In a certain forest in Konoha, two figures darted back and forth between the trees.
“Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!”
The red-haired boy slowly formed seals with his left hand.
A water dragon surged forward and spat out a massive water sphere, tearing through everything in its path and leaving the ground in ruins.
The white-haired boy dodged the water sphere in a flash, then charged toward the red-haired boy like a streak of lightning.
“Lightning Flash!”
The red-haired boy threw out a Chakra-Enhanced Fist.
This time, however, his fist carried a faint black sheen.
“Dragon Uppercut: Mount Lu Waterfall Random Barrage!”
His fist collided with the short blade.
The expected scene of flesh being cut open did not happen.
Clang!
Instead, it sounded like the short blade had struck stone.
The force of the Chakra-Enhanced Fist drove the white-haired boy backward.
The red-haired boy immediately seized the chance and focused fully on forming seals.
“Tiger, Ox, Hare, Rat, Boar…”
Before he could finish the sequence, a short blade appeared at his neck.
A crow seemed to fly over the red-haired boy’s head.
“Seventy-eight to seventy-six,” Hatake Sakumo said calmly.
“Two more wins and I’ll tie you.
Also, I suggest you stop using ninjutsu when fighting me.
Your hand seals are far too slow.”
The white-haired boy could not help commenting.
“What do you mean?
My seal speed has improved a lot!”
Shanks was furious.
“Damn it.
Next time, we compete with swords.
I’ll beat you until you doubt your life!”
Lately, Shanks had been using ninjutsu combined with taijutsu whenever he fought Sakumo.
And every single time, he lost.
Every time he tried to use some powerful ninjutsu, he would still be forming seals when Sakumo’s short blade reached his neck.
“By the way,” Sakumo asked, “what happened to your fist just now?
Why couldn’t my blade cut through it?”
“Hahaha, impressive, right?” Shanks immediately became smug.
“This is something I recently developed.
I call it Armament Haki.”
He lifted his chin.
“This Haki can strengthen the offensive power of taijutsu and swordsmanship, and it can also improve the body’s defense.
Once trained to the extreme, I might even be able to smash A-rank ninjutsu apart with one punch.
Want to learn?
I can teach you.”
“All right,” Sakumo said.
“…”
Shanks looked up at the sky.
Did he have to be that direct?
Even if I teach you, you may not be able to learn it.
And even if you can understand the idea, this world’s rules may not let you cultivate it properly.
“What?
I can’t learn it?” Sakumo asked when he saw Shanks look away.
“I don’t know if it’ll work,” Shanks said.
“But first, you’d need to make your body as strong as mine.
That alone is hard.
You’re just an ordinary person, after all.”
He spoke with an extremely annoying sense of pride.
“Then forget it.” Sakumo shook his head.
“I don’t have the vitality of you Uzumaki.”
“But you can try my other ability.
There might be a surprise.”
“What ability?”
“Observation Haki.
It lets you sense the direction of an opponent’s attack.”
This time, Shanks was not bragging.
Over the past two years, Tobirama had experimented with the state Shanks described whenever he had free time.
Although he had not awakened Observation Haki, his sixth sense had become much sharper.
Using that sixth sense together with his own battle experience, Tobirama could now faintly sense the path of some attacks in advance.
The effect was nowhere near as strong as true Observation Haki, but for an expert like Tobirama, it was already enough.
Not to mention, Tobirama also had the Flying Thunder God, a technique so unreasonable it could make heaven and earth weep.
Sakumo’s battle experience could not compare to Tobirama’s, but if his sixth sense became a little sharper, it might still save his life at a critical moment.
Because of Shanks, Hatake Sakumo was now much stronger than in the original timeline.
Whether the original Sakumo had participated in the First Shinobi World War, Shanks did not know.
But this Sakumo would definitely be sent to war.
Even if he was young, he already had special jōnin-level strength.
“Are you talking about that ability you use to predict attack routes?” Sakumo asked.
“More or less.
I don’t know if you can do it.
Second Uncle only managed to produce a tiny effect by relying on decades of battle experience.”
“How do I do it?”
Sakumo was tempted.
After all, when they fought, if not for his speed, many of his attacks would have been dodged by Shanks as if Shanks already knew where he was going to strike.
“Keep your mind calm.
Close your eyes.
Quietly feel the things around you.”
Following Shanks’s instructions, Sakumo closed his eyes and slowly calmed his breathing.
He could not sense the surrounding world the way Shanks could.
However, Sakumo did feel his mind becoming clearer.
Some problems he had encountered during training slowly loosened in his thoughts.
Half an hour later, Sakumo opened his eyes.
“How was it?” Shanks asked nervously.
“Did you sense anything?”
If Sakumo could sense it, then that would mean other people in this world might also be able to cultivate Haki.
“No,” Sakumo said, shaking his head.
“After closing my eyes and calming down, my head just became clearer.”
“Isn’t that basically meditation?”
Shanks shook his head too.
“The effect is similar,” Sakumo said.
“But after my head cleared, I figured out a few training problems.
It’s not bad.
I can practice it more in the future.”
“Then keep practicing.
Maybe one day, you’ll develop a sixth sense like Second Uncle.”
“Is your Armament Haki trained the same way?” Sakumo asked curiously.
“More or less.
Once the body reaches a certain level, you sense a special kind of energy in the air.
Then you attach that energy to your body or weapon, like an invisible suit of armor.
It strengthens defense while also increasing attack power.”
Shanks paused, then continued.
“The stronger the Armament Haki, the darker the color becomes.
At the highest level, maybe it could even withstand S-rank ninjutsu.
But this is only my guess for now.”
Of course, Armament Haki could not strengthen ninjutsu.
At least, not in the way Shanks currently understood it.
“Looks like this may be a talent only you have,” Sakumo said.
“Others probably can’t learn it.”
Shanks nodded and did not argue.
Let others think it was some strange Uzumaki talent.
After all, the Uzumaki Clan really did have all kinds of odd abilities.
There was the Mind’s Eye of the Kagura, and there were even people who could heal others by letting them bite their body.
In the shinobi world, there were plenty of things one person could do while others simply could not.
Kekkei genkai were the most obvious example.
Hiruzen Sarutobi knew ninjutsu of all five chakra natures, but he still could not turn them into kekkei genkai.
So Shanks being able to sense a kind of energy others could not feel was not impossible to explain.
“By the way,” Sakumo said, “how is Lord First Hokage’s body lately?
My father said the friction between Sunagakure and our border has become very intense.
A lot of people have died.”
“Same as before,” Shanks said.
Then he looked up at the sky.
“I estimate that once the First Hokage passes away, the Shinobi World War will begin.”
“World war?” Sakumo’s expression changed.
“That can’t be.
Peace only came a little over ten years ago.”
The shinobi world had only been peaceful for a short time, and now it was going to fall into chaos again?
Sakumo had read his clan’s records.
He knew how terrifying large-scale war could be.
“It’ll probably be worse than before,” Shanks said.
“After all, the two mountains pressing down on everyone are both gone.
Everyone wants fertile land.
In the past, those two gods were there, so no one dared to move.
Now the last god is about to leave too.”
He paused.
“Especially Sunagakure.”
Shanks had been mentally preparing himself for this.
He was not as shocked as Sakumo, but watching tragedy approach step by step while being unable to stop it still made him feel stifled and uncomfortable.
“Don’t think too much,” he told himself.
“Just hurry up and get stronger.
When the time comes, change whatever you can.”
He was not some invincible young master who could crush heaven, earth, and the air from birth.
Right now, he was powerless.
So he could only wait until he had the strength to act.
The two separated with different thoughts weighing on their minds.
As Shanks walked near a small river, he saw a green-clad youth in the distance, throwing punches nonstop under a large tree.
“Two thousand six hundred fifty-six… two thousand six hundred fifty-seven… two thousand six hundred fifty-eight…”
“If I can’t finish three thousand punches, I’ll run one hundred laps around the village!”
Hearing that familiar training pattern, Shanks nearly burst into tears.
Wasn’t this the future training scripture of Emperor Guy?
If Might Guy had not been born yet, then this had to be his father’s training scripture.
Add the full-body green outfit, and there was only one answer.
Might Duy.
“Damn it.
Even Second Uncle couldn’t find Might Duy, so I thought the Might family was some mysterious hidden clan.
Turns out he’s just at the edge of the village.”
The current Konoha was not like the later village, where every orphan’s ancestry had to be checked clearly for eighteen generations.
Because of Hashirama, Konoha at this time freely accepted orphans as long as they came to the village.
As a result, population registration was not very detailed.
On top of that, the ANBU and Police Force had not been established yet.
No wonder even Tobirama had not found him.
Shanks stood there and watched for a long time.
He had once done this kind of training too.
In fact, his training had been even more excessive.
But Shanks had the Uzumaki Clan’s powerful recovery ability and the body system of Shanks from the One Piece world.
Without those things, he would have crippled himself long ago.
For Might Duy, an ordinary person, to endure this level of training…
That willpower was truly terrifying.