He looked like...
He looked like Nawaki. Not in physical appearance, but in that youthful aura and the confident smile always hanging on his lips.
It suddenly made Tsunade space out for a moment, staring blankly at Roy in a daze.
"Lady Tsunade," Shizune coughed lightly, her gaze following Tsunade's to land on Roy.
The boy was clearly only eight or nine years old, with a tranquil face and peaceful eyes. Yet, just by stepping out from the light, he made Shizune's pretty eyebrows twitch as she thought of Jiraiya's excellent disciple, the grand-student whom the Hokage valued and constantly praised—Minato Namikaze!
'Space-Time Ninjutsu?'
'Isn't that a ninjutsu only Minato Namikaze has mastered?'
As Tsunade's assistant and the "nanny" sent by Sarutobi Hiruzen to look after her, Shizune had a direct line to the top and was naturally quite sensitive to certain information...
Prompted by her reminder, Tsunade muttered, "You are not Nawaki..."
Although both were confident and loved to smile... however,
Nawaki's "confidence" stemmed from his clan, his surname, and his grandfather, Hashirama Senju. But...
The Uchiha boy named "Jin" standing before her was completely different.
As Tsunade narrowed her eyes, her intuition flared, telling her that the boy's underlying assurance... came from his absolute confidence in his own strength!
'Nawaki?' Hearing Tsunade mutter that name under her breath, a kind, smiling face immediately surfaced in Roy's mind. The boy wore a blue Konoha forehead protector. He was Hashirama Senju's grandson and Tsunade's younger brother. Unfortunately, just like Tsunade's former lover, Kato Dan, he had died in battle at a young age... He was quite a pitiful person.
Roy reached out, took the tea Fugaku Uchiha handed him, and took a sip without replying.
Once Tsunade fully snapped back to reality, she stared at him with burning eyes and said, "Jin, I need you to punch me with all your strength!"
Roy raised an eyebrow, looking at Tsunade in surprise before glancing at Shizune beside her.
Shizune remained expressionless, kneeling properly behind Tsunade, seemingly accustomed to her superior's sudden outbursts...
Roy's expression returned to normal. He truly hadn't expected someone to come to his door begging for a beating. He calmly turned his head and exchanged a glance with Fugaku Uchiha.
Fugaku's expression was deep. He picked up the teapot, refilled Tsunade's empty cup, and said, "Lady Tsunade, whatever you wish to see, just let Jin demonstrate it for you..."
Tsunade seemed to have spent too much time mingling with rough men in casinos and taverns. Her unrefined nature flared up as if she were shaking dice. She rolled up her sleeves and laughed, "Are you afraid he'll hurt me?"
The woman's gaze burned like a torch as she confidently declared, "Seeing it with my own eyes isn't as good as feeling it myself. My body will automatically remember who hit me and how hard the impact was."
Of course, more importantly... she wanted to see if the boy possessed the unique trait of her Senju clan... [Monstrous Strength]!
It should be noted that [Wood Style] was not a [Kekkei Genkai] that every member of the Senju clan could awaken. Instead, the [Sage's Body] inherited from [Asura] was often passed down to the Senju descendants in the form of "vigorous vitality (recovery power)" and "massive chakra reserves".
Setting aside the [Yin Seal] and the [Hundred Healings Mark] that Tsunade developed herself,
The woman believed that only [Monstrous Strength] could most intuitively reflect the magnitude of one's [Vitality] and [Chakra Volume]!
As for [Wood Style]... that was on another level entirely, something related to the change in chakra nature...
"Whoosh—" A gust of wind blew in.
The living room immediately fell into a brief silence...
Only Mikoto Uchiha remained in the kitchen, wielding her spatula, oblivious to the affairs outside, along with Itachi, who was peeking through the sliding door. His gaze shifted back and forth between Tsunade and Roy, deep in thought...
"Sizzle..." The teacup placed on the tatami mat emitted curling wisps of steam...
After a full minute or two of silence, Fugaku kept a straight face, glanced at Roy, and said, "Since Lady Tsunade insists, Jin, go ahead and do it."
"Full strength?"
Tsunade replied, "Full strength!"
Roy nodded. Like a whale inhaling water, he tilted his head back and downed the last of the tea in one gulp. He then looked at Tsunade... In his eyes, two suns ignited with a poof. A glance from the [Eye of Truth] pierced through Tsunade's body like two sharp blades, causing her to stiffen and suddenly tense up!
Roy narrowed his eyes and immediately saw a massive cluster of chakra within Tsunade's body, bound and locked by several sealing chains... Presumably,
Those sealing chains were her self-created [Yin Seal]!
"Buzz..." The boy's gaze was too scorching. Up close, it washed over Tsunade.
Others did not notice, but Tsunade herself felt as if she had been stripped naked, seen through completely from the inside out... She tried hard to maintain a calm facade, but a stormy sea was raging in her heart...
'What sharp eyes this child has.'
Faintly, two great suns slowly rose within Roy's pupils... Tsunade forced herself to stay calm, glaring back as she said, "Come!"
Seeing this, Roy gently rolled up his sleeves. Without rushing, he smiled faintly and said, "Home is not a place for fighting. Lady Tsunade, why don't we change locations..."
As soon as he spoke, before Tsunade could react... a smear of blood-red suddenly surged from the depths of Roy's eyes. Accompanied by three pitch-black tomoe connecting and spinning like blades, they formed a nebula that slowly revolved around the two blinding suns in his pupils...
In just an instant, Fugaku Uchiha, who had been sitting quietly drinking tea, turned pale with shock and abruptly... stood up...
"Mangekyo Sharingan?!"
"Jin, you awakened the Mangekyo?!"
One tomoe, two tomoe, three tomoe... Above the three tomoe was... the Mangekyo!
Clinging to the sliding door, Itachi was suddenly startled by Fugaku Uchiha's abrupt movement. He counted on his fingers, recalling the knowledge about the development and training of the Sharingan that Roy had once told him. At this moment, he stared blankly at Roy with his precocious eyes...
Those eyes, with "fresh blood" as the base, highlighting the slowly spinning "nebula," seemed to instantly suck in his entire being along with all the light in the room!
"Nii-san..." The little boy's excited and worshipful murmur drifted out...
Tsunade and Shizune exchanged a glance, looking at each other in dismay. At this moment... it seemed there was no need for a special test anymore.
Since he had already awakened the Mangekyo, who would dare doubt that the boy was an Uchiha?
He was clearly the most talented and brilliant Uchiha!
"Buzz—" As the [Mangekyo Sharingan] slowly spun, the invisible pressure made it hard to breathe... That oppressive feeling stemming from visual prowess seeped deep into the bones, instantly plunging the living room into a cold, endless hell!
Roy tilted his head and smiled at Fugaku, "I had a feeling earlier. I didn't expect it to open on its own after a nap."
The boy revealed his white teeth, then glanced at Tsunade and said, "Father, please wait a moment. We have a guest. Let's satisfy the guest's wish first..."
"Buzz—"
[Genjutsu] activated—
With the enhancement of the [Mangekyo Sharingan], ordinary [Genjutsu] in Roy's hands now only required a thought to cast. Furthermore... the casting conditions didn't require direct eye contact with the Sharingan, unlike [Tsukuyomi]!
Immediately after—
In the blink of an eye for Fugaku, Tsunade, and Shizune,
The living room beneath their feet faded away in lines, replaced by a fragrant green meadow and a lush forest rising from the ground, slowly unfolding before their eyes... Itachi's small body shifted. He felt a chill on his palm as the sliding door vanished. Looking again, he was astonished to discover...
He was standing in the Southern Forest training ground where he usually trained with his Nii-san and Shisui!
"Step..." The world changed in a single glance!
As their feet landed, stepping lightly into the training ground,
Shizune looked around at the surroundings. If she wasn't certain this was a [Genjutsu], she would have almost believed she had been teleported to the real Southern Forest. Her gaze then narrowed, landing on Roy... filled entirely with awe!
'What a powerful genjutsu, it's too real!'
"Caw—" A crow flapped its wings and soared high, dropping a black feather... Fugaku reached out and caught the black feather, examining it closely... That's right, this was indeed not a [Genjutsu] fluctuation that an ordinary Sharingan could manifest.
That visual prowess fluctuation, pointing straight to the depths of his heart, was so powerful that, in addition to deceiving his eyes, it also deceived his will... The man glanced at Tsunade beside him.
The woman, honored as one of the "Sannin," had an undiminished burning gaze as she looked at Roy and slowly clenched her fists!
"Crack, crack, crack..." Her knuckles popped as they rubbed together.
Tsunade, wearing a tea-green haori with black edges over a loose, sleeveless kimono-like top, with a black cloth belt wrapped around her slender waist, stomped heavily on the ground with one foot!
The training ground visibly trembled, cracking in a spiderweb pattern centered around her feet!
"Come!" The silent call was better than a vocal one. A simple action... perfectly interpreted the beauty of "strength"!
Roy's beautiful black hair swayed in the wind. Having just finished allocating his stat points, his hands were itching. He thought to himself that he would just treat this as a warm-up before his battle with his father.
He reached his palm forward and clenched his fist.
Under the enhancement of three thousand Constitution points,
With a boom, [Ren] erupted... suddenly scorching the air, forming a monstrous, blazing wave that rushed toward Tsunade...
The boy followed up with a crack, crushing the air in his palm. He took a step forward, riding the wave, and closed in on Tsunade in the blink of an eye, aiming a fierce, lightning-fast punch right at her chest!
"Pfft—" The air collapsed... The punch arrived before the sound!
The wind from the punch hit her face. Without needing to carefully analyze it, just from one glance... Tsunade already knew that Roy possessed... [Monstrous Strength] not inferior to her own!
But, you are clearly an Uchiha!
Not a Senju!
Why do you resemble a Senju more than me, more than Nawaki?!
The woman's heart was in turmoil. Striking later but arriving first, she aimed a punch similarly wrapped in chakra, seizing the moment to fiercely strike at Roy's fist!
"Boom!"
A deafening explosion rang out!
Chakra and Nen flew in all directions, instantly forming a circular shockwave that forced back Shizune, Fugaku, and the peeking Itachi!
The little boy was sent flying directly. He barely managed to hook his hand onto a sturdy tree branch in mid-air to stop his momentum, preventing himself from... embarrassingly face-planting into the dirt!
"Tou-san, who won?!" At this moment, a tall figure slowly landed beside Itachi. With a stern and rigid expression, he grabbed Itachi's shoulder to help him steady himself.
The boy asked. The shockwave was so strong that he struggled to keep his eyes open, far less clearly than Fugaku, who had activated his Sharingan... He saw Fugaku remain silent for a long while, slowly shake his head, then nod, and say in a deep voice, "Neither won, and neither used their full strength."
As his words fell, Shizune, who had avoided the shockwave and slowly landed on another large tree, furrowed her brow. Her pupils flickered, revealing a trace of disbelief...
This loyal assistant, who had followed Tsunade for decades, believed she understood Tsunade as well as anyone. But... staring fixedly at the center of the training ground, at the boy who was matching Tsunade's punch without losing ground, she had to admit... this was the first time she had seen an existence capable of clashing head-on with Lady Tsunade without being hammered into the ground!
'Clearly, Lady Tsunade didn't intend to strike back at first... She must have sensed danger and was forced to do so...'
In other words... this indirectly proved that the child indeed possessed [Monstrous Strength] and... a bloodline not inferior to the Senju clan...
"Pop—"
Fist against fist!
Nen against Chakra!
The circular shockwave drove the chakra to palpitate. Under the stalemate, it finally touched the edge of the [Genjutsu]'s maintenance...
Through their fists, Roy sensed Tsunade take the initiative to withdraw her hand first. He immediately followed suit and retracted his force. Along with the [Genjutsu Space] world, he reversed his visual prowess into Nen and withdrew it back into his body.
Subsequently,
"Caw—" Another crow's cry rang out.
The [Genjutsu Space] shattered.
The familiar living room returned to their sight.
Fugaku, Tsunade, Shizune, and Itachi only felt their vision blur. When they dazedly opened their eyes again, they immediately looked toward Roy.
They saw the boy smile faintly as the blood-red color faded from his pupils, returning to clarity. Just like before, he sat cross-legged on the tatami mat, lazily stretching his back as he asked Tsunade, "Is Lady Tsunade satisfied?"
"If there's nothing else, I'll go wash up first."
Tsunade, her blonde hair tied into two ponytails draped over her back, remained silent. She looked deeply at the boy without speaking. She simply reached out, pulled off the green pendant worn around her neck, and tossed it to Roy, saying, "It's yours."
"Swish—" The pendant formed a graceful parabola and was caught single-handedly by Roy.
Upon contact, Roy's brow furrowed. He felt a massive surge contained within it... a chakra no less than the cluster he had seen sealed within Tsunade's body, which had been increasing daily for decades!
"Beep..." A system prompt slowly echoed in Roy's mind as the pendant fell into his hands...
The boy felt the weight of the pendant in his hand. He looked up and cast a deep glance at Tsunade. Just as he was about to say something... suddenly, his spiritual perception flared...
In the unseen world, he felt a gaze piercing through "history," enduring the "cycle of life and death." Carrying endless vicissitudes, it broke through the constraints of chakra and slowly landed on him.
Roy abruptly looked up.
As his consciousness immersed,
[Targeted Tracking Technique] activated with a thought.
Entering his vision,
He saw a pair of... Rinnegan!