I’m the Last Senju, and the Hokage Wants Me Dead! Chapter 242 242: Tobirama’s Army vs. Everyone’s Patience

The ground shook as the first surge of chakra soon flared across the battlefield. Kiyomi's Mangekyō spun rapidly, her crimson eyes flashing with murderous focus as she moved first.

The black Susanoo erupted behind her, massive and burning with an aura of shadowed fla, its towering fra gripping a colossal flaming hamr that distorted the air around it.

She glared across at Tobirama's group, her voice cutting through the tension. "You ca back from the grave just to die again? Fine, then let send you all there properly this ti."

The Susanoo raised its hamr, the ground cracking beneath its feet as Kiyomi swung.

The fiery weapon ca down with a roar, exploding into a shockwave that tore through the terrain, scattering Tobirama's forces in every direction.

Tobirama's gaze followed the towering black Susanoo as it advanced, and he jumped back too, his jaw tightening as irritation flickered beneath his calm exterior.

"The Uchiha… always consud by their hatred," he thought coldly. "They'd even ally with Senju remnants if it ant turning against the very village we built." His eyes narrowed, tracking the intricate flow of chakras within the Susanoo.

"That girl awakened her eyes barely half a year ago, during the last assault, and she's already refined it to this level? Larger, denser, fully armored than back then… tch, just like Madara."

Hiruzen eventually stepped forward amid the chaos, his old eyes narrowing as he ford a rapid series of seals together with a few shadow clones he had already summoned during the retreat. "Your Uchiha arrogance blinds you, girl," he said, his tone sharp and firm. "Let remind you what pure shinobi experience can still do."

"Earth and Wind Release: Terraquake Cannon!"

The ground split wide beneath Kiyomi's Susanoo, enormous fissures erupting outward as wind and lightning chakra surged through the cracks.

A blinding shockwave burst forth, an earthquake of pure chakra force slamming upward and shaking the massive construct to its core.

But Hiruzen wasn't finished. "And now—Earth and Wind: Dust Shredder!"

The terrain exploded into a storm of fine, razor-edged dust, the cyclone slicing at Susanoo's armor.

The black plates groaned and cracked under the onslaught, fragnts scattering before the giant reford itself, the cracks knitting back together under the fierce pulse of Kiyomi's now faintly red-glowing eyes.

Her breathing steadied, rage simring behind her gaze. The air trembled again; the second phase of battle had just begun.

On the other side, waves of searing heat erupted as Pakura also unleashed her assault.

Scorching orbs, miniature suns, through the air, lting the ground where they passed and igniting the trees around them.

Danzo stepped forward to et her head-on, his expression hard and calculating.

Of all the enemies present, he knew this one demanded precision that only he could deliver.

His mastery of his only two elental affinities, Wind and Water, allowed him to also fuse them into combination techniques suited to counter her scorching heat to an extent.

Two sets of hands ford seals in unison, his own and his shadow clone's. "Wind and Water Release: Vapor Storm Barrage!"

Scorch Release thrived on dryness and heat, so he countered with the exact opposite.

Jets of pressurized mist exploded outward, clashing with Pakura's burning orbs.

Wind and Fire, against Wind and Water.

Steam roared across the field as the colliding natures canceled each other out, one feeding the other into a dense, blinding haze of vapor.

Danzo smirked beneath his hood, his tone dripping with disdain. "So this is the so-called hero of Sunagakure? Reduced to serving a child. How far the mighty fall."

Pakura's tone stayed flat, almost detached. "You mistake alliance for servitude. I don't kneel, I burn through obstacles. Right now, that's you."

She flicked her wrist, and a dozen new scorch spheres ignited in the air around her like a constellation.

Danzo's smile vanished.

The orbs surged forward, slicing through the steam toward him, and the battlefield erupted again in fla and vapor.

On the other side of the battlefield, sparks and ash filled the air as Renjiro Hatake and Shinsuke locked eyes.

For a mont, the chaos around them faded.

Shinsuke's gaze was cold, yet beneath it burned years of resentnt.

The mory of Hisamichi's face, his only true friend, his most trusted subordinate, flashed before him.

He could still rember the day Renjiro cut him down during the last assault.

The image had haunted him for weeks.

He hadn't slept properly since.

It wasn't just grief. It was humiliation.

A little less than three years ago, Renjiro Hatake had been nothing more than an insect to him. As the respected ANBU Commander, Shinsuke had seen the boy as just another disposable recruit, an unproven trainee placed under Hisamichi's distant supervision alongside Kanae Hyūga, tasked rely with observing Ryusei Senju after their Academy graduation.

Even then, Shinsuke had recognized a flicker of potential in him, a promising ANBU prospect, perhaps, but still a talent far below that of his younger cousin, Kakashi.

But to think that sa insignificant brat would one day kill Hisamichi, the best man Shinsuke had ever commanded, his right hand, his only friend, was sothing he could never forgive.

Shinsuke snarled, voice low and hard. "A tool killed its master. First Ryusei, now this one bares his fangs. I'll tear him apart today, no matter what. Last ti the Senju wounded , but now I'm at my fullest."

His voice ca out sharp and filled with venom. "Renjiro Hatake," he spat, "you really think killing one man makes you anything more than a weapon? You're still the sa disposable tool you were three years ago. You just don't know who's holding you anymore."

Renjiro's expression remained calm, but his eyes hardened. "Maybe," he said coolly, drawing his tanto, lightning crackling faintly across the blade, "but at least I learned to choose who I serve. And you're not on that list."

Chakra flared violently between them. Renjiro opened two inner gates in a breath, lightning chakra wrapping around his legs as his form blurred.

The Hatake clan's movent technique, combined with Lightning Body Flicker, made him vanish and reappear near Shinsuke in less than a heartbeat.

However, Shinsuke's hands moved just as fast. "Fire Release: Ash Pile Burning!"

A torrent of black ash erupted from his mouth, coating the battlefield in a suffocating cloud.

Flas surged within the ash, detonating in bursts as he mixed Earth chakra to anchor the burning particles and Wind to spread them wider.

The ground itself turned to a trap—ash that stuck, hardened, then ignited.

But Shinsuke knew sothing important: Renjiro carried a single Byakugan he acquired sohow, which allowed him to kill Hisamichi in the first place.

That eye could see through the smog. So he adjusted his tactics. "Let's see how far that eye really reaches," he muttered, forming several shadow clones that darted into the smoke to confuse him even further and create an even more spread-out attack.

Renjiro could indeed see through it, the Byakugan pulsing faintly in his right eye.

The ash, the chakra threads, the flicker of clones, everything was visible.

He dodged fluidly, eventually closing in and striking down two clones with aftershock waves of lightning from his tanto.

"Hatake Style: White Flash Arcs!"

From his blade, full streaks of very condensed white lightning then shot outward, cutting through the smoke like spears, extending as the wind caught them, slicing toward Shinsuke.

The older shinobi countered imdiately, slamming his hands together.

"Earth and Fire: Ash Enclosure!"

Walls of burning ash rose to block the lightning, the two forces clashing in bursts of smoke and light.

Renjiro didn't stop.

He slamd his blade into the ground, lightning erupting in a web around him. "Lightning Release: Spider Web!"

The blue-white surge spread across the battlefield, arcing over the ash fields Shinsuke had created.

The clash of lightning and earth-born ash caused explosions of molten sparks, and for a mont, the ground itself seed alive.

But it worked; the lightning burned away much of the ash and gave Renjiro a clear footing, also allowing him to co closer to him.

Shinsuke clicked his tongue, montarily being pushed back. "You're better than I gave you credit for," he growled. "But I'll end this."

He slamd both palms down. "Eternal Ash Ruin!"

A dark do erupted outward, swallowing the terrain.

The ash inside moved like a living storm, dense, burning, and draining chakra from everything it touched.

Shinsuke's clones appeared again, each weaving supplentary seals, feeding Fire, Earth, Yin, and Yang chakra into the storm to amplify it.

It was his current pinnacle.

The air grew heavy.

Breathing itself beca agony.

The ash burned skin and numbed the limbs, and the very ground seed to pull at Renjiro's chakra.

Renjiro felt overwhelming danger instantly.

His instincts scread.

"Not good," he muttered, jumping back as the Byakugan flared. "He was trying to drag in… this whole field is a trap."

But then, sothing unexpected happened.

His Byakugan's vision gradually deepened.

In that suffocating haze, he slowly saw faint, translucent currents, patterns that weren't purely chakra or matter.

They moved differently, flowing like invisible rivers of energy.

"What is that…?" he thought, focusing harder. "That's not chakra—it's sothing else."

His single Byakugan throbbed painfully, but he refused to blink.

The world shifted subtly in his vision.

For the first ti, he could see that mysterious energy Ryusei had once ntioned, natural energy, perhaps.

Before today, ever since Ryusei had also "upgraded" his single Byakugan the sa way he had Kanae's, Renjiro had only seen faint traces of that energy, vague silhouettes at the edge of his vision. But now, under pressure, the patterns beca clear, their flow visible and alive before his eyes.

He used it instinctively. His movents grew sharper, more anticipatory.

His eye tracked not just chakra, but intent, motion, and the invisible flow of life in the environnt.

He dodged a clone's trap at the last second, slipped through a gap in the burning ash field, and launched himself free of the do.

Landing several ters away, he exhaled sharply. "So that's what you've been hiding…" he muttered, referring to his eye that was now still pulsing violently but steadying a bit more.

Following the Hatake style, he had trained his Byakugan in his spare ti to focus entirely on his imdiate surroundings, perfect awareness in every direction, trading range for precision and finesse. Perhaps that was why it had awakened to this new type of vision unique to him.

He didn't have ti to analyze it further, however.

The smoke thickened again, and Shinsuke's shadow clones surrounded him once more.

Renjiro raised his tanto, lightning crawling up his arm, eyes locked on his opponent.

"Fine," he thought, "I'll trust this new sight—and I'll eventually try and cut him thanks to it."

The ash storm swirled again, lightning and fire colliding as the two blurred into motion, each strike shaking the battlefield. Neither spoke. Only hatred and the will to prevail remained.