The Senju Mystery

The next morning, Nawaki got up early. Feeling the chakra flowing through his body, he was in high spirits.

What man hadn't had a chuunibyou dream? Now that he had realized his dream from his previous life and gained supernatural powers, he was not only excited but also more confident about his future. This was a natural change in mindset after gaining power. Every strong person was confident; if they lost faith and began doubting themselves, their combat strength would inevitably plummet.

The previous night, after Tsunade taught Nawaki the Chakra Extraction Technique, the system had notified him that it had successfully recorded the technique. He could master it instantly for just 100 Wish Power, but Nawaki hadn't redeemed it.

A hundred Wish Power was nothing to Nawaki. He could easily earn that much in just ten days. But he had no intention of spending Wish Power on low-level ninjutsu. Doing so would not only waste precious Wish Power, but also make him dependent on the system and wear down his will!

Wish Power should be used to accomplish miracles beyond the reach of ordinary people, not as a cheat to avoid effort.

In the original story, any random ninja could learn the Chakra Extraction Technique. No matter how low their intelligence or how poor their aptitude, they could succeed if they put in enough time. If he couldn't even learn such a basic technique after transmigrating to the Naruto world, he might as well die right away.

Things went just as Nawaki expected. As long as you knew how, extracting chakra was easy to learn. There was no real technical skill involved; it was simply a matter of practice.

As long as they had enough physical and mental energy, anyone could extract chakra. Nawaki had the mental strength of someone who had lived two lifetimes, as well as the immense physical energy granted by the Asura Bloodline. After a few attempts, he succeeded in extracting chakra in just half an hour.

Tsunade, watching nearby, and the Third Hokage, spying on him with the Telescope Technique, were both astonished by his performance. They gave him another 200 Wish Power.

All ninjas began learning chakra extraction when they were just a few years old, yet even the fastest took half a day. Learning it in a day or two was already a sign of great talent. Tsunade, for instance, had taken an entire day to learn it. But Nawaki had succeeded with remarkable ease in just half an hour, right before their eyes! They could only praise him as a genius.

After confirming that Nawaki had completely mastered the extraction technique and that nothing could go wrong, Tsunade returned to the main hall. She went to tell Mito about Nawaki's performance, while Orochimaru and Jiraiya were still there and hadn't had a chance to say their goodbyes.

The three of them gave Nawaki another 300 Wish Power. Thus, his talent and determination earned the approval of the Hokage Faction's leaders.

With his mental and physical stamina, Nawaki had trained for five consecutive hours the previous night before stopping because he felt tired. This was not only far beyond the average for his age, but also the limit for an ordinary adult ninja. It showed just how powerful the Asura Bloodline was. Nawaki's future chakra reserves would surely be no smaller than Naruto's, so he would never have to worry about running out of chakra.

Meanwhile, nourished by the chakra, the Seed of the Divine Tree was gradually reviving, and Divine Tree Space was slowly expanding.

After getting out of bed, Nawaki sat cross-legged and silently said in his mind, "System, show me my stats."

Host: Senju Nawaki

Age: 1

Bloodline: S-rank Asura Bloodline

Chakra Natures: Fire, Lightning, Wind, Earth, Water, Yang, Yin

Nin (knowledge and IQ): 6

Tai (stamina, which serves as the foundation for chakra): 10

Gen (proficiency with seals and hand signs): 0

Strength (ability to master and use Taijutsu): 1

Ninjutsu (ability to master and use ninjutsu): 0

Genjutsu (ability to master and use genjutsu): 0

Speed (speed, agility, and reaction time): 3

Power (overall physical strength, starting with arm and leg strength): 2

From the stats table Nawaki had made using the Book of Imitators, he had little besides chakra. That was because he had only been in this world for a year and hadn't yet had time to grow. But his S-rank bloodline and innate access to all seven chakra natures showed that his potential was immense. Given enough time to train, becoming a Kage-level ninja would be a foregone conclusion. As for surpassing Kage Level, he would have to rely on the Wish Power System to give him a cheat. In the Naruto world, Kage-level was the peak for ordinary people, like the Third Hokage and the other Kage of the great ninja villages. To surpass that, one needed a cheat, like Naruto, Madara, and Sasuke. They were all cheaters. Fortunately, Nawaki had a cheat too, and his was even better than theirs.

In this world where people's fates depended on their parentage, anyone without a bloodline cheat was cannon fodder. The most powerful bloodlines came from the Sage of Six Paths, with the Senju Clan and the Uchiha Clan as prime examples.

Back in his previous life, when Nawaki watched the Naruto anime, there was one thing he could never figure out: the Senju Clan had been able to stand against the Uchiha Clan during the Warring States period, but was its bloodline ability really just strong vitality?

Before Hashirama Senju, who developed Wood Release, was born, what had allowed the Senju Clan to stand against the Uchiha Clan?

Why didn't the Uzumaki Clan, despite also having strong vitality, possess the same combat strength as the Senju Clan? Not only had they been unable to end the Warring States period, but they were also wiped out by the surrounding minor countries just a few years later.

Why was there such a huge difference in strength between two closely related clans with similar bloodlines?

Most importantly, why had the Senju Clan, which had founded Konoha alongside the Uchiha, completely disappeared within just a few decades? By the time the story began, only Tsunade remained.

Today, all these mysteries would finally be solved by Nawaki, the transmigrator!

In his previous life, Nawaki had been a longtime Naruto fan and had searched online for the reason the Senju Clan had disappeared. Fans had offered all kinds of explanations.

Their theories broadly fell into three categories.

The first was that, after repeatedly fighting in the Shinobi World Wars, the Senju Clan had suffered heavy losses because its members always led the charge. Eventually, they had all died in battle, leaving only Tsunade.

The second was that the First Hokage had ordered the entire Senju Clan to conceal their identities, withdraw from the world, and stop being ninjas.

The third was that Konoha's High Command had secretly captured the Senju Clan and used its members for human experiments to study the Wood Release bloodline, until none were left.

A closer analysis revealed major flaws in all three explanations!

First, there was the theory that they had all died in battle. Konoha had gone all out in each of the three Shinobi World Wars, sending ninjas from every clan to the front lines. Why would the entire Senju Clan have perished while the other clans survived? Even if the Senju had been willing to die for Konoha, surely some would have survived to carry on the family line.

Could Konoha have deliberately conspired to get the Senju Clan killed? If so, why hadn't Tsunade died, and why hadn't she turned against the High Command? As one of the Sannin, she held a high position and would surely have noticed anything suspicious. The High Command couldn't have hidden its conspiracy from her.

Besides, the leaders of Konoha all came from the Hokage Faction. They had always wanted Wood Release to restore Konoha's glory, so why would they fail to protect the Senju Clan and instead wipe it out? In the original story, the Hokage Faction had always been at odds with the Uchiha Clan, but they only acted against them when the clan was about to stage a coup, and even then they left the brothers Itachi and Sasuke alive. Was the Senju Clan an even greater threat to Konoha than the Uchiha? The Hokage Faction couldn't have been so deranged as to conspire to kill every member of the Senju Clan just because they were suspicious of them. An undertaking this large would require many people, making it impossible to keep secret. If word got out, the consequences would be severe. The risks were high and the rewards meager; only a fool would do it! So the first theory was unlikely.

The second theory was even less plausible. After founding Konoha, the First Hokage needed the strength of his clan to stand against and keep the Uchiha in check. He couldn't have ordered the Senju Clan to disband before Uchiha Madara left.

And not long after the Battle of the Valley of the End, he died. With news that he and Uchiha Madara had killed each other, the other countries began stirring, and the Shinobi World grew tense once again. To deal with the situation, the Second Hokage had even established the Ninja Academy after taking the Hokage Position, training civilians to become ninjas and bolster Konoha's forces. He couldn't have ordered the Senju Clan to disband and go into hiding either. Then the Second Hokage died in battle during the First Shinobi World War. Since the war ended, the Senju Clan's young clan leader had been Nawaki. His grandmother, Mito, was temporarily managing the clan on his behalf as Hashirama's wife, and planned to hand it over to him when he grew up. Neither she nor Nawaki had the authority to order the Senju Clan into hiding. One was an outsider, the other a child. Who would obey such an absurd command from them? As for after Nawaki's death, Tsunade was only a princess of the Senju Clan, not even its clan leader, so that was even less likely.

As for the third theory—that Konoha had used the clan for experiments, implanting Wood Release Cells until they all died—it had the same flaw as the first. Tsunade wouldn't have let it happen, and it couldn't have been kept secret. The original story made it clear that the Third Hokage opposed human experimentation; he had even driven his beloved student, Orochimaru, out of the village for it. Orochimaru and Danzo couldn't have snatched away the entire Senju Clan right under the Third Hokage's nose. Did they think every ninja in Konoha was blind? None of the other clans, including the Hyuga and Uchiha, would have agreed, because they were all in the same boat as the Senju. If the Senju could be wiped out for human experiments today, who could guarantee their own clans wouldn't be next? So Danzo and Orochimaru could only secretly capture individual Senju members for their experiments. They would never dare wipe out the entire clan. As the saying went, no one was a fool; smart people didn't take big risks for small rewards.

Therefore, the Senju Clan's disappearance couldn't have been caused by any of these three theories!

So why had a clan powerful enough to stand against the Uchiha Clan disappeared?

After observing the clan for a year, Nawaki had already come up with a preliminary answer!

Before that, he needed to answer the first question: what had allowed the Senju Clan to stand against the Uchiha's Sharingan?

The Sharingan enhanced genjutsu and could reflect it. It also allowed its users to see through their enemies' movements, enhancing Taijutsu. And it could copy ninjutsu, enhancing Ninjutsu. In other words, the Sharingan comprehensively boosted a user's strength in Genjutsu, Taijutsu, and Ninjutsu. The Uchiha's bloodline was one of the most powerful Kekkei Genkai in the entire Shinobi World. Could the Senju really stand against it through nothing but their healing ability and chakra reserves? Each additional Tomoe in the Sharingan also increased chakra reserves, so the two clans weren't far apart in that regard. What, then, was the Senju Clan's advantage?

After analyzing the matter, the system helped Nawaki uncover another advantage of the Senju bloodline: chakra nature! That's right, Senju were born with five or four chakra natures!

Kakashi had once said in the original story that people could acquire chakra natures through training. But the process was long: mastering each nature took ten or even several decades! That was why only high-ranking jonin could usually master two or more nature transformations, and those ninjas were already in their twenties.

Even with Shadow Clones to cheat, Naruto could only master the Wind Release nature he had been born with. After that, he never used ninjutsu of any other nature. Sasuke, too, only knew Fire and Lightning Release techniques, the two natures he had been born with.

Clearly, mastering chakra natures was extremely difficult and took a great deal of time. That was why most ninjas only developed another nature after gaining a firm grasp of their innate one.

There were very few ninjas who mastered all five natures, yet most members of the Senju Clan could use ninjutsu of all five natures.

Never underestimate this advantage. Combat situations were complex and unpredictable, and sometimes the right ninjutsu could turn the tide! Mastering ninjutsu of all five natures and using them flexibly allowed a ninja to counter ordinary opponents and adapt to changing circumstances. Hiruzen Sarutobi had reached Kage Level through his mastery of ninjutsu of all five natures!

From the Book of Formations, Nawaki knew that the First and Second Hokage had all seven chakra natures. Tsunade had Wind, Lightning, Earth, Fire, and Yang Release. Because she favored Taijutsu and Yang Release Medical Ninjutsu, she hadn't developed Water Release. Kushina had Wind, Water, and Yin Release, which was why she could use Sealing Jutsu. This further supported the theory that the Senju were born with more chakra natures than other people.

Thus, every member of the Senju Clan had the potential to become a jonin. Now that he understood this, the most important question remained: why had the Senju Clan disappeared?

Nawaki suspected that it was because the Senju Clan had opened its doors to intermarriage with outsiders!

After founding Konoha, Hashirama had sought to foster trust among the clans by arranging marriages and forming ties with the various ninja families!

Except for the Hyuga and Uchiha, who had avoided intermarrying with the Senju to keep their bloodlines pure, all the other ninja clans had intermarried extensively with the Senju. Even some civilian ninja had joined in!

Senju women married men from other clans, while Senju men could only marry women from outside the clan!

Although this had spread Senju blood throughout Konoha, it had also diluted the clan's bloodline. Nawaki's parents' generation had still managed to maintain a mid-to-high-level bloodline, but by Nawaki and Tsunade's generation, it had been diluted. Many other clan members had only a weak bloodline, and some had no bloodline traits at all!

The other clans and the civilian population had improved their bloodlines through the Senju, producing many talented people for Konoha. The Senju Clan had thus used the strength of one clan to create a cradle of genius: Konoha!