"Kakashi left?" Seeing Shinichi's real body walk over, Shizune stopped her training, puffed her cheeks slightly, and spoke with a faint trace of complaint in her tone.
Clearly, Shinichi was the classmate in the same team as them, yet that tactless Kakashi kept coming over every now and then to monopolize Shinichi's time.
Although Shinichi's Shadow Clone guidance was likewise extremely efficient, making their progress practically astonishingly fast… A Shadow Clone was still just a clone.
Somehow, it always felt like something was missing…
"You've all trained for an entire day. It must have been tiring, right?"
Shinichi seemed completely oblivious to Shizune's little thoughts.
Seeing that Kurenai Yuhi nearby had also stopped, sheathing her sword while breathing lightly, he smiled gently and said, "Let's stop here for today. Time to rest a little and eat dinner."
"Yay!"
Upon hearing this, Shizune immediately cheered. All the fatigue from training and her tiny bit of resentment were instantly thrown beyond the clouds.
She was especially secretly thankful that Kakashi had no intention of staying for dinner!
Half an hour later, the clanging sounds of pots and bowls echoed as the enticing aroma of food spread throughout the training ground.
"I heard Tsunade-sensei will be returning to the village in a few days! That's great, it's already been so long since I last saw her." Shizune stuffed delicious food into her mouth as she mumbled excitedly and indistinctly.
"Mm, once Tsunade-sensei comes back, Team 10 will finally be complete again." Kurenai Yuhi ate in small bites as she spoke expectantly.
"Then you two should work hard and try to master the foundations of Chakra Enhanced Strength more solidly before Tsunade-sensei returns. Give her a surprise when she comes back." Shinichi smiled as he placed food onto both of their plates while encouraging them.
"Ah? The chakra control requirements for Chakra Enhanced Strength are way too high. Even though Shinichi, your explanations are especially clear and your demonstrations are especially precise, I still feel like it's really hard to learn. The timing for chakra condensation and release is always just a tiny bit off..." Shizune immediately wore a bitter expression.
"No rush. Take it slowly."
...
That same day at night, Shinichi walked alone, silently passing through several of the most secluded and even somewhat desolate streets within Konoha.
A few seconds later, Shinichi finally stopped in front of an inconspicuous building entrance that almost blended into the night itself.
Two ninjas dressed in Root uniforms and wearing animal masks appeared soundlessly at both sides of the entrance, as though emerging from the shadows.
"Captain Shinichi." One of them spoke in a low and respectful voice. "Elder Danzo is waiting for you. Please follow me."
"Thank you for your trouble, seniors." Shinichi gave a slight nod.
Under the guidance of the Root members, he passed through several hidden passages and barriers, descending deep underground before finally arriving at a spacious and solemn underground training ground, where mysterious seals were engraved across the floor and walls.
The only figure in the field stood with his back facing the entrance.
Danzo Shimura stood there, most of his body wrapped in white bandages.
Hearing the sound of footsteps, he slowly turned around. His perpetually gloomy and rigid face remained expressionless as always.
After seeing Shinichi arrive, he casually tossed over an ancient-looking scroll, which traced a precise arc through the air toward Shinichi.
Danzo Shimura had no intention of exchanging pleasantries and spoke directly.
"Take a look at it first."
"Yes, Elder Danzo," Shinichi responded while steadily catching the scroll before unfolding it and reading carefully.
During this period of time, he had not only buried himself in dissecting Blue B and reverse-engineering the secrets of Lightning Style Nintaijutsu, but he had also turned his attention toward another critically important field, Wind Style.
For this reason, he had proactively sought out the Shinobi World's publicly acknowledged master of Wind Style, Danzo Shimura.
Using the reason that the development of his Fire Style Nintaijutsu system had entered a bottleneck, and that he hoped to receive guidance from a master in Wind Style to seek a path toward the cooperation and even fusion of wind and fire change in chakra natures in order to achieve a breakthrough in his own Fire Style Nintaijutsu.
For the current Shinichi, continuing to further perfect his Fire Style Nintaijutsu was naturally still the core direction for becoming stronger.
But the reality before him was this: As a purple level, Incarnation of Fire Level 1 would require an extremely high difficulty to advance into the higher level, the Level 2, which represented the pinnacle realm.
It was absolutely not something achievable in the short term. It required a larger-scale and more shocking event as a cognitive catalyst.
Therefore, in order not to disrupt the rhythm of his overall stat-monster enhancement plan, he temporarily shifted the focus of creating high-level Ninjutsu away from Fire Style and placed it onto two other equally important and highly promising natures.
Lightning Style and Wind Style.
The Lightning Style side was relatively simple.
Two months later, his clone Isshin would display a unique swordsmanship and Taijutsu fused with Lightning Style under the name of the Ashina Style at the National Swordsmanship Tournament of the Land of Iron.
Using this grand event, which would undoubtedly shake the entire Land of Iron, he would steadily promote the green-level talent, Proficient in Lightning Style, into the blue level.
Afterward, through a certain key and sufficiently shocking real combat performance, he would push the blue-level talent into the purple level in one fell swoop.
As for Wind Style, because he started late, his foundation was comparatively weak.
Thus, he placed the first step of his plan on Danzo Shimura, hoping to rapidly make up for the shortcomings in his Wind Style knowledge system through the guidance of this master who had immersed himself in Wind Style for decades and reached the peak of mastery.
He aimed to deepen his understanding and application of change in chakra form and change in chakra nature, thereby laying a solid foundation for generating blue-level talent in the future.
As for the purple level talent, that would require more long-term opportunities and planning.
For now, it still remains in the planning stage.
Fifteen minutes later, Shinichi slowly closed the scroll in his hands.
Even with Proficient In Wind Style serving as a foundation and amplification, as well as the ultra-high-speed information processing ability granted under the enhancement of Seeing Through Things as Clearly as Observing a Flame, this notebook, condensed from Danzo's lifelong Wind Style attainments, still contained far too much content that required repeated contemplation and digestion.
Seeing him put away the scroll, Danzo Shimura spoke: "You've been learning from me for a week now. Tell me, what specific gains and insights have you obtained?"
Although the kid had only studied under him for a week, during those short seven days, that terrifying learning ability of digging to the root of everything and drawing inferences from a single example, even instantly analyzing his explanations and deducing new possibilities from them, still gave Danzo an unprecedented sense of being hollowed out.
The scroll he had just handed over could almost be considered the best material he could provide from the bottom of his chest.