Sage Art: Wood Release Rasenshuriken (1)

Konoha Anbu Base.

Li Yu donned a mask with green patterns, put on the standard Anbu uniform, and draped a black cloak over his shoulders.

He picked up the various intelligence reports collected recently; skirmishes were occurring frequently along the borders of the Land of Fire, nations were making constant moves, and orders for shuriken and kunai in the Land of Iron had surged.

These are all signs that war is about to begin.

The Third Kazekage of the Land of Wind has been missing for many days, yet there has been no declaration of war against Konoha. Does the Land of Wind not intend to start a war?

In truth, because of Li Yu's appearance, the butterfly had gently flapped its wings. The battle in the Land of Birds last time had terrified the people of the Land of Wind. It was said that very few who fled back believed the descriptions of the battle they provided, remaining half-skeptical.

The conflicts between the ninja have not been resolved; the war has merely been postponed. This is perhaps the calm before the storm.

Today is the Chunin Exams. I should go see how my three students are performing and, incidentally, observe Uchiha Obito.

Li Yu performed a hand seal, created a Wood Clone, and activated the Flying Thunder God to leave the Anbu base, heading toward the Chunin exam site, prepared to track the entire examination.

The Third Shinobi World War was imminent. Li Yu felt his combat style leaned toward large-area coverage with ultimate moves, lacking sufficient single-target lethality. Relying on the Flying Thunder God, he could easily kill a Jonin or even ambush a Kage-level powerhouse, but actually finishing them off remained somewhat difficult.

He reached out with his left hand to touch his left eye, feeling the overflowing ocular power within; a mysterious force surged forth.

In an instant, Li Yu activated his Three Tomoe Sharingan. The three tomoe in his left eye spun rapidly, transforming into a four-pointed shuriken. Guided by his intuition, he channeled the power of his left eye to release it.

A yellow, skeletal upper body manifested with Li Yu at its center, sporting horns on its head and glowing red eyes—grim and terrifying.

He swung its arms casually.

"Whoosh."

The wind howled with astonishing force. After testing it a few times, Li Yu felt his left eye grow sore and fatigued.

It seems using Susanoo with only one Mangekyo Sharingan is still quite taxing.

I need to find an opportunity to awaken the Mangekyo in my right eye as soon as possible.

However, in the current ninja world, who else had awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan? Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Itachi were still a long way from awakening theirs.

It seems my right-eye Mangekyo is a distant dream.

Dejected, Li Yu plopped down onto a large rock, propped his chin on his hand, and stared blankly at the training ground with a frown.

Do I have to awaken it myself?

But it requires the sacrifice of someone closest to me.

This was a price Li Yu did not want to pay. Most who awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan in this manner were influenced by the eyes, leading them to commit extreme acts. Recalling the original story—Itachi, Sasuke, Obito, Madara—which one of them didn't walk an extreme path born of love turned to hate, gaining enlightenment at a great cost, and ultimately heading toward death?

Except for Sasuke, who had the "Prince" Naruto constantly helping him, even Naruto, protected by the protagonist's halo, had nearly kicked the bucket multiple times, and it cost him an arm to finally bring "Sasuke" back from the brink of extremism.

Suddenly, Li Yu slapped his thigh.

"How could I forget them?"

"Kakashi, Obito, Lord Madara."

"Uchiha Madara."

"He should be hiding in some dark corner right now, surviving with the help of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path."

"According to the original plot, Lord Madara should still have a Mangekyo Sharingan."

Having been in the Naruto World for so long, anyone would be curious about the legendary Uchiha Madara himself. Although he was already an elderly man, he still wanted to test how much of Uchiha Madara's strength remained.

Since he was going to do it, he might as well do something big.

Having secretly made up his mind, Li Yu prepared to plan it out carefully.

After figuring this out, Li Yu leaped off the large rock and performed hand seals.

Two puffs of white smoke rose on either side.

"Poof! Poof!"

"Multi Shadow Clone!"

He extended his palms outward, facing upward, and two spheres of blue chakra rotated rapidly in opposite directions. His shadow clones injected Wind Release chakra into the Rasengan.

Under Li Yu's powerful chakra control, he held a Wind Release: Rasenshuriken in each hand. "Swish," he activated the Flying Thunder God and teleported to the outskirts of Konoha.

He leaped high and swung both Rasenshuriken toward the sides of a small hill.

"Happiness must be doubled."

"Boom! Boom!"

With the flying Rasenshuriken as the center, a massive blue sphere of rotating light spanned a hundred meters. The spheres, rotating in opposite directions, acted like a meat grinder, tearing the small hill in the middle into dust.

The power was immense, and the tearing effect was even stronger than a single Rasenshuriken.

This was a temporary whim of Li Yu's. Learning from Naruto's method, he used clones to help inject the elemental nature to perform the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken. Coupled with the Senju Clan's innate powerful chakra control, he succeeded on the first try, forcing Li Yu to use the Flying Thunder God to leave the family training ground and come outside to test the new jutsu.

Seeing the commotion he had caused, Li Yu performed hand seals and slammed his palms onto the ground, using Earth Release to restore the ground and the hill to their original state.

His hands were covered in scratches, but the pain deep within his bones gradually faded, and he recovered to normal within a few minutes.

"The powerful Sage-like recovery constitution is truly strong; it is definitely stronger than the Nine-Tails' recovery power."

"This must be one of the powers of the First Hokage's Yang Release."

An S-rank jutsu with such immense destructive power as Wind Release: Rasenshuriken should be kept hidden, lest the Anbu detect something amiss through the extent of the terrain damage. In the ninja world, intelligence comes first; knowing an opponent's information allows one to find a way to counter them.

Li Yu still intended to use it to catch the enemy off guard during the Third Shinobi World War to achieve the greatest effect.

He used the Flying Thunder God to return to his clan's training grounds, determined to keep it hidden for as long as he could.

At this moment, several patrolling Anbu ninjas arrived at the scene.

"I just heard two loud bangs and saw a bright light; it should have been right around here. Why are there no obvious signs of damage on the ground?"

"It's strange."

"Exactly. With such a massive jutsu, the scene shouldn't look like this."

A sensory-type Anbu ninja circled the small hill to inspect it.

"There is a large amount of residual wind-attribute chakra in the air. This is the effect that only occurs after using a large-scale Wind Release jutsu."

"Indeed. Many of the nearby trees have been blown over, and the trunks are sliced clean, as if cut by a sharp blade."

An Anbu ninja who appeared to be the leader, wearing a red dog-faced mask, spoke up.

"Since the inspection is mostly complete, report the intelligence to Lord Hokage."

Hokage Office Building - Hokage Office

The dog-faced Anbu ninja brought his three team members here to report the situation regarding the loud noises outside the village to the Hokage.

Sarutobi Hiruzen took a puff of his pipe and sighed.

"Recently, other ninja villages have been making constant moves, and traces of ninjas have been discovered at the borders multiple times. We must strengthen patrols both inside and outside the village."

"Notify the Police Force and have the Uchiha clan step up their patrols within the village to prevent enemies from using genjutsu to sneak in."

"Tighten questioning at the main gates and send any suspicious individuals to the Department of Torture and Interrogation. We must treat these special times with special measures."

"Yes, Lord Hokage."

The group acknowledged the order and withdrew from the Hokage office.

Li Yu had not expected that his impulsive experiment with a new jutsu would lead to heightened alert levels both inside and outside the village, keeping the Uchiha and the Anbu even busier.