46 Four Years: Weapons and Birthdays

In the pouring rain were three identical individuals. Two of the individuals were running around the third individual. The third person in question was also holding and spinning what looked like a chain.

Yukio was training his control over a chain that his siblings had brought back with them from their intelligence-gathering expedition. They had returned a day after he burned the scrolls they gave him.

On their mission, they learned some good news. Although there have been skirmishes between different villages because of the war, the rate at which they occurred in Amegakure was slowly decreasing. They concluded it was likely because most teams were trying to avoid Amegakure because of Hanzo.

It seemed that the Second Shinobi War had caused too much damage to Amegakure, forcing Hanzo to finally interfere and protect what he could. They could've investigated more, but they were content with how Hanzo was finally protecting the rain village.

During the investigation, they came across a couple of bandits attacking Amega-nin and local citizens. They helped fend off the bandits, increasing their reputation. They eventually came across a bandit group that mainly used chains and dealt with them all.

Since their younger brother was looking for chains, they looted every chain they found and brought them back.

Yukio was only practicing with the shortest chain because he was simply too small. Puberty had yet to hit him and give him a growth spurt.

No matter how much his stats grow, his appearance doesn't change. He doesn't even have abs! Yet! It was surreal to have his appearance look so different from his capabilities.

Back to Yukio, he was practicing his control over the chain against two water clones of himself. The water clone jutsu was one of the techniques that Nagato had given him.

He was having them constantly move around and having them try to dodge his attacks.

Despite being a clear beginner, Yukio rarely got injured from his own mistakes. Usually, he was perceptive and quick enough to avoid them. For the ones that did hit him, he would barely get injured and would have something equivalent to a scratch. Such minor wounds could be ignored.

After a couple of minutes, Yukio was able to strike them down and cause sufficient damage to make them revert to water. He returned to the mainland for a quick break before continuing his training in other aspects.

'How can I make it look more alive? Chakra strings? I remember Sunagekure was good with that, but for puppets. None of the Suna-nin that I fought did it. Maybe I can try doing it on my own? It shouldn't be too hard… maybe…'

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[Basic Bukijutsu]

Description: A result of skill optimization. The weapons listed have their respective skills become 10% more effective.

Listed Weapon Skills: [B]Projectile Handheld Blade, [B]Sword, [B]Bow, [B]Chain

To advance the skill, every weapon skill listed must be intermediate-level.

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The individual skill for the chain weapon allowed the chains he used to become more durable and resistant to the effects of rust.

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Around half a year later and it was nearing Yukio and Nagato's birthdays (September). It was going to be Yukio's birthday first, so his siblings were preparing gifts. As they were getting appropriate gifts, Yukio decided to give them gifts too.

He had missed Yahiko and Konan's birthdays (February) and felt somewhat bad for them. So, he made drawings depicting the future versions of them that made them look cool:

Yahiko's drawing consisted of him as an adult sitting on top of a tall building located within Amegakure. He was looking at the clear blue skies that were completely unlike Amegakure's symbolizing weather. There was a peerless smile on his face as his gaze was filled with satisfaction. He looked as if he had completed his one true goal and was now content with the world.

Konan's drawing depicted her hovering mid-air. From her back were wings that were made out of paper. She was surrounded by white butterflies as she held out a helping hand to an injured individual. On her face was a calm, comforting smile. She truly looked like an angel.

Since he decided to draw those two, he might as well draw Nagato in a similar manner:

In the drawing, an adult Nagato was standing at the tallest building within Amegakure. His hands were stretched out to the sky which was filled with dark clouds. From the clouds were thousands, millions of rain droplets falling from the sky. However, those droplets were floating. Adult Nagato was stopping the rain from falling, keeping them immobile in the air.

These were Yukio's gifts for them.

When it was time for Yukio's birthday, he received four gifts; three from his siblings and one from Jiraiya. Despite being away, he still found time to find and give a gift via a toad summon.

From his siblings, Yukio was gifted a kunai with an orange-colored handle (from Yahiko), a blue origami resembling an eastern dragon (from Konan), and a journal with entries about certain common plants (from Nagato that he found in Amegakure's library).

From Jiraiya, Yukio was given a toad figurine made from wood. Although it was a bit rough, it was a very nice present. Seeing it, Yukio felt inspired to make wood carvings of his own. It sounded like a nice hobby.

After he opened his presents, he gave Yahiko and Konan their presents. Unexpectedly, they were surprised by Yukio's actions. When they opened them up, their eyes glowed as they examined the drawings. They were clearly in awe at Yukio's depiction of them as adults. Seeing his best friends' gifts, Nagato was looking forward to his birthday.

As he watched their giddy faces, Yukio realized his mistake; would all of these count as physical traces leading back to him?

As time passed, he found it more difficult in identifying, removing, and preventing himself from making physical traces for the skill advancement mission. The idea of creating a jutsu or something capable of wiping such traces became more and more alluring to him. Sometimes, he contemplated whether or not it was worth pursuing the mission.

Anyways, Nagato's birthday came and Yukio gave him his gift. As expected, Nagato was also in awe of his drawing and thanked Yukio for his hard work.

When he gave the final gift, he received a system notification about a skill advancement.

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[Intermediate Gifting]

Description: Moderately boosts your proficiency at gifting presents. It is very simple for you to wrap a present even if it is has a unique shape. You can correctly identify which item to give to someone that will evoke the most emotions from them.

To advance the skill, give meaningful gifts to the people you hate.