NARUTO: THE STRONGEST UZUMAKI

"Get behind me, you little brats!"

As soon as his words fell, the war refugees huddled behind him.

"Take care of the children, you bastards. Those who let them get hurt because they're more worried about their own lives will taste my iron fist."

As soon as Tanaka finished speaking, he performed hand seals and then shouted, "Suiton: Water Wall Formation!"

In an instant, a large amount of water appeared, which he then controlled to form a circular barrier five meters around them.

The only reason he could produce so much water, besides what was coming from the rain, was because of the Ring of Elemental Power. When he chose to use the water element, using water-related jutsus became much easier, as he could use his MP as the water element.

"You little brats, are you all okay?" he asked, turning around.

"Y-Yes!" they exclaimed in unison.

"Damn it... These assholes don't even take care; they're like a bunch of kids with cool toys, shooting in every direction without any care." Tanaka clicked his tongue as he finished speaking.

The people behind him swallowed hard, speechless, as no one had ever made such comparisons before.

The reality was that in times of war, civilians had to rely on luck to survive. The chances of dying from allied attacks were just as high as dying from enemy attacks.

"Yami-sama is so cool~!" one of the children cheered, ignoring all the tension in the air.

"Yes, he is," said another child, none other than Kana, the little girl who had asked Tanaka's name earlier.

The adults looked uncomfortably at the children. Deep down, they thought the same thing but were smart enough not to say it out loud, as they didn't know what they could or couldn't say without offending this person who was willing to help them out of the eye of the storm.

When the water barrier lowered, Tanaka looked at the approaching group of three ninjas from the Hidden Stone Village with fierce eyes.

'I'm not even participating in the war; I'm just taking these civilians to a safe place, so why have I become a target?' Tanaka felt like cursing.

However, he wasn't a punching bag. Now that they were coming directly at him with the intent to attack, making his bloodlust warnings flash incessantly, his eyes grew cold.

In his left hand, a water sphere formed. Soon, it took the shape of a disc, starting to spin and vibrate at high frequency.

He made up a random name: "Suiton: Rotating Disc!"

The buzz of the spinning disc in his hand echoed. The ninjas approaching him stopped, cautiously eyeing his hand.

"Smart, but if you're ready to point your fangs in my direction, you'd better be ready when I retaliate, you little brats." Saying this, he hurled the water disc. Of course, he activated the Precise Throw skill in his mind as a chakra thread connected to the disc.

"Whoosh!"

A sharp sound, like a whistle that would drive any dog crazy, echoed.

"Watch out!!"

Shouting that wasn't going to help at all. The moment they became his target, their chances of avoiding the attack were almost zero, and even if they did…

As the disc reached one of them, it passed through his neck faster than an axe in the hands of a veteran lumberjack cutting bamboo.

A clean cut made the ninja from the Hidden Stone Village raise his hand to his neck, incredulous that something had passed through, and he was still fine. However, just the simple touch of his fingers caused the wound to appear, and soon his head began to fall.

Meanwhile, the water disc that had just passed by was pulled back by chakra threads, slicing the neck of the next ninja, who was stunned by what had just happened.

'I need to run!' A blaring alarm echoed in the mind of the third ninja, but it was already too late to do anything, as the water disc came at him sideways and, vertically, sliced from his neck down to his elbow.

"Thud! Thud! Thud!"

As the three bodies fell to the ground consecutively, the high-frequency spinning water disc controlled by Tanaka simply stopped spinning and dissolved into the air, falling as a puddle of water on the ground.

From start to finish, it took only 10 seconds to end the lives of the level 55, 59, and 62 ninjas.

The EXP and skill rewards soon flashed before him.

Ignoring the bodies of the three ninjas, he turned to the stunned civilians behind him and said, "Don't just stand there with your mouths open, you little brats, let's get out of here, or more ninjas will show up, and it'll be a pain to deal with more of them."

"Y-Yes." This time, they responded more fearfully than before.

What he had demonstrated was something that made their stomachs turn.

However, they were not ordinary civilians, but rather those who had firsthand experience of the cruelty of war. That's why they managed to stay lucid as they followed him away from the war zone.

One thing he noticed while fleeing was that the Hidden Leaf Village was facing almost all the other villages simultaneously and was not losing at all. Among the ninjas of the Hidden Leaf Village, the leaders were primarily from the main clans, such as the Uchiha, Hyuga, and others.

The fact that it was like this proves that, even though people say the Hidden Leaf Village has weakened, it was laughable to believe they were on the same level. At this point, it was clear that because Hiruzen had a weak mind, as shown many times, and lacked what it takes to be the leader of such a powerful village, it made them appear weak.

Although Tanaka did not agree with Danzo's thoughts and way of acting, now that he was in power, the course of things was taking a very different turn.

Of course, he saw several ninjas from the Hidden Leaf Village fall as well. They hadn't become immortal just because they were attacking with more force. In other words, Danzo's method made them take the lead in the war, but they also suffered more casualties than usual.

The truth was that the Hidden Stone Village and the Hidden Sand Village were just putting on appearances. They were not sending their main forces to the war at this time.

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In a spacious round room, adorned with portraits of the previous Hokages and various books stacked on a table, a man stood before a window, looking outside.

He turned around, revealing a single good eye while the other was covered by a bandage, and said, "Come in."

In the next instant, a ninja wearing a bird mask entered and knelt on one knee: "Danzo-sama—"

"It's Hokage-sama. Don't forget that." Danzo interrupted him coldly.

"Yes!" The ninja replied firmly but stoically: "Hokage-sama, we still haven't found Tsunade. She simply disappeared and has not been located yet."

Danzo pulled out a chair and sat down, his expression filled with disdain. He felt deeply insulted: "That damned woman has no respect for me. How can she simply disappear at such a crucial moment?"

The ninja before him remained silent, not daring to respond.

Danzo's expression grew darker as he thought: 'Damn it! If it weren't for Mito, I would have already taken that brat to threaten her into coming back and obeying me without question! Damn it, this is why tools like her are problematic... If I don't have total control, what good are they when I need to use them, and they don't respond?'

Clicking his tongue in irritation, Danzo ordered: "Keep searching. We need her to create antidotes against the Hidden Sand Village's poison. Without her, many of ours will continue to fall."

"Yes!" responded the kneeling ninja firmly, before disappearing in an instant.

'Tsunade, Tsunade... One day, I will make you the perfect tool.' His cold, ruthless gaze seemed to pierce through the office walls, as if he could see a distant future where his ideals became reality.

||- Note -||

• Chapter 68 is already released on Patreon!
• patreon.com/Tozoku