"Konoha's genius brat, is it?" Ōyama Kentarō sneered from the front of the Mist formation, his lips curling into a cruel smile, a dark glint of bloodlust in his eyes. "What a coincidence. What I love most is watching so-called geniuses beg for mercy before they die."
Yuta ignored the taunt entirely. His mind was occupied by a more curious observation: 'every single one of Kirigakure's Seven Ninja Swordsmen seemed to be… bizarrely deformed.'
If his memory served, the Swordsmen active during the Third Great Shinobi War were also a gallery of oddities, and this first generation was no different.
Hozuki Satsuki, the one he'd killed four years ago, now seemed like the sole exception—the only normal-looking one of the bunch.
'Does the Third Mizukage have some kind of fetish for the grotesque?' Yuta wondered. 'Is ugliness an unspoken requirement for the job?'
Especially the demonic-looking one at the front, Ōyama Kentarō, hefting the massive Samehada.
The man was even more bloated and misshapen than Suikazan Fuguki would be in the future.
"You… you're Shimura Yuta?" Uzumaki Nusaku stared at the young man who now stood protectively before them, his expression one of stunned recognition.
Four years ago, during the first Mist invasion, this Konoha shinobi had healed his wounds. He never imagined that the same boy would be their first and only hope four years later.
"The Clan Head fell in battle," Nusaku reported swiftly, his voice tight with grief. "The Young Clan Head used the Reverse Four Symbols Seal to delay the pursuers and cover our retreat. These… these are all that remain of the Uzumaki who broke through."
Yuta felt a pang of regret. 'Still too late.'
The once-great Uzushiogakure was now reduced to this handful of survivors. Still, it was a better outcome than the near-total annihilation of the original timeline, where only a few scattered clan members remained.
He could only hope that Nagato and his parents' fate might still be altered.
His gaze flickered to the small girl clutched in Nusaku's arms. "Is that Shinji's daughter?"
"Yes," Nusaku said, holding the child closer. "Her name is Uzumaki Kushina. The Young Clan Head entrusted her to me before he stayed behind."
'So, the future mother of Naruto… the little princess of the Uzumaki clan.' The revelation was poignant, a flicker of the grand history contained in this tiny, vulnerable life.
"Hey, brat." The voice, dripping with impatience, sliced through the moment. It came from the Mist ninja holding the twin Lightning Blades, Kiba.
"You're really not treating us like a threat, are you? Chatting away. You lack basic manners."
"Enough talk," the swordsman snarled. "Send them on their way! I'm in a hurry!"
With a violent thrust, he plunged one of his swords into the earth.
Instantly, a dense current of electricity crawled over the blade, crackling with malevolent energy. As the lightning on the sword flared, the already oppressive sky darkened further, and a low, threatening rumble of thunder echoed from the gathering clouds.
"Lightning Blade Jutsu: Lightning Gate!"
Yuta's eyes narrowed. He didn't hesitate.
Sage Mode.
The fused power of Shikkotsu Forest and Ryūchi Cave surged within him, forming a new, unique whole. Subtle changes overtook him: the pigmentation around his eyes, once a simple black, now shimmered a bright, metallic silver.
His aura shifted dramatically, becoming dense, ancient, and dangerous.
Nusaku sensed the change immediately. The sheer density of the chakra was staggering.
'Konoha's genius… his progress is terrifying.'
Yuta glanced at the roiling thunderclouds.
'A technique that uses the sword as a conduit to call down natural lightning. Powerful, but the wind-up is far too long.'
In a real fight, such a slow, telegraphed technique was practically useless.
In the next instant, Yuta vanished.
No—he didn't vanish. He simply moved too fast for the eye to follow, becoming a blur that shot across the clearing.
A collective chill swept through the Mist ranks.
"Stop him!"
Ōyama Kentarō didn't need the order. He moved to intercept, Samehada sweeping up in a brutal, wide arc. But Yuta's target had never been him.
A phantom afterimage flickered past the hulking swordsman, and Yuta rematerialized directly in front of Kurosuki Miki, the wielder of Kiba.
'Damn it! So fast!'
At that speed, no one could provide support in time.
Kurosuki Miki made a split-second decision. His lightning-calling technique was nearly complete, but he didn't dare gamble. He wrenched his focus from the sky, aborting the jutsu, and raised his swords defensively.
Electricity erupted from his body, transforming him into a crackling avatar of storm. From this living bolt, hundreds of sizzling, serpentine arcs of lightning lashed out towards Yuta—his ultimate technique with the Lightning Blades.
Lightning Release: Sky-Rending Lightning Snakes!
Having witnessed Yuta's initial speed, Kurosuki Miki held nothing back. He had no intention of becoming the second Swordsman to die from underestimating this Konoha monster.
The technique was formidable. In the original story, it had shown enough piercing power to breach defenses like the Wood Release: Four-Pillar Prison.
But to Yuta's enhanced senses and refined power, it was merely… adequate.
'Try this new Rasengan I've been working on.'
A sphere of chakra coalesced in Yuta's palm, swelling to an immense size. It glowed with a pale, violet light, dense with surging electrical currents that tore at the air around it with a sound like ripping canvas.
This was no ordinary Rasengan. It was the Rasengan, perfected and reborn through Lightning Release nature transformation.
Sage Art: Lightning Release: Super Rasengan Lightning Entwined Sky-Shattering Twin Vortex Style!
He'd spent days thinking of a name worthy of its power. When it comes to naming, he thought with a flicker of pride, 'I'm definitely on Minato's level.'
"What the hell is that?!"
"A technique even more terrifying than the last one?!"
The sheer, violent chakra fluctuation was inconceivable. Those were Kurosuki Miki's final, horrified thoughts.
BOOM!
The collision was cataclysmic. The earth itself seemed to buckle and scream. A shockwave of force and debris exploded outwards, and when the dust and light cleared, a massive, smoldering crater scarred the forest floor.
At its center lay what remained of Kurosuki Miki.
To call it a corpse was generous.
The Lightning-Enhanced Rasengan had fully inherited the violent, disintegrating properties of its elemental nature.
Under its devastating touch, Kurosuki Miki's body had been nearly obliterated, leaving behind only a gruesome, spiraling cavity where his torso had been.
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