The First Great Ninja War had only just ended, and bandits were everywhere throughout the Land of Fire.
A huge number of shinobi were needed to deal with them.
Akira and his team had graduated at exactly the right time.
Within a single month, under Danzo’s leadership, the three of them completed seventeen bandit suppression missions across the Land of Fire.
Each of them had cut down countless enemies.
They were practically all young warriors with over a hundred kills to their names.
Akira handled it fairly well.
After all, he was a transmigrator with the mindset of an adult.
Sakumo was doing fine too.
His personality hadn’t changed much.
People in the Ninja World matured early, and at twelve years old, his values were already mostly set.
Hiruko, however, had begun showing signs of trouble.
He couldn’t sleep through the night anymore, plagued by nightmares.
Lately, he’d even started questioning the meaning of life.
Akira nearly blurted out, “You’ve already developed the mindset of a Hokage.” Still, kids needed comforting.
It wouldn’t do for a perfectly good friend to suddenly become mentally unstable.
Finding some free time, Akira sought Hiruko out.
The two sat beside the small river outside Konoha for a long talk.
“Does it hurt that much, Hiruko?” Akira looked at his normally energetic friend.
Dark circles hung beneath Hiruko’s eyes after days of poor sleep.
“The essence of a shinobi is being a tool for killing.
Taking lives is part of the job.
If you can’t overcome that, then you should retire while you still can.” Hiruko remained silent for a long while before finally speaking.
“I know they deserved to die…
but killing so many of our own kind…
I can’t help feeling sympathy.” “The world has always been cruel.
Wherever people exist, there will be conflict.
Where there’s conflict, people die.
Unless you can change the world.” Akira wasn’t good at preaching.
He simply forced people to face reality, then offered a practical solution.
“If you possessed enough power to suppress the entire Ninja World, united every nation, and established fair laws, there’d probably be far less killing.” “Unify the Ninja World…” Hiruko murmured to himself, lost in thought.
Seeing that his friend seemed less troubled than before, Akira quietly stood and left.
The rest was something Hiruko had to figure out for himself.
Killing intent was a real thing in the Ninja World.
Momochi Zabuza’s murderous aura.
Orochimaru’s overwhelming bloodlust.
Both had once paralyzed Team Seven through sheer intimidation alone.
After so many extermination missions, Akira had begun carrying that same kind of killing intent.
It was a form of spiritual pressure that could be consciously controlled.
Coincidentally, Akira possessed exceptionally high Spirit, making his killing intent far more oppressive than most.
Once he noticed this power, he deliberately trained it.
At first, it could only make bandits shiver.
By the end of the month, a single glare was enough to freeze ordinary bandits in place with terror.
Akira felt there was tremendous potential here.
If his Spirit became high enough, perhaps this aura could someday evolve into something akin to dragon’s pressure, or even Conqueror’s Haki.
Then he could clear out weak enemies before the battle even started.
With the Yin Seal constantly accumulating Yin Release chakra and nourishing his spirit, Akira’s Spirit stat increased every so often.
Combined with his refined killing intent, instantly overwhelming ordinary genin was no longer difficult.
Danzo had noticed Akira intentionally training his killing intent.
After asking about Akira’s chakra affinities, he reached a conclusion.
“Your chakra likely possesses the Yin attribute as well.
Yin and Yang chakra affinities don’t appear on chakra test paper.” Akira considered that an unexpected bonus.
Danzo continued, “Possessing Yin Release chakra means you’re qualified to learn genjutsu, spiritual secret techniques, and sensory ninjutsu.” He proceeded to teach Akira the chakra sensing technique passed down by Tobirama.
It was the technique that sensed chakra by placing one’s fingers against the ground.
Both Tobirama and Minato had used it.
In Tobirama’s hands, it could detect enemies from thousands of meters away, covering an enormous area.
In Akira’s hands, however, the range was greatly reduced.
Only around a dozen kilometers.
How should he put it?
Slightly better than the Byakugan.
The Ninja World guarded ninjutsu inheritance very carefully.
An average chunin might spend an entire lifetime knowing only a handful of techniques.
The fact that Danzo taught Akira so readily was partly out of respect for Uzumaki Mito, and partly because he wanted to earn Akira’s loyalty.
Akira was undeniably talented.
At such a young age, he had already mastered medical ninjutsu, sealing techniques, and virtually every fundamental shinobi skill.
Someone like that was worth cultivating.
At this point, Danzo was still healthy.
He hadn’t lost an eye.
He hadn’t founded Root.
He still had complete confidence in his own strength, and his thoughts hadn’t yet turned toward political schemes.
His real change in mentality wouldn’t come until the Second Great Ninja War.
Only after witnessing the overwhelming power of the Third Raikage and the Jinchuriki, and after being crippled himself, would he realize how insignificant ordinary shinobi truly were.
That was when he’d begin obsessing over human experimentation, coveting the Sharingan and Wood Release so he could control the Nine-Tails and pursue his ambitions.
The younger Danzo was still the disciple personally acknowledged by Tobirama.
His character hadn’t deteriorated that far yet.
When he saw Akira master the Chakra Sensing Technique almost immediately, he finally understood just how monstrous the boy’s talent really was.
Danzo silently sighed.
Hiruzen actually did one thing right for once.
Then irritation followed.
He assumed Hiruzen had intentionally assigned Akira to him as a favor, leaving him feeling both embarrassed and annoyed.
Completely unaware of Danzo’s thoughts, Akira saw how readily his teacher shared techniques and immediately pushed his luck, asking to learn even more ninjutsu.
Danzo, surprisingly, wasn’t particularly conservative when it came to teaching his students.
Perhaps that was Tobirama’s influence.
For each of Akira’s three elemental affinities, Wind, Water, and Earth, Danzo taught him one C-rank ninjutsu, intending for him to familiarize himself with chakra nature transformation.
Could something like that possibly stump Akira?
He’d already spent an entire month training nature transformation.
If he still couldn’t learn three simple C-rank techniques, then all that effort would’ve been for nothing.
The moment Danzo demonstrated a technique…
…the next moment, Akira copied it perfectly.
Then he looked at his teacher with an innocent expression.
“Did I do it right?
Like this?” Danzo felt a headache coming on.
If Akira learned this quickly, there simply weren’t enough ninjutsu in his arsenal to keep teaching him.
After Akira managed to squeeze one more technique out of him, the genjutsu Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings Technique.
Danzo immediately claimed he had urgent business, used the Body Flicker Technique, and disappeared.
“Heh.
So easy.” Akira chuckled to himself.
Compared to Mito-obasan, Danzo still had a long way to go.
Mito had greeted him with an entire collection of sealing techniques from the very beginning.
Once she recognized his potential, she simply taught him everything worth passing on.
Meanwhile, despite clearly displaying genius-level talent, Danzo had only taught him a handful of C-rank techniques.
The highest-level one was probably the Chakra Sensing Technique, whose difficulty depended entirely on one’s spiritual strength.
It was likely an A-rank technique.
Still…
No matter what, Danzo was already better than Kakashi.
At least he hadn’t tried to fool Akira with tree-climbing and water-walking exercises.
If the day ever came when they stood on opposite sides…
Akira decided he’d make it quick.
At the very least, he’d give his teacher a peaceful death.