Sarutobi's Shock

With Kagami Uchiha, Uchiha Tianqi, Utatane Koharu, and Mitokado Homura, plus Danzo and the support of the various clans, the next era of Konohagakure will probably be very stable.

But thinking of Danzo, Tobirama had another headache. This disciple really suited his tastes. To just give him up like this, he really couldn't bear to.

"Ah, forget it, forget it, we'll see what happens. Cross that bridge when we get to it."

Sarutobi didn't know that his teacher was already thinking about the next Hokage. He spoke up, "Teacher, what have you decided?"

Hearing the monkey's question, Tobirama Senju came back to his senses.

"Monkey, since you say so, I'll trust you this once. You nurture him well. If he can achieve something, giving him a certain position isn't out of the question."

Sarutobi Hiruzen breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing his teacher's words. To be honest, putting aside the Uchiha identity, he really liked Tianqi as a person after so long together.

"Thank you, teacher. Then I'll take my leave."

"Go."

With that, Sarutobi Hiruzen left the Hokage's office.

As for Tianqi, having tasted the sweetness of improvement, he was now eager to increase his strength. He no longer went to bed so early at night, instead spending a few hours refining his chakra.

Four hours later, looking at the slight increase in chakra, Tianqi was dejected. "Such a tiny increase is practically unnoticeable. It's like I haven't improved at all. What a waste of my time."

He turned his thoughts to envy. "Tobirama Senju and Naruto, those guys have ridiculously large amounts of chakra. Their ninjutsu is like chakra itself, they can release as much as they want. Then there's me, it's infuriating."

"Oh well, envying others is useless. Even though it's just a little more chakra, it's still an improvement. I'll just treat it as accumulating little by little. When I have enough points, I'll see if the System shop has anything that can increase chakra."

The next day, Tianqi arrived at the place where he first met Sarutobi, as promised. He sat on the rock, picking up pebbles and skipping them across the water, waiting for Sarutobi.

After waiting half an hour, Sarutobi arrived as scheduled. This time, he didn't wait for the sun to hang high in the sky before coming.

As soon as he arrived, Sarutobi gave Tianqi the mission reward. Tianqi didn't even look at it, stuffing the reward directly into his pocket. He didn't have much of a concept of money, he only cared about strength.

Seeing Tianqi put the money in his pocket, Sarutobi spoke up.

"Tianqi, now that you've finished the mission, let's train hard for a while. When your strength is fully at the Chunin level, we can start taking on B-rank missions properly. If possible, we can even consider taking on A-rank missions."

Sarutobi didn't know that Tianqi was already invincible among Chunin, and could even challenge Jonin. Tianqi didn't explain, he did need to settle down and improve.

"Sarutobi, I want to learn the Shadow Clone Technique."

"Huh? Why do you suddenly want to learn this ninjutsu?" Sarutobi was puzzled. In his opinion, Shadow Clone wasn't very useful. Besides being able to use it for reconnaissance and tricking enemies, it was often a useless existence.

After all, taking chakra away from your main body was equivalent to weakening your strength. It would be better to learn a more powerful ninjutsu.

"It's like this," Tianqi began to explain, "The last mission was difficult because there were too many opponents. If I had Shadow Clone, I could complete the mission in at least half the time, and wouldn't have to run around looking for people."

After listening to Tianqi's words, Sarutobi thought about it carefully, and it seemed to make sense. "Alright, since you want to learn it, I'll teach you. This ninjutsu is simple, just one seal." Sarutobi crossed two fingers on his left hand with two fingers on his right hand. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Poof! An identical Sarutobi appeared. Seeing this magical scene, Tianqi said.

"Sarutobi, don't you feel strange looking at another person who looks exactly like you?"

Sarutobi was also confused. "Strange looking at myself? What kind of question is that? It's not strange, it's like looking in a mirror."

Seeing him say that, Tianqi began to experiment. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Poof! A soft Tianqi appeared next to him, then disappeared with a poof.

Seeing this, Sarutobi began to instruct him. "Tianqi, pay attention to the release of chakra. This time, the chakra was divided too little."

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Poof! This time, a fat Tianqi appeared next to him, then disappeared with a poof.

"This fat Tianqi is quite cute, but this time you divided too much chakra."

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Poof! This time, Tianqi finally succeeded. Looking at someone who looked exactly like him, Tianqi really felt like he was looking in a mirror.

Sarutobi, who was on the side, was also shocked. A genius! He succeeded after only three tries. This kid's talent is really good.

"Congratulations, Tianqi. You've learned the Shadow Clone Jutsu, but you still need to be careful with this ninjutsu. At most, you can only leave three or four clones at a time, too many and your body will not be able to handle it."

"I understand," Poof! Tianqi dispelled the Shadow Clone, then said.

"Sarutobi, help me take a look. I've been researching a new ninjutsu recently, help me see if it works."

Tianqi didn't hide the Rasengan, but took it out readily. Anyway, Minato would create it later. Instead of waiting for Minato to create it, he might as well take it out earlier and put his original label on it.

(Minato Namikaze: Tianqi, you're too shameless. You plagiarized me, and you even have the nerve to put an original label on it. Have you no shame?)

Hearing that Tianqi had created his own ninjutsu, Sarutobi became interested. "What ninjutsu? Come, come, release it at me and let me see."

"Uh..." Hearing Sarutobi say this, Tianqi was speechless. Release it at you? I'm afraid that if I hit you with a Rasengan, you'll die.

"What are you thinking? Come on, let me help you test your new ninjutsu."

...Seeing Sarutobi urging him, Tianqi said, "How about this, I'll release it at that tree stump next to us and you can see the effect first."

Hearing that Tianqi didn't want to release it at him, but instead wanted to use a tree stump to experiment, he became curious.

"Watch carefully, here I go. This ninjutsu doesn't require any hand seals, you just need to condense it in your palm, it's quite convenient." Tianqi slowly extended a hand.

"Oh, a seal-less ninjutsu? Then the release speed is very fast. When fighting, the opponent needs to form hand seals, but you don't, so you can gain a lot of advantages. I just don't know how powerful it is."

Then, a blue sphere of energy appeared in Tianqi's hand. Sarutobi carefully examined it. "So that's how it is. Such a small ball doesn't seem to have much momentum."

"You can't judge a book by its cover, and the same goes for ninjutsu. Sarutobi, watch carefully." With that, Tianqi didn't hesitate and directly slammed the Rasengan onto the tree stump.

"Bang!" Instantly, there was a loud boom, the entire tree stump disappeared, and a pit of about two meters appeared on the ground.

Sarutobi watched the scene, his jaw practically hitting the floor.

"Th-th-this... the power is so strong! If that hit someone, they'd die instantly! Holy crap, Tianqi, that's amazing! With this kind of power, it's definitely A-Rank Ninjutsu! Tianqi, you're a genius!"

Hearing Sarutobi's praise, Tianqi scratched his nose, a little embarrassed. After all, it wasn't original; he'd copied it, so he felt a bit awkward.

To cover up his embarrassment, Tianqi said, "This is just the initial form. Next, I plan to add various elemental Chakra attributes to it. Once I succeed, the power will increase exponentially. It won't just be A-Rank Ninjutsu then; it might even reach Super S-Rank Ninjutsu."

Hearing that it could become a Super S-Rank Ninjutsu, Sarutobi Hiruzen was shocked again. Super... that's in the forbidden technique range. He thought to himself, What are forbidden techniques? They're techniques that ordinary people can't practice, techniques that are harmful to oneself, or techniques that are simply too powerful.

"Sarutobi, do you want to learn it? If you want to learn, I can teach you."

Hearing Tianqi say that, he was tempted for a moment, but then he shook his head and gave up. After all, it was someone else's original Ninjutsu, and he was too embarrassed to ask for it. Besides, he wasn't lacking in close combat methods. He had Enma, who could transform into the Adamantine Staff, an indestructible staff that was enough to match Tianqi's move.

Seeing Sarutobi shake his head, Tianqi didn't push it. "I call this move Rasengan. What do you think? Sounds good, right?"