Chapter 31: Kushina's Growth—Era's Protagonist
BOOM BOOM BOOM...
The abandoned training ground echoed with fists and feet colliding.
A boy and girl, one tall and one short, engaged in fierce taijutsu combat.
Normally, the bigger fighter dominating the smaller one would be straightforward weight advantage—no suspense.
Even if evenly matched, the smaller combatant would rely on agile dodging, using technique and speed to suppress the larger opponent.
But the scene unfolding reversed this completely.
Yoru—who'd grown to one hundred sixty-four centimeters—used deflection techniques to parry the chaotic punches from Kushina Uzumaki, who barely reached one hundred forty-two centimeters with shoes on.
Looking closely at his hands revealed his knuckles had turned completely red.
From trading blows with Kushina Uzumaki.
The reason fists and feet colliding sounded so thunderous?
Because every single one of Kushina's punches and kicks seemed to carry airflow—actually creating sonic booms.
Terrifying superhuman strength paired with those delicate small fists created jarring contrast.
Yoru didn't just deflect continuously either. Every few exchanges, or every dozen or so, he'd meet Kushina head-on.
Either fists colliding or legs crashing together, producing massive BOOM sounds.
Each collision caused invisible shockwaves to burst from their limbs, stirring up fallen leaves and dust.
Afterward, painful expressions would flash across Kushina's small face.
Sometimes she'd grimace, as though she'd struck not Yoru's limbs but a steel plate.
Which wasn't far from the truth.
While training Kushina's taijutsu technique, Yoru simultaneously practiced Earth Release nature transformation through combat movement.
After countless exchange rounds, Yoru and Kushina simultaneously leaped backward with perfect synchronization, hands rapidly forming different seals.
"Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique!"
"Water Release: Water Trumpet!"
The moment they landed, each expelled linear flames and water streams from their mouths.
The two collided, evaporating into white mist.
Before wind could disperse the fog, several Kushinas charged out wielding Rasengan, rushing toward Yoru.
Yoru likewise formed seals creating phantom clones that surged forward to intercept.
Kushina's shadow clones attacked Yoru's real body first. Their attacks passed through him without resistance, as expected.
Then the clones divided tasks, attacking Yoru's phantom clones one-on-one.
One clone carrying a Rasengan passed through Yoru's body. Just as she assumed this was another phantom clone, her body suddenly got swept sideways to the ground, her Rasengan slamming into the earth and blasting a massive crater.
Using the sand and white mist as cover, Yoru's real body—with his ghostly silent Body Flicker—rapidly exchanged positions with his phantom clones, exploding each Kushina into white smoke.
When only one Kushina remained on the field, Yoru assumed she was the real body. He held back slightly, dodging sideways from the Rasengan attack and restraining Kushina from behind.
But Kushina turned her head with a triumphant smile: "Foul-Mouth Yoru, you fell for it!"
POOF—
Two balloon-popping sounds overlapped almost perfectly.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
The Kushina before him just transformed into white smoke when Yoru heard a girl's delicate shout.
Not far away beneath the white mist, a rock transformed into Kushina, then expelled an airstream at Yoru.
The airstream rapidly expanded and dispersed, becoming a gale like an invisible tidal wave that instantly engulfed Yoru.
Because the range was so massive, even with Yoru's astonishing Body Flicker, he couldn't dodge in time—much less execute Earth Release to flip up a stone slab for defense.
Yoru's lips merely curved slightly. He stomped once, then raised both arms in a crossed blocking stance.
The gale engulfing Yoru was like crashing against a boulder—couldn't budge him at all.
This technique wasn't the Naruto-world's Armament Haki equivalent Earth Release: Earth Spear, but rather Earth Release: Hardening Technique.
Though Earth Release: Earth Spear was only B-rank, it involved profound nature transformation—a very rare taijutsu technique.
This technique's effect: chakra flowing through the entire body achieving deep physical enhancement. Instant activation formed an indestructible diamond body with defense literally hard as diamond.
Earth Release: Hardening Technique was the weakened version of Earth Spear.
The effect likewise hardened the body, but only the skin's surface layer—not as comprehensive and powerful as the taijutsu-type Earth Spear.
Even so, defending against Wind Release: Great Breakthrough was sufficient.
After withstanding the gale attack without injury, neither Yoru nor Kushina continued attacking each other.
"Not bad, Tomato-na. You're actually using tactics now." Yoru praised generously, looking at Kushina with newfound respect.
"Hmph... be grateful I held back." Kushina tilted her head up proudly.
When Yoru resisted the gale, Kushina had plenty of time to create more shadow clones and use Wind Release: Great Breakthrough again, directly blowing Yoru into the forest.
She just couldn't bring herself to do it—just as Yoru had mistaken that shadow clone for her real body and instinctively held back.
"You've grown. I'm genuinely happy." This time Yoru didn't mock, speaking sincerely instead.
Though he'd been somewhat careless just now and still concealed numerous techniques, Kushina's growth during this period had truly shocked Yoru.
Aside from lacking Asura's chakra, Kushina was now a high-spec version of Naruto Uzumaki.
The Uzumaki bloodline's powerful vitality and chakra, plus the complete Nine-Tails' Yin-Yang attributes and powerful recovery, made Kushina—already an unkillable cockroach—even more durable.
As a transmigrator, Yoru clearly understood Kushina Uzumaki's potential strength. He wouldn't be like Minato Namikaze, only thinking about getting stronger himself to protect her rather than developing the naturally talented Kushina into a super-powerful fighter.
Knowing how Naruto Uzumaki cheated in the original series, Yoru directly transplanted Naruto's training method, having Kushina create massive numbers of shadow clones for practice.
With shadow clones as an acceleration cheat, Kushina's strength exploded daily.
Only two months had passed since Kushina became the Nine-Tails jinchuriki.
Aside from Body Flicker still being impossibly out of reach, Kushina had already caught up to Yoru in every other aspect.
Ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu, sealing techniques, medical ninjutsu, even nature transformation and sensory abilities...
Just as Nagato's growth shocked Jiraiya, Kushina Uzumaki—possessing beyond-Kage potential—made Yoru experience talent suppression even stronger than Minato Namikaze's.
More terrifying still, Kushina hadn't yet mastered Superhuman Strength, hadn't awakened Mind's Eye of Kagura, body healing, or Adamantine Sealing Chains.
Otherwise her sensory, healing, and sealing abilities would instantly become among the shinobi world's absolute strongest.
If not for the Space-Time bloodline cheat ability, Yoru truly would be utterly devastated, seeing no hope of "reasserting patriarchal authority."
The talent boost from just the first evolution compared to this era's protagonist monster? Absolutely no comparison whatsoever.