In a secluded corner of the Mist Village battlefield, Asuka suddenly appeared. His clone had already been waiting there.
This unique ability was the teleportation power Asuka had long desired—an ability belonging to the Red Devil of the Hellfire Club.
Every time the Red Devil teleports, red energy particles are left behind, drifting through the air like smoke, giving each appearance an elegant and mysterious feeling.
What makes the Red Devil's teleportation remarkable is that it has no cooldown, no preparation time, can carry other people, and most importantly, it allows the user to instantly reach any place they are familiar with—even across the entire world.
This powerful teleportation ability far surpassed Minato's Flying Thunder God Technique. In the Naruto world, only Sasuke's Rinnegan technique, Amenotejikara, could rival it at close range in the future.
Seeing Asuka arrive, the clone stepped forward and merged back into the main body.
After absorbing the clone's memories, Asuka quickly understood the recent movements of the various villages across the ninja world.
More than three months had passed since Asuka became involved with the Dragon Vein, and during that time the situation in the ninja world had become extremely turbulent.
First, Kumogakure's Third Raikage completely withdrew his forces from the Sunagakure battlefield and instead began attacking Konoha, officially opening a two-front war against both Iwagakure and Konoha.
Iwagakure refused to fall behind and sent large numbers of ninja to the front lines. While resisting Kumogakure's attacks, they also intensified their assault on Konoha.
After repelling Kumogakure's forces, Sunagakure fell completely silent, as if announcing to the world that they would no longer participate in the war. But Asuka knew better. Sunagakure was not the type to sit quietly—they were most likely preparing something big. In the original timeline, the Battle of Mount Kikyo nearly reached Konoha's doorstep.
As for Kirigakure, due to the lack of top-level experts, the front lines were essentially being supported by Asuka's clone.
Because of the clone's outstanding performance on the battlefield, the entire Kirigakure army held him in extremely high regard. At this point, the clone's prestige within the Kirigakure military could be said to be second only to the Third Mizukage.
Clone Asuka led Kirigakure forces in repeatedly pushing the front lines forward and had already captured many areas within the Land of Fire. However, Orochimaru was far from an easy opponent. With his experience, he constantly organized Konoha's forces to fight defensive positional battles.
Sometimes the territory Kirigakure captured during the day would be taken back by Konoha at night. The two sides remained locked in a constant tug-of-war.
Although Clone Asuka achieved impressive results whenever he led troops into battle, he would soon be held back. Orochimaru would personally lead several jonin to intercept him, while Minato used the Flying Thunder God Technique to bypass the battlefield and launch surprise attacks.
Of course, Kirigakure was not entirely helpless without Asuka.
In terms of high-end combat power at the jonin level, Kirigakure far surpassed Konoha. Whether it was the remaining Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, Hozuki Mangetsu—whose strength had grown even further after obtaining the twin blade Hiramekarei—or the bloodline-limit ninja Minazuki Murasaki and Mei Terumi, none of them were opponents that ordinary ninja could handle.
Since they couldn't capture Minato, Kirigakure adopted a brutal strategy—trading damage for damage, also known as "base swapping."
If Minato Namikaze could use the Flying Thunder God to jump through space and they couldn't catch him, then fine. They would see whether Minato's teleportation was faster than their killing speed, and whether his chakra reserves could compete with the combined strength of many opponents.
This strategy was actually a rather helpless choice for Kirigakure.
The strength Asuka had displayed in front of others was powerful but still within the limits of the Kage level. Moreover, the clone was inherently weaker than the original body. Therefore, when Clone Asuka was restrained by Orochimaru and several jonin working together, the Kirigakure forces did not suspect anything.
Instead, they admired him even more.
In their eyes, Asuka fighting alone against Orochimaru and multiple jonin while still managing to hold them back was already proof of incredible strength. Without him, Kirigakure's casualties might have been even greater.
Such power quickly earned him many followers in Kirigakure, a village that respected strength above all else. Combined with the reputation Asuka had built over the years, his prestige continued to grow rapidly.
As for Konoha, the most eye-catching nation in this war, the Land of Fire received "friendly greetings" from many different countries.
Among the Five Great Nations, Konoha was fighting three nations at once, a situation that perfectly demonstrated Konoha's "hospitality."
Kumogakure's declaration of war only worsened things for Konoha, which was already struggling against both the Land of Water and the Land of Earth.
Due to the severe shortage of combat power, Konoha even began mobilizing students from the Ninja Academy. Many students graduated early and were quickly assigned to teams. After only brief coordination training with their squad leaders, they were sent directly to the battlefield.
Even so, it was only a drop in the bucket.
On the Kumogakure battlefield stood the golden duo: the future Fourth Raikage, Ay, and the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, Killer B.
Both possessed overwhelming physical strength. At present, Konoha had no ninja capable of confronting both of them simultaneously.
As more and more territory fell into Kumogakure's hands, the Konoha leadership began to panic.
Finally, after urgent deliberation, Konoha dispatched Minato to the Kumogakure battlefield, hoping to use strategy to counter their overwhelming brute force.
Through the clone's investigations, Asuka learned that Minato had already left the Kirigakure battlefield some time ago.
However, someone else he knew had arrived there.
Uchiha Shisui.
The legendary Shisui of the Body Flicker, possessor of the ultimate genjutsu, Kotoamatsukami.
Shisui earned the title "Shisui of the Body Flicker" during the Third Great Ninja War, likely during its second or third year. This also explained why Ao chose to retreat immediately upon seeing Shisui during Kirigakure's invasion of the Land of Fire near the end of the war in the original story.
Seeing familiar figures appearing on the stage earlier than expected, Asuka realized that he had played a significant role in this development.
Because of his influence, Kirigakure joined the Third Great Ninja War much earlier than it originally did, even becoming the first village to declare war on Konoha.
This doubled the pressure on Konoha. With Asuka acting as a top-tier combatant for Kirigakure, Konoha was forced to keep one of their own strongest fighters on that battlefield to counter him.
If Kirigakure had not had Asuka, they likely would have joined the war much later, just as in the original timeline when the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist entered during the later stages.
Asuka's intervention not only caused Kirigakure to join the war early but also forced Iwagakure into action sooner.
In other words, at least half of the pressure Konoha was currently facing could be attributed to Asuka.
…
After sorting through all the information, Asuka calmly returned to the Kirigakure outpost.
At present, the clone was performing extremely well. Activating the Clone Human ability and operating from behind the scenes seemed to have been the correct decision.
Asuka planned to rest at the Kirigakure outpost for a few days before traveling across the ninja world in search of new opportunities.
Around this time, Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan should be preparing to establish the Akatsuki organization.
There was also someone Asuka had long wanted to meet—Uchiha Madara, the so-called "Battle Rose."
Beyond that, there were many other interesting things scattered throughout the ninja world, all of which greatly intrigued him.
With Asuka's current strength, he no longer feared even Six Paths–level opponents. He could travel anywhere in the ninja world freely, and no one could truly stop him.
The only reason he had not yet initiated the final battle was simple.
He had not had enough fun yet.
There were still many things in this world that interested him. Since he had come to the Naruto world once, he wanted to meet many of the characters he had never encountered before.
And if he could change their destinies along the way, he believed that would make the experience even more worthwhile.
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