Pure Bloodline

Alright, alright, Hiruzen. So this was how you wanted to play it.

Shimura Danzō suddenly swept away the chill around him, raised his head slightly, and assumed a dignified, upright bearing.

"Hiruzen, I want Asuma!"

Danzo's coldness seemed to have shifted in that instant, settling onto Sarutobi Hiruzen instead.

Sarutobi Hiruzen's formerly drooping eyes widened, and his gaze turned fierce.

He said nothing, merely stared fixedly at Danzo.

Yet as though he had not seen Sarutobi Hiruzen's expression at all, Danzo remained just as indignant and righteous.

At that moment, he was brimming with noble integrity.

His appearance of unwavering fairness and lofty virtue made one unable to help but admire him.

He continued in a tone of "everything for Konoha":

"The children of the upper ranks should set an example all the more. If I had children, I would have them join Root as well."

"To nourish Konoha, Asuma, as the child of a senior official, also has an obligation to..."

"Danzo!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen finally could not endure it any longer.

He slammed a hand onto the desk, rose straight up, and glared at Danzo.

"I think Root already has enough personnel. There is no need to recruit more."

Danzo still refused to let it go. "Hiruzen, if Root does not grow stronger, then Konoha, this great tree, cannot grow..."

"Enough, Danzo."

Sarutobi Hiruzen cut off Danzo's next words.

Seeing that Sarutobi Hiruzen was already on the verge of falling out with him, Danzo finally withdrew what little radiance he possessed.

He gave Sarutobi Hiruzen a deep look. "Hiruzen, you will regret this."

"Danzo, I am the Hokage."

Seeing that Sarutobi Hiruzen was utterly unmoved,

Danzo said nothing and turned to walk straight out the door.

Feeling somewhat hollow inside, he suddenly stopped and turned back as though searching for something.

His gaze then landed on the half-open door.

He stepped forward and kicked it shut with all his strength.

Bang!

The sound of the door slamming shut rang out!

He immediately felt much more at ease, and only then did he leave in satisfaction.

The backyard of the Hyuga residence.

Hyuga Qingchuan carried over an entire stack of targets and set them on the ground.

He took one out and hung it up.

His break was not over yet, and there were no missions for him to do for the time being.

Having gotten up early with nothing to do, he simply came to explore the limits of his abilities.

Though the two battles had both been near-death experiences, his gains had been quite good.

However, those battles had also exposed quite a few problems.

With his current Quincy powers and Byakugan, his long-range striking ability was beyond question and undoubtedly one of his greatest trump cards.

But aside from that ability, everything else was severely lacking.

What ninjas were tested on was overall capability. Having long-range attacks did not mean he would never have to fight someone at close quarters.

Take the battle against the bounty ninja. Aside from the first arrow, for which he had ample time to gather power,

all the others had been rushed, greatly affecting the arrows' speed and power.

That meant that at long range, he could only fire one or two arrows.

For the rest of the battle, the enemy would likely get close.

That was why he had been thinking, Could I sacrifice some density in exchange for gathering speed?

When attacking enemies from far away, if an arrow's density was too low, it might dissipate halfway through its flight.

But arrows fired at close range did not need such high density.

Based on that idea, he planned to test the power of instantly fired arrows at various distances.

He stood not far from the target and began experimenting.

At too close a distance, even instant firing had no real meaning.

He raised his hand and drew the bowstring. The moment the arrow formed, he released it.

Bang!

The target was smashed to pieces, and the remaining force even cracked the wall behind it.

"Little Qingchuan, what are you doing in the backyard..."

His grandmother's voice came from inside the house.

"Nothing, Grandma! I'm training!"

Hyuga Qingchuan hurriedly found a board to cover the cracked wall, maintaining the illusion of peace.

Then he replaced the target with a new one and continued testing the power of instantly fired arrows at different distances.

He discovered that at his current level, arrows began to loosen the moment they were fired.

This was even more pronounced with instant-fired arrows.

But at that stage, the loosening did not greatly affect their damage.

They still retained killing power within a certain range.

But beyond that, chakra began to disperse, their power plummeted, and they eventually dissipated entirely.

If he had enough time to reinforce the arrow's strength and the toughness of the bow and bowstring, the arrow would disperse more slowly.

In other words, if he wanted to attack enemies at long range, he needed to spend time increasing the arrow's density.

Was ordinary talent really this terrible?

At that moment, he understood the weight behind Ishida Ryuken's words: "I have no interest, while you have no talent."

The arrows he drew with both hands began dissipating before long.

Yet Ishida Ryuken could keep one hand in his pocket and use only the other to fire arrows like a little machine gun—thud, thud, thud.

It was cool beyond belief!

Still, the arrows being so weak should also have something to do with his fusion rate.

Once his fusion rate increased in the future, the arrows' gathering performance should improve as well.

And from what he could see now, even instant-fired arrows were far more powerful than the kunai and shuriken he threw.

They just consumed quite a lot of chakra.

With his current chakra reserves, even if he could use Piano Barrage of Arrows one-handed like Ishida Ryuken, his chakra would not support it.

The Hyuga Clan's chakra reserves were not low, but they were not as bottomless as those of the Uzumaki Clan.

Overall, they were still within the realm of chakra, not chakra-ton levels.

Originally, only Palm Rotation in the Gentle Fist system consumed a bit more chakra.

The other techniques did not demand much chakra, so the Hyuga Clan's reserves were more than sufficient.

But he was different. He now had Holy Arrow, a massive chakra drain.

And he also had ninjutsu, so his chakra reserves were nowhere near enough.

Moreover, the stronger the opponent, the more chakra he needed to reinforce the density of his arrows and the toughness of his Spirit Bow.

He could think of only two ways to solve this problem.

One was to see whether opening the Stone Gate would grant him some relevant support.

The other was physical training.

Chakra reserves were affected by physical energy and spiritual energy.

Physical training could improve both at once, thereby indirectly increasing chakra reserves.

As a commoner, Might Guy had eventually developed chakra reserves that even Madara praised.

What he relied on was physical training, constantly pushing his cells to their limits.

There was already a proven path to follow in that regard. As long as he monitored his physical condition and avoided overtraining, it would be fine.

Improving his physical fitness could also enhance his close-combat ability to a certain degree.

But he had other ideas when it came to close-quarters fighting.

With a thought, he used Spirit Particle Gathering to guide the Natural Energy around him.

Watching the Natural Energy flowing around him, he fell into thought.

Though limited by his fusion rate and unable to control this Natural Energy with great precision,

using it for exploration should not be a problem.

Since he could sense Natural Energy and even control it roughly, could he perhaps try studying...

Sage Mode!