Recruitment

The morning theory class ended with the ringing of the bell.

The students left the classroom one by one, laughing and joking.

Shinji turned down Haku's invitation and, carrying his lunch, slipped into a secluded grove on the Ninja Academy grounds.

Having learned his lesson yesterday, he decided not to use ninjutsu so carelessly at the Academy again. Instead, he would focus on practicing Water Breathing.

Breathing Techniques were easy to practice without drawing attention.

Unless someone with the Byakugan was watching him every moment, no one would notice.

So he ate his lunch while going over the fragments of memory in his mind from the swordsmen who had practiced Water Breathing.

Just then, someone suddenly appeared in the grove.

"Who's there?"

Shinji looked over.

The man stood in the shade of the trees. "Good instincts."

When Shinji recognized him, his expression didn't change, though he was secretly startled.

The man was none other than Shimura Danzō, the one who had orchestrated the Uchiha Clan Massacre!

Danzō stared at Shinji, making no effort to hide the predatory glint in his eyes. "You have talent, but talent alone won't avenge you!"

"Who are you?"

Shinji let a hint of hostility show.

Danzō took a step forward, revealing his sinister face in the sunlight. "I'm an elder adviser to the village. Becoming my subordinate is your only chance to get revenge!"

So he's trying to lure me into Root by dangling the chance to get revenge on Itachi?

Shinji found it absurd.

Danzō really had no shame. He had been the one to orchestrate the Uchiha Clan Massacre, and now he had the nerve to come and trick one of its victims into serving him.

First, he had used Itachi to wipe out the Uchiha Clan. Now he wanted to use an Uchiha survivor like me to deal with Itachi.

Nice try!

Suppressing his disgust for Danzō, Shinji said, "I don't need anyone's help. I'll kill that man with my own hands!"

"Anyone who refuses me will come to a bad end."

Danzō gave a disdainful snort, then turned and left.

Watching him go with an expressionless face, Shinji thought, It's disgusting to have someone like him set his sights on me. Still, he probably won't dare make a move against me openly right now.

Shinji knew that Danzō and the Third had a complicated relationship.

From one perspective, Danzō was a part of the Third's power structure and an important asset in the Third's control of Konoha.

That was why even Shisui and Itachi—Uchiha with strength like theirs—not to mention Orochimaru and Hatake Sakumo, who had both strength and standing, couldn't beat Danzō in the village.

Shinji turned his attention back to his lunch and continued eating.

Danzō might not be able to do anything to him openly, but who knew what he might try in secret? Shinji needed to get stronger as quickly as possible.

After finishing his lunch, he calmed himself and began practicing Water Breathing.

Breathing Techniques were a way of unlocking the body's potential.

Water Breathing was one of the five basic Breathing Techniques. It wasn't as powerful as Sun Breathing or Moon Breathing, but it still greatly enhanced the body.

In Demon Slayer, the swordsmen were ordinary people who relied on these basic Breathing Techniques to fight demons capable of regenerating endlessly.

And with fragments of memory from more than a dozen swordsmen who had practiced Water Breathing, Shinji felt an instinctive familiarity with it.

After trying a few breathing rhythms based on the memory fragments, he gradually began to get the hang of it.

Whoosh.

As he felt the rhythm of the air leaving his mouth, he sensed that his lungs and heart were responding to a particular beat.

But it wasn't like normal breathing.

In just a moment, his lungs began to feel tight, and his heartbeat and breathing quickened. That rhythmic pattern immediately fell apart.

He stopped practicing the Breathing Technique, secretly delighted.

According to the swordsmen's memories, it usually took a month of grueling practice just to begin sensing the rhythm of a Breathing Technique.

Even Sabito, one of the most talented among them, had taken several days to feel the rhythm.

Yet Shinji had found it in a single attempt!

Of course.

That was mainly because he had gained the training insights of more than a dozen swordsmen. It was as if he had already simulated the first step of Water Breathing over a dozen times in his mind.

But sensing the rhythm was only the first step.

The key to a Breathing Technique was still the deep enhancement of the body's functions. Skill could make it easier to get started, but it couldn't replace the training itself.

If the heart and lungs couldn't keep up with the rhythm of the Breathing Technique, then, just like a moment ago, he would quickly feel tightness in his chest and be unable to continue.

Looks like mastering basic Total Concentration will take daily practice. I'll need to train until every part of my body can keep up with the Breathing Technique's rhythm.

Shinji had found his goal.

Time flew by. In the blink of an eye, two weeks had passed.

The strange invasion didn't happen again during that time, which let Shinji breathe a little easier. But he didn't dare let his guard down and continued doing everything he could to improve his strength.

After turning down Danzō's offer, he had weighed his options and eventually accepted Haku's offer to spar.

Taijutsu was the kind of thing you really couldn't improve without a good sparring partner!

Haku was both his classmate and his neighbor, so no one would find it suspicious if the two of them practiced together.

Of course, they couldn't let another conspicuous incident happen like the time they had nearly set the Ninja Academy on fire!

With Haku's help, Shinji made rapid progress in Taijutsu, his weak point. After only two weeks of intensive practice, he reached the average level of the other students in his year.

At least, no one looking closely would spot the flaw anymore.

Kindhearted Haku didn't press him about why his Taijutsu fundamentals had been so poor. Instead, Haku thoughtfully put together all kinds of training plans for him.

Fundamentals were the most important part of Taijutsu.

The stronger the foundation, the higher the ceiling. So Shinji approached his training with humility and worked hard to shore up his weak fundamentals.

Meanwhile.

After being unconscious for more than twenty days, Sasuke finally woke up in the hospital.

At first, he refused to believe that the Uchiha had been wiped out. Stumbling along by himself, he made his way to the empty Uchiha Clan Compound.

Then, in the drizzle, he emerged in a daze.

"Why?"

He walked like a puppet, his expression vacant and his steps aimless.

His world had collapsed in a single night.

In that one short night, he had gone from the son of the head of Konoha's most prestigious clan to an orphan with no one to rely on.

What he found even harder to accept was that the person responsible for it all was his own beloved brother.

He couldn't accept a reality like that.

And so, the cheerful and outgoing boy he had been before the Night of the Massacre became the gloomy, withdrawn child he was now, with a look of utter despair.

Shinji kept an eye on Sasuke from the shadows, too.

But when he found out that the village hadn't placed Sasuke in his apartment building, instead putting him in an apartment near the ANBU Building, he became even more discreet in watching him.

It was obvious.

Sasuke was still under the village's surveillance.

That was only to be expected.

Before Itachi Uchiha defected, he had warned the Third and Danzō to their faces that if anything happened to Sasuke in the village, he would spread Konoha's top-secret intelligence to the other ninja villages.

No one in the village dared to let their guard down around Itachi, who had single-handedly wiped out the Uchiha Clan—not even the Third.

So whether to reassure Itachi or keep him in check, the village had to step up its surveillance and protection of Sasuke.

Knowing this, Shinji didn't just avoid approaching Sasuke.

He deliberately acted as though he disliked Sasuke, keeping his distance to avoid drawing anyone's attention.

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