Name: Senju Hikaru
Gender: Male
Birthday: Konoha Calendar Year 34, March 24
Rank: Jōnin (Chūnin)
Bloodline Development: Beginner (Senju Secret Arts)
Seeds:
Jōnin Chakra Capacity Seed (60% mature)
Advanced Earth Release Seed (82% mature)
Advanced Earth Release Seed (70% mature)
Advanced Water Release Seed (70% mature)
Fruits: None
Quest: Become the True Final Boss of the Shinobi World (Unique)
"Only the Advanced Earth Release Seed went up… and everything else stayed the same?"
Staring at the panel, Hikaru could only sigh.
He'd expected it, but it still felt frustrating.
Sure, he was glad the senjutsu seed had grown.
But what he wanted most—more than anything—was for the Jōnin chakra capacity seed to finish.
His chakra pool was too small.
Or rather… the amount of chakra he could actually use was too small.
At this point, Hikaru didn't even know what his "real" chakra reserves looked like anymore.
Because the four seeds in his body—mid-tier and high-tier—were greedy to the point of cruelty.
He still remembered the early days.
At first he could only plant two seeds.
Then slowly, he managed four.
Then eight.
He'd been happy for a while—until he realized the problem.
Not just the time cost.
Not just how little chakra he had as a kid, split across too many seeds.
The real problem was—
Growth slowed to a crawl.
And to this day, he still hadn't harvested a single advanced fruit.
Worse, with his old planting habits, he had a strong feeling those seeds could've drained him dry.
"I don't want to end up like Guy."
His basic attributes did make that path tempting, but—
Hikaru respected Guy. His character, his spirit, his strength.
He did not respect Guy's aesthetics.
More importantly, Hikaru had no intention of betting everything on taijutsu alone.
He had the foundation to develop in multiple directions—why trap himself in one?
"Still… if I'm counting it right…"
"In half a year to a year, I should be able to harvest everything."
Just imagining that one-time haul made Hikaru's heart rise.
Because that wouldn't be a small upgrade—it would be a genuine leap.
First, chakra.
If his chakra finally reached true jōnin level, that alone would fix one of his biggest weaknesses.
Second, intermediate senjutsu.
More survivability, more insurance.
This wasn't Naruto's later era, where Kage-level monsters ran around like street dogs and jōnin felt cheap.
Even if the cracks were starting to show—Obito already breaking the rules, several MangeQiong lurking in the near future—
With intermediate Sage Mode, Hikaru believed he could handle things far more comfortably.
And then there were the advanced Earth and Water fruits.
Those made him itch.
Because once he had them, it meant a deeper understanding—and tighter control—of those chakra natures.
Right now, his Water and Earth were still powered by intermediate fruits.
Yet the techniques he produced were already frightening.
Because he'd begun to grasp the shape-change and nature-change of those chakra types at a decent level.
If those fruits advanced…
That meant true mastery.
It meant simplification.
"Maybe…"
"Like Hashirama."
"One seal—whatever jutsu you want, it comes."
Hand seals?
That was what lower-tier shinobi did.
A truly strong shinobi could compress the entire process into a single sign.
And in real combat, standing still to weave seals was the easiest way to hand your enemy an opening.
Unless you could force someone else to weave seals for you—
Or you could form five seals in a second—
Standing there was just volunteering to become a target.
Hikaru had no intention of ever being the target.
And he believed that day wasn't far.
After that, the road was quiet.
He and Kakashi kept moving, but didn't talk much.
Kakashi was trapped in his own head, wrestling with what Hikaru had said.
And Hikaru was busy with his own calculations—future routes, power planning, and the headache of sealing arts theory.
By nightfall, they found a cave to rest in, planning to continue at dawn.
Their destination lay around the border zones—the River Country and the Rain Country.
To be honest, Hikaru didn't want to go anywhere near that region.
For one simple reason:
Amegakure was Akatsuki's soil.
If nothing had changed, Obito had already ensnared Nagato.
And Nagato was building Akatsuki up—Kakuzu's existence alone proved it.
Hikaru remembered this clearly:
Danzō, for reasons that always stank of "special circumstances," accepted an invitation from Hanzō the Salamander to strike at Akatsuki.
And they did it loudly.
Hanzō even openly named Danzō's affiliation.
The result…
Was a tragedy.
Root was almost completely wiped out.
It seemed only Danzō himself crawled back to Konoha.
And because of that disaster, the man who once dreamed of becoming Hokage—
A man full of ambition—
pivoted into supporting Orochimaru with absolute commitment.
Then Orochimaru failed.
Which meant Danzō's gamble failed again.
Worst of all, he couldn't even retaliate.
His most important piece was nearly crippled, still rebuilding from the wreckage.
Danzō's "plan" didn't just cripple himself.
It crippled Konoha, too.
"Akatsuki already hated Konoha."
"Jiraiya had managed to soften it over time."
"But Danzō…"
"He piled new hatred on top of old."
And Danzō hadn't just dragged himself and Konoha into a pit—he'd dragged Hanzō down with him as well.
Danzō was protected by the village.
He was a high-ranking Konoha figure.
And because Nagato needed time to gather strength, they wouldn't move against Konoha's top brass too quickly.
But Hanzō?
Hanzō lived in the Rain.
He was right there.
Head up, head down—every day, same sky, same streets.
If Nagato wanted someone's throat first, it was obvious whose.
For now, it probably hadn't happened yet.
Nagato still needed power.
And Hanzō himself was terrifyingly strong.
But even so—
Nagato would have to be cautious around Hanzō.
Meanwhile Hikaru?
He was just an ordinary Konoha shinobi.
If he blundered into that mess…
There would be no "caution."
He would simply be erased.
Danzō's "impact" really was something else.
Sometimes he wasn't just blamed for things he didn't do.
A lot of the time—
He genuinely deserved every ounce of that blame.
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