Chapter 15: Uchiha Inabi Appears
The Uchiha Clan Compound.
Training Ground.
Whoosh!
"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Flower Nail Crimson!"
A shower of shuriken filled the air.
Gōenji formed a series of hand seals, channeling chakra into the spinning weapons. The chakra raised their temperature and increased the explosive force behind each impact.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The enhanced shuriken slammed into the wooden targets scattered across the training ground, piercing straight through them before shattering the posts apart.
Gōenji lowered his hand and stared at the results, his brows knitting together.
"The power is decent, and the speed is acceptable. But in an actual battle, it's still less efficient than Phoenix Flower Jutsu."
Phoenix Sage Flower Nail Crimson was essentially an enhancement of Phoenix Flower Jutsu. By infusing the shuriken with Fire Release chakra, the technique increased their destructive power and added flames to their attacks.
The problem was that it wasn't necessarily worth the extra effort.
The hand-seal sequence was almost identical, but Phoenix Sage Flower Nail Crimson required an additional step: throwing the shuriken.
That slowed down the overall rhythm of the attack.
And the increase in destructive power wasn't particularly meaningful against most shinobi. Even an ordinary shuriken could pierce a person's body if it struck a vulnerable area.
The technique only became truly useful against opponents equipped with defensive ninjutsu.
From that perspective, Phoenix Flower Jutsu offered better efficiency.
So Itachi really was holding back when he fought Naruto and the others.
Naruto, Kakashi, and the others didn't possess any particularly powerful defensive techniques at the time. There had been little reason for Itachi to deliberately increase the penetrating power of every projectile.
If he had simply used Phoenix Flower Jutsu, it might actually have been more practical against opponents like Kakashi.
Whether used as a feint or a direct attack, the technique was easier to deploy.
But Gōenji wasn't interested in dwelling on the matter.
The war was becoming increasingly intense, and he couldn't afford to waste the peaceful days he'd been given.
His arsenal of Fire Release techniques was still limited. If he wanted to survive the future, he had to develop a more complete combat system around what he already knew.
He needed to keep integrating everything he had learned about the shinobi world.
He had thought about these things while fighting on the battlefield and had even experimented with several ideas there.
But having a quiet training ground where he could stop, think, and experiment was completely different.
There was simply no time for that on the front lines.
And more importantly...
It was far too dangerous.
Tap. Tap.
"I'd heard that you'd awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan and that your strength had increased dramatically. I didn't believe it at first."
A voice came from behind him.
"But now it seems the rumors were true."
Gōenji turned around.
A young man wearing the Uchiha clan uniform approached him. He was around the same age as Gōenji.
"Inabi?"
Gōenji raised an eyebrow.
"You actually made it back? I heard the Iwagakure front was just as brutal as ours."
Uchiha Inabi.
He was the same age as Gōenji and Uchiha Tekka, and one of the more talented young members of the clan. In the future, he would become a Jōnin.
Gōenji naturally recognized him.
In the original story, Inabi was one of the Uchiha who later questioned Itachi after Shisui's death.
At the moment, however, Inabi had been stationed on the Iwagakure front.
Considering the current state of the war, that battlefield was no less dangerous than the conflict between Konoha and Kumogakure.
"Hmph. I nearly fell for one of Iwagakure's tricks."
Inabi clicked his tongue.
"Fortunately, I noticed something was wrong early. Otherwise, I'd have died out there."
Clearly, he'd experienced his own brush with death.
"Forget it. You're alive, and that's what matters."
Gōenji shrugged.
"Do you need something from me?"
Within the Uchiha clan, Gōenji had once been little more than an ordinary member.
He possessed some talent, but he had never attracted much attention.
That had changed after he awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
And Gōenji had a pretty good idea why Inabi had come looking for him.
Sure enough, Inabi got straight to the point.
"How did you awaken the Three-Tomoe Sharingan?"
Inabi's gaze sharpened.
He hadn't even awakened his own Three-Tomoe Sharingan yet. He certainly hadn't expected someone his age to reach that level first.
Gōenji sighed.
"I'd rather I hadn't awakened it."
His expression became solemn.
"It happened during a crisis. I only awakened these eyes after all my comrades had died."
It was, of course, a lie.
A dead comrade was preferable to a dead Gōenji.
He had never been particularly close to those people, and they were already dead. There was no point torturing himself by dwelling on it.
If he tried to carry the grief of every person who died around him, he'd only exhaust himself.
Right now, he needed to become stronger.
He needed to survive.
Along the way, he also had a few things he wanted to accomplish.
For example, making sure Itachi didn't walk down the same path as the original story.
Preventing the Uchiha clan from being wiped out would also be beneficial to him.
And someday...
He wanted to show Madara what true Fire Release could accomplish.
Gōenji had plenty of goals.
Inabi let out a quiet sigh.
"So you don't even know exactly how you awakened it?"
He shook his head.
"Could your talent really be that much greater than mine?"
"Why are you sighing? That isn't necessarily a good thing."
Inabi rolled his eyes.
"You're showing off. That's what you're doing."
"What? Is that all you came here to ask?"
"Of course not."
Inabi's expression became serious.
"I'd already prepared myself for the possibility. I just wanted to see how strong you'd become after awakening the Sharingan."
Gōenji's lips curved upward.
"Good. Then let me show you my new technique."
After a brief conversation, the two separated and took their positions.
They formed the customary Opposition Seal.
Whoosh!
Gōenji's lips curled into a faint smile.
His hands blurred.
His hand-seal speed was astonishing. He could complete eight seals in a single second, leaving behind distinct afterimages.
Then he opened his mouth.
A gigantic fireball erupted from his throat.
It was roughly five meters across and three meters tall.
Boom!
Inabi's eyes widened.
"What—?!"
He had seen Gōenji's hand seals, but he hadn't expected the attack to come so quickly.
The enormous fireball was already upon him.
Inabi immediately activated his Sharingan and used the Body Flicker Technique, narrowly escaping the flames.
"That was fast!"
Gōenji's speed wasn't limited to his movement.
His hand seals were fast.
His attack was fast.
And, most importantly, his decision-making was fast.
Most shinobi would first use shuriken or other projectiles to probe their opponent before committing to a ninjutsu.
After all, chakra was limited.
But Gōenji had skipped the probing stage entirely and launched a powerful Fire Release technique without hesitation.
Fortunately, Inabi was an experienced veteran who had fought on the front lines for years.
He didn't panic when faced with the sudden attack.
But the moment he escaped the fireball—
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
A barrage of shuriken emerged from behind the flames.
They had been concealed behind the flames.
The projectiles sealed off every direction Inabi could use to escape.
"Damn it!"
Inabi immediately formed hand seals.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
A massive fireball erupted from his mouth and collided with the incoming shuriken.
Boom!
The shuriken were instantly incinerated.
As an Uchiha himself, Inabi knew exactly how dangerous his clan's shuriken techniques could be. Rather than allowing Gōenji to continue attacking, he had chosen to destroy the projectiles immediately and seize the initiative.
But then—
"Careful."
Gōenji's voice came from above.
"Fire Release: Flame Tornado."
Inabi's pupils contracted.
He looked up.
Too fast!
Gōenji's right leg was already engulfed in blazing flames.
Dense chakra gathered around his leg, forming a layer of fire that resembled a cloak.
Through the Sharingan, Inabi could even make out the flow of chakra through Gōenji's body.
What is that?
Is this another Fire Release technique he developed himself?
A prickling sensation ran across Inabi's scalp.
He had never seen anything like it.
The concentration of chakra alone suggested that the technique possessed tremendous destructive power.
Whoosh!
The instant he realized the danger, Inabi instinctively used the Body Flicker Technique and fled.
Boom!
The place where he had been standing a moment earlier was struck by Gōenji's flaming kick.
The earth erupted as though a meteor had crashed into it.
Rocks were blasted into the air, while the surrounding ground was scorched black by the explosive flames.
Inabi stared at the devastation.
Gōenji landed lightly a short distance away.
"You lost, Inabi."