Ideas for Developing Ninjutsu

Whoosh, whoosh—!

As soon as the words fell, the people of Amegakure had yet to prepare themselves.

A barrage of attacks rained down upon them.

The kunai and shuriken barrage immediately took down several ninja.

Thud, thud, thud!

Goenji's shuriken struck with precision, hitting the ninja who had avoided the other attacks.

Even when they used defensive ninjutsu, the shuriken curved around their defenses and struck from behind.

They pierced into the enemies' chests.

Roar!

There were simply too few enemies. Moreover, this was an elite force led by Danzo; outnumbering their opponents made things absurdly easy.

In less than a minute, the Amegakure ninja were lying on the ground.

Goenji did not use any ninjutsu. There was no need to waste much chakra when they outnumbered their enemies.

During the battle, he also saw Danzo's methods.

Danzo had not used any Wind Release. Just simple shuriken attacks were enough to show Goenji his skill.

Then there were Danzo's close-range blade attacks against his enemies.

His Taijutsu was also first-rate.

This gave Goenji a new understanding of Danzo's strength.

"I didn't expect Danzo to be this strong right now. His combat awareness is on point too!"

Compared to the original story, where Danzo used Sharingan as a Substitution Technique and was still affected by Genjutsu, leading him to make the wrong judgment.

The difference was truly huge.

Sure enough, the old saying was right: one day without practice meant a hundred days of wasted effort.

If a ninja stayed off the battlefield and stopped training for too long, his strength would soon hit rock bottom.

Goenji kept that firmly in mind.

He could not allow himself to slack off.

Even if he grew stronger, there could still be people stronger than him later on.

"Everyone, next target."

After having the unit inspect the surroundings and confirming there was nothing that could expose Konoha, Danzo moved on to another location.

He did not deliberately use methods that would expose Iwagakure.

But Goenji believed Danzo was capable of making Hanzō believe that Iwagakure and Amegakure could not possibly reconcile.

That was how much he acknowledged Danzo's abilities.

Even though he did not particularly like Danzo.

Whoosh, whoosh—!

Clang, clang, clang—!

Bang!

Bang, bang, bang—!

Aah—!

Within the Land of Rain, at the border between Iwagakure and Amegakure.

The sounds of battle rang out from time to time, and the fights were resolved very quickly.

Of course, some took longer.

Konoha was not invincible. They only had a little over fifty people, and none of them were on Hashirama Senju's level, so naturally they could be counterattacked.

From time to time, Konoha ninja would die.

Then traces of an Iwagakure attack would be left behind.

Danzo was truly impressive in this regard. Goenji had no idea how he did it, but he made someone using the Transformation Technique continue maintaining it even after death.

Perhaps some special technique had been used.

Goenji could not tell.

There were simply too many things in the Shinobi World, and they were far too complicated.

Technology, ninjutsu, scientific ninja tools, and so on.

"At this rate, Amegakure will react soon enough. When that happens, they'll take action."

Based on the current situation and Danzo's actions against the Amegakure ninja, Goenji made a judgment.

And they were not just preying on Amegakure.

Sometimes, they transformed into Amegakure ninja and launched attacks on Iwagakure squads.

Then they deliberately left behind some inconspicuous clues, making Iwagakure think Amegakure was behind it.

Such a thing was naturally easy to see through. Goenji knew this was an open scheme.

The higher-ups of both ninja villages naturally knew that another force might be stirring up trouble and driving a wedge between them.

It might even be something the local ninja villages had staged themselves.

But the ninja below would not care about that. The moment they saw Iwagakure or Amegakure ninja, they had already made their judgment in their hearts.

They were the ones who had attacked.

Following behind Danzo, Goenji had learned a great deal.

He saw every one of Danzo's actions.

Danzo truly was a powerful schemer.

And honestly, his strength was just too great right now.

No wonder the Naruto databook said Danzo's strength was comparable to Hiruzen Sarutobi's.

Through battle after battle, Goenji acknowledged that point.

Danzo was strong.

As he was now, Goenji did not stand even the slightest chance in a one-on-one fight.

"Damn it, who said Danzo was weak?"

That was Goenji's inward complaint.

Weakness was relative. Looking at it now, Danzo only seemed weak because of his battle with Sasuke Uchiha in the anime.

Or because he was compared with Hashirama Senju and other Hokage.

As an individual, Danzo was absolutely at Kage Level.

Of course, the other ninja were also very strong.

Among those Goenji had seen were members of the Nara, Yamanaka, and Aburame clans, along with many others.

They displayed their abilities in battle after battle.

Goenji took it all in.

From time to time, he secretly used his Sharingan to observe their chakra meridian systems, trying to find something useful within them.

Now that he was on a mission, Goenji no longer had much time to read books or do anything else.

He could only use the Sharingan to observe enemies and comrades alike.

And gain new insights from it.

He had made considerable progress in that regard.

That was the advantage of having high comprehension.

"The Nara clan's techniques fall within the scope of Yin Release. They require an understanding of Yin Release nature transformation. Yin Release can create form from nothing; it's good stuff. Unfortunately, my Yin Release talent really isn't as high as my Fire Release talent!"

"The Yamanaka clan is the same. Yin Release nature transformation should have more potential than things like Fire Release. It can actually materialize things that do not exist. If only my Yin Release talent were as high as my Fire Release talent. The Sharingan actually can't compare to my innate talent. What trash!"

"The Aburame clan's talent should fall within the scope of Yang Release. Yang Release gives life to form. Its nature transformation, like Yin Release's, is far too profound. With my talent, I can't achieve what I can with Fire Release."

"Still, my Yang Release talent isn't bad either. It's about the same as my Yin Release talent, so I can make use of it and combine it with Fire Release."

Following behind the group, Goenji walked while considering his future path.

He would definitely learn Yin Release. After all, Genjutsu was a form of Yin Release.

With the Sharingan's enhancement, he definitely would not be bad at it.

As for Yang Release, he had his own ideas as well.

It was not that Yang Release was stronger than Yin Release. Rather, if he combined it with Fire Release and developed a secret technique, it felt like it would look cooler.

Giving Life to Form.

What Goenji had in mind was the ninjutsu Gaara's mother had cast using her life as a medium.

It could bestow her own will upon Gaara's sand and protect him.

That was what Goenji had in mind. You gave life to sand; he would give life to flames.

When the time came, a mass of fire would circle around him, under his control at will. Just thinking about it made him feel incredibly cool.

It might not be the strongest, but it would definitely be cool.

Of course, he would only consider looking cool after he had acquired a certain degree of self-preservation.

For now, he was merely thinking about it.

He was not stupid enough to ignore combat power now and prioritize looking cool first.

All in all, he already had a plan for how to develop his next ninjutsu.

He wanted to combine both Yin Release and Yang Release with Fire Release to develop his own secret techniques.

Yin Release would definitely progress faster with the Sharingan's enhancement.

But developing Yin Release nature transformation was too difficult, so he would develop it by combining Genjutsu with Fire Release.

That would reduce the time cost of development.

"Ennn, I still need to study Yin Release theory more. For now, I should first develop pure Fire Release!"

He had thought about many things, but it had all happened in an instant.

Following the group, Goenji arrived at a cliff. Danzo stood silently amid the wind and rain, gazing into the distance.