They were just traveling. Why were these people even using Body Flicker Technique?
In Naruto, "Body Flicker Technique" was a general term. Any technique in the anime that could achieve blinking effects could be called Body Flicker.
After all, the Second Hokage himself certified it: Shisui, your Body Flicker Technique is stronger than mine!
Normal Body Flicker naturally wasn't the advanced spacetime displacement type like Flying Thunder God Technique. Common variants included taijutsu-type Body Flicker and ninjutsu-type Body Flicker incorporating various chakra nature transformations.
At this moment, the Senju squad was using the basic taijutsu technique: Instantaneous Body Flicker.
The instant of movement unleashed massive chakra bursts, stimulating body cell activation while simultaneously granting tremendous speed boosts.
Like chakra nature transformation, taijutsu body-flickering was one threshold for advancing to veteran rank. The key was using chakra to activate the body—a prerequisite skill for advanced taijutsu.
The learning curve for this technique wasn't high, but explosive chakra use placed extremely high demands on the user's chakra reserves, taijutsu skills, and physical endurance. Therefore, it was difficult to master unless reaching veteran level.
Whether during the Warring States period or the ninja village era of later times, it was one important watershed distinguishing ordinary ninjas from masters.
After all, ninja battles were unpredictable. Given the class's inherent strength in offense and weakness in defense, misjudgment of distance and precision could easily lead to death at enemy hands.
Additionally, the skill's chakra consumption was too high. In the anime, many jonin only used Body Flicker to show off when appearing. In actual battles, they still honestly used turn-based ninjutsu, pursuing one-hit kills after gathering information.
Being able to use Body Flicker for travel as easily as drinking water meant these three Senju chunin had at least jonin-level chakra reserves. Their taijutsu skills were more than enough to easily defeat ten opponents of the same level.
Worth noting: in some smaller ninja clans, the elite who could guard a region were roughly at this level.
The Senju bloodline was indeed terrifying!
There was a reason the Senju and Uchiha clans had maintained their positions as the top two ninja forces for so many years.
While Jordan was still marveling, Senju Yura leading the way was almost numb.
He could only hear four sets of footsteps each time they landed. Even if each person's pace was slightly different, the count was still wrong!
He couldn't help looking back and almost slipped off the tree branch.
Wait, how was this man flying?
Flying ninjas were extremely rare, even across the entire ninja world.
The clan leader was indeed farsighted. The information they had was still far too limited!
Senju Yura couldn't help recalling what Senju Butsuma had specifically instructed the night before.
"Yura, after observing him for a few days, it seems this Jordan is indeed aligned with our Senju clan. However, we cannot rule out other possibilities. Therefore, your task is keeping close watch on him at all times and reporting important information directly to Elder Shin."
"But Brother Butsuma, don't I still have to guard the camp? Can't we find someone else..."
"Shut up! Call me Clan Leader outside! Now get out!"
Speechless all the way.
As they approached Senju territory, Jordan—who'd been seemingly distracted—suddenly opened his eyes and said to Senju Yura ahead, "Friendly reminder: there's a strong chakra reaction ahead. The strongest is no less than your Elder Shin."
Senju Yura was startled and raised his hand to order the team to stop.
After a half-hour rest, the Senju squad members, though showing some fatigue, still had plenty of chakra. Their combat power remained largely intact.
At this moment, the captain gave the order. The entire squad obeyed without question, instantly transitioning from extreme motion to extreme stillness. Upon landing, they maintained wedge formation and began standing guard around the two leaders.
Senju Yura sensed for a moment but found nothing unusual. He asked warily, "Lord Jordan, could you tell me the location, distance, and quantity of the chakra reactions you sensed?"
Jordan put his hands in his sleeves and landed back on the ground. He pointed to the right front. "That direction, about five kilometers away. Eight people total."
He paused. "Another chakra just approached, so nine people now."
As soon as Jordan finished speaking, Senju Yura's mouth opened. The remaining three chunin looked at each other in bewilderment.
The forest suddenly fell silent.
It wasn't that they hadn't seen top-tier sensory ninjas before. It was just that the information Jordan released was too incredible.
The Byakugan of the Hyuga, said to see through everything, had an effective visual range of about one kilometer after awakening. The perception ability of the man before them could only be compared with Kagura's Mind's Eye, said to be awakened by a few Uzumaki clan members in the Land of Whirlpools.
Within Mind Network, the shock of the Senju ninjas was palpable.
Jordan was reluctant to tell them he'd sensed those torch-like, chilling chakras—completely different from the Senju clan's—more than ten kilometers away.
Back in the One-Punch Man universe, he'd already managed to cover an entire city with electromagnetic perception. That was far from Mind Network's limit.
After all, they viewed the world from their era's perspective. They'd never witnessed the Fourth Shinobi World War when power levels went haywire. Their cognitive limits remained within normal ninja ranges.
Therefore, regarding Jordan's bug-level perception, they simply couldn't comprehend it.
"If that's the case, the enemy has at least two squads, one led by an elder." Senju Yura's strength lay in quick thinking. Although he didn't understand how Jordan did it, as a jonin, he quickly made an advantageous judgment. "The enemy has absolute numerical advantage. We have intelligence advantage. If we can contact the clan's territory... this battle is still winnable!"
"No need for all that trouble." Jordan pulled his hands from his sleeves. The unformed Rasengan in his palms and the insulating force field surrounding his arms dissipated. He stretched and yawned. "I've been eating and taking from the Senju camp these past few days. I'd feel embarrassed if I didn't do something in return."
This thing was like a collectible stress ball. Easy to get addicted to handling.
"Lord Jordan," Senju Yura said, startled, "you mean... you'll intervene?"
"Of course. We came here precisely to resolve the trouble caused by the Uchiha clan, didn't we?"
Jordan patted Senju Yura on the shoulder and took off while he was still dazed. "I'll handle the elder-level one. Your team can handle the rest, right?"
"If it's a surprise attack... then of course no problem!"
Senju Yura snapped out of his daze and immediately nodded vigorously.
"Let's go then."
The group of five set off again.
This time, everyone suppressed their chakra reactions. When within two kilometers of their destination, they all used ninjutsu to conceal themselves, vanishing into river and earth, silently sneaking forward.
Uchiha Takuya knelt in the makeshift tent, a map of the Senju's outer territory defenses before him—left by their spies.
Although just a simple sketch, it was the result of the secret agents' best efforts in sending it out.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to hide so safely in the heart of Senju territory.
Two days had passed since arriving here. According to latest intelligence from the front, the Senju Clan Leader's wife would give birth in the next two days. Everything was ready. They were just waiting for spies to send the latest information on her hiding place.
A loud eagle cry rang out in the sky. Uchiha Takuya frowned, suddenly feeling uneasy.
He directed orders outside the tent. "Kuto, increase vigilance."
A young voice immediately replied, "Yes, Elder!"
Uchiha Kuto summoned the three Uchiha secret ninjas on rest shift and sent them all out to keep watch.
This entire scene was captured by eyes in the sky.
Above the clouds.
A giant eagle comparable in size to a condor flapped its wings and soared into the wind.
Upon closer inspection, apart from somewhat dull, lifeless eyes, every feather, claw, and beak was incredibly lifelike and vivid. Jordan sat upright on the eagle's back—beneath which was the force field construct he'd created using psychic Virtual Modeling Technique.
He'd just made it cry out, and it actually sounded pretty convincing.
At an altitude of several thousand meters, even with Uchiha eyesight, the eagle would only appear as a tiny black dot. No need to worry about exposure risk.
Mind Network showed four moving blue dots and eight scattered red dots, representing the chakra of Senju and Uchiha clans respectively.
The distance between both sides kept shrinking. They were only one step away from overlapping.
If surrounding terrain were also shown, it would be no different from a mini-map in a game.
As the idea flashed through his mind, Jordan suddenly realized another function of Mind Network.
Senju Yura, using Earth Release to move through mud, suddenly felt a chill run down his spine and slight throbbing pain in the back of his head. Then a voice was forcibly inserted into his mind.
"Hello, hello, hello. Sound test. Can you hear me?"
That man had demonstrated yet another brand-new ability!
Was it strange ninjutsu similar to the Mind Transfer Technique of the Yamanaka clan?
The four team members paused simultaneously as Jordan's voice came through at the same time.
"Okay, seems you can all hear me. No problem then. Get ready. I'll send you the distribution locations of the Uchiha squad right now."
"Jordan's Map" finished loading. Navigation began.
Senju squad successfully connected!
The next moment, a small round map projected onto the retinas of all four people, located in the upper right corner of their field of vision.
Four blue dots and eight red dots flashed continuously. Focusing attention on them revealed detailed examples of trees, rocks, wild animals, along with textual prompts. Users could zoom in and out according to subjective wishes.
Senju Yura, underground, shuddered. Overwhelmed with emotion, he used Earth Release: Subterranean Voyage. His chakra fluctuated, almost getting stuck in a rock ahead.
What ninja of this era would have ever seen anything like this?
Compared to the map before them, the military sand table in the chieftain's tent was garbage!
With precise locations provided by Jordan's map, the Senju squad successfully infiltrated directly below their respective targets, increasing assassination plan success rate from seventy percent to ninety percent, with the remaining ten percent giving the Sharingan some respect.
When the appointed time arrived, the Senju ninja—entire body enveloped in earth-style chakra—silently emerged from the ground.
Two Uchiha sentries were dragged underground with throats slit by kunai. Another was killed instantly when his heart was pierced by a ninja sword thrust from behind.
They were prepared but not prepared. Forget about Izanagi rewriting reality—they couldn't even use the most basic Substitution Jutsu.
Of course, whether they could actually use the Sharingan's ultimate eye technique was another matter entirely.
Three Senju chunin succeeded in their attacks in succession. The strongest, Senju Yura, leaped from the ground and beheaded an Uchiha secret ninja who'd noticed something amiss. Simultaneously with the assassination's success, he used Body Flicker Technique. His powerful taijutsu broke bones and tendons. The Uchiha secret ninja who took the monstrous strength blow head-on coughed blood, chest collapsed, and was sent flying backward like a broken sack.
The pervasive stench of blood startled forest birds into flight. In the blink of an eye, the Senju squad, with their intelligence advantage, launched a successful surprise attack. The numerical disparity between both sides abruptly reversed.
One side: five people (one more in the sky).
Uchiha side: four people.
The bad news: the raid only killed skilled combatant. Of the remaining four Uchiha, including the elder, there were three veteran.
A piercing scream shattered the forest's silence. An Uchiha ninja, having witnessed his comrade's death beside him, awakened his Sharingan in fury. He roared a warning, twin tomoe spinning rapidly into two black lines as he retreated, simultaneously completing hand seals—
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
"Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave!"
The giant fireball created by Great Fireball turned the forest orange-yellow. But before the high-temperature flames could burn and scorch, it collided head-on with the Exploding Water Wave released by Senju Yura at almost the same time.
The lake-sized outflow of water instantly submerged the Great Fireball unleashed by the Uchiha skilled combatant, stirring up white vapor as it swept toward the Uchiha camp, turning vast swathes of forest into swamp instantly.
The three Senju skilled combatants didn't need to communicate. They chased by walking on water. With numerical advantage and surprise attack, the Uchiha skilled combatant barely managed to hold on for a while. He used Substitution Jutsu to avoid the first wave of attacks but was then attacked from near and far by the well-trained Senju ninja. In the end, he was engulfed in flames from explosive tag-wrapped kunai.
Aside from a few exceptionally talented individuals, which top-tier veteran wasn't a well-rounded, all-around fighter?
The moment battle began, Uchiha Takuya sensed intense chakra fluctuations in the distance.
His heart skipped a beat. He rushed from the tent. Looking up, a surging white line approached rapidly with deafening roar.
It was a raging wave that should never have appeared in the forest plains!
"It's the Senju!! When exactly—?!"