13 11 2/2

"You aren't to blame Master." Hato said, lightly shaking his head. "As shinobi, it was our duty and there were things you couldn't have known about that mission." Hato looked at us before continuing, "What my son despises isn't the Leaf village in and of itself but the idea of the 'Great Hidden Villages' due to their own parts in festering the atmosphere of the war. To him, if the Great Villages had not started this war, then he would not have had to experience his loss."

There was a short moment of silence at the table at that statement, however-

"He's too naive." Kazemona stated before taking a sip of tea. "The Great Villages are under their respective Daimyo and obtain funding through them. Since the founding of the shinobi village system, the Five shinobi Villages had always had the backing of their respective Daimyo before waging war. On a superficial level if the kid wanted to put the blame on anyone it would have to be placed on the Daimyos' heads, however-"

The blond haired woman placed her teacup on the table. "War is waged for the most asinine, selfish or simple of reasons: Land, money, power, love, hatred, the list goes on. In this case, the war was waged because the current balance of power was threatening to collapse and the reign of the Five Great Countries was crumbling, but do you know who actually made the first move in the war?"

Everyone at the table remained silent for the answer was well known, but Kazemona continued regardless, "It was the smaller nations who got too greedy for their own good and started making trouble around the borders of the 5 Great nations. Those skirmishes festered and spread around the barriers between the nations until they could no longer sit back." The woman picked up her teacup once more before continuing, "Iwa was simply the first to act and stop the skirmishes around their borders, but why would they stop there? It would be much easier to just spread and capture the small villages so that they wouldn't have to deal with them again, unfortunately-"

"Those villages also acted as barriers between the great nations." My teacher followed up causing Kazemona to smile and take a sip of her drink. Kotoe continued, "If Iwa captured those small villages, it would threaten the legitimacy of Konoha's borders and so we had to step in."

"It caused a domino effect in which the other Great Nations deemed it necessary to start invading the smaller countries in order to prevent an uprising." Kazemona continued once again, picking off where Kotoe left. "And since their actions caused a conflict of interest amongst the other villages, well the end result is as you see now. In other words-" here she placed her cup down before opening her eyes, "The small nations could be considered a greater contributing factor to the current state of affairs and if you really wanted to blame something more intrinsic, I suppose human nature would also be at fault. The greed of the smaller nations caused them to start skirmishes between each other in order to obtain more power while the Five villages were weakened, likewise, the Five Countries, feeling their pride trampled and fear of their way of life being threatened decided to retaliate."

There was another pause of silence before the village leader sighed, "Envy, greed, pride, fear, they are all emotions that can drive individuals to do unsavory things, let alone a group of them." He paused before slightly shaking his head, "At the end of the day the only thing that matters in this world is power, whether it be political or personal. Without the kind of power necessary to play a role in this war, we will all be forced to either endure or rely on those stronger than us."

His words made the rest of us quiet as we knew he was mainly referencing himself, but my mind was elsewhere, "Strength to stop a war..."

As I was now, I was simply too weak.

I never had any illusion that I was strong, after all, my teacher was still stronger than me if we went by our plain stats alone. I hadn't been the only one improving in the past years. In the grand scheme of things, I wasn't an important factor in this war. My presence in the world at this point was pretty much inconsequential. Even though my emotions were dulled and I didn't care much for anything, I still did want to live, but with my current strength level, that was impossible.

If I were to go up against someone like Kushina, Hiruzen, Or Jiraiya, I had no doubt in my mind that they would be able to kill me.

With a finger.

This wasn't just a difference in level or ability that made me think that, but a complete difference in strength, a difference that I would not have been aware of if not for the change that popped up after I had reached level 50.

If I wanted to live a calm life.

With no worries.

Or regrets.

I needed to grow stronger.

Much stronger.

"I suppose I can test some things later…"

"On that note." Boar spoke up, his voice cleaving the sullen atmosphere, "How do the defenses in this place look like? Coming in I saw that the surroundings were short on manpower and there were several other deficiencies in the defensive capabilities of the wall around your city."

Seeing as the conversation had begun going back to a more productive route, the village leader answered immediately, "The last few attacks have caused substantial damage to our forces as a lot of my men have been injured. They also haven't been kind to our wall as you've stated. Mainly we will need more eyes and ears on the northern portion of the villager where the attacks have been more frequent."

We all took in this information and Tsuchiyo nodded his head before asking another important question, "Who exactly have been the primary aggressors? Along the way, I know we were nearly ambushed by Mist shinobi but have there been other major or minor villages participating in these attacks?"

The older man shook his head, "No it's mainly been The Mist that has been harassing us and occasionally we have had run-ins with Lightning Country, but those have been few and far in between."

"The Mist really doesn't have anything better to do, do they?" Kazemona muttered.

"Can you blame them though?" My teacher said ill humoredly, "They've lost the least in this war due to their territory being in the middle of the ocean. They don't have any small nations to act as buffers between them and the other big countries due to their location acting as a natural buffer zone. They didn't have to cull any uprisings from any the smaller nations and really had no reason to take part in the war."

"That is the gist of it." The village leader said.

"I see…" Tsuchiyo muttered with a thoughtful expression before nodding. "Let me know about any other weak points of the village and we can work out a plan of action."

The village leader nodded and began to describe his defensive layout, my teacher and Kazemona adding in their input as well.

"Adult talk…" I thought, deciding to only pay half-attention. With my Eidetic Memory, as long as I was paying marginal attention, I would remember all the information. I noticed Tonbee leave the room for whatever reason and decided not to dwell on it.

I turned my gaze towards Hotaru who had been silent ever since Shiranami left. I could sense a growing sadness in her through my Empathy and so, being the kind and considerate individual I was, I asked, "…did your parents die too?"

"…"

There was no doubt in my mind that I would need a shower after having received such a dirty glare from my inquiry. It was a good thing the adults were too busy talking about perimeter set-up points to listen in on my conversation or I might have been scolded by my teacher.

"There is something wrong with you." The blond haired girl stated before her expression became slightly forlorn once more. "…I miss her."

I blinked, "I'm assuming you mean your mother…do you and Shiranami share the same mother?" I asked curiously.

She shook her head, "No, I didn't really know his mother, but my mom…" She bit her lip as sadness seeped deeper into her, "…I miss her."

I rested my cheek against my palm, "What about your dad?"

Again she shook her head, "I never got to know him since he died when I was too young to remember."

At this moment, Tonbee re-entered the room with refreshments in hand and placed them around the table before standing next to Hotaru and asking her kindly, "Lady Hotaru, let me take your empty plate for you."

The girl's expression brightened up every so slightly as she replied, "Thank you Tonbee."

The man nodded in reply, "It is my duty, there is no need for you to thank me." And with that, he took her empty plate and I watched him leave once more, noting that Hotaru's emotions were slightly brighter than before.

"…well even if you don't have your parents, there still seems to be people in your life who care for you." I stated to the blonde.

She blinked and gave a light smile, "I suppose that's true."

Eventually, after having my fill and partially zoning out of the conversation, the long breakfast ended as the head of the table stood up. "Thank you for joining me today and discussing our courses of action. With you by our side, I feel like my village will prosper just a little more."

"The thanks is all ours." Boar said standing up, the rest of us following suit. "We will do what we can to protect your village on our honor as Leaf shinobi."

The village leader smiled, "I feel assured already." He then looked at Tonbee before stating, "Please do show our guests out, there are some things that I am unfortunately late to attending to."

"As you wish." The man said with a bow, before giving us a nod and leading us out the door.

"I again would like to thank you on behalf of our village." The man said with a bow before continuing, "I believe you will be able to make your way back to your residence, but just in case…" he fished out a scroll from his pocket and handed it to Tsuchiyo, "This is a general map of the village with your residence marked here." He said, pointing at a specific area on the eastern part of the map. "Again thank you." And with that, the man went back into the house.

There was a moment of silence before a collective sigh rang out amongst my group.

"That was way too stiff." Turtle said whole rubbing his legs. "Having to sit in a seiza for that long makes my legs numb."

My teacher rolled her eyes, "Come on Yurai, it wasn't that bad, though I do admit that sitting formally for such a long time gets uncomfortable."

Yes, Turtle's real name was Yurai.

"That's what I'm saying." The silver haired individual stated while cracking his neck, before looking at Boar, "Well, what's the next course of action?"

"First thing's first." The man said, tucking the scroll away, "This village is down on manpower as most of them are injured. It would help if we could remedy that a little. Yoru."

"…on it." I said before 20 clones of me appeared around us. They all went towards the direction of the General hospital of this town in order to help heal the injured Tsuchigumo shinobi.

Tsuchiyo nodded his head, "Good now with that done, Me, Viper, Tiger, And Monkey will survey the landscape more thoroughly in the cardinal directions. Yoru, you can take a little break from your work last night while the rest of you should keep your guard up. Any suggestion?"

At the lack of response, Tsuchiyo nodded, "Then let's begin."

With that, he and his assigned group spread out leaving Kotoe, Yurai, Kazemona and I at the area.

"I'll be at the market district." Kazemona stated, her blond hair waving in the wind as she turned around. "I'll meet you all back at our place." And no sooner did she vanish from sight.

"I'll be off running around." Yurai said before quickly dashing off.

"And I'll stay back at our building." Kotoe stated before patting my head, "Stay safe Yoru."

"…I'll be fine."

She smiled and vanished as well leaving me alone in the relatively empty surroundings.

"I really shouldn't be doing this now, but I need to make up for my lack of physical training…" I thought before sensing if there were any human in my general vicinity.

Seeing as the coast was all clear, I thought to myself, "ID Create: Empty." And immediately, the world around me changed.

From my position as the epicenter, a dome spread throughout and changed the landscape of the surroundings. The sun was dark red and the sky was purple, there was neither wind nor sound of birds chirping. It was eerily quiet, however, my enhanced hearing picked up the sounds of moaning and groaning coming from the distance.

"This place…" I thought to myself. I didn't really bother training here since I was mainly focused on research and when I did train, there was no need for me to come here. The Monster IDs were good for leveling up and possibly training skills, but aside from that it actually wasn't all that special in terms of growing my personal strength. I could still get practice for my skills through shadow clones and so I didn't need to be here for that and leveling only gave me stat points which I had only used a few of in these past years. All in all, I would probably never be here unless I wanted to get away for a little bit.

Despite this, I had been spending more time in the Monster IDs ever since a change had occurred to me not so long ago which lead me to believe that speeding up my leveling was beneficial.

"Menu" I thought, opening up a list in front of my view.

[Status]

[Skills]

[Attributes]

[Inventory]

[Display Settings]

"I swear that last one wasn't there before…" I thought before lightly sighing and clicking on Attributes causing the interface to change before a list popped up in front of my view.

Click on the attribute below to see its description

[Visible Attributes]

-Hit Points (HP)

-Chakra Points (CP)

-Chakra Control (CC)

-Strength (STR)

-Vitality (VIT)

-Dexterity (DEX)

-Intelligence (INT)

-Wisdom (WIS)

-Energy (ENGY)

[Hidden Attributes]

-Tiers (T)

-Physical Damage (P. DMG)

-Energy Damage (E. DMG)

-Spiritual Damage (S. DMG)

-Attack Potency (AP)

-Speed (SPD)

-Lifting Strength (LS)

-Striking Strength (SS)

-Durability (DUR)

I had scanned this list plenty of times before.

There were so many aspects to my ability that I had never even explored simply because I had simply never thought to look into them. I had always simply assumed my Status and Skills were all the components that made up this game-like interface of mine. I hummed to myself before clicking on Physical Damage. While the other Attributes had a lot of important information that I constantly read through (even though it was unnecessary due to my Eidetic Memory) the one that was relevant to my current situation right now was Physical Damage. However, I couldn't help but briefly turn my gaze towards the glowing Tiers attribute and sighing.

I focused on the information before me.

Physical Damage (P. DMG):

Physical Damage is a hidden attribute that determines the damage output of your physical attacks. The scale of damage slightly increases with each level you earn, therefore, the damage might need to be calculated differently in order to accurately represent the total damage output of your attacks.

(NOTE: Enemies of a lower Tier than you will experience more damage when you attack them. Enemies of a higher Tier will experience less damage when you attack them.)

My gaze was leveled on the information detailing how my damage would increase as my level did. This was only one of the few things that lead me to decide that leveling up would be in my best interest even if my stats lagged behind slightly. The only reason I had found this menu was because of the notification I had gotten when I had hit level 50.

After reaching Lvl 50, you can now view [Hidden Attributes] in Menu

This was also the event that caused me to eventually discover the Menu function of my ability.

My physical damage output had increased from before, but it wasn't enough to be noticeable. Taken this way, my damage would actually start to grow at a slightly exponential rate as I gained more stats. With the knowledge of these new attributes as well, I was beginning to wonder if it would be better to just increase my level, thereby increasing my overall damage output. It wouldn't be noticeable immediately, but it would add up eventually.

"First thing's first…" I thought before creating multiple copies of myself and having them train in my water style techniques. Since I was so close to maximum proficiency in it, I might as well see if I could get it done with.

With that, the 180 copies of myself went off into the distance in order to spam water techniques.

"Now then…" I said to myself before clicking on the Tiers icon.

"Tiers…" I thought as I tapped my chin.

There was a reason why I believed that I wouldn't stand even a fraction of a chance against in a somewhat serious fight between myself and a shinobi like Jiraiya or Minato.

It was mostly because of the difference in Tiers between us.

More specifically, their Tier advantage over me.

There were many different Tiers depending on the level of the individual and they were measured by a number followed by a subunit letter. The lower the number, the greater the tier, for example, civilians had a tier of around 10-C which was a lower tier than Jounin who had tiers ranging from 7-C to 7-B. In the same field, a tier of 7-A was greater than a tier of 7-B.

There were 3 sub-tiers in each tier ranging from letters C to A and in order to gain a certain tier level, one needed to have a high enough level and the corresponding stats for that tier. Generally speaking, a shinobi at Minato's level would on average have around the same level of power and would have a tier of 7-A+. For me, however, even if I power leveled up to his level, if my stats were not up to a certain standard, I wouldn't gain the tier associated with that level. Similarly, if I had the average stats of someone at a 7-A tier, but my level wasn't high enough to match that, I wouldn't gain the tier bonus associated with that tier.

Why was tier even important?

The reason was simple and a little complex.

The general gist of it was that if an individual was a tier above another person (I.e. they were 7-C while their opponent was 8-A or lower) then there was some kind of huge damage bonus applied to their attacks against their opponent, and this bonus stacked. In other words, someone like my teacher who was a high-level Jonin shinobi would deal much more damage to an average Chunin who would be in a lower tier than her. Even though tier bonus damage stacked, it didn't account for hax abilities or anything. Just basic energy, physical, or spiritual attacks. Furthermore, a lower tier individual (8-A) facing a higher tier individual (7-A) would do much less damage to them because they were at a lower tier. As a matter of fact, I wasn't even sure they would be able to do any damage to them unless of course certain techniques were used.

Someone at a higher tier than you didn't just have a higher level or better stats. The visible attributes could only tell so much about an individual but it didn't include innate capabilities and more importantly, hidden attributes. Furthermore, it seemed as if those at a higher tier were almost at a different life level. It was kind of like how a child would never be able to beat an adult in a straight up fight. if the child was given a gun then he might be able to win, but even then it wasn't a guarantee. Additionally, an individual at a higher sub-tier (7-A vs. 7-B) would also have a greater damage multiplier than those in a lower sub-tier and this bonus increased as the tiers became larger again, not including hax skills like reality manipulation, though that was just my speculation.

All of this roughly translated to

"If I fought Minato to the death right now…he could kill me with a finger."

Not only would he cause more damage to me, but his stats were also much greater than mine and so even with the normal damage calculation (without Tier bonuses) he could one shot me. Furthermore, this tier bonus applied in reverse and by that, I meant that while Minato would cause more damage to me, I would do less damage to him.

However, there were some exceptions or rules for almost everything. If Minato gave me a glancing blow, I wouldn't suffer much damage for example. This was also one of the reasons why the damage I did to others varied in value even though my stats were basically static. It was just a difference in where I hit and how hard I hit. Furthermore, if he only cut off my hand or something, then I wouldn't die even though his pure physical damage alone would be enough to kill me. There were many hidden variables to account for when calculating damage output such as you Durability and the opponent's Attack Potency. Another example would be how damage taken to the head usually dealt more damage than say a hit to the stomach.

Suddenly-

Ping!

Congratulations! [Natural Water Affinity] has leveled up by 1!

Congratulations! [Natural Water Affinity] has reached level 100 MAX!

Congratulations! [Chakra Control (CC)] has increased to 97%!

"Hmm…neat." I thought.

Along with the completion of my rumination, I thought for a moment on what else I could accomplish while I was here. For starters, I needed a powerful attack since, while my stats weren't anything to write home about, I did have a lot of chakra at my disposal. If I fought someone stronger than me and didn't really have the luxury of running away, I could blast him with something powerful and hopefully take care of him/her, so I needed something that would use my abundant chakra all at once in a powerful burst. Sure it wasn't the most optimal attack solution, but it would be quite powerful and it could be used in tight situations. I thought for a moment on what type of technique I wanted to create…

"What about something explosive…?"

Along those thoughts, I gathered my chakra to the palms of my hands and converted it into lightning attributed energy before condensing it. Slowly, I separated the palms of my hands while a ball of condensed lightning formed in between, however, I didn't stop there. I gathered as much chakra from my chakra center as I could, converted it into electricity, and continuously added and condensed it to the ball of lightning in my hand. It was only because of my immense chakra control and perfect control over my lightning attribute that I was able to condense this amount of concentrated energy into a single point. As the ball of condensed lightning became as large as a human head, stray arcs of electricity discharging from the sphere.

"This will do." I said and opened my eyes before launching the orb of condensed energy into the distance. I watched in interest as the ball of condensed electricity flew away towards a distant hill…

And obliterated it.

In an immense explosion of lightning energy, the ball of lightning expanded enormously as soon as it impacted the large hill. I could feel the shockwaves from even a kilometer away as a light breeze and subconsciously closed my eyes a bit, before the wind quickly died down.

Congratulations, you have created a new skill! What would you like to name it?

"I'm not really good at naming…" I thought before shrugging. "Lightning Bomb."

Ping!

Congratulations, you have created a new skill, 'Lightning Bomb'

Lightning Release: Lightning Bomb (Active) Lvl MAX

Lightning Bomb is a skill made by condensing the user's chakra into a packed ball of electricity that expands when released from the user.

Range: 1% per unit of Chakra used in meters (If you use 1000 units of chakra for the skill, it will have a range of 10 meters)

Damage: Every unit of CP packed into the skill (I.e. if the user used 1000 units of CP into the skill, it will do 1000HP worth of damage not including bonuses.)

Cost: Varies based on the amount of chakra used for the skill

"This is a useful technique…kind of hit or miss though." I thought as I read through the description. This was a powerful and useful skill and as my level and stats increased, it would also grow along with me. The downside was that it took a while to charge and any competent shinobi would be able to kill me before I could adequately gather enough chakra for the technique to be useful. Plus, it was an extremely chakra intensive technique in order for it to be effective. If I put all my eggs into that basket and missed, I would be screwed.

However-

"It will do for now." I said.

Now then, there was still one last thing I wanted to create.

Intent.

The feeling of the Third Hokage's killing intent had left a profound impression on me and it was something I wanted to replicate. Utilizing that sort of intent on an enemy would be quite impactful in a battlefield as a form of psychological warfare and if my enemies were distracted for a moment, I could easily capitalize on that for a decisive kill.

Intent of any kind was born from the mind and actualized in the spirit.

What this meant was that if an individual wanted someone else to feel their intent, they would need to manifest it in the world through the use of their Yin chakra half. From all the research Kotoe had given me on chakra, I knew how chakra was composed on Yin and Yang and that this union birthed the five primary elements of chakra that was seen in people: Wind, Water, Earth, Fire, and Lightning.

But that wasn't what was important.

No, what was important was that like the five primary chakra elements, Yin and Yang could actually be used to create techniques. The Hiden, or secret techniques, of Konoha's Nara clan Shadow Imitation Technique and Akimichi clan Multi-Size Technique, utilized Yin and Yang release respectively and were not tied into any of the five elements.

Yin Release was based on the spiritual energy that governed imagination and was created by altering the ratio of spiritual and physical energy in favor of the former.

Yang Release was based on the physical energy that governed vitality and was created by altering the ratio of spiritual and physical energy in favor of the latter.

For now, I was focused on the first one.

From what I read, in order to actualize intent with Yin release, you needed to be at least moderately familiar with it since intent wasn't a difficult technique to develop. Thankfully, my Illusion Mastery was based on genjutsu which fell under the broad category of Yin Release, so I had a good amount of familiarity with it. The only reason I assumed I hadn't gotten a Yin Affinity or something like that was probably due to the fact that I hadn't explicitly employed it in my genjutsu. It was basically like how you wouldn't expect to gain Yin or Yang release just by employing any random chakra based technique despite chakra being composed of Yin and Yang.

With that, I calmed my thoughts and focused my mind in my chakra center. Differentiating between the Yin portion of my chakra wasn't too difficult and getting a feel for it was actually easier than I thought. I was quite good at genjutsu after all, so I wasn't too surprised.

Ping!

Congratulations! You have unlocked Yin Affinity!

Yin Affinity (Passive) Lvl 1 [00.00%]

Yin Release is one of the two nature transformations that exist outside of the elemental circle and is based on the spiritual energy that governs imagination. Yin Affinity increases the effectiveness of your mental based techniques such as illusions and other forms of mental attacks.

Passively Increase Yin Release effects 0.125%

Reduce cost of Yin release Ninjutsu by 0.25%

I looked at the information displayed in front of me in thought. A prevalent observation I had immediately made was the fact that as opposed to the bonuses I got from my Natural Affinities, the ones I had obtained from my plain Yin Affinity were half what I would usually obtain. This meant that having a natural affinity in those elements simply made me better and more effective at using them overall, however other individuals could also theoretically level up their normal affinities (the ones they didn't have naturally) to "level 100" as well.

Ohh well, It didn't really affect what I had to do.

After obtaining my affinity, I concentrated my mind. Utilizing Hypercous, I rapidly understood and utilized my intent in conjunction with my Yin Release. With but a thought, I was able to feel a pull on the Yin aspect of my chakra as I pushed forward with my intent generating a formless wave of powerful energy that I could distinctly feel.

Ping!

Congratulations, you have created a new skill! What would you like to name it?

"Yin Release: Spiritual Pressure."

Ping!

Congratulations! You have learned [Yin Release: Spiritual Pressure]!

Yin Release: Spiritual Pressure (Active/Passive) Lvl 1 [00.00%]

Yin Release: Spiritual Pressure subjects the opponent to an energy-based mental pressure that can induce certain negative mental effects such as fear. The effects are greater the more energy (in your case CP) you contain compared to your opponent.

Cost: 100 CP per sec

Duration: 1 minute.

I nodded in appreciation and turned off my new skill before standing up.

I had finished doing what I had come here to do.

More importantly, I now had a lot of skills, so I quickly opened my 'Menu'

[Status]

[Skills]

[Attributes]

[Inventory]

[Display Settings]

And clicked on Skills.

As I scrolled through them, I couldn't help but think about how disorganized it was. I would have to fix that later, maybe by butting my elemental skills as sub-skills under their affinity and arranging this entire mess by alphabetical order. I went to Display Settings and adjusted a few parameters on my info screen before a message popped up.

Would you like to save these settings?

Y/N

"Of course…" So I clicked Y and instantly, my skill list became more organized and appealing to look at.

Now with that out of the way.

"It's about time I leave…ID: Escape."

I thought to myself as I snapped my fingers causing the sky to crack before breaking into pieces. Unfortunately, I had not accounted for the fact that my location in the ID had changed and that I had exited at the corresponding location in the real world, so here I was in the middle of the village with people looking at me awkwardly from my sudden appearance.

Luckily, this was a shinobi village and people disappeared and appeared all the time so they soon ignored my presence and went on with their lives.

And so, I went on with mine.

3rd Person POV

Shiranami looked up to the night sky before sighing and turning around. There before him were 4 other individuals communicating among themselves quietly.

"Magaki Group." He stated, gathering their attention. "Konoha's presence has made things slightly problematic, but this could also be considered a chance for me."

One of the individuals, a man named Akaboshi, stepped forward and asked, "Then, in the meantime, what will you have us do?" His question was mirrored with murmurs from the other 3 individuals who were curious as well.

"Nothing at all." Shiranami replied. "Just do whatever it is you do in your simple lives, but in about a week, we will begin." Saying so he stood up from the grass and walked back towards his building, yet a disturbing smile made its way on his face.

"This rotten world…" he began to think, his grin growing wider. "…I'll make it crumble."

Plot-wise we have some introduction to other parts of his system which will be eventually revealed in time and how it affects him if it does at all. Till next time.