I, Konoha's Sage of Life-Chapter 133: Paper Jutsu + Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags

Chapter 133 - 133: Paper Jutsu + Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags

"The Sharingan is indeed powerful, but if you put all your hopes on it, I can only call you useless."

"Sensei, I was just joking. I've actually been training in taijutsu lately."

Obito coughed lightly.

He really did want to awaken his Sharingan. Ever since this war started, it had been on his mind constantly—unlocking the Sharingan and turning things around. The words just slipped out. But rationally, he understood that hard work and training were the real path to strength.

"Your strengths lie in ninjutsu and speed. It's better to focus on developing those."

Kyoichi was blunt.

Taijutsu?

Better forget about it.

Obito's taijutsu wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either—at least, it had nothing to do with the Eight Gates. If he seriously trained in that path, he might not even find the first gate.

"Yes!"

Obito blushed, realizing he had been grasping at straws.

"Of course, you still need to train in taijutsu. A strong body is the foundation of everything."

After speaking, Kyoichi had them demonstrate their training and gave each of them pointers.

Might Guy and his teammates were relatively easy to handle. The real challenge was Obito and Rin.

The war had been ongoing all year, leaving little time for proper teaching. Obito was one thing, but Rin...

Medical ninjutsu required extensive knowledge.

The constant battles meant she had no time to study and build up the necessary foundation. Many medical jutsu remained beyond her grasp. Recently, she had been focusing on the Chakra Scalpel.

Kyoichi had Kurenai provide her with one-on-one instruction.

As for Obito...

"Honestly, your best option is to study more—improve your theoretical knowledge. But this is the battlefield. There's no time for that, so I'll teach you Earth Release jutsu instead."

It was always the same issue with Obito.

His problem wasn't a lack of strength—it was a lack of knowledge and critical thinking. The title "Uchiha Fool" didn't come from nowhere.

Among Konoha's Twelve Young Warriors, only Choji had a "wisdom" stat of 2 at graduation. Even Naruto and Kiba had 3. That said a lot about Obito's academic performance and analytical skills.

"Thank you, Sensei."

Obito sat nervously, feeling like he was back in the Academy.

Kyoichi gave him some casual guidance, which wasn't too difficult. Obito's intelligence was... remarkable, but his talent in ninjutsu wasn't bad.

Earth-Style Wall was a struggle. But Earth-Style Mud Return? He picked it up quickly. Another Iwagakure technique required a bit more explanation, but after hearing it twice, he at least understood the basics.

Of course...

Kyoichi knew that Obito had another talent—space-time ninjutsu.

But...

That was a rare and extremely advanced field. Outside of Summoning Jutsu, there were only two well-known space-time jutsu—Flying Thunder God and Kamui.

Flying Thunder God, in particular, required extensive theoretical knowledge. If nothing else, you needed to understand jutsu formulas, right?

Clearly...

Obito wasn't ready for that.

Right now, all Kyoichi could do was sharpen their skills for the upcoming battles. He didn't expect them to achieve major breakthroughs, only to survive encounters with Iwagakure's chunin squads.

Most of his training focused on survival techniques.

Except for Might Guy.

That was tricky.

Might Guy had dedicated himself to taijutsu since childhood.

It wasn't that he couldn't use ninjutsu.

In fact...

He had the potential to learn it. His proficiency in ninjutsu and genjutsu was at least average.

But he had no interest in them.

Even his father, Might Duy, had given up on teaching him anything other than taijutsu. Instead, he had passed down nunchaku techniques along with some combat awareness and genjutsu-breaking methods.

Kyoichi, on the other hand, decided to teach him Body Flicker Technique.

With his expertise in Body Flicker, training Might Guy was easy.

After a day of practice, the sun began to set.

They had a simple meal at camp.

Kyoichi originally planned to take them on another patrol, but then a messenger arrived—sent by the Third Hokage himself.

"Train on your own for now."

"Yes!"

---

Kyoichi entered the command tent.

Might Duy stood to one side, scratching his head awkwardly. The Third Hokage sat there, looking deeply troubled.

"Kyoichi, Jiraiya is too unpredictable. We have Minato's Flying Thunder God kunai, but no one here can actually use the technique. How are we supposed to communicate with him?"

That was the problem plaguing the Third Hokage.

As for Minato's whereabouts... Might Duy had just been promoted to Special Jonin—he wouldn't have any knowledge of the battle plans.

"Minato is meticulous. When the time is right, he'll use Flying Thunder God to send a toad here for communication."

Kyoichi wasn't worried.

Minato was aware of his slug communication method. Sending a toad with a message was a simple matter. Nothing to stress over.

"I suppose that's our only option for now."

The Third Hokage sighed.

He understood the logic. The problem was...

It was unreliable.

If they could maintain constant contact, they would always know Minato's position and adjust their strategy accordingly. That would significantly reduce the risk to his unit.

Kyoichi understood the concern but had no solution.

Space-time ninjutsu was exceptionally difficult to master. It required an immense amount of knowledge. Even he wasn't sure he could learn it.

The Second Hokage had left behind research notes, but all the actual formulas and techniques had been confiscated.

So, he had never even seen them.

But...

This thought triggered an idea.

Kyoichi glanced at Might Duy but held back his words.

The Third Hokage, experienced as he was, immediately noticed Kyoichi's hesitation.

"Duy, you've worked hard to get here. From now on, help us deal with Iwagakure."

"Yes!"

"Rest well. We'll need your strength in the coming battles."

"Yes, Hokage-sama!"

Might Duy's fighting spirit burned brightly.

The Third Hokage smiled, watching him leave. Then he turned to Kyoichi.

"Go on, speak your mind."

"Hokage-sama, may I examine the Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tag technique?" Kyoichi asked.

This was another technique invented by the Second Hokage.

It allowed a single Explosive Tag to summon additional tags in an endless chain reaction. The explosion was devastating—so powerful it could easily backfire on the user.

For that reason, it was classified as a forbidden technique.

But...

There was another reason.

"This jutsu requires pairing with another forbidden technique. What are you trying to do?" The Third Hokage's expression darkened.

"I have no interest in the other technique. But this one... I believe I can combine it with a special secret technique I learned."

Kyoichi raised his hand.

Several Explosive Tags flew from his sleeve, transforming into small paper birds. They hovered in midair. Then, with a mere thought, they morphed into stones and more birds.

Even sensory ninjas would struggle to detect them.

The Third Hokage's eyes widened in astonishment.

After a long pause, he spoke.

"This technique..."

"Apologies, Hokage-sama. I learned it through observation. The person who developed it is actually on friendly terms with us, so..."

Kyoichi didn't finish, but the Third Hokage understood.

A powerful individual.

A secret jutsu unknown to him.

Who else could it be but one of Jiraiya's students?

The Third Hokage shook his head.

"I'm not asking you to share it. But I need to know—what's the range of your control? Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags are incredibly dangerous."

"The range is quite far. I haven't tested the limit, but it's definitely safe enough."

Kyoichi added, "Besides, I don't intend to learn it directly—I'm just using it for reference. I'll modify the technique so that none of the summoning elements left behind by the Second Hokage are activated."

"Ahem, that's not what I meant... Alright, give it a try first. If you can learn it and prove you can use it safely, I can authorize the use of one-third of the camp's explosive tag supply for you."

The Third Hokage was not stingy.

One-third.

It might not sound like much, but that was actually a considerable portion of the entire western camp's stockpile of explosive tags.

Of course...

When broken down into actual tags, the quantity was still quite limited.

After all, those things were ridiculously expensive.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama!"

"Alright, go find Tsunade yourself. I know you two can communicate via Katsuyu. But Kyoichi, that technique is absolutely off-limits!"

The Third Hokage's face was stern.

He was already heartbroken over Orochimaru's tendencies; the last thing he wanted was for Kyoichi to get lost in researching forbidden jutsu.

"You're overthinking it."

Kyoichi sighed.

Reanimation Jutsu? He had no interest in that whatsoever.

The Third Hokage nodded.

He had only said it as a precaution to prevent Kyoichi from straying down the wrong path.

Kyoichi left the tent and immediately contacted Tsunade.

At first, Tsunade refused, but when she learned that Kyoichi had mastered the Paper Jutsu and had the Third Hokage's approval, she retrieved the Scroll of Seals from where the Hokage had told her and transcribed the Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags technique for him.

However...

She gave a strict warning—once read, it had to be destroyed.

After obtaining it, Kyoichi carefully read through it twice before burning the scroll.

The principle behind the Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags was self-replicating summoning.

The challenge lay in two aspects: first, the summoning formula itself, and second, executing the summoning sequence in rapid succession.

There was no denying it—Tobirama Senju was an absolute genius.

He had gone to great lengths to guard against the Uchiha.

Kyoichi couldn't help but feel impressed after reading through it.

Given the vast amount of knowledge he had acquired from the system, learning the Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags was not difficult. Tweaking the technique took a bit more effort, but he managed to refine it relatively quickly. The real challenge, however, was integrating it with his Paper Jutsu.

The risk level of this combination varied drastically—it all depended on the number of explosive tags available.

Even he couldn't fully gauge its power or effectiveness.

After learning it, he snuck off to test it in secret. The combination of Paper Jutsu and the Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags did indeed pose some issues.

The farther the explosive tags were from Kyoichi, the greater the summoning delay.

Even though the delay was minimal, on the battlefield, even a slight lag could give the enemy enough time to react.

Still...

No technique was perfect.

There was no helping it.

After multiple tests and reaching a point where further refinements were unlikely, Kyoichi set aside the research for now.

The priority was practical application.

He reported his findings to the Third Hokage and secured his promised share of the explosive tag stockpile.

At that moment, the Flying Thunder God kunai that the Hokage had been keeping nearby suddenly reacted.

A small toad was summoned.

It looked around in confusion before finally focusing on the Third Hokage. Once it regained its bearings, it spoke:

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"Are you the Hokage? My name is Kōsuke. Minato sent me to establish contact."

"Where is Minato now?"

The Third Hokage's eyes lit up.

Minato was as reliable as ever!

"I'm just a toad, so I can't say for sure where he is. But he told me to deliver this map to you."

Kōsuke opened his mouth and spit out a scroll.

"Kyoichi, come take a look."

The Third Hokage immediately unrolled it.

Kyoichi glanced at it, and in his mind, Minato's current location became clear—

They had already reached the eastern border of the Land of Grass.

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