A heavy atmosphere.
A silent atmosphere permeated the forest.
Kabuto adjusted his glasses.
"Ah, support has arrived. I suppose that's enough for today."
It was already a difficult situation, and with the arrival of support, Kabuto checked the time and felt it was about right.
"You won't get away…"
Boom!
Neji's Eighth Trigrams: Vacuum Palm struck through the air.
Bang!
After hitting Kabuto, his entire body splattered with mud.
It was just an Earth Clone.
"Damn it."
None of the five had expected it to still be a clone.
"It seems we still didn't seize the opportunity to stop him!"
Kankuro said.
Phew~
Shikamaru, as the captain, let out a sigh of relief.
Kabuto had put too much pressure on him.
If he hadn't seemed to have no particular designs on them, they might have been wiped out earlier.
"This guy is so strong. Our combat experience, compared to his,
seems to be miles behind."
Kiba also sighed.
"What a cunning fellow… Gate of Joy, Open."
Lee erupted with astonishing power, his surging Chakra pressing against his skin until it turned crimson.
Veins bulged on his face.
Meanwhile, his opponent, Kimimaro, had also transformed into a monstrous appearance, with bone shields still showing cracks from Lee's attacks.
As Lee unleashed his power, he also felt the pressure.
This was the first time he had felt such pressure from someone younger than him.
"Konoha Strong Whirlwind."
Whoosh!
Bang!
Lee appeared in front of Kimimaro and kicked him.
Crack!
The sound of bones shattering.
At the crucial moment, Kimimaro covered his body with defensive bones.
"Konoha Rising Crushing Rock… Great Strong Whirlwind… Reverse Lotus…"
Rumble!
Against Lee's speed, Kimimaro was powerless to react.
He could only rely on his Curse Mark-enhanced perception and Ketsuryūgan power to barely endure.
Crack!
Crack!
He was slammed into the ground by Lee.
A huge crater appeared there… Satoru watched Kimimaro being smashed into the ground, and his heart clenched.
"Lee really is… he'll have to recuperate for a while again. Fortunately, he has me and Tsunade…"
However, being able to beat Kimimaro to this extent indirectly proved that Lee's current strength was indeed in a league of its own among the Twelve Strongest Ninja.
But opening the Eight Gates once meant a trip to the hospital, which was a bit costly.
His body still needed to be strengthened!
Hmm?
He suddenly sensed a massive Chakra erupting from Kimimaro.
Just as he was about to act, he sensed a figure appearing in the distance, so he stopped his intention to move.
Puff, puff, puff!
From beneath the ground, huge bone spikes pierced through the earth, rising up.
The vast range made it impossible for the extremely fast Lee to avoid them.
Fortunately, at the critical moment, a mass of sand lifted him into the air.
"There's nothing else to do. It just depends on Sasuke's timing, whether he can just avoid Orochimaru's reincarnation time."
...Shikamaru's squad failed.
The mission to retrieve Sasuke failed.
Naruto was rescued by Kakashi, who had defied orders to come.
Lee and Choji were carried back.
That's right, Lee was in the hospital again, and again.
However, this time Tsunade and Satoru had experience and quickly restored his body; he only needed to rest for a period of time.
And Satoru also sensed that Sasuke should have avoided Orochimaru's reincarnation time.
Because the nerves he had placed in Sasuke's body showed no special activity.
Compared to the nerves in other people's bodies, he had done more to Sasuke, which could help Sasuke resist one soul invasion.
Consider it helping the savior once.
But it seemed it hadn't been necessary to use it after all.
Satoru gained a lot from this experience.
Within a year, his Sage Mode would definitely emerge… Six months passed.
"Big Brother Naruto went to train, it's so boring!"
Konohamaru muttered, having just finished his training in the Sexy Jutsu.
His Sexy Jutsu had improved a lot recently, and he originally wanted to share it with Big Brother Naruto, but he heard that Naruto would be training for several years before returning.
"But I can already beat Tenyu and Maki now, hmph hmph hmph!"
Konohamaru laughed proudly.
After his family's teachings and training with Captain Satoru, he could already defeat Tenyu and his friends.
"Next target, I'm going to beat up Captain Satoru."
Ise Udon and Moegi looked at Konohamaru with pity in their eyes.
"What kind of look is that? I'm really strong now, Tenyu and Maki are no match for me." Seeing their expressions, Konohamaru said angrily.
He felt that in a few months he could surpass Tenyu and Maki, whom he had never beaten.
Then he would definitely be able to beat up Captain Satoru later.
"Why don't you wait until your genjutsu release technique can break Sensei Satoru's Fire of Eight Fragrances before you say that!"
Moegi advised.
Hearing the name of that Ninjutsu, Konohamaru swallowed.
It was as if thousands of floral scents lingered in his throat.
That was Sensei Iruka's punishment Ninjutsu, an upgraded version of the Fire of Eight Fragrances.
And the difficulty of breaking it, using common genjutsu release methods, simply didn't work.
Pre-emptive Throat Guarding Technique was also useless.
"Konohamaru, I think it's good enough that you can beat Tenyu and them.
Let's not talk about beating up Sensei Satoru.
If he hears you, you'll be in trouble."
Ise Udon also advised.
The more they studied under Sensei Satoru, the more they knew his capabilities.
It was as if his mind contained a treasure chest, able to teach anything.
These past six months had brought them so much progress.
Now, the Konoha Ninja Academy couldn't teach them much anymore.
And no one there was their match.
But they also knew that Konohamaru's idea was a pipe dream.
Konohamaru protested, "Nonsense! I inherited my grandfather's will and am the future Hokage who will revitalize Konoha! How could I not beat him?
Sensei Satoru just picks on me because I'm young; otherwise, I guarantee I'd defeat him."
"Come on, let's go find Tenyu and them. This time, we'll do a 3V3 and beat them up again."
...Behind Konoha.
Dense, branch-like patterns covered the entire forest.
From the fine patterns on a large tree, Satoru's head emerged.
"The displacement skill, I've finally completed it. Next, I need to achieve disconnected displacement."
He looked around, then emerged from the patterns on a rock.
This technique was called Nerve Displacement.
Referencing Sakon Ukon's Parasitic Demon Demolition Technique, he could now transform his body into cellular and protein levels, moving through the neural network he had set up.
However, currently, he could only displace within connected areas and could not emerge from other places after the neural network was disconnected.
In other words, there had to be a continuous pathway.
The reason it took six months was naturally because Sakon Ukon's ability was closer to a Doton secret technique.
With his not-top-tier Doton ability, he had to delve into research for half a year.
If he hadn't known the importance of the displacement skill, he would have definitely spent his time on Yin Release, rather than painstakingly researching Doton, which yielded little reward.
It took him half a year to develop this thing.
But thanks to this, he could not only transform his body to a cellular level, but the Contact Evolution nerves also became more delicate. He could now make his nerves more concealed and refined.
He finally understood why his future self, who controlled Boruto, had placed nerves on Boruto, and why touching the Ōtsutsuki Karma on Boruto's body would cause them to be repelled.
At that time, his Ninjutsu was still too crude.