Chapter 97: Perfect From Now On

Another week of daily training with his team yielded impressive results: Ozu had now learned two C rank Water Release jutsus, and Araki was almost finished with getting Gale Palm down as well. Miura's Kenjutsu was also coming along. Kannin's training at the moment for them involved no bodily enhancement from chakra--just pure inherent ability.

"A good foundation is critical, Miura," Kannin said, dodging a swipe from Miura's sword, "Once you have the muscle memory, adding chakra and jutsus becomes much easier."

"Well," Miura responded between pants, "I wish is was as easy as it sounded, sensei."

"Everyone does," Kannin replied with a smile and a parry with his own blade, "It just takes some time and experience."

"I really wish I could use shadow clones for this," Miura groaned as they sat down on the grass.

Kannin thought about it for a moment, 'Well, they aren't supposed to be using chakra right now, so the dangers of the Shadow Clone Jutsu wouldn't really matter, would it? I'll let them try it this once, and if it works out then we can keep using it I guess...'

Kannin sat down next Miura and put Koseki on the grassy earth in front of him, before asking them, "Can you make these hand signs?"

Kannin began demonstrating the full set of seals for Shadow Clone Jutsu, and Miura followed closely behind.

"I'm only showing you this for training purposes since we aren't using chakra right now," Kannin informed the genin, "If I catch you making more than 1 clone, or using them in combat, you'll be in trouble, okay?"

Miura nodded before again making the series of hand seals and activating their chakra. In a familiar puff of smoke, another Miura appeared next to their real body. Both of them proceeded to look at Kannin, which was a little creepy, and asked, "This'll double my learning speed, yeah?"

"Something like that, sure." Kannin said with a sigh as he put his hands together and made another clone.

'I've split myself into, what, 7 parts now?' he thought while taking a sparring position, 'I won't be able to do much more without significantly diminishing my powers'

The four of them continued to cross blades for another hour before Miura eventually became too tired to continue. Their Shadow Clone poofed out of existence, and Kannin decided it was a good time to wrap up the session for the day. Releasing his other Clones, a rush of memories overloaded his brain for a moment, and he saw Miura grimace as they experienced the same thing, albeit at a much lower level.

He learned that today Araki had finally clicked with Gale Palm, which was good news; to Kannin, they were now ready for a C rank mission. Before he officially announced it, he wanted a full inventory on their abilities, so he asked each genin what their highest ranked jutsu was and how many they had of that rank. 

"I know three C rank jutsus," Miura said with a bit of pride, "Great Fireball, Water Clone, and Wild Water Wave."

Araki continued and said, "I also have C rank jutsus, with Great Breakthrough and Gale Palm it comes out to three, and I already had Lesser Earth Wall." 

Ozu nodded and added, "3 C rank jutsu like everyone else! Water Prison, Wild Bubble Wave, and Great Breakthrough!"

"Well then," Kannin said, "you're all on level pegging at the moment. What if I told you I'd teach one of you a B rank jutsu depending on how you perform on our upcoming mission?"

6 eyes widened in front of them as they each imagined getting to reach another level in their jutsu prowess. B rank jutsus were really what put shinobi into the Chuunin tier as that's where jutsu like the real Earth Style Wall, Shadow Clone, Water and Fire Dragon Bullet Techniques, and a number of sealing and summoning techniques begin to become available to shinobi. A rank jutsus were where Chuunin began to reach into the Jonin level, but B rank was where the vast majority of shinobi leveled out. 

Araki was the first to break out of his stupor and asked, "So we're going on a real mission this time!? Not just watering a garden or catching a dumb cat?"

"Yes," Kannin said with a chuckle, "I've picked out a C rank mission for us to go on together. Here's the brief on it," he continued, handing out a sheet of paper to each student, "We're tasked with clearing up sections of the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Grass. There's still a lot of military equipment and unexploded ordnance there and it's being scavenged by bandits and other such types who are terrorizing the locals and whatnot. Kusagakure just doesn't have the manpower to do it all themselves so they're outsourcing some of the work."

The genin looked at the mission parameters and were somewhat disappointed as they weren't necessarily going to be fighting anything, let alone any shinobi.

Kannin noticed their fallen expressions and reassured them, "I know there isn't a lot of glamor in clearing up stuff from the ground, but ordinary civilians aren't capable of it without major risk, and even if we do encounter opposition, fighting bandits is far better than fighting ninja. If I've learned one thing in my life, it's that fighting isn't about winning, it's about surviving, and you're basically guaranteed to survive any run-of-the-mill bandit."

"I guess that makes sense," Ozu sighed, "it just doesn't have a great ring to it, you know?" She placed her hands up as if framing a picture and declared, "Akira Ozu, Grand Collector of Kunai"

They all had a good laugh at that, but Miura, who had been silent through most of the talk so far finally peeped up and said in a small voice, almost dazed "87,000 Ryo reward..."

When Araki and Ozu processed what they said, the two of them quickly checked the paper again and indeed saw that the reward was technically 86,766 Ryo, but it was nonetheless a lot of money for them--about 20 thousand Ryo per person.

"I take back everything I said," Ozu squarely stated, "this must be the easiest money you can make."

"I knew you'd come around," Kannin laughed, "We leave tomorrow at 9:00am for the border. Pack up light combat materials, I have enough sealing scrolls for us to use for the job myself."

The kids all nodded along with the plan, but Araki suddenly furrowed his brow and asked Kannin, "Sensei, where do you get all your sealing scrolls? You have so many."

"Well," Kannin said, "I either buy them or make them. Buying them is only better if you're in a hurry."

"I didn't know you could make sealing scrolls, sensei." Ozu said with a bit of wonder

"It's not too hard with the right instruction" Kannin said thinking aloud, "I'm a minor expert in Fuinjutsu now so it's pretty easy."

"I didn't realize you were so good at sealing techniques!" Araki replied, "What can't you do?"

"Well," Kannin said with an embarrassed look, "I can't to everything, you know. I'm a terrible sensor, I'm just okay with Shurikenjutsu, I'm actually rather bad with Genjutsu, and I know nothing about medical jutsu. We just live in a world where Ninjutsu gets a lot of attention and I'm good at that so I suppose I look more impressive than I am. Fuinjutsu was honestly something a coincidence. The Uzumaki clan is famous for its sealing techniques, but it died out in my family when my father passed away since my mother isn't a shinobi; I got taught by Uzumaki Kushina."

"Wow..." Araki and Ozu both said, their eyes glazing over a little.

"What's the most powerful seal you can make right now?" Miura asked out of the blue

"I guess my most powerful one would be an Eight Trigrams Seal," Kannin mused, scratching his chin, "but I want to make a seal for Tailed Beast Balls."

"Is that even possible!?" Araki exclaimed, "That's absurd!"

"Well I'll only figure out if it works if I manage to befriend a Tailed Beast," Kannin said, tempering their enthusiasm, "which seems like a slim chance given the only one I know probably hates my guts."

"Which one is that?" Ozu asked.

Araki interrupted immediately and said excitedly, "It has to be Killer B, right? You fought against him like 7 times in the war! They said you were a natural containment for him or something!"

"I didn't realize my exploits in the war were so well known to you," Kannin said with some surprise, "but yes I fought Killer B a number of times in the war. I doubt he'd be thrilled to see me any time soon. Thankfully I don't think we will."

Kannin let them go home after that, but he was put off by how much Araki knew about his actions in the war, and racked his brain about what else the kid could know as he rushed home to prepare for the mission the next day.