22. The Undercurrent

Kushina, understanding Minato's intentions, poured some of her chakra into Aiko's body.

Aiko also felt foreign chakra entering his body due to his chakra perception skill, but this time he did not get any notification from the system, confirming his guess that he had to wait till the time ends to activate the skill again.

"Hmm, it doesn't seem to work.." muttered Minato. "Let's wait and see if your chakra comes back to normal Aiko-kun, until then stay at home" he added looking at Aiko.

Aiko also nodded his head but he knew that the effects would end in 10 minutes and soon as the timer hit zero, Aiko once again felt the burning sensation in his body, but this time he was expecting it and increased his calm mind skill to 100% before the timer even hit zero.

Minato and Kushina also felt the sudden chakra fluctuation from his body and noticed that his hair colour slowly changed to the original red colour.

'The effects are not permanent' thought Minato as Aiko's chakra signature also reverted back to his own from Minato's.

"Aiko-kun how are you feeling?" asked Kushina concerned as she had never heard of her clansmen possessing such abilities.

"I am okay", said Aiko, his body feeling a bit sore, as he looked at his status to check if there were any changes.

Status:

Name: Aiko

Level: 7

Strength: 9

Agility: 14

Stamina: 11

Vitality: 15

Intelligence: 12

Charm: 10

Skills: calm mind [innate], Chakra assimilation [innate] mapping [lvl 4], Instinct manipulation [lvl 3], chakra molding[lvl 6], Seal creation [lvl 4], Chakra control [lvl 3], Presence concealment [lvl 2]

...............….

"We can try with kushina-san's chakra," said Aiko after noticing there weren't any changes in his status.

"I think we can wait some time before doing that, as your body can only accept one chakra at a time, we still don't know if this ability causes strain on your body" said Minato, rejecting the idea as usually kekkei genkai which causes body transformations put strain on the user.

Kushina also seconded the idea stating that there was no rush and they can always try after a few days.

"Aiko-kun, before we realise all the limits of this ability, it is better if many people do not know about this" said Minato, asking him to keep this ability a secret.

Aiko nodded his head in understanding as he still did not understand how to use this skill in combat.

..................….

"Minato, have you heard of any Kekkei genkai able to do such a thing?" asked Kushina once they were inside their bed room.

"No, Kushina-chan, this ability of Aiko-kun is a bit weird, Chakra signature of an individual should be something unique to them as it is said that chakra of each individual operates at different frequency, but when Aiko-kun absorbed my chakra, his chakra signature completely morphed into mine" said Minato still feeling a bit astonished, 'If this skill is used in conjunction with Transformation jutsu, then..' he thought a bit excited as it could become one of the best infiltration and escape technique and even a life saving trump card.

"Hey, Minato, do you think our child will look like today's Aiko-kun?" asked Kushina, her voice, a bit excited bringing him out of his thoughts.

"Maybe?" said Minato, amused by the idea.

..................….

Aiko began his physical training with weights from the next day, Guy still had to do other missions so Aiko was left to train by himself and he also thought it was better as his body took time to adapt to the weights.

When he felt physically exhausted he took out the sword he had gotten from the shrine and studied the seals engraved on them and soon found out the method to activate them, but he also realised the warning of Kushina as the only method he could come up with was using the vitality in his blood to activate it which on prolonged use could be harmful for him.

Aiko also tested the idea he got while he had trained with Might Guy, but the process of creating a new seal was difficult to say the least, but he did not lose heart as the challenge made him a bit excited.

So, in this fashion another week passed and Aiko got used to the weights and also increased his mapping skill level and overall level by 1, making him more determined to continue with the weight training, even if it left him sore and exhausted.

Skill: mapping [lvl 5]

A skill that helps hosts to navigate complex terrain, mark places and people.'

His upgraded skill gave him the ability to mark people and the range was also increased to 500 meters.

Aiko decided to test the skill and marked Kushina who was inside the mansion, the map representing her in his mind became bold , but there weren't any other changes, confusing him but he decided to check on it later as he had a feeling that no skill was useless.

.....................

In some unknown part of the konoha, two people were sitting opposite to each other in a dimly lit room where only their side profile was visible.

"Danzo, you don't keep your promises and yet expect results from me, how hypocritical" mocked a cold voice which was filled with menace and disdain.

"Orochimaru, don't forget because of whose support you are able to do those disgusting experiments" said Danzo emotionlessly as if not bothered by his mockery.

"Hehehe, not as disgusting as the things your organisation had done" replied the man licking his lips with his serpentine tongue.

"Snort, it is for the good of the village" replied Danzo a little bit of heat entering his voice as if offended by the comparison.

Orochimaru just sneered, remaining silent as if he had lost interest in mocking the bandaged man.

"You will get your specimens once the situation is brought under control" continued Danzo calmly.

"It would be better if we don't communicate for a while, I will find a way to get rid of all the annoyances." he added, aware that ANBU was keeping close watch on him and hatred for a certain blond-haired man increased in his heart.

"Tch, The cursed seal experiment will take a while to produce results, without sufficient test subjects and I will also be leaving Konoha for a few months, so don't bother me if it is nothing important." said Orochimaru before vanishing into a puff of smoke as if staying here was a waste of his time.

Danzo looked at the now empty seat in front of him as annoyance flashed past in his eyes before it regained a calm expression making one hard to guess what he was thinking.

....................

"Aiko-kun are you ready?" asked Kushina as she held Aiko's hand.

Aiko nodded his head and Kushina took a deep breath and injected her moulded chakra into him.

It's been a week since he had assimilated Minato's chakra and today they decided to try it with Kushina's chakra and see if there would be any changes.

'Ding! Chakra detected, does Host wish to Assimilate it?

-yes

-no'

He heard the notification and Aiko chose 'yes' without hesitation.

The familiar burning sensation started from his hands and spread throughout his body before it subsided it did not startle him this time as he had already expected it.

'Ding! Chakra Assimilation completed!,' and the familiar timer appeared in the corner of his vision showing 29 minutes 59 seconds and it kept on decreasing.

"It works" muttered Aiko looking towards them.