Ch140. Training 1

Rei leisurely sat on the porch of his mansion in the Uzushio, contently watching Mei and Ringo spar with weapons while hordes of his clones were rebuilding the village. He especially loved Mei's sullen exasperation at the bored and completely almost half-asleep look on Ringo's face.

"Well, at least we know Mei will not be a swordsman." Rei chuckled, sipping the tea Konan prepared for him.

"I guess... It is quite amusing how she is flailing her tanto around like a petulant child." Konan who sat next to Rei shook her head. "Then again, pitting her against someone as skilled in kenjutsu as Ringo is not providing a very beginner-friendly learning environment."

"She is certainly not giving up though." Rei quipped.

"You know she is taking it as a way to bolster her stamina?" Konan barely restrained herself from grinning. "She at first tried to follow Tsunade in her suicide physical training but..." She amusedly snorted, "she didn't last for three hours."

"As if you lasted more than six." Rei rolled his eyes, enjoying Konan's huff.

"Not my problem she literally breaks, heals, rebreaks, and re-heals her body as she infuses chakra and healing chakra into her muscles, bones, and organs while she is in Sennin Mode, her body brimming with senjutsu chakra. It can't be called training. It's more of a self-torture. I doubt any Interrogation squad would be able to break anyone who manages to get through five hours of that no matter their method. The feeling of having your muscles slowly pulled from your bones is frankly disgusting only surpassed by having your beating heart being repeatedly squeezed enough to constantly damage it while she pumps healing and senjutsu chakra through it." Konan shuddered, rubbing a spot on her ribcage, "I am telling you Tsunade is crazy. We should never give her a Kaguya to play with. It made her bat shit insane! The best part? She with a gleefully grinning expression told us she can not provide us with any pain-numbing drugs or Jutsu so we should just suck it up and take it as pain tolerance training. How fucked up is that!?" Konan was almost hyperventilating as she finished her rant.

Needless to say, even Rei was surprised at Konan's outburst. 'I guess there is a first for everything, eh?' He thought as silence fell on the two of them, only the sounds of Konan's quickened breathing and the background noise of Mei and Ringo's fight interrupting it. Rei stared at blushing Konan in disbelief as she averted her face to avoid his gaze before he started loudly laughing. "So there really exists something that can break even your composure, eh, Konan!"

"I would like to see your reaction when she cuts you open and sticks her hand through the cut into your body before proceeding to grope your organs." Konan sullenly sniffed.

"Nobody told you to join her training." Rei shrugged uncaringly.

"You really have no care in the world, do you? She can kill herself by doing that." Konan sighed and Rei grew silent for a moment. It was only his serious look that prevented Konan from saying anything else.

"I can understand Tsunade and her reasons for doing it." Rei told Konan with a rueful smile. "She is jealous, you see." He saw Konan was about to interrupt but he just took hold of her hand and squeezed it, signalling for her to listen, "You have your paper Jutsu which is disgustingly overpowered if applied in a correct way. You can throw meteorites made of earth-chakra-hardened paper willy-nilly, Konan. Leveling a village is not really a problem for you. Then there is Mei who has her own two bloodlines with even more destructive power than yours. Do you really not see how that could make Tsunade feel a bit useless and jealous of you?"

"Jealous? Why? She has Wood Release and Shikotsumyaku." Konan tilted her head.

"You and I have Wood Release too. That really doesn't count. As for Shikotsumyaku... that is exactly why she is undergoing such brutal training. If there is one thing Tsunade is proud of, it is not her Wood Release, Sennin Mode, or her medical knowledge. She is proud of her ability as a physical fighter because that is seriously the only thing she is excelling in between the three of you."

Tsunade could not passively strengthen her body with Nature Energy like Rei did every day almost all day. Honestly, take away all the ninjutsu variants with Nature energy from Rei, he would still have an incredibly powerful body after almost over a decade of using that method. His way of strengthening it was gradual and took a lot of time but he could honestly overpower Tsunade in Sennin Mode.

Tsunade actually approached Rei before she started with her insane body training. The punch line of every body strengthening technique using chakra or any energy was according to her repeated breaking of the cells while recreating them stronger as chakra nourished them. This way, the body gradually became stronger. Hence, Tsunade decided to... quicken the process.

"She is the best medic ninja in the world. She knows her limits and won't go beyond them nor will she cripple herself. The stronger her body becomes, the easier and safer it will be for her to use the Shikotsumyaku. That bloodline is really twisted. There are adverse effects of using it and a whole lot of problems. And while most of those are negated by her Senju physique Tsunade requires a strong body to use Shikotsumyaku without much of a strain. Actually, nobody but she could use it to its best capacity since any internal injury, no matter how small, caused by using that bloodline she will discover and heal thanks to her vast medical experience. Tsunade is actually building herself into the juggernaut of the team, you know?" Rei said, completely trusting that Tsunade knew what she was doing.

Rei was really a bit curious about the limits of the Shikotsumyaku when used by a Senjutsu user with a ridiculously strong physical body. She wouldn't even need to use it outwardly. Just plating her organs and the inward side of the skin in internal bone armor would make her incredibly hard to injure considering that the Shikotsumyaku makes the bones way denser than normal and with the addition of chakra... it was as if she wore plate mail made from chakra metal under her skin.

"You didn't mention Ringo..." Konan tried to change the topic as it grew a bit uncomfortable. She didn't want to question Tsunade's capabilities as a medic but her methods... Konan really didn't like seeing Tsunade suffer because of her damn pride.

"I doubt Tsunade counts Ringo as important enough to care about her as she cares for you and Mei. It will take a lot of time until that happens. Plus Ringo is weak for now and her specialty is clearly tracking and swords. No real world-breaking bloodline to speak of either." Rei hummed and Konan nodded in understanding.

"I see. She does have a long way to match even Mei..." She said, her eyes straying towards the redhead who was boredly deflecting Mei's wayward slashes. Konan really didn't think Ringo could survive Mei for longer than three minutes if the girl tried to really kill her. After all, it was Konan and Rei who trained her and they put a whole lot more effort into it than when they trained Ringo. Mei was, in the end, loyal only to them since the start.

"Not really, I saw some of her ideas and I can tell that Mei would really have to step up her game if she wanted to stay above Ringo in combat power." Rei's eyes sparkled with excitement, "Despite everything, when it comes to lighting release, Ringo is a genius and she indeed deserves praise. Her newest technique is frankly mind-blowing."

Konan just raised her eyebrow at him in a questioning way which made Rei frown a bit.

"Don't give me that look. I was really, really surprised when I saw what she came up with and while we kept it a secret, my clones helped her with the technique for three months already. She is almost finished with it. Honestly, it can probably make her completely impervious to Mei's mist," Rei gleefully smirked, "and I can't wait to see what face will the pipsqueak pull when she realizes it!"

Konan slightly smiled and shook her head before her eyes landed once again on the petite sword-wielding redhead, her opinion of her slightly changing. 'Maybe... I am a bit too harsh on Ringo? Maybe I am still underestimating her.'