Stronger...

Hiruzen Sarutobi did not speak immediately. He picked up his pipe and slowly took a few puffs, smoke drifting beneath the lamplight.

Danzo watched his expression, his tone growing heavier.

"Sakumo's reputation is already too high."

"His merits on the battlefield, his prestige within the Anbu, and that Hokage's half-cloak."

"It's not as if no one in the village has said that White Fang is more suited to be Hokage than you."

Hiruzen Sarutobi raised his eyes.

"Danzo."

"I'm stating facts."

Danzo did not back down.

"And now he has taken Fang Xu as his disciple."

"A Senju descendant."

"A child with the potential to grow into a powerhouse."

"Aren't you afraid that, in the future, this child will stand completely at Sakumo's side?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi's expression darkened further, while Danzo felt increasingly assured.

The thorn had already sunk in.

Even if Hiruzen denied it aloud, those words would leave their mark.

Danzo continued, "Hand Fang Xu over to me."

"Root will train him."

"I will erase the mark Sakumo left on him."

"Make him loyal only to the village, loyal only to the Hokage."

Hiruzen Sarutobi set down his pipe with a heavy thud.

"Enough."

Danzo's gaze turned slightly cold.

Hiruzen Sarutobi rose to his feet. His voice was not loud, but it carried immense weight.

"Sakumo is the village's hero and a great contributor to Konoha."

"Without evidence, you are not permitted to accuse him without cause."

"Fang Xu is the orphan of a ninja and a student of the Ninja Academy."

"He became Sakumo's disciple because his talent for Kendo was recognized."

"That is not a crime."

Danzo said coldly, "Hiruzen, you always place too much faith in emotions."

"And you always treat everyone as tools."

Hiruzen Sarutobi stared at him.

"Fang Xu will not be handed over to Root."

"And the Ninja Academy is not a place for Root to select tools."

"You cannot touch this line."

The office fell silent.

Danzo looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi. After a moment, his cane lightly tapped the floor.

"Hiruzen, you will regret this."

With that, he turned and left.

After the door closed, Hiruzen Sarutobi remained behind his desk for a long time without sitting down.

He looked in the direction Danzo had left, a faint throbbing rising in his temples.

Root had expanded too quickly, and Danzo's reach was growing longer and longer.

First it had been clan ninja, then orphans, and now he had actually set his sights on children in the Ninja Academy.

Hiruzen Sarutobi slowly exhaled a puff of smoke.

Other areas could be reined in gradually, but the Ninja Academy had to be protected. Danzo absolutely could not be allowed to interfere.

Meanwhile.

In the backyard of the Hatake Residence.

The sound of bamboo swords slicing through the air rang out one after another.

Fang Xu stood in the center of the training ground, swinging his longsword again and again.

It was not a bamboo sword, but a real blade.

Hatake Sakumo stood nearby. At first, he had merely wanted to see how well Fang Xu had built up his fundamentals these past few days.

But the longer he watched, the more the smile faded from his face, and the more serious his gaze became.

Downward slash, horizontal cut, thrust, turning slash, footwork transition.

Fang Xu's movements were not flashy.

But each time he exerted force, it flowed far more smoothly than it had several days ago.

Shoulder, elbow, wrist, waist, legs.

Power traveled from beneath his feet to the blade without any obvious Dan.

More than half the problems Sakumo had needed to correct repeatedly just days ago had now vanished.

Hatake Sakumo looked toward Kakashi nearby.

Kakashi had stopped practicing as well.

He gripped his short blade, his one visible eye fixed firmly on Fang Xu.

This rate of improvement was wrong.

Yesterday, Fang Xu's Kendo had still carried plenty of traces of a beginner. Today, it was as though someone had forcibly polished him from head to toe.

No, not as though. He really had improved. Kakashi's grip on his blade tightened.

He could tell that Fang Xu's current Kendo level was already close to his own.

If they only considered fundamental force generation and transitions in combat, Fang Xu was even smoother than him in some aspects.

"Father."

Kakashi could not help but speak.

"He wasn't like this yesterday."

Hatake Sakumo nodded lightly.

"I can see that."

He was equally astonished inside.

He had seen plenty of geniuses.

Kakashi was one of them.

But Fang Xu's method of improvement still caught him off guard.

It was not simply that he trained diligently.

Rather, every practice session allowed him to absorb and resolve the issues from the previous one.

What did that mean?

His comprehension was high, and he absorbed things quickly. More importantly, his body could keep up with what his mind understood. Many people could grasp something mentally, yet their bodies could not execute it.

Fang Xu was different. It was as though his mind and body were improving at the same time.

Just then, Fang Xu's steps paused, and his breathing suddenly changed.

It was no longer the breathing he used for ordinary sword swings. It became deeper, faster, and more rhythmic.

The next instant, fine blue-white arcs of electricity lit up along his arm.

Lightning Release Chakra crawled from his wrist to the hilt, then gradually attached itself to the blade.

The blade trembled lightly.

Crackle!

Lightning burst forth.

Kakashi's pupils contracted.

"Lightning Blade Attachment?"

Hatake Sakumo's expression changed as well.

This was not simply pouring Lightning Release Chakra into a weapon.

That would only increase its destructive power.

What Fang Xu was doing now was linking lightning with his footwork, breathing, and sword-swinging rhythm.

When he exerted force through his feet, lightning stimulated his calves. When his waist and back turned, lightning boosted his explosive power.

Only before the blade fell did the Lightning Release Chakra concentrate and attach to it.

This reduced consumption, increased speed, and concentrated the power even further.

Fang Xu slashed once.

Blue-white lightning skimmed along the blade and cut through the wooden post.

Crack!

The post was sliced diagonally in half, a ring of charred black marks appearing along the cut.

He did not stop.

Second slash, third slash, fourth slash—the blade grew faster and faster.

The lightning no longer merely glowed on the surface. It flowed along with his sword path.

Sometimes it attached to the blade's edge, sometimes it sank into his arm, and sometimes it burst from beneath his feet, driving his body sideways.

On the training ground, Fang Xu himself seemed like a lightning-wreathed blade.

Kakashi stopped completely.

He stared at Fang Xu, and for the first time, obvious blankness appeared on his face. Yesterday, they had still been evenly matched.

What about today?

If Fang Xu used this Lightning-Attribute Ninja Swordsmanship in actual combat, could he still block it steadily?

Kakashi had no answer, and that made him deeply uncomfortable.

Yet Hatake Sakumo's eyes grew brighter the longer he watched.

"So that's how it is."

He spoke in a low voice.

"No wonder he could create his own Lightning Activation mode."

"This child is not simply using lightning to strengthen his body."

"He is understanding lightning."

"Making lightning a part of his body, then a part of his swordsmanship."

Hatake Sakumo looked at Fang Xu and could not help but sigh.

"A true genius."

Kakashi's eyelid twitched at those words.

His father rarely praised people like that.

Especially in front of him.

But this time, Kakashi could not refute it.

At the center of the training ground, Fang Xu continued practicing for more than ten minutes before slowly sheathing his sword.

The lightning faded.

Sweat covered his forehead, and his breathing had grown heavier.

He had not gone all out with that set of techniques just now.

He had not directly called out the true moves of Thunder Breathing either.

Yet even so, the consumption was still considerable.

Hatake Sakumo walked over and looked at the longsword in his hand.

"Fang Xu."

"Right under my nose, you created a set of Lightning-Attribute Ninja Swordsmanship."

Fang Xu immediately shook his head.

"Teacher, you're exaggerating."

"This wasn't created from nothing."

"The swordsmanship insights from home, the fundamentals you taught me these past few days, and some Lightning Body Tempering concepts I came into contact with before all helped me greatly."

"I merely tried piecing those things together."