CH8: First C Rank

It was late in the night when Silas made it to Sakura's house. On the second floor, he saw pink curtains and smelled Sakura's familiar strawberry shampoo. Her heart had a relaxed sleep rhythm, and he could hear her light snore and blood working through her veins. Cells replicated and died, and her hair grew slightly to his perception. When he focused, he could almost reproduce the room with sound, taste, and smells and see her in bed, wrapped in blankets, blissfully resting.

Seeing her safe and peacefully resting gave him a moment of pause.

Maybe it would have been smarter to take what he knew to Iruka or maybe even the Hokage's tower. Instead, Naruto had a flying thunder god Kunai and who knew what he could do with it. Literally, anything and nothing could happen; the random chance got him away from Anko after he tucked her into his bed.

His dick still hadn't gone soft, so he had to flip it up and belt it. Jumping over rooftops with that sort of restriction had been uncomfortable enough to distract him from thinking over the situation.

Silas planned to get his two hours of rest at some point before sunrise but was in no hurry. Maybe he could spoon his sensei. Anko did have a nice ass. He looked around to ensure no one was looking, not even the occasional Ambu that kept tabs on him. When he was sure no one was watching, Silas leaned against the cold wooden wall of Sakura's house and slid down.

He wanted a break from insane worlds with their weird powers. If he had the option to get rid of some of the weird powers he acquired, he would really think hard about it.

There were times when he didn't like his constitution stat, especially when it drove his normal sex drive up to 11. He had plans to increase male mortality to ensure he had a chance to have multiple wives but stopped himself from going through with it. All he had to do was become the 1% of the 1% and get Tsunade to become one of his wives. With her help, he could legally take multiple wives or try to become Hokage himself. If that didn't work, the 4th great shinobi war would help lower the competition. Silas didn't want to think that way, but it was almost uncontrollable.

If he could blame anything for those thoughts, it was the skills he acquired in the second world. Hentai, lust, impregnation, and size matters made up the Harem King's skill tree that, thankfully, was too powerful for his body. It could take decades before he gained one of his old skill trees. Maybe if he could grow as a person before then, his sanity would survive the integration. If not, he would become a villain like no other the Naruto world has ever seen.

Silas got a feel for his current PL.

PL 150

He was 50% stronger than when he first entered the world. Chakra helped his body adapt rapidly to his growing power level. At 250, he should reach E-rank stats doubling his effective power level again or increasing his max bench from 200 tons to 1000 tons. If he survived in the world long enough to reach a PL of 500, his max bench would go to 4000 tons. When his power level crosses into the D- rank or 1000, his max bench will increase even further to 16,000 tons. Chakra would buff that even more, not considering sage mode or other buffs like the 8 gates.

There was a fly in the ointment. His power level didn't increase his chakra yet. It took time for his body to fully integrate with his power level. Full power level integration could take anywhere between a decade and a century. Once that happened, his chakra reserves should massively increase, but until then, his chakra levels would remain low Genin.

Silas stood up and hopped up to Sakura's window. He held out his hand to knock and froze before falling back down. When he landed, he turned his attention to a sudden displacement of chakra. The leaf on his forehead fell off, and he didn't try to catch it.

Naruto had the Devil's luck; he would be fine. There was no reason to stick his nose where it didn't belong.

Silas convinced himself to wait and see for at least the night, left Sakura's apartment, and went home.

Anko rolled over and opened her eyes. Shadows moved on the walls as he debated telling her anything. Like cloud gazing, he watched the shadows on the wall take shape while the night ran on. Finally, it was just him and Anko, but he stood in place, watching the shadows like a buffoon. Time slipped, and so did the tension he carried when nothing happened.

If he implemented himself in what was inevitably going to happen, he could only blame himself. Once upon a time, he had the right to remain silent; he decided to exercise it and his Genin status. If people didn't know he was a badass with super senses or at least didn't know how far his senses stretched, then he was fine.

After talking himself into doing nothing, it was time to stop acting like a pussy and spoon Anko like a man.

…

Silas stood beside Anko in the mission office while the Hokage and Iruka looked on while Anko gushed over the C-rank. Calling it a C-rank was an exaggeration; while it wasn't an escort mission, there was travel involved. Really it was the content of the mission that made him want to dig his heels in.

"This is perfect," Anko said.

"I'm not a Utility Shinobi." Silas rebuked.

The Hokage sighed. "There is nothing wrong with being a Utility Shinobi. They are often the wealthiest in the reserve. Knowing practical jutsu that helps others instead of fighting is a good thing. My own student Tsunade was a Utility Shinobi as a medic-nin. Was she any less formidable for her passion?"

"Lord Hokage, yes, she is the least formidable among your three students. Of your three students, Orochimaru and Jiraiya were the stronger. Besides, you can't compare medical jutsu that can heal wounds to melting metal together." Silas said.

"Show some respect to the Hokage," Iruka yelled.

"I'll take care of this, Iruka," Anko said.

His sensei shoved the mission scroll in his face. "Look at the zeroes," Anko said.

Silas looked over the reward for the mission, and his eyes widened. It didn't make sense how they could pay so much for a C-rank. Of course, welding made a lot of Ryo, but the C rank was ridiculous.

"That's only if you succeed without requiring assistance. The mission has multiple clauses with stipulations that will decrease the payout." The Hokage said.

"If you don't, I'll make sure your first C rank is horrible. We have some incompetent Chunin who would love a little powerhouse like you. You know, the type that throws Genin at problems until it's solved or they run out. Do you want to work for an idiot who can't find his dick without an instruction scroll or make millions?" Anko asked.

Silas thought about going rogue or faking his death. "Did you know Sasuke has a crush on Naruto?"

Hiruzen had begun sipping tea a staff member served him, only to spit it out. Silas nodded his head before giving Anko a hard look.

"Alright, let's go make money. I expect you to teach me a jutsu that isn't welding." Silas said.

"Do you want to learn how to walk up trees and stand on water?" Anko asked.

It hit him that this was his wave arc; in other words, nothing would go right the second he stepped outside of Konoha. But, on the bright side, he could repay his loan after the mission and start buying material for a gravity room.

"Sure," Silas said.

…

His sandals were snapped, leaving him to run barefoot, but that didn't bother him as much as the mutant freaks chasing them. Four dozen half-animal mutants covered in the curse mark chased them the second they left fire country's border. This wasn't a horror movie; the sky was blue, and birds chirped for a while before the mutants attacked.

Anko turned around and flashed through hand seals before blasting the mutants with a dragon fire jutsu taking out one of their pursuers.

"Why aren't we fighting them?" Silas asked.

His sensei kept pace beside him, flipping through hand signs before summoning a massive snake that whipped around and took out a few pursuers.

"You are a Genin, and these guys all have upper Chunin chakra and are letting their curse seals run rampant. They would rip you apart even with your durability." Anko said.

"They would have to be stupid not to chase us into an ambush. So we're fighting them here with their numbers whittled down or a fresh ambush." Silas said.

"Do you think they're thinking straight?" Anko said.

"You aren't," Silas said and stopped running.

He threw a punch with everything he had behind it and landed a hit on the lead prisoner. The others skidded to a stop giving him an opening. Silas focused on his hellfire and pushed his mana out in a series of runes forming a pentagram. A flicker of silver flames appeared in the center of the pentagram before blasting out in a focused cone. While the spell fired, he turned it. There was very little resistance when the concentrated silver flames struck.

It was a sloppy attack on his part. The flames lasted only a second, blasting out in a tightly packed cone wide closest to him, thinning down the length of the simple flamethrower spell. His time in other worlds fighting undead gave him time to refine a simple flamethrower spell into a deadly laser of death. Unfortunately, with his current reserves, he could only use them once a day.

The mystical power in his body had been spent to perform a single spell. He stepped on a webbed hand cauterized absent a body. Silver flames smoldered at the edge of the limb, slowly eating the once-living flesh. Eventually, the corpses he left behind would be ashes in the wind.

Suddenly he felt dizzy and fell against a tree. "Take that," Silas said as he struggled to breathe. His head started pounding from mana exhaustion. There wasn't any getting away from it; he needed to give his body a chance to adapt.

Anko flashed in front of him, wide-eyed, staring between his actions and him. "I told you we should have just fought them," Silas said.

"What are you going to do now? You can't even stand, brat." Anko said.

Silas struggled to his feet, mostly leaning against a tree. "I'll live. I just need to catch my breath. Where do you think they came from? Is it the Hero Water? I heard that can make people stronger and most of them look like fish."

"No, and I'm not telling you anymore."

"It's Orochimaru, isn't it," Silas said.

"Don't say that name," Anko said.

Silas wobbled to his feet. It took most of his reserves to form the pentagram to focus the spell. Firing and subduing, the flames drained him dry after. Using a concentrated and modified spell took more out of him than he expected. But it was better than being chased where they wanted them.

He turned his head and vomited. "I didn't plan on killing," Silas said.

Anko smiled, and he rolled his eyes. He wasn't vomiting because he was averse to killing. But, while he didn't want to, those bandits were trouble. By the look in their eyes and how they chased them, Silas was pretty sure they were cannibals.

His strength was down to half, but that was a good thing. If he had used his spell elsewhere, Anko couldn't have saved his ass.

They returned to the main shinobi road and traveled to their destination. Kiso dock was less than a day's run from them.