This discovery helped balance Kakashi's outlook quite a bit.
He concluded that being able to rapidly increase one's strength just by doing missions might only apply to a handful of exceptionally talented shinobi; the rest were probably like him.
After Kakashi led the group of "little hotshots" back to the village, they all said their goodbyes one by one. Naruto laughed and said, "Kakashi-sensei, I had a blast doing missions today. We'll come find you again tomorrow morning!"
Kakashi: o(╥﹏╥)o
Once Raimon Yukika and Raimon Hayate returned to their lodgings, Senshi used his space–time jutsu to snatch them right before him.
Raimon Yukika: (O_O)???
Raimon Hayate: (O_O)???
With a momentary blink of confusion, the two kids asked curiously, "Headmaster, what's going on?"
Senshi chuckled. "You did well on your missions. Time to level up your 'mission grinding.'"
As he spoke, he gathered a mass of bright blue lightning chakra in his palm. This chakra was extremely violent and destructive, but under Senshi's refinement, it grew purer and purer. Its once-uncontrolled ferocity gradually became tame and manageable.
Moments later, that ball of chakra practically resembled a transparent, sapphire-like crystal. At that point, Senshi stopped and handed the chakra to Raimon Yukika.
Boom!
The high-grade chakra Senshi had refined instantly merged into her body. Right then, she looked almost like the descent of a thunder god, her entire figure cloaked in flickering blue lightning. Her Lightning Release talent, chakra reserves, physical constitution, and her overall command of Lightning techniques soared dramatically on the spot.
Realizing the changes in herself, Raimon Yukika exclaimed with excitement, "Thank you so much, Headmaster!"
She bowed deeply, gratitude written all over her face. As the second-to-last among Amegakure's six-man team, she was desperate to grow stronger.
Having gleaned from this little experiment just how beneficial refined high-grade chakra could be to a Lightning shinobi, Senshi then gave Raimon Hayate the same treatment. He, too, experienced a huge power jump, even improving his affinity for Lightning chakra and his knack for Lightning Release.
"You two should go consolidate your gains. Do your best in the quarterfinal matches coming in a couple of days."
Both Raimon siblings nodded seriously. Senshi then warped them back with his space–time jutsu.
After they left, Karin latched onto Senshi's leg and rubbed her little head against his waist. "Senshi, Senshi, gimme a share of that advanced chakra too!"
Senshi patted her on the head. "That stuff only works for Lightning Release users."
Karin: (O_O)???
Having assumed she could get stronger too, she got upset upon learning she couldn't use that high-grade lightning chakra. "But you still ruffled my hair into a bird's nest, and I didn't get anything out of it!"
Senshi gave a wry smile; apparently Karin had picked up his crafty ways. If there was no benefit, she wouldn't even let him pat her head. With that in mind, he took her neatly combed red hair and mussed it up even more.
Karin: ┗|｀O′|┛ "Aaaah!"
She let out a howl, shouting, "Senshi, you jerk! I demand a duel! A duel, right now!"
Meanwhile, Raimon Yukika and Raimon Hayate headed to the training ground for a quick spar, discovering that their power may have shot up by around 40 percent. It left Senshi practically worshipped as a godlike figure in their eyes. He had merely "bestowed" some chakra upon them, and their strengths soared so drastically—and across the board no less! It was unbelievable.
Nothing else happened that night, and the next morning, Kakashi—looking exhausted—led eight "little hotshots" to the Land of Fire's black market once again. As usual, the eight youngsters fanned out to do missions.
Before long, Kakashi noticed something utterly shocking: Raimon Yukika and Raimon Hayate had also achieved a giant leap in prowess. Seeing this fueled his existential crisis even more.
"Could it be… the reason I haven't improved is that I'm not taking enough missions?"
At present, the black market in the Land of Fire was rather lively. Not only were Kakashi and his eight troublemakers there, Might Guy had also brought Rock Lee to "farm missions." Having them train by doing tasks was a perfect fit—there were far more complicated surprises than just running five hundred laps, which amped up the intensity. Both Guy and Lee found it very worthwhile. Indeed, as Kakashi had said, times had changed. Sticking to traditional training methods no longer cut it.
Spotting Kakashi, Might Guy's eyes lit up. He and Lee ran over. Reaching Kakashi, Guy greeted him with boundless enthusiasm, "Kakashi, my eternal rival, want to have a Burning Youth contest? Also, that training style you recommended for me and Lee is honestly amazing. We both love it!"
Kakashi, at that moment, was steeped in self-doubt. Hearing Guy's invitation, he pondered for a second, then asked, "Guy, using that approach, have you truly felt noticeable progress?"
Guy nodded. "Of course! Doing missions itself is physical training, plus you constantly run into unexpected problems that need solving. Maybe it's not so friendly to ordinary ninja, but for me and Lee, it's perfect."
After hearing that, Kakashi gave a resigned sigh. The method of "spamming missions to level up" undoubtedly worked. But for some reason, everyone else seemed to be benefiting from it—while he got nowhere.
Guy carried on, "Kakashi, how about joining me for some Burning Youth training?"
Kakashi shook his head in refusal. "No, I need some quiet time." He planned to retrace the steps of Naruto and the others' development, to see if he'd missed something crucial that caused him to slip up along the way.
In Konoha, Kumogakure's delegation had yet to depart. Though their elite genin were out of the competition, they stayed to watch the rest of the matches and gather intel, and also to have people approach Senshi for more possible collaboration.
At the inn where they lodged, two Kumo "lightning prodigies," Karui and Omoi, were practicing Lightning Taijutsu under the Raikage's watchful eye. After finishing, they stepped over to the Fourth Raikage. Their losses in the matches had dealt them a big blow, so they trained tirelessly every day.
When they approached, the Fourth Raikage nodded. "Karui, Omoi, well done—knowing shame and then forging on. You didn't collapse from defeat; you've pushed yourselves each day to improve. That's excellent!"
Indeed, there had been so many formidable genin in this exam that numerous "genius" kids had been knocked out. Omoi, who was dark-skinned with white hair, spoke up, "Lord Raikage, I have a question, if that's okay."
The Raikage nodded. "Go ahead."
Omoi hesitated before finally speaking in confusion, "Lord Raikage, how is it that Amegakure ninja can use our Kumo's secret Lightning Taijutsu? And not only that, they're way stronger with it than we are…"
Karui had wanted to ask the same but Omoi beat her to it, so she simply listened. The Raikage found himself at a loss. She, too, had no answer. Supposedly, Kumo ninja had the best Lightning Taijutsu. But apparently not.
Seeing the Raikage fall silent, Karui and Omoi said nothing further. After thinking for a while, the Fourth Raikage told them, "The cause is complicated, but I've already got a solution. I'll let you know soon."
His plan was to send Karui and Omoi to further their studies at the Ame's ninja academy. From the Raikage's perspective, the issue wasn't Karui and Omoi's talent, but Ame's level of teaching.
Teaching standard wasn't something that instantly soared just by wanting it to. Therefore, dispatching Kumo's top lightning talent to Ame for advanced training was the best move. He still needed to discuss this with Kumo upper echelon and also talk to Senshi before letting Karui and Omoi in on the plan.
Of course, the Raikage wasn't the only one intent on Ame's Academy. Over in Iwagakure's inn, Onoki and Iwa higher-ups were similarly talking about Ame. The first to speak was Onoki's granddaughter, Kurotsuchi:
"According to what I found, Uzumaki Musen and the other four from Ame were initially just refugees in various corners of the ninja world. But unbelievably, it's only been half a year since Ame began taking in refugees and started up its ninja academy. Meaning, they've had at most six months of training, yet they're already this strong."
With that, the entire room fell silent. Typically, big villages begin training their elites from a very early age. If conditions allowed, they'd start around age four or five, raising them until about twelve to take the Chunin Exams. Yet those well-bred elites who'd had six years of training lost to refugees given just six months of instruction at Ame's Academy. It was beyond astonishing.
After a long pause, Onoki said, "So, Amegakure clearly has a very highly advanced, very excellent, and very specialized way of fostering talent!"
In that single statement, he used "very" three times, highlighting how impressed he was. Then he added, "We need to gather any intel we can on how they train, and also find ways to send some of our Iwa shinobi there to learn."
After Onoki made his ruling, the Iwa higher-ups all nodded to record the matter.
At Suna's inn, Rasa was discussing Ame with his retinue: "I've got two ideas. One, we collaborate with Ame to open a school in Suna. Two, we pick some gifted kids each year to go study at Ame's Academy. If that first idea works, we can do both. After all, even if Ame sets up a school in Suna, our teachers might not be as good as them."
Once Rasa was finished, Baki immediately said, "Kazekage-sama, I agree. We can reach out to Uzumaki Senshi, or send a mission to Amegakure to negotiate with their leadership." Rasa and Baki spoke, the others nodding agreement.
Meanwhile, in the Mist, Gonbee and Chojuro were briefing Mei Terumi on the intel they'd gathered. Gonbee said, "Mizukage-sama, I've found that these days, many major villages and also medium/small villages are probing ways to cooperate with Amegakure. Many plan to send some of their shinobi to train in Ame. Should we prepare similarly?"
Mei Terumi smiled knowingly. "Not at all! We in Kiri want to vie for Ame's help in establishing a joint ninja academy. That way, Senshi can come to Kiri more often to guide us, which benefits our development."
Gonbee blinked, then praised her. "That's a brilliant insight, Mizukage-sama!"
Naturally, Kumo wasn't about to fall behind. The Fourth Raikage, Darui, and other Kumo brass had spent the past few days discussing just that. Summarizing, Darui said, "Raikage-sama, persuading Lord Senshi to start a school in Kumo might be tough. Directly sending our gifted young ninja to Ame's Academy should be easier. Then we can copy their model back home."
The Fourth Raikage agreed at once. "That's what we'll do!"
Of the five big villages, Konoha possessed the most intel, but they also found it the trickiest to decide anything. This "Konoha F3" was in the Hokage's office once more, discussing Ame.
Utatane Koharu said, "Other villages want to co-found academies with Ame, but we in Konoha already have our own ninja academy and training system. There's no need."
Mitokado Homura nodded. "Yes, and letting a bunch of foreign shinobi stay in Konoha en masse is unsafe. Collaboration with Ame should only mean sending some of ours to study there, and maybe hosting a few from them."
Hiruzen Sarutobi pondered for a moment, then nodded. "All right. We could also do an exchange-student program—send our top genin over while they send some of theirs to us."
Whereas the five major villages tended to weigh all sorts of options, the small villages around them had fewer reservations. They'd accept almost any arrangement with Ame.
At that very time, Land of Birds rep, Toki, and Land of River rep, Chishima—who were personal friends—were discussing it together.
Toki began, "Amegakure's development has soared, unstoppable now. Their ninja overran four of the five major nations in this exam—if not for Uzumaki Karin withdrawing, Ame would be the undisputed champion. Plus, I know that once Kusagakure and Takigakure joined Ame's alliance, they gained all sorts of benefits. So our Land of Birds leadership wants in on that alliance. Any word from the Land of River?"
Shinkawa nodded. "Exactly the same. Ame's performance this time astonished our leadership, too, and seeing what Kusa and Taki got made us all the more envious. So we also plan on meeting with Ame folks. If both our sides can join Ame's alliance, then we'll be allies!"
With that, the nearby ninjas laughed. Not only the five major villages and the ones around Ame, but anyone who witnessed the excellence of Uzumaki Musen & company was talking about partnering with Ame.
Some small villages hoped Ame would come to build a school on their own turf; others wanted to send their people's children to be educated in Ame. All these steps were quite important, so these discussions had been the hot topic for days.
Three days flew by.
The quarterfinal matches of the Chunin Exams began. Aside from Konoha and Ame, every other village's candidates had been eliminated.
Consequently, few people cared about who actually won—their real goals were to mingle, form connections, and gather information. In the audience, folks whispered amongst themselves about what they'd seen and heard recently.
"I hear a lot of bigwigs are sending their best genin to Ame for advanced training. Think that'll help?"
"Sure it will. Doesn't mean every shinobi there will become amazing, but from how Uzumaki Karin's six turned out, Ame's teaching is definitely legit!"
"Yeah, Uzumaki Musen and the others supposedly started out as refugees, yet now they're such powerful genin. If we sent them genuine talents, who knows how far they'd go!"
After that last remark, many people around wore thoughtful expressions. Indeed—Ame's five quarter finalists were once homeless refugee kids.
If they could get to this level in half a year, you could only imagine what real standouts or geniuses might achieve under Ame's system.
Some folks even thought about sending their own children to Ame's Academy. Surely that beat any other option.
While everyone was talking, Shiranui Genma reappeared in the middle of the stadium. His voice boomed everywhere:
"Let the quarterfinal matches of the Chunin Exams begin!"
"The first match: Uzumaki Naruto of Konoha vs. Yakushi Kabuto of Konoha!"
Reactions throughout the stands were mixed—some were excited, some disappointed, and folks like Onoki and the Fourth Raikage showed a bit of glee at Konoha's potential predicament. Onoki laughed at Hiruzen Sarutobi: "Lord Hokage, I never expected the first quarterfinal bout would be a Konoha vs. Konoha. Whichever one loses or if both end up battered, that's a real shame."
The Fourth Raikage added, "Both Naruto and Kabuto are strong. I expect it'll end in both of them pretty roughed up."
As they mocked, Hiruzen Sarutobi lightly responded, "Yes, Lord Tsuchikage and Lord Raikage have no such worries at all."
They, of course, understood his meaning: all Iwa and Kumo genin had already been knocked out, so they didn't have the headache of "friendly fire." Onoki and the Raikage silently fumed, each more determined than ever to figure out a way to raise the strength of their own village's genin.
Off in a corner of the stands, Orochimaru wore a faintly regretful face. Kabuto was strong, but Kabuto spent most of his time as Orochimaru's helper rather than actually learning lots of jutsu.
If Kabuto had faced someone else, maybe he could have won. But squaring off with Naruto, Konoha's jinchuriki, he had no hope. Even so, Orochimaru's real attention was elsewhere: the Raimon siblings sitting near Senshi.
Earlier, upon entering the arena, he brushed past them. He sensed a familiar chakra presence from both. Having spent so much time studying Senshi's chakra, Orochimaru recognized that aura instantly. It felt almost like they'd used some sort of Eternal Chakra Elixir, but one far purer than anything he'd produced. Confused, he couldn't figure out what was going on, so he intended to watch the siblings closely to see if their power had jumped sharply. If it had, he'd have reason to think Senshi also possessed the means to manufacture Eternal Chakra potions—and possibly more advanced than his.
While Orochimaru mulled that over, the Naruto vs. Kabuto match commenced. As instructed, Kabuto did not fight full-on. If there was an opponent he couldn't beat, he was just to put on a decent show and withdraw. Naruto was absolutely such an opponent, so Kabuto planned to "give it a try then back off," ensuring he wouldn't get hurt—and thus he could still assist Orochimaru with researching the Eternal Chakra Elixir.
Wielding a chakra scalpel, Kabuto clashed fiercely with Naruto, who gripped a kunai. Naruto, to his surprise, found this older "nerdy looking" Kabuto to be much more formidable than expected, making him excited:
"Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
He formed the seals, launching his signature jutsu to dogpile Kabuto. In a flash, dozens of Narutos charged at him from all sides. Kabuto, impressively enough, kept destroying clone after clone with his chakra scalpel. In the stands, seeing this scene, Senshi felt it had that familiar ring to it. Even though his Wood Clone had taught Naruto a variety of jutsu and taijutsu, Naruto still loved busting out multi-shadow clones in every fight.
Next to him, Karin couldn't help commenting, "What's with Naruto always spamming such a not-very-effective jutsu?"
"At least he's using fewer clones than usual," Senshi said honestly, since Naruto generally broke it out every single time.
Even though they were fighting fiercely, the outcome was hardly in doubt. Most spectators assumed Naruto would ultimately win. Kabuto was indeed strong, so Naruto wouldn't have it easy. But the final result came unexpectedly: after a heated exchange, Kabuto simply forfeited. He and Naruto had fought seriously, but not all-out, so neither was hurt. This stunned plenty in the stands.
But compared to most, Hiruzen Sarutobi felt relieved. He knew Kabuto had no real chance at beating Naruto, but if Kabuto fought at one hundred percent, he'd certainly wound Naruto—and if luck were on his side, might even defeat him. Kabuto didn't do that, though. He simply put on a fair fight, then conceded. To Hiruzen, that must be Orochimaru's arrangement. As Orochimaru's subordinate, Kabuto likely avoided injuring Naruto so that Naruto wouldn't end up disadvantaged in the following rounds—letting some third party take advantage.
With that in mind, Hiruzen glanced over to Orochimaru's section, only to find Orochimaru looking outwardly calm but inwardly confused: Why is that old monkey looking at me? Even with his sharp mind, Orochimaru couldn't figure out what Hiruzen might be thinking. Not that it mattered—he turned back to the coming fights.
Shiranui Genma then announced, "Next match: Uchiha Sasuke of Konoha vs. Uzumaki Lanwu of Amegakure!"
The moment Orochimaru heard that pairing, he lost interest. He was only curious about how Raimon Yukika and Raimon Hayate would do.
In the stands with Kakashi, Hyūga Hiashi commented, "Kakashi, think Sasuke can overcome that ice-release user?"
Kakashi answered offhandedly, "He probably can."
Hiashi let out a small laugh. "Kakashi, I suspect you're mistaken this time. That Ame ninja with Ice Release has a good balance of offense and defense—he's not so easy to beat."
Kakashi nodded. "For any other shinobi, sure, he'd be trouble. But Sasuke—Sasuke should have no problem."
~~~
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