Plans and Training

"You also have designs on that Vegapunk clone, Danzo?"

The Third Hokage squinted at Danzo and asked a question.

Danzo snorted coldly, "Isn't that a given? You know, this Vegapunk was taken from us! He was originally supposed to be a force of our Konohagakure!"

The Third Hokage didn't say anything that might cause trouble. Vegapunk himself might cause trouble, but his clone's words carried much less weight.

Moreover, this clone was already taken away by the Kumogakure once, so Konoha wouldn't face too much condemnation for taking him back.

"That clone... how did Vegapunk's original self see it?"

Danzo frowned. "That's what I find strange too. The other two countries and ninja villages don't seem to care much about that clone... Logically speaking, even if the Wind Country and the Sea Country don't start Total War, they should at least put some pressure on the Kumogakure!"

"But in reality, although the Wind Country and the Sea Country have held people accountable, their efforts are not as strong as those of our Konoha village!"

The Third Hokage was also puzzled. "Could it be that Vegapunk's clone technology is inferior to Vegapunk's? Is that why those two ninja villages don't care much?"

"Maybe!" Danzo, though he instinctively felt that wasn't the case, but he couldn't quite put his finger on why.

Just then, there was a knock at the door, and the Third Hokage said, "Come in!"

A young man with a full head of silver hair and wearing a mask walked in. It was Kakashi Hatake, who had become a squad leader in the Anbu. He looked serious and handed a letter to the Third Hokage.

"Lord Hokage, this is a secret document sent from Iwagakure!"

"Ōnoki? What's that guy up to?"

Danzo immediately asked a question. After the Third Hokage finished reading the secret document, he coughed twice. Kakashi, realizing what was happening, left the secret room.

"The Iwagakure have invited us to join forces to rescue Vegapunk's clone..."

The Third Hokage spoke with a complicated expression, Danzo scoffed, "This Shorty still has such a thick skin... They Iwagakure also took action back then, but now they're putting on this righteous act. Who are they trying to fool?"

The Third Hokage neither confirmed nor Danzo Danzo's words. Admittedly, Ōnoki was shameless and ruthless, but as the leader of a ninja village, he was still quite qualified. Ninjas are naturally more concerned with interests than with face, and the leaders of ninja villages are no exception.

"The key question is whether Konoha should participate in this operation?" the Third Hokage asked. Although he was the Hokage, he usually left these kinds of things to Danzo, so he wanted to ask Danzo's opinion.

Upon hearing this, Danzo immediately lowered his head and fell into deep thought, "This... is not a good solution..."

"The last battle resulted in extremely heavy losses at the Root!"

Danzo believed that they should participate in such matters, and it would be best to bring Vegapunk's clones back to their Root. If that wasn't possible, they could simply kill them.

However, the Root is now severely weakened, and it is difficult to even maintain a normal intelligence network. It is really not easy to transfer more manpower.

Thinking of this, Danzo looked at the Third Hokage: "Hiruzen, Konoha must participate in this operation! You should send some more people to Root!"

The Third Hokage looked helpless. "Replenishing manpower, who have you set your sights on this time?"

"I think Kakashi Hatake is quite good, and the other major clans should also contribute some people. Also, I need the Anbu to cooperate with this operation!"

"The Anbu issue is easy to handle. As for manpower, you can 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 immediately. Although Root was a powerful organization, it was not easy to draw people from other clans. After all, Root only wanted elite ninjas, and the clans of Konoha certainly did not want their elites to join Root.

Ninjas who join Root are subject to Cursed Seal, which is basically like throwing good money after bad—they're gone forever, unlike those in the Anbu.

Anbu Ninja can usually leave after joining for a period of time, but for Root ninjas, the only way to leave is through death. This is far more cruel than that of ordinary ninjas, and it is extremely difficult to persuade the clan leaders of those clans.

Danzo could use his power to suppress just one or two ordinary families, but if he really angered most of the Konohagakure clans, he, as the leader of Root, would be humiliated.

Root was far from having absolute power in Konoha; otherwise, he wouldn't have only a handful of subordinates. They could bully ordinary ninjas without any background, but if someone reached the level of Jonin or had a powerful family behind them, Danzo wouldn't be able to do much against them.

However, Danzo thought about it and agreed. This kind of support was probably the limit for the Third Hokage. The Hokage himself couldn't just step in and force those clans to hand over their members, could he? Otherwise Konohagakure would really become disaffected.

Besides, if direct coercion doesn't work, Danzo can always come up with a way. As the so-called Dark Lord of the Ninja World, he has taken the blame for countless things, but precisely because of this, he also has a lot of dirt on the clans. As long as it's not too outrageous, those clans will still give him face.

Unaware of the thoughts of the other two ninja villages, the Fourth Raikage was currently staring intently at the new machine designed by Vegapunk.

It was a square machine several meters tall, with a seat in front and a bright silver, fully enclosed helmet, like a motorcycle helmet, on top of the seat.

"This is the machine you developed to help me cultivate? It looks really strange!"

"That's right, that's right. If Big Brother wants to cultivate, he has to ride those weird machines like an idiot!"

Killer B, the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki standing next to the Fourth Raikage, sang and danced for a few moments, which provoked his hot-tempered older brother to throw another punch. However, Killer B seemed to be experienced and dodged it with incredible agility.

"Alright, stop fooling around! Killer B!" The Fourth Raikage said helplessly, "I'm going to train right away. If I fail, then Vegapunk will be the Fifth Raikage!"

"Hey, hey, hey, what do you mean? Leaving a suicide note here?" Vegapunk's clone rolled his eyes and said, "You should have some faith in my invention. I wouldn't dare say it's 100% successful, but it's at least 70% or 80%!"

"Even if you fail, with my machine to help you, you won't die!"

Vegapunk was very concerned about his only experimental subject; he couldn't possibly let him die directly, could he?

As for the Fourth Raikage making him his successor, that's quite normal. In the past six months, Vegapunk has perfectly proven his abilities and developed a new combat route for the Kumogakure — the Mecha Ninja.

Lightning Release Chakra is the easiest type of Chakra to use as energy, Vegapunk used to develop Chakra Mecha.

Compared to ordinary mechs, which are entirely mechanically driven, the Chakra Mecha he developed are merely auxiliary to the physical body. After all, a ninja enhanced with Chakra is no weaker in physical strength than a normal mech.

Although the number of mechs produced was not large, not even enough for every Jonin to have one; only a dozen Jonin elite Jonin were able to receive one.

However, any mecha is enough to double the strength of an ordinary Jonin, Elite Jonin obtains it can even hold his own against Kage Level powerhouse for a period of time.

The Sea Country follows the path of Zoan Devil Fruit, the Wind Country follows the path of Chakra attribute fusion, and the Lightning Country follows this mecha path. Only the Lightning Country, with its developed heavy industry, can follow this path.

The three different paths naturally represent three different developments. While Vegapunk was the main architect of these paths, many other ninjas and researchers filled in the details. For Vegapunk, the research of others also provided him with more inspiration, which is why he used different paths in different ninja villages.

Because of his merits, if the Fourth Raikage were to pass the position to Vegapunk, no one would object, since many people are waiting for Vegapunk to develop and enhance the new Jaeger.

"Then I'll take your good wishes!" The Fourth Raikage shook his head, laughed heartily, and then walked towards the machine that Vegapunk had activated.

"Why do I always feel like this guy is going to train as if he's going to fight a mortal enemy to the death? Doesn't he have any confidence in my invention at all?"

Vegapunk clone muttered something, and Killer B, standing next to him, gestured a couple of times. "Of course, after seeing your Current Drive, any normal person would think that's suicide!"

Vegapunk's clone rolled his eyes. "If you were really looking for death, your older brother wouldn't be training so diligently!"

At this moment, the Fourth Raikage had already boarded Vegapunk's invention, a strange helmet that was placed on his head, and then a faint electric current and Magnetic Field flowed around the helmet.

As soon as the Fourth Raikage put on the helmet, he noticed a significant increase in his sensory abilities. He also discovered that if the Lightning Release Chakra he released during training was even slightly stronger, it would be completely suppressed by the helmet on his head.

"So that's how it works! It strengthens control and acts as a safety valve to prevent the brain from being electrocuted!"

Such a thought flashed through the Fourth Raikage's mind, but he quickly became engrossed in his training again.

Vegapunk's method for him was to use Lightning Release Chakra to completely modify his brain, first modifying the way the brain receives chakra, and then spreading it to all the nerves in his body. At that time, his reflexes would be as fast as the speed of light, far exceeding the reaction speed of normal humans.

In the normal world, the maximum reaction speed for humans is around 100 milliseconds. In the Ninja World, due to the existence of Chakra, the limit is greatly increased. Powerful figures like the Fourth Raikage and the Yellow Flash can achieve a reaction speed of around 20 to 30 milliseconds, which is close to the maximum limit.

However, after the modifications, according to Vegapunk's estimates, the Fourth Raikage's reaction speed could even be increased to about 2 to 3 milliseconds, which is practically inhuman.

An hour or two later, Vegapunk's machine automatically popped up and threw out the Fourth Raikage, indicating that his training time had also reached its limit.

Damage to brain and nerve cells is irreversible. Even with Vegapunk's methods, a complete recovery would require a great deal of time and resources. This is why each workout must be done with great care and time limits.

The Fourth Raikage shook his head and waved his arm gently. When his attention was fully focused, he could even feel the world slowing down slightly.

"Is this what it feels like to have improved reflexes? It's terrifying! If I could fully master Current Drive, even the Yellow Flash would probably be no match for my speed over short distances, right?"

After muttering a couple of words, the Fourth Raikage smiled. It is well known that Ninjutsu is easy to master, but talent is difficult to change. The first step of the Current Drive was to change one's own talent, making it a groundbreaking Ninjutsu.

Moreover, this Ninjutsu is perfectly suited to his development path. Once he has fully mastered it, the Fourth Raikage is confident that he can defeat even his own Pops if he were to be resurrected!

Of course, in Vegapunk's opinion, defeating the Third Raikage was nothing. Although the Third Raikage was among the strongest Kage Level, able to fight the Eight Tails until both were exhausted and collapsed, Vegapunk didn't take him seriously at all.

"How about that? Now you know my skill level, right?"

"Haha, sorry, I really shouldn't have doubted you! It's mainly because the brain is too dangerous and your theories are too advanced."

The Fourth Raikage chuckled twice, but Vegapunk didn't mind and went straight to the giant chair used for training to check the collected data.

"Hmm, not bad... Basically, it didn't cause any real damage to the brain, but some cells will still die due to fatigue and prolonged exposure to Lightning Release Chakra... We should adjust the intensity of the Lightning Release Chakra here..."

"The Lightning Release current in this direction can also be modified. By slightly adjusting its direction, it can better modify the dense ganglia..."

"Neural reception also needs adjustment... Good, that's about right!"

Watching Vegapunk bustling around, Killer B a few strange gestures. "I always feel that, big brother, you're still a kind of experimental animal!"

"Don't speak such obvious truths!" The Fourth Raikage punched Killer B Bee, rolling his eyes as he said, "Once I've fully mastered this training, Dr. Vegapunk should be able to reduce the danger and difficulty of it. Then it'll be your turn to do the experiments... and train!"

Killer B shrugged and did not object. In fact, he had suggested that Killer Bee train on his own first, but his sworn brother had rejected the idea.