Shun Learns the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique

Root's underground base.

Danzo's office.

Danzo pulled out the documents Hiruzen had given him in advance when he sent that child over all those years ago from a drawer beside his desk.

He had not looked at them back then, but now he intended to see just what was so extraordinary about that child that Hiruzen still could not stop thinking about him.

At first, he could not remember which child the Third Hokage had meant. Then Danzo recalled, and his curiosity rose with it.

If he remembered correctly, it was because of that child that Hiruzen had been humiliated by two Uchiha brats. That was what had made Hiruzen begin leaning toward his proposal to establish Root.

"Hiruzen even studied him in secret for more than half a year before handing him over to Root."

As he recalled that intelligence, Danzo's expression gradually turned solemn. That child clearly carried a great secret and an enormous threat. He could not be allowed to leave alive.

"Hmm... The Yamanaka Clan's Mind Disturbance Body Technique was ineffective, even with his Chakra sealed?"

"The Second Hokage's Illusion Technique - Dark Walking Technique was ineffective as well, also with his Chakra sealed?"

"That's impossible!!!"

Danzo, who had previously paid little heed to Li Yao, now turned completely grave.

If what the documents said was true, the secret within that child could not be explained away with a simple immunity to illusions.

Danzo had initially assumed that the Third Hokage's claim of illusion immunity was based on the child possessing some unusual Kekkei Genkai.

But if he could resist both the Mind Disturbance Body Technique and the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique even with his Chakra sealed, that was terrifying.

No ordinary Kekkei Genkai could achieve such a thing.

Danzo continued reading. The documents detailed the torture Li Yao had endured, as well as records of the Third Hokage persistently using illusions on Li Yao throughout the process, all without success.

In the end, the Third Hokage had left Danzo with one sentence.

If they could not uncover the secret of Li Yao's Chakra, then kill him quickly. Under no circumstances could he be allowed to leave the laboratory alive.

Although the Third Hokage had not said how dangerous Li Yao was,

Danzo could sense Hiruzen's wariness toward Li Yao between the lines.

Because he too could infer that with such a unique physique, Li Yao's talent for illusions had to be terrifying.

Just like the Uchiha Clan, who possessed powerful resistance to illusions and likewise had unmatched talent in illusion techniques.

So once Li Yao gained access to illusions, his illusion techniques would certainly be far stronger than anyone else's, and the danger he posed to Konoha would rise sharply.

Allowing someone who posed such a great threat to Konoha to leave the laboratory alive was clearly unacceptable.

This threat also demonstrated, from another angle, how formidable Li Yao was at resisting illusions.

"No wonder Hiruzen took him so seriously. If everything written here is true, that child's importance truly has to be raised another level."

After reading the documents, Danzo began to take Li Yao's ability to resist illusions seriously as well.

After putting the documents away, he headed straight for Lab Two.

"Hmm, someone's here."

As Danzo stopped outside Lab Two's door, Li Yao, who was intently working backward to figure out and condense the Chakra attributes of the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique, sensed him through his Chakra perception.

He immediately stopped condensing Chakra, and the process of controlling his physical energy and Spiritual Energy to merge into Chakra ceased as well.

Ever since confirming that his acupoints could conceal and store Chakra, Li Yao had never stopped controlling the naturally dissipating physical energy and Spiritual Energy to merge and condense into Chakra.

Because this control had become almost instinctive to him and required little concentration.

This time, he had deliberately stopped condensing Chakra.

Li Yao did not know who was entering or whether they possessed Chakra perception.

For him, this was a severe test of whether the Chakra stored in his acupoints could evade the senses of a powerful ninja.

At this moment, the combined Chakra in all his acupoints was already more than a hundred times that in his Chakra dantian.

That amount of Chakra was no less than what the four Anbu who had constantly guarded him possessed back then.

Now, it depended on whether this visitor could detect it.

The moment Danzo pushed open the door and entered, he saw Li Yao floating within a transparent glass chamber, wrapped in nutrient solution.

Li Yao's body was now that of a nine-year-old, but his face had aged even more. His wrinkles were pronounced, little black remained in his hair while the rest had turned white, and he looked like a hunched old man in his fifties.

"I never expected Hiruzen to have such a ruthless side!"

Danzo sighed, then seemed to think of something, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

"Even if I do nothing, with his current condition, he's aging at least ten years faster than normal every year. In four or five years at most, this pitiful brat will die when his body collapses."

"Without the nutrient solution maintaining him, his body might collapse and kill him within a year or two."

Danzo shook his head. In his view, the Third Hokage's concern was entirely unnecessary. This brat named Li Yao no longer posed much of a threat to Konoha.

All he could say was that Hiruzen's half-year of torture had been too vicious.

Li Yao's body seemed merely aged, with no other issues at all, but this rapid aging was precisely why he did not have much time left.

Li Yao actually understood something about his current physical condition, but he had no time to dwell on it.

All he wanted was to get out first.

Everything else could wait until he escaped Konoha. Only then would other possibilities exist.

Otherwise, everything would be futile.

Li Yao sensed Danzo shaking his head through Chakra perception. He could not hear any sound, so he had no idea what Danzo meant.

But he understood Danzo's next action.

"Illusion Technique - Dark Walking Technique!"

That old bastard Danzo truly deserved to be called Hiruzen's childhood companion. They acted exactly alike, opening with the Illusion Technique - Dark Walking Technique the moment they arrived.

But Li Yao laughed happily inside.

The Illusion Technique - Dark Walking Technique, which would originally have taken one or two months to learn, would not take nearly that long this time.

As the illusory Chakra of Danzo's Bringer-of-Darkness Technique passed through the glass and entered Li Yao's body, attempting to seep into his Chakra,

Li Yao instantly sensed the qualitative and structural changes in the Chakra attributes of the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique.

Then, with a thought from Li Yao, a wisp of illusory Chakra appeared within the Gate of Life acupoint. It was the Chakra of the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique.

Compared to the Chakra of the Eight Trigrams Seal, Li Yao found the Chakra of the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique much easier to condense.

Or rather, as his Chakra reserves increased, his Chakra perception had strengthened considerably as well. Especially through direct contact, he could almost instantly sense the qualitative and attribute changes in the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique's Chakra.

With information about its qualitative and attribute changes, and with Li Yao's absolute control over his own Chakra, replicating Bringer-of-Darkness Technique Chakra with identical qualitative and structural changes was naturally instantaneous.

Danzo had no idea that Li Yao had learned this A+—or even S-rank—illusion technique from the single Bringer-of-Darkness Technique he had cast.

Danzo frowned, then relaxed.

Hiruzen had been right. This brat's Chakra was indeed somewhat unusual. Even the Chakra of his Bringer-of-Darkness Technique could not seep into it.

What's the reason?

As Danzo curiously considered the reason for Li Yao's immunity to illusions, he walked to the control console, drained the nutrient solution from Li Yao's glass chamber, laid the chamber flat, then opened it and removed Li Yao, placing him on the operating table.

"What's this guy trying to do?"

"Is he going to torture me again?"

With only Chakra perception, Li Yao could judge what the visitor intended only from the movement of his own body and the visitor's actions.

He was clearly lying on a bed now.

The visitor was preparing to do something to him.

Li Yao secretly readied himself. The instant he sensed something wrong with the other party's actions, he would strike first.

Even if he died, he had to make some noise.

He did not want to die so quietly.

Danzo fetched a glass test tube containing a dark green liquid, then brought over a scalpel and a pair of tweezers.

Hiss!

Holding the sharp scalpel, Danzo cut through the surface skin of Li Yao's thigh, exposing the bright red muscle beneath.

Li Yao sensed a gap opening in the Chakra around his thigh. His thoughts stirred, but he restrained the urge to act.

The visitor might be torturing him.

The gap in the Chakra around his thigh did not widen either, so he probably was not trying to kill him.

Danzo used the tweezers to remove a small piece of flesh from Li Yao's thigh and placed it into the test tube of dark green nutrient solution. After giving Li Yao's wound some basic treatment, he left with the dark green test tube.