Chapter 67: What a Pity I Was Born a Dozen Years Too Late

"They went to the ninja tool factory?"
"Yes."
"Hmph... Never mind them. How is ours coming along?"
"One has been successfully manufactured."
"Good."
Danzo stood up and headed toward the Hokage Building.
Arriving outside the office, he curved the corners of his lips upward and pushed the door open.
"Hiruzen, the first replica of the ninja tool has been manufactured."
"Oh? Which ninja tool is it?"
The Third Hokage looked slightly surprised while calmly brushing the image on his crystal ball away.
Danzo handed over a blueprint.
The Third glanced at it.
It was a replica of the Twin Peacocks swords.
"Hehe, this is your handiwork, isn't it? To be able to research Wind Release to this extent—it seems you haven't slacked off all these years."
"Naturally," Danzo said coldly. "I may have my own ambitions, but as I've said before, everything I do is also for Konoha."
"Is that so? To be honest, I still don't quite agree with your so-called Root. Especially since someone said something like this not too long ago."
The Third paused for a moment, then continued, "'The Root is the foundation of everything; only with roots can there be stems, branches, and leaves.'"
Danzo's brow twitched.
"The Root does not represent darkness, but rather everything that is hidden beneath the earth, gestating in the dark," the Third said calmly.
Danzo fell silent. After a moment, he said with a hint of disillusionment, "I didn't come here today to argue about this."
"How effective is the replicated tool?"
"Seventy to eighty percent."
"That is quite impressive. That person from the Village Hidden in the Stone—or rather, the Artisan Village—is truly remarkable," the Third sighed with emotion.
A creation from so many years ago could still stand at the forefront of ninja tools in the shinobi world. One had to admit that Seimei indeed possessed genuine talent.
Danzo nodded, then let out a cold laugh, "He has talent, but relying on these things to stand tall in the shinobi world is nothing short of wishful thinking."
The Third did not speak, only stroking the crystal ball.
"Anything else?"
"You're watching Chiba and the others, aren't you?" Danzo said indifferently.
The Third sighed silently.
Ever since that child Chiba found out, his own jutsu seemed to be getting more and more notorious.
Honestly...
He had originally intended to take it with him to the grave.
The Third sighed inwardly, then set the crystal ball out openly.
There was nothing about Chiba's situation that Danzo couldn't see; on the matter of chakra ninja tools, their interests were completely aligned—
To make Konoha stronger!
Within the crystal ball, Chiba had already set up formation. Kakashi, Kazuha, and Tenten were positioned at the four cardinal points, each holding a barrier technique talisman.
In the absolute center was Kakashi's shadow clone.
"Let's begin."
Chiba formed seals with both hands.
The ritual talismans in their hands served as channels to amplify the absorption effect of the barrier, which was similarly adapted from the Sealed Iron Wall.
Although the Sealed Iron Wall was a sealing jutsu, its unique properties had brought Chiba considerable benefits.
For instance, this particular design had been modified on the spot.
The four of them formed seals simultaneously.
Before long, the chakra of all four individuals slowly flowed toward the center.
The shadow clone in the exact center sat quietly.
A moment later.
"The chakra within my body has increased by thirty percent."
"Thirty percent? How is everyone's consumption?" Chiba frowned.
"Twenty percent."
"Forty percent." (x2)
Kakashi, Tenten, and Kazuha answered one by one.
Chiba nodded and stated his own consumption—
Thirty percent.
However, he wasn't being entirely honest. In reality, Chiba's consumption was only around twenty percent, and factoring in his recovering physical and mental energy, it was perhaps even less than twenty percent.
This meant his own chakra reserve was roughly on par with Kakashi's.
"This is a bit of a loss," Chiba frowned.
The combined chakra of himself and Kakashi only yielded a ten percent net gain for the shadow clone, not to mention the contributions from Tenten and Kazuha.
Even though their amounts weren't massive, they certainly weren't negligible either.
The intermediary loss was a bit too high.
"Chakra conversion and barrier maintenance naturally incur losses. To achieve this level of conversion efficiency is already quite astonishing."
Kakashi, however, was very satisfied, feeling that Chiba's standards were simply too high.
Where on earth was there such a thing as one-to-one total conversion?
He thought for a moment and said, "Still, if we can optimize it further, that would naturally be best."
"By the way, can we reverse the process to disperse chakra outward using the ninja tool?"
"That's simple."
Chiba formed seals, and the absorption barrier rapidly shifted into a different mode. Following that, streams of chakra dispersed from the shadow clone toward the four of them.
After returning a portion of the energy, the shadow clone dissipated.
Kakashi fell into deep thought for a moment and said, "We can optimize from two directions: one is internally, and the other is through the barrier ninjutsu itself."
Chiba nodded.
The internal optimization would involve the shadow clone actively cooperating to guide the chakra absorption.
It wasn't particularly difficult.
"I'll think of a way."
"We could try nesting an absorption barrier inside the main one, and see whether the chakra required to sustain the barrier is greater, or the chakra saved by it," Chiba suggested.
Kakashi was slightly startled, then let out a soft sigh.
He had finally managed to be proactive for once, only for this kid to have thought of it already. It was truly...
Too crushing a blow.
"Fine then, let's test it again."
...
"Heh, this child is always pursuing the absolute limit. In my view, the results are already exceptional."
The Third chuckled softly and closed the image on the crystal ball.
Danzo fell into a brief silence.
While he and his subordinates successfully replicating the Twin Peacocks swords was a cause for celebration, compared to Chiba's harvest, it suddenly seemed like there was nothing left to be proud of.
After all,
they had merely replicated an existing item, whereas the boy was innovating upon existing technology, conceiving entirely new functions and applications.
A completely new type of ninja tool.
One that restored chakra.
虽Though flaws existed, its function was indisputable—
Gathering the chakra of multiple people into a single individual could decisively turn the tide of battle at a critical moment.
What a pity.
If Chiba had been born a dozen or so years earlier, the outcome of the wars would have been vastly different.
A flash of fervent intensity and regret crossed Danzo's eyes.
Once upon a time, he had thought Orochimaru was sufficiently genius in the field of research, and that no matter what, Chiba would merely be another Orochimaru. Now, it seemed the two were completely different.
Orochimaru had too many personal ambitions, whereas this child—he had yet to see any glaring weaknesses.
For such a talent to be unusable for his own purposes was truly one of life's greatest regrets.
With Sarutobi Hiruzen right before him, he did not display too much emotion. He simply nodded slightly and said, "I'll have the data sent over later."
"Good."
The Third nodded lightly.
Danzo left quietly, seemingly without the slightest ripple of emotional fluctuation. But as an old friend, how could the Third possibly not know what he was thinking?
He pulled out his tobacco pipe, took a puff, and gazed quietly at the village behind him.
What was the root in that child's heart, I wonder?
"Third Hokage."
"Shikaku, ah. Hehe, I heard your little brat has been much more diligent lately. You've taught him well!"
"Not at all. He's only moving because someone is pushing him from behind," Shikaku smiled wryly.
Knowing his own family best, how could he not know what kind of disposition Shikumaru had?
No ambitions, no fighting spirit.
The reason he was showing a shred of drive now was entirely because Chiba was pacing ahead of him.
In a sense, he ought to thank Chiba, but there was no need to mention such things in front of the Third.
Therefore, he merely smiled and handed over the documents.
"These are two reports sent over by the Medical Corps: one is the latest research on pathogen localization, and the other is the research progress on joint medical ninjutsu."
"Let me see."
The Third took them, scanned them for a few moments, and then clapped his hands in delight. "They've already been applied in surgery? Good! Excellent! Promote it and let as many people learn it as possible."
"Understood!"