The rushing water nearly drained most of Li Ke's chakra in an instant, but the result was remarkable.
Before Li Ke could even react, a scroll suddenly appeared in the possessed ninja's hand. He formed three more hand seals and unrolled it.
Summoning Jutsu?
When had he cast it?
Li Ke's eyes widened in surprise. He hadn't noticed when the other man had done it!
The moment the scroll opened, an image made up of countless numbers and characters appeared before Li Ke. What was astonishing was that the characters on the scroll began to roll and disappear as soon as it was opened. Only then did Li Ke realize that, in the instant the ninja possessing him formed the seals and released Water Severing Wave, he had also cast another jutsu.
The cipher before his eyes was highly sophisticated. Li Ke wasn't particularly skilled in Fuinjutsu, but he knew that if he wanted to make the writing on a scroll behave like this, he could already get a job with Konoha's Sealing Squad.
And if you added a cipher that even his teammate—the Third Hokage's son—couldn't decipher, then the scroll's level of secrecy was naturally very high.
Then Li Ke heard the voice of the person inside him, and realized that, without noticing, his hands had formed three more seals.
"Hmm... You were right. Things have indeed reached this point. And this isn't some sort of genjutsu affecting me... Kid, what's your name?"
Li Ke already had a good idea of the identity of the ninja possessing him. He had read the description of Water Severing Wave, after all. Normally, it took twenty-seven hand seals to cast the jutsu, but the man controlling his body could use it with only a few. And, judging from Li Ke's low chakra reserves, he had adapted what was normally a long-duration cutting technique into something like a machine gun. That proved his mastery of Water Severing Wave was so great that he could use it at will.
There was an eighty percent chance this was the great inventor of the Ninja World, Senju Tobirama.
"I'm Murata Qingtan. May I ask who you are, senior?"
Li Ke asked cautiously.
"You don't need to know my name. You only need to know that I'm a Konoha ninja. I can cast only two more jutsu with the chakra in your body... Do you have any Military Ration Pills on you? I'm about to use a jutsu that consumes a great deal of chakra. I'll need you to replenish some chakra before I can use it."
The voice inside him spoke quickly, and at last Li Ke sensed chakra approaching at high speed.
The chakra was completely unfamiliar to him, and he had no idea who it belonged to, so he promptly answered all of the man's questions.
Li Ke shook his head decisively.
"No! When I stayed behind to cover your retreat, I gave my teammates all the extra supplies and money."
Before he ran out, he had quietly slipped the money and valuables he was carrying into Kurenai's arms. Some of it was for her, and the rest was for his family.
After all, there was loot to be claimed on the battlefield. As the young master of his family, Asuma didn't care about money, and Kurenai's family wasn't short of it either. But Li Ke was different. His family depended on him to earn money.
Li Ke's answer made the other man fall silent for a moment before he spoke again.
"You went to stop the enemy prepared to die? Very well. It seems I'll have to take this a little more seriously."
The instant the words fell, Li Ke felt his body move. The last two surviving Chunin and the one-armed Jonin charged toward him as well.
They had only just spotted the corpses and hadn't understood what had happened. So when they saw Li Ke, battered and torn, charging at them, they didn't investigate. They rushed over at once, hoping to capture him.
However—
The moment they charged, the ninja had already finished forming the seals. Three Shadow Clones appeared beside Li Ke in an instant, and under the cover of their smoke, three dazzling flashes of steel cut the throats of the two Chunin.
Li Ke also realized that, without his noticing, the ninja—who was probably Senju Tobirama—had pulled several Explosive Tags and Kunai from the Iwa ninja's pockets. By the time he threw them at the last Iwagakure Jonin, the Explosive Tags stuck to the Kunai were already lit!
The one-armed Jonin hurriedly leaped into the air. But in the next moment, Li Ke's body swiftly formed hand seals, and the Shadow Clones beside him suddenly dispersed. Their chakra returned to his body in an instant, joining perfectly with the seals he had formed.
Water Release: Water Bullet Technique!
A huge torrent of water slammed into the last Jonin and sent him flying. But the next moment, Li Ke felt his body leap into the air, then drive the long sword in his hand down toward the ground!
At the same time, a scarred hand holding a Kunai stabbed toward the spot where he had been standing!
In an instant, Li Ke felt the long sword in his hand pierce something hard. When his body landed, the hand on the ground merely twitched. The Iwagakure ninja who had been hiding underground never moved again.
"Hmph... Iwagakure is still the same. Their Jonin have always been weak."
The ninja controlling Li Ke's body pulled back the sword, still flecked with white matter, and flicked the blood and bodily fluids from its blade. Then he looked into the distance.
Li Ke fell silent.
The gap was too great. He could have fought an Iwagakure Jonin himself, but there was no way he could have done it so cleanly.
Besides, this Jonin wasn't some nobody. Though the manga hadn't mentioned him, he was a fairly well-known Jonin. Otherwise, he wouldn't have driven their teacher into such a desperate situation.
But before the ninja who was probably Senju Tobirama, they had been full of openings. Li Ke couldn't even make sense of how the other man's chakra flowed, or when he had cast his jutsu.
Simply put, if the ninja possessing him wanted to kill him, Li Ke wouldn't be any different from those Chunin or the one-armed Jonin.
But just as he thought it was over, the ninja inside him spoke.
"Sorry, Qingtan. There's something I need to verify."
Li Ke froze. Before he could react, another Shadow Clone had appeared beside him at some point. Then a wave of dizziness washed over him.
He collapsed, but didn't lose consciousness. He simply couldn't move a muscle.
Li Ke knew the other man wanted to figure out what was going on, so he didn't send him back. His heart still needed the other man's body to keep it working for the time being. If he sent him back without knowing whether he could summon a Heroic Spirit again, he'd be done for.
"Don't worry. If there's nothing wrong with you, I'll tell you my name and help you survive. Besides, I imagine you have some way to counter me, don't you?"
The voice remained cool, but his tone was certain.
Li Ke didn't try to hide it. It was only natural to keep the other man cautious. Strangely enough, Li Ke could sense that what he was able to send back wasn't limited to souls. He could also send back the chakra the other man had left in his body, all in an instant.
So he sent back the chakra the other man had placed in his left hand, shifting himself into a more comfortable position.
"Yes. I can send you back to the Pure Land at any time. Even now, I can free myself and my Shadow Clone from your control."
But the voice inside him didn't care in the slightest. Instead, it spoke sternly.
"Hmph, you're far too reckless! Even so, there are plenty of ways to control you. If an evil Uchiha ninja wanted to, all he'd need to do is use a few mirrors to reflect his eyes. That would be enough to control your body and, through it, your mind—and let him return to this world for good!"
Only then did Li Ke realize that, when he had fallen, his blade had been pointed at his own eyes the entire time. The ninja possessing his body clearly hadn't trusted him from beginning to end!
But that "evil Uchiha ninja" remark...
You really are Senju Tobirama, aren't you?
"Does that mean you can do something similar, senior?"
Li Ke picked up his long sword and used its reflected light to look at his right eye. He couldn't help but be shocked.
The white of his right eye had vanished completely, replaced by black, while his iris had turned red.
And at some point, his hair had turned completely silver-white as well.
"Senior, are you Senju Tobirama?"
Li Ke asked tentatively.
"I am not."
The ninja inside him denied it at once, his tone still perfectly calm.
Li Ke fell silent for a moment, then smiled as he spoke.
"I see... Then, since you're so powerful, you must be a ninja from the Uchiha Clan, right?"
This time, the ninja inside him fell silent. But it didn't last long. Li Ke's Shadow Clone dispersed, and a mass of memories encoded in ciphers flowed into his mind. After reading them, the ninja who had claimed not to be Senju Tobirama spoke with resignation.
"...I am indeed Second Hokage Tobirama Senju. But, kid, how did you figure out I was Tobirama Senju?"
Senju Tobirama was puzzled. He had revealed Water Severing Wave, but he had already recorded how to use and develop the jutsu in the Scroll of Sealing. Surely he couldn't be the only person who knew how to use it.
And there was no way Li Ke could understand the cipher either. It was a code reserved for the Hokage. Anyone without a position like Jonin Squad leader couldn't possibly read it.
"That's easy... You could use Water Severing Wave with only a few hand seals, and you clearly hated the Uchiha Clan. Your strength and experience were beyond belief. I couldn't think of anyone else but you, Second Hokage."
After getting a definite answer, Li Ke breathed a sigh of relief.
He still couldn't be a hundred percent sure, but given the information he had, this was the answer that fit best.
But Senju Tobirama was more concerned with something else.
"Why do you think I hate the Uchiha?"
The question caught Li Ke off guard. He suddenly realized that a ninja like him shouldn't know that the Second Hokage hated the Uchiha Clan!
In fact, in Konoha, the Second Hokage was often criticized for treating the Uchiha Clan too well!
The Konoha Military Police Force was a department that countless small and large Ninja Clans coveted. It wielded enormous authority. From running businesses to controlling who could enter and leave the village, as well as maintaining the barrier and planning and developing the commercial district, none of it could be done without the Uchiha Clan's Konoha Military Police Force.
Uchiha ninja could easily use the department to earn a great deal of income under the table.
And the department was funded by Konoha. Every Uchiha ninja could easily join it, and in peacetime they could earn excellent pay without ever leaving the village to fight.
So many Uchiha Clan members were grateful to the Second Hokage. Many ordinary ninja and those from smaller Ninja Clans also thought he had treated the Uchiha Clan far too well.
"This..."
For a moment, Li Ke didn't know what to say. But Senju Tobirama immediately pressed him on the point.
"I'm dead. You can speak freely. Besides, if I don't agree, does that mean you can't use my power? If so, then unless you give up on me, you can't continue being a ninja if I refuse?"
Li Ke took a deep breath and nodded.
But as he looked at the sky and felt how incredibly weak his body remained, even with Senju Tobirama's organs helping to make up for his own, he sighed.
"But honestly, I don't want to be a ninja anymore either. After I get back, I might apply to retire... So I don't mind telling you."
Li Ke stretched his left hand toward the sky.
He was still uncertain about what to do next. With the help of versions of himself from other worlds, he could eventually restore his health and stop being disabled. But did he really want to be a ninja?
If he could use this opportunity to retire, his physical abilities and connections would let him earn more as a farmer or a merchant than he did as a ninja.
That was the kind of benefit you got for staying behind to cover the Hokage's son.
But war was never something anyone could love.
Still, that didn't stop him from telling Senju Tobirama what he thought.
He really didn't want to be a ninja anymore. He would keep training and getting stronger, but to avoid going through this again, he'd be better off leaving the ranks of Konoha's ninja—or finding himself a cushy post.
Someone like him was the least threatening person there was.
"As Konoha grows, the Uchiha holding positions in the Military Police Force will only gain more and more resources. Meanwhile, the other small and medium-sized Ninja Clans and civilian ninja will find their access to resources in Konoha increasingly obstructed by the Military Police Force. When that happens, the Uchiha Clan will be attacked by countless unseen hands. No matter how strong they are, as long as they keep their positions in the Konoha Military Police Force and occupy the best central area in Konoha, every other Ninja Clan will resent them."
Li Ke had his own thoughts on the Uchiha Clan's downfall.
It wasn't right to blame Sarutobi and Danzo alone. More precisely, the Uchiha Clan's destruction had been the collective choice of Konoha's other factions. Danzo had simply been the one to do what no one else wanted to.
Besides, nobody had expected Danzo to go so far as to wipe out the entire Uchiha Clan in one stroke.
"If the Hokage simply kept them in check, the Uchiha Clan would be isolated and left without support, forcing them to turn to the Hokage. They would cling even more tightly to the Konoha Military Police Force that had made them what they were, drawing attacks from even more small and medium-sized Ninja Clans and becoming an even more isolated and vulnerable target. They'd be weakened without realizing it. And most of the Uchiha Clan's strength and pride came from the Sharingan. Reducing the number of missions they received and the deaths among their comrades would naturally reduce the number of Sharingan as well. That would make it easy to bring the Uchiha Clan fully under Konoha's control."
Li Ke finished speaking. Senju Tobirama fell silent for a while, then spoke again.
"Your way of thinking is a lot like mine."
Before you continue