Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode

But here's the question: the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, should have raised Water Release to level 5, so why didn't he master the Water Transformation Technique?

Is it possible that the abilities gained when each person's escape technique breaks through to level five are different?

With too little information available, Kirito couldn't get the answer. Perhaps in the future, after summoning Tobirama Senju using the Impure World Reincarnation technique, he would have a chance to get the answer from the Second Hokage, who was exceptionally talented in ninjutsu.

"Kirito, how did you do that? You can turn into electricity?"

Nawaki looked at Kirito's arm, which had just turned into electricity, and said with a puzzled expression.

"Actually, I'm not quite sure how I did it. I guess it's related to a new breakthrough in my Lightning Release abilities. I have indeed mastered a ninjutsu that allows my body to instantly turn into electricity."

Kirito scratched his head and replied.

Chizuru stared intently at Kirito with her Sharingan, her eyes revealing a deep longing.

She had been watching Kirito transform his arm into lightning with her Sharingan, but she discovered that her Sharingan couldn't replicate the ninjutsu Kirito had described.

But she knew very well how powerful the ninjutsu Kirito had just used was.

If Kirito could transform into lightning, then he would essentially possess all the abilities of lightning, such as terrifying movement speed.

That's the speed of light, far more powerful than ordinary teleportation techniques.

Moreover, because he transforms into lightning, he doesn't have to worry about the side effects of his body being unable to withstand high-speed movement.

As a ninja skilled in using the Lightning Release acceleration technique for assassination, Chizuru really wanted to learn this ninjutsu.

Kirito understood the meaning in Chizuru's eyes, but shook his head and said, "Ordinary people can't learn this ninjutsu. Only those who have mastered Lightning Release to an extremely high level can learn it. Moreover, I don't know how to cultivate it. It was just like my hands and feet, naturally born into my body. Simply put, it's like the Sharingan."

Upon hearing this, Chizuru's eyes immediately revealed deep disappointment.

She understood Kirito's words. This Lightning Transformation Technique was most likely a special product of a bloodline limit, just like her Sharingan. No wonder her Sharingan couldn't copy this ninjutsu just now.

"Kirito, can you tell me how you felt when you first broke through your Lightning Release ability?"

Sakumo Hatake finally couldn't help but ask the question he longed to hear.

His Wind Release ability has stagnated for a long time, while Kirito's Lightning Release ability is clearly a breakthrough to a mysterious realm. Perhaps he can get the secret to his breakthrough from Kirito.

Although Kirito was much younger than him, he believed that those who were more experienced could be his teachers, and he didn't mind asking Kirito for advice as long as it helped him improve his strength.

Kirito has a good impression of Sakumo Hatake. After spending these days together, he has found that the team leader is quite responsible, constantly teaching them various wilderness survival skills, and also guiding them in ninjutsu and swordsmanship training when he has time.

He didn't hold back, imparting his most proficient techniques—body sleight of hand, wind ninjutsu, and swordsmanship—to the three of them equally.

Thanks to his selfless teaching, in just over ten days, he and Chizuru made a significant improvement in their understanding of the Body Flicker Technique.

Therefore, he didn't mind telling him how he felt when he broke through his Lightning Release.

He didn't shy away from Chizuru and Nawaki, and immediately shared his feelings after entering the mysterious Thunder Space.

"To become lightning myself, what a magical realization."

Sakumo Hatake squinted and muttered to himself, seemingly having found a clue to improve his Wind Release ability.

Chizuru, standing to the side, was somewhat disappointed because she had seen similar records in the books in her family's archives, but there was no mention of how to transform oneself into lightning or fire. Kirito was the same.

Rope Tree looked at the three of them with a blank expression.

"I'm sorry, I really can't explain how I turned into lightning. In short, it was a very strange feeling that is hard to describe in words."

Kirito noticed the disappointment on Chizuru's face and smiled wryly.

"There's no need to apologize. I know what you said is true. Hmph, just you wait. Sooner or later, I will also make my lightning release reach the realm of mystery."

Chizuru said stubbornly.

After saying that, she walked to a corner, closed her eyes, and focused on repairing the equipment.

Soon after, a large amount of blue-white electricity appeared on her body.

Sakumo Hatake made a similar move, and a gentle breeze emanated from his body.

Kirito's breakthrough in Lightning Release to a mysterious level severely stimulated the nerves of both of them.

Rope Tree, though bewildered, began to silently grow stronger in his own way, pouring out his sweat with gusto.

While the three of them were spurred on and focused on their training, Kirito also began to secretly learn more about the abilities of a level 5 Lightning Release user.

He brought up the attribute panel again and found that there was now a Thunder Bloodline option in his Constitution section, instead of just the Immortal Transformation option which could not be improved.

The attribute panel doesn't provide specific details about this Thunder Bloodline, but you can glean a lot from the word "bloodline" alone.

Clearly, his bloodline had indeed been modified, thus acquiring the special ninjutsu of Lightning Transformation.

From then on, he was also able to travel at the speed of light.

However, the Lightning Transformation Technique has a major weakness: it consumes a huge amount of chakra.

The moment he showed off his technique to Nawaki, less than a fifth of his remaining chakra evaporated, demonstrating that while this ninjutsu allowed him to ignore physical attacks and move at the speed of light, it couldn't be sustained for very long.

Kirito estimated that even if he activated the tailed beast-level chakra within the Yin Seal on his body, it would only allow him to last for a minute at most.

However, if he could move at the speed of light for one minute, probably no one in the world could threaten him. And once he becomes familiar with this ninjutsu and can open and stop it instantly, he might even achieve an effect similar to the Flying Thunder God Technique.

"Movement speed of light is probably something only top-tier Kage-level powerhouses could react to, and even then, they might not be able to defend against it. I wonder which is faster, the Flying Thunder God Technique or the Flying Thunder God Technique."

Kirito thought to himself with a smile.

Then, he raised his right hand, opened his palm, and with a thought, a burst of lightning chakra covered his palm. A blue-white electric current shot out from his palm and then remained still in mid-air.

Then, more and more current shot out from his palm, merging with the current in mid-air to form an arm-sized current, which, under his control, continuously formed various small animals.

After reaching level 5 in Lightning Release, not only did his body undergo some kind of mysterious transformation, granting him the Lightning Transformation Technique, but his control over electricity was also greatly enhanced.

Previously, electricity felt to him like an unruly child. Controlling it required excellent chakra manipulation skills, and he could only control its direction of movement. It was impossible to make it obediently stop like it does now.

At this moment, the electricity emanating from his body seemed to be imprinted with his will, allowing him to control it at will.

After confirming the extent of his control over electricity, Kirito raised his left hand, and a surge of Water Release chakra immediately appeared.

The next moment, under Kirito's control, the lightning chakra in his right hand and the water chakra in his left hand, two chakra lines of different colors, collided with each other in mid-air.

The moment the two different types of chakra came into contact, they repelled each other, and a powerful repulsive force sent them flying.

"Oh!"

At the same time, a special chakra point emanating both lightning and water chakra waves appeared in mid-air where the two chakra lines made contact, but it disappeared instantly like a spark, emitting a slight explosion.

"So this is Storm Release. As expected, once Lightning Release reaches level 5, the fusion of the two chakras becomes much easier."

Kirito looked at the fleeting amount of special chakra in mid-air, a look of surprise in his eyes.

He had always failed to fuse two types of chakra, but this time, by simply touching two chakra threads of different attributes together, he actually succeeded in fusing and creating the Storm Release chakra in one go.

Although this Storm Release chakra is very unstable and explodes and disappears instantly, it is undoubtedly a very good start. As long as he becomes familiar with the fusion rules of these two chakras, he will soon be able to create stable Storm Release chakra.

This process is similar to how he initially fused chakra with natural energy.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, he will only need to work on it for a while to successfully create the Storm Release bloodline limit.

……

Nighttime, Konoha, Hokage Building, Hokage's office.

The Third Generation was smoking a cigarette and looking at a newly received encrypted intelligence report. After reading it, the wrinkles on his face deepened.

The intelligence was simple: Iwagakure had secretly returned the prisoner, Akasuna, to Sunagakure.

Akasuna is Chiyo's son. Iwagakure spent a huge amount of money to get him from Hattori Masanari. Now that they've released him back, it's undoubtedly a friendly signal from Iwagakure to Sunagakure.

This is not good news for Konoha.

But this is not what the Third Hokage is most worried about right now, because the source of this intelligence is not any of the spies he has under his command who are lurking in Iwagakure, but rather the Root organization.

It is the root that has lost its leader.

Chapter 183: Assassinating the Wind Shadow

"Danzo, what kind of backup plan did you leave in Root? The Root that you controlled before has clearly broken away from Konoha's control, yet it is still providing Konoha with such important information. It's really puzzling."

The third generation looked at the encrypted intelligence in his hand, utterly puzzled.

In recent days, fearing that Root might do something harmful to Konoha, such as spreading rumors that could shake the morale of the villagers, he has been secretly sending out a large number of ANBU ninja to search for Root's whereabouts, but with little success.

After Danzo's death, Root abandoned Konoha and many of its surrounding strongholds, and withdrew all its core members, leaving only some peripheral members who could not access the core secrets.

By doing this, Root is undoubtedly announcing its intention to break away from Konoha's control and then retaliate against Konoha.

To everyone's surprise, Root's current actions don't seem like they're trying to be enemies of Konoha at all; instead, they intend to continue providing services to Konoha.

What exactly does this mean?

Does this mean that you don't want to be controlled by Konoha but still want to continue serving Konoha?

Or perhaps he hopes that as the Third Hokage, he will stop interfering in Root's affairs and ignore Root's current situation, allowing Root to remain outside of Konoha's system. In exchange, Root will continue to serve him and Konoha.

The Third Hokage didn't dislike Root's obvious attempts to curry favor with Konoha, but he still didn't want to lose control of an intelligence organization with such a terrifying and dark nature that knew so much about Konoha.

Because this is a time bomb, it could explode any day and blow Konoha, him, and the Sarutobi clan to the heavens.

The Third Hokage could not ignore Root's existence, given that Root possessed a large amount of Konoha's confidential information and could potentially leak it to Konoha's enemies at any time.

In his mind now, if the roots get out of control, then they must be uprooted and completely eliminated.

He wanted to bury all the secrets in darkness, so that they would never see the light of day again.

Even if these secrets are to be revealed one day, it will have to wait until after the war between Konoha and Sunagakure ends.

"Someone come here."

After a moment of contemplation, the third generation spoke.

A member of the Anbu ninja appeared immediately upon hearing the voice. He knelt on one knee, bowed his head, and respectfully said, "Third Hokage, please give your orders."

"Go and ask Akimichi, the patriarch of the Akimichi clan, to fetch the wind."

The third generation issued the order.

The ANBU ninja immediately obeyed: "Ha!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he used the Body Flicker Technique to disappear from the Third Hokage's sight.

"What exactly is that short guy from Iwagakure trying to do? He should be busy dealing with Kumogakure right now."

The third generation burned the intelligence document in his hand with a candle, thinking to himself.