Arriving at Iwagakure

[Akuto POV]

[A Day Later]

Step by step, I made my way across the rocky ground, holding Sayuri's hand tightly as I stepped over a dangerous area.

As I continued forward, I pondered how everything was going now that we've gotten this far.

First off, the symbiote helping me rest did not go to plan. Mostly because we needed to do many different turns and maneuvers through the area which required me in the front seat to communicate with Sayuri.

So all in all, I got only about 20 minutes of rest from that. At this point, I'm not even angry, I'm just desperately needing sleep.

But hope is not lost in the end. In fact this is the most hopeful I've been.

The symbiote stopped controlling my body almost a day ago and I was currently going toward Iwa with Sayuri next to me.

Now, that may sound like old news, but what isn't old news is that fact that we are almost there~

Sayuri called upon a hawk summon to see how much longer it would take and she figured it would only be 15 more minutes.

She said that 10 minutes ago.

And if the rocky lands before me and dusty environemnt were anything to go by, I'd say we're getting REALLY close.

Finally! After days of travel, I will finally reach Iwagakure!

With that thought in mind, I focused my sleepy mind on the task at hand and tried crossing the dangerous area before me.

The moment I made my way over the dangerous area, a notification appeared before me.

Expecting some good news after working through these past few days of sleepless travel, I hurriedly checked the skills.

A while ago, I had received a notification that [Adaptation] was activated and I got excited.

It was likely activated as a result of the extrenuous effort of walking for this long without rest so I was happy for it to be complete.

[Adaptation complete]

[Skill: [Fatigue Resistance] Obtained]

Oh, that's pretty good. Not something that would serve as a msssive help, but it should passively assist me decently.

Now to check the next one.

[Skill: [Sleep Resistance] Obtained]

What?

Oh you have got to be shitting me right now. Fucking [Sleep Resistance] of all things!?

How does that even happen? Does Adaptation adapt to literally everything, even beneficial things!?

Does that mean if I were to eat salty food in enough quantities and for long enough... I would gain a resistance to salt...? That sucks dick.

Why do my own skills hate me this much...?

*DING*

Shit. This better be some good news after all the crap I went through, or I'm gonna freak the hell out.

[Skill: [Fatigue Resistance] and skill: [Sleep Resistance] have awakened the [Tenacious Insomniac] Class]

Once again, for what seems like the millionth time since beginning this journey, I felt true despair.

System, tell me what that class does. Now.

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Class: [Tenacious Insomniac]

Details: Inhibits host from being able to sleep as he should and increases the rate of progress for stats and such the longer he is without sleep. Growth rate gradually lowers during sleep and moments of rest.

-Increased training growth

-Increased mental strain

{Current Tenacity Boost: 5%}

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5%... Five percent... Are you joking? Three days without any sort of rest whatsoever, nothing but constant exertion...

And the growth rate is only at five fucking percent...?

Wait. Oh shit. Is the growth rate this low because I slept in the backseat and let the symbiote take control?

So my tenacity rate was higher before but only 20 minutes of rest lowered it to such a pathetic number!?

But still, ignoring that glaring detail that was bringing forth my sleepless rage, this might actually be pretty good.

I may not be able to sleep normally, but this should help my training.

My mental state might be in constant decline though... Except fatigue resistance might help.

How ironic is this? All I wanted to do was finally reach the village so I could sleep and now I can't even do that.

Sleep was one of the few moments of respite for me but now even that is gonna become a training period.

All of this garbage because I murdered a bunch of psycho bitches and had to be taken away by another psycho bitch.

'Whatever. If this new class of mine will assist in me getting stronger, then I see no reason to complain.'

Still, I may not be able to sleep properly anymore, but I really just want to get to the village and at least sit down.

Luckily enough, as me and Sayuri stepped up onto the top of a stony cliff, our eyes were met by the sight of a village.

A village that was no more hidden in the stones than my dick. This was the new Iwagakure after all, the old part being further away.

This land was slightly flat and the village itself was encircled by a sort of dome that gave it a sheltered look.

As it turns out, I was right indeed.

That was none other than Iwagakure no Sato-- the Village Hidden in the Stone.

"FINALLY!" I shouted gloriously from atop the cliff, my voice echoing out as Sayuri also sighed in relief.

It would seem that even the impregnable Sayuri was beginning to get rather tired from all that adventuring.

"Alright, one final stretch and we're there," Sayuri spoke to me as I nodded at her statement.

Not a moment later, we jumped down the small cliff and then sped off towards the village, desperate to finally rest.

Five incredibly quick minutes later and we finally ended up standing only a few seconds of travel in front of the village's gates.

We were currently hiding in the shadows of a nearby rock, observing the entrance to the village closely.

There was practically no movement from the two guards standing before the gate except for the occasional merchant or returning shinobi.

One by one, anyone entering or leaving the village would be stopped by the guards and then inspected thoroughly before being allowed to continue.

Seeing that, Sayuri audibly sighed, "Hm... Better find another way..." She whispered to herself.

I turned to her in confusion, "Huh? What do you mean? Why not just go inside...?" I asked, a bit suspicious.

She glanced at me slightly before I continued with my thought, "You said you had business here on behalf of Naruko so you should be able to just enter."

Sayuri gazed at me analytically for a moment before pinching the bridge of her nose and responding.

"I do have to do something here on behalf of Naruko, but it's just that Iwa doesn't know I have this mission," She explained.

My eyes immediately widened in disbelief and a deep frown crossed my face.

She quickly reassured me, "Don't worry. The current Tsuchikage is aware, we just don't want to stir up any trouble. She wishes to keep things quiet."

I sighed in relief at her words, "So we just have to reach the Tsuchikage's area and then we can rest...?" I asked, a bit of desperation leaking into my words.

Sayuri noticed the desperation and seemed to get a bit sad before resting a hand on my shoulder and gesturing to the side.

"A few seconds and we'll get there. Just wait a bit longer," She whispered, pulling me to the side.

I rose an eyebrow in question as Sayuri stared at the large blockade before her, a look of contemplation on her face.

Figuring that she must be thinking of a way into the village, I gained a pondering look myself

'She's probably trying to figure out how to get me in there with her,' I thought to myself as I tapped her on the shoulder.

She turned to me with a raised eyebrow as I quickly spoke, "How about you just get into the village yourself and I can find my own way?"

"What? That's too dangerous," She quickly denied my suggestion before I once again spoke, "It's fine. You can quickly reach the Tsuchikage in like a second and I will be right behind you. Easy."

Hearing my words, she contemplated the suggestion and, with a glance in my direction, nodded in agreeance.

"Alright then, I'll head in first, then find your own way in. Just look for my chakra to find the place you need to go," She quickly explained as I gave a thumbs up.

Sayuri nodded at the gesture and, giving me one final glance of apprehension, vanished before my very eyes.

I glanced around for a short moment and just barely spotted the tail-end of her cloak disappearing beyond the wall.

She's fast. Must've used that one place-switching ability or something. What was it called... amenotejikara or something.

Alright... For now, the plan is to get to a good observational position inside the village and make a map of it all.

That way, I would be familiar with the layout of everything and would find it even easier to enact my plan.

Oh right, I seem to have not expressed exactly what this plan of mine actually is.

The main idea behind this plan would let me easily take over Iwa, but the details of it would be difficult to actually enact safely.

Which is why me being able to get familiar with this village's environment would be important.

If I am to conquer anything, I need to have an established base, army, and place to command.

Iwagakure would serve as the first and easiest place to take over, especially with the abilities I currently have at my disposal.

All I have to do is infect Kurotsuchi with my symbiote, use psychokinesis to influence her mind, and add on a touch of Love Aura.

Of course, that's not all. I don't want my new village being upset at their new leader or tattling to any other village, so I have to win them over.

How? Well, that involves the symbiote.

The starvation that the symbiote told me about, reminded me of something that gave me an idea for how to take over the village without opposition.

After conquering Kurotsuchi, I would go to the largest farm they have, and then do what Carnage did.

I and the symbiote would devour all the animals on that farm to increase the symbiote's biomass and then I would spread it across the whole village, infecting everyone.

But that's not all! Every fragment of the symbiote which I spread across the village like a plague, will use psychokinesis and their own biological control to make the villagers love me.

And then they will happily accept me as their new ruler without any qualms.

It was a plan without fail-- except one thing however. If I can't get Kurotsutchi to fall for me then it all comes crumbling down.

That's why I said that the more detailed parts of the plan-- the setup for the plan --would be incredibly important.

If I don't manage to get every single small detail of my plan right, it could all go to shit.

But then again, getting Kurotsuchi shouldn't be too much of a problem seeing as I even got two emotionless ones already.

A hothead shouldn't be too difficult.

For now, all I need to do is memorize Iwagakure, get to Kurotsuchi, and then my plan can get going.

And so, with that thought in mind, I snuck up to the furthest side from the gate-- a corner covered by trees and shadows.

Swiflty, I jumped onto the wall without using any chakra and carefully began crawing up it, making sure to avoid any clear line of sight.

Reaching the top of the wall, I flipped over the edge, staying close to the ground as I took notice of the numerous shinobi gaurding the top of the wall.

'Oh shit!' I thought to myself as a shinobi rapidly turned towards me only to gain a confused look as she saw nothing.

She stared for a moment before shrugging, not noticing the slight human-shaped fluctation of light that was walking past her.

Damn, that was actually a close one. Had I not activate my camoflauge immediately I would've been found.

These shinobi are mostly earth style users and it would seem they have some exceptional detection.

I doubt anything too bad would happen if I was found seeing as the Tsuchikage knows we're here and I have Sayuri.

Except most of the shinobi most likely dont know and the civilians won't either and if I'm found sneaking into the village, I doubt anyone is going to wait to ask me questions and will likely just end me.

So the best course of action is to sneak up to the best vantage point in the village with camoflauge on, finish my memorization, and fuck off to Sayuri.

'Just stay quiet,' I thought to myself as I leaped into the interior of the village and began running across the various building roofs.

It took around 5 minutes of constant movement, but I finally managed to get on top of a rather tall building which gave me a view of everything in the village.

Grinning, I called upon the system, opened the camera function, and took a photo of the entire village before me.

I quickly saved the image as a draft within the system and started using my sensory abilities to identify Sayuri's chakra.

I sighed in relief as I found Sayuri and another strong chakra signature in the centre of the village.

Finally... I can get to Sayuri and finally take a break. I feel like I'm gonna become a Nara with how much I wanna laze around.

With that thought in mind, I stepped off the building I was standing on and made my way toward Sayuri.