Since Fūmori Masaki had not received any new orders, he waited in Konohagakure, while Uchiha Kagami was preparing to depart with his men. Consequently, Fūmori Masaki saw him off at the Village gate.
Uchiha Kagami's unit was primarily composed of members of the Uchiha Clan and the Fourth Division. Because the military strength of the Land of Wind was limited, and given the desperate shortage of manpower, Uchiha Kagami could not take many people with him, but he felt that these men would be enough to halt the advance of the Land of Wind.
This time, Uchiha Kagami was fully armed; he not only brought his customary scythe but also the flame fan. This sacred tool had been recovered after the Battle of the Valley of the End, and Uchiha Madara would never be able to take it away again.
Fūmori Masaki actually harbored some doubts; if Uchiha Madara hadn't taken the flame fan after his resurrection, Uchiha Kagami might not have died, as the ability to reflect Ninjutsu was truly astonishing.
At the Village gate, Fūmori Masaki saw the man named Uchiha Setsuna for the first time. His face was stern, and there was a tattoo on the right half of his face, which made his demeanor appear even colder. With just a glance, Fūmori Masaki could tell that this man was undoubtedly insidious and cunning; taking him away was the right choice.
Fūmori Masaki felt that it would be best if Uchiha Setsuna died on the battlefield, as that would be a good thing for both the Village and the Uchiha Clan. The Uchiha Clan's failure to integrate into Konoha was partly due to external reasons and partly because there were people within the clan who harbored constant hostility toward the Village.
Withdrawing his gaze from Uchiha Setsuna, Fūmori Masaki said to Uchiha Kagami, "Kagami, do not forget what I said..."
"I know, do not act rashly and focus on defense, right?" Uchiha Kagami said with a smile, then his expression turned serious. "The Land of Wind must have some hidden backup plan. I will not be careless, so just wait for good news."
Fūmori Masaki knew that since Uchiha Kagami said this, he must have taken it to heart, so he did not repeat himself and said, "Goodbye."
"Goodbye." Uchiha Kagami nodded slightly, turned, and walked away. The others followed closely behind, then began to run quickly, slowly disappearing from Fūmori Masaki's sight.
"Alright, before new orders come down, I'll research a new jutsu." Fūmori Masaki shrugged and walked back into the Village.
These days, Fūmori Masaki had been developing an idea. The new jutsu he needed was for killing enemies; therefore, it should maximize the sharpness of Wind Release Chakra. In that case, the shape of the new jutsu should be based on a shuriken, much like the Wind Style: Rasenshuriken. However, the Wind Style: Rasenshuriken only resembled a shuriken in shape; its essence was countless needle-like Wind Release Chakra used to destroy cells within the body, which was not what he wanted—
It wasn't that the Wind Style: Rasenshuriken was bad, but to unleash its power, a massive amount of Chakra was required, which was not a suitable jutsu for Fūmori Masaki. Therefore, he hoped to use the shape of a shuriken to concentrate power onto the sharp surface, so that even without using a large amount of Chakra, it could exert an almost irresistible cutting force.
However, during practice, Fūmori Masaki discovered the problem, which was the same issue Minato Namikaze encountered when researching the Rasengan. Adding powerful nature transformation on top of shape transformation was no easy task; if one's control was insufficient, failure was likely.
Minato Namikaze was unable to perform the Wind Style: Rasenshuriken during his lifetime because he could not add nature transformation of equal intensity to the Rasengan, a jutsu that pushed shape transformation to its limit. This problem was only solved when Uzumaki Naruto came up with the idea of using a Shadow Clone to assist in adding nature transformation and maintaining stability.
Fūmori Masaki could naturally use this method, but it was meaningless. If he used a Shadow Clone, the requirement for speed would be lost, so what use would this jutsu have?
Fūmori Masaki knew that this was still a matter of control. Initially, because Uzumaki Naruto lacked Chakra control, even the Rasengan required a Shadow Clone to assist in controlling it.
Before learning to control the Nine-Tailed's power, Uzumaki Naruto had to do this. Later, he could use it with one hand, which was actually because after learning to control the Nine-Tailed's power, his Chakra control had improved unprecedentedly.
Therefore, Fūmori Masaki tried to use both shape transformation and nature transformation within the range he could control, but either the power was insufficient, or it would fail midway.
—It seemed that with his current level of control, he could not yet directly condense it into a shuriken shape.
Fūmori Masaki pondered silently. His next thought was to find other ways to stabilize the Chakra, and what gave him this inspiration was the Rasengan. Why was the Rasengan known as the pinnacle of shape transformation? The reason was that the Rasengan possessed exceptionally powerful destructive force with just shape transformation, enough to be mentioned in the same breath as the Chidori—bearing in mind that the Chidori utilized both nature transformation and shape transformation. That the Rasengan could rival it with just one type showed the complexity of shape transformation.
Fūmori Masaki remembered that the principle of the Rasengan was to make the Chakra flow in irregular directions, then use the palm as a point and concentrate it there. Therefore, such powerful Chakra could be stabilized in the palm without exploding midway.
Fūmori Masaki felt he could take shape transformation a step further by creating one or more stabilization points, allowing him to maintain stability even when injecting powerful Wind Release nature. He would need to think carefully about the shape of this shuriken; perhaps he could try using a hand seal for assistance. If it was just one hand seal, that would be acceptable.
Just as Fūmori Masaki was immersed in the development of his new jutsu, a message reached Konohagakure. After receiving the information, the intelligence was immediately sent to the Fūmori residence. Satomi was the first to know, so she rushed into the room and shouted, "Masaki, something has happened!"
Fūmori Masaki was extending his hands, with a slightly unstable wind wheel spinning between them. Upon hearing Satomi's voice, he lost control for a moment, and the wind wheel instantly turned into an invisible gust of wind and vanished.
Fūmori Masaki sighed slightly; it seemed it still wouldn't work, but he had a lead and believed he would be able to use it preliminarily before long.
At this moment, he temporarily put aside the new jutsu and asked Satomi what happened. Satomi handed him an intelligence scroll and said hurriedly, "This is news from the Fourth Division. Kirigakure launched a surprise attack on the Village, which was discovered and blocked in time by the Fourth Division. However, the Fourth Division has limited combat strength, so they are requesting immediate support from the Village."
"Good grief." Fūmori Masaki felt a headache. The most troublesome thing about war was fighting on multiple fronts, which often led to a shortage of manpower, especially since Konohagakure currently lacked the capacity to train new forces. Not to mention that civilians were still hesitant about sending their children to the Ninja Academy, what use would Ninjas trained for only a few months be? Just going up there to get killed?
Fūmori Masaki made a prompt decision: "Assemble the troops and set out immediately."
In the current Konohagakure, besides Uzumaki Mito, Fūmori Masaki, as a Jonin, was the highest-ranking person. After receiving the order, the Konoha Ninja immediately took action. Fūmori Masaki did not take everyone; instead, he made a targeted selection, totaling thirty-six people.
Fūmori Masaki immediately led his men out to head toward the direction where the Fourth Division was engaging the enemy. He learned from the scroll that the Kirigakure Ninja unit that launched this surprise attack was led by members of the Kaguya Clan, whose combat strength was quite formidable; this was why the Fourth Division needed to request support from the Village.
Fūmori Masaki did not expect that not long after Uzumaki Mito spoke to him about the Kaguya Clan and the Kaguya Clan, he would be going to fight the Kaguya Clan. This was fine, as long as it wasn't the Kaguya Clan; he just didn't know if there were any awakened users of the Shikotsumyaku Bloodline Limit among the Kaguya clansmen who had come this time.
According to Uzumaki Mito, even within the Kaguya Clan, the Shikotsumyaku Bloodline Limit was one that was difficult to awaken. It would be fine if there were none, but if there were, he would have to be careful. Thinking of the appearance of Kimimaro, Fūmori Masaki could not help but feel a bit heavy-hearted.