Name: Senju Natsuhiko
Gender: Male
Birthday: March 24, Konoha Year 34
Level: Semi-Kage Level (System evaluation without using any abilities)
(Massive chakra reserves)
(Partially sealed Dragon Vein chakra)
Dōjutsu: Jōgan (Initial Stage)
Development Rate: 52%
Bloodline Development: Intermediate (Senju Secret Techniques, Basic Yang Release Secret Arts), Kekkei Tōta (Unnamed), Basic Yin Release Secret Arts, Yin-Yang Release (Fusion Progress: 1%)
Jinchūriki: Nine-Tails (Intermediate, can grow by consuming large amounts of special chakra, plant advanced Nine-Tails fruits to further growth) (Excessive chakra intake, continuously increasing)
Seeds: Sharingan Origin Seed (1%)
Fruits: Intermediate Fire Release Fruit ×1 , Intermediate Water Release Fruit ×1, Intermediate Earth Release Fruit ×1, Basic Three-Tails Chakra Fruit ×1, Intermediate Wood Release Fruit ×1
Mission: Become the True Final Boss of the Ninja World (Unique) (Progress: 45%)
...
Looking at his updated status panel, Natsuhiko couldn't help twitching at the corner of his mouth.
He truly hadn't expected that after recklessly experimenting a little, things would somehow evolve into this situation.
The moment he obtained Yin Release, he had immediately guided that power into his body without the slightest hesitation.
After all, this was the ability he had wanted for an extremely long time.
As the power of Yin Release fused into him, Natsuhiko instantly felt his spiritual energy and mental will begin rapidly strengthening.
The sensation was subtle—there were no dramatic chakra fluctuations or explosive changes—but he could unmistakably feel himself changing.
The clearest difference was that he could now perceive the hidden energies within his body far more distinctly than before.
Of course, he had always been capable of sensing those energies. His perception abilities were already absurdly powerful, so simply detecting them had never been difficult.
But sensing something and controlling it were entirely different matters.
Previously, while he could vaguely perceive those powers, actually mobilizing them had been incredibly difficult.
At most, when using genjutsu during interrogations, he could faintly feel traces of Yin Release being passively activated.
And honestly, that was far from ideal.
The strength of genjutsu fundamentally depended on how effectively one could mobilize Yin Release to amplify illusions.
That was one of the core reasons the Sharingan was so terrifying—it possessed almost absurd control over Yin Release.
But the applications of Yin Release extended far beyond genjutsu alone.
The strength of one's spiritual power directly affected battlefield analysis, reaction speed, tactical judgment, and even learning ability to a certain extent.
The Sharingan simply maximized all of those advantages.
Its insight, copying ability, and enhancement of genjutsu were all manifestations of actively weaponizing Yin Release.
In fact, this was one of the reasons Natsuhiko had gradually lost interest in the Sharingan itself.
At its core, the Sharingan was merely an advanced tool for manipulating Yin Release.
Now that he had directly obtained Yin Release itself, why would he still obsess over the Sharingan?
As for the Mangekyō Sharingan's unique abilities—the mysterious phenomenon often described as "powers born from the heart"—Natsuhiko was admittedly tempted by those as well.
But there was one major uncertainty.
Would the Mangekyō's abilities even function properly alongside the Jōgan?
To put it simply, if he possessed both dōjutsu simultaneously, would they fuse together and elevate each other… or would they conflict endlessly and drag one another down?
There was no way to know for certain.
And beyond that, awakening the Mangekyō itself required exploiting a profound emotional weakness.
Worse still, that weakness couldn't be something the user consciously understood beforehand. Once someone became aware of the mechanism behind it, the result would likely be extremely disappointing.
The most probable outcome would be losing everything and gaining nothing in return.
Natsuhiko absolutely refused to believe that the vast Uchiha Clan had never experimented with methods of artificially awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan before.
At the very least, the ANBU archives contained quite a few records of talented Uchiha mysteriously disappearing without a trace.
Of course, it was possible those people had simply died during missions and the Uchiha clan chose not to report it in order to preserve their reputation.
But the strange thing was that these mysterious disappearances only stopped after Fugaku Uchiha became clan head.
To Natsuhiko, the conclusion was obvious—they had been conducting experiments, and those people had died as a result.
Even the Uchiha clan's own situation had become that grim, so Natsuhiko certainly wasn't confident that he himself would achieve a better outcome.
"Extreme emotional stimulation doesn't necessarily require killing the person you love most. It's just that losing someone precious creates the strongest emotional impact.
But… do I even have someone like that?"
That question genuinely gave him pause.
Deep down, he knew the answer was yes.
No one in this world truly lived completely alone, without any attachments or emotional ties.
If this had been his previous life, he would have answered without hesitation—his parents.
But in this world, he had been only one step away from growing up in an orphanage.
Even if such a person existed in his heart now, he honestly wasn't sure who it would be.
And more importantly… he had no desire to figure it out.
There was simply no meaning in doing so.
To Natsuhiko, the people close to him all held roughly the same place in his heart. Since he had no real need for the Mangekyō Sharingan anymore, there was no reason for him to walk such a dangerous path.
"Even if I did know who that person was, I still couldn't do something like that. The moment you become consciously aware of your own emotional weakness, your heart develops flaws, and the final result would probably fail anyway."
Natsuhiko understood this point very clearly.
And precisely because he understood it so well—combined with the fact that he already possessed both the Jōgan and Yin Release—even though he was undeniably tempted by the Mangekyō Sharingan's unique abilities born from one's heart…
He still restrained himself.
Instead, he decided that any Sharingan fruits he harvested in the future would simply be given to other people.
After sorting through those thoughts, Natsuhiko carefully reviewed his current abilities and recent gains.
And the more he examined them, the more terrifying his own growth seemed.
The Three-Tails Fruit and the Intermediate Wood Release Fruit had already been stored inside the system inventory. He simply hadn't used them yet because he had only just obtained them.
Besides that, he also intended to thoroughly experiment with the chakra fusion power he had recently acquired.
After all, he had already decided to attempt recreating Ōnoki's Dust Release.
"But…"
Just as Natsuhiko prepared to begin mobilizing chakra and experimenting with fusion, he suddenly froze mid-thought.
A realization struck him.
He had already possessed Yang Release for over a year now.
And now, he had finally obtained Yin Release as well.
In that case…
Why shouldn't he try fusing Yin Release and Yang Release together?
"Sure, the fusion ability can combine three different powers. Using it on only Yin and Yang Release might seem a little wasteful.
But if I can truly create Yin-Yang Release, then it would definitely become a far more terrifying power—something beyond the level of ordinary Kekkei Tōta.
Even if it doesn't reach the level of a Kekkei Mōra, Yin-Yang Release is still a force capable of affecting and even damaging Kekkei Mōra techniques."
Much like Sage Arts, Yin-Yang Release belonged to the realm of higher-order powers.
The difference between them, however, was fundamental.
Sage Arts relied on external natural energy to strengthen oneself.
Yin-Yang Release, on the other hand, relied entirely on one's own power, allowing the user to achieve a completely different level of evolution.
As for which path was truly superior, there was no definitive answer.
In the end, everything depended on the individual wielding the power.
But from Natsuhiko's personal perspective, he naturally leaned more toward Yin-Yang Release.
After all, the country from his previous life shared a deeply rooted belief:
They did not place their faith in heaven or gods.
They believed that humanity itself could overcome fate.
Unlike many people in the West who casually placed "God" on their lips, his homeland had never truly worshipped divine beings.
Instead, they revered their predecessors—the people who had changed the destiny of their nation through their own efforts.
And even after transmigrating into this world, that belief inside Natsuhiko had never really changed.
His system had granted him power, but in the end, everything still required him to train and temper himself through effort.
If it had truly been something gained effortlessly, he would have seriously started wondering whether there was something wrong with the system itself.
"So even if I lose a little efficiency, I still have to fuse Yin and Yang Release."
With that thought in mind, Natsuhiko immediately put it into action. Without the slightest hesitation, he activated the fusion ability.
Then he began to circulate the Yin Release and Yang Release within his body.
The difference between the two was immediately obvious.
When Yang Release flowed through him, Natsuhiko felt a warm sensation spreading throughout his entire body—comforting, stable, almost soothing.
But when Yin Release began to circulate, a cool sensation emerged within his mind instead.
It was a very real sensation, not the vague, abstract feeling he had experienced in the past. This was something tangible, something he could clearly perceive and even control.
That alone made the experience feel strangely refreshing.
More importantly, he could distinctly feel that under the influence of this power, his mental focus had become significantly sharper. For him, that was already a tremendous advantage.
Although he had grasped the basics of Yin Release, how to utilize it efficiently and develop its full potential was still something he had yet to figure out.
That meant he would need to rely on himself to explore and refine this power step by step.
"So merging them is absolutely necessary."
The fusion process itself was, in Natsuhiko's view, almost a kind of cheat-like ability.
During fusion, he could gain a deeper understanding of the fundamental nature of the powers involved.
Last time, when he fused Water, Wind, and Earth chakra to create a new Kekkei Tōta, he had not only experienced the entire fusion process, but also re-examined the essence of those three chakra natures—structure, transformation, and quality—from a deeper level.
For Natsuhiko, that had been an extremely rare and valuable experience, something he would never willingly miss.
However, the moment he fully fused Yin and Yang Release this time, he froze.
"…What is this?"
He silently felt the changes within his body, momentarily unable to speak.
The Yin and Yang energies had indeed come under his control, and they had even begun to merge together.
The moment they intertwined, his body reacted instantly. It was a positive reaction—he could clearly sense the immense power contained within that fusion.
But what he never expected was that the process would suddenly stop after less than a single second.
That abrupt halt genuinely startled him.
Having already experienced fusion before, he knew very well that while the process wasn't exactly comfortable, it had never simply stopped like this.
So why had it suddenly ended without warning this time?
Frowning, Natsuhiko felt genuinely uncertain about what had just happened. But when he shifted his attention to his system interface, he froze completely.
On his status panel, the symbol representing Yin-Yang Release had indeed appeared—but right behind it, there was an additional "fusion progress" indicator.
Today had already been full of surprises.
First, the Mangekyō Sharingan harvest had given him an unexpected double result, and among those results was the Yin Release he had long been anticipating.
But the frustration wasn't absent either—his attempt to fuse Yin and Yang Release had clearly "failed."
Strictly speaking, it wasn't exactly a failure. It simply hadn't reached the result he had envisioned, which left him somewhat disappointed.
He had originally planned to use this opportunity to deeply explore the nature of Yin-Yang Release and observe the transformations produced during its fusion.
But now it seemed that things were far more complicated than he had expected.
And judging from the situation, the fusion of these two powers would likely require a significant amount of time before completion.
Even if both powers were only at the basic level, Yin–Yang Release was by no means something simple.
The time required for them to fully fuse together was something Natsuhiko couldn't accurately predict. All he could do was hope that this process wouldn't take an excessively long time.
"I really didn't expect that something as simple as merging two powers would end up feeling like I was planting an entirely new seed…"
With a wry smile, Natsuhiko shook his head. He couldn't say he was satisfied with this outcome—after all, it had cost him a precious fusion ability.
Of course, from the perspective of long-term potential, this kind of investment was completely acceptable.
But if he looked at it purely from immediate gains, then this time he had definitely taken a loss. After all, he had essentially sacrificed the potential of a Kekkei Tōta-level power.
"Forget it. Since it's already done, there's no point complaining."
Natsuhiko's mentality was fairly stable. Although he valued immediate returns, he valued long-term development even more.
Besides, this didn't leave him without alternatives. For example, the Intermediate Wood Release Fruit and the Basic Three-Tails Chakra power were still available to him.
These were all brand-new sources of strength, and if used properly, they might not necessarily be inferior to an undeveloped Kekkei Tōta.
Especially the Intermediate Wood Release. If combined with his advanced Sage chakra, the effect might even approach the level of Hashirama Senju himself.
"So strictly speaking, I'm not exactly at a loss. Not to mention I still have the Three-Tails' chakra to work with. I just need to handle it properly."
...
Inside Kumogakure, the Fourth Raikage stared at the report in his hands, lost in thought.
Ever since his father, the Third Raikage, had fallen at the hands of Ōnoki, he had inherited the position of Raikage.
Only then did he truly realize just how difficult it was to be the leader of a village.
Setting aside whether the villagers trusted him or not, even whether he could trust the people around him was already a massive issue in itself.
The elders who had once treated him fairly well had gradually begun to change their attitudes. Former companions, once close friends, had drifted apart due to differences in position and perspective.
That feeling was deeply unpleasant.
Even though he still had many loyal supporters by his side, it never changed the fact that this kind of isolation left a bitter taste in his heart.
Fortunately, he was a strong-willed man. He had endured countless difficulties and ultimately secured full control over Kumogakure.
In the process, many people had died at his hands, and many others had been permanently stripped of their chance to rise again—including some who were once his friends and subordinates.
Regardless, he had achieved his goal, even if it had come at a considerable cost.
Now that stability had been restored, the Fourth Raikage knew exactly what he needed to do next.
In addition to promoting trusted personnel, he needed achievements—concrete, undeniable accomplishments.
He was fully aware of his reputation. While it was not particularly bad, there was still one blemish he could never erase: during the conflict in the Land of Hot Water, he and Killer B had been forced into a draw by Minato Namikaze.
That incident had always been a thorn in his heart, an undeniable humiliation in his life.
From beginning to end, he had always wanted revenge, but he simply hadn't had the time—there were too many matters demanding his attention.
But now, things were different.
Now he finally had time.
It was a pity that Minato Namikaze had already left Konoha following the Nine-Tails incident, but regardless of circumstances, that grudge remained firmly in his memory.
And it had to be dealt with properly.
"At least… back then, we never officially signed a ceasefire agreement with Konoha."
The Fourth Raikage, A, muttered to himself as countless thoughts churned in his mind.
If Kumogakure and Konoha had signed a formal ceasefire agreement back then, he likely wouldn't even be considering moving against the Leaf Village for several years.
Ninjas lived by reputation. A person who broke their word and acted inconsistently would suffer irreparable damage to their credibility.
Without credibility, how could they take missions? And without it, those with needs would simply take their business elsewhere, even if it meant traveling farther.
In the end, ninjas were still people who survived on the massive pool of mission revenue.
The economic structure of the shinobi system was actually very simple—around eighty percent of it was sustained by funding from the feudal lords.
To put it more politely, the existence of the ninja villages was officially sanctioned under the authority of the daimyō. Their purpose, in name, was to replace traditional national armies.
After all, ordinary armies were nowhere near as effective as ninja villages. If they had been, the Warring States era would never have been so chaotic in the first place.
To put it less politely, however, the truth was that the daimyō simply could not control these powerful shinobi forces.
And as long as the ninja didn't openly threaten to "hang the daimyō from a lamppost," there was still room for cooperation between both sides.
As for how that cooperation worked, anyone with half a brain could see it clearly.
Ninja villages possessed an extremely high degree of autonomy. Whether it was military affairs, diplomacy, or economics, they were largely self-governed.
It wasn't hard to see who truly held power. On paper, the daimyō ruled the country, and the ninja villages were subordinate institutions.
But in reality, the ninja villages were the ones actually steering the nations, while the daimyō were little more than financiers providing funds.
In the entire shinobi world, only the Land of Wind had no choice but to bow its head before its daimyō.
Elsewhere, relations were either relatively equal, where both sides could negotiate on fair terms, or outright reversed—where the daimyō would be controlled or replaced if necessary, with a more compliant successor installed from within the royal lineage to eliminate instability.
But aside from funding from the daimyō, ninjas also needed proper training and real combat experience to become qualified shinobi.
Missions served both purposes at once: they supplemented a village's income and provided essential real-world training for its ninjas.
Because of this, no ninja village in the entire shinobi world would willingly abandon mission revenue.
The Fourth Raikage was no exception. In fact, his dissatisfaction with the current distribution of mission resources had already reached its peak.
"If it were the old Konoha, I might not have any way to deal with them… but now, the current Konoha…"
A muttered under his breath, fully aware of why Rasa of the Land of Wind had once started a war.
The reason was painfully simple—poverty.
Rasa could indeed use his Kekkei Genkai to extract gold deposits and sell them to sustain Sunagakure's operations, but how much profit could that realistically generate?
Meanwhile, the Daimyō of the Land of Wind was no fool either. He had already placed his funds in the Land of Rivers, a region jointly controlled by Konoha and Sunagakure.
If Sunagakure tried to reclaim that money by force, Konoha would inevitably intervene. In a sense, Konoha had already dealt Sunagakure a heavy indirect blow.
As a result, Sunagakure received the least amount of financial support from its daimyō, which ultimately forced them into a position of weakness where they had no choice but to compromise.
Under such conditions, it was only natural that Sunagakure harbored deep resentment toward Konoha.
After all, the Land of Wind was almost entirely covered by desert. It couldn't even produce enough agricultural goods to sustain itself.
On top of that, transportation within the country was extremely inconvenient. With no money to build roads, and with construction costs in desert terrain being prohibitively high, merchants had no incentive to travel there.
Without merchants entering the Land of Wind, there was no economic circulation to stimulate Sunagakure's growth, further reducing its share of mission revenue.
Under such pressure, it was almost inevitable that Sunagakure would choose war. They needed land—and plenty of it, starting with the Land of Rivers.
Of course, the decision to go to war was never just about poverty alone.
However, things like excess manpower consumption, or diverting internal dissatisfaction and crisis caused by Rasa's rise to power—these were not concerns the Fourth Raikage needed to consider.
All he needed to understand was the essence of Sunagakure's objective: land, population, and a larger share of mission revenue. That alone was enough.
Just as he had already concluded in his mind, if this had been the era of the First Hokage, the Second Hokage, or even the young Third Hokage and the uninjured Fourth Hokage… or even Konoha before the Third Great Ninja War, he would never have dared to consider going to war against them.
There was no other reason than one simple truth—Konoha was just too strong. No one dared to make a careless move against it.
The Land of Wind only dared to act because it had been pushed to the brink. A cornered dog would still jump over a wall, let alone an entire village.
But Rasa was not completely without intelligence. He likely understood that the entire shinobi world had long harbored resentment toward Konoha; what they lacked was only a proper trigger.
Once Sunagakure made its move, villages like Kirigakure would inevitably follow, giving others hope and encouraging them to carve up Konoha together.
Yet even under that pressure, Konoha still endured. They crushed Sunagakure in the shortest time possible, then forced Kirigakure into retreat.
But the battlefield eventually reached a stalemate. Facing simultaneous pressure from Iwagakure and Kumogakure, even Konoha began to show signs of strain.
"If it weren't for Ōnoki…"
The Fourth Raikage would never forget the incident where thousands of enemy forces surrounded his father. That battle had forced Kumogakure to withdraw from the front lines and shift into a tense standoff with Iwagakure, as both sides prepared for escalation.
But Iwagakure, seeing the situation, did not dare continue either. After the destruction of Kannabi Bridge and the severing of their supply lines, they had no choice but to quickly accept defeat.
They understood clearly that they were not Konoha—they could not withstand simultaneous attacks from two villages.
Thus, the war finally came to an end. Konoha, despite its heavy losses, had withstood the combined assault of the Four Great Ninja Villages, earning immense prestige in the process.
Under that overwhelming reputation, Konoha maintained its position as the strongest village in the shinobi world and secured an enormous share of missions.
All of this made the Fourth Raikage envious. In his view, Konoha was a paper tiger. Even if they won, they won at great cost.
Their Fourth Hokage was severely injured and away from duty. One of the Sannin, Orochimaru, had defected. The other two were also absent.
Additionally, training ninjas wasn't easy. Hiruzen had shown leniency in the ceasefire negotiations with Iwagakure.
All of this pointed to one thing: the current Konoha probably couldn't muster the spirit to fight four enemies at once.
In contrast, Kumogakure had entered the war late and hadn't committed many troops. Their losses were negligible.
Aside from the death of the Third Raikage—which had severely damaged morale—the village's combat strength remained intact. As long as there were ninjas, there was fighting power, and Kumogakure had no shortage of shinobi.
"It's time to shake this stagnant shinobi world again. Kumogakure should reclaim what belongs to it."
The Fourth Raikage set down the report in his hand.
It contained detailed intelligence on Konoha's ANBU Commander—Senju Natsuhiko.
Natsuhiko was currently the most important and most troublesome figure in the Fourth Raikage's eyes. His massive summoned beasts and terrifying Wood Release seemed born purely for war.
On top of that, like Minato Namikaze, he also possessed the Flying Thunder God Technique. In many ways, he was practically a fusion of Hashirama Senju and Tobirama Senju.
However, within Konoha, he was the only one who truly concerned him. The rest, he did not take seriously at all.
"As long as I can suppress that kid… control him properly… Kumogakure will definitely defeat Konoha."
At that thought, the Fourth Raikage rose to his feet. A flicker of fanatic intensity ignited in his eyes.
War did mean death—but it also brought endless benefits. Jiraiya had always clung to the idea that people could understand one another someday, that mutual comprehension was possible.
But true understanding, in his view, could only exist when both sides stood on equal ground. Without that, how could there ever be real communication or mutual recognition?
...
"Are Kumogakure's movements becoming more and more active?"
Inside the ANBU office, Natsuhiko looked over the report in his hands and shook his head lightly.
He had only just returned to his office when Kakashi brought this intelligence to him. It left him feeling somewhat helpless.
He knew Kumogakure was restless. The ANBU had been monitoring them closely the entire time. Even if they couldn't operate beyond the borders of the Land of Fire, they weren't blind to Kumogakure gathering forces in the Land of Hot Water.
Moreover, Natsuhiko now also oversaw the external intelligence division of Root, meaning his information network was even broader than before.
Truthfully, he didn't have particularly strong feelings about Kumogakure's movements. If anything, a part of him wouldn't mind seeing them act more aggressively.
Of course, he couldn't say that out loud. As the Commander of Konoha's ANBU, his stance had to remain firmly aligned with the village.
"Alright, I understand. Good work, Kakashi." Natsuhiko set the report down and smiled faintly. "It seems the coming days won't be very peaceful."
"Kumogakure hasn't signed a ceasefire agreement with us. Their current actions are too dangerous," Kakashi said with a quiet sigh. "But what exactly are they trying to achieve by making such a large show of force?"
"Who knows. Probably a military show of intimidation," Natsuhiko replied with a casual shrug—though in truth, he was stating the reality outright.
In the original timeline, Konoha and Kumogakure never actually went to war. On Kumogakure's side, they had already achieved their objective. On Konoha's side, things were far from stable.
After the Third Great Ninja War, Konoha was essentially a hollow shell—strong on the outside, but weakened within. Their top-tier shinobi had either died or gone missing, and even the Hokage had fallen.
Under those circumstances, Kumogakure began applying pressure along the border while escalating conflicts in mission territories, placing immense strain on Konoha.
In the end, it led to Hiruzen Sarutobi personally "visiting" the Hyūga clan, presenting them with a choice—sacrifice one life, or sacrifice the entire branch family. Faced with that ultimatum, the Hyūga ultimately made their decision.
And with that, the conflict between Konoha and Kumogakure came to a "peaceful" end.
It wasn't that Hiruzen's judgment had been wrong. From his perspective, he could clearly see Kumogakure was laying traps. He understood the consequences of forcing the Hyūga, and he also understood how much humiliation Konoha would suffer in the shinobi world as a result.
He even knew that both his personal prestige and Konoha's overall reputation would take a heavy hit.
But even knowing it was a trap, he had no choice but to step into it.
At that time, there simply had been no alternatives.
Still, that was Hiruzen's perspective.
From Natsuhiko's point of view, Konoha hadn't necessarily been without the ability to fight back.
Ninjas needed spirit and conviction. Faced with such humiliation, if Konoha had chosen resistance instead, their morale would have been extremely high.
Under those circumstances, even achieving a stalemate wouldn't have been difficult. With the right strategies, forcing Kumogakure into submission was not impossible either.
The lessons of the Third Great Ninja War were already there. If one thought carefully enough and planned thoroughly, anything was possible.
"Forget it. No need to dwell on that. We just focus on our own responsibilities."
Natsuhiko shook his head and moved on from the topic. After a brief pause, he asked instead, "By the way, how is the Hokage doing now?"
"You mean sensei?" Kakashi naturally understood who Natsuhiko was referring to. After a moment of thought, he replied, "He's recovering, but it won't be anytime soon before he fully heals. Still… he did mention something."
"Oh? What did he say?"
"He plans to bring Naruto back to the village to attend the Academy when he's old enough."