Chapter 31: The Wood Release Revival Project
What ignited the desire in the Senju and the Third to restore the glory of Wood Release was Hashirama's terrifying Wood Release chakra.
Although Hashirama had died and his soul had dispersed into the world—
His body, under the influence of his powerful Wood Release chakra, still maintained an extraordinary level of vitality, refusing to decay.
In fact, in a certain sense, Hashirama wasn't truly dead—his soul was simply no longer within his body.
If there existed a jutsu that could summon a soul back from the underworld, then the God of Shinobi's return to the ninja world would not be impossible.
His body alone could support another century of life.
That was the power of the God of Shinobi and the strength of Wood Release—so overwhelming it defied logic.
No wonder the Senju clan and the Third Hokage so desperately wanted to reclaim Wood Release.
Not long after the end of the Great Ninja War, the new Senju clan head and the Third gathered all of Konoha's research-capable ninja at a secret facility to begin studying the revival of Wood Release. Danzo was also one of the research members.
After extensive discussion and theoretical analysis, they concluded that the most viable method was to cultivate Hashirama's chakra-rich cells, implant them into other ninja, and allow those cells to gradually assimilate the host's own, thereby gaining new Wood Release capabilities.
Unfortunately, Hashirama's cells were too invasive. None of the test subjects survived. Their chakra and bodies were devoured by the cells, and they turned into small trees covered in green branches and leaves.
At that point, the project was deemed a failure and was shut down.
But the Senju clan was unwilling to give up.
They believed the reason the subjects couldn't withstand the assimilation was because they lacked Senju blood.
Only those with the same bloodline as Hashirama could survive the assimilation of his cells.
But everyone had underestimated the sheer power of those cells.
Many powerful Senju ninja, including the new clan head, all failed to endure the invasion of Hashirama's cells and perished.
After that, the Wood Release Revival Project was completely abandoned.
The Senju clan fell into decline due to the loss of so many powerful members.
And with their decline, there was no longer any force capable of suppressing the Uchiha clan.
The arrogance once suppressed in the Uchiha flared up even more intensely.
This had been a misjudgment by the Third Hokage. Now, he had no desire to restart the project at the cost of losing more ninjas.
That aside, after the project failed, all the researchers withdrew from the facility.
Even the Third never returned to that secret base.
Only Danzo continued to conduct research there for years. As someone who had remained close to the facility, he would certainly know the current condition of the original equipment.
When the Third asked about the equipment—not to restart the project—Danzo's eyes flashed with disappointment.
In truth, he had never stopped researching the Wood Release Revival Project.
But working alone had its limits. The biggest obstacle was funding.
If he had the Third's endorsement, and conducted the research under Konoha's name, he'd have far more resources and could greatly accelerate the progress.
Unfortunately, the Third had no intention of restarting the project.
So why was he suddenly asking about the equipment?
Danzo asked what was on his mind.
"You just need to answer whether the equipment still works," the Third replied, unwilling to elaborate.
"It works," Danzo responded.
"Good. You can leave now," the Third said.
"How mysterious," Danzo thought, his eyes flickering. He knew there was some secret behind the question, but... whatever. First he needed to get Root fully operational.
Danzo turned and left.
The Third sat in his chair, smoking and thinking things over. He still felt unwilling to give up, and decided to wait one more month.
If there was still no breakthrough with Li Yao, he'd send him to Danzo—let him study the guy's cells to see if he could uncover the source of his genjutsu immunity and develop a jutsu to counter Uchiha illusions.
…
One month later—
Night.
ANBU Interrogation Room No. 3.
The Third pushed open the door and walked to the restraint bed.
Li Yao lay there, eyes closed, an IV needle in his arm. He now survived solely on nutrient fluid.
"This will be the last time."
The Third muttered inwardly, then formed hand seals and cast Genjutsu: Technique of Darkness one final time.
After a while, he dropped his hands, sighed in disappointment as he looked at Li Yao, and turned to leave.
Over the past month, he had visited this interrogation room three times—this made the fourth.
Li Yao remained in a vegetative state, breathing by instinct alone.
His chakra was still unique, immune to all forms of genjutsu invasion.
The Third finally gave up.
"Send him to Root. They'll take it from here."
Outside the interrogation room, the Third gave instructions regarding Li Yao's transfer, patted Bao on the shoulder, and said, "You've worked hard these past weeks. You and your squad are reinstated as ANBU, return to your regular missions."
"Yes, Hokage-sama."
Bao's eyes shone as he looked at the Third, his body slightly trembling with emotion.
The Third smiled and left.
Once he was gone, Bao's squad wheeled the restraint bed toward the Root base.
On the bed, Li Yao, sensing the movement of his body out of the interrogation room, quietly began preparing. If anything went wrong, he would strike with a desperate attack.
By now, he had successfully refined chakra identical to the sealing chakra used in the jutsu on his body.
Because this chakra was indistinguishable from the seal's, the sealing formula couldn't recognize it as foreign.
This meant Li Yao could now undo the seal on his body at any time.
But he didn't.
He continued pretending to be restrained.
Unless he was forced into a dead end, he wouldn't reveal his hand lightly.
Now, he had the confidence to turn the tables.
Given enough time, he was certain he could escape Konoha.
At this point, it's worth noting the benefits of having his soul merged into chakra.
First, Li Yao's control over chakra had advanced even further.
Before, he could only manipulate its shape and flow.
Now, he could control its properties as well—allowing him to easily replicate and refine all kinds of elemental chakra.
But the most important benefit was this: after his soul fused with chakra, his chakra-sensing abilities had become utterly insane.
Especially when his chakra came into contact with another's, his perception reached a nearly x-ray level—allowing him to observe both the property and shape of jutsu chakra.
The sealing chakra in the jutsu on his body, under his perception, was like an open book. He could see its nature and form clearly.
This made it much easier for Li Yao to copy and refine that sealing attribute chakra.
Now that he had absolute control over the changes in his chakra's nature and form—combined with the ability to perceive the changes in any jutsu chakra's nature and form—Li Yao could, in theory, learn any jutsu.
Whether it was a basic elemental jutsu or a new Kekkei Genkai–based fusion technique, as long as he could perceive the changes in its chakra, he could replicate it.
So long as he could perceive a jutsu's chakra's nature and form, he could replicate the exact chakra and cast the corresponding jutsu.
This was the truth Li Yao had discovered during a month of refining the sealing chakra on his body.
(END CHAPTER)
Thank you for the support, friends. If you want to read more chapters in advance, go to my Patreon.
Read 30 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/Kira1997