Chapter 266: Recuperating
Ishiro's body was injured and his movement was inconvenienced, so he was exceptionally careful when practicing Sage Jutsu. Fortunately, the training for Sage Mode emphasizes stillness, not movement, so the impact was not significant. After spending more time preparing than usual, Ishiro smoothly entered Sage Mode.
After entering Sage Mode, Ishiro could clearly feel the Sage Chakra slowly repairing his damaged body.
The Head of the Medical Department, Nakata Hajime, who had come to the Sage Jutsu training area with Ishiro, began to constantly check Ishiro's body after he entered Sage Mode.
"This is incredible. Advisor Ishiro, in Sage Mode, your body seems to be continuously healed by a weakened Mystical Palm Technique. And what's more effective than the Mystical Palm Technique is that this healing is systemic. The Sage Chakra is even autonomously adjusting the parts of your body that were twisted by the heavy blow."
"Originally, for your injuries to fully recover, I estimated it would take at least a month, and during that month, you couldn't have any overly strenuous exercise. And after a month, to restore your previous combat power, you would still need some rehabilitative training. But at this speed, I think you'll recover in less than five days, and you won't even need any rehabilitative training."
Ishiro was overjoyed to hear this. "Excellent!" His choice back then to practice Sage Jutsu first, rather than developing a Kekkei Genkai first, was indeed correct.
Sage Jutsu's help to Ishiro was actually immense. The most important point was that Sage Jutsu had been subtly improving Ishiro's physical strength. Just as Nakata had said in the hospital room, Ishiro's current physical strength had improved considerably compared to before.
Ishiro's own physical talent was not high. Sage Jutsu was like making up for this shortcoming, preventing his body from limiting his growth.
Of course, the improvement in his physical strength was also due to the factors of his Kekkei Genkai and Kekkei Tōta.
Indeed, his decision back then was right. The greatest use of Sage Mode was not the burst of power during battle, but the modification of the body during normal times. In the original story, the approach of Naruto Uzumaki and Jiraiya was wrong; the approach of the three great Sages of the Sage Regions was the true way.
To equate Sage Mode with combat power was a reckless waste of a divine gift.
For the next five days, Ishiro continuously entered Sage Mode to recover while also organizing his harvest from this trip.
This time, he had obtained some ninjutsu that the village didn't have, as well as some that were more complete than the ones recorded by the village. All these ninjutsu required Ishiro to spend time organizing them.
This opportunity to absorb the experience of other countries was rare. During a normal Great Ninja War, no ninja from any country would carry so many ninjutsu scrolls on their person. The Mist ninjas this time also hadn't expected to be completely wiped out; otherwise, they wouldn't have carried so many things with them.
Many of the scrolls Ishiro confiscated from the Mist ninjas were actually rewards given to them by Kirigakure after they had performed meritorious service in the last Great Ninja War. In the end, all these things ended up benefiting Iwagakure.
Apart from these scrolls, Ishiro turned over most of the other items, including the Uchiha Gunbai, the Sharingan, and the White Zetsu clone.
But Ishiro also kept a few things. One was the sword he had obtained from Madara Uchiha. Ishiro himself was not a close-combat ninja, but among his many disciples, some were. Ishiro kept two of the swords.
He gave one of them to Kawakita.
Kawakita's talent specialized in sword techniques, but back then, Iwagakure didn't have much of a foundation in this area, so his growth was slower than his two companions, Chiko Tomoe and Kajiyama Ri. But later, Ishiro took him to the Land of Rain to find Hanzō. Under Hanzō's guidance, Kawakita broke through his shackles and found his own path.
In these past two years, Kawakita's strength had improved rapidly. Among the three disciples of Ishiro's first squad, Kawakita had completed a comeback from behind. His strength now steadily suppressed Chiko and Kajiyama, and he was considered to be in the upper ranks among Iwagakure's Jonin.
Furthermore, in these two years, Kawakita had successively developed many C-rank sword techniques and several B-rank ones. He faintly had the air of Iwagakure's number one master of sword techniques.
Giving Madara's longsword to Kawakita was very fitting.
The other longsword, Ishiro gave to Takumi.
Takumi was also a close-combat ninja. Although he didn't major in sword techniques, as someone who excelled in speed, he had always fought in coordination with a longsword. So giving the other longsword to Takumi was also quite appropriate.
Speaking of which, Ishiro had learned blade energy from Kawakita, which gave Ishiro a powerful close-combat attack method in his early days.
And from Takumi's side, Ishiro, as the teacher, had also learned a lot.
Takumi was now developing and perfecting a set of close-combat techniques, a technique for dodging and weaving at close range. Ishiro had been paying close attention, occasionally giving some advice, and also adapting it to his own use in coordination with his own gravity manipulation.
Although Takumi had not yet completed its development, the help of this technique was also a factor in Ishiro being able to gain the upper hand in his battle with Obito Uchiha.
Besides these external items, the thing Ishiro spent the most time on these past few days was Madara Uchiha's ninjutsu notes. Madara Uchiha was the closest existence to a sage since the mythological era of the ninja world. Ishiro attached great importance to his ninjutsu notes.
The ninjutsu notes that White Zetsu gave him seemed very ordinary to White Zetsu. They didn't involve the more profound Yin-Yang Release and only talked about general ninjutsu, but they were still extremely precious to Ishiro.
These few days, Ishiro often took them out to read. It couldn't be said that he gained something every time, but at the very least, it opened up a new line of thought for his own ninjutsu training.
Ishiro had a feeling that if he just spent some more time reorganizing the ninjutsu he had learned, many ninjutsu whose hand seals he could no longer simplify before could now be further simplified.
Not only that, but Ishiro calculated that after thoroughly understanding these ninjutsu notes, casting the same ninjutsu with the same amount of chakra would yield much greater power.
It was just that because he was recuperating during this period, his Sage Chakra was all used to recover from his injuries, so Ishiro had no opportunity to practice.
What Ishiro didn't know was that it wasn't just him who had this feeling. Ōnoki, Ikura, and the Jonin who had been approved by Ōnoki to read these notes all had the same feeling.
However, Ishiro's biggest gain during his recuperation was not these things, but Sage Mode. These few days, because his Sage Chakra was used to heal his injuries, Ishiro needed to repeatedly extract chakra and repeatedly enter Sage Mode, so his proficiency in Sage Mode had greatly improved.
And perhaps because he was using Sage Chakra to heal, Ishiro's affinity for natural energy had also greatly increased.
In five days, Ishiro felt that his Sage Mode had made rapid progress. This gave Ishiro an impulse: should he find someone to beat him half to death again?
Five days later, Ishiro's injuries had completely recovered. After notifying Ōnoki, the Anbu guarding him were successively dismissed, and Iwagakure finally lifted its state of alert.
But at this time, Ishiro proposed to make a trip to the Land of Rivers.
Facing the restless Ishiro, Ōnoki was quite speechless but did not object, only telling Ishiro not to trust ninjas from other countries too much.
Ishiro wanted to take advantage of the fact that Obito had not yet contacted Nagato to have a good chat with the three Akatsuki members.
This time, Ishiro did not directly fly to the Land of Rivers using the Light/Heavy Rock Jutsu but first made a trip to the Land of Rain, which was situated between the Land of Rivers and the Land of Earth.
Because intelligence showed that Konoha's Danzō seemed to be causing trouble in the Land of Rain recently, and under Danzō's influence, Hanzō also seemed to be somewhat restless.
Ishiro couldn't quite understand the current Hanzō. Why are you clinging so tightly to power?
You clearly possess a power unmatched in the Land of Rain, yet you can't even completely control the armed forces of a single country. And you're still thinking of expanding your sphere of influence like this?
When the Akatsuki rose in the Land of Rain back then, Hanzō relied on Konoha to maintain his authority. After the Akatsuki left, he relied on Iwagakure. Now that Danzō was being assertive again, Hanzō wanted to rely on Konoha again.
Ishiro didn't understand what was the use of power obtained by being propped up by others.
However, since Danzō was in the Land of Rain and Hanzō was restless, Ishiro naturally couldn't swagger into the Village Hidden in the Rain like last time.
Ishiro circled outside the Village Hidden in the Rain a few times, made contact with the intelligence ninjas in the Land of Rain, and learned about the progress of the cooperation between Danzō and Hanzō.
From the intelligence, it seemed Hanzō had reached some agreements with Konoha. The contact between Rain and Konoha ninjas had been very frequent recently. The number of Konoha ninjas performing missions within the Land of Rain had also increased considerably compared to before.
"Hanzō, oh Hanzō," Ishiro looked at the Village Hidden in the Rain and shook his head. "Clearly without strength or means, yet still wishfully letting your ambition run wild."
Then Ishiro did not linger in the Land of Rain and flew directly towards the Land of Rivers.
Originally, Ishiro's next stop was the Village Hidden in the Rivers, but when he flew to the border of the Land of Rain near the Land of Rivers, he suddenly discovered a familiar figure below.
"Jūzō Biwa?"
What attracted the attention of Ishiro in mid-air was none other than one of the former Seven Ninja Swordsmen, Jūzō Biwa. After the Seven Ninja Swordsmen were defeated by Might Duy, Jūzō Biwa did not return to Kirigakure with Fuguki Suikazan but chose to defect.
Ishiro hadn't paid attention to the whereabouts of the defected Jūzō. Jūzō didn't have much of a presence in the original story; his only role was to block a Tailed Beast Bomb with his life in exchange for Itachi Uchiha's.
Ishiro seriously suspected that Jūzō might have been controlled by Itachi's genjutsu at that time. Otherwise, why would a rogue ninja whose courage had been shattered make such a foolish move?
Anyway, it was either being controlled by Itachi's genjutsu or being killed by the plot.
Ishiro hadn't expected to meet Jūzō here. After thinking for a moment, he still flew down.
Jūzō's strength was only that of an Elite Jonin. When he wasn't paying attention, he couldn't discover Ishiro high in the sky. But when Ishiro lowered his altitude, he still noticed something was amiss.
Holding his Executioner's Blade horizontally, Jūzō shouted in a low voice, "Who's there?"
His first reaction was that the Mist Anbu had come to hunt him down, so he first observed the surroundings for any mist and whether there were any unusual movements in watery areas nearby.
However, after looking around, Jūzō didn't find anything abnormal. After a while, Jūzō finally noticed that the light in the air to his side-front was somewhat strange.
Seeing that he had been discovered by Jūzō, Ishiro no longer hid his figure and directly dispelled his Camouflage Jutsu.
"Light/Heavy Rock Jutsu, an Iwa ninja? You are? You are the Fox of Iwa—Ishiro?" Jūzō was originally an Elite Jonin of the Mist. He was naturally clear about the intelligence on various powerhouses in the ninja world, so he guessed Ishiro's identity at the first moment.
Ishiro was stunned. He was very familiar with Jūzō; to be precise, he was very familiar with the Seven Ninja Swordsmen.
A long time ago, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen had helped him obtain a Byakugan. Not long ago, they had helped him obtain four of their swords. But both times, Ishiro had hidden in the dark, and Jūzō had no idea there was someone behind them taking advantage of the situation, so Jūzō did not recognize Ishiro.
Having reacted, Ishiro quickly adjusted his mentality. "That's right, I'm not familiar with the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. I mustn't let it slip."
"You know me? Holding the Executioner's Blade, you should be one of the former Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, Jūzō Biwa, right? I heard that four of you Seven Ninja Swordsmen were killed by a Konoha Genin, and one defected. Tell me about the situation with that Konoha Genin."
Having reacted, Ishiro quickly found an excuse.
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