Chapter 179: Bloodline Is Also a Kind of Power
Kenichi stared at the explosive in his hand, his mind drifting.
He had sensed something off the moment he took it out, but while he was busy with the experiment, he did not pay it much attention. Now that the adrenaline had faded, he was sure of it.
Something really was wrong.
When he first guided chakra into it, he could feel the particles inside were more compact than before. The sensation was hard to describe, but the closest comparison was pressing a finger into foam.
And just now, it felt like that foam had been compressed again and again.
Dense. Tight. Almost packed.
That meant only one thing.
The properties of this explosive had changed.
Kenichi exhaled slowly. Part of the success was definitely tied to the bet with Tsunade, but part of it was also tied to this strange change inside the material itself.
"You actually succeeded," Tsunade said, leaning closer. Her eyes fixed on the faint lines at the corner of Kenichi's eye. "But did you master Sage Mode?"
She had seen her great grandfather, Hashirama, in Sage Mode before.
The patterns were different, but the feeling it gave off was similar.
"Huh?" Kenichi looked at her in surprise. "You don't know? Didn't we fight before?"
Back then, when his teacher tried to help her treat her hemophobia, Kenichi had stopped her.
Tsunade replied without hesitation. "I forgot."
Kenichi's lips twitched.
She really did not care about details that did not interest her.
Sage Mode could boost his strength, sure, but Kenichi never considered it some kind of unbeatable trump card. With the existence of Six Paths level power and fully evolved Otsutsuki in the future, he did not believe Sage Mode alone could make anyone invincible.
"Anyway," Tsunade said, looking him over with confusion, "what brings you here?"
Kenichi kept it simple. He said he had come out to carry out a mission and ran into her by accident.
Tsunade clearly did not believe him, but since he was not talking, she was not going to force him. She waved it off like it was nothing.
"You brat," she said, clicking her tongue. "Back when I was drinking with your teacher and that pervert Jiraiya, we all agreed that among the disciples we trained, the Fourth Hokage had the most talent."
She sighed and shook her head.
"But I never expected you'd end up the strongest among all of them."
"The Fourth Hokage really was incredible," Kenichi said with a small smile. Mastering a technique like Flying Thunder God was proof enough. Minato's talent was unquestionable.
Jiraiya probably never took another disciple after that because everyone else felt ordinary in comparison.
Tsunade's gaze dimmed slightly. "And he's still dead."
Kenichi did not know what to say.
Reviving the Fourth Hokage with Edo Tensei and fighting him was nonsense. And even if someone tried, Minato's soul was still sealed inside the Shinigami's stomach, so it was not like you could just pull him out and call it a day.
Kenichi could see it clearly now. Tsunade might have forced her way past hemophobia, but the old wounds in her heart were still there.
He knew the words that could encourage her.
He also knew it would not matter.
He was not Naruto. He had no interest in becoming Hokage. He had bigger goals, and a longer road.
Kenichi put the explosive away, deciding he would examine it properly once he returned.
Was it because it had been pressed?
Was it because he stored it in a sealing scroll?
No matter what the reason was, he had a working example now, and that was enough. The next step was to work backward and find out why it succeeded.
Since he had achieved his goal, Kenichi planned to leave.
Tsunade looked a little down, even while maintaining the appearance of a young girl and an eye catching figure. No matter how she dressed it up, she was still older than she looked.
Kenichi had no interest in getting dragged into that kind of mess.
He paid the bill and slipped away quickly.
"Hey," Tsunade snapped, glaring at his retreating back. "Shizune. Do you think that brat really came all this way just to gamble on that thing with me?"
If there were not so many people eating nearby, Tsunade swore she would have sent him flying with a single Heavenly Kick of Pain.
Why did he not talk properly to his elders?
It made her feel like she had been used, and that irritation kept bubbling up.
Shizune thought for a moment, then nodded. "It seems like it."
Tsunade clenched her fists. For some reason, whenever Kenichi was around, she got the urge to punch him.
It felt the same as when she saw Jiraiya.
"I'll teach him a lesson next time," Tsunade muttered. "How much money do we have left?"
Kenichi had already left the restaurant.
He checked the thermobaric explosive block again as he walked and found it was still stable. No swelling, no heat, no sign of reaction. Nothing suggested it was about to detonate.
That should have been good news.
Yet it only made him think harder.
He did not know why it was behaving like this, but overall, it was still a positive outcome.
If he were not worried about it exploding and shredding his clothes, he would have wanted to test it immediately to see what else was special about it.
"Konoha," Kenichi murmured, staring toward the horizon.
He had already entered the Land of Fire.
Originally, he planned to return to the base and continue his research, but then he remembered his agreement with Shisui. The deadline was close.
He needed to ask Shisui how many people he had managed to bring over.
Only then could Kenichi prepare the right tools.
If there were too many, one or two hot air balloons would never be enough. That would become a disaster.
In that case, an airship would be the better option.
Airships, zeppelins, had shown up even in games like Red Alert. The name Zeppelin was famous enough that even people who did not understand the technology had heard it before.
An airship could carry far more people than a balloon. Of course, it had weaknesses too, slower speed and vulnerability to being attacked or shot down.
But this was the ninja world.
Kenichi could use Wind Release to propel an airship over long distances. Mobility would not be an issue.
The real problem was secrecy.
If an airship was spotted, his ability to fly would be exposed. And if he was bringing a large number of Uchiha out, keeping it completely hidden would be even harder.
Still, Kenichi did not panic.
As long as technological iteration was fast enough, exposure was not fatal.
Besides, it was almost impossible to keep technology secret forever, especially when he intended to use it openly later.
Hot air balloons would be exposed sooner or later anyway. Compared to that, airships were not a bigger problem.
In fact, if he had to use an airship, that meant he was extracting a significant number of Uchiha.
In that situation, the benefits outweighed the risks.
The Uchiha were talented. Most of them could become shinobi. That was valuable manpower.
More importantly, their existence would help his experiments in the future. With enough Uchiha genetic data, he could eventually isolate the unique genetic information of the clan.
From that, he might deduce the key components behind the Sharingan.
And maybe, just maybe, he could even trace a piece of the Sage of Six Paths' bloodline.
"Yin Yang Release…" Kenichi murmured, frowning.
He remembered clearly that simply having Yin Yang chakra was not enough. If it were that simple, even a genius like Madara would not have taken so long to grasp it.
That made Kenichi suspect something else.
Yin Yang Release and Six Paths Mode likely required a certain degree of Otsutsuki bloodline.
Just like Naruto in the future, who only gained Six Paths Sage Mode after meeting a stack of conditions.
Reincarnation. Fate. Guidance.
All of it treated as essential.
That was why the later parts of the story drew criticism. Naruto's success looked ordained. His bloodline and reincarnated status made him a savior by default.
Kenichi shrugged.
"Honestly, the pirates next door aren't much better. Before I transmigrated, Luffy had practically turned into the guy with the Nika fruit."
Kenichi believed Naruto and Luffy still worked hard. Effort mattered.
But if a savior could win just by lying down and letting bloodline carry everything, the story would feel ridiculous.
It would be like fighting Kaguya at the end, and then a random nobody with no presence suddenly appears, reveals they have Otsutsuki bloodline reversion, and that is why Kaguya loses.
Kenichi did not even want to imagine the backlash.
By the time he reached Konoha, he saw something that left him speechless.
Konoha's defensive barrier had become unbelievably solid.
So thick that even Kenichi felt forcing his way in would be difficult.
He had planned to slip in, find Shisui, and ask how many people were ready so he could choose the right flying method to extract them.
But looking at the village now, he felt a headache coming on.
Getting in was easy.
Getting out would require luck.
"Should I just build a thermobaric missile?" Kenichi muttered, half joking, half serious. "If Konoha finds me, I can pull out that big treasure and make them behave."
In the end, he decided to figure out why security was this tight first.
Because whatever happened, Konoha did not tighten its defenses to this level for no reason.
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