They can’t really be blamed for it but the vast majority of shinobi were under the impression that taijutsu was not as powerful or dangerous as ninjutsu. For the most part that is correct as to turn taijutsu into something that can cause widespread destruction you needed either a freakish natural body like myself or an inhuman amount of training. Ninjutsu on the otherhand could cause such destruction in multiple flavors at a mere C rank level of jutsu. The higher the jutsu ranked the more destructive they tended to become and not by small increments either.-
Taijutsu however had a benefit that ninjutsu could not match that when honed to my sensei’s, Guy’s or my own level made it far more dangerous than ninjutsu. That advantage was chakra consumption. Pure taijutsu didn’t cost any chakra at all to utilize unlike ninjutsu that depleted the stuff quite rapidly when more powerful techniques are used. This meant that while taijutsu didn’t have the pure destructiveness of ninjutsu it could be used pretty much infinitely with the right level. My sensei, Guy and myself all had punches easily as destructive as a B rank jutsu and we could throw them all day if we wanted to.-
This meant a technique that enhanced my taijutsu increased my danger rating sharply. Only Naruto, Karin and the old man knew about my chakra armor however or I was sure that the rating in the bingo book would have only said S rank. I was admittedly conflicted about the rating to begin with as a perfectionist since I didn’t think of myself as at that level. I had flaws, big ones, that I was willing to say at most put me at the Elite jonin or A rank. Don’t get me wrong I get that this wasn’t how that was calculated but that was simply how I saw myself. –
(3rd person POV)
While Kenzo was honing his technique and biding his time Danzo was getting angry at how hard to deal with the boy was. The man had assumed that with the third Hokage dead he could easily remove this dangerous thorn but reality had proven him wrong. The boy had acted decisively and hidden away so deeply that none of his best trackers could find a whiff of him. Even worse was that the council was unable to force the boy to expose himself despite Danzo’s best attempts to use that authority to do so.-
All he had actually accomplished was to reveal his own motives to the council which they did not appreciate.
‘Fools the lot of them! How can they be so blind as to not see the threat the boy poses to Konoha!? During the event during the exams the boy had shown off his power and rather than prune this dangerous and clearly incontrollable factor they simply ignore him and even hail him as a new hope for Konoha!’ Danzo thought with cold viciousness.
If any of the other council members heard these thought they’d call Danzo a madman. While they all agreed that Kenzo had a fiercely independent streak and dislike of being ordered about they also agreed that nearly all powerful shinobi were similar. Those with true power didn’t like being constrained by those weaker then themselves in most cases. It was to be expected and not some disastrous flaw so they saw nothing wrong with it. Danzo on the otherhand simply wasn’t satisfied if he wasn’t in absolute control at all times so a person like Kenzo was a threat in his mind.-
In the land of grass meanwhile Naruto and Jiraiya had found Tsunade but were having difficulty convincing her to take up the mantle of Hokage. She was resistant to the idea, highly so. Jiraiya was of the hope to slowly convince her but Naruto was not the patient sort and refused.
“I’ll master the rasengan in a week and if I do you will return to the village!” Naruto bet her and the woman agreed thinking that there was no way he’d pull it off.
It wasn’t so smooth however as Orochimaru sent Kabuto to convince her of the exact opposite and unlike Naruto he was more than willing to play dirty to achieve his goals.
That ironically ended up being a VERY poor decision as by this point in time she had managed to minimize her fear of blood to almost nonexistent levels. So when Kabuto cut open his wrists in order to try and give himself an advantage it did nothing but piss her off. As anyone familiar with her could tell you that was a bad thing to do as she turned violent when angry. As a result when Kabuto was distracted mocking Naruto and beating him up she punched him through a building.-
It was only through his highly advanced medical ninjutsu techniques that he survived the punch and he retreated to inform his master of this unexpected development. Her immunity to his shed blood was not part of the plan and Orochimaru himself may need to get involved. This was extremely dangerous as he had very limited use of his hands after the third Hokage sealed his souls hands within the reapers belly. This meant that unlike before where the snake sannin would have been confident enough to face Tsunade and Jiraiya and win, now he had a near nonexistent chance of winning.-
So at the end of the week when the clash of the three Sannin came about and they stood on their respective sage land summons he knew that he had lost. Thanks to Naruto she had finally overcame her fear of blood and now she was after his life alongside Jiraiya for revenge on his murder of their sensei. He put up a great fight before he fled but the fact remained that he had lost to his old teammates. The part that stung the most however was that he lost to his sensei as well and couldn’t even win as the man died with his victory.-
Sure he had claimed the life of the old man but he had not won as his dream of learning all the jutsu in the world was no longer possible. It wasn’t all a loss though as he had learned a fact that awed him even now, Kenzo Mizuyama was a sage. Wasn’t that a massive surprise to discover? He wasn’t sure how often the boy trained his sage mode but that concentration of natural energy around the boy wasn’t something that could be mistaken, the boy was a sage, or at least one in training at the very least.-
‘It’s no wonder that the boy has managed so much despite his age. He has been practicing sage mode under the whole villages nose this entire time. Kukuku, I wonder what sort of monster he’ll become after I inject those bloodlines into him?’ the snake thought with a gleam in his eyes.