Night deepened, and the village lights grew sparse.
Alone, Shinichi moved silently through several of the most secluded—and almost deserted—streets of Konohagakure.
A short while later, he stopped before the entrance of an inconspicuous building that nearly blended into the darkness.
Two shinobi dressed in Root ANBU uniforms and wearing animal masks appeared soundlessly at either side of the entrance, as if emerging from the shadows themselves. They bowed slightly.
"Captain Shinichi."
One of them spoke in a low, respectful voice.
"Elder Danzō is waiting for you. Please follow me."
"Thank you for your guidance, senpai."
Shinichi gave a slight nod.
Led by the Root members, he passed through multiple hidden corridors and barriers, descending deep underground before finally arriving at a vast, solemn training ground. Both the floor and walls were inscribed with mysterious formulas.
Only a single figure stood within the chamber.
With his back facing the entrance, Shimura Danzō stood motionless. Most of one side of his body remained wrapped in white bandages. Hearing the approaching footsteps, he slowly turned around. His perpetually stern and gloomy face showed no trace of emotion.
The moment he saw Shinichi arrive, he casually tossed over an ancient scroll.
The scroll traced a precise arc through the air and flew directly into Shinichi's hands.
Without exchanging any pleasantries, Danzō spoke immediately.
"Take a look first."
"Yes, Elder Danzō."
Shinichi responded, catching the scroll steadily before opening it and reading it carefully.
During this period, he had not only buried himself in dissecting Blue B and reverse-engineering the secrets behind Lightning Release Nintaijutsu, but had also turned his attention toward another crucial field—
Wind Release.
To that end, he had personally sought out the shinobi world's universally acknowledged Wind Release master—
Shimura Danzō.
Using the fact that development of his Fire Release Nintaijutsu system had entered a bottleneck, he requested guidance from a master of Wind Release. His stated goal was to explore the synergy—and perhaps even fusion—between the nature transformations of wind and fire, hoping to achieve a breakthrough in his own Nintaijutsu.
For the current Shinichi, continuing to refine his Fire Release Nintaijutsu was naturally still the core path toward becoming stronger.
But the reality before him was clear.
As a purple Entry, Fire Release Mastery LV1 would be extraordinarily difficult to advance further.
Reaching the higher level—the pinnacle represented by LV2—was not something that could be achieved in the short term. It would require a much grander and more shocking event to serve as the catalyst for perception and recognition.
Therefore, in order not to disrupt the pace of his overall stat-monster growth plan, he temporarily shifted the focus of developing high-level elemental Entries away from Fire Release and onto two other attributes that were equally important and possessed tremendous potential.
Lightning Release.
And Wind Release.
The Lightning Release side was relatively straightforward.
Two months later, his clone Isshin would appear at the National Swordsmanship Tournament of the Land of Iron under the name of the Ashina Style. There, he would put on a proper display of his unique swordsmanship and Nintaijutsu integrated with Lightning Release.
Using an event destined to shake the entire Land of Iron, he would steadily promote the green Entry Lightning Release Proficiency to the blue tier.
After that, all he would need was a sufficiently critical and shocking real battle performance to push that blue Lightning Release Entry into the purple realm in a single leap.
As for Wind Release, however, he had started much later and his foundation was comparatively weak.
Because of that, the first step of his plan centered on Shimura Danzō.
He hoped to use the guidance of a master who had immersed himself in Wind Release for decades and reached the pinnacle of the art to rapidly fill the gaps in his own Wind Release knowledge system, deepen his understanding and application of Wind Release shape transformation and nature transformation, and lay a solid foundation for eventually creating a blue-tier Wind Release Entry.
As for a purple-tier Wind Release Entry, that would require opportunities and planning on a much longer timescale. For now, it remained part of a future roadmap.
Fifteen minutes later, Shinichi slowly closed the scroll in his hands.
Even with Wind Release Proficiency serving as both a foundation and enhancement, and with the ultra-high-speed information processing granted by Piercing Insight, the distilled notes containing the essence of Danzō's lifetime of Wind Release mastery still held far too much information that required repeated study and careful reflection.
After seeing him put away the scroll, Danzō finally spoke.
"You've been studying under this old man for a week now."
"Tell me."
"What specific gains and insights have you obtained?"
Although the boy had only been learning from him for a week, those seven short days had already left Danzō with a feeling he had never experienced before.
Shinichi's relentless habit of getting to the bottom of every question, his ability to infer countless possibilities from a single example—and, even more frighteningly, his capacity to instantly analyze Danzō's explanations and extrapolate entirely new possibilities from them—had given Danzō an unprecedented feeling of being completely drained.
The scroll he had handed over earlier could practically be considered the very best material Danzō had to offer.
"I've indeed benefited greatly, Elder Danzō."
Shinichi nodded.
"The core of my combat style has always been the seamless integration of techniques and physical combat. So while studying and researching the Wind Release principles you've taught me, I've also been thinking about how to incorporate their essence into my own combat system."
At that point, Shinichi seemed to feel that words alone could not fully convey his ideas, so he looked up at Danzō.
"It would probably be more intuitive if I demonstrated it directly."
The instant those words left his mouth, Shinichi casually flicked his right hand toward the front.
The air within the training ground seemed to freeze for a brief moment before erupting into a piercing shriek.
Countless invisible currents of air, like soldiers responding to their king's summons, converged and compressed violently into the palm of his right hand.
The next moment, Shinichi flicked his fingers.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
A rapid succession of deep, thunderous detonations echoed through the chamber!
More than a dozen invisible air bullets, formed from highly compressed Wind Release chakra and air condensed to the absolute limit, tore through the atmosphere at speeds the naked eye could not possibly follow and slammed into the steel dummy's chest, abdomen, and shoulders.
The sturdy refined steel surface instantly erupted with crater after crater, as though repeatedly struck by a giant hammer. Each depression was several inches deep, its edges twisted and shattered by the overwhelming force.
The entire steel dummy trembled violently, releasing a metallic groan under the strain.
"I call this preliminary application Dream Bullet."
Lowering his right hand, Shinichi explained calmly, "It takes the impact properties of Wind Release chakra as its core and combines them with the extreme instantaneous chakra compression and explosive release techniques I learned from Tsunade-sensei's Monster Strength. The focus is on creating high-density, high-speed point-impact attacks."
Without giving Danzō much time to be surprised, Shinichi immediately continued: "And the next technique is derived from an entirely different line of thought."
As he spoke, he shifted his stance slightly and adjusted his center of gravity.
His right leg suddenly rose high like a battle axe, while the edge of his foot became enveloped in a layer of pale cyan chakra that rotated at high speed, condensed almost into a tangible blade.
The next instant—
Whoosh!!
His leg became a blade as it cleaved downward.
Standing to the side, Danzō saw only a flash of cyan light.
Riiip!!!
A clean tearing sound rang out.
The battered steel dummy was sliced in half from shoulder to waist by a gigantic wind blade as effortlessly as cutting butter.
The cut surface was smooth as a mirror, displaying astonishing cutting power and extraordinary control.
The only sounds left in the training ground were the echoes of the steel wreckage crashing to the floor and the lingering sharp currents of wind that had yet to fully dissipate.
"I call this technique Tempest Blade."
Shinichi slowly lowered his right leg as the Wind Release chakra surrounding him gradually settled.
"It takes the cutting properties of Wind Release chakra as its foundation. Through extreme stretching, shaping, and vibration of chakra, it forms a linear slashing attack with exceptional cutting power."
Wind Release chakra possessed two primary characteristics.
One was impact, represented by Wind Release: Great Breakthrough.
The other was cutting, represented by Wind Release: Wind Blade.
The Dream Bullet and Tempest Blade developed by Shinichi were preliminary attempts to combine those two characteristics with his own taijutsu.
Dream Bullet embodied the essence of Wind Release's impact force, concentrating everything into a single point and emphasizing explosive power.
Tempest Blade embodied the profound principles of Wind Release's cutting power, extending it into a line and focusing on breaking through defenses.
Danzō stood silently in place.
Expressionless, he looked at the steel dummy that had been effortlessly split in half, then at the deep craters left by the Dream Bullets.
He remained silent for a long time.
So long that the air in the training ground itself seemed frozen.
At last, he slowly raised his lone eye and fixed his gaze on Shinichi.
Then he forced out two words: "Not bad."
His tone was so flat that it almost sounded perfunctory.
But only he knew what kind of storm was raging within his heart at that moment.
Because the boy standing before him had already, for all practical purposes, developed the rudiments of Wind Release Nintaijutsu.
And the time he had spent doing so was only...
One week.