I Just Wanted to Slack Off, But I Was Forced to Become Hokage

Chapter 61: The Birth of the [Shadow Rasengan]!

"Root is recruiting new blood..."

The impatient expression on Sarutobi Hiruzen's aged face faded, and his two gray-white eyebrows rose slightly.

Root, also known as the "Anbu Training Division." This organization was hidden in the darkness of Konoha, its greatest objective being to secretly eliminate obstacles that would hinder the village's development.

In his early years, Shimura Danzō had failed in his bid for the position of Third Hokage. But due to Sarutobi Hiruzen's momentary soft-heartedness and compromise, Danzō was still able to establish a deeper level of ninja force within the Hokage's direct-command Anbu Black Ops—Root.

Although nominally, Root was a force subordinate to the Anbu, in reality, almost every ninja in Root was responsible only to Shimura Danzō. As the Third Hokage, Hiruzen was well aware of the pros and cons of such a ninja force hidden in the deeper darkness. Shimura Danzō and his Root shouldered all the "darkness" for Konoha, while the Third Hokage, on the surface, naturally maintained his image of "absolute light and greatness."

But excessive darkness would inevitably breed certain unnecessary desires and threats. While Hiruzen indulged Root's growth, he would also proactively suppress the expansion of its power. And the most fundamental and important method for restricting Root's development was to strictly limit its recruitment of new members!

"Danzō, did you just say 'a young ninja from the Nara clan'?"

Various thoughts flashed through Hiruzen's mind. He looked at Danzō and asked, "Since when does Root want to recruit members from the Nara clan? Didn't you always complain that the Nara clan's ninja weren't 'dark' enough?"

It was true that the Sarutobi clan and the three Ino-Shika-Chō clans had been on good terms for generations, and were even witnesses to their alliance. But this did not mean that the Sarutobi clan could forcibly interfere in the life direction of every ninja from the three clans. If a ninja from the Ino-Shika-Chō clans wanted to proactively join Root, Hiruzen would not forcibly stop them. However, if Danzō were to use some coercive means to forcibly "conscript" certain ninja to join Root... then Hiruzen would not agree so easily!

But then again, since Danzō had established Root, the members he had recruited were mostly war orphans and commoner ninja. There were few members from established ninja clans, let alone from the Ino-Shika-Chō. After all, among the three clans, apart from the Yamanaka, the overall family characters of the "Shika" (Deer) and "Chō" (Butterfly) were too distinct and simply did not fit with Root's mysterious and dark organizational beliefs.

"I believe I said it just now," Danzō said coolly. "That Nara clan ninja is very young."

Young. It meant he had higher plasticity and could accept more intense train(wash)ing(ing).

"A young Nara ninja can fight Minato, and even forced him to summon Gamabunta?" Hiruzen connected Danzō's words and stroked his beard strangely. "Since when did the Nara clan produce such a talented ninja? What's his name?"

Seeing that he couldn't dodge this question, Danzō sighed internally. "Nara Keisuke."

"Him? Wait, isn't that the child who just graduated from the Ninja Academy this year?" Hiruzen was stunned. "Several Academy instructors have commented that he 'does not possess ninja talent.' Danzō, are you sure your intelligence is correct?"

There's such a thing? Danzō's brow furrowed slightly. He had rushed to the Hokage's Office after receiving the "Nine-Tails Rampage" intelligence, barely glancing at it, and hadn't had time to search for more detailed information about Nara Keisuke.

But, just graduated from the Academy, only 9 years old... he was indeed a perfect seedling!

"Perhaps he deliberately concealed his talent level in the Academy," Danzō said coldly. "Or perhaps... he was too lazy to show it."

"No..." Hiruzen shook his head. He could see that Danzō's knowledge of Keisuke was not deep, and he had no intention of telling him more at this time. "Danzō, I advise you not to hold too much confidence or expectation in recruiting Nara Keisuke. He is no ordinary ninja."

Leaving the Hokage's Office, Shimura Danzō shrank back into the darkness of Root like a rat. Under his command, Root's ninja quickly began to gather intelligence on Nara Keisuke. Although time was tight, Root's elite ninja still managed to collect the information to the greatest extent possible, including Keisuke's family background, school performance, talent shortcomings, friendships, and so on.

Carefully reading through Keisuke's file, Danzō finally understood why Hiruzen had told him not to hold too much hope.

Parents both alive, a happy family, wealthy enough to buy a country... Danzō was somewhat surprised this guy hadn't just given up being a ninja and gone home to inherit the family fortune. Faced with a young ninja with this kind of family background, even Danzō felt it was a thorny problem.

Root was his one-man show. But outside of Root, the other ninja of Konoha would not completely follow his orders. If Root wanted to recruit a ninja, they still had to follow the "basic law." Generally speaking, the targets Danzō aimed for were those ninja with special abilities and darkness hidden in their hearts. And during recruitment, he would do his utmost to move them with emotion, reason with them, and tempt them with benefits.

Ninja are tools. But even tool-men had to do missions to earn money and survive! Otherwise, what would a ninja gain by joining Root? For Danzō's old age, his bandaged face, his puckered lips? Without offering salary and benefits, without providing a path for advancement, without giving access to ninjutsu scrolls... Besides the "orphans" that Root raised themselves, who would die for Danzō for free?

But after some thought, Danzō realized that his past tricks seemed to have little effect on Keisuke, who looked like a winner in life. Not to mention the "ancestral personality" of the Nara clan's ninja.

"It seems the only way to recruit Nara Keisuke into Root is to stimulate the dark side of his heart..." Danzō's gaze focused on Keisuke's interpersonal relationships. "Is it my luck that, right by this genius ninja's side, there happens to be an elite of Root!"

Nara Keisuke had no idea that an old root was secretly plotting against his young body. With no daily trifles to interfere, he threw himself into his training without distraction.

In a flash, two days had passed.

This morning, in the training room, a [Shadow Doppelganger] suddenly burst into a puff of smoke. The memories and experience of practicing ninjutsu were all transferred to the main body.

A gleam of light flashed in Nara Keisuke's eyes. He raised his right hand, resonating with the [Chakra Crystal] on his index finger. Streams of chakra energy gathered in his palm, flowing continuously in different directions. The chakra constantly converged and compressed, gradually forming a high-speed rotating energy sphere of astonishing density, which emitted a faint fluorescent glow.

A new message popped up directly on the panel.

[A-rank Technique: Rasengan]

[Technique Description: An energy sphere formed by compression in the palm, showing a spiral of infinite possibilities.]

[Technique Effect: A non-elemental chakra energy sphere that can be activated one-handed without hand signs, possessing great destructive power and extensibility.]

[Technique Evaluation: Grind it with your kidneys!]

[Having self-developed one A-rank technique [Rasengan], your [Ninjutsu] and [Wisdom] stats have been enhanced to a certain degree!]

"After so many days of effort, especially with the [Shadow Doppelgangers]'s round-the-clock practice, I've finally mastered this A-rank ninjutsu!" An excited expression was unconcealable on Keisuke's face. "And since I've already developed the [Rasengan], then the prototype of the [Rasengan], the S-rank ninjutsu exclusive to the Tailed Beasts, the [Tailed Beast Ball], is not impossible to dream of!"

But Keisuke also knew that the reason the Tailed Beasts could use the terrifyingly destructive [Tailed Beast Ball] was not unrelated to their own massive chakra reserves. He even doubted whether his A-rank ninja tool, the [Chakra Crystal], could support even a single burst of a [Tailed Beast Ball]...

High-burst, high-power ninjutsu and forbidden jutsu were certainly attractive. But without sufficient "hard conditions" to support them, even the best ninjutsu could not be released.

All in all, before his own chakra level reached the "mini-Hashirama" level, Keisuke had no plans to consider developing the [Tailed Beast Ball]. Just as he hadn't considered developing the [Rasengan] before, when his [Stamina] stat was low.

"Although the [Rasengan] doesn't match my current combat style, I don't need it for close-quarters combat!"

Nara Keisuke took a deep breath, suppressing his excitement. "Using the [Rasengan] to upgrade the [Shadow Piercing Bullet] is my true purpose!"

He struck while the iron was hot, intensively practicing the fusion of the [Rasengan] and the [Shadow Piercing Bullet]. With his rich experience in creating the [Spiraling Shadow Piercing Bullet] and the [Spiraling Shadow Binding Bullet], Keisuke's progress in fusing the two techniques was astonishingly fast, and he soon had a result. It was just that the effect of the newly created technique seemed to have a small hiccup...

Nara Keisuke raised his right hand. A shadow continuously gathered and rotated in his palm, finally forming a lacquer-black energy sphere.

[A-rank Technique: Shadow Rasengan]

[Technique Description: An advanced Yin Release secret technique created based on the [Rasengan].]

[Technique Effect: Through fine control of one's own Yin Release chakra, create a [Shadow Rasengan] that can switch between "shadow" and "solid" forms. When the [Shadow Rasengan] is in a solid state, it will have higher hardness, stronger destructive power, and a longer maintenance time than the [Rasengan]; When the [Shadow Rasengan] is in a shadow state, upon hitting a target, it will cause the target's internal chakra to become severely disordered.]

[Technique Evaluation: Dark Sphere, the weak should begone!]

(End of Chapter)

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