Where Did the First Hokage Learn Senjutsu?

He had tacitly agreed.

Kenichi Amamiya scratched his head. He could suddenly understand why Tsunade had left Konoha. After all, her lover and younger brother had died, and then her teacher was still desecrating her ancestors' corpses. That really was disappointing.

If Third had not died later on, and if not for Naruto's existence, Tsunade probably would not have returned to become the Fifth Hokage.

After taking Kenichi Amamiya to the training grounds for a while, Orochimaru left. Before he went, however, he warned Kenichi Amamiya to be careful. Recently, Third seemed to have grown somewhat suspicious of Orochimaru.

Kenichi Amamiya was not surprised to hear that. As the supply of expendable materials dwindled, Root would definitely reach into the nearby villages. Once too many people went missing, the Anbu could not possibly remain unaware.

Exposure was only a matter of time.

"That test subject of yours—the one whose ribs you removed before—has died. The Medical Team sent word that his lungs have completely ceased functioning," Orochimaru told Kenichi Amamiya before leaving.

Kenichi Amamiya grew excited at that. It seemed cancer was still a terrifying thing to shinobi of the Shinobi World. As long as ordinary medical squads could not handle it, that was enough.

It seemed he needed to speed up the development and refinement of the Cancer Bestowal Technique. However, he also had some Other Ideas about improving his own strength.

". . . If I remember correctly, First should still be in the Pure Land, right? With my current strength, can I use Impure World Reincarnation on him?" Kenichi Amamiya pondered.

He wanted to strengthen himself, and Sage Mode was a good choice. But Kenichi Amamiya did not particularly want to learn Sage Mode from his teacher.

In Kenichi Amamiya's view, the Sage Modes of Mount Myōboku and Katsuyu Sage were better than the one from Ryūchi Cave. The problem was that Mount Myōboku required finding Jiraiya, while Katsuyu Sage required finding Tsunade.

But neither Jiraiya nor Tsunade was easy to find right now, so Kenichi Amamiya naturally set his sights on another target: the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju. His Senjutsu was also incredibly powerful.

Kenichi Amamiya did not know where First had learned Senjutsu, though. He had only heard that First seemed to have learned it at Shikkotsu Forest, though some said he had comprehended it on his own.

"If I summon First with Impure World Reincarnation and have him teach me Senjutsu, would that work?" Kenichi Amamiya hesitated. His teacher Orochimaru had not mastered Senjutsu.

Unless he asked his teacher to send him to Ryūchi Cave to undergo White Snake Sage's trial, the best way to learn Senjutsu was still from First.

After all, First was famously thick-headed, like an alternative version of Naruto. Someone like that should not have any violent intentions toward a Konoha junior like him, right?

If it were Second, Kenichi Amamiya would not dare summon him so casually. Without enough strength, things could easily go wrong. But Kenichi Amamiya truly coveted First's Sage Mode.

After giving it some thought, Kenichi Amamiya decided it was worth trying. However, the sacrifice he found could not be too strong. In the Impure World Reincarnation technique, the strength of the Living Sacrifice would also affect the Dead.

Simply put, the stronger the sacrifice, the closer the Dead could come to displaying the power they had possessed in life. If the sacrifice was not strong enough, then naturally they would not be very powerful either.

For example, if he used an ordinary Genin to summon First through Impure World Reincarnation, First definitely would not be able to display his full strength. His power would certainly be severely reduced.

But Kenichi Amamiya did not intend to use First in battle. He merely wanted to learn some Senjutsu from First. After all, having inherited the First Hokage's Sage Body, it would be far too wasteful not to learn Senjutsu.

Thus, over the next month, Kenichi Amamiya busied himself preparing the materials for Impure World Reincarnation and improving his strength. At the same time, he continued developing his own ninjutsu.

"Kenichi, I heard Kushina Uzumaki is pregnant." Orochimaru was conducting an experiment. During this period, he had acquired a test subject from outside—a very valuable one. The subject was from the Kaguya Clan.

Of course, the Kaguya Clan was not Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, but the present-day Kaguya Clan with the Shikotsumyaku. This made Kenichi Amamiya drool a little, since the Shikotsumyaku's combat power was quite good.

However, research into the Three-Tomoe Sharingan was still progressing slowly, so he could not study the Shikotsumyaku for now. He could only keep a few samples for future use.

"Really? There doesn't seem to be any news about that in the village." Kenichi Amamiya froze. To be honest, although he knew this was around the time Naruto had appeared in Kushina's belly, there truly had been no news in the village.

But upon further thought, there was nothing strange about that. Kushina Uzumaki was not only the Fourth Hokage's wife; she was also Konoha's Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. A Jinchuriki's due date could be called top-secret information. A Chunin like Kenichi Amamiya naturally could not know about it.

Yes, during this period, Kenichi Amamiya had officially become a Chunin as well. He had not gone through any Chunin Exams. Instead, after Orochimaru recommended him, he fought an experienced Chunin once and was considered to have become a Chunin.

If this had been during wartime, becoming a Chunin would have been even easier. Back then, even Jonin were promoted very quickly. Now that the war was over, things had naturally become a little more normal.

However, the Chunin Exams would still need some time before they returned. Relations between the various villages were not very good right now.

Forget holding the Chunin Exams together—if they really tried, they would probably beat each other's brains out. Besides, there were so many Chunin in the village. They could not possibly make everyone wait for the Chunin Exams every time, could they?

So in truth, the Chunin Exams were merely another way to display a village's strength. Only at certain times would the villages arrange to hold some kind of Chunin Exam tournament together.

"Of course there isn't. Jinchuriki are extremely weak while giving birth. If the Nine-Tails gets out, hehe." Orochimaru sneered.

Teacher probably would not die, right? Although his teacher had seemed very obediently settled into retirement lately, Orochimaru could tell that his teacher was not very willing to accept it.

That was right. For someone accustomed to wielding power, someone who knew its sweetness, how many could willingly let go when the time came? When a person left, the tea went cold—those were not merely empty words.

So if something really went wrong, respected teacher, what choice would you make?

"The Nine-Tails... can we cut off a piece for research?" Kenichi Amamiya became excited. That was the Nine-Tails, the strongest Tailed Beast in the Shinobi World—at least for now.