After spending a few days in the Land of Hot Water, Kiyosuke returned to Konoha and personally reported the mission to Sarutobi Hiruzen.
"Jashin cult, huh? That's definitely a troublesome ability. Are you sure it's been completely dealt with?"
"There's no way to wipe them out entirely. No one really knows how far their numbers have spread. All I can say is that I've eliminated the vast majority of them."
The person who founded the Jashin cult had to be a lunatic. Whether Jashin truly exists, Kiyosuke didn't know—maybe he did. After all, even the Shinigami exists in this world. But in any case, it no longer had anything to do with him.
"Mm, you're right. Thanks for taking care of this. Go back and write up a report for me. I'll file it in the archives."
"Understood. By the way, Third-sama, I'd like to learn the Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags."
"Hm? What do you want with that jutsu?" Sarutobi Hiruzen asked, puzzled. "That's a technique created by Second-sama. It's certainly powerful, but it was developed to complement another forbidden technique. If a regular person uses it, they'll end up getting blown to pieces..."
He paused mid-sentence, suddenly recalling Kiyosuke's unique physical condition.
"Ah, that's right. With your body, you actually can learn it."
This technique was developed by the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, specifically to work in conjunction with Edo Tensei.
By using a single Explosive Tag to summon trillions more in an infinite cycle, it creates a continuous chain of explosions—an endless detonation loop. The destructive power is immense. Once even a single tag attaches to you, there's no escaping it.
The scale of destruction depends on how many tags the user has. In other words, it comes down to how deep your wallet is.
This was a money-burning jutsu. Ordinary people couldn't afford to use it.
A certain rich lady with six hundred billion explosive tags: Who's richer than me?
Kakuzu: That's all my hard-earned money! I earned that!!!
The Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags were not difficult to learn. The technique itself was fairly simple—it was just a modified version of the summoning technique. The real hurdle was affording enough tags to make it effective.
Not only that, the blast radius was huge. Without caution, the user could get caught in their own explosion. After all, Tobirama never intended for a living person to use it when he created it.
The idea was to stick the tags on reanimated corpses, send them charging into enemy lines in suicide attacks, and detonate for large-scale destruction.
Used together with Edo Tensei, it was a battlefield weapon of mass devastation. If a living person did use it, it would only be someone like Kiyosuke—a high-mobility ninja with the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Normally, you'd have to stick the tag onto someone or near them to initiate the chain summoning and trigger the explosions.
But the blast range was so wide that without the speed of Flying Thunder God, you'd be caught in it yourself.
Kiyosuke, however, didn't have to worry about that. Even if his body were completely blown apart, he could reconstruct it. He'd pulled off mutual-destruction tactics countless times before.
Sarutobi Hiruzen gave his approval and handed over the training method for the Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tagss.
It was basically a modified summoning technique, just with a different application. Not hard to learn.
Kiyosuke quickly mastered the jutsu—but didn't plan to use it just yet. He had it saved up for Obito. Without six hundred billion explosive tags, he would have to settle for fewer—but long-lasting—explosions.
...
Leaving the Hokage Building, he made his way to the Uchiha compound to check in on Naruto, only to find Itachi looking after two children.
"Is it Sunday today?"
"No."
"Then why aren't you in school?"
Itachi was old enough to attend and had apparently been going for over three months now.
"I sent a shadow clone to attend in my place," Itachi said. "The clone's memories will come back to me, so it's the same as if I went myself."
Damn. So this is what a genius looks like?
Come to think of it... hadn't he done something like that before, too?
Kiyosuke cleared his throat and said,
"I see. Can't deny it, the Shadow Clone Technique really is perfect. Naruto! Stop biting Sasuke's toes! You barely have any teeth!"
He scooped Naruto up from where he was wrestling with Sasuke. The kid had grown fair and chubby under Mikoto's care, with those little whisker marks adding a silly charm to his face.
Babbling nonsense, Naruto slapped his pudgy hand onto Kiyosuke's face and giggled. Meanwhile, Sasuke was comfortably nestled in his big brother's arms, thoroughly enjoying himself.
"The school curriculum already can't keep up with you, huh, Itachi?"
"Yeah. It all feels a bit too simple. Not really challenging."
So this is the world of prodigies?
If your father heard that, he'd probably say, 'As expected of my son!'
Hanging around this kid was a one-way ticket to feeling inferior.
"So... made any friends yet?"
"Maybe... I think so."
If they don't just treat me like their boss…
Probably...
"You didn't take them in as underlings, did you?"
"Huh? Um, they call me 'boss.' I just helped them out with some trouble caused by upperclassmen."
"Shows you've got real strength. Must be pretty popular with the girls at school too, huh?"
"How should I put it? There are too many. It's noisy."
Damn. This is the treatment Kakashi got back in the day. Even he only enjoyed a fraction of that!
Then Itachi asked, "Kiyosuke-sensei, what is a ninja? And what is a village?"
Here we go again—philosophy time.
Kiyosuke paused to think, then said:
"I've heard many different answers. My teacher, Orochimaru, once said that a ninja is someone who has mastered all ninjutsu. Jiraiya-sama believed a ninja is someone who can endure everything.
"But I think... a ninja is someone who endures, for the sake of their goal."
"And a village... you can think of it as everyone's home."
"Home?"
"Yes. Konoha was founded by the Senju and Uchiha clans—created in pursuit of peace. Many other clans gathered here, and they've long since come to see this place as their home.
"Let me give you an example. Itachi, if someone broke into your home to rob you, what would you do?"
"I'd chase them out."
"Exactly. That's why we go to war to protect Konoha—we're defending our home."
"Why does life involve so much fighting?"
Kiyosuke thought for a moment, then said:
"In the beginning, when life first emerged, fighting was for food and reproduction. Animals still live that way. Humans are different because we have emotions. But in the end... we fight to survive."
"To survive?"
"Death isn't despair. In the process of living, people experience all sorts of things—joy, happiness, anger, pain, sorrow... these are emotions.
"And because of those emotions, we shine bright as stars. Life is a brilliant and dazzling, fleeting journey—like a meteor shower across the night sky.
"It's because we're alive that life has meaning. We may take others' lives... but it's still all for the sake of living.
"Everyone dies eventually. The only difference... is when."
...
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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