Within the Land of Wind, aside from scattered oases, there were hardly any trees. As a result, Kabuto could only practice chakra control against walls of sand and stone for the time being.
However, it was not without its advantages. Since the ground was covered in soft yellow sand, it didn't matter if he fell repeatedly during practice. With his refined chakra, Kabuto could withstand falling multiple times without injury.
As he trained, Kabuto's talent for chakra control quickly became apparent. His innate aptitude was no less than that of Sakura Haruno's from the original story. In less than half a day, Kabuto had already mastered the basics of chakra control.
Techniques like tree climbing and wall walking were no longer difficult for him. However, the next step—water walking—was another matter. In the Land of Wind, there were no rivers, lakes, or ponds to practice on. Even drinking water was a scarce commodity.
But who was Kawaki Aoba? How could such a minor setback deter him? If there was no water available, they would simply proceed with even more advanced chakra control training.
Given Kabuto's talent, Aoba believed it wouldn't be an issue.
"Kabuto, your chakra control is even better than I expected. In that case, I'll reward you by teaching you a powerful technique."
"Watch carefully. Gather chakra into your palm, condense it into a sphere, and make it rotate."
That's right—Kawaki Aoba intended to teach Kabuto the Rasengan.
Although the Rasengan was originally developed by Minato Namikaze, it was not an exclusive technique. In this fanfiction's setting, Kawaki Aoba, who had once collaborated with Minato, had the right to pass it on. Moreover, training the Rasengan was excellent for honing chakra control to an even finer degree.
Meanwhile, in Konoha, deep inside Root's underground headquarters, Danzo Shimura stared coldly at the intelligence report that had just arrived from the Land of Wind frontlines. His expression was grim.
After some thought, Danzo finally left Root and headed toward the Hokage Building to seek an audience with Hiruzen Sarutobi.
However, this time, before Danzo could speak, Hiruzen preempted him.
"Danzo, your timing is impeccable. I was just about to summon you," said Hiruzen, his face clouded with anger.
Danzo was momentarily stunned. Normally, he was the one to voice his grievances first when he came to see Hiruzen. Why the sudden reversal?
A sense of foreboding filled Danzo's heart. Could Hiruzen have already uncovered some of his clandestine activities?
Danzo didn't have to guess for long. Hiruzen immediately threw a stack of documents at him—the same frontline intelligence Danzo had just reviewed, though slightly more detailed.
"Danzo," Hiruzen said sternly, "what exactly are you planning by capturing a tailed beast? Do you want Konoha to become the target of every other village's hostility?"
Danzo scoffed coldly and replied, "Hmph, Hiruzen. Everything I do is for the sake of Konoha. Now that the One-Tailed Shukaku from Sunagakure is in our grasp, why shouldn't we keep it? Even possessing just One-Tail would greatly boost Konoha's strength."
Hiruzen's gaze grew sharper. "No, Danzo. It's not Konoha's strength you care about—it's Root's strength."
Danzo had truly crossed the line this time.
"Danzo," Hiruzen continued, "you know full well that the distribution of the tailed beasts among the Five Great Nations was the will of the First Hokage. As his successors, we cannot betray that agreement."
"Naïve," Danzo retorted, clenching his fists in anger. "Hiruzen, you're too soft. We should have crushed the defeated Sand Village while we had the chance! Taking one tailed beast is already merciful."
"As for the other villages," he sneered, "once they see Konoha's strength, they'll only fear us, just like they once feared Hashirama Senju."
Danzo then grew bolder: "We already possess the Five-Tails temporarily as well. Hiruzen, give it to me! I will train the perfect Jinchūriki and—"
"Enough!" Hiruzen interrupted him mid-sentence. "Danzo, your ambition is dangerous. You cannot control the power of the tailed beasts. I will never hand them over to you."
He continued coldly, "The Five-Tails is only being safeguarded temporarily. Once the war ends, it will be returned to Iwagakure."
"What?! Hiruzen, you intend to give it back? I cannot accept that!" Danzo roared.
But he had forgotten one crucial fact.
"Danzo," Hiruzen said icily, "I am the Hokage."
Danzo's expression turned pale, and then red with suppressed fury.
"You'll regret this, Hiruzen," Danzo muttered bitterly.
The familiar exchange hung in the air. Both men realized the inevitability of their confrontation, but Hiruzen was the first to recover, waving his hand dismissively.
"Go back to Root."
Danzo hesitated, then took a deep breath. He hadn't yet brought up the main reason for his visit.
"Hiruzen, I came to report an urgent matter."
Hiruzen raised an eyebrow, signaling him to continue.
"It concerns Kawaki Aoba," Danzo said grimly. "You're aware that he offered the Sand Village a tailed beast in exchange for their puppet techniques? As a Konoha shinobi, he dared to barter a tailed beast without the village's approval. He also attacked Root operatives who were deployed to the Land of Wind!"
"Enough," Hiruzen said, his voice laced with annoyance. "Danzo, your Root operatives' activities require no elaboration."
He paused, then continued, "Moreover, strictly speaking, the One-Tail is Aoba's battlefield trophy. So long as he does not bring it back into the village proper, how he disposes of it is his prerogative."
By battlefield law, spoils of war belonged to the individual ninja, but a tailed beast was no ordinary prize. Hiruzen's words stretched the truth dangerously thin, and Danzo knew it.
In Danzo's mind, this meant Hiruzen was protecting Aoba far beyond reason.
Unless Aoba was secretly Sarutobi Shinnosuke or Asuma, Hiruzen wouldn't ordinarily show such favoritism.
Then why?
The answer was obvious.
Kawaki Aoba's strength had grown too great. He was no longer someone the system could casually suppress, not even with Konoha's laws.
Moreover, Hiruzen Sarutobi knew very well that with Kawaki Aoba's cunning nature, once he had seized an advantage, he would only let it slip if his strength was completely surpassed.
He was the kind of person who, once he gained enough power, would never tolerate suffering any losses.
For Danzo Shimura to think he could take the One-Tail from Kawaki Aoba's control, or trade it to Sunagakure for political gain, was nothing but a fool's dream.
In short, what Hiruzen wanted to tell Danzo was simple: Give up on that idea as soon as possible.
Rejected again and again, Danzo's face grew as dark as the bottom of a pot.
However, this time, he did not argue further. Instead, he turned and left in silence.
Once he had exited the Hokage Building, Danzo's expression softened slightly. He cast a deep glance back at the towering structure before making his way towards the Root organization.
"It's always the same, Hiruzen," Danzo muttered under his breath. "Your weakness and indecision make you unworthy of that seat. I will prove I am right. And as for that brat — daring to act so arrogantly towards me? Hmph. I'll make sure you regret it."
---
It's Okay, It's Just a Little Trouble
Early the next morning, Kawaki Aoba led the sealing team to transport the grumbling Shukaku.
When they returned, however, Shukaku was gone, replaced by a massive scroll strapped to Kawaki Aoba's back.
This scroll contained the puppet techniques obtained from the deal with Sunagakure.
Whether the Sunagakure shinobi had done it deliberately or not was unclear — but while the scroll contained detailed puppet techniques, it was far too detailed.
When Kawaki Aoba checked the scroll, he immediately realized: the techniques recorded were genuine, but the content was cumbersome and overcomplicated.
Undoubtedly, Sunagakure had deliberately oversimplified and flooded their puppet art documentation overnight, mobilizing who knew how many elite puppeteers to churn out this monstrosity of a scroll.
Judging by sheer volume alone, it was already thicker than even Konoha's Forbidden Scroll of Seals.
For Konoha — a village without a strong puppet tradition — it would be impossible to fully digest this information in a short time.
It was clearly a ploy to waste Konoha's time.
But Kawaki Aoba didn't mind in the slightest.
He never intended to cultivate these techniques for himself anyway. Sunagakure had wasted their efforts trying to spite him.
Upon returning to camp, Kawaki Aoba summoned one of his trusted subordinates, threw the scroll at him, and instructed him to produce two copies.
Once copied, there would be three versions:
One for his personal archive,
One to hand over to the village (perhaps to trade for some favors),
And the last for sacrificial use.
Technically, Kawaki Aoba could have skimmed the scroll once and skipped the copying.
But after just one glance, he decisively gave up — the excessive complexity gave him a headache even when using his Observation Haki.
The subordinate worked quickly. By evening, the copied scroll was delivered back.
Kawaki Aoba even caught a glimpse of excitement on the ninja's face.
For him, this puppet scroll — though a bit tasteless in Kawaki's eyes — represented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a civilian-born shinobi.
"As Lord Aokera said, for us civilians without backing, working under Lord Seiyu is our best path forward,"
the subordinate muttered under his breath as he departed — words easily picked up by Kawaki's Observation Haki.
Kawaki Aoba smiled, satisfied.
It seemed the arrangements he had made through Aokera were progressing well.
Shaking his head, he put those matters aside.
Now, it was time to sacrifice the Sunagakure puppet scroll.
He didn't have high expectations for what the sacrifice would yield — anything decent would suffice.
When the light of the sacrifice altar finally faded, a familiar skill orb appeared.
Past experience told him that even the worst skills born from this method wouldn't be completely useless.
However, Kawaki Aoba had outgrown the days of collecting random powers.
If the skill wasn't up to par, he would simply bestow it on a capable subordinate, as he once did with Sand Magic.
The skill's name floated into his mind:
> Skill: Divine Machine Hundred Refinements
It was a legendary-level crafting skill, said to be one of the "Eight Wonders of the Otherworld."
Its power: to refine magical artifacts and divine machines from ordinary materials at will.
In the world of ninjas, compared to direct combat abilities, Divine Machine Hundred Refinements might not seem overwhelming.
But in terms of practicality — mass production of magical items — there was nothing more broken.
Kawaki Aoba couldn't help but sigh.
If only he had obtained this earlier!
If every Konoha ninja had a defensive artifact during the Third Great Ninja War, coupled with the explosive tags created by Genno, Konoha might have crushed the other villages outright.
He chuckled at the thought.
Of course, reality was never that simple.
Even if the tools existed, Konoha's internal conflicts and indecision would have wasted any advantage.
Still, Divine Machine Hundred Refinements was a miracle in its own right.
Suddenly, inspiration struck him like a lightning bolt.
This skill wasn't just "good" — it could be crucial.
Suppressing his excitement, Kawaki Aoba quickly absorbed the Divine Machine Hundred Refinements skill and set to work.
From his altar space, he retrieved a precious project:
> Biological Imperial Arm, Electro-Optic Flint — Susanoo
Originally, he had only planned to use it as a support-type puppet.
But now, with Divine Machine Hundred Refinements in hand, the possibilities expanded dramatically.
Although the new skill couldn't instantly elevate Susanoo to Kage-tier combat power, it could vastly enhance its structure and compatibility with other abilities.
Stretching out his hand, Kawaki Aoba channeled the refining energy unique to Divine Machine Hundred Refinements.
It enveloped Susanoo in a soft glow, and the first stage of transformation began.
Under normal circumstances, refining ordinary items would have been near-instantaneous.
But this was Susanoo — a complex, semi-living weapon — and resistance was inevitable.
Yet Kawaki Aoba's eyes gleamed.
This was just the beginning.
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