Martial Combat Style: Six Forms of the Staff

The evening breeze swept through the forest, leaves rustling in the wind.

Facing Touma, who had suddenly appeared before them, the two Kumogakure shinobi grew vigilant.

They hadn't detected anyone approaching just moments ago.

However, the boy before them was clearly just another student from the ninja academy.

To Kumogakure chunin with their wealth of experience, there wasn't much difference between dealing with two children or three.

Therefore, to avoid delays and complications, they exchanged a glance and moved in perfect synchronization!

Touma preferred to keep a low profile in his daily life, but that did not mean he lacked the courage to draw his blade against an enemy.

Facing these two dark-skinned Kumogakure shinobi, a sense of battle intent rose inexplicably within him.

Perhaps it was the confidence granted by his golden finger, or perhaps it was the life-and-death experiences he had tasted under the great fortune of his past life.

Touma did not dodge; instead, he drew the black iron short staff from his back and charged forward to meet them!

His taijutsu was actually not bad at all.

Although he hadn't shown it at school, he maintained a certain training regimen at home.

This was mainly because his mother, Takako, would watch over him, insisting that he inherit the mantle of his late father.

In Touma's eyes, this staff technique left by his late father, Dou Huan, could not be called exquisite, but it was certainly practical enough.

It consisted of six forms—three for the short staff and three for the long staff—all of which could be amplified by chakra to unleash effects comparable to ninjutsu.

Facing the two charging Kumogakure shinobi, Touma flicked his short staff, and it instantly expanded from 50 centimeters to 180 centimeters in length.

"Martial Combat Style: Crescent Moon Form!"

The long staff lashed out like a nimble serpent, the chaotic shadows of the staff suddenly solidifying as they slashed down from all directions.

The first Kumogakure shinobi to rush forward was dazzled by the sky full of staff shadows; his own refined Cloud Style Swordsmanship became sluggish, losing the spirit it had possessed moments before.

Though Touma was only eleven, his strength was not as weak as the Kumogakure shinobi had anticipated.

Especially after completing the preliminary nature transformation of Yang-style chakra within his body, his strength was growing crazily with every passing second.

The staff shadows that weren't blocked struck the Kumogakure shinobi, leaving bruised welts instantly.

In just a few breaths of combat, the previously confident Kumogakure shinobi was sent flying by the barrage of strikes.

This left the other Kumogakure shinobi, who had yet to engage, quite shocked.

He truly had not expected such immense energy to erupt from the small body of this child.

He couldn't help but question in his heart.

Why should the Land of Fire possess such abundant resources?!

Why should Konoha be able to produce so many young geniuses?!

Why was he born in that godforsaken place of Kumogakure, training without rest every day, accumulating new wounds upon old ones, only to receive a mission like this—sneaking into an enemy country to plunder the jinchuriki's materials?!

However, his questions were suddenly interrupted by Touma's iron staff.

"Martial Combat Style: Divine Might Peak Form!"

Touma leaped high into the air, his body arching backward like a full moon.

Chakra surged over the long staff, and the shadow of the staff expanded and grew.

With the whistling sound of wind, the chakra-infused staff shadow smashed down vertically!

Although the Kumogakure shinobi had reacted and held his ninja sword horizontally above his head to block, the immense force transmitted from the staff shadow effortlessly shattered the blade and landed squarely on his head.

While Kumogakure shinobi were accustomed to tempering their bodies, they certainly did not practice iron-head techniques.

Struck by the staff shadow, his skull shattered instantly, and red and white matter squeezed out from his nasal and oral cavities; he was clearly dead.

For Touma, who had been influenced by the films and television of his past life, this scene was nothing to be concerned about.

However, Minato and Kushina, who were watching from behind, were seeing such a horrific scene for the first time.

Unable to control their stomachs, they began to heave and vomited right there.

Touma had no time to care about the feelings of this young couple, for the Kumogakure shinobi who had been sent flying had already returned to the fray.

This time, the shinobi who had just suffered a secret loss held nothing back, directly unleashing the Kumogakure secret Nintaijutsu: "Lightning Style: Thunder Motion Fist!"

Although the difficulty rating of "Lightning Style: Thunder Motion Fist" was only C-rank, it had almost never been stolen by other ninja villages due to the specific medicinal supplements required for its practice.

The famous "Copycat Village," Kusagakure, had once obtained the training method for "Lightning Style: Thunder Motion Fist" from a rogue Kumogakure ninja.

However, because the formula for the secret medicine was held only by a few high-ranking Kumogakure officials, Kusagakure had no successful cases despite all their experiments, only wasting ninjas with Lightning Style talent.

As the precursor to "Lightning Style: Lightning Armor," the power of "Lightning Style: Thunder Motion Fist" was among the top tier of C-rank ninjutsu.

The Kumogakure shinobi's hands were wrapped in dense electric arcs, appearing particularly blinding in the dark of night.

To protect his eyes from the glare, Touma reached into his ninja tool pouch and pulled out the birthday gift Aburame Shibi had given him last year: a pair of sunglasses!

The members of the Aburame clan love wearing sunglasses, though it is not because their eyes have any special structure.

It is mainly because the environment in which they cultivate their Kikaichū is quite dark; having adapted to dim conditions for so long, they cannot tolerate the harsh light of day and thus need sunglasses for protection.

Actually, Shibi had originally intended to give him a jar of "Xiao-Destroying Bugs" he had cultivated himself, a type of insect capable of transmitting intelligence.

However, Touma later insisted that he swap them for sunglasses. After all, Touma was no bug enthusiast, and furthermore, his mother had a significant fear of insects; if he brought those things home, they would eventually just have to be released.

Wearing the sunglasses, Touma held his long staff horizontally across his chest and began spinning it with both hands. As the speed of the staff's rotation increased, the phantom image of a massive boulder manifested before him.

"Martial Combat Style: Thousand-Pulling Stone Star!"

This form was the final one for the long staff, and the only defensive staff technique among the six styles.

The name was derived from the massive boulder used by the creator god Izanagi to seal the Yomotsu Hirasaka, blocking the pursuers from the Land of Yomi and representing the boundary between "life and death"!

The Cloud Village ninja's fists, wreathed in electric arcs, landed alternately upon the boulder's phantom image. Each strike generated a powerful shockwave, the force of which was nearly enough to blow Minato and Kushina over from behind Touma.

Fortunately, Minato pulled Kushina behind a thick tree trunk, moving them out of the shockwave's range.

Touma truly had not expected the defensive capability of the "Thousand-Pulling Stone Form" to be this strong. He was starting to wonder how his cheapskate father, a mere genin, had managed to develop this set of staff techniques!

Could it be that his cheapskate father was also a taijutsu genius who lacked aptitude for ninjutsu and genjutsu, similar to Might Duy?

However, now that father and son were separated by the veil of life and death, Touma could no longer ask.

Seeing that the Cloud Village ninja's attack speed was increasing under the amplification of his "Thunder Motion Fist," Touma did not want to remain in a stalemate any longer.

He channeled his chakra, and in an instant, a wooden stake attached with an explosive tag took his place.

He himself rapidly body-flickered to the side, stowed his long staff, and drew a kunai to stab at the Cloud Village ninja's flank.

In the blink of an eye, the Cloud Village ninja was so immersed in his own barrage of punches that he completely failed to notice his opponent's change in position.

Touma's sneak attack landed exactly in his blind spot, and with his muscles stiff from the exertion, he could not react in time, forced to watch helplessly as he felt the stinging pain of the kunai piercing his body.

Touma did not kill him outright; instead, he punctured his peritoneum and used a burst of chakra to strike his liver, causing him to rapidly fall into a state of shock.

This was not something Touma had researched himself, but rather content taught within the Ninja Academy, and a mandatory subject for all genin.

In Touma's view, anyone capable of mastering what their teachers taught during their time at the Ninja Academy could at least become a chunin, and those with a bit of research talent who could develop their own unique methods were enough to be promoted to special jonin.

As for how those "eternal genin" came to be, aside from those with special circumstances, most were simply people who hadn't even mastered what their teachers taught before they started going out on missions!