After waking from his nap, Senju Shigure wandered over to the clan’s training grounds.
With his hands clasped behind his back, he strolled among the younger clansmen as they trained, looking every bit like a senior official conducting an inspection.
The clan had long since grown accustomed to this sight.
At first, the younger Senju had shown proper respect and greeted him whenever he appeared.
However, after Shigure began visiting the training grounds every few days, they gradually started treating him as though he were invisible.
“Am I really that easy to ignore?” Shigure felt rather dejected.
The vast training ground was filled with people, yet not a single person acknowledged him.
Over the years, he would come here whenever he had nothing better to do and offer a few words of encouragement to the clan’s promising youngsters.
They had once listened respectfully, but after spending enough time around him, they realised what kind of person he truly was and stopped paying him any attention.
Still, Shigure decided not to hold it against them.
These children had clearly never been taught proper manners.
“When Konoha is established, I’ll make sure the Academy includes lessons on ethics and proper conduct.
Yes, that settles it.” Just as Shigure began imagining that glorious future, Tobirama appeared beside him without warning.
“Granduncle Shigure…um…” Tobirama looked unusually hesitant as he glanced awkwardly at him.
“Oh, it’s my younger grandnephew.
What is it?” Shigure deliberately drew out his words, his voice carrying a trace of smug satisfaction.
He first swept his gaze across the disrespectful youngsters before turning toward Tobirama.
Among the clan’s younger generation, Tobirama was undoubtedly one of their leading figures.
Shigure’s deliberately raised voice immediately attracted everyone’s attention.
The young Senju stopped what they were doing and looked over.
“Granduncle, perhaps we should discuss this somewhere else,” Tobirama whispered, growing even more uncomfortable with Shigure’s theatrics.
Opportunities to impress the younger generation did not come often, and Shigure had no intention of wasting this one.
He cleared his throat, raised his chin, and waved one hand with the air of a reclusive master.
“Whatever difficulty you’re facing, speak freely.
Your granduncle will handle it for you!” “I’m not facing any difficulty.
However…” “You aren’t?” Shigure glared at his grandnephew, visibly displeased.
“It concerns you, Granduncle.” “Oh?
Then go ahead and tell me.” “The clan decided this morning that you will lead a detachment tomorrow to reinforce the Uzumaki Clan.
In addition—” Before Tobirama could finish, Shigure’s legs gave way beneath him.
He stumbled and collapsed to the ground with a thud.
He heard none of what Tobirama said afterward.
All he understood was that he—a mere genin—had somehow been chosen to lead shinobi into battle.
And they were going to reinforce the Uzumaki Clan?
Had the entire clan gone mad, or had he simply misheard Tobirama?
Quiet laughter rippled across the training ground.
The younger clansmen looked at their supposedly useless elder with barely concealed mockery.
A genin!
Shigure was the only surviving member of his generation who remained a mere genin.
His existence was practically a stain on the clan’s reputation.
That was precisely why the Senju had never allowed him to participate in their previous wars.
If an enemy discovered his identity and learned that a senior member of the Senju Clan possessed only the strength of a genin, they would undoubtedly laugh and claim that the Senju had run out of capable shinobi.
Tobirama shot the snickering youngsters a fierce glare before hurriedly helping Shigure to his feet.
“Granduncle, are you all right?” Did he look all right?
“I’m leaving for the battlefield tomorrow?
Why am I only hearing about this now?” Completely bewildered, Shigure could only assume that the clan’s leaders had lost their minds.
“The decision was made this morning.
You were asleep at the time, so no one informed you immediately.” “Was this Mokuma’s idea?” Shigure abruptly asked.
“Well…” The hesitation on Tobirama’s face told Shigure everything he needed to know.
Mokuma had sold him out.
The battlefield… I was wondering where I could earn more World Points.
I never expected an opportunity to arrive so quickly.
Shigure walked away in a daze.
Tobirama watched his granduncle’s unsteady departure and sighed helplessly.
Then, as though something had suddenly occurred to him, he turned and hurried toward Hashirama’s residence.
Upon returning home, Shigure pinched his arm as hard as he could.
Only after feeling the sharp pain did he finally confirm that he was not dreaming.
The battlefield!
Ever since his strength stopped improving at the age of thirteen, that word had drifted further and further away from him.
No one knew just how terrifying the thirteen-year-old Senju Shigure had once been among genin.
After his mastery of the Three Basic Techniques and shurikenjutsu reached their maximum levels, both skills disappeared from his Attribute panel.
However, the abilities themselves remained permanently engraved into his body and mind.
As a young shinobi, Shigure had once moved effortlessly through a force of several dozen enemy genin.
He killed more than a dozen of them and forced the survivors to flee in terror.
His shuriken skills had reached an astonishing level.
He could throw them in a straight line, curve them to the left or right, and even execute seemingly impossible upward-curving throws.
Combined with his complete mastery of the Three Basic Techniques, this had made him almost impossible for other genin to touch.
During that battle against dozens of enemies, not one of them had managed to lay a finger on his clothes.
Using his knowledge of Naruto from his previous life, Shigure had even developed a ninjutsu that required no hand seals—the Rasengan.
Unfortunately, his limited genin-level chakra reserves allowed him to use it only once.
The Rasengan’s advantages were obvious, but so were its demands.
The technique required the user to gather a large amount of chakra in the palm, rotate it, and compress it into a sphere.
For someone with Shigure’s limited reserves, its chakra consumption was simply too extravagant.
After using it once, he had never dared to use it again.
A low hum filled the room.
A sphere of blue chakra abruptly appeared above Shigure’s palm.
It was the Rasengan he had left untouched for decades.
Shigure’s talent for ninjutsu had always been exceptional.
He had not spent all those peaceful decades merely wasting time.
Since his limited chakra prevented him from practising powerful techniques normally, he had performed extensive theoretical analysis on the various ninjutsu he remembered from his previous life.
He had even succeeded in breaking several powerful techniques into simpler, less demanding versions.
One example was Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet.
Unable to supply enough chakra for the complete technique, Shigure extracted and reworked the first portion of its hand-seal sequence, eventually creating Fire Release: Fire Wall.
The technique instantly produced a wall of intensely hot flames in front of the caster.
Because the chakra was so highly compressed, the wall could continue burning for more than a minute.
Its overall chakra consumption was relatively modest, so Shigure classified it as a C-rank ninjutsu.
He had made similar changes to Wind Release: Great Breakthrough, reducing it to a weaker technique he named Wind Release: Breakthrough.
Its destructive power was lower than the original, but its chakra consumption had fallen dramatically.
He had also modified Earth Release: Earth Spears.
The original large-scale attack became a cluster of conical stone spikes less than a tenth of the original size, while its wide area of effect was narrowed into a fan-shaped attack zone.
Every ninjutsu Shigure developed had been carefully adapted to match his own capabilities.
Unlike jonin, he did not possess enormous chakra reserves.
Early the following morning, Shigure packed several sets of clothes and arrived at the clan’s main square well ahead of schedule.
To his surprise, Hashirama was already waiting there.
Standing beside him was Senju Akira, widely regarded as the third most talented shinobi of his generation.
Add to library.
Send some Power Stones.