Chapter 132

After becoming Anbu Commander, Mochizuki Hui's life became... busier? Not quite.

In truth, it was his new Deputy Commander, Sakumo Hatake, who ended up swamped with work.

 With Hui as a hands-off leader, Sakumo found himself shouldering many of the daily responsibilities. 

Hui, of course, didn't consider it slacking; he was merely "delegating reasonably" to give Sakumo some valuable experience.

But his approach made sense. In these peaceful times, there were few significant issues requiring Anbu intervention. 

Most Anbu were assigned to guard and patrol duties, with only a few embedded as spies in other countries. The tasks that crossed Hui's desk were mostly minor, and even Tobirama Senju didn't mind Hui's delegation. 

A few years prior, Tobirama had given similar tasks to Hui, who had already proven himself beyond such basic duties. Now, using these responsibilities to train Sakumo was a logical choice. 

Tobirama was grooming Hui for the role of Third Hokage, a role Hui would soon need to fill, making Sakumo a natural successor to lead Anbu when Hui eventually left.

However, Hui's lighter workload didn't mean he was idle. 

For him, the priority remained his own growth. His body continued to strengthen under the influence of Yuan Qi, and although that required no active effort on his part, the mastery of techniques did.

First was natural energy. Being able to use natural energy directly and without hand seals made it his go-to for future attacks, though he needed to explore its uses more thoroughly. 

Although natural energy existed in the shinobi world, few people could harness it, leaving little recorded guidance on techniques or jutsu. 

Hui wanted to develop techniques that could maximize the effect with minimal energy expenditure.

Alongside natural energy, he also worked on Sage Chakra. While natural energy would eventually replace chakra as his primary power, chakra was still valuable, given its established systems and extensive jutsu library. 

Combining chakra with natural energy produced Sage Chakra, allowing him to cast sage-enhanced jutsu with significantly boosted power. Sage Chakra, therefore, became his main tool for offense until he fully mastered natural energy.

Ordinarily, Sage Chakra would be difficult to cultivate due to the need to enter Sage Mode. For Hui, a permanent Sage, it was easy—he just needed to balance his chakra precisely with natural energy. 

After only a few days of training, he'd mastered the process, to Jiraiya's utter disbelief. 

Jiraiya had looked on in shock, his eyes practically glowing red with envy, as if he'd suddenly become an Uchiha.

Once Hui perfected Sage Chakra, he began experimenting with different sage jutsu. The power boost compared to regular jutsu was astonishing—techniques that would have taken considerable effort before now had several times the strength, and Sage techniques amplified both ninjutsu and taijutsu, making them far more effective.

His main focus was on perfecting the Rasenshuriken, a variant of the Rasengan. Knowing it would one day be Naruto's signature move, Hui saw its potential as a powerful, hand-seal-free sage jutsu. 

While he experimented with other techniques, nothing else quite matched the Rasenshuriken in terms of versatility and raw power.

One day, after finishing his training of the Rasenshuriken, Hui decided to test its power outside the village. Just as he was about to unleash it, he heard a familiar voice.

"Big Ball Rasengan!" he heard Jiraiya yell from the distance.

Hui looked over to see Jiraiya leaping toward him with a massive Rasengan in hand, which promptly smashed into a large rock behind Hui, shattering it into a deep crater.

"Haha! What do you think, Hui? Impressive, huh?" Jiraiya boasted, basking in the aftermath. "I've upgraded the Rasengan into the Big Ball Rasengan! Want to learn?"

Hui rolled his eyes. "Learn it? Jiraiya, did you forget? I'm the one who taught you Rasengan."

Jiraiya froze, a bit embarrassed. 

He had indeed forgotten that the Rasengan was Hui's creation. Just as he was about to make a quick exit, Hui's grin widened.

"Oh, speaking of Rasengan," Hui said with a mischievous smile. 

"I've also made some upgrades. Today I finally perfected it, and I was just about to test it out. You're just in time to watch."

A bead of sweat rolled down Jiraiya's face as he realized his mistake. The Rasengan was Hui's invention—of course, he'd taken it even further. 

Jiraiya opened his mouth, ready to make an excuse to leave, but his words caught in his throat as he watched Hui create a Rasengan in his palm. 

It spun faster and faster, until it formed a massive, fearsome shape resembling a giant shuriken.

"This is… Sage Jutsu?" Jiraiya gasped, eyes wide as he felt the overwhelming Sage Chakra emanating from the technique. It was clearly no ordinary jutsu but a true sage technique.

"Exactly," Hui replied. "This is Sage Art: Rasenshuriken."

With that, Hui launched the Rasenshuriken into the distance. 

Jiraiya watched in awe as the massive white shuriken flew across the landscape, exploding in a blinding flash that lit up the sky like a second sun. When the light finally faded, a massive crater remained, vast and desolate.

Jiraiya stared at the empty expanse, his scalp tingling.

"That technique… is terrifying!"

join my patreon for 80+ advanced chapters: patreon.com/HyppoTL