[New Trait: Basic Kenjutsu!] [Rarity: White] [Description: Zero technique, pure raw stats!] [Effect: Increases your striking speed with all bladed weapons by 20%!] [Upgrade Requirements: Technical Kenjutsu Path (500 Achievement Points) / Nintaijutsu Hybrid Kenjutsu Path (1,000 Achievement Points)] This was the brand-new Trait Ayane had unlocked through her diligent practice.
She had trained in kenjutsu under her father for a period during her early childhood, meaning she already possessed a solid foundation—which explained why her old man had gone out of his way to leave her a high-quality chakra blade.
Coupled with the experience of those two intense battles back in Maba Village, it seemed her accumulated efforts had finally borne fruit.
Over the past few days, a steady stream of insights regarding swordsmanship had culminated in the generation of this new Trait!
However, just as the system description brutally pointed out, her current swordsmanship relied heavily on raw muscle memory.
She won her exchanges purely through overwhelming speed and reflexes.
Her repertoire consisted of basic thrusts, parries, and slashes, lacking any profound technical mastery or complex forms.
Even so, it was a tangible boost to her overall combat effectiveness.
At the very least, when dealing with a support-type ninja like Eagle, she could completely control the pace of the fight.
“Hey, hey, hey!
Is breaking through and gaining a power boost really that easy?!” Eagle grumbled, entirely unconvinced as she pouted in frustration.
“If you just wanted to tease me, you could have just said so, you jerk!” With a fluid blur of motion, Ayane stepped directly into Eagle’s personal space, a small swirl of water manifesting in her palm.
She gently held the protestor in place, using the moisture to wipe away a smudge of dried mud from Eagle’s mask before playfully flicking her forehead.
“Hush now.
Do you want wild barbecue for dinner or not?” Eagle shut her mouth instantly.
She was completely at Ayane’s mercy now.
Even though Swan was a girl just like her, her grilling skills were somehow more proficient than Eagle’s own father, who worked as a butcher for the ministry…
More importantly, the meat she roasted was absolutely divine!
Just thinking about it made Eagle’s mouth water.
Ayane, naturally oblivious to her companion’s rich internal monologue, raised two fingers and lightly tapped Eagle’s forehead, mimicking a classic affectionate gesture while holding back a smile.
“Let’s go.
We’ll track down some wild game for dinner, and I’ll continue helping you train your Body Flicker on the way.” The “training” in question involved Eagle hunting down fast woodland animals using absolutely nothing but the pure kinetic acceleration of the Body Flicker technique—no ninja tools, no tracking jutsu.
Perched on a thick branch above, Woodpecker watched the two girls interact, a rare, soft smile forming behind his mask.
He actually knew quite a bit about the backgrounds of both girls.
Ayane was a given; he had personally escorted her out of the Academy, brought her into the Anbu, and filed her paperwork.
In a way, she could be considered his direct apprentice.
She was currently just ten days shy of her eleventh birthday.
As for Eagle, the sensory ninja scouted from the Reconnaissance Force…
although her official files were strictly restricted to Captain Raven, her bubbly personality made her incredibly easy to read.
Even without consciously interrogating her, their brief time together confirmed she was likely only around thirteen or fourteen years old.
‘Tch…
it would be nice if I had a pair of daughters like them,’ he mused wistfully.
‘If I did, my son wouldn’t be so lonely at home.
He’d have younger sisters to talk to.
It would certainly beat us just sitting across from each other, silently glaring at one another every time I rotate back to the village…’ In times like these, being a competent single father was truly an uphill battle.
At that exact moment, several dozen miles away from Ayane’s trio, deep within the designated sector of Amegakure Reconnaissance Company 1…
A massive battalion of roughly five hundred shinobi was marching through the dense wilderness in absolute, terrifying silence.
Judging by the stylized whirlpool insignia stamped onto their forehead protectors and the exceptionally high quality of their combat vests, this force was undisputedly an elite vanguard of Konohagakure—the Hidden Leaf.
“Man, I really didn’t think the old man would actually have the stones to launch a decisive, proactive offensive like this!” a low voice murmured near the front of the column.
The speaker was a shinobi with a wild mane of snow-white hair.
“I genuinely thought he was getting too old for this!” Hearing his teammate speak, the pale shinobi marching alongside him let out a soft, raspy chuckle.
“If Tsunade hadn’t successfully engineered a comprehensive antidote to neutralize Hanzo’s poison, this decisive battle wouldn’t have been brought forward so quickly.” Evidently, these two shinobi were the supreme commanders of this Konoha vanguard.
Furthermore, they were the direct disciples of the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi—the men who would one day be revered throughout the world as two of the Legendary Sannin: the Toad Sage Jiraiya and the cold genius Orochimaru.
The Jiraiya of this era had not yet devolved into the eccentric, middle-aged peeping tom of decades later.
Similarly, he hadn’t yet defiantly swapped out his standard Leaf Village headband for the custom “Oil” protector of Mount Myoboku.
Yet, his core personality traits were already fully formed.
Hearing Orochimaru’s praise of Tsunade, his DNA-encoded urge to bicker with his best friend immediately flared up, completely independent of his age.
“Oh, come on!
I heard that after Senior Sakumo utterly crushed the Sand’s vanguard, Hanzo was already mobilizing his forces for a decisive clash anyway,” Jiraiya countered, his eyes rolling as he sought a counterargument.
“Even if the old man hadn’t issued the invasion order, this battle would have popped off sooner rather than later, wouldn’t it?” Orochimaru let out a cold, mocking hiss.
“You foolish toad.
Have you considered for even a second that if a brainless idiot like you knows this information, the Rain shinobi are fully aware of it as well?” “With Sunagakure’s Puppet Brigade thoroughly routed, Amegakure’s logical move would be to strike swiftly before their political leverage evaporates entirely.
From a strategic standpoint, Hanzo’s decision to push for a decisive battle is flawless.” He paused, lifting his gaze to stare out into the dense canopy ahead, his piercing slit-pupils seeming to pierce through the foliage to look directly at the distant Rain encampments.
“However…
for a leader of Hanzo’s stature to allow such critical military movements to leak so heavily that rumors are floating across the border before the first blade is drawn?
It speaks volumes about the deterioration of his administrative control.” “Worse still…
despite knowing that rumors of an impending clash are destabilizing his ranks, he has frozen entirely.
He has neither launched a preemptive strike to seize the narrative nor stepped forward to suppress the leaks.
He is simply letting the paranoia fester.
It proves that deep down, he is paralyzed by hesitation.
He lacks the absolute certainty of victory.” Orochimaru delivered his final, venomous evaluation: “Fierce on the outside but cowardly within; rich in grand schemes but utterly paralyzed by indecision!
There is no finer description for this so-called ‘Demigod’ of the shinobi world!” The moment the evaluation left his lips, a low murmur of agreement rippled through the elite Konoha squads marching directly behind them.
The visible exhaustion clinging to the vanguard instantly evaporated, replaced by a surge of fierce, soaring morale.
Jiraiya blinked, completely dumbfounded.
Listening to Orochimaru’s breakdown, it sounded like Konoha had already won the war before they had even thrown a single kunai.
That’s Hanzo of the Salamander we’re talking about!
The literal Demigod!
Before they deployed, the old man had explicitly pulled the three of them aside, stating that they weren’t expected to defeat him—only to stall him at all costs!
How are you talking like he’s already a dead man walking?
Yet, as much as he wanted to argue, Jiraiya couldn’t find a single logical flaw in Orochimaru’s venomous deduction.
For a brief moment, he began to seriously question his own intellect…
Am I really that stupid?
Am I just a blockhead?
But Lord Fukasaku and Lady Shima explicitly told me that ‘Little Jiraiya is a once-in-a-generation genius’…
If I wasn’t, why would they entrust me with something as monumentally important as finding the Child of the Prophecy?
Orochimaru shot a side-glance at the visibly depressed, brooding figure walking beside him.
He couldn’t resist flicking his long, slender tongue out to lick his lips, a surge of deep, arrogant satisfaction welling up in his chest.
In reality, this brilliant psychological breakdown of Hanzo wasn’t something Orochimaru had just pulled out of thin air on a whim.
Before they had even left the Hidden Leaf, he had meticulously drafted these talking points.
His original plan was to wait until the column halted for a scheduled rest, utilizing the speech to systematically dismantle their fear of the Demigod and ignite the troops’ morale.
The only reason he had failed to control his impulse just now…
was purely because he loved flexing his superior intellect in front of Jiraiya.
Orochimaru pridefully viewed himself as a creature of absolute logic and cold maturity.
Yet, for some inexplicable reason, the moment he stood next to his white-haired teammate, his urge to show off and intellectualize everything grew exponentially.
Meanwhile, hidden deep within a dense patch of shadow flanking the vanguard’s march…
An advance scout wearing an Amegakure forehead protector was trembling violently, his knuckles white as he pressed his hands firmly over his mouth to choke back his breathing.
What was he looking at?
An entire elite vanguard column of the Hidden Leaf!
And they had materialized out of nowhere, advancing silently through this specific sector…
This is bad!
I have to report this directly to Lord Hanzo immediately!
The Rain scout remained frozen, waiting with agonizing patience until the tail end of the Konoha column finally vanished into the heavy brush.
The moment the coast was clear, he blurred into motion, utilizing a concealed bypass trail to sprint back toward headquarters at maximum speed.
What he failed to notice, however, was a tiny, snow-white snake slithering with terrifying speed through the tall grass right behind him, its unblinking eyes locked onto his heels as it trailed him flawlessly.