The night passed without incident.
At 5 a.m. the next morning, Hajime Hoshita woke up on time.
Since there were no missions assigned, he washed up and left the Root base. Finding a secluded grove, he began his daily physical training.
After an hour of conditioning, he transitioned into chakra control training.
Half an hour later, Hajime paused, frowning slightly. "At sixteen, for the original me, my potential has more or less reached its limit."
"From here on out, it's all about accumulating experience and steady refinement. A standard jōnin would be the upper ceiling. As for elite jōnin or Kage-level, there'd be no point even dreaming about it."
Geniuses typically show signs of greatness in their early teens.
Especially those with the potential to become Kage.
People like Minato Namikaze, Kakashi Hatake, Shisui Uchiha, and Itachi Uchiha were all examples of this.
At Hajime's age, if one still hadn't reached jōnin-level strength, it usually meant their potential was already nearly exhausted.
However, with the awakening of his past life memories and the addition of Hashirama's cells, there was no telling how much his ceiling could be raised.
Especially in the terms of ninjutsu.
"If my talent in ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu hasn't seen a significant boost, that could be problematic. I might be stuck walking the brute-force path from here on."
After resting briefly, Hajime stood and made his way toward the center of Konoha.
He needed to buy balloons and rubber balls to begin training the Rasengan.
Although this technique didn't really suit his current combat style, practicing this A-rank ninjutsu without hand seals could help him evaluate something important.
For example, whether his awakened past life memories had improved his talent in ninjutsu.
If not, then mastering Wood Release might not even be possible.
After purchasing the balloons and balls, and grabbing breakfast along the way, Hajime returned to the Root base and began his Rasengan training.
The first step: inject chakra into the water balloon and rotate it until it bursts.
In principle, Hajime had his own understanding.
Injecting chakra into the water balloon and rotating it also involved a crucial step—chakra compression.
If the chakra was compressed to a sufficient intensity and rotated, it would create a terrifying, spiraling force that tore outward.
Of course, understanding the theory and actually executing it were two different things.
An hour later, Hajime paused his training, inwardly sighing in admiration, "Naruto might be a blockhead, but his innate talent isn't low at all!"
After carefully storing away the water balloons, Hajime stepped outside and headed to Training Ground 9, located right next to the Root base.
Danzō hadn't arrived yet, so Hajime decided to try out his Wind Release ninjutsu.
Wind Release: Breakthrough!
He clapped his hands together, then swiftly formed three hand seals.
Dog → Horse → Bird !
With the final seal, Hajime inhaled deeply and then exhaled.
With a loud boom, a violent gust of wind burst forth, sweeping across the area ahead.
"Roughly three seals in one second. Still a bit slow."
Somewhat dissatisfied, Hajime took out a shuriken, brought it to his lips, and blew on it. Wind Release chakra clung to it, making the shuriken spin at high speed.
With a flick of his arm, the shuriken shot out like a spinning windmill, slicing cleanly through three large trees before finally exhausting its Wind chakra and embedding itself in the trunk of a fourth tree.
"Not bad in terms of power… Paired with skilled shurikenjutsu, the threat to an opponent would increase drastically."
Hajime was quite pleased with this Wind-infused shuriken technique. It didn't require hand seals, making its activation speed much faster.
Next—
He drew the ninja blade strapped to his back.
Buzz!
As Wind Release chakra was infused into the blade, its sharpness increased dramatically.
Wind Release: Vacuum Blade!
This was the only B-rank jutsu Hajime had mastered—a jutsu at jōnin difficulty level.
But in truth, he hadn't fully grasped it yet.
He could only apply it to his ninja sword to enhance its cutting power.
The ultimate form of this B-rank jutsu was seen when Danzō fought Sasuke Uchiha—by infusing chakra into a kunai, the chakra would take solid form, turning it into a razor-sharp blade.
Unfortunately, Hajime's chakra control had previously been insufficient, and his training in Wind Release nature transformation had been lacking, preventing him from fully completing this jutsu.
Still, even a partial mastery combined with solid swordsmanship had once made Hajime an elite among chūnin.
Of course, a jutsu's rank didn't directly reflect its power—only the difficulty of learning it.
That said, jutsu with high learning difficulty typically came with high requirements—like chakra volume, chakra control, form manipulation, and nature transformation.
So in practice, jutsu that are harder to learn usually don't have a low baseline of power.
The true factors that determine a jutsu's power are: chakra volume, form manipulation, and nature transformation.
"`Breakthrough` doesn't have much offensive power. It's more of a support-type jutsu."
"The shuriken enhancement tests your throwing skill. But for me, the most important technique is this B-rank Vacuum Blade."
Sheathing his sword, Hajime thought to himself, "Still, I have some talent in kenjutsu. For developing the Vacuum Blade, I don't necessarily need to follow Danzō's method. Instead, I could take a path like Konoha's White Fang—high-speed, high-impact strikes."
"In that case, I'll need sharper Wind Release nature transformation… or perhaps combine it with form manipulation to raise the overall power."
Asuma Sarutobi's method of training Wind Release focused on making it thinner and sharper.
Hajime contemplated, "So besides continuing to refine the nature transformation… what direction can I take with the form manipulation?"
"Cutting… flowing Wind Release chakra that's thinner, sharper…"
"Form manipulation… sawtooth-shaped?"
As he was deep in thought, the sound of footsteps snapped him to attention. Hajime quickly turned and bowed respectfully.
"Lord Danzō!"
Danzō gave a slight nod, then spoke calmly, "We will now begin your Wood Release training."
"The first technique I will teach you is Wood Locking Wall. It uses only three hand seals."
"Rat → Dog → Tiger!"
Hajime nodded quickly, then raised his hands and slowly began forming the seals.
Danzō continued, "Wood Release, a kekkei genkai, is a new nature transformation created by combining Earth and Water Release."
"When forming the seals, you must simultaneously perform both nature transformations and merge them to create Wood Release."
With that, Danzō fell silent and simply watched.
Hajime, inwardly: That's it?
Struggling to keep his expression composed, Hajime quickly responded, "Understood, Lord Danzō! I'll give it my all!"
He restarted the hand seals.
Earlier, he hadn't used any chakra.
This time, he extracted chakra—specifically Earth and Water Release chakra.
Thanks to the Hashirama cells in his body, the process happened naturally with the seals, as though it were instinctive, without the need for specialized training.
Two distinct chakra natures were drawn from his cells, entered his chakra network, and under the guidance of the hand seals, fused naturally—creating a new chakra nature:
Wood Release!
A surge of joy bubbled inside Hajime.
This process had been far easier than expected.
He quickly directed the chakra from the soles of his feet into the ground.
Wood Release: Wood Locking Wall!
In the next moment, the ground cracked open, and thick, square logs of wood burst upward, forming a wooden barrier three feet in front of Hajime.
It worked!
Though his expression remained calm, a hint of joy surfaced in Danzō's eyes.
Konoha finally had a new Wood Release user!
And this one… belonged to him, Shimura Danzō!
(End of Chapter)