Perfect Sage Body!

A few days later.

Deep beneath Konoha.

Bang!

The dull thud of something heavy hitting the ground echoed through the empty secret chamber.

Kinoto, the Root ninja who had fled, dropped to his knees directly before Danzo.

"Lord Danzo..."

"Your subordinate has failed!"

Without waiting for Danzo to question him.

Kinoto recounted everything he had observed over the past month in full detail.

From the wild gambling at the casino.

To the drunken stupors at the tavern.

To Tsunade occasionally being in a good mood and casually teaching that brat Chiba a bit of Medical Ninjutsu.

And finally, the completely unforeseen outburst in the forest.

"Tsunade said..."

"If you dare send anyone after her again, she'll kill her way back to the village and uproot Root completely."

His report finished.

The entire chamber sank into deathly silence.

Danzo sat upright upon a lofty stone throne.

His one remaining eye narrowed as his fingers lightly tapped the armrest.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

To the ninja below, that monotonous sound was like a death knell.

Danzo did not get angry.

Or rather, he did not care in the slightest whether that useless trash on the floor lived or died.

He was thinking.

His aged face, shrouded in gloom, was filled with cold calculation.

"So she snapped?"

Danzo gave a chilly snort.

His voice seemed to drift up from the depths of hell, cold enough to pierce the bones.

"She is still that spoiled princess, after all."

In Danzo's eyes, Tsunade's outburst was proof that she was all bark and no bite.

If she had truly discovered some core secret.

If that brat named Chiba truly had some hidden secret.

Tsunade would never have made such a grand display. She would have quietly hidden him away instead.

"A cripple with hemophobia."

"Dragging along two useless burdens."

"Hmph! She is nothing more than a pitiful fool drowning in the past."

Danzo stopped tapping the armrest.

So what if she was the First's granddaughter?

The present-day Konoha had long since become the domain of Sarutobi Hiruzen and himself.

The Senju Clan?

It was nothing more than a yellowed term in a history book.

And that civilian Chunin named Chiba?

An orphan whose parents had both been cannon fodder—what waves could he possibly stir up?

Since Tsunade wanted to take on a disciple, let her.

Consider it something to keep her occupied, so she would stop embarrassing Konoha all day long.

"Drag him away."

Danzo waved a hand dismissively.

Two ninjas wearing animal masks immediately emerged from the darkness and dragged the kneeling Kinoto away.

Soon.

The secret chamber returned to its deathly silence.

Danzo slowly rose to his feet and walked to a massive map on the wall.

His lone eye stared fixedly at a region in the center of the map.

It was the Uchiha Grounds.

"Compared to that stray dog..."

"These self-proclaimed noble red-eyed lunatics are the real threat!"

Over the past few months.

The atmosphere within the Uchiha Clan had become increasingly strange.

The clan meetings were being held more and more frequently.

Those bastards with cursed blood running through their veins were definitely plotting something!

"Pass down the order."

"Withdraw everyone watching Tsunade."

"Deploy them all to the outskirts of the Uchiha Grounds!"

"I want the Uchiha Grounds sealed so tightly that not even a fly can get out!"

"..."

The sun rose and the moon fell.

The seasons changed.

In the blink of an eye, more than a year had passed.

The final day of Konoha's fifty-third year.

At the border of the Land of Fire, within a remote primeval forest.

The night was black as ink.

A fierce wind carried heavy snow through the woods with a howling roar.

A campfire flickered deep inside a cave.

Tsunade hugged a sake bottle and had long since fallen into a deep sleep.

Shizune was wrapped in a thick blanket, cradling the pink pig Tonton in her arms as she let out soft snores.

Outside the cave.

Chiba sat atop a towering boulder.

He wore no winter clothes to ward off the cold.

Beneath his thin black ninja outfit, his muscles were sleek and well-defined.

The gale tousled his black hair.

Chiba slowly opened his eyes, endless snow and wind reflected in his pupils.

"System."

He murmured inwardly.

A translucent screen that only he could see instantly unfolded before his eyes.

[Name: Senju Qianye]

[Chakra Reserves: Late Super Kage]

[Physical Strength: Peak Kage Level]

[Chakra Attributes: Water, Earth, Yang]

[Bloodline Limits: Perfect Sage Body, Wood Style]

[Water Style: Great Waterfall Technique (A-Rank), Water Dragon Bullet (B-Rank), Water Wall (B-Rank)...]

[Earth Style: Swamp of the Underworld (A-Rank), Earth Dragon Bullet (B-Rank), Earth Style Wall (B-Rank)...]

[Wood Style: Deep Forest Emergence (S-Rank), Wood Human Technique (S-Rank), Wood Dragon Technique (A-Rank)...]

[Special Ninjutsu: Summoning Technique, Strength of a Hundred, Mystical Palm Technique...]

[Overall Evaluation: You are the new God of Shinobi!]

Looking at the information on the screen.

Chiba's lips curled slightly into a satisfied smile.

More than a year.

A hellish year!

Only he himself knew what he had gone through.

Ever since he had dealt with Root's rats that day.

Tsunade had completely torn off her disguise.

She had transformed into the most cold-blooded demon of an instructor.

There was no more joking around at gambling tables, nor any more drunken binges in taverns.

There was only endless combat and merciless squeezing of every last bit of potential!

During the first three months.

Tsunade completely sealed Chiba's ninjutsu.

She allowed him to use nothing but taijutsu to fight her.

Every time the monstrous strength of a Kage Level expert brushed past his scalp, it stirred up a deathly gust.

Chiba had suffered broken ribs and internal bleeding.

Once, Tsunade had nearly punched straight through his lung.

But so what?

Whenever he stood on the brink of death.

Chiba's Primary Sage Body would run wild.

Its immense vitality forcibly repaired his damaged flesh.

Combined with Tsunade's miraculous Medical Ninjutsu.

By dawn the next day.

Chiba would often appear before her fully healed, ready to stand before Tsunade once again.

Throughout that inhuman torment.

Shizune often secretly wiped away tears behind Tsunade's back.

Several times, she even begged Tsunade through tears to stop, terrified that Chiba would be beaten to death.

But Tsunade merely kept a cold expression.

The way she looked at Chiba was as though she were looking at an unparalleled piece of uncut jade that urgently needed to be tempered a thousand times over.

Because she had discovered in horror.

This boy's rate of growth was simply beyond the realm of humanity!

Every beating made him evolve.

Those clumsy taijutsu movements became simpler, deadlier, and utterly flawless at a visible rate.

Tsunade attributed all of it to the Senju Clan's terrifying talent.

However.

It was actually Chiba's God-Level Comprehension at work.

Any complex combat technique.

Any intricate method of circulating Chakra.

In Chiba's mind, they would instantly be broken down into their most fundamental code.

Three months later.

The taijutsu training came to an end.

Chiba began his specialized ninjutsu training.

That day, Chiba stood before a waterfall.

After hearing Tsunade explain the principle only once.

Chiba formed hand seals and unleashed a completely new ninjutsu.

"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!"

A brilliant blue water dragon dozens of meters long surged from the ground and sliced the entire waterfall in half!

At that moment.

The way Tsunade looked at Chiba changed completely.

She no longer saw him as someone with potential, but as a monster!

Later came the most crucial Wood Style training.

When Chiba first caused a forest vast enough to blot out the sky to burst forth before Tsunade.

This legendary Sannin, who had seen life and death countless times, trembled all over.

On the spot, she drained three entire bottles of Sake.

She cried and laughed like a madwoman.

The Senju Clan was truly saved!

She handed over every Wood Style ninjutsu she remembered to Chiba without holding anything back.

Deep Forest Emergence!

Wood Dragon Technique!

Even the Wood Human Technique, powerful enough to clash head-on with Tailed Beasts!

Chiba was like a shriveled sponge, madly absorbing this knowledge of Wood Style.

Of course.

What truly brought about Chiba's qualitative transformation was the sign-in at the beginning of that year.

System reward—[Perfect Sage Body]!

It was an ultimate physique even purer and more domineering than Hashirama Senju's.

On the night he fused with the Perfect Sage Body.

Chiba hurt so badly that he rolled around in the mud, blood seeping from every pore of his body.

His old cells were torn apart.

New cells frantically reorganized themselves.

His bone density surged, and his muscle fibers became tougher than steel wire.

Most terrifying of all was his Chakra.

His Chakra, already as vast as a lake, underwent a complete transformation under the enhancement of the Perfect Sage Body, becoming a boundless ocean!

Endless!

Ever-renewing!

The Chakra reserves of Late Super Kage Level.

Combined with a terrifying body at Peak Kage Level.

This let him use S-Rank Wood Style without the slightest sluggishness.

There was no need for cumbersome hand seals.

More often than not, one clap of his hands was enough to bring forth whatever he wanted!