11: The War

The prior year was eventful, to say the least. Just after the death of Ryoichi's mother, Madara attacked again, and the battle of the VALLEY OF END happened.

The battle was so devastating that small tremors and shockwaves could be felt all around the Elemental Nations.

Hashirama was already termed- SHINOBI NO KAMI- but seeing and feeling his power further consolidated that he was the STRONGEST.

The after-effect of that battle was also devastating, the terrain where they fought completely changed.

When other shinobis reached the battleground, they were awed and scared to see many mountains and forests that had disappeared. Statues of both Madara and Hashirama were made to respect the two humans who have reached the realm of GOD.

Many forces and villages who were aiming for Konoha whether out of simple reasons like jealousy and greed or revenge against Konoha's clans for what they did in the previous era stopped whatever they were planning.

Hashirama's show of might completely put off their years of planning.

But unfortunately, that didn't last as after Hashriama returned from the battle his health started to deteriorate. Noticing his condition, Hashirama informed Tobirama that he might not live for long.

Even if shocked that his near-immortal brother dying, Tobirama secretly had medic-nins try to heal Hashirama, but to no avail, they all failed, and after Tobirama himself researched for weeks, did he found the reason behind his brother's condition.

Hashirama has exhausted the special cells that heal the human body, although those cells are also regenerating, but it is very slow and Hashirama's body is losing too much life force.

Although he didn't have a term for those cells, nor did he have time for any further research since a War bigger than any was looming above their heads.

If only he was more proficient in Medical-Jutsu, Tobirama could have tried but that wasn't the case unfortunately, so he recorded all his research about the special cells and left it to the future generations to handle.

And Hashirama after knowing that his approaching death, started to spend time with what mattered to him the most- his grandson and granddaughter, especially his granddaughter since his grandson was too little.

Hashirama still remembered how she cried when her father, that was the day he felt rage like he never did before, both at those bastards who killed his son and himself for letting it happen.

He personally slaughtered all the bandits and organisation behind them that killed his son.

That day Hasiramam also found the conspiracy behind the sudden deaths and disappearances of Senjus. He informed Tobirama, but they couldn't do anything since Madara attacked not long after.

Hashirma felt even more guilt when he remembered the day his daughter-in-law died due to her health declining after giving birth to Nawaki. His tsuna slept in his arm crying and repeating how she'd become the best medic-nin so that no other mother die like hers.

When Hashirama thought about his own death, he felt even more guilty.

Hashirama even started inviting that hateful brat so that he could become someone who could console Tsunade when he dies.

Hashirama knew that the brat was colder than Tobirama, and would become even more ruthless than Tobirama, but he didn't care.

Hashirama also saw how the brat hides his true nature and manipulates others, he thinks he also hides it from him, but how can he hide from a sage?

Hashirama also knew Ryoichi could use nature energy, and in his opinion, no truly evil person could be a sage.

Hashirama even asked that brat on his death bed why he cared about his Tsuna and the reply he got before he closed his eyes lessened his worry slightly.

" She was the only one who cried when my mother died, many consoled me whether out of pity or guilt, but deep down they didn't care, they only felt thankful that they didn't die that day. Only Tsunade hugged me and cried with genuine worry and sadness."

The last thing Hashirama saw before he died was the crying face of Tsunade and Ryoichi firmly holding her hand.

After Hashirama's death, Tobirama tried to hide it as much as possible, but Hashirama's death wasn't something that could be hidden easily. Only in a few months, did the news of his death spread throughout the Elemental nations.

While Konoha held a funeral for Hashirama, the whole continent was silent, but everyone knew it was the kind of silence you get before the approaching storm.

But All these had nothing to do with Caramell skin, gold-eyed boy.

During all these months Ryoichi didn't stop training, he continued the second phase of his Anbu training from early morning till afternoon. The rest of the time was divided between learning more about Elemental Nation from Anbu and Senju library.

The amount of natural energy he can absorb and refine also steadily increased during these months.

During his studies in the Senju library, Ryoichi came across a really interesting book.

A book Hashirama wrote after he tried to cross the sea. Like many before Hashirama became interested in exploring the unexplored seas.

Hashirama organised a party of trained shinobi and entered the sea without any problem. The start of their journey was easy and a few days passed quickly with minimal effort from the experienced shinobi.

But then they showed up-the animals that have absorbed natural energy and have evolved like the animals from the three sage regions.

Their strength wasn't anything that Hashirama couldn't handle, but their number and terrain were… Hashirama had to retreat when the Nature beast destroyed his ship.

The thing that Ryoichi found most interesting was how Hasirama described those Nature beasts.

He even questioned Hasirama about them, and the answer he received left him both curious and eager.

Hashirama has told Ryoichi that Aquatic natural beasts were different from the natural animals found in sage regions.

Hashirama explained that the natural energy that aquatics absorbed was fundamentally different from sage regions, and although he couldn't tell what that difference was which disappointed Ryoichi, but he didn't blame him.

Ryoichi knew Hasirama's sage body was a blessing and a curse, it absorbed natural energy so easily that he didn't have deeper knowledge about nature's energy.

Hashirama's SAGE BODY is like Uchiha's MANGEKYOU SHATINGAN, they both give user abilities beyond comprehension, but since their users don't know how they truly work, their flexibility and mobility are really bad, they cannot compete with someone who understands their powers and can use them however they want.

Ryoichi also approached Mito after Hashirama's death and requested her to teach him Fuinjutsu. Mito was reluctant to teach him at first, but after Tobirama talked with her she accepted.

Ryoichi thought he had already learned the basics of Fuinjutsu, but was proven wrong and had to spend the first few weeks learning them again.

After learning the basics in two weeks which surprised Mito, Ryoichi finally started learning low-level seals. And it took him one month to learn and replicate them perfectly.

Mito was shocked at his progress. Even calling him a genius wouldn't explain his disgustingly fast learning pace. It took her years to reach such a level.

But instead of becoming angry, she became curious. Curious about how fast will Ryoichi absorb the rest of her teaching.

And to say Ryoichi didn't disappoint was an understatement. In just half-year he became a Seal Master- no he came very to close becoming a Seal Grandmaster, he only needed to invent his own seal to become one.

While Mito was shocked and slightly delighted at his progress, Ryoichi was disappointed. He thought with his brain that he could easily surpass Mito's level of skills.

Not realising that if Mito had heard such thoughts she would have definitely scolded him that he was not only being greedy but also delusional.

How can someone surpass another by copying their skills, even Kobe couldn't.

With those thoughts crossing Ryoichi's mind, he came up with the idea of SEAL MATRIX.

The SEAL MATRIX's concept was really simple, it was similar to mobile Apps. Since seals are similar to Computer Coding where instead of using a computer one uses ink, brush, chakra and willpower. So no matter how fast a seal user is he still needs time to complete his "Coding" for the seals to work. But SEAL MATRIX are like an Application that already has all its coding complete, all you have to do is "Run" the program, or in the matrix case supply chakra, and it will perform the preset functions.

While he was working on his SEAL MATRIX he realised FLYING THUNDER GOD is also a matrix, or more like semi-matrix. He requested Tobirama to let him see the Jutusu which he accepted.

Ryoichi also tried to learn other Jutsus that would be later recorded in the Forbidden Scroll, but Tobirama only allowed one which he chose FLYING THUNDER GOD to complete his research.

Normally one needs to achieve remarkable achievement to even get the opportunity to see FLYING THUNDER GOD, but the War that has recently begun has forced Tobirama to fasten the growth rate of Anbus, and that's not only thing Tobirama did, the age restriction of Academy admissions and graduation are also removed by him.

All of Hashirama's sacrifices and efforts for an ideal world died alongside him.

But again all that has nothing to do with Ryoichi as he got too busy after he finished his Anbu training since he can finally able to take on missions, and go outside the village, all his plans started to come in motion.

But those plans were secondary as his main focus was to find the organisation that killed his mother.

Oni has informed Ryoichi what they were able to get from the hairless man after Ryoichi left him in Oni's care. Honestly, he became quite a talkative fellow after he left him.

So most of Ryoichi's missions revolved around bandits and missing-nins, and other cases like that. He has only taken one mission take wasn't related to finding that organisation. That was his recent one where he got promoted to Jonin.

Fortunately, all of Ryoichi's effort wasn't meaningless as he was able to track their location through their active movements due the War.