"Fine, fine, fine. Hiruzen, so this is how you want to play."
Danzo Shimura suddenly shed his usual coldness, slightly tilting his head back as he assumed a righteous posture.
"Hiruzen, I want Asuma!"
At that moment, Danzo's coldness seemed to have transferred onto Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Hiruzen Sarutobi's normally drooping eyes widened, his gaze becoming fierce.
He didn't speak, but simply stared intently at Danzo.
However, Danzo acted as if he hadn't seen Hiruzen Sarutobi's expression at all, remaining filled with righteous indignation and an air of self-sacrifice.
At this moment, he was filled with an aura of noble spirit.
His upright and unyielding appearance was enough to make anyone admire him.
He continued in an 'everything for the sake of Konoha' tone, saying:
"The children of the upper echelon should lead by example. If I had children, I would also have them join Root."
"To provide nutrients for Konoha, Asuma, as a child of the upper echelon, also has an obligation to..."
"Danzo!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi finally reached the end of his patience.
He slammed the table and stood up straight, glaring at Danzo.
"I believe Root has enough manpower already. There is no need for further recruitment."
Danzo was still unwilling to let it go: "Hiruzen, if Root does not grow, the great tree of Konoha will not be able to grow..."
"Enough, Danzo."
Hiruzen Sarutobi cut off Danzo's next words.
Seeing that Hiruzen Sarutobi was on the verge of exploding, Danzo finally withdrew his rare display of 'light'.
He gave Hiruzen Sarutobi a deep look: "Hiruzen, you will regret this."
"Danzo, I am the Hokage."
Seeing that Hiruzen Sarutobi was completely unyielding.
Danzo didn't say another word and turned to walk straight out the door.
Feeling a bit empty inside, he suddenly stopped and looked back, searching for something.
He then looked toward the half-open door.
He stepped forward and gave it a forceful kick.
Bang!
The sound of the door closing echoed!
He suddenly felt much more at ease and left contentedly... In his backyard.
Hyuga Aokawa brought a stack of targets and placed them on the ground.
He took one out and hung it up.
The holiday wasn't over yet, and there were no missions for the time being.
Having nothing to do early in the morning, he decided to explore the boundaries of his abilities.
Although the two battles had been life-or-death situations, the gains were quite good.
However, those battles had also exposed many problems.
His current Quincy power combined with the Byakugan made his long-range strike capability undeniable; it was definitely a major trump card.
But aside from this ability, everything else was severely lacking.
Being a Ninja tested one's comprehensive qualities. Having long-range capabilities didn't mean he would never have to engage in close-quarters combat.
In the battle against the bounty hunter Ninjas, only the first Chakra Arrow had sufficient time to condense.
The others were all rushed, which greatly affected the speed and power of the Chakra Arrows.
This meant that for long-distance shooting, he could only fire one or two Chakra Arrows.
In the remaining combat, it was highly likely the enemy would close the distance.
So he was thinking: "Can I sacrifice some density in exchange for condensation speed?"
When attacking an enemy from a distance, if the Chakra Arrow's density is too low, it might dissipate halfway through its flight.
But for a Chakra Arrow fired at close range, high density isn't strictly necessary.
Based on this idea, he planned to test the power of instant-fire Chakra Arrows at various distances.
He stood not far from the target and began his attempt.
If the distance was too close, even instant-fire would be meaningless.
He raised his hand and pulled the bowstring, releasing it as soon as the Chakra Arrow condensed.
Bang!
The target was smashed to pieces, and the residual force even caused the wall behind the target to crack.
"Little Aokawa, what are you doing in the backyard..."
His grandmother's voice came from inside the house.
"Nothing, Grandma! I'm just training!"
Hyuga Aokawa quickly found a board to cover the cracked wall, glossing over the situation.
He then put up a new target and continued testing the power of instant-fire Chakra Arrows at different distances.
He discovered that with his current strength, the Chakra Arrows began to loosen after being fired.
This was even more severe with instant-fire Chakra Arrows.
However, this loosening didn't have a major impact on the damage at this stage.
They still dealt damage within a certain distance.
But beyond that, the Chakra would begin to dissipate, and the power would drop significantly until it completely vanished.
If he had enough time to strengthen the arrow's density and the Spirit Bow's tension, the rate of dissipation would be slower.
In other words, if he wanted to attack distant enemies, he needed to spend time increasing the Chakra Arrow's density.
Is ordinary Aptitude really this poor?
At this moment, he could truly appreciate the weight of Ishida Ryūken's words: "I have no interest, while you have no talent."
The Chakra Arrows he pulled out with both hands would start dissipating after a short while.
Yet Ishida Ryūken could keep one hand in his pocket and use only the other to fire Chakra Arrows like a machine gun.
It was incredibly cool!
However, the fact that the Chakra Arrows were so weak should also be related to his fusion rate.
As the fusion rate increases in the future, the condensation performance of the Chakra Arrows should also improve.
Moreover, from the current perspective, even instant-fire Chakra Arrows were much more powerful than the Kunai and Shuriken he threw.
They were just quite expensive in terms of Chakra.
With his current Chakra reserves, even if he could perform Licht Regen like Ishida Ryūken, his Chakra wouldn't allow it.
Although the Hyuga Clan's Chakra reserves weren't small, they weren't bottomless like the Uzumaki Clan's.
Overall, it still fell within the normal range of Chakra and hadn't reached the level of a 'Chakra-ton'.
Originally, in the Gentle Fist system, only Bagua Palm: Return to Heaven consumed a significant amount of mana.
Other skills didn't require much Chakra, so the Hyuga reserves were usually sufficient.
But he was different; he now had the Holy Arrow, which was a major mana consumer.
Combined with Ninjutsu, his Chakra reserves were far from enough.
Furthermore, the stronger the opponent, the more Chakra he would need to strengthen the arrow's density and the Spirit Bow's resilience.
There were only two ways he could think of to solve this problem.
One was to see if he could obtain relevant ability support when opening the Stone Gate.
The other was physical training.
Chakra volume is influenced by Physical Energy and Spiritual Energy.
Physical training can improve both simultaneously, thereby indirectly increasing Chakra reserves.
As a commoner, Guy was able to unleash a level of Chakra that even Madara praised in the Late Stage.
That relied on his physical training, constantly pushing his cells to the limit.
There was a ready-made path to follow in this regard; he just needed to monitor his physical state and ensure he didn't overtrain.
Improving his physical fitness would also enhance his close-combat capabilities to some extent.
However, regarding close-quarters combat, he had other ideas.
With a thought, he used the Reishi Gathering technique to drive the surrounding Natural Energy.
Watching the Natural Energy flowing around him, he became lost in thought.
Although he currently couldn't control this Natural Energy very precisely due to the fusion rate.
Using it for exploration shouldn't be a problem.
Since he could sense Natural Energy and even control it crudely, could he try researching... Sage Mode!