When Aoba walked out of Tenten's weapon shop, his heart was bleeding. Including the kunai he had damaged himself.
Ten kunai and ten shuriken had cost him a full 150,000 ryo. That was five to ten times more expensive than ordinary shuriken.
That little girl Tenten had clearly seen how desperately Aoba needed these weapons and stubbornly refused to lower the price. In the end, Aoba had no choice but to helplessly let her fleece him.
The only thing that gave him slight comfort was that he had more than achieved his original objective.
Creating sealed kunai shuriken was simple. However, the opportunity to act wasn't so easily obtained.
As mentioned before, in most cases, the White Zetsu would hide dozens of meters underground, making it impossible to take action.
Aoba could only carry the prepared ninja tools with him and continue advancing other research plans.
The first step was cultivating the First Hokage's cells. Orochimaru had only provided some samples, but that wasn't an issue.
Because the First Hokage's cells possessed excessively strong regenerative properties. As long as there was enough nutrient solution and Chakra, more cells could be cultivated.
Aoba had already anticipated that future experiments would consume large quantities of these, so he began preparations in advance.
However, as time passed, Aoba eventually halted all ongoing experiments.
Because after continuous training during this period, he had completely immunized himself against the erosion of natural energy.
In other words, he could now begin working on his own Sage Mode.
There were four types of Sage Mode in the Naruto series. The three great sages each represented one, and the fourth was Hashirama Senju's Sage Mode.
Hashirama Senju was clearly on another level. The Sage Modes of the three great sages shared one characteristic: once activated, the user's body would exhibit corresponding animalistic traits.
Moreover, the activation process was extremely cumbersome. Even someone of Jiraiya's caliber required several minutes to enter Sage Mode.
But Hashirama Senju was different. With just a single clap of his hands, he could instantly enter Sage Mode. Aside from the markings on his face, his body showed no animalistic traits whatsoever. It could be considered a near-perfect Sage Mode.
And now, the Sage Mode Aoba was about to achieve was, in a sense, even more perfect than Hashirama Senju's.
Because after absorbing natural energy, he didn't even have the facial markings. In other words, his Sage Mode showed no outward changes at all.
But internally, the natural energy had already fused with his Chakra and mental energy, forming an entirely new Senjutsu Chakra.
The only weakness was that Aoba's foundation was far inferior to Hashirama Senju's. His Chakra reserves were too small, and his physical body wasn't strong enough, preventing him from fully utilizing this Sage Mode.
As vast amounts of natural energy flowed into Aoba's body, he clearly felt the changes within himself.
First, all five of his senses were enhanced. At the same time, he gained a new sensory ability. After natural energy poured into his body, a connection formed between himself and the natural energy of the outside world.
In this state, Aoba could perceive the natural energy within a certain range around him. Additionally, anything enveloped by natural energy also fell within his perception.
Natural energy was omnipresent. Though some places were dense with it while others were sparse, overall, it existed in a state of balance.
In other words, after entering Sage Mode, Aoba gained a sensory ability similar to the Kagura Mind's Eye.
And this was only the beginning.
Aoba drew the Kusanagi Sword, and the Senjutsu Chakra in his hand surged forth, converging onto the blade. Then, he swung it forward.
For this strike, he only used one-third of the force he would normally expend for an Air Cutting Flash.The next second, a dazzling wind blade sliced through the void. Dozens of massive trees over fifty centimeters in diameter ahead were cleanly severed at their midsections by this single strike.
He roughly estimated that if he went all out, this slash could level this small patch of forest before him.
This level of cutting force was already sufficient to pose a threat to a Tailed Beast.
But this wasn't his true killing move. Aoba produced a metal sphere the size of a walnut in his hand.
Then blue electric sparks flickered across his palm.
He rarely employed Lightning Release. Primarily because Lightning Release consumed more chakra. After all, air was everywhere—his Air Cutting Flash technique used minimal Chakra mixed with air to form a special wind blade.
But natural lightning wasn't so readily available. Even when present, it couldn't be easily harnessed. All lightning had to be generated through Lightning Release ninjutsu.
Adhering to his principle of conserving Chakra and keeping Lightning Release as his trump card, he seldom used it. Moreover, he didn't know many Lightning Release techniques.
During his time at the border, he'd killed numerous Cloud Ninja. But truth be told, no shinobi carried ninjutsu scrolls on their person—at least he'd never seen it.
Shinobi were assassin-type professionals; everything they carried was carefully considered. On missions, unless absolutely necessary, they wouldn't bring extraneous items.
Aoba had attempted to develop the Chidori technique but ultimately failed. Mainly because Chidori was a Lightning Nature transformation of the Thousand Birds technique—which he didn't know...
Fortunately, his education from his previous life proved useful. After considerable time, he actually managed to replicate the effect of electromagnetic acceleration—his Lightning Release trump card, the electromagnetic railgun.
But in the Shinobi World, he couldn't call it an "electromagnetic railgun"; the terminology didn't quite fit. So he named this technique "Lightning Release: Flash."
Primarily because when executed, enemies would at most see a flash of lightning—hence the name "Flash."
The lightning in Aoba's hand, infused with Sage Chakra, formed an acceleration ring around the metal sphere.
As Aoba raised his hand toward the front and willed it, a red streak flashed through the air. A faint explosion sounded from a distant hillside.
The spectacle wasn't grand, but that didn't mean the power was weak. This technique mainly delivered physical piercing damage.
In that instant, the metal sphere had penetrated the entire forest and struck the small hill.
Aoba approached the hill for detailed inspection. His conclusion: this test hadn't truly measured the technique's maximum damage potential.
Because at such high speeds and upon impact, the metal sphere had completely disintegrated before its kinetic energy was fully expended.
Simply put, the metal sphere had been completely consumed during flight.
Aoba estimated that with a larger or higher-quality metal sphere, it could likely pierce straight through this small hill.
Just as Aoba prepared for further testing, an eagle's cry sounded overhead—Konoha's emergency assembly signal.
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