The Weight of Death

The Konoha Nara squad arrived late.

The moment they arrived, they smelled the pungent odor of melted metal mixed with evaporated ice.

Everywhere they looked, they saw burned and melted shuriken and kunai, along with scattered trees, rocks, soil, severed limbs, and craters.

Black smoke swirled low in the air, forming heavy clouds.

Within the faint black smoke that had yet to disperse, two figures slowly moved through it.

"Cough, cough, cough. Shisui, that defensive move of yours was incredibly strong. Otherwise, we would have been dead."

"Brother Goenji, thanks to you draining so much of their chakra, they probably would have stayed and kept fighting us otherwise. We might not have been able to beat them."

The two voices reached Nara Yiming and the others.

Then familiar figures emerged, stepping across the scorched earth of the battlefield one step at a time.

"Are you all right, Shisui, Goenji... By the way, Goenji, where are your teammates?"

Nara Yiming stepped forward and asked. He looked around but did not see Goenji's teammates, though he already had a bad feeling.

The battle earlier had been so intense. Since they were not even Jonin, they had probably already died on the battlefield.

Goenji's expression darkened. "I'm afraid..."

Everyone could sense his emotions, especially Shisui Uchiha, who was supporting Goenji. His expression was particularly grim as well.

The death of a teammate was what they least wanted to face. His Mangekyō Sharingan ability had come from that very pain. He would rather never have needed such power.

"Then let's look for them. Maybe they're still alive."

Goenji walked through the towering forest of bones and stopped outside it before a corpse surrounded by crows. As he approached, the crows scattered with mournful cries, revealing the corpse in its entirety.

Countless insects crawled over the corpse, feeding on the body that had only recently died.

He crouched down, picked up Ryoma's pierced Konoha forehead protector, and clenched it tightly in his hand until his knuckles cracked.

"Captain, I'm going to be the man who surpasses Lord White Fang. Don't underestimate me!"

Ryoma's dream surfaced in Goenji's mind, along with his confident smile and memories of himself imitating Ryoma's swordsmanship.

"Ryoma, I'll surpass White Fang in swordsmanship someday, and I'll fulfill your dream for you too." Goenji smiled faintly as his fingers rubbed over the forehead protector, his knuckles turning white from the force.

Suddenly.

Nara Yiming silently patted his shoulder and held out a short blade before Goenji. Dried blood stained its blade.

Goenji looked up.

"Judging from the scene, this should be his sword. It can count as a memento from your teammate. Keep it safe."

Clang—!

He put the forehead protector into his ninja tool pouch, threw away his own sword, and slid Ryoma's blade into his sheath. Closing his eyes slightly, he said, "Still not strong enough."

The others could all feel the heaviness in Goenji's heart. During the war, they too had witnessed such scenes countless times.

They understood his feelings.

Shisui said, "Brother Goenji, don't..."

"Don't worry. I'm not that fragile. I know this is simply the norm in war. It's just that we were companions for so long, so my emotions are a little stirred up... By the way, have Ze and Fuzei been found?"

The heaviness on Goenji's face turned into a smile.

"There was only a set of clothes and this forehead protector. Based on our analysis, he was probably eaten by some wild beast."

A Konoha ninja appeared holding a bundle of clothes and a forehead protector. His words left everyone silent.

"As for Aburame Fuzei, he's probably still alive." Another ninja appeared, carrying a shriveled corpse in his hands.

"This is an enemy from Kirigakure with the Shikotsumyaku, right? There are bite marks from Aburame insects on his body. Aburame Fuzei probably came back and killed him while he was weakened."

"I used a sensory ninjutsu to check. There's no sign of Aburame Fuzei nearby. Maybe he's already returned to the camp to get reinforcements."

Hearing this information, Goenji let out a sigh of relief. At least one person was still alive.

He had never expected two people to die during a single mission.

And both of them had been capable men.

Whether it was Ryoma, Ze, or Fuzei, they had all been outstanding ninja.

At least in Goenji's view, they were about as capable in their youth as the Konoha Twelve from the original story.

Whoosh, whoosh—!

"Let's go. Back to the camp."

Kirigakure battlefield, Konoha camp.

Ryoma's sword rested in Goenji's hands as he continuously wiped it with leaves.

"Susanoo... anyone who possesses it can indeed reach the strength of a Kage."

In his mind, he recalled the sight of Shisui unleashing Susanoo. It had truly looked cool—far cooler than in the anime. Only in reality could one experience that feeling.

It was just that he had no chance of developing a Mangekyō Sharingan himself.

Although his teammate's death had stirred his emotions, it had not reached the point of triggering an evolution in his Sharingan. Based on how he felt, he was still far from it.

In other words, Susanoo had nothing to do with him.

This assassination attempt by Kirigakure had truly caught him off guard, knocking down the pride in his heart by several notches.

He realized that he had indeed grown somewhat arrogant lately.

He possessed the Sharingan Kekkei Genkai, the Uchiha clan's immense chakra reserves and physique, the Uchiha clan's foundation, and the powerful brain created by his transmigration and fusion.

Deep down, he had already become somewhat proud. Whenever he carried out missions, he always felt that he had become very strong—that he was already among the best Jonin, that he could fight ten people alone like Minato Namikaze and the others.

Reality was cruel. His months of ninjutsu development had indeed brought him great progress and made him much stronger. Even among Jonin, he was powerful.

But... when facing true elites, it was not some one-sided duel. One more enemy might have meant his death.

This had taught him a huge lesson.

He did not want to die yet.

From now on, he would become more cautious and stronger.

He also needed to conceal his edge and stop showing himself off so much like before.

"Next, I need to develop a stronger ninjutsu—or a forbidden technique—to expand my offensive options."

This battle had also made him realize some problems. His previous ninjutsu, after being leveraged through his Mathematical Chakra Form, could already unleash greater power.

But it was still not enough to crush his opponents.

He needed a decisive ninjutsu that could determine victory in a single move.

Something like Itachi Uchiha's Amaterasu, Shisui's Kotoamatsukami, or Susanoo—ninjutsu with decisive power.

Goenji lowered his gaze to the sword in his hands. The blade reflected a chilling glint.

"Condense the high-temperature property of Fire Release onto the tip and edge of the blade. No burning, no explosive flames—concentrate everything into temperature..."

He had thought it through. If all that heat were condensed into a single point, it would produce an unimaginably high temperature. Anything it touched should be erased by the heat without a trace.

The difficult part was that it would be hard to achieve.

Once he did, it would absolutely become a trump card—a powerful ninjutsu capable of deciding victory or defeat. And it was swordsmanship, which suited Ryoma's dream of swordsmanship.

The ninjutsu did not even have a prototype yet, but he had already thought of its name.

It would be called...

Zanka no Tachi: Rising Sun Blade.

[???? I've noticed that she talks to me less and less. At first, she was the one taking the initiative, then I was the one taking the initiative, and now it's just a wall of green messages. We barely exchange a few words a day, and she replies once every few hours. It should be ending soon, right???]