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Early on, when Tsunade first assumed control of the village's affairs, she uncovered a number of ambiguous financial records buried deep within Konoha's accounts.
Some were funds Orochimaru had requisitioned in the past under the banner of "experimental research," their final destinations unaccounted for. Others had been allocated to Root under vague labels such as intelligence operations or special materials procurement.
A portion of these expenditures did, eventually, yield tangible results—but the process itself remained invisible, deliberately so.
Under normal circumstances, Tsunade had little interest in digging through the unresolved remnants of the Third Hokage's era. But now was different.
She needed to give Danzo something to occupy himself.
Thus, the day after her conversation with Kakashi, several Anbu escorted a stack of large, heavily sealed boxes to Danzo's residence.
"Advisor Shimura," the leading Anbu said respectfully, "Hokage-sama believes that, given your experience and familiarity with the Village's history, you are the most suitable person for this task."
"These are Konoha's financial records from the past twenty years. Certain sections require clarification. Please review and verify them, then submit your conclusions directly to the Hokage Office."
Danzo stared at the mountain of scrolls now crowding his room, his expression dark.
These tedious, trivial things… the irregularities in the accounts—how could he not know about them?
Anything truly untraceable had long since been diverted into Root's hands by Hiruzen himself. What was left were scraps.
As if sensing his thoughts, the Anbu captain added, "Because these materials involve classified Village matters, Hokage-sama requests that you complete this task alone."
"We will remain stationed here to guard the premises until the mission is finished."
With the most volatile variable effectively isolated, Tsunade formally signed the appointment papers granting Kakashi full authority over Root's takeover and reorganization.
It was clear that Kakashi would be tied down by Root's affairs for quite some time.
As for Roshi, after two months of a densely packed routine—handling duties by day and immersing himself in study by night—he finally settled into the rhythm he had envisioned when he first requested leave.
During this period of focused research and contemplation, his understanding of Chakra deepened significantly.
Chakra was not merely energy.
It was a medium of information—inseparably bound to life and spirit—a form of biological and spiritual backup.
This "backup" was astonishingly resilient. In some cases, it even outlasted the physical body. When a powerful ninja died, traces of their chakra could persist for years, subtly influencing descendants or the world around them.
Bloodline Limits, then, were not random miracles.
They were the result of individuals who, through training or evolution, encoded stable Chakra transformations directly into their own life-information structure.
Their descendants inherited these transformations as compressed data, gradually "unpacking" and interpreting them as they grew—often mastering complex abilities instinctively, without formal instruction.
Thus, Bloodline Limit clans were born.
The Senju Clan descended from Ashura, the second son of the Six Paths Sage. Ashura inherited his father's Sage Body and the overwhelming vitality of Yang Release.
By extension, Hashirama's Wood Release was likely tied to that inheritance—not merely as a mutation, but as an expression of Ashura's life force itself.
Following this logic further—Ashura's power originated from the Six Paths Sage.
And the Six Paths Sage had once been the Jinchūriki of the Ten-Tails.
What, then, was the Ten-Tails?
It was the origin of all Chakra—the embryonic form of the God Tree that descended upon the world.
So perhaps Wood Release was not merely related to life…
Perhaps it was related to the God Tree itself.
But which part?
The God Tree could be divided into two aspects: body and Chakra.
The body was the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
The Chakra had been split by the Sage into nine portions—the Nine Tailed Beasts.
And what entity possessed absolute suppressive authority over the Tailed Beasts, capable of restraining and absorbing their Chakra?
The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
Which meant—
The deepest logic behind Wood Release… the true template of its power…
It was not simple growth, nor nature affinity.
It was imitation.
An imitation of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path itself.
When this conclusion finally crystallized in his mind, Roshi froze.
Even he hadn't expected the answer to reach that far back into the origins of Chakra.
In other words, for a Wood Release user seeking to further evolve this power—to probe its deeper, more fundamental forms—the true reference point might be the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path itself: the process by which it sealed the Nine Great Tailed Beasts, reassembled their Chakra, and ultimately transformed back into the complete Ten-Tails.
As Roshi recorded this conjecture in his notebook, another, even more audacious thought surfaced unbidden.
Hashirama had once captured all the Tailed Beasts—save the Ichibi.
If the One-Tail had not already been sealed by Sunagakure at the time… and if Hashirama had also captured it—
Then a Hashirama who possessed Wood Release, the Chakra of all nine Great Tailed Beasts, and Ashura's inheritance…
Would he have surpassed Ashura himself?
Would he have drawn closer to the Six Paths Sage—the founder of Ninshū?
Roshi shook his head, forcibly shelving these distant, almost mythic speculations.
That line of thought stretched far beyond what could be verified.
Standing up, he retrieved two sealed scrolls. During last year's clash with Iwagakure, he had briefly used Wood Release to absorb and suppress trace Chakra samples from the Four-Tails and Five-Tails.
At the time, his intent had been simple—to preserve rare samples for later study of Tailed Beast Chakra properties.
But now…
If his hypothesis—that Wood Release unconsciously mimicked the characteristics of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path—held even a fragment of truth, then a controlled experiment might be possible.
Stimulate a Wood Release construct infused with vitality.
Allow it to grow continuously.
Then, during its growth, carefully introduce Tailed Beast Chakra—while precisely restraining Wood Release's innate devouring instinct, preventing immediate assimilation.
What would happen?
Roshi didn't know.
But at a time when his Wood Release development had reached a temporary bottleneck, and Sage Mode training demanded long-term patience, such small-scale experimentation was hardly unreasonable.
If it yielded results, all the better.
If it disproved his hypothesis, there was no real loss.
Either way, it would produce data.
And so, for the remainder of Konoha Year 55, aside from the occasional summons to the Hokage Office for paperwork—and the rare impulse-driven outings where he dragged Anko and one or two teammates beyond the village on simple missions—Roshi devoted nearly all of his time and energy to the forests behind the old Senju house.
There, he quietly conducted his tree-growth experiments.
Meanwhile, the Ninja World entered an unusually calm phase.
Ōnoki completely halted his western maneuvers.
Sunagakure, bolstered by Konoha's supplies, seized the rare opportunity to recuperate.
Kirigakure fell entirely silent after signing its peace treaty with Konoha.
Only Kumogakure remained lively—zealously preparing for the Chūnin Exams scheduled for March of the following year, aggressively asking other villages to participate and expand its influence.
Time slipped by unnoticed.
Then one day, Roshi lifted his head from his research and noticed fresh green shoots breaking through the soil beside the old house.
Only then did it strike him—Konoha Year 56 had arrived without a sound.
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