Malphegor
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HSU: Ch. 103
🕑 Added 2024-12-28 21:33:26 +0000 UTCWhat was the secret to dominating a brawl?
Hashirama once provided a perfectly simple explanation: "I just walk over there and beat them up."
Masashi wholeheartedly agreed.
If the God of Shinobi said it, then it had to be true.
If you couldn't pull it off, it wasn't because the God of Shinobi was wrong. It was because you were weak.
Masashi's pace quickened, his eyes scanning the terrain ahead.
In his first life, his dream had been to become a one-man army, capable of facing entire battalions without relying on external tools. But that dream never came to fruition.
Although he had mastered countless techniques, his defense was inadequate, and his medical ninjutsu was middling at best.
To stand firm was to survive. Only then could one unleash their full power.
Suddenly, the sky darkened overhead.
The Iwa ninjas had begun their assault, launching a dense barrage of ninja tools.
Masashi used his Lightning Body Flicker Technique.
Electric arcs crackled through the air as his form vanished, moving with such speed that it eluded the naked eye. He bypassed the area where the shuriken rained down, leaving only faint sparks.
"It's a lightning user!" someone on the other side shouted. "Wind users, move up front!"
"Defense Formation!" another voice called out. "Don't let him—"
Before the voice had finished speaking, the shouting Iwa ninja found a fist suddenly filling his field of vision.
"Too slow," Masashi whispered as his fist connected.
From the perspective of the Konoha ninjas watching, it seemed like Masashi disappeared from his original spot. Moments later, the sound of a thunderous impact echoed as bodies from the Iwa ninjas' formation were hurled into the air.
"Formation break!" an Iwa ninja screamed. "He's too fast!"
Standing in the middle of the chaos he had just caused, Masashi clapped his hands together.
More than a dozen ice arms burst from the ground, scattering the Iwa ninjas once again.
The massive arms swung, sending a barrage of ice spikes raining down upon them.
The Iwa ninjas screamed as bodies hit the ground one after another.
The battlefield was now steeped in the stench of blood. The ice spikes scattered across the ground created a forest of frozen death. Corpses of Iwa ninjas, broken and mangled, lay everywhere. Pools of blood seeped into the soil, staining it a dark crimson.
To be honest, fighting Iwa ninjas was much easier than fighting Kumo ninjas.
At the lower levels, the individual strength of Iwa ninjas was clearly lacking.
It wasn't just that they couldn't withstand the ice spikes—more importantly, their teamwork was abysmal, which led to unnecessary losses.
There were so many of them—why not charge at him together? Instead, they tried to dodge. How was that different from standing still and taking the hit?
But he wasn't complaining. The weaker they were, the easier his job.
"White Ghost!"
A shout rang out as an Iwa jonin finally stepped forward. With the Hardening Jutsu activated, they charged through the barrage of spikes.
The spikes either shattered against their fists or broke upon striking their hardened body, emitting sharp clinking sounds.
"Oh?" Masashi tilted his head slightly, dodging the opponent's kunai. "Show me what Iwa's elite can do."
He met the enemy's charging fist head-on.
Two fists collided.
Boom!
A shockwave erupted. Masashi remained rooted in place, while the Iwa jonin was sent flying backward, coughing up blood.
The Iron Skin, originally perfected by Kakuzu, was proving incredibly effective. When combined with his own monstrous strength, it was a game-changer.
It wasn't like the Lightning Chakra Mode, which was beyond his grasp. But the Iron Skin technique? That he had learned with ease.
This was thanks to his Sharingan, which had copied every detail when Kakuzu had fought using the jutsu.
After that battle, he dedicated himself to mastering earth chakra manipulation. He spent months training with ten shadow clones daily, until he finally perfected all five chakra natures.
Now, he didn't even need a sword. Iron Skin-enhanced physical attacks, combined with the speed of Lightning Body Flicker, rendered weapons unnecessary.
Using his bare hands was not only more efficient but also a great way to train.
With a single punch, he sent the enemy jonin flying again. Not letting up, he used the Lightning Body Flicker and closed the gap instantly, landing another punch at point-blank range.
The Iwa jonin's body spun through the air before crashing vertically into the ground. A loud impact followed, leaving the jonin embedded in the earth, barely alive.
The gap in strength among jonin-level ninjas was cruelly noticeable.
Once the disparity was large enough, defeating them was no different from a jonin crushing a group of genin.
Unfortunately, the overall quality of Iwa jonin was unimpressive.
If not for the elite few and the terrifying Dust Release wielded by Ōnoki, the Iwa forces would've been reduced to mere cannon fodder in the war.
Even Minato had famously wiped out fifty Iwa jonin in a single battle using the Flying Thunder God, thanks in part to their lackluster quality.
But that punch had stirred up a hornet's nest.
"Surround him! Don't let him escape!" An Iwa commander's voice rang across the battlefield.
Dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of Iwa ninjas began charging from all directions, including seven or eight jonin—likely the entirety of this division's elite force.
"Unity is power!" the commander shouted.
The chunin, emboldened by their leaders, erupted into cheers.
"Strength in numbers!"
"Unity is power!"
These were the principles they lived by. Unity without skill is just clustered weakness, Masashi thought as he assessed the approaching mass.
Behind Masashi, massive icy arms rose once more, bristling with sharpened spikes. The ground froze beneath his feet, spreading outward.
"Let me show you true unity," he said, "between power and technique."
Minato's Flying Thunder God required teammates to throw kunai, but Masashi didn't need any help.
With knowledge accumulated over two lifetimes, he had become Konoha's most efficient chakra user. To him, Flying Thunder God seals were nothing more than concentrations of chakra—he didn't need to physically touch a target to mark it.
Thanks to the Shape Transformation ability he'd gained from Ryūchi Cave's Sage Techniques, his ninjutsu reached wherever he willed it.
The ice spikes shot out in waves, blanketing the enemy formation.
The Iwa ninjas fought back, blocking or taking the brunt of the assault. Earth techniques rose to meet his ice, but they were too slow and too crude.
Masashi vanished once again.
The next moment, he appeared in front of one enemy after another.
The beauty of the Iron Skin was its combination of Earth Release's defensive properties with explosive offensive capabilities akin to Hashirama's monstrous strength.
When it landed, the results were devastating.
Although it lacked the speed of the Lightning Chakra Mode, it didn't matter. As long as he closed the distance, there was no contest. Anyone without Lightning Release countermeasures was as good as dead.
The Iwa ninjas, slow to react, could only swing back instinctively.
And so, one by one, they were obliterated.
Limbs and shattered bodies were sent flying through the air as blood rained down on the battlefield. The elite force of this Iwa ninjas division was annihilated.
The cheering ceased abruptly.
The remaining Iwa ninjas stared in disbelief.
The mighty jonin, the proud special forces… were gone?
Masashi casually returned to his starting position and summoned three shadow clones.
"Fire Style: Searing Migraine."
"Wind Style: Pressure Damage."
"Fire Style: Searing Migraine."
"Wind Style: Pressure Damage."
A dazzling array of jutsu lit up the battlefield as the remaining Iwa ninjas were engulfed in the ensuing chaos. Their screams echoed pitifully.
These enemies were simply too weak to bother with his Ice Release's full display of might.
Corpses lay strewn across the battlefield, severed limbs scattered everywhere.
The dead Iwa ninjas stared upward, as though their gaze still clung to the sky even in death.
There were no living souls near Masashi anymore.
After a barrage of ninjutsu, this squad of the Iwa army had been annihilated. Most of its members would remain here forever.
But the fight was far from over.
The Iwa forces had three squads in total.
The remaining few hundred survivors fled in disarray, their panic spreading to the central squad, destabilizing their morale.
"This isn't human! How can one person—"
"Shut up and run! Do you want to end up like the others?"
This was the squad directly commanded by the Third Tsuchikage himself.
At that moment, Ōnoki, feeling sufficiently rested, prepared to launch a Dust Release jutsu for some fun.
However, before he could take off and deliver some warmth to the opposing Konoha ninjas, he noticed a disturbance within his own ranks.
"What's going on?" the old man asked with a scowl, glaring at the elite guards beside him. "We're in the middle of battle! What kind of behavior is this? Shouting and yelling—what nonsense!"
"My apologies, Tsuchikage-sama! I'll go discipline them right away!" a nearby jonin said.
The shouting had come from his own unit, embarrassing him in front of the Tsuchikage.
Enraged, he stormed off.
A few minutes later, he returned, his expression oddly grim.
"Tsuchikage-sama..."
"Speak clearly! What about the left flank?"
"Our left flank... their squad has collapsed!"
"Oh? Konoha is quite capable, it seems. Which clan is leading them?"
"It wasn't a group, Tsuchikage-sama... it was just one person."
"Ridiculous! Such a person doesn't exist anymore!"
Had the ninjas of his village degraded to this extent?
It couldn't be! Who were they facing—Hashirama or Madara? How could a single individual take down an entire squad?
Even the Third Raikage, formidable as he was, didn't make Iwa troops collapse back in the day!
"The retreating survivors insist it was one man. They... only managed to escape with a few hundred left."
"Unbelievable!" Ōnoki, who had been sitting, leapt to his feet. "So this explains why the Explosion Corps hasn't reported back. The real threat is over there."
His tone and mannerisms conveyed authority perfectly, though his short stature slightly undermined the overall effect.
Still, he was the Tsuchikage, and he had been for many years. The people around him dutifully played along, feigning shock and awe at his imposing presence.
It had become second nature to them over the years.
After all, the Tsuchikage was the treasure of Iwa. He had to be cherished. Besides, their reactions weren't entirely fake. The old man's temper could indeed be intimidating.
"Who is this person?" Ōnoki asked.
"It's the White Ghost—Masashi. He's still on the battlefield."
"An Uchiha..." For a brief moment, Ōnoki felt a pang of melancholy.
Painful memories surfaced once more.
Another Uchiha monster? Why couldn't this have happened ten years earlier? If only...
"Alright! Lead me there!"
If someone could destroy the left flank, they could certainly take down the center. Without Ōnoki, the central squad would already be in chaos.
The old man was their pillar of confidence.
The Iwa jonin quickly turned to lead the way, only to hear the sound of rushing wind. Looking up, he saw that the Tsuchikage had already taken off.
Weren't you going to follow me?
"If you led the way, it would just be throwing lives away.," Ōnoki's voice called down from above. "Hold your positions here—I'll handle things over there!"
---
Konoha's forces were having a similar discussion.
"You all focus on attacking the central squad. That old Tsuchikage is bound to come here. I'll hold him off," Masashi instructed the ninja from the three clans around him.
"Masashi-nii, let me stay and help," Shisui offered. "I can... you know what I mean!"
"Know what, exactly? Don't imitate me." Masashi said. "Stop wasting time with nonsense. Go attack the center. As long as you break through the central squad before Ōnoki returns to his main camp, Konoha's victory is assured."
"But—" Shisui started.
"Your power is wasted here. The center needs overwhelming force. Trust me, Shisui. I have a plan."
Shisui could now use Susanoo. Masashi was well aware of this. Precisely because of that, he needed to head for the center.
Overwhelming the weak with strength—that was the way to win.
This was the primary strategy in wars between ninja.
Tactics like flanking or ambushes only came into play during prolonged stalemates.
Why else did the Third Great Ninja War end in Konoha's favor? Because Konoha established clear superiority on multiple fronts.
"Go," Masashi said, waving them off. "If I wanted to run, nobody could stop me anyway."
Seeing his resolve, the others stopped trying to persuade him.
As he himself had said, if he wanted to flee, no one could stop him.
The thousand-strong force promptly turned and moved to join the central army.
Once the group left, Masashi relaxed and returned to the battlefield, taking his time to recover his stamina and chakra.
Activating his sensory abilities, he immediately felt a powerful chakra source rapidly approaching.
Ōnoki, who was even older than Hiruzen, still had such immense chakra at his age—he was a monster in his own right.
Madara had been a ferocious man, and he had truly beaten Ōnoki and his teacher Mu into submission back then. Though Mu hadn't yet invented Dust Release at the time, the fact that both of them survived that encounter showed just how strong they were.
After all, Madara didn't pull his punches, even if he wasn't actively trying to kill.
If someone could be casually killed, they weren't worth remembering in his eyes.
In the sky, a black dot rapidly approached.
Masashi focused his Sharingan on it.
Ōnoki had finally arrived.
This is the Super-Lightened Boulder? Ingenious design, no doubt.
"So, it's you? The White Ghost?" Ōnoki hovered in midair, glaring down at the young man below, whose Sharingan eyes stared back at him.
Age might make one forget things more easily, but he had a nagging feeling he was forgetting something now. Still, he hadn't forgotten the most important thing.
"You're the one who attacked them?"
"Are you asking about the Explosion Corps? Or your disciple and granddaughter?" Masashi replied with a smile.
Ōnoki sneered. "Boy, you stayed behind alone—trying to imitate Madara?"
"No, I just wanted to see the only living Third Kage in action."
Alright, I've observed enough. That jutsu's been memorized. Ōnoki, you're a good man.
