Engagement

Senju Seiichiro was a man of many words.

Throughout the journey, he kept chatting with Qiancao and Wuming, his core message always the same: "I really want to spar with Wuming."

Senju Arashi was speechless at her cousin's behavior, telling her two Uchiha friends directly, "Just ignore him."

However, Qiancao often asked Seiichiro for advice on cultivation, and Seiichiro shared his knowledge without reservation, which proved immensely beneficial to him along the way.

The group hurried along, taking five days to finally reach the seaside port.

Senju Arashi's friends had departed earlier, helping them hire a medium-sized passenger ship capable of carrying fifteen people.

The captain of the ship was a white-haired man nearing sixty, with a cook and three sailors under his command.

Senju Arashi's friends had been very generous with their payment, causing the captain's face to light up with joy when he saw them, and he helped them load their luggage onto the ship.

This was Wuming's first time at sea, and as soon as they set sail, she pulled Qiancao onto the deck.

Looking at the shrinking port and the vast horizon in the distance, Wuming couldn't help but ask, "Will we ever go back to that dark, sunless dungeon?"

Feeling the damp sea breeze, the gloom that had weighed on Qiancao for so long eased significantly. Hearing Wuming's question, he smiled and replied, "I still have to go back and settle the score with those Uchiha."

The wind and waves at sea were quite strong, and the ship rocked back and forth with small, constant jolts.

Yet, as Wuming nestled against Qiancao's side, she felt an unprecedented sense of stability and peace.

Unfortunately, this tranquility lasted only half a day before it was shattered. Just as everyone had finished lunch in the cabin, an expression of excitement suddenly surged onto Seiichiro's face.

"Haha! An old acquaintance is here!" Seiichiro donned the windbreaker he had prepared in advance and stepped out of the cabin in an instant.

Senju Arashi's expression also shifted. She warned Wuming and Qiancao in a hurried voice, "The Uchiha are here!" and followed Seiichiro out of the cabin.

Qiancao naturally didn't want to miss the chance to watch a battle between experts, so he pulled Wuming along with him.

As soon as they emerged, they saw Arashi and Seiichiro standing side-by-side on the churning sea, facing off against several Uchiha ninjas.

Among those three, Qiancao spotted two familiar faces—Uchiha Ryuji and Uchiha Sawa, the men who had killed his parents.

The Uchiha ninja leading them was none other than Uchiha Eiki. He smiled at Seiichiro and said, "You lot are truly slow; you've kept us waiting quite a while."

Seeing that it was Eiki, Seiichiro's entire demeanor became energized. He laughed loudly, "You've come at the perfect time! It's been a long while since I've had a proper fight. I hope that after half a year, you can keep me entertained!"

With that, Seiichiro was the first to complete his hand seals: [Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!]. Knowing Eiki's style, he knew that if they dawdled any longer, nothing would happen, so he took the initiative to kick off the battle.

A dragon-shaped column of water leaped from beside Seiichiro's feet, charging straight toward Eiki and his two companions.

With the vast ocean as their battlefield, surrounded by an inexhaustible supply of water, the Senju clan held a massive geographical advantage.

Eiki muttered, "What a drag!" In an instant, he activated his Sharingan and performed the same technique. A nearly identical dragon-shaped water column roared to life beside him, intercepting Seiichiro's water dragon in mid-air.

With a loud "BOOM!", the two water dragons exploded in the air, sending a massive wave crashing directly toward the passenger ship, threatening to capsize it entirely.

Nearby, Senju Arashi quickly performed hand seals: [Water Style: Water Clone Jutsu!]

Six clones leaped from the sea, each grabbing a crew member from the ship and quickly moving away, dodging the incoming wave and sprinting across the water toward the distant port.

The surging wave slammed into the passenger ship, capsizing it instantly and tearing it to pieces upon the surface of the sea.

The captain, carried away by Arashi's clones, watched from afar as his livelihood was smashed to bits and couldn't help but wail, "Ah! My ship!"

Hearing the captain's lament, Senju Arashi couldn't help but complain, "Sei! Ichi! Ro! Look at the mess you've made! You're going to make me pay for the damages again!"

Seiichiro, however, had no time to reply. He placed his hands together after forming seals and spat a high-pressure jet of water from his mouth: [Water Style: Water Severing Wave!]

A blade-like stream of water swept toward Eiki, threatening to slice its target in two.

"Seriously, whose idea was it to fight the Senju clan on the ocean?" Eiki complained inwardly, his hands moving rapidly through seals: [Lightning Style: Thunder Arrow!]

Several bolts of lightning shot from Eiki's hands, instantly attaching themselves to the water blade coming from Seiichiro's mouth.

Lightning travels at an incredible speed. Before the water blade could strike Eiki, the bolts of electricity raced along the stream toward Seiichiro's mouth.

Seiichiro was forced to release his control over the water blade. The blade continued toward Eiki on momentum alone, but its speed was greatly reduced, allowing Eiki to dodge it with ease.

Knowing that ninjutsu alone wouldn't be enough to finish the other, the two simply stepped onto the waves and began testing each other with taijutsu.

On the other side, Senju Arashi was left to face Ryuji and Sawa alone.

Ryuji and Sawa performed hand seals simultaneously: [Lightning Style: False Darkness!]

Two thick, heavy spears of lightning erupted from their mouths, clearly imbued with terrifying power.

Senju Arashi dared not block them head-on with water style. In her haste, she could only form seals: [Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!]

The Great Breakthrough was a basic wind technique, but when unleashed by a ninja with as much chakra as Senju Arashi, it acted like a hurricane, blowing the two lightning spears directly into the sky!

Ryuji and Sawa didn't dare stay in place and scattered in opposite directions. While moving, one used water style and the other used lightning style, combining their efforts to unleash a technique: [Lightning Style: False Lightning Wave!]

A water column wreathed in electricity sprayed toward Senju Arashi. This hybrid technique was extremely difficult to deal with, so Senju Arashi took a deep breath and exhaled forcefully, using [Wind Style: Vacuum Great Sphere!] to defend.

A visible cannonball of air materialized in mid-air, shooting toward the water column and exploding upon impact.

The massive recoil force knocked Sawa, who was maintaining the water column, off balance, causing him to lose his footing and fall into the sea.

In a panic, Ryuji ignored the environment and spat out a [Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!], hoping to block Senju Arashi's pursuit.

Senju Arashi countered with the same [Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!], directly intercepting Ryuji's massive fireball.

Ryuji had achieved exactly the effect he wanted; the collision of water and fire generated a massive amount of steam, and from a distance, Ryuji formed hand seals: "Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Technique!"

The mist in the air grew increasingly dense, enveloping the entire battlefield, and Ryuji took the opportunity to scoop up Shanyu from the water.

The two had barely managed to catch their breath when Senju Arashi, seemingly unaffected by the thick fog, controlled the Water Dragon Bullet and smashed it toward them!

They had no choice but to scramble to the side to dodge.

It turned out that Qiancao had activated his Sharingan to see through the mist, constantly relaying their positions to Arashi.

On the other side, Seiichiro's tactics were simple; relying on his deep chakra reserves and the surrounding landscape, which was favorable for Water Release, he continuously used Water Clones to launch feint attacks.

Although the Water Clones possessed only one-tenth of the original's strength, it was enough to cause trouble for Hideki.

No one told me this battle maniac would be escorting these two brats! Hideki complained bitterly to himself.

Seeing that Ryuji and Shanyu were also locked in a bitter struggle and unable to assist him, he steeled his heart. After repelling one of Seiichiro's Water Clones, he closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, they were no longer ordinary Sharingan, but Mangekyo Sharingan radiating an ominous aura:

"Amaterasu!"