"That's Shigure's chakra!"
Even the Third Hokage felt it. He had only met the boy once—but who was Sarutobi Hiruzen? Someone like him would never forget such a distinct chakra signature so easily.
The group came to a halt.
They stood on the branches of tall trees, overlooking the rocky forest in the distance. A blinding chakra glow shimmered across the landscape.
In the air, dense threads of chakra were condensed and suspended, shaping into various forms with precise control.
Even Hiruzen—renowned across the shinobi world as the Professor of Ninjutsu—was left speechless.
"This… is this really the result of Shigure's training?"
"It doesn't look like… a battle."
The Third Hokage frowned. Kakashi and Gekkō Hayate beside him also wore confused expressions.
At that moment, two unexpected figures arrived—Naruto and Sasuke, who had ignored Kakashi's earlier orders and followed them out of the village.
"Kakashi-sensei, did you find Shigure?" Naruto asked hurriedly.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes, sensing the fluctuations in the distance. "That chakra... It's Shigure's!"
The Third's eyes flicked toward the two boys. "Why are these brats here too?"
He glanced at Kakashi, who shrugged helplessly.
"I told them to stay in the village, but you know how they are…"
Hiruzen sighed. These two weren't ordinary genin.
The situation was still unclear. With chakra surges this intense, it would be hard to predict what might happen next.
And with Naruto nearby, there was always the risk of the Nine-Tails reacting to the instability—possibly even going on a rampage.
And then there was Uchiha Sasuke, carrying his own burdens and temperament. Just thinking about the potential fallout gave Hiruzen a headache.
He gave quick orders.
"ANBU—one squad comes with me. The rest of you stay behind. Keep an eye on Naruto and Sasuke. Make sure they don't follow us any further."
Without wasting time, the Third Hokage darted off toward the epicenter of the chakra storm.
Kakashi and Gekkō Hayate followed closely, along with five elite ANBU.
The eight-man team raced through the trees, making their way to Shigure's location.
As they reached the forest's edge and looked out into the rocky terrain, their eyes widened.
What they saw was not a battlefield—but something even more shocking.
There were no enemies.
Only Shigure.
He stood alone in the rocky clearing.
A tidal wave of chakra surged around his body, roaring like a storm, rolling and tumbling with unstoppable momentum.
Above his head, strands of chakra coiled and weaved through the air—unnatural, concentrated, and impossibly refined.
A violent storm of chakra, roughly twenty meters in diameter, formed around Shigure.
The winds, generated by the sheer force of his chakra, howled around him, whipping through the air with a raw, untamed intensity. Overhead, thousands of chakra threads swirled in rapid rotation, shifting and morphing as they attempted to form various constructs.
This couldn't even be called ninjutsu—it was simply the act of releasing chakra directly from the body.
For most shinobi, releasing chakra like this would be utterly pointless.
Only those with exceptional physical constitutions, such as members of the Senju Clan—like the First and Second Hokage—could manifest such terrifying power merely by externalizing chakra.
And right now, Shigure was doing exactly that.
The sheer volume of chakra surging from his body was monstrous—unthinkable for a twelve-year-old. But what was even more horrifying was his control. Shigure wasn't just releasing chakra—he was manipulating it, shaping it, transforming it mid-air.
That was the real terror.
Ask any shinobi: who could command chakra with this kind of precision? And not just one or two strands—Shigure was controlling thousands of chakra threads at once.
His entire body was now enveloped in a shimmering chakra cloak, tightly wrapping around him like armor forged from raw energy.
Waves of wind howled outward as the chakra pulsed and flowed.
Even more astonishing, the chakra Shigure was manipulating began to change nature.
A torrent of chakra gathered and compressed, shifting its elemental properties in real-time—in mid-air.
Even the Third Hokage was at a loss.
As a master of all Five Chakra Natures, Hiruzen Sarutobi was well-acquainted with the difficulty of altering elemental chakra. It was hard enough to change chakra nature within the body, let alone outside it.
To control external chakra as seamlessly as internal—and to transform its nature as well—was a feat of unimaginable difficulty.
The complexity and chakra control required were thousands of times greater than anything most shinobi could manage.
The only advantage to external nature transformation was that it allowed techniques to be cast without the usual physical constraints—like forming hand seals or releasing chakra through the mouth. The Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, had famously performed techniques like this, shaping water-style ninjutsu directly from his body.
Though this method offered faster execution, the resulting techniques were typically less powerful due to instability.
Unless—like now—the user's chakra nature manipulation was so precise and forceful that there was no power loss.
To even attempt such an advanced technique was remarkable.
But Shigure was going beyond that—he was performing three chakra nature transformations simultaneously.
Fire. Wind. And Lightning.
At twelve years old.
Most jonin didn't even unlock their second chakra nature until years into their careers. By strength alone, Shigure could already be considered a special jonin-level shinobi.
But this? Three simultaneous external transformations? That was well beyond jonin level.
Hiruzen swallowed hard, then turned to Kakashi with a stiff expression.
"Is this how that kid usually trains?"
Caught off guard by the question, Kakashi paused for a moment before recalling the last time he saw Shigure in training.
He remembered the tireless physical drills, the punishing repetitions, the unyielding willpower. It was more than just discipline—it was obsession. That kind of drive alone had left Kakashi shaken.
"Uhh… more or less," Kakashi replied awkwardly.
Truthfully, he had never seen Shigure do anything like this before.
He had once mentioned to Kakashi that he'd developed the Rasengan on his own during chakra control training. Looking at him now, Kakashi realized—of course he did.
How could he not have created something like the Rasengan?
Above Shigure's head, those thousands of chakra threads danced like ghostly tendrils.
This wasn't just talent.
This was unnatural.
Even Gekkō Hayate, who stood nearby, looked stunned and numb.
He had assumed Shigure was merely a gifted swordsman.
But now…
"This guy… he's not human," Hayate muttered. "He's a monster."
It was just that no one had noticed until now.
At that moment, Shigure began weaving one-handed signs. Chakra surged forward and formed a clone—a perfect duplicate of himself.
Then, the swirling chakra condensed into the shape of a dragon, spiraling around his body.
"Ninjutsu: Clone Technique."
"Ninjutsu: Dragon Bullet Technique!"
Kakashi's eyes widened as he watched Shigure cast two full techniques at once, seamlessly.
"Don't tell me… he developed all of these on his own?" he whispered.
...
TN:
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