The First Great Ninja War had just ended, and the Land of Fire was plagued by bandits, requiring a large number of ninja to deal with them.
An Yan and his team had graduated at the right time.
Within a month, Danzo had led them on seventeen bandit suppression missions within the Land of Fire. Each of them had a high kill count, practically becoming junior "hundred-man slayers."
An Yan was fine. He was a transmigrator with a mature worldview. Sakumo was also doing well; his personality hadn't changed. People in the ninja world matured early, and at twelve, his values were already set.
However, Hiruko was having some problems. He couldn't sleep at night, plagued by nightmares. He had started to ponder the meaning of life.
An Yan almost wanted to say, "One against seven, you've already achieved the Hokage mindset."
But he couldn't. He had to comfort the boy. It wouldn't be good if his good friend suddenly became a psychopath.
An Yan found Hiruko by a small river outside Konoha for a heart-to-heart talk.
"Are you in a lot of pain, Hiruko?" An Yan asked the now much quieter boy, who had dark circles under his eyes from lack of sleep.
"The essence of a ninja is to be a killing tool. Killing a few people is normal. If you can't even get past this, you should retire as soon as possible."
Hiruko was silent for a long time before finally speaking.
"I know they deserved to die, but killing so many of our own kind... it feels wrong."
"The world is a cruel place. Where there are people, there is conflict. Where there is conflict, there is death. Unless you can change it."
An Yan wasn't good at preaching. He only presented the cold reality and offered a feasible solution.
"If you had the power to suppress the entire ninja world, unify the world, and establish strict laws, there might be much less killing."
"Unify the ninja world?" Hiruko murmured to himself, seeming to be in deep thought.
Seeing that the boy was no longer so conflicted, An Yan turned and left. The rest was up to him.
In the ninja world, there was such a thing as killing intent. For example, Zabuza Momochi's and Orochimaru's killing intent had both intimidated Team 7.
After the continuous bandit suppression missions, An Yan had also developed his own killing intent.
It was a controllable mental force. And since his spirit attribute was high, his killing intent was particularly oppressive.
After sensing this power, An Yan had been consciously training it. At first, it could only make bandits shiver. By the end, a single glance could paralyze them with fear.
An Yan felt this killing intent had great potential for development. If his spirit attribute was high enough, it might evolve into something like a dragon's might or Conqueror's Haki, which could be used to clear out fodder in a fight.
With the Yang Seal, An Yan was constantly accumulating Yin Release chakra and nurturing his spirit. Every now and then, his spirit attribute would increase by a point. Combined with his killing intent lock-on, he should be able to instantly kill some ordinary Genin.
Danzo noticed An Yan's efforts to hone his killing intent. After asking about his chakra natures, he came to a conclusion.
"Your chakra should have the yin attribute. The chakra paper can't show yin and yang attributes."
An Yan was pleasantly surprised by this.
Danzo continued, "Having Yin Release chakra means you are qualified to practice genjutsu, mental secret techniques, and sensory ninjutsu."
Danzo taught An Yan the chakra sensory ninjutsu passed down from Tobirama Senju.
It was a technique where one places a finger on the ground to sense chakra. Both Tobirama and Minato Namikaze had used it.
In Tobirama's hands, this sensory ninjutsu could detect enemies thousands of miles away.
In An Yan's hands, however, its range was greatly reduced, only about a dozen kilometers. It was only slightly better than the Byakugan.
The inheritance of ninjutsu was strictly controlled in the ninja world. An average Chunin might only know a few jutsu in their entire life. The reason Danzo taught An Yan so easily was partly out of respect for Mito Uzumaki, and partly to win his favor.
An Yan was a very capable person. At a young age, he was proficient in medical ninjutsu, sealing jutsu, and other basic ninja skills. He was a rare talent that needed to be courted.
At this time, Danzo was not yet crippled and had not established the Root organization. He was confident in his own strength and was not focused on political scheming.
Danzo's mentality truly changed during the Second Great Ninja War, when he witnessed the power of the Third Raikage and the Jinchuriki, which was far beyond the reach of ordinary ninja.
After being crippled himself and realizing his own insignificance, he turned to human experimentation, hoping to control powerful secret techniques like the Sharingan or Wood Style to control the Nine-Tails and achieve his ambitions.
The young Danzo was still the disciple Tobirama had acknowledged. His heart hadn't turned completely black yet. When he saw An Yan easily perform the chakra sensory technique, he understood his talent.
Danzo sighed inwardly. My old classmate did one good thing for once. Then he felt a surge of anger. He thought Hiruzen was intentionally doing him a favor, which made him feel both ashamed and annoyed.
An Yan was oblivious to Danzo's inner thoughts. Seeing Danzo teach him jutsu so easily, he decided to push his luck and learn a few more.
Danzo seemed to be quite open about teaching his students, perhaps due to Tobirama's influence.
He taught An Yan one C-rank jutsu for each of his three natures—wind, water, and earth—for him to practice and get used to chakra nature transformation.
Could this possibly be a challenge for me? I've been practicing nature transformation for a month. If I can't learn these three jutsu, then all that practice was for nothing.
The moment Danzo demonstrated them, An Yan immediately copied them, asking innocently, "Am I doing it right? Like this?"
Danzo was a little numb. If An Yan learned this fast, he wouldn't have enough jutsu to teach him.
After being coaxed into teaching one more genjutsu—the Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings Technique—Danzo made an excuse and left with a body flicker.
Tsk, little Danzo, so easy to handle.
An Yan thought to himself, This Danzo is nothing compared to Grandma Mito. She gave me a pile of sealing jutsu as a first gift. When she saw I was a real talent, she taught me everything she could.
And here was Danzo. Even after he had shown his genius, he only taught him a few C-rank jutsu. The highest-level one was probably the chakra sensory technique, which, being tied to mental strength, was likely A-rank.
But at least this Danzo was better than Kakashi. He didn't try to fob him off with tree climbing and water walking.
If they ever had a falling out in the future, he would have to make it quick and give him a peaceful death.
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