Spiritual epiphany

Now a full genin team with a Jonin mentor, we started our first D-rank missions in or around Konoha. Mito, Sasuke, Sakura and I arrived at the Hokage Residence in the morning. We waited an hour for Kakashi. During that time, the other teams with their mentors had already received their missions and went to do them, and our mentor received the mission last. Our task was to weed the vegetable garden. We paid five thousand Ryo per team for the mission, which is about five hundred dollars if you look at local prices. A quarter of the sum was taken by the village, another quarter went to the team's mentor, and the rest was divided among the team members; that is, I personally got six hundred and twenty-five ryo, or sixty-two and a half dollars, which is not much, but if you work alone, and perform missions every day, then for a month you can earn more than a hundred thousand Ryo, that is ten thousand dollars, it's enough for a normal life, without luxury and excesses, but shinobi are not particularly fancy.

When we arrived at the field, we saw it was overgrown with weeds from edge to edge, taller than even Kakashi. While we were looking around, our mentor said:

- Here, work hard, and try to clean up the field by evening. - Kakashi sat down on a rock.

- Well, Mokuto... - I started to fold the seals, but Kakashi threw a pebble at me, but I used phasing. The stone flew through, hitting Sasuke, who was now looking at the field and apparently thinking of burning the weeds with fire technique.

- Ouch. - Sasuke turned to Kakashi.

- No Mokuton, Katon, other elemental techniques, or shinobi techniques generally work with your hands. - said the jounin, and it was obvious that he was smiling gloatingly under the mask.

- Can you make clones, dattebayo? - Mito asked.

- You can't. Now you will tear up the grass and practice disguising yourself as an ordinary villager working in the fields. If you're given a spy mission sometime, and you have to play the role of an ordinary farmer, this training will come in handy to make you less suspicious. If you want, you can also use Henge and turn into a farmer. - Kakashi said.

- Ah, that's how... I see, then. - Sakura nodded after hearing the explanation.

- But we're an assault team; our job is to fight. If we're going to be spying, we'd better use shinobi, who can hide their Chakra because no matter how well she tears grass or plays the role of a farmer, I can feel her Chakra halfway across the village. It would be more rational to spend time on our combat training rather than training in disguise, which some of us are completely incapable of, but can become strong fighters. - I said.

- I'm the mentor here, and decide what your team will do today. If you can clear the field of weeds before lunch, I'll give you the rest of the afternoon to train. - Kakashi replied.

- ..." I stood silently, sending Mokuto's Chakra into the soil, changing the weeds, causing their root systems to weaken and shrivel and the top part of the greenery to grow into a dense carpet so that it could be rolled up.

- Naruto, I have one eye covered by a protector, but I'm not blind. You used Mokuto's technique and violated my orders, which means you won't get your part of the reward. Although you accelerated the mission, we'll get a new one where you'll still have to work with your hands. You've just made things more difficult with your antics. - Kakashi said, and my team members looked at me unhappily.

- I'm doing this for you; what are you looking at? - I formed a seal of concentration, and the vegetation in the field rolled up into a green bale that could be fed to the cattle.

- Naruto, we're going to take on a new mission; we've completed this one, but different from how I told you to. - Kakashi rose from the stone and headed towards the Hokage Residence again.

- Naruto, don't show off. - Sasuke said, walking past me.

- Are you going to have a wedding contest with your brother or a bloody battle to the death? I want Kakashi to train us to fight, not teach us how to tear the grass. - I said, also heading towards the Hokage Tower.

- If you ignore your mentor's orders, he won't train us. - Sasuke answered without turning to me.

- He won't train us anyway; it needs to be clarified by now. - I added and went on silently... well, it turned out that way.

Kakashi would take easy but time-consuming and labour-intensive missions where we had to work like normal people. We would finish the task by the evening, and Kakashi would just go home, ignoring our training. If by some miracle we managed to complete a mission before dinner, Kakashi would just say we were cheating, forfeit the reward in his favour, and take a new mission, which we would complete before the evening... but he was right about cheating, my teammates started using Chakra to speed up the missions too, and it was paying off, we were finishing earlier, but it wasn't helping to get Kakashi to train us, he was just finding excuses not to train us.

In the end, I decided to do the missions in my own way and get the benefit of them as training. Namely, I increase my gravity to 15G, the maximum load I can move now, with each action requiring more effort than lifting a barbell.

Now I was getting tired and sweaty while weeding the vegetable garden as if I were lifting a barbell instead of a home, which was true, but the results were amazing. My stamina and strength began to grow as if on yeast, and my body grew upwards and wide again. When the load became more familiar to me and I adapted to this weight, I increased the load again and at once by 1G.

An ordinary person in an accident experiences an overload of 9G. In comparison, fighter pilots can experience an overload of 12G in a special suit. If I were a normal person, I'd be flattened at 15G, but I'm not a normal person.

I have two advantages over normal humans. The first is that I have a shinobi body with a chakra body, which has the energy content of cells that allows it to withstand tremendous physical exertion, plus my body has very good Uzumaki and Senju genes. The second is the ArkAnima system, which allows me to quickly adapt to the strain, heal, and ultimately, it's the system that provides the strain while safely distributing it throughout my body.

Also, after the missions, I wanted to start training Mito... but that lazy little fox decided that since Sensei didn't train us, we didn't need it. So my attempts to teach her something were again met with her colossal laziness, so I decided to give Mito an incentive to train.

Today on the mission, my team and I chopped wood for the bath complex. Kakashi had left without even saying goodbye because he knew I would piss him off with training again. He had run out of excuses for not training my team.

- Well, we did great today, we still have two hours before dinner, and if we had a normal sensei, he could have devoted that time to our training. Still, we have a saboteur instead of a sensei... by the way, does anyone else have any hope that Kakashi will ever train us? - I asked the tired Sasuke, Mito and Sakura, with the pink-haired girl being the most tired.

- Naruto, what kind of training? I can barely lift my arm? - Sakura said pitifully.

- Sakura, don't complain. Sasuke is looking at you and needs a strong kunoichi to rebuild the clan. - I pointed at the Uchiha, who rolled his Sharingan upwards at my words.

- Oh, that Kakashi-sensei, I want to train so badly, and he just left... I'll have to go home and rest now, and I wanted to train so badly. - Sakura said playfully, looking at Sasuke.

- Pfft... - Sasuke said tiredly and went home.

- If you want to train so much, Sakura, I can help you with it. Come train with me and Mito? - I suggested it.

- Umm... I'm tired..." the girl replied again pitifully as Sasuke disappeared from sight.

- Naruto, all you have on your mind is training, dattebayo. - said the lazy vixen.

- ...How difficult it is with you..." I said and used Henge to take the form of Sasuke, "Sakura, love, let's go to training; I'll help you become strong so that you can be a worthy wife to me. Once we both become chuunin, I will propose marriage to you. - I kneeled in front of Sakura and held my hands to her.

- Sasuke-kun... wife... I agree. - replied the embarrassed pink-haired girl.

- Come, beloved Sakura, I'll teach you how to walk through the trees. - I took Sakura's hand.

- Come, Sasuke-kun. - Sakura, who would do anything for Sasuke-kun, replied.

- Sakura, it's Naruto, dattebayo! - Mito reminded Sakura.

- Don't believe her, she's lying, my love Sakura. - I hugged the pink-haired girl.

- Yes, Sasuke-kun, she's lying... - Sakura warmed up in my arms, and I took her to the training ground, followed by Mito, who looked at me unkindly and jealously; she even tried to pinch me to dispel the Henge, but with my control, I didn't let my disguise dissipate.

I've noticed that Mito can only learn quickly when she's on fire, so to speak, such as with the Shadow Clones she learnt in less than an hour. Well, Mito is also good at competing with someone, and to ensure that competition, I invited Sakura to train with her.

Sakura had to be trained under the guise of Sasuke; it was the easiest and most effective way to motivate the girl; thanks to this approach, Sakura learnt to walk on trees in just two days. I lavished compliments on the pink-haired girl for her progress, and considering I looked like Sasuke, it made Sakura squeal with delight. After walking on trees, I began to teach Sakura how to walk on water. When explaining and training, I purposely and defiantly spent more time with her.

On the other hand, Mito was angry that I was paying more attention to someone personally than to her, and the fact that someone was a girl made her even angrier. It had only been three days since Sakura had come to our training sessions, and when I taught her to walk in the water, she clung to me as tightly as possible with her wet body. She's already got a good chest there, so she's got plenty of room to cuddle.

When Sakura learnt to walk on water, she wanted to brag about it to the real Sasuke, so after our next mission, she invited him to train together and got a succinct reply:

- Pfft. - The Uchiha replied and went home.

- Sasuke-ku-un... - Sakura said pitifully, looking after the departing Sasuke.

- Sakura-chan, don't be upset. Let's go to train; sooner or later, this Uchiha will open his Sharingan and see your beauty and strength. - I said, taking the form of Sasuke.

- Naruto, aren't you tired of going in Transfiguration as Sasuke, dattebayo? - Mito asked the question.

- I'm doing what I need to do. I'll do it if I need to walk around as Sasuke to motivate Sakura to get stronger. Thanks to Sakura, one lazy red-haired vixen is also motivated to get stronger because I don't know how to get you to train, Mito. We're a team; we're only as strong as the weakest member of our team. - I said, and Sakura lowered her head, thinking I was talking about her," I was talking about Sasuke because he can't walk on trees or water, unlike you.

- Naruto, thanks for helping me," Sakura said, "I wish Sasuke was like you.

- If Sasuke was like me, no one would care about him because here I am, and no one cares about me. - I removed the Henge from me, reassuming my appearance.- Maybe also try on the image of a cold, unsociable muda... shit... prince? Although, without a lot of money and a clan neighbourhood, I won't be able to pull off a trick like Sasuke's. I need to get a lot of money and build a palace first, and then I can try it. Let's go train; if strong, we can fulfil our wishes. Sakura can't become Sasuke's wife, you, Mito, can't become Hokage, and I can't become a rich man with a huge palace full of beauties.

- Naruto, what hotties, dantebayo? - Mito was outraged.

- Blondes, brunettes, redheads, I want twins, or even better, pink-haired triplets too. - I answered calmly.

- Let's go train. I need to be strong to be able to disperse these beauties of yours from your palace, dattebayo. - replied Mito.

- Well... a good motivating reason to train too. Sakura, are you coming? I have more things to teach you, like this. - I wrapped my palm in Chakra, creating a Chakra Scalpel, which I used to cut through the nearest large rock.

- Hey, I want to do that, too, Dantebayo! Why don't you teach me how to do that, dattebayo?! - shouted Mito.

- What do you mean, I don't teach you? I make you train every day, if you were not lazy, I would have taught you a cool technique long ago, but it requires good chakra control and walking on trees and water. Just train this control. - I replied, and Mito looked away, "Oh, what kind of team do I have? One lazy vixen, Sakura, a shark-eyed lupo and me, and Sensei is an enemy saboteur who doesn't even think about teaching us anything. Just a dream team.

- Let's go practice, dantebayo. - Mito took me by the sleeve and led me to the range, and Sakura followed.

Sasuke didn't train with us in the end, he left immediately after the missions, and I didn't really insist on his presence, just to clear my conscience; I invited him once but got his contemptuous "Pfft" in response and didn't call him again. Sakura and I talked at the academy, on holidays, and after missions, and then I started calling her for training. However, with Sasuke, I only had a little contact, even at the academy... well, I'm not interested in guys. And Sasuke will probably go to Orochimaru anyway, so let him go without knowing my abilities. Of course, I didn't show my real abilities in training with Mito and Sakura. Still, because I used the Wood Element, they obviously noticed but didn't pay much attention to it.

I slowed down a bit in my ninjutsu training because I was spending my time training Sakura and Mito. Because of the physical training, I didn't have enough energy. I've been using more and more energy to maintain and regenerate my body. When I run out of life energy, I use Mana to heal my body. When I run out of magic energy, I must maintain my body with Irenian techniques that use Chakra. Because of this energy expenditure, I ate a lot, probably even more than Akimichi.

There are several ways to deal with the lack of energy, all of which I will eventually try. Still, the most suitable one for me is sen chakra, i.e. the natural Chakra in the environment. I should try to master the Sennin mod, but it's dangerous and almost impossible without help from the summoner.

There is a lot of sen-chakra in the forest of the Valley of Completion; to feel it faster, I decided to let a small amount of it into my body. First, I spent almost all of my Chakra to create clones, and then I weakened the flow of my remaining Chakra through the chakra channels; this reduced the pressure and allowed the sen-chakra to enter my body through the tenketsu, and as soon as the natural energy entered my body, I felt a burning pain in my chakra channels and in the Chakra Hearth, and my hands began to crust over. I urgently dispelled all the clones, then turned into a tree, stopped, and reversed.

- I almost turned into a tree... it was dangerous... and it hurt like acid was poured into my veins... - I started to turn my energy into med-chakra to repair the internal damage to the chakra channels they had received from the sen-chakra.

The sending mode must be learned carefully to avoid turning into a wooden block. Now, I feel what sen-chakra is, and I can learn how to control it... theoretically, it would be difficult to master the natural Chakra without the summoning because even with the summoning, only a few can do it.

Although Hashirama was able to enter sennin mode without his summoning being known. The First Hokage didn't need a summon, though, because he could use Mokuto to create a colossal wooden golem capable of fighting Nine-Tails on his own. And no matter how cool the summoned toads were, even their toad boss, Gamabunta, could only delay Fox momentarily.

Mokuton wielders can learn senjutsu and get sennin mode without signing dubious contracts with their blood. Also, blood is required when summoning; somehow, it all smacks of something demonic. But if I had to sign a summoning contract, I'd choose snakes over slugs or toads. The snake boss, Manda, could fight both Gamabunta and Katsuya simultaneously. Still, snakes are the most like demons in terms of paying for their summoning with living humans or shinobi. So I'd rather learn senjutsu myself without turning into a tree in the process.

So, before going to bed, I spend two hours meditating to feel and balance my Chakra with the natural Chakra. And my clones, scattered in the forest near the Valley of Completion, are also meditating, gathering sen chakra and trying to curb it. A couple of times, I had overconcentrated my natural Chakra. I started to get bark again, but I kept a few shadow clones whose pure Chakra could come back to me and squeeze the excess sen-chakra out of my body, bringing everything back to normal. In four and a half months, I haven't found a balance yet, and I haven't been able to get into the sending mode, but I'm getting close.

In addition to mastering sen-chakra, I've been making time to improve my Rasengan. Now I can create a Cho Odama Rasengan, a Super-Huge Spiral Sphere a metre in diameter... and this attack takes half my Chakra, so I can only create two such spheres.

I could also add Wind, Water, and Earth chakra to my Rasengans. When I threw a Water Rasengan, a water vortex would form at the spot where it fell, cutting everything around it with watery slashes. Applying Mizuto-Rasengan on a huge rock, I got a large pebble with smooth and sharp edges at the end of the technique.

Doton-Rasengan created a storm of stone shrapnel on the spot where it fell, turning everything around it into a sieve. After using this Rasengan on a huge rock, I ended up with a rock so holey that it looked more like a big grey sponge.

Well, the effect of Wind Rasengan is also clear; it creates an explosion and shreds everything around it with blades of wind. I wanted to try making Rasengan with Ice and Wood Chakra, but I still need more control.

I've also learnt how to make variations of Shadow Clones with elemental Chakra, i.e. Water Clones, Stone Clones, and Wind Clones. The first Suiton Clone was useful in water battles, the second clone Doton Clone was fireproof in addition to its durability, and the Wind Clone could hover in the air and could be used as an aerial scout... in general, these clone variations were rather situational. They could be used in certain situations, but generally, they were similar to Shadow Clones.

The most useful Clones were Wood and Ice, which are superior in strength to the Chakra Flesh Clone. However, my best doppelganger was the Wood Chakra Flesh Clone, it was equal in strength to me, except it was limited to Suiton's techniques, Doton and Mokuton, and couldn't use my special techniques tied to my soul and system, but otherwise, he was incredibly strong, could turn his limbs into woody elongating paws, and generally use Mokuton on an intuitive level.

I could also make an Ice Clone out of chakra flesh, but although it was stronger than a simple ice clone, it was much weaker than one made of wood. This is likely due to two factors; the first is the natural Chakra that accumulates better in Mokuto and makes this clone stronger. The second factor is that wood is closer to living organics and, therefore, better at realising the potential of chakra flesh.

For the evolution of the Hoshingan, I need the data from the awakened Mangekyo Sharingan that... tram-pum-pum-pum... our Sensei had. Even though Kakashi isn't an Uchiha, he used his Mangekyo quite well. So when my team is working on D-rank missions, our Sensei sits reading his book as usual. I activate analysis on him, and Kakashi blames the strange sensation of analysis on the concentrated resentment of his four genin students working while he's resting. Analysing my Intelligence should take a little time now. Still, I was analysing all of Kakashi, so I needed a lot of unnecessary information besides the Mangekyo Sharingan data. But in three months, I gathered the data I needed, and when that weird feeling disappeared, Kakashi thought we'd just put up with him resting while we worked.

After that, I spent another half a month adding the missing data to my Hoshingan. I only spent a little, just sixty thousand Psy and forty Skill Points, since the Hoshingan needed to be improved, not compiled from scratch. And after about two days of installation, I knew the energy needed to activate the next stage, namely two and a half thousand Chakra. For the record, our old grandfather Hokage now has a reserve of three thousand one hundred Chakra units. A year ago, it was three thousand two hundred units... well, every year, Hiruzen is getting weaker.

I, on the other hand, am just a little short of Chakra. After two weeks of increased training, I can work with the chakra flesh clone to activate the new Hoshingan stage.

Another half a month passed, and I could still activate the next stage of Hoshingan's development. My eyes once again experienced a not-so-pleasant sensation. At the end of the process, a star reappeared on my iris.

My Hoshingan now resembled a Sharingan with three tomoes. Here's how his description has changed:

""Hoshingan IV" 45 Chakra per minute (Fourth stage of a full dojutsu created from the complete Biakugan, Sharingan, Mangekyo Sharingan, Rinnegan and Tenseigan data, and Uzumaki and Senju genes. Activating Hoshingan increases the clarity of vision at a range of 100 metres, as well as extending the viewing angle to 300 degrees. Dojutsu allows you to see in the dark, through thick obstacles, human-generated Chakra, the chakra circulation system and tenketsu, as well as increasing reaction speed by sixty-five per cent and allowing you to additionally see spatial distortion streams and coiled chakra structures. Also grants increased affinity with Water, Earth, Wind, and Fire element chakra, facilitating the creation of dual mixed element chakra. Additionally, passively increases control, the amount of Chakra and its density. To further develop and gain new abilities, the eyes need stage V - 4500 Chakra and 50 Skill Points, stage VI - 7000 Chakra and 70 Skill Points, and Mangekyo Hoshingan - 11,000 Chakra and 100 Skill Points. The Hoshingan is finalised, and it is now additionally possible to add data from other dojutsu. The Hoshingan is a conglomeration of combined complex chakra structures placed in the subspace of the eye, so it will be possible to add features from other dojutsu. After reaching the Mangekyo Hoshingan stage, all the structures will be duplicated many times over time, thus increasing the power of the dojutsu. And in time, when the energy content of the eyes exceeds the ability of the material carrier, then the eyes will become attached to your soul, becoming part of it and will be called Eternal Mangekyo Hoshingan). "

***

- Ho, what great news, it means I didn't waste my time with all this eye stuff. Okay, now let's check out Hoshinghan's new ability. - I said and took one Blast Seal in my hand and started to look at it with my eyes activated and saw the entire hidden structure of this simple Fuin Seal.

Here was the chakra reservoir, here was the converter that converted neutral Chakra into Wind and Fire Chakra, and here was the part responsible for activating and delaying the explosion - one small reservoir and a chain of very tiny ones. By pouring Chakra into the large one, one could achieve an instantaneous explosion upon activation, and by pouring Chakra into the chain links, one could adjust the detonation time of the seal explosion. Also, there was a fuse that prevented others from detonating the seals you had placed.

In general, now Fuinjutsu became much clearer because although all these structures were formed in the form of hieroglyphs and circles drawn with special chakra-containing ink on paper made of chakra-conducting woods, what I saw with ordinary vision, and Hoshingan differed like a black and white silent movie and a colour cinema with surround sound. Now, I'll be able to study the different seals, and I'll start now. After activating the new Hoshingan Chakra stage, I only have a hundred units left.

So, while waiting for the energy to recover, I could disarm the charged seal by absorbing the Chakra from its activation points and using it again; I just needed to re-inject the Chakra into those same points. I could also completely disarm the Blast Seal, making it a useless piece of paper, and I had to absorb Chakra from the main drive. Not everyone can absorb Chakra; only those with good chakra control, such as an A-rang friend.

I also tried to replicate the structure of the blast seal in a small piece of wood created by Mokuto. I saturated certain areas of the wood with Chakra, recreating the pattern I'd seen Hoshinghan use on the blast seal, and I could do it. No hieroglyphics were typical of sealing techniques, but arrows, lines, circles, and zigzags, which were visible only to my Hoshinghan. They also appeared at the moment of the explosion, but if you look at this wood with normal eyesight, it's just an ordinary piece of wood.

Also, my recently increased stats have now allowed me to unlock one useful skill:

""Extra Thought Stream (1)". - Requirement for activation Intelligence 250, Wisdom 250. Cost to activate 40 Skill Points and 1,000,000 Psy (An additional thought stream is created in the mental body, which can eventually become a parallel consciousness. Initially, the newly created thought stream has a power of 25% of the main consciousness; when the power becomes 100%, the thought stream will become a parallel consciousness. Additional thought streams can be created when Intelligence and Wisdom reach 250 points. The next additional thought stream can be created when Intelligence and Wisdom are at 500, at the cost of 40 Skill Points and 1,000,000 Psy.)."

After feeling a little dizzy, I realised thinking was getting easier. After trying to manipulate my Chakra by creating Rasengan and a couple of Mokuto techniques, I realised that the techniques were getting easier about a quarter of the way through. When I rested, I checked my status after four months of intense physical training:

"Status"

Life 163/163/41 per hour

Mana 318/318/65.5 per hour.

Psi 233/430/15.7 per hour

Reatsu 395/395/65.8 per hour

Chakra 1374/1374/260.6 per hour

Skill Points 7

Characteristics:

Strength 291

Dexterity 243

Endurance 326

Intelligence 251

Wisdom 263

Magic 159