Chapter 114: Ishiro's New Position
The reason Ishiro chose Great Violent Water Wave was simple: his learning speed. With his current mastery of the original Violent Water Wave, if given a few more years, he likely could have developed the advanced version on his own.
But this technique had an awkward downside—it consumed far too much chakra. A normally scaled Great Violent Water Wave required around 20A worth of chakra. By injecting even more chakra, its power could be pushed even higher.
The problem was that Ishiro's total chakra reserves were only about 20A to begin with. In other words, casting this jutsu once in peak condition would leave him completely drained.
Originally, Ishiro hadn't intended to pick this jutsu, but with war imminent, he realized he wouldn't have much time to train any A-rank techniques. In that case, it was better to have a powerful trump card ready—even if he couldn't use it often. Once war started and he was deployed outside the village, he might not get another chance to exchange A-rank techniques.
As for other jutsu, he simply wouldn't have the time to practice them.
With that, Ishiro had now used the rewards from orchestrating Root's defeat in the Land of Rain to exchange for A-rank Earth Release: Mountain Earth Technique, and had used the reward from submitting his Water Cutting Technique to get Great Violent Water Wave. He had also spent contribution points on a Lightning Release body reinforcement method.
Now, with a few tens of thousands of contribution points remaining in his account, Ishiro didn't feel there was anything else he urgently needed. So, without hesitation, he left the Contribution Office.
After finishing his exchanges, Ishiro prepared several wartime supplies. Fortunately, with his mastery of sealing techniques, he could store all the items in scrolls for easy transport.
From that day on, Ishiro stopped taking his students out on missions. Instead, he brought them daily to a nearby river for intensive training. He also began working hard on the two new A-rank techniques he had just obtained.
He started with Great Violent Water Wave. Due to its massive chakra cost, he couldn't afford to waste chakra recklessly. Borrowing Tomoe's method, Ishiro first thoroughly studied the theory behind the jutsu. Then, he mentally rehearsed the entire casting process, identifying possible flaws. For each flaw, he created possible solutions, ranked them, and then tested the most feasible options first.
This method turned out to be quite effective—it significantly reduced the number of failed attempts. Of course, part of the reason things went so smoothly was that Ishiro already had a solid foundation in this jutsu. As the upgraded version of Violent Water Wave, itself an evolution of Water Shockwave, it could be said Ishiro was its spiritual successor. It made sense that learning it would go smoothly.
Initially, Ishiro estimated it would take a dozen attempts and about half a month to master it. But using Tomoe's approach, he succeeded in just seven or eight tries.
Since this technique was meant to be a trump card, he didn't spend further time practicing it. His meager chakra reserves couldn't afford the strain.
Next, he focused on Mountain Earth Technique, which was much more difficult to master. Fortunately, it allowed for adjustable chakra output. At the minimum, it only required about 70B chakra to cast, though at that level, it was comparable in power to a basic B-rank jutsu. As for the upper limit—Ishiro was fairly certain it had none.
After all, in the original story, Kitsuchi had used this jutsu to restrict the movements of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
To increase his practice frequency, Ishiro kept his chakra output at the minimum setting. This allowed him to practice more than twenty times a day. After about ten days of training, he finally mastered the technique—but then encountered a frustrating issue.
The two semi-spherical mounds he summoned closed too slowly. Any halfway decent chūnin would be able to escape before being trapped.
This didn't mean the jutsu was useless—it could still be highly effective against stationary targets, or enemies holding a defensive formation. But its limited use cases felt disappointing for an A-rank technique.
After pondering it for a while, Ishiro decided to ask Kitsuchi for advice.
Given the tense state of the shinobi world, Kitsuchi, as an elite jōnin, hadn't left the village. When Ishiro found him, he was in the middle of training.
To Ishiro's surprise, Kitsuchi was practicing Fire Release nature transformation.
In the original story, Kitsuchi only had one elemental nature. Judging by his actions now, it seemed he was deviating from canon? Ishiro didn't jump to conclusions. He watched quietly for a while. Seeing that Kitsuchi wasn't making much progress, Ishiro finally stepped forward and greeted him.
Kitsuchi had already noticed Ishiro earlier but had been too focused to say hello. Seeing him approach now, he stopped what he was doing.
Ishiro first asked about Kitsuchi's fire training.
Apparently, Kitsuchi hadn't planned to learn Fire Release at all. His personality wasn't particularly suited for chakra nature transformation. Even Earth Release had been something he grasped through meditation in the Stone Forest—it wasn't truly self-developed.
In this regard, Ishiro had surpassed Kitsuchi. Ishiro had already developed three elemental natures. While Water and Earth had come somewhat muddled, his Fire Release development had been well-planned and methodical.
So Ishiro shared his full experience of developing Fire Release.
To his surprise, it turned out Kitsuchi had started this journey because of him. The report Ishiro had submitted to the village—worth tens of thousands of contribution points—had inspired a wave of multi-nature training among shinobi. Kitsuchi had been motivated to give it a shot himself.
Knowing that the report came from Ishiro, he eagerly asked him for detailed advice.
Ishiro had originally come to ask Kitsuchi for guidance anyway, so he directly proposed that Kitsuchi join Team One for training over the next few days. Kitsuchi readily agreed.
From the next day on, Ishiro's three students trained in their own disciplines, while Ishiro and Kitsuchi worked together on elemental nature practice. Kitsuchi focused on developing Fire Release, while Ishiro began working on his fourth nature: Lightning.
Since it was best to deplete one's chakra through high-level jutsu before practicing nature transformation, Ishiro always began his day with Mountain Earth Technique under Kitsuchi's guidance, then followed up with Lightning training.
Kitsuchi did the same—casting advanced jutsu to drain his chakra before working on Fire Release.
Day by day, Kitsuchi finally succeeded in manifesting Fire Release. His fire chakra ratio was low, so it would take a long time to master, but he had achieved his initial goal.
Ishiro, however, couldn't even get started on Lightning Release. That said, his training wasn't fruitless. With Kitsuchi's help, Mountain Earth Technique became smoother to cast, and the clamping speed improved significantly. Ishiro now believed that unless the enemy was a speed specialist, it could effectively trap even a chūnin.
Once Kitsuchi successfully cast a Great Fireball Jutsu, he stopped training with Team One. Unlike Ishiro, whose job was to teach students, Kitsuchi had taken leave to train. Now that he had achieved his goal, it was time to return to work.
After Kitsuchi left, Ishiro found himself alone. His mind, already restless from looming war, grew even more unsettled. He gave up on Lightning Release for now—developing new elements required immense patience, which he simply didn't have at the moment.
He decided to refine his Light–Heavy Boulder Technique, hoping to eventually develop Added-Weight Rock Technique.
He had tried practicing chakra fusion directly. Though his Earth Release wasn't quite at the required level, his Water Release far exceeded the standard—especially after developing Water Cutting Technique. He hoped that his strength in Water could compensate.
Unfortunately, the result was disappointing. According to the A-rank secret technique scroll, the requirements listed were bare minimums. Ishiro now realized that trying to shortcut chakra fusion training this way would likely never succeed, even after decades.
Rather than waste time, it would be more effective to fully master Earth Release first.
But with his restless mind, he couldn't focus on nature transformation. Nor could he concentrate on developing Added-Weight Rock Technique. In this state, anything he attempted was twice the effort for half the result.
Fortunately, Ishiro had a relatively calm temperament. Realizing that his mentality was unstable, he decided to take a few days off to unwind.
But before he could rest, an appointment order arrived.
Ishiro was named Acting Third Commander of the Eastern Forces.
He was stunned by the news—he had just been brooding about the war's pressure, and now the weight of that war had suddenly landed squarely on his shoulders.
At first, Ishiro was flustered. Although he had experienced many battles, he had only ever seen large-scale warfare on TV.
And yet, mixed with that anxiety was another feeling—relief. A kind of peace that came from knowing the moment he'd spent years preparing for had finally arrived. Ishiro closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. When he opened them again, all of his uncertainty and hesitation were gone.
What remained was only calm and resolve.
In just those few breaths, Ishiro had passed another mental trial.
The ANBU operative who had delivered the message chuckled.
"So you're Ishiro? You've got guts. At your age, to show this kind of composure… I just delivered a similar appointment to Ikura. And honestly, you adjusted faster than he did. Crow has chosen a fine subordinate."
Hearing this, Ishiro realized this appointment was also a test—a way for the village to evaluate the will and composure of its younger shinobi. Judging by this man's words, he was likely on the same level as Crow—a commander of the ANBU.
Ishiro asked, "Senior, Ikura received a command too? How did he do?"
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