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In the spring of March, with grass growing and birds chirping, outside of the village of Jōmae, within a secluded canyon, an eerie stillness, like a cold wind, enveloped the natural surroundings that should have been filled with vibrant life.
"Mokuton: Jukai Kōtan!"
With a voice devoid of any emotion, trees erupted from the ground, clawing their way toward the man in simple white robes standing at the center, a crescent moon-like blue and purple mark imprinted on his forehead.
Gensou calmly glanced at the approaching trees, closing his eyes. The unseen natural energy around him surged into his body.
Just as countless vines and branches were about to entangle him, Gensou opened his eyes.
"Senpō!"
In an instant, blue markings appeared at the corners of Gensou's eyes.
Before the vines could approach, the overwhelming Senjutsu chakra, much more potent than regular chakra, burst forth from his body, disintegrating the incoming vines completely.
Under the palpable pressure, with Gensou at the center, no matter how furiously the Mokuton stretched out, it couldn't get close within ten meters.
Gensou shifted his gaze to the caster of the Mokuton technique and took a step forward.
Whoosh!
The distance of a hundred meters vanished in a flash.
Gensou threw a punch, sending the Edo Tensei-controlled, vacant-eyed Hashirama flying backward, with half of his body reduced to dust.
However, in no time, the sound of fluttering paper filled the air as Hashirama's Edo Tensei body quickly regenerated.
Hashirama clapped his hands together once again.
"Senpō!"
The same Sage Mode mask appeared on his face. Unlike Gensou, whose transformation was limited to the corners of his eyes, Hashirama's sage markings were more intricate, and his pupils slightly changed color. Gensou's sage markings were blue, while Hashirama's were deep red.
This difference wasn't due to a hierarchy in Senjutsu. Hashirama's Senjutsu came from Shikkotsu Forest, where human practitioners are inevitably influenced by slugs, while Gensou's was a newly developed sage art specifically tailored for humans.
At that moment, both in Sage Mode, with their chakra transformed into Senjutsu chakra, Gensou and Hashirama clashed again, their battle more intense than before.
Minutes later, the once picturesque canyon looked as if it had been ravaged by a massive earthquake, now in utter ruins.
Just as it seemed the fight would reduce the canyon to complete rubble, Hashirama's movements suddenly halted, and his body emitted a white glow.
Gensou stopped simultaneously, watching as the sound of fluttering paper filled the air once again around Hashirama.
Moments later, the Edo Tensei body of Hashirama began to disintegrate, leaving behind an unfamiliar corpse wearing an Iwa forehead protector and a jōnin vest.
"Is that all?" Gensou sighed slightly, feeling a bit unsatisfied.
The Edo Tensei technique he possessed wasn't the complete version perfected by Orochimaru, and thus it always had various flaws. Despite having conducted further research over the past year, most of his energy had been focused on mastering the seven chakra natures and developing Senjutsu, so there hadn't been many breakthroughs.
The Edo Tensei technique Gensou currently employed still couldn't fully restore the intelligence of the resurrected and had numerous unpredictable issues during its use—like Hashirama suddenly vanishing just now.
However, there was some progress. With a high enough quality sacrifice, the resurrected could display a considerable portion of their strength. The sacrifice for Hashirama earlier had been a jōnin from Iwa who had recently become active in the area.
By infusing Hashirama's cells into the body of this jōnin, followed by an immediate Edo Tensei, Hashirama was able to unleash a significant portion of his power, even using Senjutsu, far surpassing his abilities during the Chūnin Exams.
Unfortunately, it wasn't sustainable.
Fortunately, Gensou had obtained enough Hashirama cells from Root, which could be used to cultivate more flesh, allowing him to continue summoning Hashirama for training.
The only issue left to consider was the sacrifice.
While White Zetsu made an excellent test subject, Gensou didn't have many of them and didn't want to waste such valuable resources on Edo Tensei.
As for sacrifices like the Iwa jōnin, they weren't easy to come by. If not for Iwa's recent suspicious activities, sending people to investigate the area, Gensou would have had to go out of his way to find a suitable sacrifice.
"Speaking of which, it's time for the villagers of Jōmae to relocate."
Due to Gensou and Sasuke's trip to the Land of Fire, which drew attention from the shinobi world, Jōmae village had been given enough time to prepare for relocation.
The investigative capabilities of the department formed after the Second Five Kage Summit were quite impressive. Delaying detection for over a year was already an achievement.
Recalling the intelligence report from Samui, who had recently joined the investigation department, Gensou made up his mind.
But before that, feeling that his Sage Mode was about to end, Gensou activated his Yin Seal and attempted to store the Senjutsu chakra within it.
Before he could store much, the Yin Seal began to shake violently, prompting him to stop.
"Still not quite there," Gensou murmured.
After returning from Mount Katsuragi and learning much from the fury-releasing forbidden jutsu, Gensou's Senjutsu development had progressed smoothly. He had finally accomplished what no one in the shinobi world had done before, developing a Senjutsu specifically designed for human practitioners.
This explained why his Sage Mode manifested only the traditional blue chakra markings, with no animal-like transformations.
However, since the Senjutsu had just been completed, its duration wasn't very long. Wanting a longer-lasting Sage Mode, Gensou had tried storing Senjutsu chakra in the Yin Seal for future use.
This wasn't just wishful thinking. Inspired by the black orbs used to store the fury-release forbidden jutsu, Gensou had modified the structure of the Yin Seal.
However, it seemed there was still much work to be done. After all, the black orbs could only temporarily store energy.
If Gensou wanted to develop the Yin Seal into a Senjutsu Seal to enhance his power further, there was still a long way to go.
Nonetheless, the successful development of Senjutsu marked another step forward in Gensou's power.
With his current strength, he had surpassed even the eternal Madara.
As for a complete Senju Hashirama or Rinnegan Madara, only a battle would tell.
(End of Chapter)