Chapter 181: On the Theory of Kekkei Genkai, and Analyzing Natural Energy
"I have found a way to release the Reaper Death Seal, so don't worry, Minato-san," Genichi said, keeping them in suspense. He then added, "After splitting the Nine-Tails, I will seal the other half into my own body. If the most dangerous situation occurs, where Sister Kushina's Nine-Tails is extracted, then I can re-seal my half into her. As for myself, I have the chakra of other Tailed Beasts in my body, so there won't be a problem."
In reality, the most crucial part was the Eight-Tails' horn. One horn, and later the fusion with half of the Eight-Tails' body, was more than enough. He had to admit, the Eight-Tails' abilities were indeed quite impressive.
"Then it's settled," Tsunade said, making the decision. She completely trusted him.
"Let's wait three months," Genichi said. "By then, the pregnancy will be stable, and it won't affect the child."
Minato and Kushina naturally had no objections.
"I will have Kakashi carry out the mission of protecting Kushina," Tsunade added. "There shouldn't be any problems within the village."
That's really not a great job, Genichi thought with an inward smile. After all, he would have to squat outside their window and be a third wheel.
After leaving the Hokage's office, he took Ina to the outskirts of the village.
"Huh, there's an Uzumaki Mask Temple here," Ina said, looking at the somewhat dilapidated building in surprise.
"It was probably built by Lady Mito," Genichi said with emotion. More than a decade had passed since her death. With Kushina being forbidden from going out for long periods, it was normal for this place to have fallen into disrepair. In the original timeline, after Kushina had also died, this place had become completely dilapidated.
Entering, they could see the walls covered with all kinds of masks. Genichi's gaze swept over them, his senses probing carefully, and he soon locked onto a mask with horns. In reality, he didn't necessarily need this mask to perform the unsealing ritual like Orochimaru. But it was better to be safe than sorry.
Days passed. Kakashi began his mission of guarding the jinchuriki, squatting outside her window day and night. But it had its benefits: every day, Rin Nohara would bring him a bento. Obito could only watch with envy, jealousy, and hate, unable to do anything about it.
Kurenai officially began her duties as a Hokage Guard, and the time she could come to Genichi for advice became less frequent. But her relationship with Ina and Shizune was rapidly warming up.
On this day, Asuma Sarutobi, who was resting at home, found his younger brother coming back in a sullen mood, a cigarette dangling from his lips.
Frowning, Shinnosuke said, "Asuma, smoking is not a good habit."
"You should be saying that to Dad," Asuma exhaled a puff of smoke.
Shinnosuke was helpless. He closed the scroll in his hand and asked, "How's your training going? Didn't you say you were going to develop your own Wind Release ninjutsu?"
Asuma hadn't been in the mood to develop any ninjutsu recently. He bluntly changed the subject. "What are you studying?"
Shinnosuke shook his head to himself, then held up the scroll. "Genichi's treatise, On the Theory of Kekkei Genkai."
"Huh?" Asuma was puzzled. "What's that? A book written by Genichi?"
"Mmm, you could say that," Shinnosuke shook his head. "It expounds on the essence of Kekkei Genkai, and the techniques for fusing and developing them."
"He… he gave something like that to the village?" Asuma was deeply shaken.
"You could also say that," Shinnosuke said gravely. "Any jonin in the village who has mastered at least two nature transformations can, after a strict review, apply to obtain this data. Of course, if they master a Kekkei Genkai, they must also share their own training experience to enrich the treatise, providing more samples for reference."
"This… he…" Asuma's face changed again. For a moment, he didn't know what to say.
"Shocking, isn't it?" Shinnosuke smiled. "This is the measure of Genichi's character. In any other village, such data would certainly be accessible only to a very small number of people. But from now on, basically every jonin in our village has this qualification."
"Why?" Asuma couldn't understand. "Even if you're teaching it, it should be to your disciples and your own descendants, right? And spreading it on such a large scale, won't it be easy for the secrets to be leaked? For a ninja, intelligence is life. This isn't something like an ordinary nature transformation."
"Perhaps to Genichi, this information is not a big deal," Shinnosuke shook his head. "As for the rest… in his words, everyone's talent is different, and everyone's wisdom is different. One head is short, but many heads are long. No matter how high his talent is, it has its limits. As a guide, a trailblazer, with a continuous stream of people joining in behind him, perhaps one day Kekkei Genkai will no longer be so mysterious, so rare, and needing to be passed down through blood."
Asuma was stunned. Such vision, such capacity, such insight… It made one feel inexplicably inferior. No wonder Kurenai…
Shinnosuke sighed to himself as he looked at his younger brother. To be in the same generation as someone like Genichi was both a fortune and a misfortune. A person like that could completely eclipse all the other outstanding people of his time. Anyone would seem dim in comparison. But at the same time, if you followed in his footsteps, the sky of your future would be much wider.
Asuma wasn't in the Anbu, so he might not know the situation, but Shinnosuke knew very well that in just a few months, the strength of those five had undergone a heaven-and-earth-shattering change. Genma's Wind Release was one thing, but Raidō's Water Release was not ordinary water, but corrosive acid. That could be a clan's secret technique in itself. And the genjutsu that Kurenai, Obito, and Aoba had learned were A-rank. Even a jonin would need to have accumulated enough merit to be able to choose one from the Scroll of Seals. Now Genichi was just throwing them out like they were cabbages. Some of the ninja clans were heartbroken to see it. It would have been one thing if he had taught it to clan ninja, but he was treating commoner-born ninja with the same fairness. Shinnosuke knew that there were already some voices within the Sarutobi clan, but his father had suppressed them.
Asuma's head was spinning from the dense information. He was not a jealous person; on the contrary, he was naturally open-minded. His opposition to his father was just due to his youth, his rebelliousness, and their different views. He admired Genichi. But now, why did he suddenly feel… that Genichi had already flown up to the heavens? The gap seemed to have suddenly widened to an unimaginable extent. This was not just a gap in strength, but in thought, in cognition, in wisdom…
"Asuma, you should focus on your ninjutsu," Shinnosuke said earnestly. "You are lucky to have met Genichi's era. With your aptitude, becoming an elite jonin is no problem at all. I believe in you. But to become a ninja like Father, I'm afraid you can't. But now, perhaps there is another path."
A Kekkei Genkai. To be proficient in ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu, and even sealing arts, was extremely difficult, even more difficult than mastering a Kekkei Genkai. After all, to master an affinity you weren't born with to the point of proficiency would take ten times, a hundred times, the effort, or you might never be able to do it at all.
Asuma was born with Wind and Fire affinities. Scorch Release was very suitable for him. And in the treatise, Shinnosuke had seen a detailed discussion on it. The temptation was very great.
"I… I know. I want to be alone." Biting his cigarette, Asuma turned and left.
Shinnosuke couldn't help but shake his head. His first love had ended before it had even begun. How pitiful. Looks like I should propose to Chigetsu. He secretly made a decision. He was already eighteen.
And in his study, Hiruzen was also studying the treatise. Tsunade was doing a very good job as Hokage, so he was a little bored. Although he was gradually getting older, he wasn't yet at the point where he could just lie down and wait for retirement. And looking at the treatise, he had a feeling: I can do it too! A Kekkei Genkai could change one's constitution. If he mastered one, could he have a second spring?
Genichi didn't know about the conversation between the Sarutobi brothers, much less that Asuma was going through an intense internal change. And the treatise was just a seed he had sown. For him, as long as one person mastered a Kekkei Genkai because of it, even if it was one he had already mastered, it was beneficial. If someone developed a Kekkei Genkai he hadn't, then he would have made a huge profit. After all, the jonin were already the cream of the crop among ninja. They had been screened at the academy, at graduation, at the Chūnin Exams, and finally at the jonin level. They were all good seeds for his leek garden. As for charity, that was completely impossible.
From the moment he had arrived in this world, his actions had been utilitarian. He just hid it very well. Sitting next to Shizune on the first day of school was because of Tsunade. The seemingly loss-making deal with Minato was to get closer to him and obtain connections and resources. Saving Ina. Saving Pakura. Even splitting the Nine-Tails… all had a purpose. Of course, feelings were also involved, but that came later.
As for the leaking of Kekkei Genkai intel, he didn't care. He could harvest from Konoha, and he could also harvest from other villages. Unless they didn't use it in front of him, otherwise, they couldn't escape the mirroring insight of his Mirror Eye.
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki had treated the ninja world as her nursery. Now, he was beginning to try to treat Konoha as his leek garden.
As for why he wanted so many Kekkei Genkai, he was considering the training of Kekkei Tōta, and even Kekkei Mōra. Especially Kekkei Mōra. In the ninja world, there were still people who had developed and mastered a Kekkei Tōta themselves. Mū had developed Dust Release, and Onoki had learned it from him. But for Kekkei Mōra, there were no predecessors. Was his only option to become the jinchuriki of the Ten-Tails? He didn't want to.
Then he would have to find a way to develop it himself. The more Kekkei Genkai, the better. Fuse different ones to form a Kekkei Tōta, and then step by step, synthesize a Kekkei Mōra. Similar to how he had fused his two sensory ninjutsu, Heavenly Water, Boundless and Wind's Touch, to form the sensory Kekkei Genkai, Heaven's Eye. With a clear goal, the difficulty of development would be reduced by several levels. He had already proven this with the development of several Kekkei Genkai.
But at the moment, his interest had shifted to sage arts. Or more accurately, natural energy.
What was natural energy? It was difficult to say. But now, he could. He had previously guessed that magnetic fields and electromagnetic waves were a form of it. Now that he had mastered Sage Mode, as he continued to feel and analyze it, he had confirmed this point. And when one absorbed natural energy during Sage Mode training, it was an indiscriminate absorption. The Earth's magnetic field, various electromagnetic waves, light radiation, geothermal radiation—all would be absorbed into the body.
In these past few days, as he had continued to familiarize himself with Sage Mode, step by step reaching the point where he could enter it instantly, he had also discovered some interesting things about the magnetic field. After being absorbed into the body, if it was not refined into senjutsu chakra, it would affect the body's internal bio-magnetic field and bio-currents. And when the bio-magnetic field was in disarray, various negative emotions would arise. Perhaps other natural energies had similar abilities. Because he had currently tried to increase the absorption of the magnetic field, but it was still difficult to absorb only this one type of energy.
But just from this, he had connected many things. For example, with his Magnet Release Kekkei Genkai, could he make his cells feed on magnetic field energy? Would he rampage? If so, in what form? If he could, would his Magnet Release become stronger?
Finally, he thought of Orochimaru's curse mark. The people who activated it all became strange, as if their genes had mutated. This should be because they couldn't properly control the sage power. But likewise, the curse mark could also provide a particularly prominent boost in certain aspects, and even grant abilities similar to a Kekkei Genkai.
"I wonder if Auntie Snake has developed the curse mark yet. If I could study it, my progress in sage transformation might improve a lot," he thought, a little eager. But he didn't dare to try it on himself.
"I'll learn the White Zetsu's Spore Technique first, and then use my 'cheat' in the future to experiment with a White Zetsu." He reined in his thoughts. Without his 'cheat,' he could only transplant his own cells into a Zetsu, or learn the Spore Technique himself and use a spore clone for experiments.
"The time for the power-up is the day after tomorrow. Then for now…" he thought for a moment. "I'll first try to separate the natural energy. See if I can divide the absorbed energy into two parts and keep the magnetic field power."
Stretching, he sat cross-legged on his bed and began to try. Two days passed in a flash.
March 18, Konoha Year 49.
After finishing his morning training with Ina and Shizune, and eating breakfast, he walked them to the Hokage's tower.
"Genichi!"
As he was leaving, he heard a familiar voice. He turned and saw Jiraiya.
"Master Jiraiya," he smiled. "When did you get back? Is the war with the Cloud about to end?"
"It is about to end," Jiraiya said, walking over leisurely. "A few days ago, Minato went to the front. And with Sakumo-senpai, they dealt the Cloud a heavy blow. That Fourth Raikage was also almost injured. The Cloud has already withdrawn to the Land of Lightning. The war has entered a very low-intensity state."
He hadn't known that Minato had gone to the battlefield again and had fought the Fourth Raikage. The two of them chatted. After walking some distance and seeing that no one was around, Jiraiya's expression suddenly turned serious. "Genichi, do you have any intel on Nagato and Konan?"
"Are you going to look for them?" Genichi raised an eyebrow.
"They have only temporarily gone astray," Jiraiya nodded in a deep voice.
"Perhaps," he shook his head. "But I don't advise you to go. Yahiko died. He died in a conspiracy by Danzō and Hanzō. Such hatred is difficult to resolve. Can you persuade them? You can't. In that case, they are enemies. You should have witnessed a little of the Rinnegan's power, right?"
Jiraiya sighed, then smiled. "You brat, you don't think I'm no match for them, do you? Hey, I taught them."
"You can't teach the abilities of the Rinnegan," he said coolly. "And you haven't seen them for seven or eight years, have you? Do you know how much they've changed?"
Jiraiya was speechless, then said proudly, "You underestimate me, Genichi. I am the Toad Sage of Mount Myōboku, Jiraiya."
Genichi smiled, reached out, and grabbed his shoulder, and they vanished.
At the training ground near the Root base, he appeared with Jiraiya. "Summon the two great sages of Mount Myōboku. If you beat me, I'll tell you what I know."
"To think that one day I would be looked down upon by a little brat," Jiraiya's eyes narrowed, then he smiled. "But since that's the case, then I won't be polite."
He bit his finger, drew blood lines under his eyes, and then clapped his hands together. "It will take some time to summon the two great sages."
"Please," Genichi gestured.
After about a minute, with a puff of smoke, two sages from Mount Myōboku appeared on his shoulders. Fukasaku and Shima. At the same time, parts of his body had begun to turn into a toad. This was because his control over natural energy was insufficient.
"Little Jiraiya, what's going on?" Shima looked around. "This is still Konoha, right? To call us here, has an enemy invaded?"
Fukasaku, however, was looking at Genichi.
"It's not an enemy," Jiraiya said, kicking off his geta. "It's just a spar."
"Greetings, two sages from Mount Myōboku," Genichi smiled. "I am Kinoshita Genichi."
Hearing this, both sages' gazes hardened.
"Didn't they say he was just a little kid?" Shima muttered.
"So you are Kinoshita Genichi," Fukasaku said. "A pleasure to meet you. I didn't expect it to be under such circumstances."
"If it's just a spar," Shima said to Jiraiya, "why did you call us out, little Jiraiya? I still have to prepare lunch for the children."
"Ma, don't be in a hurry," Fukasaku said slowly. "Listen to little Jiraiya first."
"This is not an ordinary spar," Jiraiya smiled. "It is a test of strength. And it is also to restore the honor of the Toad Sage of Mount Myōboku. This is the first time I've fought in this state. But you'd better be careful, Genichi. In this state, I am very strong."
"Please, feel free to attack, Master Jiraiya," he chuckled.
(End of Chapter)
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