Chapter 150: Bloodline Concentration
Riding the "Minato Express"—a humanoid space-time transmission device—in just an eyeblink, he'd returned from Yu no Kuni to Konoha Village. After marveling at the Flying Thunder God Technique's convenience, Ritsu took his leave. How to investigate the identity and remain vigilant against that unknown Uchiha was the Hokage's responsibility. He needn't concern himself with such matters.
After leaving the Hokage building, Ritsu didn't wander around but directly chose to go home. Pushing open the door, he called out twice without any response. Walking to the dining room, he saw beneath the food cover on the table a meal left for him. Water traces remaining in the sink indicated his parents had already eaten and washed the dishes.
Ritsu raised his head, glancing at the clock on the wall. Already one o'clock.
At this time, Father would definitely be working in the fields again. Mother most likely was next door at Akiba's house with Aunt Midoriko, chatting while doing small tasks to pass time.
Don't let the Hyuga blood flowing through his parents' veins fool you—lacking shinobi talent meant lacking it. Father also had a taciturn temperament. He couldn't handle work requiring smooth social skills. He poured all his energy into the land.
Even though Ritsu was now the Hyuga clan head and his income alone more than sufficed to support the whole family, Father still insisted on working the fields, saying he couldn't stay idle.
Ritsu felt helpless about this. He could hardly bind his barely forty-year-old father at home and forbid him from going out. He could only let him be.
Ritsu opened the microwave, placing the cold food inside to heat—the shinobi world's scientific technology development level was just this strange. Though productivity remained stuck in the agricultural society period, scientific technology had entered the electrical age. Electric lights, refrigerators, microwaves, and other household appliances had already entered people's lives.
However, though somewhat inconsistent with Ritsu's understanding, this ultimately wasn't a bad thing. Who would refuse higher-quality lifestyle?
The microwave timer set for two minutes. The food steamed. Ritsu picked up chopsticks, unhurriedly beginning to eat. Simultaneously, he didn't forget to extract a novel he'd only read the beginning of, placing it before him, propped against the tissue box. He ate while reading.
This was a bad habit cultivated over two lifetimes. When eating alone, he always needed to find a book. Physiologically enjoying the pleasure eating brought, spiritually enjoying the delight reading brought—dual enjoyment allowed maximum relaxation.
Ritsu spent over twenty minutes finishing this somewhat delayed lunch. After cleaning the dining room and kitchen, the time had already approached two o'clock.
He went out again, arriving at the training ground where he'd earlier accompanied Akiba and the other young women in practice. This training ground was only about six hundred meters from home, situated in a small forest grove. Woods surrounded three sides. Trees throughout the forest irregularly hung old, worn targets.
Five or six years ago, this place had been lively. Branch family children living in this area would all run here to practice Gentle Fist and shuriken throwing techniques. But these past two years, the children had grown up. A new round of children hadn't been born yet. Thus, this training ground had become much quieter.
Now that Ritsu had become clan head, though he had absolutely no intent to monopolize this clan public training ground, surrounding clan members all avoided disturbing the clan head's training, instead going to other training grounds.
"Being clan head isn't easy either!"
Ritsu sighed once, striding into the training ground.
At this moment, the young women's figures had vanished from the training ground. Only traces remaining on the ground from ninjutsu bombardment indicated that after his departure, Hyuga Akiba and Uchiha Aika had apparently seriously sparred once.
After briefly observing twice, Ritsu concentrated, beginning to review the earlier battle with that unknown Uchiha.
From the results, he'd relied on superior Wood Human Technique to overwhelm the opponent, forcing retreat. It looked like decent performance. But carefully analyzing, one could discover he actually hadn't achieved any substantive battle results.
He'd failed to break that unkillable puppet. Mountain-Breaking Strike had only smashed it to fragments. Ultimately, Namikaze Minato had summoned Iwagama Great Toad's esophagus to digest that puppet.
Of course, Ritsu could likewise summon Ryūchi Cave's giant snakes to devour that puppet. But Ritsu still felt dissatisfied. He more hoped to personally master methods breaking those troublesome puppets rather than relying on Ryūchi Cave's giant snakes using venom or gastric juices to solve puppets.
He began seriously examining himself, organizing his entire skill set.
First was the golden finger making him different and surpassing ordinary people—Level 3 "Physical Regeneration" ability. Precisely by relying on this ability had he stood out.
Based on this ability's foundation, he'd relied on Chimera Technique learned from Hiruko-sensei to seize the Shikotsumyaku bloodline limit, further strengthening his close combat ability and thereby breaking free from the Caged Bird Seal's restraints.
Afterward, he'd again used Chimera Technique to seize Wood Release bloodline limit, letting himself master Wood Release. This tremendously enriched his combat methods, compensating for lacking long-range attacks and methods handling large targets.
Besides these, he'd also mastered quite a few ninjutsu and secret techniques—like Hidden Mist Technique, Ninja Art: Needle Jizō, Ninja Art: Wild Lion's Mane, Rasengan, and so on. Moreover, within the Rasengan that achieved form manipulation to extremes, he'd added water attribute chakra's nature transformation, developing the highly penetrative Water Release: Spiraling Destruction Needle—relying on this move, he'd killed the Six-Tails jinchuriki before he could fully unleash the Six-Tails' power.
Besides this, he'd also signed a summoning contract with one of the Three Great Sage Regions—Ryūchi Cave. He could summon Ryūchi Cave's giant snakes anytime to help fight.
This entire skill set could indeed be called respectable. In the current shinobi world, he was a genuine top-tier ninja.
After organizing his methods clearly in his mind, Ritsu didn't feel proud. Instead, he slowly furrowed his brow, murmuring to himself, "Too chaotic!"
It appeared he possessed numerous methods—no obvious weaknesses in any aspect. But viewing from another angle, one could also say he lacked obvious strengths. He lacked a true "core" linking all these skills together.
Like Namikaze Minato's Flying Thunder God Technique—almost all his methods could combine with Flying Thunder God, building an extremely personally distinctive combat system around it.
Admittedly, relying on his current skills, Ritsu could already handle the vast majority of shinobi world enemies. But the problem was—the truly dangerous ones were precisely that small group of difficult-to-handle enemies.
Forget other considerations. Just that unknown Uchiha alone was major trouble. That fellow had released four puppets with Cloud ninja appearances and Cloud ninja methods throughout this morning's battle. Who knew how many more unkillable puppets might appear next meeting? How would he handle them then?
Summon giant snakes to swallow and devour them?
Afraid the giant snakes' bellies would burst.
Meanwhile, Gentle Fist, Shikotsumyaku, and Wood Release also had no good methods. The ninjutsu and secret techniques he'd mastered also couldn't break those nearly indestructible puppets.
Ritsu fell into hesitation, contemplating the path he should take next. Should he continue enriching his combat methods—developing new chakra attributes, learning new forbidden techniques, secret techniques, and ninjutsu?
Or determine his "core," specializing in one point, elevating his combat power in some aspect to extremes as much as possible?
Simply put, making a choice between two different directions: "breadth" and "depth."
Ritsu didn't stand contemplating. He assumed a stance, beginning to slowly practice fists. Gentle Fist Style: Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms—move by move, form by form, relying completely on his body's muscle memory, walking through it repeatedly. The training ground echoed with crackling air explosive sounds—his Gentle Fist's power had recently increased.
Originally, he'd used his merits with Minato to exchange for the opportunity to read First Hokage Senju Hashirama's remaining notes. From them, he'd found the secret why the First Hokage's Wood Release was so formidable. The mystery within was Yang Release—more directly speaking, Senju Hashirama's terrifyingly vast physical energy.
Thus, these days he'd been training Yang Release—meaning finding every method to forge and strengthen physical energy. While enhancing Wood Release's might, it had also made his Gentle Fist even more formidable.
Unfortunately, Yang Release training was truly difficult. This thing was typical—easy to learn, difficult to master. The most basic taijutsu training actually was forging Yang Release. But many people could train taijutsu their entire lives and not necessarily develop Yang attribute chakra even unto death.
Yin Release and Yang Release differed from the five major chakra natures—water, fire, wind, lightning, earth—which could rely on postnatal effort to smooth gaps. These two powers' strength or weakness was basically predetermined at birth.
Like the Senju clan's naturally astonishingly powerful physical energy, the Uchiha clan's naturally exceptional spiritual energy—heights many couldn't reach through lifelong postnatal effort.
Thinking to this point, Ritsu's heart stirred. He reached a decision.
No need to agonize over "breadth" and "depth," necessarily making a choice. Actually, methods existed to embrace both—that was enhancing "bloodline concentration"!
This was a world nicknamed "Five Village Brawl, Eye Legend"!
Here, ninjutsu's essence was "bloodline." As long as bloodline concentration sufficed, one would naturally possess more powerful, more comprehensive might!
Moreover, what made him different and stand out was his cheat—the "Physical Regeneration" ability. When using Chimera Technique to seize and fuse different bloodlines branching from Ōtsutsuki, not only would his Byakugan's ocular power strengthen, but his ability could also be enhanced to a certain degree.
Currently, "Physical Regeneration" was stuck at Level 3's extreme. Just slightly more power was needed to break through. Deploying Chimera Technique to fuse new branch bloodlines inherited from Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, continuing to raise his own bloodline concentration, walking along this path of atavism toward Ōtsutsuki—this was his fast lane to growing stronger!
"However, Kaguya and Senju bloodlines are already obtained. What clearly remains as Ōtsutsuki branch bloodlines are the Uchiha clan, Uzumaki clan, and Hidden Cloud Village's Gold and Silver Brothers' clan..."
While practicing fists, Ritsu's brain also began operating at high speed, searching for suitable prey.
The Uzumaki clan's talent had withered now. Only a handful of clan members remained scattered throughout the shinobi world. Nine-Tails jinchuriki Uzumaki Kushina—first pass. She was a fellow villager. He truly couldn't do such things as targeting fellow villagers.
Of the remaining two Uzumaki clan members he knew about, one might be used as a healing blood bag in Kusagakure. Honestly, this one also wasn't convenient to target. Though not a comrade, in his eyes she counted as a neutral unit. He couldn't really bring himself to do it.
The other was Nagato, transplanted with Uchiha Madara's Rinnegan. Because that old bastard Danzo pulled aggro so well, this fellow counted as Konoha's enemy. Unfortunately, the Rinnegan's abilities were indeed troublesome. Nagato was precisely one of that small group of enemies Ritsu currently lacked confidence handling.
The Uchiha clan's situation equaled Uzumaki Kushina's—both fellow villagers. His moral concepts that even he felt somewhat hypocritical blocked his impulse to target fellow villagers. Currently, they also couldn't be selected.
That unknown Uchiha selected by Black Zetsu and Uchiha Madara as a chess piece was indeed superior prey. But this fellow was firstly hard to find, secondly—like Nagato—lacked absolute confidence in capture.
Rather, precisely because this unknown Uchiha's displayed methods gave Ritsu a sense of crisis. Only now was he wracking his brains pondering how to grow stronger.
In any case, thinking it over and over, conversely, the bloodline from the clan where Hidden Cloud Village's Gold and Silver Brothers belonged was the best target to strike. Hidden Cloud Village was an enemy. He could deploy Chimera Technique without psychological burden.
"Cloud ninja!"
Ritsu vocalized, expelling breath. Simultaneously, the final palm of Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms struck out. Though not deploying Empty Palm technique, he still struck quite impressive palm force. Dead branches approximately two meters away were struck and broken.
He glanced at the broken dead branch, then directed his gaze northeast. His pure white, flawless eyes filled with disappointed color. Those useless Cloud ninja squatted at the Land of Frost border. Besides dispatching small unit harassment and sabotage, their main army simply wouldn't budge.
Meanwhile, Minato also had no intent to proactively wage war with Cloud ninja. As long as Cloud ninja didn't first formally open fire declaring war, he didn't plan to move against Cloud ninja now.
"Need to think of a method—find a reasonable excuse to move against Cloud ninja!"
Ritsu vigorously scratched his head.
Unfortunately, methods weren't things one could think up by slapping one's forehead. Watching the winter sun—somewhat listless—about to set and go home, still having thought of no good methods, the White Yaksha could only embark on the road home—upon returning, he could lend Mother and Aunt Midoriko a hand.
Next door, Akiba's house had only mother and daughter. Very often, both families gathered together for meals.
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