[11] Why Is There So Much War?

"You're really something else, you know. Toroi was a bloodline ninja. Leaving his body intact would've been more valuable to us," Shisui said, looking helplessly at what remained of Toroi—nothing but a pile of ashes.

The battle was over. The four-man Cloud squad had been completely wiped out by Yuhara and Shisui, including the Magnet Release user, Toroi.

Honestly, this squad wasn't weak. If they had faced anyone else, it might've been a tough fight.

Even a fully manned standard team would've had trouble with them. In most situations, retreating would've been the smarter option.

Unfortunately for them, their luck was terrible—they encountered two Uchiha: Yuhara and Shisui.

Their combat style was completely countered by the Uchiha's abilities. Under those conditions, they never stood a chance.

The battle had lasted less than ten minutes. Most of that time had been spent chasing down one of them who tried to flee, forcing Shisui to pursue.

What Shisui didn't expect was to return and find Toroi already turned to ashes by Yuhara's hand.

"That's the Anbu way of doing things. I'm not Anbu. I don't have the habit of bringing back corpses for study."

Yuhara didn't see anything wrong with what he did. In fact, this was his standard practice—whenever he finished off an enemy, he burned them to ash.

It might've seemed brutal—no different than desecrating a corpse—but Yuhara understood the truth of this world.

There was a technique capable of resurrecting the dead and forcing them to fight again. And it existed right within Konoha.

He had no interest in dealing with enemies he'd already killed. Better to be cautious and reduce them to ash so they'd never return.

"You're seriously something else…" Shisui was taken aback but eventually just shook his head and let it go.

Instead, he gave Yuhara a strange look. "When I saw you use the Substitution Jutsu earlier… the next second, you were flying. And not slowly, either—you were agile in mid-air. When did you learn to fly?"

"Not long ago," Yuhara replied with a small smile.

Then, in an unhurried tone, he added, "After I heard the Third Tsuchikage could fly, I started thinking about how it was possible.

"He uses Earth Release, and so do I. So I started researching how to make the body lighter using Earth Release—how to lift myself off the ground.

"I got lucky. It took a lot of effort, but I figured it out."

In reality, Yuhara's Flight Technique had nothing to do with Earth Release. But it made for a convenient excuse, and a believable one at that.

After all, Ōnoki was a known example, and Yuhara was regarded as a genius. If anyone could reproduce the feat, it would be him.

As expected, Shisui nodded lightly and didn't press further.

Every ninja had their own signature jutsu—some of which they kept secret. Pressing for answers was considered foolish… and sometimes even suspicious.

"Got it. We should clean up the area," Shisui said, glancing at the battlefield littered with corpses. He sighed and stepped forward.

Yuhara followed silently. As they moved, he couldn't help but open his system interface.

After killing Toroi, the system had triggered a notification—and his curiosity was piqued.

[Skill: Glorious Evolution (0/1)]

[Activation Condition: Collect 100 Power Fragments]

[Power Fragments: Jonin – 25, Chunin – 20, Genin – 10, Ordinary Enemies – 1–5]

[Current Power Fragments: 85]

[Friendly Reminder: Ninja rank does not equal actual strength. Keep up the good work, Host.]

"Huh?"

Yuhara was stunned as he looked at the numbers. He hadn't expected to have collected so many power fragments already.

He didn't have any kind of cheat that doubled rewards, so the numbers shouldn't be inflated.

And he had only killed Toroi—by the time he turned to assist Shisui, two enemies were already down, and Shisui had gone to chase the last one.

He'd been a bit frustrated then—Jonin, Chunin, even Genin all gave at least 10 fragments. Missing out felt like a loss.

"Could it be because I was teamed up with Shisui? Even if I didn't land the final blow, assists count, so I still get the fragments?"

The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Eighty-five fragments—that aligned perfectly with the reward from one Jonin and three Chunin.

It was the correct total, which made Yuhara ecstatic. He only needed to take down one more Jonin—or even just a Chunin—to activate the skill!

"This is a huge win. If Shisui hadn't come along, I wouldn't have dared take on all four of them alone."

His earlier frustration over not getting all the kills faded completely. Taking out Toroi had been more than enough.

Now that he realized how much he'd gained, his mood lifted dramatically.

Still, it wasn't the time to celebrate.

Looking at the battlefield full of corpses, Yuhara sighed.

He didn't care about the Cloud ninja—he could look at them without emotion. But the civilian casualties… those he couldn't ignore.

Civilian deaths were common during ninja battles.

But these Cloud ninja had massacred an entire village just to catch one rogue ninja. It was inhuman—no different than the atrocities committed in war-torn regions.

Killing them was justice. They deserved to die.

Together, he and Shisui gathered the bodies of the villagers and prepared a mass cremation using Fire Release.

The roaring flames engulfed the village. Smoke and fire rose into the night sky, casting long shadows in the flickering light.

Yuhara and Shisui stood quietly at a distance, watching the blaze.

But just as the fire reached its peak, Shisui broke the heavy silence.

"Yuhara… why do you think there's so much war in the world?"