Sage Mode 1.0

After stabilizing the Sage Chakra to the eighth decimal place for about half an hour, Kimura Takuya reached his limit.

At this stage, Kimura Takuya's current level of control could not be improved any further.

But that was fine.

Because this was enough to begin training in Sage Mode.

As long as he could replace his entire body's chakra with Sage Chakra within half an hour, he could enter Sage Mode.

How long he could fight depended on the speed of this replacement.

If he could complete the replacement in one minute, he could fight for twenty-nine minutes.

Of course, that was clearly unlikely.

After a night of practice, Kimura Takuya was able to control the replacement process to take twenty-nine minutes.

In other words, he could activate Sage Mode for one minute!

Don't think it's trash; this was only the result of one night's effort.

Early in the morning, Kimura Takuya couldn't wait to test it out in the woods.

"Sage Mode, activate!"

Kimura Takuya's body underwent a visible energy transformation, which was different from the blue chakra color seen when opening the Eight Gates.

Instead, it was the color of nature: a vibrant, life-giving light green.

This was the true color of Sage Chakra.

"Sage Art: Long-range Spiral Cannon!"

Having activated Sage Mode, Kimura Takuya didn't waste any time and immediately unleashed a Long-range Spiral Cannon.

The light green spiral energy projectile flew out at extreme speed.

It instantly struck a large tree in the distance.

"BOOM!"

The massive shockwave of the explosion even reached where Kimura Takuya was standing.

He instantly retreated dozens of meters, and the ground where he had been standing was gouged out to a depth of half a meter.

The effective kill radius of this Spiral Cannon was likely at least 50 meters.

That was a kill zone about the size of half a soccer field!

And that was just the effective kill radius, not the total blast radius.

The actual blast radius was much larger.

"Damn, did I just fire a Tailed Beast Bomb? This is too ridiculous, right?"

Kimura Takuya deactivated Sage Mode and, looking at the destruction he had just caused, cursed in excitement.

This was the real Sage Mode; he had originally thought Sage Mode would only increase the power of his ninjutsu by a few times, but he hadn't expected it to increase it by dozens of times!

It was simply absurd!

If he increased his chakra output and used a Big Ball Rasengan as the projectile, its lethality would rival a Tailed Beast Bomb, and might even surpass it.

"Good thing I'm not near the village residential area. This is far enough away. I'll just restore the terrain a bit; the tree in the center is already blown to smithereens anyway. It's just a missing patch of forest, no big deal."

Kimura Takuya immediately took action, using a few Earth Style ninjutsu to repair the ground, though there was nothing he could do about the surrounding plants and trees.

Once finished, he slipped away.

However, while the explosion wouldn't affect the village, the surrounding area was definitely impacted.

An Anbu operative tracking Orochimaru had been unable to resist sneaking off to the Forest of Death to eat some dango during a break in the hunt.

Shortly after Kimura Takuya left, a purple-haired woman wearing a khaki trench coat arrived at the scene.

"The explosion from earlier was right here. Strange, I don't sense anyone else. And there are no blast marks on the ground, so where did such a large clearing come from?"

Anko Mitarashi inspected the area for a while before discovering clues of the explosion on the surrounding trees.

All the tree trunks near the clearing had blast marks, except for the center of the clearing itself.

"Was it covered up?"

She took out a kunai and dug a bit into the ground of the clearing.

She found tiny wood shavings inside, then dug in a few more places.

Only then did she finally confirm that an explosion had indeed occurred here, and that this clearing had been blasted out of existence!

All the trees that had originally stood in this clearing had been pulverized into dust!

What terrifying explosive power this was.

Could it be Orochimaru?

No, his ninjutsu does not follow this style.

Then who exactly could it be?

They even deliberately used Earth Release to cover up the explosion; this person must be hiding within Konoha, right?

But if this person was hiding so well, why would they cause such a massive explosion?

Could it be to cover up some other issue?

Anko immediately headed to the Hokage Building to report the matter to Tsunade.

Inside the Hokage Building.

Tsunade had only just arrived at her office today.

Upon entering, she found Anko waiting for her.

"Anko, have you made any discoveries?"

"Yes, Lord Hokage.

I sensed an explosion in the Forest of Death this morning. Upon approaching the blast site, I found no one else there.

I only discovered a blast site covered by Earth Release, spanning over fifty meters in radius. The power of the explosion was astonishing.

I suspect there may be an unknown powerhouse hiding in Konoha, with motives unknown."

"I see! I understand. I will handle this matter. You continue to lead your team in searching the village; you must find Orochimaru.

That guy is someone who never gives up until he achieves his goal. Since he failed to obtain the Sharingan this time, he will certainly sneak back into the village again.

Thank you for your hard work."

"Yes!"

Anko bowed and retreated.

Tsunade, however, let out a long sigh.

She had only been in office for a little over half a month, yet so many things had happened in succession.

First, the Danzo scandal and the dissolution of Root.

Then, Orochimaru returning to snatch the Sharingan.

And now, a mysterious powerhouse hiding in Konoha with unknown motives.

Why did all these things have to fall on her?

No!

She needed to find someone to take the heat.

Shizune?

Hm? Where did Shizune go? Why didn't she come home yesterday? Could she have gone to find a boyfriend?

Thinking of this, Tsunade muttered to herself with a smile on her lips.

"That's true, Shizune is at the age to get married, after all."

"Huh? What marriage? Lord Tsunade, who are you talking about getting married?"

Shizune's voice suddenly drifted out from a pile of documents in the corner. She poked her head out and crawled out from the stack.

She stretched her back while asking Tsunade who was getting married.

Tsunade was startled by Shizune's appearance.

"Whoa! Shizune, did you sleep here yesterday?"

"Haaah~! Ugh, I was processing documents too late yesterday and got a bit drowsy, so I laid down on the pile of papers for a while. It was so comfortable that I ended up falling asleep."

Shizune rubbed her eyes, let out a yawn, and turned to look at the documents behind her.

"Huh? They're all messed up! Oh no, oh no, I have to reorganize them all over again!"

"Sigh, you child. I thought you had matured and were looking for a boyfriend. I didn't expect you to still be like this. I really can't imagine how you would live without me."

Tsunade, acting as if there was nothing she could do, began to help Shizune organize.

But Shizune, who was always good-tempered in front of Tsunade, suddenly bristled.

"Nani? Lord Tsunade, I'm the one who's the nanny, right? It's Lord Tsunade who couldn't live without me, right? And to suddenly talk about me getting married—that's just too much."

"Uh, hahaha. Women always have to get married eventually. What young girl doesn't dream of love? I'm an experienced person, after all. Come to think of it, you are at a marriageable age. Is there really no one you like? You've been wandering outside for so long; you didn't like the men in those small places, and you don't like the fine young men of Konoha either?"

Tsunade opened her arms wide and pulled the bristling Shizune into her embrace to smooth her over.

As she was being comforted, images of countless men Shizune had seen flashed through her mind—aside from those she had seen with Tsunade in various casinos, the foul-smelling men who stared at Lord Tsunade with lecherous eyes.

There was only Kimura Takuya. When that boy had rested his head on her lap, she had looked at his yandere-like face while treating him, and she had blushed at the time.

When she carried him back, she hadn't felt tired in the slightest.

Thinking of this, Shizune felt her face flush once more.

She shook her head.

"No, no, the age gap is just too big!"

"Oh? Is it really? Is the age gap still that significant? Please, do elaborate, Shizune. I'm really not gossiping; I'm just concerned about you."