Ninja's Pinnacle Shouldn't Be This Distant...

The next day, just past noon.

A hidden courtyard built within a mountain ravine, with babbling water and drifting mist, possessed the tranquil charm of an earthly paradise.

"!?"

Mu suddenly opened his eyes from the cold darkness, greeted by an unfamiliar ceiling.

"This is..."

Mu braced himself against his aching body, his bones creaking, and barely managed to sit upright from the floor bedding. He swept his gaze over the unfamiliar surroundings.

It was a rather spacious meditation room. The furnishings were simple, but everything it needed was there, and it had been kept quite clean. It was a good place to rest and calm one's mind.

"Teacher Mu, you're awake!"

Onoki, who had been sleeping beside him, immediately woke at the sound. He rubbed his eyes and cried out happily.

"So it's Onoki. I am..."

Mu shook his head. His mind was muddled, and countless thoughts were in disarray.

The last thing he had seen before losing consciousness was an overwhelming tide of blue sword energy rushing toward him. Then he had blacked out until now.

Judging by the situation, he had likely been saved.

"Teacher Mu, this is what happened..."

Onoki had already prepared what he would say. He vividly and thoroughly recounted everything that had happened after Mu lost consciousness the previous night.

"If that's the case, then I truly owe them a tremendous favor."

After listening, Mu could not help sighing.

Having lived through the Warring States era, he had witnessed too many tragedies of ruined nations and shattered families.

The destruction of many small countries had also been driven by great powers such as the Land of Earth.

He had always believed that no true peace treaty could exist between nations.

This time, Madara's intimidation had nearly gotten him killed, which was the best proof.

However, Yayoi's kindness toward him was indeed enormous.

On a personal level, Mu felt that Yayoi might actually be quite a good person.

"By the way, where is Lord Oda? I need to thank him in person. Onoki, help me up."

Onoki wanted to say something, but when he saw Teacher Mu's determined gaze, he knew he could not change his mind. He could only step forward to support Mu and lead him outside to look for Yayoi.

At that moment, Yayoi and Tobirama were seated beneath the courtyard corridor, talking.

Kakuzu stood behind Yayoi, serving as his guard.

"I never expected you to hold my Shadow Clone Technique in such high regard, nor that you would come up with so many scenarios for using shadow clones. Some of them were things even I hadn't noticed."

Tobirama spoke with a sigh.

Just now, he and Yayoi had exchanged insights on ninjutsu, and Yayoi had traded with him for the method of cultivating the Shadow Clone Technique.

Tobirama had also obtained other techniques from Yayoi.

What surprised Tobirama most was that Yayoi seemed to think extremely highly of the Shadow Clone Technique.

He had even conceived of the unusual idea of creating shadow clones to speed up training.

Honestly, as its creator, he had never even considered such things.

After all, his original purpose in developing the Shadow Clone Technique had been to counter the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan.

Ordinary clone techniques could be seen through at a glance by the Sharingan, but the Shadow Clone Technique was different.

Every shadow clone possessed the same meridian system as the original body. Not even the Sharingan—and likewise not even the Byakugan—could distinguish a shadow clone from its original.

Just as he had specifically trained Water Release in order to suppress the Uchiha Clan's Fire Release ninjutsu.

The techniques he had created alone were enough to prove that his "love" for the Uchiha ran deep in his bones.

Just as the two exchanged their ninjutsu experience, Mu approached under Onoki's support.

"It looks like your injuries are no longer serious."

Yayoi took one look at Mu's complexion and knew that, with a period of proper rest, he would make a full recovery.

"I must thank you for treating me. If I had been struck directly by that kind of attack, there was no way I would still be alive."

The expression on Mu's face did not change much, but gratitude showed in his voice.

The bandages were no longer wrapped around him. He had returned to his original appearance: an expressionless man in his thirties.

"Speaking of which, there's something I don't understand. At the end, you appeared directly in front of Madara in such a completely defenseless state. Could it be that you still had some hidden trump card that you never used?"

Yayoi was puzzled by this.

In his estimation, with Mu's strength, if he had wanted to evade, it would have been nearly impossible for him to end up in such a miserable state.

No matter what, Mu was an excellent sensory ninja. When it came to anticipating danger, he was certainly better than Yayoi and should have been able to evade beforehand.

Not to mention that he was a flying ninja, exceptionally capable in both speed and evasion.

Thus, Yayoi could not help wondering whether Mu had been hiding a killing move other than Dust Release, something that could have turned defeat into victory, which was why he had entered Madara's attack range in that manner.

"Unfortunately, I wasn't hiding any trump card at all. I simply never expected Madara to see through the invisibility of the Dustless Haze Barrier. By the time I realized it, his attack had already arrived. There was no time to dodge."

Mu's voice was low, his words filled with wariness and fear toward Madara.

Madara was the first ninja ever to see through him so thoroughly.

The Dustless Haze Barrier was an invisibility technique he had created specifically to work in tandem with Dust Release.

This secret technique could even conceal his own chakra. Ordinary sensory ninja could not detect his presence at all.

Only formidable ninja proficient in sensory ninjutsu could guard against him.

That was precisely why, in the Land of Earth, in addition to being known as a Dust Release ninja, he also bore the title of "No One."

He was rather confused as to how Madara had seen through his invisibility. As far as he knew, Madara was not a sensory-type ninja.

Yet the moment he said this, Yayoi and Tobirama both froze.

Kakuzu also looked at him strangely.

"What is it? Why are you all looking at me like that?"

Mu did not understand why everyone was looking at him that way. Had he said something wrong?

Onoki was equally bewildered, having no idea what was happening.

"Mu, don't tell me you've never fought a ninja from the Uchiha Clan before?"

Tobirama could not help speaking, though inwardly he had confirmed something.

Only that could explain Mu's obvious death-seeking behavior in front of Madara.

Mu nodded, not hiding anything in that regard.

"I spent most of my time in the Land of Earth, so I had few opportunities to cross paths with the Uchiha Clan. Although I had encountered Uchiha ninja before, we had merely passed one another and never truly fought... This was my first time battling the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan."

The Uchiha Clan was active mostly within the Land of Fire, only occasionally accepting commissions from other countries and traveling abroad.

As far as Mu knew, the nobles within the Land of Earth had not hired the Uchiha Clan very often.

The noble faction that employed him had never invited the Uchiha Clan when facing rival nobles either. Only by chance would he encounter passing Uchiha clan members within the Land of Earth. But so long as there was no conflict of interest, Mu naturally would not go looking for trouble.

Therefore, he knew little about the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan. He only knew that those eyes possessed powerful genjutsu abilities and could copy other people's ninjutsu.

"No wonder." Yayoi smiled helplessly, unsure how to comment. Then, under Mu's puzzled gaze, he explained, "The Uchiha's Sharingan is widely known as an eye of genjutsu and copying. That much is relatively easy intelligence to confirm. But the Sharingan actually has a third function: the Insight Eye!"

"Insight!"

Mu's expression immediately changed. He suddenly realized something and understood why Madara had seen through him.

"That's right. In terms of insight, the Sharingan, like the Byakugan, can see the chakra flowing through the human body's meridian system... From the very beginning, your meridian system exposed your position. An ordinary Sharingan would indeed have a hard time seeing through your invisibility technique, but Madara's Sharingan is the highest-level Sharingan. It cannot be judged by ordinary standards."

Tobirama cast Mu a pitying glance. The other man's defenses had probably shattered completely.

All he could say was that Kekkei Genkai were simply too overbearing.

But on second thought, it made sense. The ones who understood the Uchiha Clan best were still the Senju Clan he belonged to.

And the ones who understood the Senju Clan best were likewise only their mortal enemies, the Uchiha Clan.

It was difficult for ninja from other clans to involve themselves in the conflict between the Senju and the Uchiha.

In the past, whenever one side hired the Senju, the other would certainly hire the Uchiha.

Coupled with the secrecy surrounding each clan's intelligence, which rarely circulated, anyone unfamiliar with the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan traits would indeed easily suffer during their first battle.

"I thought you approached Madara so openly because you had some secret trump card you hadn't used. Now it seems I was overthinking it."

Yayoi looked somewhat embarrassed as well, realizing this had been a misunderstanding.

If they had exchanged intelligence beforehand, Mu would not have been slashed to the point where he had only one breath left.

Yayoi simply had never imagined that such a formidable ninja—one who could fly, become invisible, possessed sensory abilities, and had pioneered the Kekkei Tōta, Dust Release—would be so unfamiliar with the Sharingan's abilities.

"..."

Mu stood motionless where he was, like a statue.

In the end, though countless words filled his heart, they all became a deep sigh.

He had nearly been killed because of such a basic mistake. He truly did not know what to say about himself.

"Don't be so discouraged. Madara's strength really is unimaginably powerful. The only one who can fight him head-on is my older brother."

Tobirama comforted Mu. He had seen far too many ninja who, after witnessing Madara's strength, had become dispirited and broken in will.

"But the one who fought us last night was only a clone, wasn't it?"

Mu's tone was faint. Though there was no obvious dejection in his eyes, the combat power Madara had displayed the previous night had already been branded deep into his heart like a nightmare, perhaps never to be forgotten.

A single clone could be that strong. It was simply incomprehensible.

In the current Hidden Rock Village, the only ninja capable of fighting that clone head-on and suppressing it was his superior—the First Tsuchikage, Ishikawa.

But suppressing a clone was nothing to be proud of. On the contrary, it was an insult.

"Ninja's pinnacle shouldn't be this distant..."

The moment Mu said that, Yayoi and Tobirama both became unhappy as well.

Though it was true, did he have to say it without considering the occasion?

This guy really knew how to bring up the one thing nobody wanted mentioned.

(The exact strength of the other First Kage in the original work is unknown. In this book, I currently position the four First Kage as four top-tier ninja second only to Hashirama and Madara.

There is a considerable gap between them and Hashirama and Madara, but Hashirama and Madara would still need to use some means to defeat them.

After all, they were ninja capable of suppressing the Four Great Nations. Otherwise, the various ninja clans within those great nations would never have submitted and allowed the four of them to become the First Kage.

The ninja clans of this era were generally hot-tempered and bloodthirsty. Only by making them see an obvious gap in strength could they be convinced.

Also, the Sharingan's insight ability is relatively obscure. In the original work, even though Deidara had known Itachi for so long and even regarded him as a hypothetical enemy, he still did not know the Sharingan had this function. As a result, the flaw in his C4: Garuda was seen through by Sasuke's Sharingan.)