Yūshin understood Tobirama Senju well—this was natural, as spending time together always leads to understanding someone's character.
But the problem was that Yūshin not only understood the current Tobirama Senju, he even understood the future Tobirama Senju... In a certain sense, his understanding of Tobirama Senju was deeper than the man himself.
So when he noticed Tobirama Senju's gaze fixed on the scroll in his hand, then falling into contemplation, Yūshin immediately understood something.
Yūshin didn't know when Tobirama Senju would fully develop the Flying Thunder God, nor when he'd first conceive of developing space-time ninjutsu, but none of that mattered.
What mattered was that Tobirama Senju could have such ideas today... well, with Yūshin's inspiration.
"What's wrong? After getting thrashed by the Hagoromo Clan's Swift Release, you want revenge? Let me guess... you're planning to use space-time ninjutsu to gain overwhelming speed advantage?"
"Huh? Me? Space-time ninjutsu? Develop? Did I... did I?"
Something was wrong—very wrong. Tobirama Senju felt utterly bewildered.
Why had the other person guessed his thoughts the moment he'd barely formed an idea? Was his expression that obvious? Were his thoughts that transparent?
"If that's the case, I suggest you start researching common and practical space-time ninjutsu—like storage scroll sealing techniques, certain special barrier jutsu, summoning jutsu, and reverse summoning jutsu."
"Wait, you're speaking too fast..."
"Furthermore, what you should rely on most is your own exceptional sensory ability. If you can precisely locate the starting point and destination when space-time ninjutsu is cast, then use research results from general space-time ninjutsu to pierce through space, your technique can succeed."
"Oh, and if smooth space makes it difficult for you to sense absolutely precise three-dimensional data, I suggest using inscribed exclusive coordinates for positioning. For example, you could carve your own chakra and positioning formulas onto kunai or other weapons—just throw them at your target when using the technique."
"No, wait, let me say something..."
But Yūshin completely ignored him. No matter what Tobirama Senju was thinking, he couldn't possibly keep up with Yūshin's speech.
One was thinking on the spot, the other came prepared—how could they be the same?
"Also, the Rasengan—developed from ultimate chakra shape transformation—is perfect for combining with space-time ninjutsu."
"Of course, I have another idea. If you could channel the spatial fluctuations from traversing space onto a blade, then subsequent slashes would carry space-cutting properties. The result would be... with this blade, nothing cannot be severed."
Speaking thus, Yūshin even drew Tobirama Senju's great sword and casually demonstrated.
"You... you might as well name my space-time ninjutsu for me," Tobirama Senju said through gritted teeth.
"I already have! The basic spatial movement ability can be called 'Flying Thunder God', and slashes using Flying Thunder God's spatial properties would naturally be called Flying Thunder God Slash."
Tobirama Senju: "..."
He felt something extremely important had been stolen by Yūshin.
However, although Yūshin spoke convincingly, he himself lacked the conditions to develop Flying Thunder God. First, he didn't have such strong spatial sensory ability; second, he currently didn't have enough chakra to support continuous spatial jumping.
So why did he keep talking non-stop? Because this was "assisting" Tobirama Senju in developing space-time ninjutsu. Since it was assistance, didn't that mean another favor investment?
The debt keeps growing—it truly never ends.
Tobirama Senju lay there with vacant eyes, like a corpse.
Honestly, he already had the idea. With just a little thought, he could figure out everything Yūshin mentioned himself—he even felt he could have thought of an appropriate name like "Flying Thunder God."
But now it was all too late.
His feelings could only be understood by novelists who thought they had a good idea, only to have readers guess the ending halfway through the setup.
Spoilers? Ha, this was far worse than spoilers.
But there was no choice. Yūshin wasn't launching this verbal assault out of malicious pleasure—don't blame him for being too ruthless, it's just that... intellectual property battles are this cruel.
When Flying Thunder God was completed, half the credit would belong to Tobirama Senju—so wouldn't half also belong to Yūshin?
"I really... thank you so much..."
His weak voice was almost buried in Tobirama Senju's throat. He was also very frustrated—receiving complete development ideas should be cause for celebration, but why were his emotions so low?
No choice—his intellectual property had been blatantly plagiarized, yet he had to express gratitude to the plagiarizer on the spot.
Pain, such pain.
Yūshin wanted to say more when Chihori pushed open the door and entered the hospital room.
Then she saw a corpse and Tobirama Senju lying side by side on the bed, like one corpse and another corpse preparing for joint burial.
Fortunately, Tobirama Senju was still breathing.
"What are you doing? Where did this corpse come from?"
Bringing a corpse into the hospital room was bad enough, but having it cuddle with a weak patient—were they trying to slow recovery, or experience the thrill of wound infection?
"Uh, it has nothing to do with me."
Knowing he was in the wrong, Yūshin casually tossed the sealing scroll onto the bed and turned to leave.
Chihori had no choice but to help reseal the corpse.
"Thank you, truly thank you."
This time Tobirama Senju's gratitude came from the heart. Yūshin being driven away was the best thing that had happened to him in days.
"You're welcome... your clansman?"
Seeing Tobirama Senju nod, Chihori placed the sealing scroll by his pillow.
"My condolences."
...
Having appropriated some intellectual property and confirmed Tobirama Senju's condition and thoughts—knowing he was rational and wouldn't attack Shichimi Uchiha in Kikyō Castle—Yūshin was temporarily at ease.
Some things needn't be spoken aloud; "everything understood without words" was often the best communication method.
After confirming no problems on Tobirama Senju's side, Yūshin still needed to soothe Shichimi Uchiha's emotions.
Contact with the Senju Clan concerned the organization's future development plans. Yūshin's actions were entirely for public benefit—theoretically, he needn't explain to others, but doing so would seem too impersonal.
The shinobi village era was approaching, and Yūshin hadn't decided what path to take next.
From his heart, he naturally preferred independence, but neither his strength nor the organization's overall power supported this choice.
Could the Fireflies organization develop into a major shinobi village? Very difficult.
But if they dominated within a small country, they'd still struggle to escape major villages' control—then it would be "others hold the knife while we are fish," destruction coming in an instant.
In fact, when the Five Great Shinobi Villages were first established, only one village had potential to develop into a major village—Takigakure. This could be seen from their later ability to control Tailed Beasts.
Yet even such a village ultimately failed to develop.
So what about the Konoha route? The Konoha route was undoubtedly more realistic, but Yūshin truly didn't want to lose autonomy...
In short, before Yūshin clarified his own intentions, he had to maintain contact with the Senju Clan.
Yūshin found Shichimi Uchiha in an office of the combat logistics department and explained Tobirama Senju's situation, hoping she would understand.
Unexpectedly, Shichimi truly didn't care.
"I said long ago that in the previous incident, I was the victim. I personally have no hostility—it's that Senju Clan brat who kept chasing me like a mad dog..."
Well, Tobirama Senju was indeed very much like a mad dog—the kind that bites silently without barking.
But Yūshin didn't want to discuss right and wrong between the Uchiha and Senju Clans, because no amount of discussion would yield results.
Yes, Tobirama Senju's brother died at Uchiha Clan hands, but then—where did Uchiha Madara's brother go?
Dog-eat-dog—what was there to say?
Yūshin's focus was on Tobirama Senju and Shichimi as individuals. Viewed this way, things were much simpler—Shichimi hadn't killed any Senju children, and Uchiha Izuna was still alive.
What? About adult ninja? What was there to say about adult ninja? On the battlefield, if your skills were inferior and you died, you died.
"You really don't mind? He chased you for several hundred kilometers," Yūshin asked.
"Nothing to mind. Such things happen all the time. I'm still alive now, so it's fine... Don't worry, as long as that Senju brat doesn't come looking for trouble, I'll definitely coexist peacefully with him."
"That's good."
Speaking of which, Yūshin helping Tobirama Senju accelerate Flying Thunder God development—didn't that make him an accomplice in harming Shichimi's future relatives?
Not necessarily, because Tobirama Senju would learn Flying Thunder God sooner or later—Yūshin's involvement didn't matter much. As for Uchiha Izuna's problem, Yūshin wasn't so generous as to worry about strangers' lives.
Everything was changing. If Tobirama Senju and Uchiha Izuna met on the battlefield, and Uchiha Izuna didn't have thoughts like "curse the fate of lacking Sharingan," while Tobirama Senju had thoughts like "curse the fate of not knowing space-time ninjutsu," then Tobirama Senju might be the one to die.
Who could predict such battlefield details determining life and death?
But honestly, Tobirama Senju might die from arrogance, but Tobirama Senju dying from arrogance was unlikely.
Character determines success and failure, and also determines a person's life and death.
"Speaking of which, where did you find that summoning fox?"
Having finished the main topic, Yūshin thought of space-time ninjutsu issues and asked Shichimi Uchiha.
"Find? No, when I practiced summoning jutsu hand seals, Little Seven actively responded to my summons... Do summoning beasts need to be specifically sought out?" Shichimi said.
Yūshin: "..."
Are all of you this reckless? "Shooting blindly" can find summoning beasts?
"No contract needed?" Yūshin couldn't understand—didn't summoning theory exist?
"Little Seven is very different. I think you can directly summon it now too—it's already familiar with your chakra and should respond to your summons."
"That's unlikely. Even if you could accidentally summon a beast, when I use summoning jutsu, my chakra would be wasted with no direction—how could I possibly summon Little Seven?"
Little Seven responding to Shichimi's summons was an extremely low-probability accident—could such coincidence repeat?
"You can definitely try. Come, I'll teach you the hand seals."
Yūshin was somewhat skeptical. After understanding the summoning jutsu seals, he began attempting the technique:
Boar-Dog-Bird-Monkey-Sheep
Then, with a puff of rising smoke, that square-faced fox really appeared before Yūshin.
"Huh? It actually worked?"
Yūshin was very confused—he even began suspecting this fox might respond to anyone's summons just for free food and lodging.
Little Seven also seemed puzzled. After a moment's confusion, it seemed to remember Yūshin as someone who had once offered it fine food and meat. The confusion left its square face, and it even approached to sniff, then began circling Yūshin's legs.
"See, I told you it would work. Little Seven is very intelligent."
Although Yūshin was deep-thinking, he wasn't familiar with summoning jutsu, so he didn't overthink this.
Fortunately, he didn't overthink it.
Just then, someone else burst into the office.
The person who knocked and entered appeared flustered and hurried.
It was Gorō Fūma. Upon seeing Yūshin, he immediately said happily:
"Yūshin-sama, the Cursed Grudge Fear experiment succeeded again!"
For some reason—perhaps due to the Akimichi Clan's influence—people in the organization had changed how they addressed Yūshin again... Probably because titles like "Alliance Leader-sama" felt somewhat distant, while "Yūshin-sama" seemed respectful yet intimate.
Yūshin looked suspicious—was there something wrong with Gorō Fūma? How did he know to find him at Shichimi's location?
"Another unlucky guy... no, another fortunate fellow survived?"
As it turned out, the success with the first test subject was extremely coincidental, because the second success came a full half-year after the first.
But with another successful experiment, Yūshin believed the transplantation technique's maturation wasn't far off.
"Let's go take a look."
Since Shichimi as usual wasn't interested in such matters, Yūshin and Gorō Fūma hurried to an underground laboratory... This lab was converted from the previous Kikyō daimyo's underground safe room.
It ensured both safety and avoided disturbing civilians.
For various reasons, the laboratory's conditions weren't suitable for detailed description. Yūshin frowned as he walked forward, then suddenly remembered something.
"What if, instead of violent transplantation, we first cut off part of the test subject's body tissue and observe its fusion with the grafts to determine whether this subject has adaptability to Cursed Grudge Fear... Wouldn't that save many lives?"
For some reason, Yūshin suddenly recalled "antibiotic skin tests"—whether a patient would be allergic to antibiotics could be determined beforehand.
Gorō Fūma: "..."
Wasn't it too late to suggest this now?
Honestly, this suggestion made perfect sense, but offering such hindsight—wouldn't it be better not to mention it?
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