Emergency Assembly Order

As Aoba stepped out of Tenten's ninja tool shop, his heart bled. Including the Kunai he had damaged himself.

Ten Kunai and ten Shuriken had cost him a full 150,000 ryo. They were five to ten times more expensive than ordinary Shuriken.

That little girl Tenten had seen that Aoba desperately needed them and refused to lower the price no matter what. In the end, Aoba could only let her fleece him mercilessly.

The one thing that gave him some comfort was that he had exceeded his original goal.

Making sealing Kunai and Shuriken was simple. But waiting for an opportunity to use them was far from easy.

As he had said before, most of the time, White Zetsu hid dozens of meters underground. There was simply no way to make a move.

Aoba could only carry the prepared ninja tools with him and continue advancing his other research plans.

The first was cultivating the First Hokage's cells. What Orochimaru had given him were merely samples, but that was not a problem.

The First Hokage's cells possessed excessively powerful reproductive properties. As long as there was sufficient nutrient solution and Chakra, more cells could be cultivated.

Aoba had already foreseen that future experiments would consume large quantities of this material, so he began preparing in advance.

However, as time passed, Aoba eventually halted every experiment in his hands.

Because through his constant cultivation during this period, he had become completely immune to Natural Energy's erosion.

In other words, he could now begin working on his own Sage Mode.

Four types of Sage Mode had appeared in Naruto. The Three Great Sage Regions each represented one, while the other was Hashirama Senju's Sage Mode.

Hashirama Senju was clearly an existence on another level. The Three Great Sage Regions' modes all shared one trait: once activated, the body would develop corresponding beast-like features.

Furthermore, the activation process was exceedingly cumbersome. Even someone at Jiraiya's level needed several minutes to enter Sage Mode.

But Hashirama Senju did not. With a clap of his hands, he could enter it directly. And aside from the markings on his face, his entire body showed no beast-like traits whatsoever. It was practically a near-perfect Sage Mode.

And in a sense, the one Aoba was about to complete was even more perfect than Hashirama Senju's.

Because after absorbing Natural Energy, he did not even develop facial markings. In other words, no change could be seen in his appearance when he entered Sage Mode.

Yet within him, Natural Energy had already fused with his Chakra and Mental Power, forming entirely new Senjutsu Chakra.

Its only weakness was that Aoba's foundation was far inferior to Hashirama Senju's. He had too little Chakra, and his body was not strong enough. He could not bring out this Sage Mode's full potential.

As massive amounts of Natural Energy entered Aoba's body, he could clearly sense the changes within himself.

First, all five senses were enhanced across the board. At the same time, he gained a new sensory ability. After Natural Energy poured into his body, it formed a connection between him and the Natural Energy in the outside world.

In this state, Aoba could sense Natural Energy within a certain radius around him. At the same time, everything enveloped by Natural Energy also fell within his perception.

Natural Energy was everywhere. Some places had greater concentrations and some were thinner, but overall, it remained in a balanced state.

That meant after entering Sage Mode, Aoba gained a sensory ability similar to the Mind's Eye of the Kagura.

And this was only the beginning.

Aoba drew the Kusanagi Sword. Senjutsu Chakra surged from his hand and gathered upon the blade, then he swung it toward the front.

For this strike, he used only one-third of the force of Vacuum Flash in his normal state.

The next second, a dazzling wind blade tore through the air. Dozens of trees directly ahead, each more than fifty centimeters in diameter, were severed cleanly at the waist.

After roughly assessing it, he determined that if he attacked at full strength, this strike could probably flatten the small patch of forest before him.

This level of cutting power was already enough to threaten a Tailed Beast.

But that was not his true killing move. A metal sphere the size of a walnut appeared in Aoba's hand.

Blue lightning then flickered across his hand.

He rarely used Lightning Release, mainly because it consumed more Chakra. After all, air was everywhere. Vacuum Flash used a small amount of Chakra mixed with air to form a special wind blade.

But lightning in nature was far less common. Even when it existed, it was not easily harnessed. All lightning had to be transformed through Lightning Release ninjutsu.

With the idea of conserving Chakra and keeping Lightning Release as a trump card, he rarely used it. Besides, he did not know many Lightning Release ninjutsu in the first place.

He had killed quite a few Kumogakure ninja at the border. But honestly, no ninja carried ninjutsu scrolls on their person. At least, he had never seen one.

Ninjas were assassin-type professionals, and everything they carried was carefully considered. While carrying out missions, they would not bring unnecessary items unless required.

Aoba had tried developing Raikiri, but ultimately failed. Mainly because Raikiri was the Lightning Release transformation of Chidori, and he did not know Chidori...

Fortunately, his education from his previous life proved useful. After spending considerable time on it, he actually figured out electromagnetic acceleration. It was his Lightning Release trump card, the electromagnetic acceleration cannon.

But calling it an electromagnetic acceleration cannon in the Shinobi World did not quite fit the tone. So he named the technique Lightning Release: One Flash.

The main reason was that once this move was unleashed, enemies would at most see a flicker of lightning. Hence the name One Flash.

The lightning in Aoba's hand, mixed with Senjutsu Chakra, formed an accelerating ring. The metal sphere rested at its center.

As Aoba raised his hand and aimed ahead, a thought flashed through his mind. A streak of red light flashed through the air, followed by a faint explosion from a small hill in the distance.

The commotion was not great, but that did not mean its power was weak. This move focused mainly on physical piercing damage.

In that instant, the metal sphere had pierced through the entire forest and struck the small hill.

Aoba rushed to the hill and conducted a detailed inspection. In the end, he concluded that this strike had not truly tested the technique's ultimate damage.

Because amid its high speed and collisions, before its kinetic energy had been fully exhausted, the metal sphere's mass had already been entirely depleted.

Simply put, the metal sphere had worn away completely during flight.

Aoba estimated that if he replaced it with a larger metal sphere, or one made from higher-quality metal, it should be able to punch straight through the small hill.

Just as Aoba was preparing to continue testing, the cry of a hawk came from overhead. It was Konoha's emergency assembly order.