Lately, Hoshiyomi hadn't been taking on many missions.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, now in middle age, had come to cherish his loved ones even more and could appreciate how rare and precious these moments of peace were.
Because of this, he naturally wouldn't act like some heartless leader by assigning tons of missions to Hoshiyomi, Tsunade, and the others, ruining what little time they had to gather with family.
These days, Hoshiyomi's life had settled into a steady routine. He took on missions about once every two weeks, and they were always close to home—tasks that usually only took a day or two to complete.
After missions, he focused on training and visiting Mito. Rie—his mother—didn't feel jealous about this at all. In fact, not only did she support it, she even used the mission pay Hoshiyomi gave her to suggest they just move next door to the Senju compound.
The very next day, she even paid a personal visit to the Senju compound, openly expressing her desire to live next door to Tsunade. If Hoshiyomi hadn't been there to stop her, he suspected she might've blurted out to Mito on the spot:
"I approve of this marriage!"
Whether it was the reduced number of missions allowing more time for swordsmanship, or simply a more relaxed and balanced mindset, one thing was certain — Hoshiyomi's sword skills had broken through.
After several years of accumulation, he had finally reached Advanced Swordsmanship: 250/300.
Emmm… If the system hadn't actually given him a notification while he was asleep, Hoshiyomi might have forgotten he even had a system at this point.
Opening the interface, he quickly realized something: under normal circumstances, reaching 250 points should've taken much longer. He'd originally estimated that he wouldn't hit that mark until the Second Great Ninja War began.
But the recent Uzushiogakure incident, specifically the battle against Monzaemon, had turned out to be a massive XP windfall.
Though aged and physically weakened, Monzaemon was still considered a genuine Kage-level combatant — at least, according to the system's assessment.
In addition, the Ten Puppets of Chikamatsu he commanded had been classified by the system as ten elite jōnin. That much made sense — each of those puppets possessed strength on par with a jōnin on their own.
Even worse, their team coordination was terrifying. Paired up in twos, they could unleash attacks far beyond the level of standard elite jōnin.
That Hoshiyomi had managed to defeat them was mostly thanks to intel advantage and his own natural counters to puppet-based combat. His speed was simply overwhelming — the puppets couldn't keep up.
But the system didn't care about that. It wasn't an AI, and it didn't use any kind of advanced algorithm. It just treated everything as a set of data and tallied it accordingly.
Each elite jōnin was worth 2 XP. The bonus for defeating a Kage-level enemy gave him a lump sum of 20 XP. Altogether, the system rewarded him with 40 XP.
That was equivalent to nearly a full year of intense training.
And when you added in the recent development and refinement of several new techniques, it made sense that he'd reached 250 so quickly.
Maybe non-intelligent systems have their own advantages after all.
Sure, he couldn't chat with his system like a proper light novel protagonist to pad word count — but exploiting system loopholes for bonus benefits? That was a win in his book!
Reaching 250 was just a milestone, not a full breakthrough, so he didn't receive a new title or ranking. However, he did unlock the ability to draw a new skill.
Hoshiyomi wasn't the kind to hesitate — he firmly believed in "use early, enjoy early." Without delay, he pulled up the Skill Draw interface.
The moment he saw "Available Skill Draws: 1," he immediately hit the button.
The familiar stream of rapidly shifting text scrolled across the system screen. Then, the letters slowed and locked in place.
Congratulations, Host! You have acquired a new technique: Oboro Urazuki – Eleven Forms
Skill Description:
Oboro Urazuki: Eleven Forms is the ultimate spear technique developed by the legendary martial artist Hōzōin Inshun, who was said to have reached god-like mastery over the cross-shaped spear. It fuses the eleven most powerful forms of the Hōzōin-ryū style into a single, flawless strike.
Modified by the system and adapted as an Advanced Sword Technique.
Upon activation, the user will instantly produce ten attack-capable afterimages, which strike in tandem with the real body to unleash a devastating, ultimate-grade sword art.
The moment Hoshiyomi read the skill, he perked up with interest.
As a former FGO player in his previous life, this move wasn't unfamiliar to him. In the game, this was the Noble Phantasm of the Lancer-class Servant Hōzōin Inshun — though in gameplay, it merely showed ten bald phantom clones appearing to buff the user.
He hadn't expected the system to adapt that concept into a true combo-oriented finishing technique — now fully transformed into a formidable sword art.
What it would look like in actual combat? He wasn't sure, but the curiosity was unbearable.
Driven by excitement, Hoshiyomi completely lost any desire to sleep. He exited the system, sprang out of bed, grabbed Mikazuki Munechika, and headed out.
It was around two or three in the morning. The entire village was sound asleep.
To avoid noise complaints, he quietly made his way to a familiar spot — his old training ground, the Forest of Death.
Under the moonlight, with Transparent Escape Technique active, Hoshiyomi blended perfectly into the night, bypassing ANBU patrols without even needing a permit.
Once inside the Forest of Death and sure he wasn't disturbing anyone, Hoshiyomi activated Oboro Urazuki: Eleven Forms for the first time. Of course, he also summoned a shadow clone beforehand to observe the technique in action.
Yawning, the clone tossed a wooden training dummy into the air. As it spun midair, Hoshiyomi locked onto it and activated the skill.
His body instinctively unsheathed Mikazuki Munechika. He placed one hand in a prayer pose and, in that moment of silent focus, ten sword-wielding afterimages appeared around him, each in a different stance.
Though they were illusions, each one looked identical to Hoshiyomi — even with his keen eyesight, it was nearly impossible to distinguish the real one.
The moment the phantoms appeared, all eleven Hoshiyomis moved as one. One form dashed upward, slashing the airborne wooden dummy even higher.
Then the other ten struck.
Nine afterimages surrounded the dummy from every angle, launching a flurry of dazzling, blinding attacks.
It reminded Hoshiyomi of his Nine-Headed Dragon Flash, a technique he could only use with all Six Gates opened — delivering nine near-simultaneous slashes that were nearly impossible to avoid.
But there was a difference.
The Nine-Headed Dragon Flash, while powerful, had a sequential attack order. Against someone as fast as the Fourth Raikage, it was still possible to parry or escape.
Oboro Urazuki: Eleven Forms, on the other hand, sent nine afterimages to attack simultaneously from multiple directions. And because they were phantoms, it didn't matter if they passed through the target — the real attack would land regardless.
Once caught in its range, there was no escape.
Only someone with a ludicrously overpowered defense might have a chance of survival.
The final strike came from Hoshiyomi himself.
Gripping Mikazuki Munechika with both hands, he executed a brilliant, silver arc of a finishing slash that slammed into the ground.
The impact from his sword cracked the earth, sending powerful tremors radiating outward.
His shadow clone stood frozen, stunned into silence.
"This skill… is a god-tier technique!"