Chapter Twenty Four- The Value Of War

{Hidden Quest Complete}

Rising The Ranks

Objective: Become a chunin.

Rewards: 2 perk points, Rare Loot Cache.

"Well that was fast, a single day at that," I commented as I took the light green vest and began to look it over. The vest held a staggering twenty pockets and I soon discovered a storage seal on the lower back of the vest. It seemed Konoha put a lot of value on their more talented and hardworking members.

"Field promotions are a dime a dozen, especially during the war and while our Kage has personally taken the field. At most you'd need a Jonin to vouch for you, but well you have me." Sakumo's clone said as he leaned forward on the table between us. 

"So they see 'Sakumo Hatake' on the paper and immediately sign off on it. It must be nice being such a famous and well respected person sensei." I said with a drawl while I clipped the vest into place. 'It's heavier than I expected….'

"Ha, it wasn't always like that. I had to live through a multitude of missions that should've killed me." That comment caused me to raise an eyebrow, but it was also the perfect time to ask the question that's been bugging me. 

"Why did you decide to apprentice me Sensei?" That caused the clone's smile to twitch and its eyes to narrow. I was giving him a bone at this point. After he himself brought up his missions, it made it seem like I knew more about my parents then I let on, after asking such a question.

"I owe your father, more than I could ever pay back." That caused my eyebrows to shoot to my hairline. I didn't expect him to just come out and say it.

"For one reason or another I joined his squad during the beginning years of this war. Thankfully my family has had their own summoning contract for generations, so aside from the basics I had from the academy I was a skilled tracker." Sakumo began retelling his past without much prompting but I felt as if the bench I was sitting on disappeared.

It felt as if I was falling into a pit of nothingness, gravity itself disappeared as I broke out into a cold sweat. 'What the hell kind of jutsu did Uncle use on me? The Eye of Provocation, what kind of jutsu was it? Was it even a jutsu?'

How I wished I had Odin's Eye during that time, just getting the chance to observe my 'shade' might've answered multiple of my questions.

"Believe it or not I was a part of Genin Corps and if I would've stayed there just a year longer I'm sure I would've been dead years ago." Thankfully this new piece of information was so interesting that it shook me from my thoughts.

"I assume my father scouted you out due to your talent in tracking?" I asked as it was the most obvious reason he'd feel so indebted to him. Sensei seemed surprised by my quick deduction before he nodded.

"I was with squad ninety four during the first half of the war, well until...." Sakumo trailed off as he averted his eyes from mine, though it was obvious what he meant. Until they all died on a suicide mission against the Hidden Stone's Explosion Corps.

"I figured." I said after I forcefully removed the memory of my mother burning to death from the center of my mind.

"You figured what?" Sakumo's clone asked.

"Well if any traumatized kid could guilt trip you into being their sensei, well you might as well become an academy teacher," I said with a chuckle that caused sensei's eyebrow to twitch in annoyance. But he mulled over what I said and simply nodded. 

I did wait a month to broach the topic of why he took me in, so it was fair I got my answer now.

"Well, that's enough of that." Sensei said with a long sigh, I could agree with him though. Digging up old wounds was never the way to end the day.

It was too bad I had one final question for the man.

"Could you kill Gari as you are now?" I asked Sakumo as he reflexively crushed the wooden cup in his hands. His eyes shot to mine in confusion and suspicion. Though what he meant were cold dead eyes, the usual snarkiness was nowhere to be seen. That caused Sensei to pause more than anything.

"No…. I could most likely bring it to a draw." Sensei admitted with a scowl, obviously hurting his pride to have to admit such a thing. But a draw in the shinobi world was a simple thing, mutual death. It still spoke of Sakumo's strength that he could trade his life for possibly the second strongest Iwa Shinobi.

"The explosion release is a powerful bloodline. Immune to explosions, can turn almost anything into one. One would think my lightning release could cancel his jutsu out which is true..." Sensei continued, it was almost as if he simulated the battle hundreds of times in his head. 

"But as of now, I have nothing in my arsenal to kill the man in a single attack. Nor do I have the time to create one." Sensei said which caused me to twitch, his S-rank lightning dragon couldn't kill the man? The same jutsu that had cost Russo of the Iron Sand his arm and nearly his life.

I mulled it over and realized it'd be years before I could take my revenge. Which was obvious before but no less infuriating.

"So you want to tell me how your battle with Tiber went?" Sensei asked, showing an extreme amount of interest. Whether that was to change the subject or genuine interest I didn't know.

I smirked as I retold him of my first battle and victory against a seasoned Jonin.

"You caught him after he battled an entire squad of your comrades, using teamwork and a half-baked jutsu you managed to put him down. He was considered a lower B-ranked threat by the way." Sensei summarized as I nodded in confirmation.

What did a lower B rank mean? It simply meant that the man was barely considered above an average Jonin in terms of danger. So if I didn't wait until he battled and defeated a ten-man squad comprised mostly of chunin? Well, I wouldn't be sitting here right now.

"Not only were you successful you managed to save two chunin from certain death and in making sure that squad 347's sacrifice wasn't in vain" Sakumo nodded along. He soon reached behind him and retrieved a scroll he had in his pack. 

"Well, I've to say good job kid, here." Sakumo's clone said as he put a small scroll on the table a moment later he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The only thing I noticed was the kanji for wind placed on the front of the scroll, I quickly took it and stealthily slid it into one of my sleeves. Quickly depositing it into my inventory and getting rid of my used dishes I headed back the way I came.

It wasn't much longer until I returned to my cave/designated room in the squad's quarters. 

I took a long moment as I let out a long sigh and sat in my bedding. 'I had to say I was right to come to the war front, just one day and I've acquired so much.' I commented internally as I did a quick count of everything I received from the floating scroll and Sakumo.

-

Level 10 (2600/6000)

Name: Tometsu Uchiha

Chakra: 1640/2600

Title: Fang's Apprentice- Boosts the learning speed of Kenjutsu and Lightning release by 20%

(Secondary) Title: Prodigious Killer- Boosts stats by twenty percent when fighting an enemy of a higher level than yourself

Strength:49

Dexterity:67

Agility:52- {62}

Endurance:40

Intelligence:104

Stat points:0

Perk Points:0-(4)

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{Inventory}

Common loot cache X2

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Uncommon Loot Cache

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Rare Loot Cache

It was baffling how much I grew and earned from just a single battle that lasted no more than three hours. 

Four loot caches of varying rarity very similar to one I opened where I received the Winds Call, the special earring that boosted my wind ninjutsu proficiency.

A wind jutsu scroll from Sakumo.

Ten stat points and the most staggering were the four perk points.

After thinking it over for a moment I first grabbed the jutsu scroll, anything from Sakumo had to be good for a simple reason. The man trained me and understood everything about my fighting style, he would surely pick the most suited jutsu for me. 

I unfurled the scroll and after a minute of reading through I almost laughed in glee.

Wind style- Sickled Blade, a ninjutsu that was made for swordsmen with a wind affinity, though it seemed it could also be useful with just a hand if you found yourself without a weapon.

A B-ranked offensive jutsu that required the user to master the first stage of nature transformation and a small understanding of shape manipulation.

The way the scroll described the jutsu to work was that you channel chakra through the blade and at the tip you change its nature to wind. A little coercion and it would form an extremely sharp curved sickle at the end of the blade. 

Though it seemed the blade would only be around six inches long, the length could be increased with practice.

But it didn't end there, the more proficient you became the more sickles you could add. Turning your sword into a chained sickle of wind that could cut through most defenses. An extremely versatile jutsu. 

Though the one downside was that it required a staggering ten hand seals, but if worse came to worse I'd upgrade my dexterous shinobi perk making it possible to do one hand seals for B rank ninjutsu or even A rank as well. 

I immediately summoned the maximum amount of clones I could and dropped a bundle of leaves I had already placed in my inventory. They soon got to work with a suspiciously malicious grin on their faces. I raised my hand to my face and realized I was doing just the same. 

But I had a future plan for this Jutsu that I doubt even Sakumo saw coming. My sword itself. If even a spark touched it while I was using the sickle jutsu it would catch aflame. Turning the former wind jutsu into an extremely potent fire-release bladed whip.

I had no doubt that this technique would reach A rank. If I had something like that in my arsenal along with my body flicker variation, even if it was just half-finished? I would make a name for myself before the year's end.

Now I only had to wait for my clones to finish cutting a leaf and ask my squad mates for a few basic shape manipulation exercises. Surely one of them had practiced it as the squad had three chunin and one tokubetsu Jonin.