I, Konoha's Sage of Life-Chapter 169: The Spirit of Hustle — Amegakure Must Learn!

Training with ninja tools was no easier than refining one's physical defenses.

For many civilians, mastering ninja tools was the most accessible and straightforward path to growing stronger—but for Shiranui Genma, it was purely a matter of passion.

Thus—

Upon glimpsing a new path forward, his previous sluggishness vanished without a trace, replaced by an intense drive.

Rest?

No such thing.

When he got tired, he simply popped a soldier pill and carried on.

Asuma watched in stunned silence—not because he couldn't keep up physically, but because he had never seen Genma work this hard before...

"Asuma, don't get distracted."

"Yes, sir!"

Asuma immediately refocused, wielding his trench knives as he diligently practiced Kyoichi's Wind Release sword technique.

It was incredibly difficult.

But Kyoichi wasn't expecting him to master it in a short time. What he truly wanted was for Asuma to grasp the core essence of his Wind Release swordsmanship—condensing power into a single line.

Cutting through a surface with the sharpness of a thread!

As long as Asuma could even roughly learn to compress his Wind Release chakra and focus it along a single trajectory, both his Flying Swallow technique and his basic strikes would reach an entirely new level.

Kyoichi closed his eyes, using chakra sensing to scan the forest around them.

No danger.

Raitō Ayatsugi and the others had encountered some wild beasts, but nothing serious; they had already repelled the threats and should be returning soon.

Kyoichi opened his eyes again and shifted his gaze back to the scene before him.

Shiranui Genma was clearly facing difficulties. This technique required either refined chakra and taijutsu control—or the clever use of external tools.

Genma had neither at the moment.

After struggling for a long time, Genma finally paused his grueling practice and approached Kyoichi.

"Sensei, if my own skills aren't enough for now, could I perhaps borrow some ideas from puppet techniques to achieve the effect you described?"

"Of course," Kyoichi replied calmly. "Ninja tools and mechanisms are external aids. Crafting the right tools and matching them with specialized projectiles can make your attacks even more covert. Plus, you can coat them with poison."

He hadn't brought it up because while external tools were useful, true strength ultimately came from within. Those things weren't something Genma needed to worry about right now—what he needed was simply to improve himself.

As for those external aids...

All he had to do was mention it to the Shiranui clan, and they would naturally help prepare them for one of their own.

"Then... do I still need to study poison techniques?" Genma asked.

"Do you need to know how to make an explosive tag just because you know how to use one? You only need to learn how to use it properly and not blow yourself up," Kyoichi replied, amused.

Genma found it funny too.

Was this the shinobi world's version of the "refrigerator theory"?

"You're absolutely right, sensei."

Genma couldn't find any way to argue back—because what Kyoichi said made way too much sense.

Silently, he went back to training.

External tools were good, but one's own strength had to be solid too—after all, sensei hadn't relied on any tools earlier.

The key point was...

Kyoichi's skill with throwing weapons wasn't even something he was particularly famous for—it was just something he was "passably skilled" at among many other things. And yet, despite being so overwhelmingly strong already, he was still so eager to master new techniques.

If a top-tier genius worked this hard, who was Genma to dream of slacking off like a salted fish?

Shiranui Genma felt deeply ashamed.

The best thing about talking with smart people was that you didn't have to waste a lot of words explaining things.

While guiding Asuma and Genma, Kyoichi also split his attention and continued studying the poison techniques scroll. By the time Raitō Ayatsugi and the others arrived, he had basically finished digesting it.

"Sensei, we gathered the materials!" Shizune called out sweetly.

At home, she had to address him as "Kyoichi-sama," so calling him "sensei" like this was a first.

"Bring them out and let me see," Kyoichi said, motioning them forward.

The three of them each brought out their bundles, carefully laying out the materials they had collected.

It was immediately obvious...

Each of them had learned slightly different things.

Shizune, having spent years wandering with Tsunade, had picked up considerable knowledge of poisons for self-defense, so she clearly knew the most. Her collection of materials was the most varied.

Compared to her...

Rin had much less—clearly, she hadn't delved deeply into poison studies and had only brushed against it during her medical training.

As for Raitō Ayatsugi—

His methods were completely unorthodox.

Most of the poisons he brought came from extracting toxins from venomous creatures, with very few poisonous plants among them.

"Was your family hunters in the past?" Kyoichi asked, curious.

"As expected of you, Kyoichi-sama. My grandfather was indeed a hunter before we moved to Konoha. Afterward, both he and my father became shinobi. The poisons we use were developed based on their hunting experience," Raitō answered with a nod.

Just as Kyoichi suspected...

Such familiarity with wild creatures, being able to track and capture them so efficiently, had to be honed through experience.

Since Raitō wasn't a medical ninja, his understanding could only have been passed down from his family.

"Would you be willing to share your family's recipes?" Kyoichi asked, broaching a sensitive topic.

Recipes!

This was something many people treated as highly confidential.

Raitō hesitated for a moment, but ultimately nodded.

"You can go home and discuss it with your family if you want," Kyoichi offered.

"No need, Kyoichi-sama. These poisons wouldn't be much of a secret in your eyes anyway, so there's no reason to hide them. I'm sure my father would agree," Raitō said.

"Good. Then today's task for the three of you is to work together to optimize these poison formulas."

"Yes, sensei!"

"Ah! Thank you, sensei! Thank you, Rin, Shizune!" Raitō said, stunned.

He hadn't expected Kyoichi's idea of "sharing" to mean sharing with Rin and Shizune, so they could help him refine and improve the formulas...

As expected—

Kyoichi-sama's vision and character were far above petty things like their family's rudimentary poison techniques.

Raitō felt relieved he hadn't refused earlier—

Their family were just civilians; they didn't have the systematic knowledge needed to advance their poison techniques any further.

"Don't be too quick to thank me. Also, don't neglect your swordsmanship—your blade work is your foundation. As for you, Rin... you've got a lot to learn. It'll be overwhelming in the short term, but aside from poisons, you'll also need to start training in throwing weapons."

"Understood!" Rin replied earnestly.

Shizune had nothing to worry about.

Even though her taijutsu was weak, her overall abilities were still among the top of her peers. After all, she had trained under Tsunade since childhood, so her basics in medical ninjutsu and poisons were solid.

Rin wasn't weak either, but her taijutsu and ninja tool skills definitely needed work.

The entire day, Kyoichi and his shadow clones had done nothing but coach others, racking up a lot of miscellaneous "experience" in the process.

Things like proficiency with senbon needles, basic poison techniques, bird domestication...

A ton of random skills popped up. Whether they'd be useful, he didn't know—but hey, free rewards were free rewards. No point in refusing—who knew when they might come in handy?

With the basic poison techniques now integrated, plus Kyoichi's own knowledge base and having skimmed through the poison scroll a few times, he had grasped most of its contents and no longer needed to reread it.

He began contemplating chakra threads.

Konoha did have chakra thread techniques, but they were mostly used to extract foreign objects from wounded bodies—not to control puppets or heavy objects like in Sunagakure.

That made it worth studying.

It had potential!

However...

At present, he was severely lacking reliable research personnel.

Kyoichi sighed and mentally combed through the list of talented researchers in Konoha. After thinking it over, one name floated into his mind.

Yakushi Kabuto!

He should still be at the orphanage right now.

Yakushi Kabuto was a Sunagakure shinobi captive who had survived the Battle of Kikyō Pass. Unlike other captives, however, Kabuto had lost his memory.

He was thus adopted by Nonō Yakushi and became part of the orphanage.

A real gem!

At this point in time, Danzo hadn't set his sights on Kabuto yet. Originally, Danzo only noticed him because Kabuto and the other orphans had taken on side jobs healing shinobi during wartime to earn extra money.

But now...

Thanks to Kyoichi's presence, the war had not been so devastating for Konoha, and the orphans hadn't had the opportunity to show their talents yet.

Still...

Kabuto's name was definitely already noted down somewhere in Danzo's little black book.

After all...

Nonō Yakushi had once been one of Danzo's operatives.

Kyoichi narrowed his eyes.

Looks like he needed to find some time to visit the orphanage.

Danzo, that bastard...

He absolutely would not allow ROOT to keep festering in Konoha.

ROOT was a parasite on Konoha.

The so-called "Darkness of Konoha"—that was just Danzo's excuse to make himself feel better.

By the time evening rolled around, Kyoichi finally dismissed everyone and sent them home.

Even on the way back, Genma continued to train. Seeing this, Asuma didn't dare slack off either.

Along the way...

The roads were filled with people training hard.

At Konoha's village gate.

"Yahiko-sama, is this Konoha? Why is everyone here..." an Ame-nin asked, astonished.

"This... It's no wonder Konoha is so powerful," Yahiko muttered, just as stunned.

He had thought Amegakure was already putting in maximum effort.

But now that he saw Konoha...

Their struggles seemed almost laughable.

All over Konoha, even genin were training like mad—some were even walking on their hands as they hurried along the streets. Not just one or two either; there was a whole group—and one of them even looked like he was from the Uchiha clan.

Unbelievable!

Even Uchiha prodigies were this driven?

"Maybe it's just an isolated case," Yahiko said, trying to comfort himself.

Absent-mindedly, he completed the registration and made his way into the village.

However...

After walking just a single street, he saw another person, throwing senbon at flying insects.

He watched for a while.

They didn't hit every time, but the accuracy was pretty damn high.

Not far away, another person was walking and throwing punches into the air—practicing some sort of taijutsu.

"Sensei... Konoha is insane!" one of the Ame-nin whispered.

"This isn't insanity—this is the price of dominance. Konoha is already so powerful, yet they still train like their lives depend on it. Meanwhile, we at Amegakure are in crisis and can't even match their desperation... We need to intensify our training when we get back," Yahiko said seriously.

Konoha's dedication wasn't a fluke.

Their entire next generation was going mad with training, all of them striving to grow stronger, afraid of falling behind.

The atmosphere...

It was even scarier than Kumogakure.

After arranging housing with the Konoha shinobi assigned to him, Yahiko settled his students in and, after thinking it over carefully, decided to go out and ask around—

He needed to find Kyoichi.

He had to visit him in person to seek guidance.

How could he get everyone in the village to work this hard?

Konoha's work ethic was simply too successful.

Amegakure had to learn from it!

The sky was already growing dark. Yahiko had originally brought a gift with him, but that was just meant as a token of thanks for Kyoichi—not nearly enough for seeking his guidance in person.

So he bought a few more things, asked around for Kyoichi's residence, and made his way over.

And then...

After just circling the streets once, he saw that same training squad—over a dozen people earlier—still practicing. Although the number had dropped to seven or eight, they were still at it.

But still—

It was astonishing.

He had asked a shopkeeper along the way: Konoha hadn't always been like this. But ever since Kyoichi returned from the front lines...

It was like every kid in the village had been activated.

It was honestly unbelievable!

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