Chapter 509: The Beginning of Light Release Fusion
The shinobi world returned to a state of peace, with each of the Six Great Villages turning inward.
Sunagakure, pitiably, found a place in the southern Land of Wind and established a new village. After its establishment, they were very docile, never once stepping out of the southern half of the country. Most of their time was spent rebuilding their homes. It was said that the reconstruction work was often halted due to a shortage of funds.
Konoha's ninja also did not leave the Land of Fire. Since signing the treaty with Iwagakure, they had withdrawn their forces from the Land of Hot Water and were focused on various internal reforms.
The Sixth Hokage, Danzō, first replaced all of Tsunade's confidants with his own people. Fortunately, with Tsunade having already left, these people posed no threat to him, so he did not resort to a complete purge.
He then introduced a large number of new policies, many of which were particularly harsh on the major clans.
However, Danzō had just taken office, and he carried the hopes of the entire village. The leaders of the clans did not want to be the first to stick their necks out.
Whether it was the number one clan, the Hyuga, or the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, the Inuzuka, the Aburame, or even the Sarutobi clan, which had produced a Hokage, all of them obediently chose to cooperate.
For a time, the Anbu and Root saw a large number of clan children in their ranks. At the same time, many clan-born jonin and chunin squad leaders appeared.
In addition, Danzō forcibly seized all the industries that had originally belonged to the Uchiha clan and brought them under direct village control.
For a time, the genin of Konoha were full of praise for him. Especially those assigned to the major clan jonin or chunin; their gratitude for Danzō was greater than for their own squad leaders.
After the news spread, the villagers also felt that the decisive Danzō was administering strong medicine to the ailing village, and they all expressed their support for his reforms.
Even Hiruzen Sarutobi, seeing the effect of his suppression on the major clans, began to doubt whether he had been too useless. Decades of scheming had not achieved what Danzō had in a few days.
However, he also saw the huge hidden dangers that Danzō's actions were planting for the village.
Those major clans would not submit so easily. They were just biding their time, waiting for him to make a mistake.
Hiruzen knew that the decisive and radical Danzō had a much lower tolerance for error than Tsunade.
After Tsunade took power, Konoha's situation had gotten worse and worse. They had lost the war, and their status in the world was constantly declining. But she had always been the Hokage, and her position had become more and more stable, the power she held greater and greater. If it weren't for protecting Kakashi, she had taken the responsibility and stepped down. She would still be the Hokage, her position as solid as ever.
But he felt that Danzō would not receive such treatment. As long as he made one major mistake, his position would be immediately impeached by the major clans.
However, he was now a marginal figure, far from the center of power, and could not point fingers at Danzō.
The strong-willed Danzō's achievements did not stop there. He had also secured more military funding from the Land of Fire's Daimyo than any of his predecessors.
With great power in his hands and a lot of money in his pockets, he began to expand the army.
He increased the enrollment scale of the Ninja Academy and forcibly required all clan children to attend. The most outstanding students of each year, while still in the academy, had the great honor of becoming members of Root, personally branded with the Tongue-Cursing Seal that represented the Will of Fire by their Lord Hokage.
He had many other incredible revival measures. In short, under his operation, Konoha entered a state of semi-militarization.
All civilians lived as before, while all ninja's mission loads were greatly increased, and their pay was drastically reduced.
In Danzō's words, they were lucky to get paid at all. Root members never received a salary. When they performed a mission, failure was punished, and success was expected.
In contrast to Danzō's vigorous reforms, Kumo was unusually mysterious.
They had the fewest foreign intelligence ninja. After the Fourth Raikage began to develop internally, even less information came out. Almost no one knew what they were doing behind their closed doors.
Kirigakure was the most lively. Both the recovery of the Six-Tails and the search for the Three-Tails were carried out with great fanfare, as if they were afraid others wouldn't know.
Iwagakure, because Ishiro was in closed-door training, was also quiet. They just held an internal Chunin Exam and had the graduating class graduate early. Then they began to build new branches in the northwest of the Land of Wind and the west of the Land of Hot Water.
Establishing two branches at once, one of which was the large-scale Land of Wind branch, showed their strength and ambition, even if they didn't make any major moves.
At the same time, a large number of newly graduated genin, after their initial integration, were all assigned to the Land of Wind and Land of Hot Water to carry out missions to clean up rogue ninja.
Although Iwagakure did not make any outrageous moves, it still caused a ripple in the calm shinobi world.
In a corner that no one noticed, even Obito Uchiha was concentrating on training his subordinates. They were all talented children from the great clans of Kirigakure. Under his guidance, their growth was very fast. He had, after all, Madara's various notes and was more than capable of teaching them.
He was so busy that he had no time to cause trouble in the world.
As for the Akatsuki, having obtained a large piece of new virgin territory, the three leaders were busy promoting their ideals.
Ishiro had said that this was a test he had set for them, to see if they could, like his Iwagakure, spread their philosophy of peace through a network of bases.
Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan had taken this to heart and were trying every day to get the people of the northeastern Land of Wind to recognize and accept their ideals.
Iwagakure.
Ishiro was in seclusion, practicing Light Release. It had to be said, chakra was truly miraculous.
After a period of quiet cultivation, his chakra had finally completely adapted to Light Release, and it began to fuse with his body.
The process was somewhat different from when he had fused his Kekkei Genkai.
Back then, he had been assisted by drugs, and the transformation had been very fast. It had also been very uncomfortable, either itching to death or hurting so much he wanted to commit suicide.
But the fusion of Light Release was very slow. And at the same time, there were no such strange side effects.
For an unknown period of time in the future, his body would slowly adapt to the Light Release chakra. This was also a process of his body's transformation. During this process, the genes in his cells would change.
To put it simply, this was a process of elevating his level of life, an important step in his transition from a mortal to a Sage.
His seclusion was not a matter of shutting himself in a small dark room, isolated from the world.
It was a state of focused training, where he did not handle official duties or pay attention to the developments of the shinobi world.
Every day, he either trained or took his three disciples on simple missions.
Only when the Light Release chakra began to fuse with his body did he end this state of closed-door training.
This period had been somewhat long. When he sat back in his office chair after many days, he found a full desk of documents that needed his attention.
He sighed deeply. In that moment, the joy from his breakthrough in training disappeared.
He opened the first document. It was a report on the latest situation in the shinobi world.
These documents had clearly been summarized by his assistants. They felt this was the most important.
After reading it, he was surprised. He didn't care about the reactions of the other villages, but he was interested in Sunagakure.
The document said that Rasa was actually making a move on the Rōran. During his seclusion, Rasa had actually persuaded the Rōran to merge with Sunagakure.
"Still not willing to give up, huh?" Ishiro smiled at Rasa's struggle but didn't pay it too much mind. He set it aside to consider later.
He continued to look through the documents. The construction progress of the two new branches, some important personnel changes in the various departments—he just glanced over these. He was not greedy for power. Any of the Tsuchikage's powers that could be delegated, he would delegate. He knew very well that in this world, only great strength could maintain his position. Power was just a byproduct of strength.
After a while, he saw a report: his disciple, Takumi, had finally become an elite jonin.
Ishiro smiled faintly. Not only had he become an elite jonin, but he had also provided the village with a systematic set of techniques and training methods for close-range maneuvering.
This is good stuff. It can greatly improve the combat power of our taijutsu ninja.
He also set this document aside to practice later. This would be far more useful to him than to others because he had the Universal Pull. With it, he could perform many techniques that even Takumi himself could not, and even some that were only theoretical, he could learn with ease.
He continued to read. After a while, he saw another piece of intelligence.
With the cooperation of Akino Atsumi, the结界班's Yumi Uzumaki, Yuran Kawasoe, and others had finally mastered the method of making large-scale storage scrolls.
He asked an assistant, "Has there been any strange movement from Senior Bella recently?"
The assistant thought for a moment. "Nothing special. Oh, right, Lady Bella is selecting a new warehouse manager. Does that count as strange?"
Ishiro laughed. "It counts! Of course it counts! If that's not strange, then nothing is."
It seemed Bella's plan to set up Konoha with the exploding tags had begun.
He ignored the confused assistant and also took out this document.
"Hmm? Riori Uzumaki has also become an elite jonin?" he read in another document.
"Should I send her a reward? She should be very happy! As for the reward, teaching her a few new ninjutsu would be good!"
Riori was the first of Squad 5 to become a jonin, and now an elite jonin. Her同期 partner, Kiyoshi Ishizawa, was still just a newly promoted jonin. He had been delayed by his research into the Hōzuki clan's Hydrification Technique.
As for the last member of Squad 5, Akino Atsumi, there was no need to consider her strength level. She was now a thorough researcher.
Then he saw the report on his Squad 6 disciple, Chiga.
Her blood perception ability had finally undergone a qualitative change. But what it was, the document didn't say. He would have to go and see for himself.
In addition, her同期, Sasagawa Ayumi, had finally become a Quasi-Jonin.
It was funny. Ayumi had originally been assigned to guide Kurama Yakumo, who was still in the academy. As a result, while teaching her the Super Beast Scroll, he had learned many new uses for it from her. She had also taught him many new drawing techniques.
And then he had become a Quasi-Jonin.
As for the one being guided, Yakumo, she had also made gains. She could now draw some animals to ride. The academy students often saw her wandering around the school on the back of a black and white rabbit. Perhaps because she had been sitting for so long, she especially liked to wander around. All her chakra was used to cast the Super Beast Scroll.
Seeing this, Ishiro shook his head. He wouldn't bother with her for now. She was still young; there was no hurry to change her childish mindset. Perhaps this was a good thing. It would naturally eliminate her obsessions, which was a good thing for her.
After reading about his disciples, he thought back over all of them to see who else needed guidance. There were too many; he often couldn't remember them all.
He first thought of Kawakita. He could sense he was in the Tsuchikage Tower. He was also slowly taking over some of the village's affairs. According to Bella and Saka, they would have to retire sooner or later, and they had to give the young people more opportunities to gain experience.
So, he said to the assistant, "Go and ask Kawakita to come here."
"Yes." The assistant, who was always ready to answer his questions, quickly left.
Besides Kawakita, he thought of Yoshimura Kazumasa, who was researching hand seals for the ninken. He needed to check on his research as well.
After a while, Kawakita arrived.
The moment he entered, Ishiro's eyes lit up.
He waved his hand, dismissing the assistant, then said to Kawakita, "A very good aura. Sharp and exposed. Has your swordsmanship progressed?"
Kawakita nodded. "Yes. I've learned the entire Konoha-Style Kenjutsu. The gains have been great."
Looking at his every move, every word, which carried a trace of sharpness, Ishiro asked with a smile, "Very good. After I finish my work, let's have a spar."
Kawakita nodded, a little excited. He could finally spar with his teacher. Before, it had always been just guidance. It seemed his strength had finally been recognized.
After Kawakita left, Ishiro looked through the remaining documents. Besides the changes in his disciples, there were many other changes in the village's ninja. Any major progress was recorded.
For example, the one that caught his eye the most was Deidara.
He had finally successfully researched Explosion Release and had ingeniously come up with explosive clay.
"Hmm, I need to keep an eye on Deidara. I haven't checked on his mental state in a while. This is a big deal; I can't be lax," Ishiro thought.
After finishing the documents, he called both Kawakita and Deidara to the outskirts of the village.
He planned to have Deidara watch his spar with Kawakita. Although there were many geniuses in the village now, and Deidara no longer had his original arrogance, it was still important to make him see reality, so that he wouldn't be conceited even after reaching the Kage level.
Ishiro and Kawakita stood opposite each other. "Let's begin," Ishiro said.
The moment he spoke, Kawakita attacked. With no effective long-range attacks, he only had a chance to win in close combat.
Ishiro did not underestimate him. Although he was his disciple, he was a Kage-level disciple, not a little brat who had just graduated like Haku.
He quickly formed hand seals, and ninjutsu of various natures smashed toward Kawakita. He did not use any A-rank or higher jutsu, just conventional five-element ninjutsu.
Kawakita did not have as many fancy skills as Ishiro. His response was simple: a slash of his longsword.
The move was simple, but his chakra-infused blade could easily cut through Ishiro's ninjutsu. For a sword-style Kage like him, even a B-rank Lightning Release could be cut.
However, Kawakita frowned. It wasn't because of anything else, but because Ishiro's casting speed was too fast.
Ishiro could cast a C-rank jutsu in less than a second. A B-rank took a little longer, but he could easily keep it within two seconds.
Theoretically, Kawakita's slashing speed was faster than Ishiro's casting speed. But to cut through a ninjutsu, it wasn't a simple matter of a single slash. Sometimes he needed to slash many times, sometimes he needed to maintain his sword-ki.
This meant that his speed of cutting through ninjutsu was slower than Ishiro's speed of casting them. He couldn't just tank the attacks and close the distance.
So, he quickly changed tactics and began to dodge.
He would drift to the left, then cross to the right, then sprint forward.
Any attack he really couldn't dodge, he would cut through with his sword.
After a dozen or so seconds, he had successfully closed half the distance.
"Oh?" Ishiro was surprised.
"This is the movement technique Takumi researched? That's right, it was originally designed for close-combat ninja. Kawakita is the strongest close-combat ninja in the village. It's normal that he would be the first to learn it."
Ishiro had originally wanted to change tactics, but seeing this, he decided to see how well Kawakita had mastered it.
So, he no longer stood still, but began to retreat quickly while speeding up his casting. Sometimes he would form different hand seals with his left and right hands at the same time, sometimes he would suddenly spit out a seal-less jutsu from his mouth.
Seeing this, Kawakita also sped up, pushing the movement technique to its limit.
At this time, Ishiro was even multitasking, using his Mind's Eye to sense Kawakita's chakra and the detailed process of his movements.
After a long chase, Kawakita finally closed the distance.
Seeing this, Ishiro had to change tactics.
Then, Storm Release, Blaze Release, Porcelain Release—the three Kekkei Genkai were unleashed one after another.
This put Kawakita under great pressure. Although his attack method hadn't changed, each blow required more chakra and had to be sustained for longer. Especially the Porcelain Release. It wasn't a normal ninjutsu; it was a wave of kunai, one blow equivalent to countless.
Kawakita knew that if he didn't change tactics, the distance would be pulled apart again. He gritted his teeth, gave a loud cry, and poured a large amount of chakra into his longsword, then swung it at Ishiro.
Instantly, a visible shockwave shot toward him.
Ishiro recognized it. This should be an attack technique Kawakita had learned from that S-rank ninjutsu.
But the attack was too crude. It covered a large area, which dispersed its power—a major taboo for swordsmanship. No wonder he said he hadn't mastered that S-rank jutsu; he was still far from it. Besides not being condensed enough, its range was also not far, and its power decayed too quickly.
By the time it reached him, Ishiro had neutralized it with just a C-rank Water Release jutsu.
However, it was very effective against Ishiro's covering fire.
In an instant, all the ninjutsu and porcelain mud between them were cleared away.
Ishiro nodded slightly. "Not bad."
With that, he extended a hand toward Kawakita and cried, "Shinra Tensei!"
Kawakita, who had just taken a few steps in the opening, was hit directly. After holding on for two seconds, he was sent flying.
The two of them did not continue. The spar was over.
When Kawakita walked back, Ishiro asked him, "What do you plan to train next?"
Kawakita thought for a moment. "I plan to organize the Konoha-Style Kenjutsu and see if I can learn that S-rank sword jutsu. At the same time, I plan to develop my own S-rank sword jutsu."
The sword jutsu he mentioned was the one from Iwagakure's collection, which may have been converted from a Tenseigan dōjutsu: a technique that formed a 40-meter long sword of chakra or sword-ki.
He had never been able to learn it. In fact, he had no clue how to even begin. Such a sword technique, he couldn't even imagine it. In the end, he had only managed to create that mismatched move from before.
Ishiro said, "I have a suggestion. Have you noticed that everything you do now has a kind of piercing sharpness to it?"
Kawakita nodded. "I know. This is something I comprehended from the Konoha-Style Kenjutsu. It's hard to explain, but it's very helpful for my practice."
Ishiro nodded. It would be strange if a ninja with an elementary school education could explain such a profound thing.
"I suggest you hide this sharpness," he said.
"Hide it? How?"
Ishiro smiled. "That you have to figure out for yourself. Think about how to make people unable to perceive your aura. If you can reach that step, your swordsmanship can be compared to true masters like the White Fang, Mifune, and Hanzō. I estimate that is the realm of a Sword Grandmaster."
Kawakita was thoughtful. It was true, when he had met Mifune and Hanzō, neither of them had this kind of sharpness about them.
Ishiro patted his shoulder. "Alright, go back and train. I'm going to talk with Deidara for a bit."
"Yes." Kawakita nodded to Deidara and left.
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