"Kitagawa, you're well-suited for Root."
Danzo spoke.
Kitagawa chuckled lightly. "I prefer teaching students and nurturing more talent, making the Leaf Village's tree branches fuller and more lush."
Danzo said, "But a tree's roots are most important—they support everything."
Kitagawa shook his head. "However, the Third Hokage is the tree's root. Root is merely his shadow."
At those words, Danzo's mind reeled. He stood frozen for a moment.
Kitagawa gave a slight bow, then vanished with Body Flicker.
"Danzo-sama~"
The cat-masked operative's voice snapped Danzo back to awareness.
Danzo looked toward Kitagawa's home, then turned to leave.
But Kitagawa's words kept echoing in his mind: The Third Hokage is the tree's root. Root is merely his shadow.
Back home, Kitagawa quickly pushed Danzo from his thoughts.
Current Danzo hasn't evolved to his ultimate form yet. Root hasn't expanded to the scale it will become.
Of course.
Strength is my greatest confidence.
If he hadn't mastered Shave, he'd be more obedient.
But Kitagawa also knew he definitely wasn't a match for the full strength of Danzo.
Still, if I go all-out, I'm confident I can escape with Shave.
Let me join Root? Only if I run it!
Kitagawa hummed a little tune as he headed to the bath, then studied jutsu in the study until late into the night.
The night passed peacefully.
Saturday came. But training couldn't stop.
Especially today—Kitagawa planned to develop an enhanced version of Moon Walk.
Tsunade was right. Ordinary Moon Walk posed little threat to her.
But if he switched to Wind Style nature transformation chakra instead of regular chakra, the results might be different.
Morning.
At the usual spot, Kitagawa first sent a shadow clone to continue advanced Wind Style nature transformation training, arranged Gai's training tasks, then began experimenting.
First, he applied Wind Style nature transformation to the chakra gathered at his feet. Then... Kitagawa launched into the air. As his form descended, the Wind Style chakra beneath his feet exploded.
Kitagawa's form immediately soared higher. Though the motion was slightly unsteady, he could feel that with Wind Style nature transformation, the burst power had definitely increased.
Not far away, Gai watched frozen. "Is this the taijutsu technique Teacher Kitagawa mentioned?! That's incredible!"
"I have to train even harder so I can reach the teacher's requirements faster!"
Gai became even more fired up.
After several attempts, Kitagawa stopped and thought carefully. "Whether it's Shave or Moon Walk, both leverage rapid stomping to generate reaction force for acceleration. Using chakra amplification greatly reduces difficulty compared to pure physicality and raises the ceiling."
"But Moon Walk—air is too thin. Though I achieve it through chakra bursts, the speed is obviously incomparable to ground leverage. I can't match how Gai moves freely with all Eight Gates open."
"Even with Wind Style nature transformation, the improvement isn't what I'm aiming for."
"Maybe my approach is wrong. My application of Wind Style nature transformation is wrong."
Kitagawa raised his hand and waved it, sensing air current changes. "Either I keep increasing my burst-speed frequency, or I make the air beneath my feet denser?"
He thought of the Water Style he'd mastered, even his Earth Style.
Water Style activation actually has two methods.
One is purely using your own chakra to create water currents for jutsu. The other leverages water from nature itself.
In other words, you inject Water Style nature chakra into natural water, then control it through form changes.
Earth Style works the same way.
And Wind Style—Kitagawa thought of Wind Style: Great Breakthrough.
No real attack power, just generates wind gusts that blow people away.
It's essentially injecting Wind Style chakra into air, then form-transforming it—rapid flow, creating wind.
Could I reverse this? Inject chakra into air, then compress it at my feet as something to leverage against?
Theoretically, Kitagawa felt there was no problem. But the operational difficulty...
"Let me try!"
Kitagawa raised his hand, palm facing downward. He injected chakra into the air through his five fingers, then condensed and gathered the surrounding airflow under his palm.
Though air is invisible, dust particles in air exist. When condensed into a mass, light refraction increases, making the air mass faintly visible.
Kitagawa pushed his palm down, feeling distinct resistance. Then he burst with power and slammed down—BOOM—the air mass exploded, scattering wind currents.
"Not strong enough. Condensation speed is too slow."
Kitagawa shook his head silently and continued trying.
Time flew to noon.
During lunch break, Gai couldn't help asking, "Teacher Kitagawa, was the technique you trained with this morning the taijutsu you mentioned before?"
Kitagawa smiled. "Sort of."
"So far, the teacher has developed two techniques, both falling under movement jutsu. One is called Shave, one is called Moon Walk."
"The one that turns direction mid-air is Moon Walk."
"But in the teacher's vision, there are a total of six techniques. So Gai, burn your youth bright. When you reach the requirements, the teacher will teach you these taijutsu."
Gai's eyes went wide. Excited tears gushed down his face. "Six techniques total?! Teacher, you're amazing!"
"Teacher, I'll work even harder!"
Then Gai ate his lunch while crying, finishing in three-five motions before immediately running off to train.
This pie is too appetizing!
Kitagawa finished his lunch and rested a moment before sending out a shadow clone to continue training.
Moon Walk's advanced development progressed increasingly smoothly. Kitagawa even thought Iron Body could probably be advanced with Wind Style nature transformation later.
But Sunday came, and Kitagawa didn't make Gai train hard all day.
In the afternoon, he came looking for Tsunade again.
Gai was somewhat reluctant—he was eager to start training Shave.
"What is it?"
Tsunade had just woken from her afternoon nap, still looking lazy.
"After working so hard, you should relax a bit. How about going to the hot springs?"
Kitagawa invited.
Shizune's eyes immediately lit up, then she looked at Tsunade hopefully.
She'd also been training hard lately and hadn't visited hot springs in a long time.
Now autumn had arrived—hot springs would definitely feel great.
Hot springs?
Tsunade sensed Shizune's gaze and nodded. "Then let's go!"
Kitagawa added, "Should we invite Jiraiya-sama too?"
"I was indeed a bit impolite yesterday."
Tsunade said casually, "Your call. It's not like I'm paying anyway."
Kitagawa smiled. "But I'll need Tsunade-sama to find him quickly."
Tsunade pouted. "Troublesome!"
Despite saying that, she sent a shadow clone to summon him.
Half an hour later.
In front of a hot spring resort, Kitagawa met Jiraiya again.
But unexpectedly, he wasn't alone.