Chapter 259: Strength Ceiling
After patrolling the Land of Hot Water border for several days, Yoru accidentally discovered a code from Yakushi Nonou.
The Tongue-Cutting Flower Seal had taken effect.
Communication with Yakushi Nonou was extremely inefficient.
Yoru would not share Summoning Beasts with Yakushi Nonou; this woman was extremely dangerous.
Following the code’s guidance, Yoru arrived alone at the base of a cliff.
This time’s Yakushi Nonou was a dark-skinned Cloud Ninja girl.
This skin tone would require tanning in his previous life to achieve.
“Fox Captain, what intelligence are you prepared to obtain this time?”
Yoru said: “Root’s old men are left with only Prop and Gui; I want intelligence on these two, especially whether this person has been marked with the Tongue-Cutting Flower Seal by Danzo.
Also, who are the Root new recruits that were added, and what abilities do they have.”
“Abilities?” Yakushi Nonou said:
“Weren’t you a guiding Jonin in Root? With your methods, you should know each new recruit’s abilities, right?”
Yoru nodded and said: “It seems your intelligence is still very accurate; you know I once served as a guiding Jonin for Root new recruits.
They might be taught some special secret jutsu by Danzo. Being Danzo’s enemy is dangerous; being Danzo’s subordinate is even more dangerous.
Without some strength, there’s no way to complete Root’s missions.”
Yakushi Nonou said: “For Root new recruits’ abilities, I need some time.”
Yoru said: “No rush; within two or three months is fine.”
Yakushi Nonou asked: “Do you need the Cloud Ninja main camp’s location? I can provide it.”
“No need.” Yoru said: “Not only no need, you also need to help prevent Leaf Ninjas from obtaining intelligence on the Cloud Ninja main camp.
This war cannot go too smoothly.
Lord Kiiroinu cannot accept a Sakumo Hatake whose prestige has greatly increased.”
“Hm?” Yakushi Nonou was very surprised, then changed her expression and said: “I understand.”
Yakushi Nonou thought to herself, Kiiroinu had indeed learned a bit of Danzo’s true legacy.
—
The full moon was like a silver plate.
Yoru waited until the 9th full moon of Konoha
Sakumo Hatake wanted to raid the Cloud Ninja main camp, but without intelligence support, he had never been able to do so.
The most important enemy village intelligence was all held in Root’s hands. Without Root providing it, Sakumo Hatake could not obtain it.
Sakumo Hatake changed his strategy, starting to have Jonin lead teams at high intensity, quickly patrolling and ambushing, killing all Cloud Ninjas they encountered.
This month, Yoru used the Moon Arc System to draw Lightning Release, completing his last Chakra nature.
The 5th attribute’s Lightning Release Chakra had slower extraction and operation speeds, requiring long-term training to become proficient.
For now, treat Lightning Release as a special method to counter Earth Release, or lay the foundation for drawing Lightning Release bloodline limits in the future.
During this period’s battles, Yoru rarely took action himself, mainly letting the four squads in his squad train.
Hippopotamus Squad and Yak Squad were Lord Kiiroinu’s former subordinates; Yoru did not know how much loyalty they had toward him.
Aries Squad and Flower Deer Squad’s Yagura, Tian Ya, Kurozaru, antelope, and others were all personally trained by Yoru.
Yoru trusted them.
In a certain battle, it was about to end.
The valley was full of Cloud Ninja corpses, with only two Cloud Ninjas left under the cliff wall.
Fox Captain had not moved the whole time, holding the rear.
The Cloud Ninja shouted: “You won’t live either!”
This Cloud Ninja turned and used a Lightning Release on the cliff wall.
The Lightning Release shattered the cliff wall’s foundation; the dozens-of-meters-high cliff wall collapsed with a boom, dropping boulders.
Aries hurriedly ordered: “Quick, withdraw!”
The others jumped away, but Kurozaru, due to excessive consumption from the previous battle, was gasping for breath and half a step slow.
A boulder over ten meters long fell, about to smash Kurozaru.
Kurozaru looked at the falling boulder in terror in mid-air.
Fox Captain had repeatedly emphasized that in Ninja battles, you must never relax at any time; enemies inevitably hide some trump card to perish together.
Kurozaru had already tried his best to dodge, but this half-hour battle had depleted all his Chakra.
A water line rushed over.
That familiar water line whistling sound made Kurozaru’s terror instantly disappear.
Fox Captain used only one seal to unleash an extremely powerful Water Severing Wave.
The Water Severing Wave cut the boulder in half, saving Kurozaru.
Kurozaru fell sitting on the ground, panting heavily.
He stood up, came before Fox Captain, and said: “Sorry, Captain, I was somewhat exhausted and couldn’t react.”
Yoru said nothing.
Kurozaru was usually very diligent and hardworking, with no issue in attitude.
However, the oldest Kurozaru, at 23 years old, had his Chakra amount no longer increasing.
Kurozaru’s body had fully matured, and his mental state had stabilized.
Chakra is formed by the fusion of mental energy and physical energy. For ordinary Ninjas to increase Chakra amount, there are only two paths: tempering taijutsu and training willpower.
Most civilian Ninjas have limited talent and, like Kurozaru, quickly reach the limit of their talent.
Kurozaru might plateau as an excellent special Jonin.
Many people say to accept one’s own mediocrity.
However, Yoru was unwilling to see Kurozaru hit his limit just like that.
Finding a Jonin friend is simple; with Yoru’s current reputation, setting aside his Anbu identity, many Jonin are willing to associate with him.
But having someone like Kurozaru, who had gone through many missions together and built bonds in battle, is very rare.
Even if Kurozaru reached the ceiling of his strength, Yoru preferred having him by his side.
Yoru pondered; he needed to find a way to help Kurozaru break through the ceiling of his strength, to reach greater heights.
In the Hokage world, there are quite a few ways to break limits, but they all have some side effects.
One path is Orochimaru’s modification style, modifying the body to make it more powerful.
Such a body is prone to collapse.
Orochimaru himself ended up needing to change bodies every three years.
With Fox Squad’s resources, this path cannot be sustained.
One path is the hot-swappable eyes style.
Installing a Sharingan or main family Byakugan for Kurozaru would rapidly boost his strength.
Unfortunately, Yoru did not dare to reveal his dojutsu, let alone Kurozaru.
Another path is the Eight Inner Gates.
It might be possible to obtain the Eight Inner Gates, but Kurozaru might not have Might Guy or Little Lee’s taijutsu talent.
Yoru’s eyes changed, suddenly thinking of another path: Tsunade’s Shadow Seal.
The Shadow Seal seals Chakra into the diamond-shaped curse mark on the forehead, using it in battle as the foundation for Hundred Healings Jutsu and other techniques.
Yoru did not know the Shadow Seal, but he was researching the Two Forms Seal.
The Shadow Seal, just from the name, sounded like some advanced sealing jutsu from the Uzumaki Clan’s Yin-Yang Sealing System.
Perhaps he could create a sealing jutsu that achieves a similar effect to the Shadow Seal, helping Kurozaru and others break their limits.
The improvements from the system were certainly delightful, but self-research and creation were equally important.
The core of the Moon Arc System is drawing others’ abilities.
Eventually, he would see all the scenery of the Ninja World, with no new abilities left to draw.
Relying entirely on the system would at most allow him to go five-five with top strong individuals, becoming a super-sized Kakashi.
With all five natures, and sealing jutsu complete, it was time to develop a brand new path.
