38 The Training Begins.

Tendo wasn't even surprised at what the old man just said. He saw how desperate they were to train him so he knew there was an important reason why they were doing so. He just needed to find out what that reason was.

Tendo: "Old man, what do you mean?"

Nodama: "Master. Do you mean he has already achieved a chakra level high enough to match a Kage? Thats impossible!"

Nodama put his hand on Tendo's head and his eyes opened wide in shock. He couldn't believe the kind of chakra he was sensing.

Nodama: "It's almost endless. And this sinister feeling that it gives off, it reminds of the day the Nine-Tails attacked the village. That means you somehow took enough chakra from that Naruto boy and mixed it with your own! Haha! You're insane Tendo! You remind me of the old Senju's my master always told me about!"

Ryutama: "Nodama, let the boy go and rest! Tomorrow he will begin his training! H- Wait. Is that another cursed seal on your shoulder?! How did you get caught again?!"

Tendo: "Dont bother with it old man. I have it under control this time, trust me."

Ryutama: "Tendo, you're dealing with a senjutsu user. How can you say you have it under control?!"

Tendo: "Because I've been suppressing it all this time without worry. I'll take care of it."

Ryutama: "...I don't want to have Nodama seal you again so that you can master this one too. It's a wonder that you didn't die immediately upon being given this seal! But, I'll trust you for now. Take a rest and we'll begin our training tomorrow."

Tendo nodded and went back to his room, taking off the weighted beads that were still wrapped around his body. He then sat down on his bed and crossed his legs. The first thing he had decided to do was to take control of the curse mark. There was an interesting hypothesis that he wanted to test out.

Tendo: 'Alright, let's see if I can just absorb the chakra in the mark so Orochimaru wouldn't be able to manually control it. It might make some more changes to my body but it doesn't matter, I can deal with it. Now, let's begin.'

Tendo already had a cursed seal on his right palm so instead, he just used his left this time. As Tendo put his hands on his shoulders, he could feel the mark trying to forcibly use his chakra to activate itself. He just started absorbing the mark and the pain was just as bad as he remembered it was. He could feel his body changing as more of Orochimaru's sage chakra made its way into his. As he was completely focused on absorbing the mark, Kurama and Shukaku were having a quiet conversation.

Kurama: 'His skills aren't half bad at all. Don't you think so, tanuki?'

Shukaku: 'Hehe. I agree, foxy! That's why we can't let him grow more! If we are ever reunited with our other parts, it's going to be even harder to take him down!'

Kurama: 'Maybe. But you feel it don't you? We're slowly being integrated into his chakra. When that happens, we will still be able to talk but we wouldn't have any choice but to help him! Damn Humans! A fox of my standing is being reduced to this!'

Tendo: 'Be quiet you two. I'm focusing here. You know you cannot escape even if you wanted to. Raccoon, repeating the same thing every time wouldn't help you escape.'

Shukaku: 'Tendo Senju, I'll kill you. Hahaha! I'll kill you!'

Tendo: 'Sure, raccoon.'

[About 5 minutes later]

It was finally done. Tendo had absorbed the curse mark and was getting accustomed to the feeling of his new body. He walked towards a mirror in his room and as soon as he did, his new appearance was just as he had expected. His skin was even paler and in the middle of his Byakugan, although it was only slightly visible, were slits. Its almost as if he was becoming a snake himself.

Tendo: 'It's going to be even harder now to avoid looking like I work for Orochimaru but it doesn't matter. The time is drawing closer for me to leave this village. Now for these marks, I don't want them on my palms but for now, I'll have to indulge them. Until I unlock the ability to merge with people and objects with my Life steal, this will have to do. I- wait, is it working automatically?!'

Tendo looked at his palms and saw the cursed seals spinning slowly but his body wasn't changing into a monster form. He felt some strange energy flowing into him, something that reminded him of Orochimaru's chakra.

'This has to be natural energy.'

It was slowly flowing into his body but he could already feel himself getting stronger. His hypothesis was exactly this. Since he had gotten a second curse mark, he wondered if he could use them to absorb nature energy passively but he didn't know they would start as soon as he tried it. The only downside was that he was worried about absorbing too much at once or he would lose control of his body.

Tendo: 'As I get stronger and gain more control over natural energy, I can start infusing it with my own chakra to gain sage chakra. That would take the power of my entire skillset to another level. Combining this with my life steal would probably allow me to absorb natural energy much faster but I'll test that at a later time. For now, I'll just rest and prepare for my training tomorrow.'

[The next day]

Tendo and Ryutama were standing in a room filled with weapons. Ryutama was laughing heartily at the news he just received from Tendo.

Ryutama: "I can feel the natural energy flowing into you in truth boy! It seems you find new ways to impress me every time. Good! We'll ramp up your training then! Pick three weapons and we can start training you!"

Tendo: "Why three? Wouldn't mastering one be the better option?"

Ryutama: "Normally you would be right, but not when you're trained by me. You never know when one weapon might be unavailable or someone forms a counter to that exact weapon. You have to remain unpredictable!"

Tendo: "Interesting..alright old man, I'll indulge you. I pick the spear, the staff, and the sword."

Ryutama: "Good! Pick them up and let's begin! In one month I'll turn you into the monster you were meant to be!"