Chapter 113: Changes Brought by War(Bonus Chapter)
Since the plot for this time period in the original story wasn't well developed, there wasn't much for Ishiro to reference. And in the world of shinobi, the most important thing is one's own strength. Over the years, the most thorough preparation Ishiro had made for the Third Shinobi World War was his training.
Now that war was on the horizon, Ishiro felt it was also time to help his three disciples prepare. And the best way they could do that was—naturally—by training. It was time to pass down a few more techniques to them.
Over the past six months, Team One had almost exclusively been taking D-rank missions. Only on a few occasions, when his students pestered him endlessly, did Ishiro reluctantly accept C-rank missions.
Even then, those C-rank missions were the low-risk kind—missions that could be completed in a day or two, five at most. It wasn't that Ishiro was spoiling his disciples—it was simply that they were still too weak.
Back when Ishiro was under Kitsuchi, his very first mission after graduation had been a C-rank. But that was because he and his teammates were top elites from the special class.
His current students, however, were far less developed. If they wanted to grow quickly, what they needed most was focused training time.
So while six months had passed, Team One's mission record wasn't particularly impressive. Compared to other elite squads of their generation, they were clearly lagging behind.
But that didn't concern Ishiro. What mattered to him was real progress.
After half a year, the most obvious growth came from Tomoe. First, her body had been the weakest, so the nutritional meals had the biggest effect—her chakra reserves had nearly doubled since graduation.
Second, under Ishiro's guidance, she had started to harness her talent for chakra sensitivity. Now, not only had she simplified the Three Body Techniques almost to Ishiro's level, she had also mastered sensory jutsu.
Most surprising of all, due to her high chakra sensitivity, her perception range was also impressive—nearly comparable to Ishiro back when he had his strong spiritual energy buff.
As for tree climbing and water walking, they were laughably easy for her—she completed them with ease.
Her only weakness now was hand seal speed—she could barely manage two seals per second. But that was improving, and her potential looked very promising.
Originally, Ishiro had thought Kajiyama Ri would be the one to follow in his footsteps. But now it seemed that Tomoe might be even more like him.
Ishiro had spiritual power, which brought numerous advantages. Many of those, Tomoe now shared thanks to her chakra sensitivity. In this way, she truly was an ideal disciple.
Kawakita, meanwhile, had made the most stable progress. Without any sudden breakthroughs, he barely noticed his growth day to day—but over the months, his transformation was unmistakable.
He now exuded a kind of sharp, cutting aura.
Unlike Ishiro, who had practiced swordsmanship as a way to build physical strength, Kawakita had dedicated himself to it. His entire demeanor was slowly shifting toward that of a true sword-wielding shinobi.
Because his improvement involved full-body conditioning, his fundamentals were becoming incredibly solid. Even though he hadn't started learning C-rank sword techniques yet, his speed, strength, and reflexes had improved across the board. As a result, he had already surpassed Ri, making him the strongest of Ishiro's three disciples.
Kajiyama Ri, as the team's ninjutsu specialist, had now learned Ishiro's Water Line Technique and Water Pressure Line. With Ishiro—the creator—as his teacher, he progressed quickly and had already begun simplifying the hand seals.
Still, until he could reduce the number of seals to a level usable in combat, he wouldn't be able to beat Kawakita in a fight.
Looking at his team now, Ishiro finally felt… they were starting to look like something real.
Having anticipated the coming chaos, Ishiro didn't assign them a mission today. Instead, he decided it was time to upgrade their power.
Kawakita's path was easy. Ishiro gave him the scroll for a C-rank sword technique, telling him to train independently. Over the past six months, he had completed his chakra control training (tree walking and water walking), which had helped him greatly in mastering swordsmanship.
Tomoe's case was also simple. A recent chakra paper test revealed she had three chakra natures: Earth, Wind, and Lightning.
While that might sound like an advantage, it could actually hinder early development. The multiple natures could interfere with each other, making it harder to learn chakra nature transformations.
Fortunately, Earth Release was easy to grasp in Iwagakure. Tomoe had already completed her earth nature training in the Stone Forest.
But Earth wasn't her main nature—Wind was. Her affinity for Wind meant she'd perform better with Wind Release. That's why Ishiro hadn't taught her any C-rank jutsu yet, focusing instead on sensory training. But her progress with Wind nature had been slow.
That needed to change.
So Ishiro offered two C-rank Wind jutsu and one B-rank Wind jutsu he had taken from Konoha's Root as payment to his former ANBU subordinate, Jun, asking her to train Tomoe for a full day.
Jun happily agreed. Wind Release was also her specialty, and she had just mastered a B-rank technique. The extra B-rank scroll from Ishiro was a perfect reward—and she had time to spare.
Kajiyama Ri, however, was the trickiest. Ishiro taught him Water Clone Technique, a jutsu that added valuable tactical options. But Ishiro didn't intend to teach him anything more for now—Ri was learning too much already and needed time to digest it.
By the end of the day:
Tomoe had barely succeeded in mastering Wind nature transformation. Ishiro then gave her the C-rank Wind jutsu: Breakthrough.
It was a small-area AoE attack. Wind Release was known for its offensive power, so even though this was a group jutsu, its single-target damage was also respectable.
Jun was jealous when she saw this. Back when she first awakened Wind Release, she had no jutsu to learn. She had to grind through missions to save up enough points to redeem Breakthrough herself.
Seeing her look envious, Ishiro just smiled and didn't say anything. He knew that everyone had struggled like that. He was generous with his students, but not overly so—he would help them with C-rank jutsu, but nothing higher.
After a brief chat with Ishiro, Jun took her leave. Tomoe escorted her out, then hurried home to study her new jutsu. Her chakra was just barely enough to use it once—she couldn't afford to waste any of it.
As night fell, Ishiro dismissed the other two students as well and went alone to the Contribution Hall.
He hadn't visited in a while—he'd been so focused on developing new jutsu that he hadn't come to exchange points.
Today, he had two reasons for visiting:
1. Submit his upgraded Water Pressure Line jutsu to the village.
2. Exchange his accumulated contribution points for a new battle technique—war was coming, after all.
The Contribution Hall was busy, but they'd added staff to handle the surge.
Ishiro handed over a scroll with his new jutsu documented, then demonstrated it on the spot. He waited patiently while the staff appraised its rank and rewards.
Because of the wartime urgency, a special jōnin was stationed at the hall full-time. This allowed Ishiro's appraisal to go through quickly.
The result: A-rank, designated as a wide-range attack jutsu. After all, the horizontal sweep of Water Pressure Line could cut through an entire area.
It had been a long time since Iwagakure had a new A-rank Water Release technique. This was a big deal. The jōnin in charge said he couldn't make the final decision himself and would escalate it to the higher-ups. In the meantime, he'd recommend that Ishiro be granted one free A-rank jutsu of his choice.
Ishiro was pleased. While waiting for confirmation, he began browsing available jutsu.
His first pick: A-rank Earth Release—Mountain Earth Technique.
He chose it for one simple reason: versatility in war. The chakra input could be scaled up or down depending on need.
It summoned two large hemispherical earth mounds on either side of a target—great for both single-target and AoE. It could even alter the terrain, making it perfect for battlefield use.
He'd been eyeing this one for a while—ever since he saw Kitsuchi use it for the first time.
Next, Ishiro exchanged points for a document on using Lightning Release to enhance the body.
Of course, Lightning Release was rare in Iwagakure. The guide was incomplete—mostly theories and speculation, plus data from enemy corpses.
It couldn't be trained directly—not to the level of the Raikage's Lightning Armor, or even the nerfed versions Kakashi and Sasuke used.
Why was it so limited? Simply put, Iwagakure had too few Lightning Release users. The few they had weren't strong enough to contribute much research.
As far as Ishiro knew, the village only had one complete A-rank Lightning jutsu.
Still, the partial Lightning Body Reinforcement technique cost the same as a B-rank jutsu. Ishiro bought it just to see if it might spark some ideas.
That said, he hadn't even mastered Lightning nature transformation yet.
Soon after, the high-level approval came through. They accepted the jōnin's recommendation.
Per the request of that jōnin, Ishiro named his upgraded jutsu Water Cutting Technique.
Water Cutting Technique: 37 hand seals, chakra cost = 7A
Because it was brand new, the hand seal count was high. The jōnin reminded Ishiro to come back later and update it once he became more proficient.
Thanks to this, Ishiro earned another free A-rank jutsu selection.
Without hesitation, he picked: A-rank Water Release—Violent Water Wave Surge.
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We've hit 200 Power Stones goal As promised This week, here's the bonus chapter. Thank you for your support—please keep it coming!