A ninja unit called "Immortal"

The Land of Earth, with its uneven terrain, vast stretches of exposed stone, and scattered trees, looked particularly desolate.

A swaying Iwa Shinobi with sunken cheeks wore a red Iwa uniform that had been reduced to strips. Gritting his teeth, he squeezed out every last bit of chakra he could and swung both fists with all his strength at the towering figure before him.

"Explosion Release: Landmine Fist!"

Boom!

Dust and shattered stones erupted from the ground, utterly destroying his already ragged Shinobi Uniform.

The Explosion Release Iwa Shinobi was knocked to the ground by the blast. He gasped in pain, his chakra completely drained. He knew his life had entered its final countdown.

As the dust cleared, he watched that towering figure slowly approach him. Exaggerated muscles covered the man's bare upper body. His prized kekkei genkai-Explosion Release-had failed to so much as dull the sheen on those muscles. Even the man's wild hair remained undisturbed.

His black hair formed sharp spikes, making him look even fiercer. At 2.3 meters tall, he stood out in the shinobi world, his exaggerated muscles like carved stone. Every detail proclaimed his identity: Takahashi Yū, captain of the Immortal Squad.

A powerhouse who had run rampant across the Land of Wind battlefield.

The Iwa Shinobi understood now. He understood why Lord Tsuchikage had issued orders allowing ninja teams to abandon their missions if they encountered this monster.

Watching the light fade from the Iwa Shinobi's eyes, Takahashi Yū extended an arm thicker than the Iwa Shinobi's thigh. He brought his thumb and index finger close together, making a gesture that would enrage Korean men, and raised his eyebrows at the Iwa Shinobi on the ground.

"You were just this close to breaking through my defenses."

The Iwa Shinobi, whose eyes had almost closed, suddenly opened them wide. His fingers trembled incessantly, and he made inarticulate sounds without managing a word. His head tilted to one side, and he fell silent.

Behind Takahashi Yū, Yamanaka Ayano's mouth twitched as she muttered under her breath.

Forcing him to exhaust himself to death was already beastly enough. Did you have to crush his spirit too?

Takahashi Yū patted his slightly engorged pectorals and shouted behind him.

"Pig Girl, give me the numbers."

Yamanaka Ayano ran toward Takahashi Yū, grumbling silently to herself.

Seriously, why does Yamanaka have to be the pig in Ino-Shika-Cho? He's been calling me that for almost a year. Damn captain!

"Coming, coming! Captain, the enemy team had six members: one jonin and three chunin. We let one genin go. So far, we've intercepted and killed twenty-three teams in the Land of Earth," Yamanaka Delia said to Takahashi Yū, wearing a Konoha chunin vest.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

The nearby squad members quickly gathered around Takahashi Yū as well.

"That old man Ōnoki really knows how to hold back. We've wiped out twenty-three teams of ninja, and he still hasn't come looking for us."

"Let's make camp by the river first." With that, Takahashi leaped toward the river.

Takahashi Yū led the group. Each time his foot struck the ground, he bounded a great distance forward. The uneven rocks around him swept backward through his vision. Looking at the dozen or so people following him, he sighed inwardly. His butterfly effect had changed the Second Shinobi World War from the original story a little too much.

Twenty years after the First Shinobi World War, the economic disparities between nations widened. Under the pretext of expanding privileges for greater fairness, militant factions rose to prominence in each nation. They advocated expanding territory through force, and the Second Shinobi World War began.

Tensions in the shinobi world immediately began to heat up, but the fighting had all been localized. Yet after he led his squad out into the world, he had raised the Second Shinobi World War directly to the intensity of the Third Shinobi World War, with the fighting only growing fiercer.

Of the fifty people he had brought out at the beginning of the year, only fifteen remained.

Takahashi Yū made a tremendous racket as he ran and leaped, and the squad members behind him made no effort to conceal their movements either. Their Special Forces' mission was to wreak havoc in the Land of Earth, forcing the Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, to return from the Land of Rain battlefield and relieve the pressure on Orochimaru and the others.

Otherwise, given the current situation, Orochimaru and the others would not even last until their famous showdown with the Rain Ninja in the original story, where they received the humiliating title of Sannin.

As he traveled, Takahashi Yū pulled up the crude panel only he could see:

[Physical body]: 19.99% ([Unyielding] activated)

[Soul]: 11.13% ([Radiant Glow] activated)

[Dan-Ability]: 0.93% ([Magic-Sealing Illusion Break] awaiting activation; primary attribute must reach 10%)

After his parents died, Takahashi Yū had been cared for by the neighbors on Konoha's Hot Springs Street. It was precisely because they took such good care of him that he had not gone to live in an orphanage.

At six, he found the Chakra Extraction Technique in his late parents' study. His first attempt to extract chakra activated the panel. To Takahashi Yū, this was his cheat for having transmigrated into this twisted world. It could increase his progress by only 0.01% each day, and he could not freely choose which attribute received it.

With a cheat at his disposal, Takahashi Yū simply did not attend the Ninja Academy. Technically speaking, he was just an ordinary Konoha villager, not a registered ninja.

When Takahashi Yū activated it, he lit up only the [Physical body] attribute. After all, a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush. Who would not want an indestructible body?

His body's strength, vitality, and quality continued to increase with that daily 0.01%. Born in Konoha Year 22, he was now fifteen and already stood 2.3 meters tall, covered in muscles like carved stone. Even the Third Raikage would have to take a back seat.

At 10%, [Physical body] unlocked the [Unyielding] attribute, which prevented external force from pushing Takahashi Yū back even half a step. Wasn't that the very concept of "super armor" from the games he had played before transmigrating?

Takahashi Yū had been practically invulnerable ever since his [Physical body] attribute reached 10%. Even ninja specializing in the sharpest Wind Release ninjutsu could only shave off his fine body hair.

Moreover, Takahashi Yū's survival requirements had decreased drastically, and he could eat vast amounts to store energy. The combination of [Unyielding] and [Physical body] had turned him into an absolute battlefield bulldozer.

The [Physical body] attribute had continued rising until it reached 19.99%. Takahashi Yū had been looking forward to seeing what effect 20% would activate, only to sense that its growth would stop unless he lit up another attribute.

This forced Takahashi Yū to light up the [Soul] attribute. His soul's resilience, quality, and adhesion to his body steadily increased over time, and he successfully unlocked [Radiant Glow]. The moment it unlocked, every ninja in Konoha with sensory abilities received a fright, because they sensed an enormous light bulb suddenly appear in the village. So far, however, he had found no special effects beyond the utterly unremarkable ability to be immune to genjutsu.

He carried that light bulb onto the battlefield too, making concealment impossible. Fortunately, Takahashi Yū's physical strength had already reached the pinnacle of the shinobi world. Anyone he set his sights on had no chance of escaping. He led the Special Forces on a killing spree through the Land of Wind, worsening the already impoverished Sand Shinobi's plight and forcing them out of the war early.

Precisely because the Sand Shinobi had been powerless to fight back, the other ninja villages' wariness toward Konoha reached uncontrollable levels. Determined to weaken Konoha even if they could not defeat it, they shifted from localized fighting to large-scale warfare.

Acting as an invincible bulldozer on the battlefield had turned the originally brilliant [Radiant Glow] attribute pitch-black. Now it was even tinged with red. The bright light bulb in sensory perception had become suffused with a bloody aura. Apart from the Special Forces members who spent every day with him, any ninja faced with that chilling aura would feel apprehensive.

After the war began, Takahashi Yū quickly lit up the [Dan-Ability] attribute. Since he had already unlocked the 10% [Soul] attribute and could not reach its next stage anytime soon, he might as well light them all up and see what changed. The results were very pleasing.

[Dan-Ability] could roughly be understood as severing energy, and chakra fell within its scope. Even at less than 1%, it could easily sever the chakra threads Sand Shinobi puppeteers used to control their puppets.

Although no puppet could pierce Takahashi Yū's defenses, his teammates could not withstand them.

On the Sand Shinobi battlefield, wherever Takahashi Yū physically passed, the puppets along his route shut down on the spot. The other Konoha ninja then swarmed them. Without chakra, the puppets were merely lumps of wood, easily destroyed.

Boom!

A textbook superhero landing blasted a large crater into the riverbank and sent a great spray of river water into the air.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

All the squad members arrived. Looking at these teammates who had followed him through a year of fighting, Takahashi Yū found himself recalling how their clans or the village had forcibly conscripted them into his "suicide squad" when they left the village.

Tch. We'll screw over that old bastard Ōnoki once, then head back to the village! I've more than done my part.

As Takahashi Yū grumbled inwardly, he began issuing instructions.

"Takeshi, take a break. In a bit, use your Byakugan to check our planned ambush site. Byakugan kid, take over from Takeshi and keep an eye on our surroundings."

"Yes," Hyūga Gōshi and Hyūga Ryūhei answered.

Hyūga Gōshi and Hyūga Ryūhei were both branch family members their clan had handed over to Takahashi Yū. Ryūhei was only eight. The Special Forces members always called him "Byakugan kid" and often looked after him. Sending a child under ten onto the battlefield made Takahashi Yū inwardly marvel at what an absurd world this was.

The battlefield tempered people more than anything else. Even the weakest of the squad members who had survived this long had reached the threshold of jonin.

They had left with four Uchiha members, and three remained, each sporting three pitch-black tomoe. The squad members originally assigned to Takahashi Yū had either been marginalized clan members or civilian ninja, mostly chunin. Now, the three-tomoe Uchiha were firmly at jonin level.

Three Uchiha remained, along with two Hyūga and one three-person Ino-Shika-Cho team. Those eight were from the major clans. Of the remaining seven, one was a Gekkō, one a Mitarashi, and five were civilian ninja who did not even have surnames.

The original fifty-person company now numbered sixteen including Takahashi Yū, a fatality rate of 68%, with civilian ninja making up most of the dead. The gap between ordinary people and clan members-even discarded clan members-was simply too great. Takahashi Yū had already tried hard enough.

Takahashi Yū sat cross-legged beneath the only tree in the area, leaning against its trunk. The Byakugan kid was up in the tree, veins bulging near his temples, his Byakugan clearly active as he dutifully watched their surroundings. The others were also making the most of the time to rest, either sitting propped against one another or lying on the ground with their eyes closed.

After everything they had experienced, they now trusted this powerfully built captain completely. Nearly a year on the battlefield had taught them what sort of man he was: protective of his own and strong.

"Captain, we've got a situation!"

Hyūga Ryūhei gave a quiet cry from the tree.

Sprawled on the ground, Yamanaka Ayano drawled:

"That's your big brother Takeshi's chakra. Byakugan kid, could you stop making such a fuss?"

"No! About three li behind Big Brother Takeshi, there are masses of chakra signatures! People everywhere!"

Hyūga Ryūhei had already darted down from the tree and addressed the others, who had risen to their feet.

Under the disdainful gazes of the other two members of the Uchiha trio, Uchiha Shunji shouted impatiently:

"Why are people coming from the Land of Earth's interior? Isn't Iwagakure's main force in the Land of Rain? Where's Nara? Nara, make yourself useful!"

A vein at Nara Yūma's temple twitched slightly.

As the team's longstanding strategist, he found an excitable Uchiha like Uchiha Shunji something of a headache. Still, he rubbed his eyes and spoke calmly:

"Unless something unexpected happens, Iwagakure's main force should arrive from the Land of Rain soon too. The ninja left to defend Iwagakure were also within our predictions. We've achieved the first stage of our objective. Now it depends on whether Lord Orochimaru can seize the opportunity."

"Captain, give the orders."

Nara Yūma looked toward Takahashi Yū, who was leaning against the tree.

Takahashi Yū was considering how long Orochimaru and his two companions had fought Hanzo of the Salamander in the original story, but too little space had been devoted to it to provide any useful reference. He frowned and said:

"Three days. We'll hold them up for three days at most. We'll launch one ambush as planned, then retreat toward the Land of Waterfalls, dragging the Iwa Shinobi along to buy Orochimaru and the others time. If they can't settle the Land of Rain battlefield in three days, there's no point in holding up the Iwa Shinobi any longer. It'll have to go back to a war of attrition."

Takahashi Yū recalled how, during the original story's Third Shinobi World War, ten thousand Iwa Shinobi had surrounded the Third Raikage, who had held out for three days before dying of exhaustion.

His body was definitely stronger now than the Third Raikage's with Lightning Release Chakra Mode active. Moreover, he would be fighting a guerrilla battle alongside the Special Forces and their two pairs of Byakugan. There was risk, but it was acceptable. He should be able to get out unscathed with the squad.

Whoosh.

The moment Hyūga Gōshi landed, he spoke:

"Captain, I estimate three thousand Iwa Shinobi approaching us from Iwagakure's direction. That's about the number of defenders the village's strategists predicted!"

"Since we still haven't seen the Iwa Shinobi main force from the Land of Rain, we'll change the plan. Ino-Shika-Cho and Byakugan kid, take five people to the designated location and check the ambush preparations. Everyone else, come with me to engage the Iwa Shinobi left behind to guard the area from the flank. We'll test their strength and get them to take the bait too."

Takahashi Yū gathered everyone's attention and spoke quickly.

"Brothers, may fortune favor you in battle!"

Takahashi Yū raised his arm and called out:

"Scatter!"

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

The Ino-Shika-Cho trio and the Byakugan kid took the five remaining civilian ninja without surnames and ran toward the designated location.

This was also a way of protecting those few, whose average strength was only at chunin level and who had no secret clan techniques.

I hope nobody fucking dies this time.

With that thought, Takahashi Yū called to Hyūga Gōshi:

"Lead the way. We're not taking them head-on. We'll cut diagonally through a small section and let them experience the strength of our Undying Squad!"