Chapter 49: The Three Secrets of the Blade of the Rising Sun
Hidden Mist Village — Mizukage's Office
"What? Star is dead?"
Yagura tightened his grip around the report.
Standing before him were Mangetsu Hōzuki, Munashi Jinpachi, and Shirō Fubuki. All three had lowered their heads. None of them had expected Star to actually die.
It seemed that after they had separated, Star had encountered another situation.
Yagura's gaze swept across the three of them.
"Are you saying that the four of you failed to kill that Uchiha brat?"
"Yes... The intelligence was inaccurate. The enemy had experts of their own, and Uchiha Gōenji was far more troublesome than our reports indicated. As for Konoha, their reinforcements arrived far too quickly."
Munashi Jinpachi shifted the blame toward the intelligence report.
What he said wasn't entirely false. The intelligence had indeed been flawed.
Even though they had done their best to overestimate Konoha's shinobi, Uchiha Gōenji had still managed to escape.
As the captain, Munashi Jinpachi knew he couldn't completely escape responsibility, so all he could do was find an excuse.
Yagura's expression darkened at his evasive answer, but he didn't lash out.
"Fine. Go back and rest. Fubuki, make sure you recover properly as well. The village still needs your strength."
His gaze fell upon Fubuki Shirō, who looked particularly weak after the battle.
"Yes, Mizukage-sama. Next time, I definitely won't let them escape."
Fubuki Shirō nodded weakly.
The three of them slowly withdrew.
Bang!
Yagura struck the floor with his staff, the dull impact echoing through the office.
"Damn it. That Uchiha brat still wasn't killed? I didn't expect the Uchiha to be this troublesome."
Faced with two Uchiha prodigies appearing on the battlefield, Yagura genuinely wanted to go out and assassinate them himself.
The temptation was enormous.
But he understood his responsibility.
His mission was to lead Kirigakure toward prosperity, not recklessly leave the village to assassinate enemy shinobi.
He was the Mizukage now.
A politician.
Not merely an ordinary shinobi.
"Then we'll decide the winner on the battlefield."
...
Konoha Camp
"Gōenji..."
Fūjin sighed as she sat beside him, brushing a strand of hair aside.
Half of her face was wrapped in thick bandages, concealing much of the charm she normally possessed.
She watched as Gōenji used a stick to draw lines and write formulas across the ground.
He seemed to be calculating something.
There were countless mathematical equations covering the earth, so complicated that Fūjin couldn't understand them at all.
"What is it?" Gōenji asked without looking up.
"Aren't you sad?"
"I'm very sad."
"Then where do you find the time to sit here drawing all these things?"
"I can't help it. Being sad won't make my injuries disappear."
Gōenji continued writing.
"My injuries haven't recovered yet, so all I can do is sit here and work on this. Otherwise, I'd have already started training or gone back to the battlefield."
His condition was actually quite serious.
He had pushed his chakra and physical body far beyond their limits during the battle.
A shinobi's physical strength was ultimately connected to the activity of their cells. Squeezing out the body's potential meant forcing those cells beyond their normal limits, and shortening the lifespan of the cells naturally meant shortening his own lifespan.
And that wasn't even the worst part.
His injuries themselves were severe.
For the past few days, he had barely been able to move.
He couldn't properly use ninjutsu or taijutsu.
All he could do was concentrate on developing new techniques.
Or analyze the current battlefield situation, think about his future plans, and so on.
That was basically how he was spending his recovery period.
Fūjin nodded.
"You're right. There's no point dwelling on it. On a battlefield, once someone is dead, they're dead."
Her own injuries weren't light either.
The fact that she had managed to hold out against such a powerful enemy for so long was already remarkable, but the frostbite and other injuries covering her body were severe.
After returning, she had become another wounded shinobi at the Konoha camp, just like Gōenji.
Neither of them needed to return to the front lines for the time being.
According to the current estimates, they would probably have to return to Konoha soon.
"Heh. Death is just a journey to another world."
Gōenji's expression had already recovered its usual calm.
"I'll continue living for them."
He paused.
"Yeah... I should be able to do that."
The notes and reference materials on nature transformation and shape transformation continued to pile up around him.
Over the past few days, he had been completely focused on developing a new ninjutsu.
Blade of the Rising Sun.
It sounded impressive.
But creating it was far from simple.
Over the past few days, he had performed countless calculations.
Concentrating all the heat into the tip or edge of a sword was considerably more complicated than using the leverage-based chakra structures he had previously developed.
Or, more accurately, using chakra control to construct a leverage-based shape was only the foundation.
Even basic Academy instruction covered the principle that concentrating heat could generate enormous energy and increase a technique's destructive power.
So why hadn't anyone done it before?
Because it was simply too difficult.
Gōenji had confidence that he could accomplish it precisely because he had immense confidence in his talent for Fire Release.
His affinity for Fire Release was genuinely exceptional.
And as his chakra control continued to improve, his ability to manipulate Fire Release would reach an even higher level.
The essence of Fire Release was transforming chakra into high-temperature flames through Fire Nature Transformation.
Gōenji had even summarized the principles into formulas.
E = C × (T + K)
E: Flame energy
C: Amount of chakra
T: Fire Nature Transformation efficiency
K: Environmental temperature correction coefficient
Then there was the advanced Fire Release formula for high-temperature compression.
P = (C × T) / V
P: Flame pressure
V: Flame volume
By compressing the volume of the flames, he could dramatically increase their pressure, creating a high-temperature, high-density plasma-like state with greater penetrating power and destructive force.
For example, if he compressed the flames into the tip of a sword, the resulting temperature could push Fire Release beyond its conventional limits.
Then came the formula for Fire Release shape transformation.
For techniques such as Great Fireball Technique and Dragon Flame Jutsu, the shape of the flames could be represented as:
F = C × T × S
F: Flame shape
C: Amount of chakra
T: Fire Nature Transformation efficiency
S: Shape-control coefficient, determined by the complexity of the hand seals and the chakra flow required to maintain the shape
The value of S varied according to complexity:
Simple shapes, such as Great Fireball Technique: S = 1
Complex shapes, such as Dragon Flame Jutsu: S = 2–3
Extremely complex shapes, such as the newly designed Blade of the Rising Sun: S ≥ 5
The more complicated the shape, the greater the chakra consumption.
But in exchange, the power and precision would also increase.
Over these past few days, Gōenji's understanding of Fire Release had deepened considerably.
He had organized various Fire Release formulas to assist his research and training.
Chakra compression.
High-temperature nature transformation.
Shape control.
These were the three crucial elements behind the Blade of the Rising Sun.
Once he had successfully solved all three, the technique would essentially be complete.
At least, that was the initial theory.
In reality, Gōenji had considered two additional factors beyond these three categories of formulas.
However, he lacked sufficient data to incorporate them yet.
For example, he wanted to establish a formula describing the interaction between Fire Release and the surrounding environment.
There was also the forbidden Fire Release formula he had begun considering:
Chakra Combustion Rate.
"Too difficult."
Gōenji stared at the formulas he had written line by line.
"Good thing my brain works pretty well now."
Fūjin watched his serious expression.
For some reason, the uninjured half of her face gradually turned red.
Gōenji looks incredibly attractive when he's serious!