions were abruptly cut off by Touma's iron staff.
"Martial Combat Style: Divine Might Peak Form!"
Touma leaped high into the air, arching backward until his body curved like a full moon.
Chakra surged through the long staff, and its shadow swelled in size.
With a roar of wind, the chakra staff shadow came crashing straight down!
The Cloud Village shinobi reacted in time to raise his Ninja Blade above his head and block.
But the tremendous force from the staff shadow cleaved through the blade with ease and struck him on the head.
Cloud Village shinobi made a habit of toughening their bodies, but they definitely didn't train to take blows to the head.
The impact shattered his skull. Red and white matter spilled from his nose and mouth. He was clearly dead.
For Touma, who had been exposed to films and television in his previous life, this was nothing much.
But Minato and Kushina, watching behind him, had never seen anything so horrifying.
Their stomachs lurched uncontrollably, and they threw up.
Touma didn't have time to care how the young couple felt. The Cloud Village shinobi he'd sent flying had already charged back at him.
This time, the Cloud Village shinobi, having just suffered a surprise setback, held nothing back. He immediately used the Cloud Village's secret Nintaijutsu: "Lightning Release: Thunder Motion Fist"!
Although "Lightning Release: Thunder Motion Fist" was only rated C-rank in difficulty, it required a special training medicine, and no other shinobi village had ever managed to steal it.
The famous "Copycat Ninja Village," Kusagakure, had once obtained the training method for "Lightning Release: Thunder Motion Fist" from a Cloud Village defector.
But the recipe for the Cloud Village's medicine was known only to a handful of its higher-ups. No matter how much Kusagakure experimented, it never succeeded, and could only waste the lives of shinobi with Lightning Release talent.
As a prerequisite for "Lightning Release: Lightning Armor," "Lightning Release: Thunder Motion Fist" was among the most powerful C-rank techniques.
Dense arcs of electricity enveloped the Cloud Village shinobi's hands, shining especially brightly in the darkness.
To protect his eyes from being hurt by the glare, Touma took the birthday present Aburame Shibi had given him the year before from his ninja pouch: a pair of sunglasses!
Members of the Aburame Clan wore sunglasses not because their eyes had any special structure.
It was mainly because they bred Kikaichū in dim environments. After spending so long in the dark, they couldn't tolerate the bright light of day, so they needed sunglasses for protection.
At first, Shibi had planned to give him a jar of his own "Xiao-Destroying Bugs," insects capable of transmitting information.
But Touma had insisted he swap them for sunglasses. After all, Touma wasn't some kind of bug fanatic, and his mother was quite afraid of insects. If he'd brought those things home, the only option would have been to let them loose outside.
Wearing his sunglasses, Touma held the long staff across his chest and spun it in his hands. As it spun faster and faster, the phantom image of a huge boulder appeared before him.
"Martial Combat Style: Thousand-Pulling Stone Star!"
This was the final long-staff form, and the only defensive form among the six.
Its name came from the boulder the creator deity Izanagi had used to seal Yomotsu Hirasaka and block the pursuers from the Land of Yomi. It represented the boundary between "life and death"!
The Cloud Village shinobi's fists, wrapped in crackling arcs of electricity, pounded one after another against the phantom boulder. Each blow unleashed a powerful shock wave, nearly blowing Minato and Kushina over.
Fortunately, Minato pulled Kushina behind a thick tree trunk, out of range of the shock waves.
Touma truly hadn't expected the defense of the Thousand-Pulling Stone Form to be so strong. He couldn't understand how his penniless old man, a mere Genin, had come up with this set of staff techniques!
Could his old man have been a Taijutsu prodigy who couldn't use ninjutsu or genjutsu, like Might Duy?
But now father and son were separated by life and death, and Touma couldn't ask him anymore.
Seeing the Cloud Village shinobi's attacks grow faster and faster under the boost from "Thunder Motion Fist," Touma didn't want to keep stalemating with him.
He silently worked his chakra, and in an instant, a log fitted with an Explosive Tag took his place.
Touma himself quickly used the Body Flicker Technique to move to the side, put away his long staff, and pulled out a Kunai to stab the Cloud Village shinobi beneath the ribs.
In the blink of an eye, the Cloud Village shinobi was so absorbed in pounding away with his fists that he didn't notice his opponent's change in position.
Touma's sneak attack came from his blind spot. With his muscles rigid all over, the man couldn't react quickly. He could only feel the Kunai pierce him.
Touma didn't kill him outright. He pierced his peritoneum and used chakra to strike his liver, quickly sending him into shock.
Touma hadn't come up with this himself. It was something taught at the Ninja Academy, and a required lesson for all Genin.
In Touma's view, anyone who could fully grasp what their Ninja Academy teachers had taught them could at least become a Chunin. Those with a talent for research who could develop their own techniques would be more than qualified to advance to Special Jōnin.
As for how some people remained Genin for decades, apart from a few exceptional cases, most probably hadn't even understood what their teachers taught them before they started taking missions!
Before you continue