With the level of talent Koji had already displayed, a sudden improvement in his Chakra Scalpel was perfectly reasonable.
He simply hadn’t focused on it before.
After witnessing more advanced techniques and putting greater effort into training, naturally his skill would improve.
It was such a reasonable explanation that even Koji himself couldn’t find a flaw in it.
ANBU and Root would have no choice but to accept the same conclusion.
Previously, Koji had still worried that Danzo might suddenly try something troublesome.
Now?
That was much less of a concern.
It wasn’t that Root had suddenly become harmless.
Koji simply no longer considered ordinary Root operatives much of a threat.
Based on his own estimate, his current combat ability had already reached somewhere around the threshold below Kage-level— slightly above an elite jonin.
Within Konoha, once Kakashi Hatake and Might Guy were set aside, there weren’t many people Koji needed to treat with excessive caution.
And if Kakashi couldn’t use Kamui yet…
Koji believed he could probably beat him.
Might Guy was different.
Absolutely different.
There were two types of opponents Koji disliked fighting most.
The first was genjutsu specialists.
The second— pure taijutsu monsters.
Konoha currently didn’t have many top-tier genjutsu specialists, and the basic principles behind ordinary genjutsu weren’t particularly difficult to understand.
At its core, genjutsu interfered with the victim’s chakra flow, causing false sensory information and hallucinations.
For Koji, dealing with that kind of interference wasn’t impossible.
He could deliberately reserve a portion of chakra within a specific part of his body.
If he noticed his chakra network being disturbed, he could use the Mystical Palm Jutsu to restore the affected flow.
Once the disruption was corrected, his chakra should return to normal.
Koji had gotten the idea for this method from a veteran spy who had already infiltrated Konoha—
Kabuto Yakushi.
Koji had once wondered how Kabuto could move around Konoha without attracting much attention or exposing obvious flaws.
After learning more about the hospital’s training facilities, several things began making sense.
Orochimaru had cooperated with Danzo.
Danzo controlled Root.
So if Kabuto’s background was recorded as someone who had once received training through Root, most people wouldn’t question it too deeply.
Kabuto’s original identity wasn’t especially suspicious either.
He had come from Konoha’s orphanage.
That alone solved many potential problems.
And officially, he was registered as nothing more than a genin.
Under normal circumstances, why would Konoha’s leadership pay special attention to one ordinary genin?
Not every genin could somehow end up mixed in with Konoha’s so-called golden generation.
Speaking of which…
Koji still found that entire generation ridiculous.
Had the previous clan heads all secretly agreed to have children at the same time?
Their children were absurdly talented.
Fortunately, they were still about a year away from graduating.
Just a few days earlier, Koji had heard that Team Guy had officially been formed.
Neji Hyuga.
Rock Lee.
Tenten.
The trio whose first appearances had carried an almost unreasonable amount of presence.
Neji dominated nearly everyone in his generation.
Rock Lee later opened the Eight Gates and nearly beat the future Kazekage into the ground.
Even Sasuke Uchiha, who practically radiated arrogance at that age, got kicked across the room without mercy.
And Tenten…
She could throw ninja tools extremely well.
Maybe she wasn’t overwhelmingly powerful, but at least her fights looked impressive.
The three of them had been introduced as terrifying future rivals.
Their eventual outcomes, however, were almost comically unfortunate.
One effectively disappeared from relevance.
One died.
And the remaining one successfully transitioned into running a business.
Absolutely ridiculous.
Their teacher was even more troublesome.
Might Guy.
Koji genuinely didn’t want anything to do with that man.
Kakashi was manageable as long as Kamui wasn’t involved.
Might Guy?
Even without opening the Eight Gates, the man was already an elite jonin.
Once the Gates opened, his strength jumped dramatically.
And with all Eight Gates…
well.
If that kick landed cleanly, even someone who had obtained Six Paths-level power could be kicked to death.
Koji had absolutely no interest in testing himself against that.
What if Guy simply kicked him to death?
As for Hiruzen Sarutobi…
the Third Hokage was already old.
Whether he could still consistently maintain true Kage-level combat power was questionable.
But Koji had no desire to personally verify that either.
Staying cautious was better.
His next objective had already become clear.
And after half a month of research— he had finally achieved his first real result.
[Healing Resuscitation Regeneration Technique (Modified) — 18%]
Koji stared at the panel.
He had succeeded.
In only half a month, he’d developed a version of the Healing Resuscitation Regeneration Technique that could theoretically be performed by one person.
The separate formulas had been consolidated.
The total chakra cost had also been reduced considerably.
But…
the technique was still absurdly difficult to use.
That wasn’t surprising.
The original version required multiple medical ninja working in rotations.
Turning something designed for an entire medical team into a solo technique was already outrageous.
Even after reducing the total chakra consumption, an ordinary ninja couldn’t possibly sustain it.
Neither could Koji.
His chakra recovered extremely quickly thanks to the Recovery trait— but even that wasn’t enough.
Forget completing the technique.
He couldn’t even maintain it through half of the required process.
At most…
he could manage roughly one-third.
Still, the modified technique had gained something in exchange.
Its efficiency at producing differentiable cells had increased.
It couldn’t regenerate something as complex as an eyeball yet.
But reconstructing more basic tissues— muscle.
Bone.
And if Koji continued pushing the technique through Limit Breaks…
then perhaps, after crossing enough thresholds, it might someday reach the level Naruto displayed late in the original story.
The ability to restore Kakashi’s eye almost instantly.
Of course…
that kind of feat would require a ridiculous amount of chakra.
Koji couldn’t support anything close to it.
But Tsunade’s sealing technique might offer another path.
If he could store massive amounts of chakra over time…
perhaps such a technique would eventually become possible.
Which created a brand-new problem.
How was he supposed to increase his chakra reserves?
Seal a tailed beast inside himself?
Koji dismissed the idea immediately.
Becoming a jinchuriki certainly provided access to enormous chakra reserves.
It also meant that having the tailed beast extracted would kill him.
That was practically digging his own grave.
What about simply strengthening his body through training?
Too slow.
Koji already tempered his body with Lightning-nature chakra almost every day.
Yet the resulting increase in chakra capacity was painfully small.
A drop at a time.
At his current pace, reaching the amount of chakra he actually needed would probably take at least another ten years.
Ten years?
By then, he might already be hanging from the God Tree.
“Haah…”
Koji let out a long sigh and collapsed into the chair beside him.
He had solved one problem.
And immediately created another.
A much more serious one.
Chakra reserves were a hard limit.
There was no convenient way to accumulate enormous amounts of chakra in a short period of time.
If he could safely transplant Hashirama cells, his chakra capacity would almost certainly increase enough.
But that was the problem.
The entire reason he’d developed this modified Healing Resuscitation Regeneration Technique— was to make transplanting Hashirama cells safer in the first place.
A perfect circle.
“You know, improving a medical ninjutsu is extremely difficult.”
A familiar voice came from behind him.
“If it really isn’t working, there’s nothing wrong with giving up.”
It was already late at night.
Yuya Kudo had only stopped by to check on him.
But after hearing Koji’s exhausted sigh, she couldn’t help trying to comfort him.
For the past half month, Koji had practically been living in Konoha Hospital’s scheduling room.
Watching him push himself like this every day had even made Yuya feel somewhat worried.
Koji turned toward her.
His expression remained strangely defeated.
“I succeeded.”
Yuya paused.
Then Koji continued.
“But I also failed.”
Yuya instinctively took a step backward.
“What did you just say?!”