Ninja ranks are officially divided into Genin, Chunin, Jonin, and Kage, but this classification is far too crude. Saiki preferred the levels categorized by fans in his previous life.
By actual strength, ninja can be divided into Genin, Chunin, Elite Chunin, Special Jonin, Jonin, Elite Jonin, Kage-level, Super Kage-level, and the Six Paths.
Of course, a ninja's true combat power cannot be judged solely by rank; one must account for chakra reserves, quality and nature of chakra, mastered Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and more.
Saiki's current foundational strength was at least that of a Special Jonin. However, with his "cheat" active, he undoubtedly possessed Jonin-level chakra, and when combined with his Flower-Flower Fruit abilities, he could even hold his own against a Kage-level opponent.
Thus, facing this group of Cloud Ninja, he truly felt no fear. Relying on his fruit powers, he had instantly eliminated six Genin. Although the two Elite Chunin hadn't had their necks snapped, they were severely strained.
As for the Jonin—whose name Saiki didn't yet know was Asai—he was genuinely formidable. The moment Saiki activated his ability and arms sprouted from his shoulders, he reacted instantly.
Not just his shoulders; arms sprouted from Asai's abdomen and waist to pin his hands. With his arms bound and unable to weave signs, his head was seized and about to be twisted off.
While the Lightning Style Chakra Mode is only passed down through the Raikage line—partly due to secrecy and partly because it requires immense physical durability—it wasn't the only way to harness electricity.
A simplified version involving Lightning Style cell activation to boost speed and strength was common among high-ranking Cloud Ninja.
Faced with a lethal crisis, Asai unleashed a violent burst of Lightning Style chakra from his entire body. The surge instantly scorched Saiki's sprouted limbs, forcing the ability to deactivate.
The damage taken by the arms reflected back onto Saiki's main body. If it weren't for his own mastery of Lightning Style and high resistance to electricity, his real hands would have been fried.
Before his arms were injured, Saiki only had time to finish off the six Genin. Once Asai retaliated, Saiki lost the chance to kill the two struggling Elite Chunin.
Besides, Chunin sent to the front lines are the elite of the elite; they aren't that easy to dispatch.
Nearby, Tsume Inuzuka saw it all. Seizing the moment of the enemy's confusion, she launched a decisive strike.
"Sensei Tsume, no!"
Seeing Tsume Inuzuka attack, Saiki tried to stop her, but it was too late.
"Fang Over Fang!"
Though Saiki's ambush had partially failed, the two Chunin were still rattled. Tsume knew charging into the enemy formation was dangerous, but it was their only chance to cripple the two Chunin.
Only by severely wounding them could she and Saiki hope to escape from a Jonin.
Transforming into two high-speed rotating black tornadoes, Tsume and Kuromaru slammed into the two Chunin who were still clutching their strained necks in lingering shock.
BOOM!
The black tornadoes, carrying terrifying shredding force and momentum, collided with the Chunin's chests.
Subjected to such a devastating blow, the chest armor of the two Chunin was shredded instantly, leaving spiral-shaped lacerations across their torsos.
Their bodies twisted and arched under the impact, eyes bulging as blood sprayed from their noses and mouths, sending them flying like tattered ragdolls.
Among them, Asai, possessing the greatest raw strength, managed to tear free from Saiki's restraint and reacted in a flash.
Though he had no time to weave signs for Ninjutsu to shield his subordinates from the assault of Tsume Inuzuka and Kuromaru, he saw an opening to deal a heavy blow to the attackers.
"You're asking for death!"
These words left Saiki's and Asai's mouths almost simultaneously.
As Asai drew the long blade from his back to strike at Tsume, Saiki unsheathed the tachi at his hip.
"Lightning Blade!"
"Chidori Current!"
If it weren't for their different forehead protectors and gear, one might have mistaken them for shinobi of the same village, as both had coated their blades in Lightning Style chakra.
When thinking of Naruto, one naturally thinks of the protagonists Naruto and Sasuke, as well as their signature jutsu: Rasengan and Chidori.
Saiki had tested himself; like Kakashi, he was a natural talent with all nature transformations—Fire, Wind, Lightning, Water, Earth, Yin, and Yang.
Over three years, having already conceptualized the Rasengan and aided by Tsunade's guidance—along with the research notes of the Ninjutsu master Tobirama Senju—Saiki had successfully developed Chidori, Raikiri, and several derivative Lightning Style techniques.
Chidori and Raikiri are not the same; Raikiri is an advanced evolution of Chidori. While Raikiri is less versatile in terms of shape transformation, it possesses superior cutting power.
However, Raikiri requires hand signs and preparation, whereas Chidori can be released instantaneously without signs.
Facing the Jonin Asai's slash toward Tsume, Saiki had no time to spare, so he opted for the slightly less powerful but instantaneous Chidori.
Asai's face contorted as his blade slammed into the high-speed black tornado formed by Tsume, but Saiki, propelled to terrifying speeds by Lightning Style stimulation, appeared behind him and slashed at his arm.
Saiki's primary goal wasn't to kill Asai—though doing so wouldn't be difficult—but to rescue Tsume and ensure she remained unharmed.
Though the description is long, it all happened in the blink of an eye: Tsume struck the two Cloud Chunin, Asai swung at Tsume, and Saiki followed through.
The weakness of Chidori—the inability to see the enemy clearly due to the extreme charging speed—did not exist for Saiki.
His daily cultivation of "Qi" not only gave him boundless energy and chakra but also granted him a sensory perception similar to divine consciousness, vastly enhancing his reaction speed and spatial awareness.
Thanks to Saiki's timely intervention and the high-speed rotation of the Fang Over Fang—which created a chakra protective layer similar to the Rotation—Asai failed to cleave through the black tornado.
Forced to choose between killing Tsume or losing an arm, Asai chose the latter; confident he could still kill them later, he decisively pulled back his blade and dodged.
"Ah!"
The two Chunin were sent flying by the Fang Over Fang, but as the rotation ended and Tsume hit the ground, she let out a cry of pain.
"Sensei Tsume!"
Hearing her cry, Saiki immediately knelt by her side to check her injuries.
Even though Saiki's rescue had prevented her from being cut in half, Fang Over Fang was fundamentally an offensive Taijutsu; it lacked the absolute defensive power of the Hyuga's Rotation. Tsume had been wounded.
Her thigh had been hit; blood was already soaking through her pants.
Seeing Saiki trying to check her wound, Tsume ignored the pain, gritted her teeth, and shouted: "Forget about me! Take the chance and run, now!"
Looking at his two heavily injured subordinates—men beyond saving even with a Medical Ninja—and the Genin whose necks were snapped before they could even throw a kunai, Asai's face grew terrifyingly dark.
He had expected a simple cleanup mission and perhaps a bit of interrogation for intel, but now his two squads had been reduced to just him.
"Run? Where could you possibly go? You're all going to die!" Asai hissed through clenched teeth.
Despite losing so many men in such a short time, and despite the burning rage in his heart, Asai remained rational.
The way Saiki had sprouted arms from his shoulders to snap necks had left a deep impression on him; he was now on guard against Saiki's ambush while weighing his options.
Saiki looked to be only about ten years old. Based on the power and skill he had just displayed, Konoha had clearly produced another monster of a genius.
Asai had two thoughts: either take Saiki back to the Cloud as a breeding tool to steal his genes, or kill him—his corpse would still hold immense research value.
While Asai remained calculated, Saiki's eyes were turning red with anger.
In the three years since arriving in this world, Saiki had struggled to truly integrate; he didn't even particularly like Konoha.
But that didn't mean he lacked feelings. He had formed bonds with Tsunade, Shizune, and many others. After ten days of traveling together, he had come to care for Tsume Inuzuka as well.
Seeing Tsume wounded while trying to protect him, Saiki was incensed.
"You're asking for death."
Holding his blade, Saiki stood up, his cold eyes locking onto Asai.
"Acala: The Wisdom King!"
Petals fluttered, and a three-meter-tall figure manifested behind Saiki. It consisted of a powerful upper body with three heads and six arms, featuring a crimson face and bared fangs.
The Wisdom King shared a resemblance to Saiki, but its skin was blood-red, its expression one of pure divine wrath.
Each of the three heads wore a look of fury, and its six arms were woven into three distinct hand signs. A terrifying amount of chakra erupted from this partial manifestation.
"Lightning Flash!"
In the next instant, Saiki vanished.
Snapping out of the shock of the three-headed, six-armed manifestation and the overwhelming chakra, all Asai could see was a brilliant, snow-white arc of light filling his vision.
Shlick!
Saiki's silhouette, transformed into a bolt of lightning, crossed paths with Asai's body.
When Saiki reappeared, he slid several meters further, unable to instantly kill his momentum. He held his lightning-flickering blade in a follow-through stance.
Clatter!
Asai's body froze in place. A moment later, the long blade he had used to try and parry the strike snapped into two pieces and hit the dirt.
Splurt!
A diagonal spray of blood erupted from his left forehead, trailing down to his right hip.
Shock was written all over Asai's widening pupils as he was sliced diagonally in half by Saiki's blade; then, under the pull of gravity, his body slid apart, breaking into several pieces as various fluids splattered across the ground.
Until the very moment of his death, Asai could not comprehend what had just happened.
In truth, it was quite simple: just as Madara Uchiha would later use Susanoo to assist with hand signs, today Saiki had his own "Hana-no-o" (Flower-o) to assist with weaving signs and releasing ninjutsu!
The body parts manifested by the Hana Hana no Mi are unique; they are both one with Saiki's body and separate from it.
They are "one" in the sense that if the manifested parts take damage, it is reflected back to Saiki, and his sensory perception remains synchronized, as if he simply had an extra arm.
The clones Saiki creates are no different from his original body; if a clone is hurt, he is hurt; if a clone eats, it is the same as Saiki eating; if a clone relieves itself, it is the same as Saiki doing so.
Of course, he chose not to actually do that.
However, they are "separate" because creating a clone is equivalent to having an extra set of physical and spiritual energy.
Otherwise, with only one brain, Saiki could never control so many limbs simultaneously.
Of course, this extra spirit acts as Saiki's mental projection, allowing him to control every move of the clone while those moves are fed back to him in real-time.
This also brings a massive benefit: not only can Saiki's main body refine chakra, but since the clones have physical forms and corresponding spiritual power, they can also refine chakra.
Thus, the Hana Hana no Mi acts as a physical and spiritual amplifier for Saiki, as well as a chakra and ninjutsu booster.
This means he only needs to consume a small amount of stamina to create a clone that possesses the same physical and spiritual energy as himself, and that clone can refine the same amount of chakra.
Essentially, if Saiki creates one clone, he gains one extra portion of chakra; if he creates a hundred clones, he can refine a hundred portions of chakra.
The "Acala" (Fudo Myoo) Saiki manifested was a giant composed of twenty clones, which instantaneously refined twenty times the usual amount of chakra, allowing the ninjutsu released by Acala to be cast through Saiki.
The reason Saiki erupted with speed that even a Jonin like Asai couldn't react to was that twenty clones were assisting him with hand signs for the Body Flicker.
With the signs for twenty Body Flickers and the consumption of twenty portions of chakra, it would be strange if Saiki's speed didn't practically take flight.
In summary, the main body and the clones are one yet separate; the clones' senses, jutsu effects, and actions all feed back to Saiki, and they can refine their own chakra.
If you still don't understand after all that, Saiki's Flower Clones are similar to the "He Who Embodies Freedom" technique of the Heavenly Emperor, creating a perfect copy of himself.
The only difference is that Saiki's mind is synchronized with the clones, and the clones are slightly weaker than his main body!
Of the three signs Acala wove, one was for the Body Flicker, one was for Raikiri, and one was for sensory assistance.
The effect of Acala's signs acted upon Saiki, so he was essentially boosted by twenty overlapping Body Flickers, making his speed almost difficult for him to control.
To eliminate Asai quickly, Saiki had brought out his full strength.
However, there was still a drawback: while the ninjutsu effects from the clones could be fed back to the main body, the chakra refined by the clones could not be transferred to the main body.
But Saiki didn't dwell on it; if he could, it would be like stepping on his own left foot with his right to fly to heaven—the fact that clones could refine chakra at all was already the magic of the Devil Fruit.
Furthermore, even if someone tried to absorb the chakra created by his Flower Clones, they couldn't use it to replenish their own; this chakra was temporary and would vanish once the ability was deactivated.
Despite her leg injury, Tsume Inuzuka was so shocked by what she saw that she temporarily forgot the pain.
A Jonin!
Konoha had tens of thousands of shinobi, yet Jonin and Special Jonin combined numbered only three or four hundred!
And Asai was clearly the type of Jonin who was exceptionally powerful.
A Jonin held immense power and status within a village, yet he was cut down by Saiki without any room for resistance.
Tsume had always known Saiki was strong, but she was truly stunned; perhaps this is what a true genius looked like.
Saiki steadied his breathing; unleashing such power wasn't without cost, as even his toughened body struggled to withstand such a massive chakra burst and extreme speed.
While it was an overlap of twenty signs and portions of chakra, the actual result was a five-to-six-fold increase in effectiveness, which was still impressive.
Ninjutsu has its limits; consuming the chakra of twenty Great Fireballs and weaving the signs twenty times doesn't mean the resulting fireball is exactly twenty times stronger.
Fortunately, Saiki's body was resilient enough that kunai could no longer kill him; he circulated the "Qi" from his sea of energy through his meridians, and the pain and fatigue quickly receded.
After soothing his minor internal strain, Saiki sheathed his blade and rushed to Tsume Inuzuka's side, asking, "Sensei Tsume, are you alright?"
As he spoke, Saiki reached out to examine Tsume's wound.
Tsume urged him, "Don't touch it. We need to leave this place first. It'll be trouble if more pursuers show up."
Looking at the blood-soaked area near her upper thigh, Saiki couldn't help but ask, "Sensei Tsume, can you still stand? Should I carry you?"
Tsume replied, "No need. I'll let Kuromaru carry me."
"But... no one else seems to be coming. We should at least stop the bleeding first," Saiki persisted.
Yet Tsume remained firm, responding, "I've already used chakra to temporarily seal the wound. Kuromaru!"
At her call, the great dog approached, and Tsume climbed onto Kuromaru's back.
Seeing that the wound was on Tsume's thigh, Saiki realized it was indeed not ideal for him to carry her on his back.
He wove a sign to sense his surroundings and found that Shizune and the others were already far beyond his range; since his shadow clone hadn't vanished, they were safe for now.
Saiki used a Fire Style jutsu to incinerate the battlefield along with the enemies' corpses before leaving with the great dog.
Those corpses would have been worth a fair bit of money, but Saiki had assumed this out-of-village trip was a simple escort mission—he hadn't expected the "protagonist effect" to automatically attract trouble.
Consequently, he didn't have any sealing scrolls on him for transporting bodies.
If it weren't for Saiki's mediocre Genjutsu skills, he would have considered brainwashing Tsume, Shizune, and Genhai to make them forget everything that happened today.
The guy was incredibly cautious and had no desire for fame.
Most importantly, he didn't want to draw the attention of Konoha's high-ranking officials; such news would only bring useless fame along with endless trouble and nonstop missions.
However, there are many things in life one cannot simply refuse just because they wish to; he was still too weak for that.