40. Nature transformation

'….996...997….998...999....1000' counted Aiko, before lying exhausted on the ground. He had just finished doing pushups as a final part of his daily training.

They had been travelling for a week now and had crossed a few villages on the way, the journey with Jiriaya was very different from what he had expected. They would spend their early mornings travelling and after reaching a village Jiraiya would give him some money for food and then both would head out different ways, Aiko to train and Jiraiya to collect information about Tsunade's whereabouts.

Though Aiko was really starting to doubt if Jiraiya was collecting information as most of the time, he returned in the evening drunk or relaxed like he had spent the day in a hot spring. They still had no clue about Tsunade and Aiko thought searching blindly would not lead to any results.

"Don't worry boy, we are following her trail, we will find her." Jiraiya had said half-drunk one evening, when Aiko had expressed his doubts.

.........….

Aiko stood up after recovering some stamina, the fight in Konoha, even though risky and dangerous, provided him a lot of experience and increased his stats taking his level from 10 to 14 in one go.

Status:

Name: Aiko

Attribute points: 12

Level: 10->14

Strength: 12->16

Agility: 17->21

Stamina: 17->21

Vitality: 12->16

Intelligence: 15->19

Charm: 13->17

Skills: calm mind [innate], Chakra assimilation [innate] mapping [lvl 5->6], Instinct manipulation [lvl 3], chakra molding[lvl 6->8], Seal creation [lvl 5->7], Chakra control [lvl 5->6], Presence concealment [lvl 4->6], Nature transformation(Fire) [lvl 1]

He still had 12 attribute points which he is yet to assign and Aiko was in a bit of a dilemma, his vitality had become low due to using the Zanpakutō to cut off Kyubi and he realised that it wasn't going to recover like stamina.

Aiko thought for a bit and added 4 points to his vitality and 2 points each to other attributes except charm, as he felt that attribute was kind of useless in battles.

What interested him most was his new skill called Nature transformation(Fire) which he got after coating his sword with Fire natured chakra during his fight with the creature.

Skill: Nature Transformation(Fire) [lvl: 1]

Increases Host's speed and efficiency of converting normal chakra into Fire type.

Current Increase : 10%

.........….

"Aiko-kun, time to go." he heard a voice call out to him and saw a toad had come near him, it was the toad speaking.

Aiko was surprised in the beginning when he saw Jiraiya summon a toad out of nowhere after they left the village and learned that Jiraiya and Minato had contract with the toads allowing them to summon them for help and also realised, that was how he got the information about the village so fast.

Aiko was tempted to learn the technique but he realised that the size and power of the toad summoned would depend on the amount of chakra he used while performing summoning, given his chakra levels and fight methods he thought it wasn't the right time to learn it.

So he was sticking to training his body and Jiraiya had promised to teach him nature transformation and other jutsus once he had collected some reliable information about Tsunade.

Coming out of his thoughts Aiko nodded his head towards the toad and followed it as it moved towards the outskirts of the village they were in meeting Jiraiya.

"Weren't you teammates with Lady Tsunade?" asked Aiko seeing the white haired man writing something on the notepad he always carried with him. When asked about it before, Jiraiya replied that he was collecting material for his next book with a weird smile on his face.

"Yes, but we kind of drifted apart." replied Jiraiya with a sad look in his eyes.

"What happened?" he asked, walking beside the white haired man.

"I travelled the world, learning things and trying to fulfill my destiny. She...she had her problems and decided to retire from being a shinobi." said Jiraiya, his voice calm but Aiko was able to pick up on a sense of longing and regret from it.

"Destiny?, did you fulfill it?" asked Aiko curiously as they walked through the mud road heading towards the next village.

Jiraiya gave a mirthless laugh at the question, as he walked, thinking about his disciples, a group of whom were supposedly dead while the other was gravely injured.

"No, not yet, but it will happen one day, I will not give up." he answered, getting his emotions under control.

"How did you find out Jiraiya-san, about your Destiny?" asked the red haired boy, wondering if there was really such a thing.

"The great toad sage told me about the prophecy, He said that I will teach the child of prophecy, who will bring about a great revolution in the ninja world and my actions will determine whether that will be for the good or bad." said Jiraiya remembering the day he was first brought in front of the Great toad sage and how that incident had changed the path of his life.

"I figured if I were to teach such a disciple, I should be knowledgeable myself, so I travelled around the world gaining knowledge, searching for the child of prophecy and writing books, but I also realised how deep the hatred ran in this ninja world." he continued reminiscing about his past as they picked up their speed.

"I have a friend who wants to end all the conflict in the world." said Aiko, " But, how can a single person change the world which is so large?" he asked looking at the white haired man.

"How do you know you can't, before you even try?" asked back Jiraiya, a small smile formed on his face as he looked at the red-haired boy whose eyes widened a little at his words, sometimes Jiraiya wondered if he was really speaking to a six year old kid.

"If you don't give up, you can always achieve something and I have decided to do just that, someday I will change the world and make all this hatred disappear with my books." he said looking at the clear horizon in front of his eyes.

"The books you write by peeping in the bathhouse?" asked Aiko a bit skeptical causing the white haired man to almost stumble.

"You...those books contain profound meaning in them, a child like you will never understand, they will be famous before you know it." yelled Jiraiya, pointing at the red haired boy before he sped up going ahead.

Aiko unconsciously let a smile form on his face as he followed the back of the embarrassed white haired man and they soon reached the next village just as the sun was about to set.