"Do you also have designs on that Vegapunk clone? Danzo?"
The Third Hokage squinted at Danzo and asked.
Danzo snorted coldly, "Isn't that obvious? You should know, this Vegapunk was taken from us! He was supposed to be the strength of our Konohagakure!"
The Third Hokage didn't say any nonsense about causing disputes; while Vegapunk himself might cause a stir, the weight of his clone was much less.
Moreover, since this clone had already been snatched away once by Kumogakure, Konoha wouldn't face much condemnation for taking him back.
"That clone... what does the original Vegapunk think about it?"
Danzo frowned, "That's also what I find strange. The other two countries and hidden villages don't seem to care much about that clone... Logically, even if the Land of Wind and the Land of Sea don't start a full-scale war, they should at least put some pressure on Kumogakure!"
"But in reality, although the Land of Wind and the Land of Sea have held them accountable, their efforts aren't even as strong as our own Konoha's!"
The Third Hokage was also deeply puzzled, "Could it be that Vegapunk's cloning technology isn't as good as Vegapunk himself? Is that why those two villages don't care much?"
"Perhaps," Danzo nodded, though he instinctively felt that wasn't the case, he couldn't think of any other reason.
Just then, there was a knock at the door, and the Third Hokage said, "Come in!"
A silver-haired young man with a mask on his face walked in. It was Kakashi Hatake, who had already become an Anbu squad leader. With a serious expression, he took out a letter and handed it to the Third Hokage.
"Hokage-sama, this is a secret message sent from Iwagakure!"
"Ōnoki? What is that guy up to?"
Danzo was the first to ask. After the Third Hokage finished reading the secret message, he coughed twice, and Kakashi, realizing the situation, immediately left the secret room.
"The Iwa ninja have invited us to join them in an operation to rescue Vegapunk's clone..."
The Third Hokage spoke with a complicated expression. Danzo sneered, "That shorty still has such thick skin... Even though their Iwa ninja also took part in that incident back then, now they're acting like messengers of justice. Who are they trying to fool?"
The Third Hokage remained non-committal to Danzo's words. Admittedly, Ōnoki was thick-skinned and black-hearted, but as a village leader, he was quite qualified. Shinobi were naturally more focused on interests than appearances, and the village leaders were no exception.
"The key is, does Konoha need to participate in this operation?" the Third Hokage asked. Although he was the Hokage, matters like this were basically left to Danzo, so he wanted to ask for Danzo's opinion.
Danzo lowered his head in thought, "This... is not going to be easy..."
"In the last battle, Root's losses were simply too great!"
In Danzo's opinion, they should naturally participate. Ideally, they would bring Vegapunk's clone back to Root; if that wasn't possible, just killing him would be fine.
However, Root was currently severely weakened, and even maintaining a normal intelligence network was difficult. Trying to mobilize more manpower was not easy.
Thinking of this, Danzo looked at the Third Hokage, "Hiruzen, Konoha must participate in this operation! You should replenish some manpower for Root!"
The Third Hokage looked helpless, "Replenish manpower? Who have you set your eyes on this time?"
"I think Kakashi Hatake is quite good, and the other major clans should also provide some manpower. Also, I want the Anbu to cooperate in this operation!"
"The Anbu matter is fine. As for the manpower, go talk to them yourself. If you can convince them, I'll naturally give you the green light," the Third Hokage said, waving his hand.
Danzo frowned. Although Root's influence was great, it wasn't easy to draw manpower from other clans. After all, Root wanted almost exclusively elite Ninja, and Konoha's clans were certainly unwilling to let their elites join Root.
Shinobi who joined Root were branded with a cursed seal, which basically meant there was no turning back, unlike the nature of the Anbu.
Anbu Ninja could often leave after a period of time, but for Root Ninja, the only way out was death. The cruelty far exceeded that of ordinary Ninja, making it very difficult to convince the clan heads.
If it were just one or two ordinary clans, Danzo could use his influence to pressure them. But if he truly angered the majority of Konohagakure's clans, even he, the leader of Root, would find himself in a difficult position.
Root was far from being all-powerful in Konoha; otherwise, his subordinates wouldn't be so few. Bullying ordinary Ninja without backing was one thing, but when it came to the Jonin level or those with powerful clans behind them, Danzo couldn't do much to them.
However, after some thought, Danzo agreed. This level of support was likely the Third Hokage's limit. The Hokage himself couldn't step in and force those clans to hand over people! That would truly cause Konohagakure to fall apart.
Besides, if direct coercion didn't work, Danzo could always find a way. As the so-called Darkness of the Ninja World, while he had taken the blame for countless things, he also held plenty of dirt on various clans. As long as he didn't go too far, those clans would still give him some face... Unaware of the thoughts of the other two hidden villages, the Fourth Raikage was currently looking intently at the new machine designed by Vegapunk.
It was a square machine several people high, with a seat in front. At the top of the seat was a bright silver, full-coverage helmet that looked like a motorcycle helmet.
"Is this the machine you developed to help me train? It looks so weird!"
"That's right, that's right! If Big Bro wants to train, he has to sit in a weird machine like an idiot!"
Standing beside the Fourth Raikage, the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki Killer Bee sang and danced a few lines, provoking his hot-tempered older brother to throw another punch. However, Killer Bee seemed to have prior experience and dodged it with extreme agility.
"Alright, stop messing around, Killer Bee!" the Fourth Raikage said helplessly. "I'm about to go in for training. If the training fails, then Vegapunk will be the Fifth Raikage!"
"Hey, hey, hey, what do you mean? Are you leaving a will?" Vegapunk's clone said, rolling his eyes. "Have some confidence in my invention. I can't say the success rate is 100%, but it's at least 70 or 80%!"
"Even if it fails, with my machine's help, you won't lose your life!"
Vegapunk was still very concerned about his only test subject. No matter what, he couldn't let him die, right?
As for the Fourth Raikage making him his successor, it was actually quite normal. Over the past six months, Vegapunk had perfectly proven his abilities and developed a new combat path for Kumogakure—Mecha Ninja.
Lightning Release Chakra is the easiest type of Chakra to use as energy, and Vegapunk used this to develop Chakra Mecha.
Compared to ordinary mecha that are entirely mechanically driven, the Chakra Mecha he developed only assisted the physical body. After all, a Ninja enhanced with Chakra has physical strength no weaker than a normal mecha.
Although the number of mecha produced wasn't large—not even enough for every Jonin to have one—only about a dozen Elite Jonin were allocated them.
But any single mecha was enough to double the strength of an ordinary Jonin. Once an Elite Jonin obtained one, they could even hold their own against a Kage-level powerhouse for a while.
The Land of Sea followed the Animal Devil Fruit path, the Land of Wind followed the Chakra Attribute Fusion path, and the Land of Lightning followed this mecha path. Only the Land of Lightning, with its developed heavy industry, could take such a route.
Three different paths naturally led to three different developments. Vegapunk was the main founder of these paths, but many other Ninja and researchers filled in the details. For Vegapunk, the research of others also brought him more inspiration, which was why he used different paths in different hidden villages.
It was precisely because of these contributions that if the Fourth Raikage really intended to pass his position to Vegapunk, others wouldn't object. After all, many people were still waiting for Vegapunk to develop and strengthen new types of mecha.
"Then I'll take your word for it!" the Fourth Raikage shook his head and laughed heartily, then walked toward the machine Vegapunk had started.
"Why do I feel like this guy going to train is like he's going to a life-and-death battle with a mortal enemy? Does he have no confidence in my invention at all?"
Vegapunk's clone muttered. Standing beside him, Killer Bee made a few gestures, "Of course! After seeing your Current Propulsion, any normal person would think it's a death wish!"
Vegapunk's clone rolled his eyes, "If it were really a death wish, your Big Bro wouldn't be so eager to train!"
By now, the Fourth Raikage had already sat in Vegapunk's invention. The strange helmet was fastened onto his head, and then a weak current and magnetic field began to circulate within it.
As soon as the Fourth Raikage put on the helmet, he found that his sensory perception increased significantly. He also noticed that if the Lightning Release Chakra he released during training became slightly too strong, it would be completely suppressed by the helmet on his head.
"I see, so that's its purpose? To enhance control and act as a safety valve to prevent the brain from being fried!"
This thought flashed through the Fourth Raikage's mind, but he soon became immersed in his training again.
The method Vegapunk devised for him was to use Lightning Release Chakra to completely reconstruct his brain, starting with the brain's reception methods and eventually spreading to all the nerves in his body. At that time, his reflexes would be nearly as fast as the speed of light, far exceeding the reactions of normal humans.
In the normal world, the human limit for reaction speed is about 100 milliseconds. In the Naruto World, because of Chakra, the limit is greatly increased. For powerhouses like the Fourth Raikage and the Yellow Flash, their reaction speeds can reach around 20 to 30 milliseconds, which is nearly the absolute limit.
But after the reconstruction, according to Vegapunk's estimates, the Fourth Raikage's reaction speed could even improve to around 2 to 3 milliseconds, which could truly be called superhuman.
After an hour or two, Vegapunk's machine automatically popped open and ejected the Fourth Raikage, indicating that his training time had reached its limit.
Any damage to brain cells and nerve cells is irreversible. Even with Vegapunk's methods, complete recovery would require a massive amount of time and resources, which is why every training session must be done cautiously with set time limits.
The Fourth Raikage shook his head and lightly waved his arm. When he focused his attention completely, he could even feel the world seemingly slowing down slightly.
"Is this what it feels like to have improved neural reflexes? It's truly terrifying! If I can completely master Current Propulsion, then even the Yellow Flash probably wouldn't be able to match my speed in short distances, right?"
Murmuring to himself, a smile appeared on the Fourth Raikage's face. Ninjutsu was easy to practice, but talent was hard to change. The first step of Current Propulsion was to first change one's own talent, making it a truly groundbreaking Ninjutsu.
Moreover, this Ninjutsu was perfectly aligned with his own development path. Once fully mastered, the Fourth Raikage was confident that even if his old man were resurrected, he could win!
Of course, in Vegapunk's eyes, beating the Third Raikage was nothing. Although the Third Raikage was among the strongest of the Kage-level Ninja—capable of brawling with the Eight-Tails until both were exhausted—Vegapunk didn't think much of him at all.
"Well? Do you know the level of my technology now?"
"Haha, sorry, I really shouldn't have doubted you! It's mainly because the brain is too dangerous, and your theories are just too far ahead of their time."
The Fourth Raikage laughed. Vegapunk didn't mind and ran directly behind the giant training seat to start checking the collected data.
"Hmm, not bad... basically no real damage to the brain, but some cells will still die due to fatigue and prolonged exposure to Lightning Release Chakra... I should adjust the intensity of the Lightning Release Chakra here..."
"The Lightning Release current in this direction can also be modified; a slight adjustment in direction... could better reconstruct the dense ganglia..."
"The neural reception also needs adjustment... Good, that's about it!"
Watching the busy Vegapunk, Killer Bee made a few strange movements, "I always feel like you, Big Bro, are still just... a lab animal!"
"Stop speaking such harsh truths!" The Fourth Raikage punched Killer Bee and said, rolling his eyes, "Once I've completely succeeded, Dr. Vegapunk should be able to reduce the danger and difficulty of this training. Then it'll be your turn to be the test sub—I mean, to train!"
Killer Bee shrugged and didn't object. In fact, he had initially proposed to be the first to train, but his sworn brother had rejected the idea.
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