Senju of the Forest

The position in midair was very important.

Many ninja had ways to use Earth Release to launch surprise attacks from underground. The Kikaichū were also adept at this. Being in midair offered a clear view in every direction, making it much easier to deal with all kinds of attacks.

Yura raised her eyelids. The instant killing intent surged from the other side, she attacked.

On the ground, a horde of Kikaichū burst forth, surging up from underground like a fountain. At the same moment, the headless body opposite Yura toppled backward.

Yura ignored the Kikaichū and shot through the air. She plunged her left hand into the ninja's heart and pulled out the still-beating organ. After one glance, she pursed her lips in disgust. She couldn't use hearts from the Aburame Clan anymore.

It wasn't dirty, but it was too fragile to meet the standards for modifying it with a forbidden technique.

She tossed it aside and glanced at the ninja's head. Behind her, with no one left to control them, the Kikaichū buzzed around like headless flies, instinctively fleeing from Yura before vanishing into the dense forest.

The escaping swarm could be ignored, but she had to deal with the information in the ninja's brain.

The ninja's head dangled in midair. With a snap of Yura's fingers, it burst into flames. Ghostly blue Demon Fire flickered over it, and the head melted away like dripping wax.

Yura turned and pursued the last two.

This time, she had thoroughly crossed Konoha. From now on, they would fight to the death—that much was certain. Unless one side backed down, and given Yura's temperament, there was no chance she would let the matter go without retaliation. So how should she retaliate?

Even brothers kept their accounts separate. Yura would settle her grudges against Hashirama and Tobirama separately, of course.

She turned the matter over in her mind and came up with a plan. She needed to go to Konoha and give Tobirama a heads-up.

Through the dense forest, the ninja wearing a dog mask raced along in silence. But moments later, he had no choice but to stop. An arrow had pierced the tree trunk before him. On a scrap of cloth torn from it, wet ink spelled out...

Captain! Stop! Engage the enemy!

Had they caught up?

Eight hundred meters away, deep in the forest, White Fox drew her bow and steadily aimed at Yura as she raced along.

Feeling the killing intent locked onto her steadily build, ready to strike, Yura kept moving and closed the distance.

Three hundred meters, two hundred, one hundred, fifty...

Just then, an arrow wrapped in blue light tore through the forest, piercing several tree trunks as it flew. It came from the side, aimed straight at Yura's face.

On a tree trunk in the forest, the man waiting in a battle stance saw the arrow appear. His pupils contracted, then his eyes locked onto Yura's figure, which had abruptly appeared in midair.

Yura's body stopped in midair with eerie suddenness. The arrow missed by a hair's breadth and shot into the forest on the other side, where a dull thud rang out.

At the same time, the man's hands blurred as he formed Hand Seals in silence. His chest swelled.

Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique

The Great Fireball was known as a merciful technique. It was difficult to kill a normal ninja with it because the fireball traveled too slowly and was easy to dodge. Its power, however, was undeniable. The technique was usually used to force an opponent to reposition or to block a pursuer.

But a Great Fireball of this size wasn't meant merely to force someone to move. It was powerful enough to take out many low- and mid-level ninja in one hit.

In an instant, a massive Great Fireball burst from the forest. Nearly ten meters in diameter, it engulfed a vast area, forming a small sea of fire. The trees it touched caught fire, turning into blazing torches.

The enormous fireball surged straight ahead, skimming the ground and plowing a foot-deep trench in its wake.

That attack was enough to temporarily drive back the charging enemy. She had come so close just moments ago—it really had been dangerous.

Invisibility?

If White Fox hadn't helped break that dangerous technique, he would probably have been beheaded without even realizing it. That enemy really was dangerous—

In the blaze, the ninja's pupils suddenly contracted beneath his dog mask.

What!?

A dark figure emerged abruptly from the very center of the giant fireball, which hadn't even traveled ten meters. Flames engulfed her entire body as she moved through the air with the uncanny ease of flight. The fire burning around her could clearly be seen flickering in the empty space around her body, never touching her flesh. Her crimson eyes fixed on him coldly, and a chill rose in his heart.

This is bad...

Every muscle in his body tensed instinctively, and his chakra erupted in an instant.

Yura's hair was fireproof, as she'd said before. Ordinary flames couldn't harm her in the slightest. She curled a finger.

An Uchiha?

In an instant, a dense series of slicing sounds erupted all around the Dog-Mask Ninja. But they only left shallow cuts, thin lines of blood appearing across his face, hands, and legs.

Unlike Yura's sickle, her hair was merely sharp. She couldn't use many of the force-generating techniques employed in swordsmanship, so its cutting power was limited.

The Dog-Mask Ninja stood rigid on a tree branch, bound tightly by her hair and unable to move. His eyes, reddened slightly, turned toward Yura.

Suspended in midair, Yura stopped advancing. Behind her, the Great Fireball roared onward for over fifty meters before exploding with a thunderous boom, flames soaring into the sky.

"Senju of the Forest?" Yura asked, tilting her head amid the flames.

The First had used this technique of releasing chakra throughout the body; the Second Hokage had used it, and Tsunade could, too, though she was better at concentrating it in one spot.

The layer of chakra covering his body had acted as armor, cushioning the cuts from Yura's hair like padding.

As a matter of fact, ordinary members of the Senju Clan didn't have enormous chakra reserves. The Uchiha Clan had more of those. The Senju Clan's real strength was a seemingly unremarkable ability to precisely control chakra throughout the body. That was the foundation for clapping one's hands and summoning whatever was needed. But Hashirama only clapped his hands when using Wood Release. For ordinary techniques, he still had to form Hand Seals—for example, the Summoning Technique.

Tobirama was one of the best among them, having simplified the Hand Seals for most Water Release techniques.

As a result, most Senju ninja could perform techniques far faster than ordinary ninja.

In terms of talent as ninja alone, the Senju Clan was quite ordinary.

But their ancestor was one of the Six Paths, and they had access to an exceptionally rich store of ninjutsu. Their clan often produced powerful ninja skilled in ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu.

So if they lost those resources and gave up the Senju name, most of them would inevitably fade into obscurity.

Before she could hear his reply, an arrow whistled in from the side of the forest. Aimed at her torso, it took an uncanny angle straight for her heart, wavering through the air like a stone skipping over water, its trajectory difficult to predict.

She'd learned her lesson. This time she had chosen the larger target of the torso instead of trying for a single killing blow to the head.

From Yura's perspective, the trees in the arrow's path were pierced through without a sound. Even the strands of hair blocking its way snapped silently. Thanks to the strands she had spread across a radius of over a hundred meters, Yura had ample time to detect the arrow's trajectory.

Any slight movement or vibration in the air traveled along the strands to Yura.

Yura raised her hand. Her plain white kimono turned black in an instant. She swung her arm, and her wide sleeve swept into the speeding arrow. With a resounding clang, the arrow veered off course and plunged into the ground. In the blink of an eye, a jagged, roughly one-meter-wide crater split the earth.

Eight hundred meters away, White Fox's pupils contracted as she gripped her bow.

She blocked it...

With a furious shout, the Dog-Mask Ninja's chakra surged. Ignoring the wounds her hair had cut deep into his flesh, he used brute force to snap the strands binding him, one after another. He was about to break free.

Strength Enhancement Technique!

Sure enough, Yura understood.

Unlike Tsunade, who could unleash it at will, he had to build up power before using it. Its destructive force was nowhere near as extreme as Tsunade's, either.

But this was as far as he would get.

A sickle hovering beside Yura shot out at tremendous speed and swept toward him.