Chapter 409 : Increased Cellular Activity!

Fujin was annoyed. He had trained extremely hard without rest for several days. He didn't want anyone to disturb him at that moment. He activated his chakra field to sense who had arrived. A frown appeared on his face as he wondered, 'An Anbu? Did Eagle send him here or did Hiruzen? Or does Danzo still have some ideas?'

He flickered to his door and opened it. As soon as he did, the Anbu said, "Lord Hokage has asked you to visit his office immediately."

The Anbu ninja disappeared after giving Fujin the information. Fujin wondered, 'Calling me? Did something happen?'

It had been just 2 weeks since Fujin said he was taking a break. For that reason, Fujin wasn't expecting any missions from Hiruzen for some time. So he couldn't guess what Hiruzen's motive was. He flickered to the Hokage's building and appeared outside Hiruzen's office in a few seconds.

Hiruzen saw Fujin and smiled. He said, "Come in, Fujin. Take a seat."

Fujin was puzzled. He wondered, 'What's up with him? He rarely asks me to sit down. Now that I think about it, the only time I did was after Jiraiya destroyed that mine and killed several hundred Kumo ninjas. Has anything major happened recently? Was it due to my fight with Juzo and Kisame? And, why is he smiling so much?'

Confused, Fujin sat across from Hiruzen and asked, "Did something important happen recently?"

Hiruzen replied, "Yeah, though it isn't bad. What's up with you though? Why are you looking so tired?"

Fujin answered, "The Soldier Pill's effect just ran out. So I need some rest. That reminds me, the bottle of soldier pills you gave me is almost empty. Can you give me a few more bottles?"

Hiruzen furrowed his eyebrows and said, "It's already close to finishing? Fujin, though I said that it is safe if you keep a week's break in between, using them consistently isn't good for your body."

Fujin replied, "I know, but don't worry. I get my body checked and treated in the Hospital once every month. Yoshi-sensei said that it was fine. If I overexert, I'll immediately take a break."

Hiruzen shook his head and said, "That's good, but even then you shouldn't use them so frequently. When you overexert, the time you waste resting will make your progress far slower as compared to if you train slow and steady."

Fujin sighed and replied, "I know, but there is no other way. Training is so chakra intensive. Without soldier pills, I will be able to train at max a couple of hours a day."

Though Fujin understood Hiruzen's advice, he couldn't follow it. Without soldier pills, maintaining Shadow Clones to learn the seals was very difficult. Fujin would have needed several times more time to master the Four Symbols Seal. The same was the case with the Flying Thunder God Seal. As for the Wind Domain and other powerful Ninjutsus, the time needed would be even more as they required far more chakra.

Fujin looked at Hiruzen and asked, "Do you know of any methods to increase our chakra? I don't mean any temporary methods like Soldier Pills, but a permanent increase in it."

Hiruzen shook his head and said, "Artificial methods of increasing chakra have huge flaws. Your chakra reserve is already quite huge. Even I didn't have that much chakra at your age. You will exceed my current chakra reserves in less than a couple of years. And you are still very young, so it will keep increasing for quite some time."

Fujin replied, "My chakra reserves are growing very slowly."

Hiruzen said, "Your chakra reserves will obviously not increase at the same rate as when you were in the academy. However, your chakra reserves are already enormous. Even a small percentage increase will be several times more than the increase in chakra reserves you experienced in the Academy in terms of quantity.

Even if it takes 5 years for your chakra reserves to double, very few will have as much chakra as you do. 10 to 15 years later, only Jinchurikis and someone like Kisame will have higher chakra than you.

In addition, as the growth rate reduces, the quality of your chakra will improve. As will your chakra control. The amount of chakra wastage while performing jutsus will go down significantly as you practice your jutsus for years. That's why I said you don't need to do something so risky."

Hiruzen was very serious while explaining to Fujin. He thought, 'He is only 15 and has already reached rank S. In less than 5 years, he will become strong enough to be able to survive against any Kage. Strong enough to survive against me at my peak. If he is lucky, he might even reach the same level as me or even surpass me. And he can easily maintain his peak for the next 4 decades, making it extremely difficult for anyone to harm Konoha.'

Fujin, despite his inexperience, was easily able to understand Hiruzen's thoughts on seeing how serious he had become. Hiruzen's attitude made him feel depressed. He sighed internally and thought, 'Why did he get so serious? Doesn't Konoha still have Kakashi and the Sannins?

There are several methods of increasing chakra artificially. Even I know a few that could multiply my chakra reserves by a few times. It's just that accessing and using them to do that is very difficult and my current strength isn't high enough to get some of them. Can't he just tell me what methods Konoha has developed?

With Tobirama, Danzo and Orochimaru focusing so much on research and ninjas like Hiruzen and Tsunade who reached the peak in their respective fields, there is no way that Konoha doesn't have any methods. Even though I will gain more methods in the future, having a stronger base will always be helpful. Now, how do I make him tell me?'

As for Hiruzen's advice of waiting for 10 to 15 years, Fujin didn't even consider it. The next great war will happen in less than 6 years. Fujin had a lot of plans that needed to be implemented before that war broke out. Waiting patiently and being a mediocre rank S ninja wasn't what he wanted.

Fujin thought rapidly and said, "I had read a few theories about increasing chakra reserves in the library."

A look of surprise appeared on Hiruzen's face. However, his expression changed to serious in an instant. He thought, 'I forgot that this brat loved sitting in the library for hours while using Shadow Clones! Sigh, I wanted to tell him that he has been selected to join Konoha's council. How did the discussion change to this?'

Fujin continued, "Unfortunately, they were only theories and it didn't say whether anyone successfully implemented them. So I don't want to experiment with them blindly. However, one of those theories seemed very ingenious and doable. It talked about increasing cellular activity and extracting more chakra from each cell to increase our chakra reserves. I wonder if you know more about that, Grandpa."

Hiruzen muttered softly, "Orochimaru…"

At the same time, he was relieved. He thought, 'I'm glad that nothing related to Lord First's cells is in the library. Otherwise, it would have become a major headache if Fujin read it and became fixated on it. Even though Orochimaru and Danzo had some gains in the research on his cells, they are still far too dangerous to be used.'

Hiruzen shook his head and said, "I know about it. It was done by Orochimaru and I assisted him in it."

Fujin was surprised. He thought, 'Hiruzen assisted him? Strange… Then again, he was his sensei. Perhaps Orochimaru researched this when he was very young.'

Hiruzen continued, "You aren't the only one who is troubled by the matter of chakra reserves. Many capable ninjas were concerned due to it. Even rank S ninjas wanted more of it. So, over the years, a lot of study has been done on this matter.

A lot of new theories appeared. Even though many of them were absurd and couldn't even be experimented on, a few were experimented on. Unfortunately, this is very risky. Many capable ninjas were crippled while performing those experiments. And the majority of the crippled ninjas were the ones who came up with those theories.

That is why I asked you to not think about this."

Unfortunately, Hiruzen's words didn't have the effect he wanted. Fujin's eyes widened and a look of surprise appeared on his face. He muttered, "Many were crippled… But Orochimaru became a rank S ninja, and a rather strong one at that. Does that mean that he succeeded?"

Hiruzen sighed and nodded. He answered, "Though many experiments were done on several theories, this one is the most successful in Konoha until now. However, even then, it has risks and is very difficult to implement."

Fujin became very curious. Though he knew a few methods, all of them involved strong forces of nature, many of which were beyond his understanding currently. He wasn't aware of any method that was invented by humans. He asked, "What risks and difficulties?"

[A/N : Bonus chapter on next Sunday if the fic gets 1000 Power Stones. Bonus chapter on next week's Saturday if the fic gets 2000 Power Stones.]

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