Chapter 591: The Use of Edo Tensei
After Shion reached the third stage, her Yin Release improvement didn't stop. She was still absorbing the priestess power converted by the seal.
However, the progress was slow, unlike the rapid burst earlier.
Ishiro then began to teach Shion how to communicate via soul.
It wasn't difficult, and Shion learned quickly.
After a moment, they began to talk.
"Shion," Ishiro said, "the seal your mother placed is rapidly digesting Mōryō. From now on, you just need to absorb the ambient priestess power here to grow."
Shion nodded. "Lord Tsuchikage, does that mean I don't have to train anymore?"
She had only trained hard before because Ishiro scared her about Yomi coming back. Now that the threat was gone, her mind wandered.
Ishiro shook his head. "No! On the contrary, you must train harder. Otherwise, you will never truly master your own power."
Shion nodded, half-understanding.
It was precisely because she needed to adapt to her surging power through combat that she had been so active against the Konoha ninja.
When Ishiro released the Spirit Infiltration Jutsu and returned to his body, several people had gathered at Shion's house.
The village's Kage-level ninja had all arrived.
Ishiro explained what had happened to Shion, stating she had reached Kage-level and had huge potential to go further.
Everyone was excited. After Haku, Iwagakure had gained another Kage-level combatant.
That made fourteen Kage-level ninja in Iwagakure.
Back to the present. Shion's theoretical power was actually higher than Haku's.
But her combat talent was terrible. As a Priestess, she wasn't built for fighting. She had no special martial arts, only Yin Release jutsu, and Iwa's Yin Release arsenal was weak.
So, Shion was fine against regular ninja, but she was outmatched against Kage-level opponents.
For example, she had never won against Naruto or Hinata. Although neither were true Kage-level yet, their combat power was higher than hers.
Shion usually teamed up with Haku to fight them, with Haku doing most of the heavy lifting.
So today, Shion was still following Haku.
In the procession, Kurotsuchi looked at Neji ahead, then at Haku and Shion behind, and pouted.
This formation made her feel like a burden who needed protection.
She had trained hard too! She was an Elite Jonin! But compared to monsters like Shion, it wasn't enough.
Actually, a thirteen-year-old Elite Jonin was an incredible genius. Most of the Konoha 12 were still just Jonin.
But comparison was the thief of joy. Even ignoring Shion (who had a cheat inside her), just comparing herself to Sakura made Kurotsuchi deflate.
Sakura, a year younger than her, was also an Elite Jonin.
In Kurotsuchi's eyes, Sakura was a true genius like Haku—a genius among normal ninja.
Neji used to be in that category too, until that hateful Tsuchikage (who still wouldn't accept her as a disciple!) gave him a cheat code.
So now, Neji, whom she used to spar with, was someone she could only look up to.
But Kurotsuchi quickly regained her confidence. I can't give up! I won't let that hateful guy look down on me!
Sakura's mindset was great. She never felt she was special.
Her parents were civilians, not even ninja. She knew getting this far was already a miracle.
She had only been sad when Ishiro also took Karin as a disciple, but she had gotten over it.
Years of competition and banter with Karin had forged a deep friendship.
Sakura never felt she could compare to Neji, who came from a prestigious clan.
She felt that fighting alongside the Third Tsuchikage's granddaughter was already pretty good.
After all, Sakura's original goal was just to be a support medic.
After traveling for a while, Neji said to Chiga, "Chiga-senpai, you can stop here. We're about to enter combat."
Chiga nodded. She was a pure support type; her combat ability couldn't compare to these geniuses who were at least Elite Jonin.
"Be careful," she said, stopping as Neji led the team away.
After walking for a bit, Kurotsuchi suddenly sped up to Neji. "Neji, is it really okay to leave Chiga-neechan alone?"
"We're deep in the Land of Fire. What if she runs into Konoha ninja?"
"It's fine," Neji said. "We have people following us."
That's right. Behind Neji's group, Sōkai and Uchiha Izumi were following.
They weren't comfortable letting so many of the village's geniuses go deep into the Land of Fire alone.
If something happened to this group, Iwa's losses would be catastrophic.
So the two Uchiha, who were supposed to be guarding the border, had followed.
They could hide from others, but not from Neji, whose Tenseigan was nearly fully awakened.
Chiga met up with Sōkai and Izumi and continued in the direction Neji's team had gone.
A moment later, the Konoha camp appeared in Neji's vision.
At the same time, Hinata, sitting in the Konoha camp, turned her head toward Neji's group.
"They're here!" she said softly.
Her tone was calm and confident, without a trace of panic or fear.
Hinata didn't wait for Neji to attack the camp. She led her team out to meet them.
Among the Konoha rookies, Sasuke was the fastest. boosted by Lightning Release, he charged ahead toward Neji.
He shouted as he ran, "Neji Hyūga! Today I will defeat you completely and show you the power of the Uchiha!"
Sasuke had decided: he would spare no pupil power today. He would go all out to crush Neji and teach him the consequences of looking down on the Uchiha.
So, when Neji entered his vision, Sasuke's three-tomoe Sharingan instantly shifted into the Mangekyō.
However, he didn't use Amaterasu. In their past battles, Sasuke had learned Amaterasu was useless against Neji.
Neji's visual prowess was strong; he could clearly see the buildup of Amaterasu. It had no element of surprise.
And Neji's Imperial Wheel could easily repel the black flames.
His other dōjutsu, Breaking Delusion, was also useless, as Neji didn't use genjutsu.
So Sasuke had no advantage over Neji.
He activated the Mangekyō only to increase his dynamic vision, hoping to gain an edge in ninjutsu and taijutsu.
And to be ready to use Susanoo at any moment.
A moment later, the two met. They tacitly engaged while moving away from the others.
Hinata, as usual, joined Naruto to face Shion and Haku.
Both sides were familiar with each other, so they started fighting without much probing.
But during the fight, Naruto couldn't help but yell and use his "Talk-no-Jutsu."
Hinata and Haku were quiet, but Shion was lively and argued back.
However, Shion was usually rendered speechless by Naruto's illogical rants.
Aside from the high-level battles of the "Three Blacks" and "Three Whites," the other Konoha rookies quickly engaged Kurotsuchi and the rest.
Konoha had the numbers here, but Iwa had the individual strength.
Although Konoha had many secret techniques and tricky methods, Iwa held the upper hand.
Plus, with Sakura—a bug-level medic—on their team, Iwa's endurance surpassed Konoha's.
Fortunately, Konoha had the high-IQ commander Shikamaru Nara, whose coordination made their teamwork superior.
Sōkai, Izumi, and Chiga soon arrived near the battlefield. They didn't join in, just watched from the shadows to prevent Konoha from pulling any tricks.
Sōkai and Izumi both activated their Mangekyō Sharingan.
Izumi even remotely connected to the Giant Sharingan, ready to intervene at any moment.
For the past two years, although they had hidden their strength and rarely fought, they, like Neji, had undergone several quickenings.
Especially Izumi. She felt that with one or two more quickenings, her eyes would evolve again.
The Hashirama cells in the Giant Sharingan had been depleted multiple times by their quickenings.
Ishiro had taken them to the Gedo Mazo several times to replenish it.
So, although the Giant Sharingan had consumed a massive amount of energy, it had actually grown larger thanks to the Gedo Mazo's supply.
While Neji was fighting, back in Iwagakure, Ishiro received a top-secret intel report via a special channel.
The report stated: Kiri had started learning Edo Tensei a long time ago and had now mastered it.
This intel came from the White Zetsu clone, A-Tsuchi. It was only the second time he had sent a message.
The first time was about Kumo finding the Two-Tails, which led to Ishiro getting Little Matatabi.
This time, A-Tsuchi learned from other Zetsu that Black Zetsu had ordered them to steal the Edo Tensei technique from Kiri.
After reading the report, Ishiro fell into deep thought. After a long while, he began to mutter names.
"First Mizukage, Second Mizukage, Third Mizukage, Fourth Mizukage... plus all of Kiri's Jinchūriki."
Ishiro had a headache. That number was scary. And that didn't even count unknown powerhouses from the Warring States Period.
"Wait... if Kiri has Edo Tensei, what about Kumo?"
"Kumo was destroyed, but Killer B escaped, likely to the Turtle Island."
"Kiri got Edo Tensei from Konoha. Did Konoha give a copy to Killer B too?"
"Kumo has five Raikage, past Jinchūriki, and the Gold and Silver Brothers."
"Sigh! Why does it feel like our dozen Kage-level ninja aren't enough?"
Ishiro could reanimate many strong ninja too, but they were all enemies.
If he wiped their consciousness to make them fight, their combat power wouldn't compare to the autonomous Kage summoned by Kiri and Kumo.
Thinking of this, Ishiro took a prisoner from the Iwa jail and went outside the village.
He knocked the prisoner out and set up the Edo Tensei ritual.
Then he took out a Reaper Death Mask.
Neji, Sōkai, and Izumi weren't in the village, so getting the souls out of the Reaper's stomach would be difficult.
Before absorbing the Reapers' soul power, Ishiro couldn't have done it.
But in the last two years, he had absorbed all the Reaper souls he had, leaving only this one.
So now, Ishiro's soul power surpassed the Reaper's. Dealing with the dim-witted Reaper wasn't too hard.
First, Ishiro used Spirit Infiltration, shamelessly using his own soul as bait to lure the Reaper out.
Then, before the Reaper could attack, Ishiro beat it up.
While the Reaper was dazed, Ishiro returned to his body, used a soul seal to pin the Reaper outside the mask, and then used Light Release to cut open its stomach, retrieving the three souls inside.
After identifying them, he kept one and stuffed the other two back into the Reaper.
As the Reaper healed, Ishiro cast Edo Tensei, channeling the soul into the prisoner sacrifice.
Soon, the reanimation was complete, and the Reaper, slightly confused, returned to the mask with the remaining two souls in its belly.
Ishiro stored the mask and looked at the reanimated figure.
"Just as I thought. If you have the soul, you don't need the DNA for Edo Tensei."
"The DNA is just a medium, an ID card to summon the soul from the Pure Land."
In the original Fourth War, Orochimaru had done the same.
Ishiro woke the reanimated ninja. "Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju. Long time no see."
That's right. The three souls in the Reaper were Tobirama, Fugaku Uchiha, and Obito Uchiha.
Ishiro had summoned Tobirama.
When he heard Kiri and Kumo might use Edo Tensei, he thought of Tobirama.
Tobirama was the creator of the jutsu. This forbidden jutsu maniac must have a countermeasure.
In the original story, Tobirama had tried to counter Orochimaru, but failed because Orochimaru used White Zetsu (with Hashirama cells) as sacrifices.
But that meant Tobirama had prepared a counter.
Tobirama looked around. "This is the Land of Earth?"
He looked at Ishiro. "I've seen you before. Based on your conversation, you are the Tsuchikage."
Ishiro nodded. "Correct. Fourth Tsuchikage."
"Second Hokage, I summoned you to ask about the principles of Edo Tensei, how to break it, and how to counter it."
Tobirama narrowed his eyes and tested his body.
Unfortunately, this body was too weak. He couldn't exert his full power.
He had no confidence in breaking Ishiro's control.
So Tobirama said, "I can't tell you the principles. At your level, you should understand why."
Ishiro was silent for a few seconds, then nodded. It involved the Pure Land, and Ishiro didn't know much about that place. But he suspected it was related to the Sage of Six Paths, so he didn't push it.
Seeing this, Tobirama continued, "As for breaking it... simple. The caster just has to form the release seal."
"Besides that?" Ishiro asked.
Tobirama was silent for a long time. Just as Ishiro was about to wipe his consciousness, he said, "If the reanimated person knows the specific seals, they can release the contract themselves."
Ishiro asked for the seals in detail, then moved on.
Tobirama said, "As for countering it..."
"Either make the soul find peace and move on, which causes it to dissipate."
"Or, seal the body."
Ishiro nodded. He knew these two. He just wanted to confirm the release seals.
Then Ishiro asked, "Second Hokage, can you tell me all of Konoha's powerful Yin Release jutsu?"
Tobirama looked at Ishiro and stopped talking.
This was the question he least wanted to hear.
Tobirama was indeed a genius at developing jutsu. He even invented Edo Tensei to summon dead souls for battle.
But many of his jutsu were developed after inventing Edo Tensei, using inspiration gained from the dead.
Tobirama didn't fear being summoned to fight; that just gave Ishiro a disobedient Kage.
But he feared Ishiro would do what he did: extract jutsu intel from the dead.
He raised his hand to form the release seals, but it was useless. He quickly lost control of his body.
Ishiro understood Tobirama's resolve, so he suppressed his soul directly and repeated the question.
Sure enough, the mindless puppet detailed everything Ishiro wanted to know.
Comparing it with what Tobirama said earlier, Ishiro knew he had told the truth.
Then, Ishiro extracted every single jutsu Tobirama knew. It was a massive haul!
Leaving aside standard jutsu, the Water Release alone was eye-opening. Not to mention the endless forbidden jutsu.
The Eight Gates was Tobirama's invention, though he only created the prototype; Might Duy perfected it.
Ishiro's copy probably wasn't trainable, but it didn't matter. Might Duy's corpse was in Iwagakure too.
Besides Edo Tensei, Ishiro got the details on the Spirit Infiltration Jutsu, Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags, Flying Thunder God, Super Beast Scroll, Konoha-style Kenjutsu, and more.
But what Ishiro cared about most was Yin Release. Iwa's Yin Release had always been weak.
This kept Shion, Natsuki, and the others from matching other Kage in combat power.
"Tobirama classified the Bringer of Darkness Technique as a standard Yin Release jutsu, not a genjutsu?" Ishiro was surprised.
But it made sense. Bringer of Darkness affected the environment directly, not just the target's mind. It affected the vision of onlookers too. It definitely wasn't a targeted genjutsu.
Ishiro reviewed the Yin Release jutsu Tobirama provided one by one, itching to find someone to test them on.
After categorizing Tobirama's intel, Ishiro wasn't satisfied.
So, he proceeded to reanimate Fugaku Uchiha, Obito Uchiha, Might Duy, Hanzō, Pakura, Chiyo, Ryōsuke, the Third Kazekage, Fourth Kazekage, Fourth Raikage, Fifth Raikage, Yugito, Nagi Minazuki... everyone.
After extracting every jutsu they knew, he dispelled them and sealed their souls into Reaper Death Masks.
Looking at the massive pile of jutsu, Ishiro summoned the high command present in the village.
When they saw the scrolls, everyone sucked in a breath.
Ikura saw Tobirama's scroll first and blurted out, "Ishiro, did you rob Konoha's forbidden scroll library?"
It wasn't an unreasonable thought. The collection was too complete. Tobirama had written down almost every known Konoha jutsu.
"The village's Edo Tensei research made a breakthrough," Ishiro said. "We can now control reanimated bodies to fight without suppressing their memories."
"I had them write down everything they knew."
Han held a scroll. "Lightning Release Armor? Did you get this from the Fourth Raikage?"
Ishiro nodded. The Fourth Raikage didn't know many jutsu, but this one was invaluable.
Everyone's eyes lit up. Lightning Release Armor! The strongest taijutsu technique besides the Eight Gates!
And unlike the Eight Gates, it had no side effects.
There were also massive amounts of Kumo and Suna jutsu.
Suna's Wind Release was welcome, but what really caught their eye was the Puppet Technique!
The strongest puppetry belonged to Sasori, but Ryōsuke and Chiyo provided a systematic method for training puppet masters.
And the most intriguing was the Eight Gates, the bug that let an Elite Jonin kill a Kage.
But after reading it, everyone was disappointed. The training process was too hard!
It wasn't just willpower; it required a special constitution!
Ishiro watched their expressions—joy, then disappointment—but he wasn't that happy.
He got these things too late. Others didn't know the "Battle of Gods" was coming, but he did.
Lightning Release Armor and Puppet Technique would have been great ten years ago. Now... they weren't that useful.
Ishiro couldn't train Lightning Release masters or puppet masters capable of participating in the god-level war in just a few years.
If he had gotten these a decade ago, he would have trained a Lightning Release expert like he trained Kawakita.
(End of Chapter)
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