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Chapter 345 - Chapter 344: Sparring (bouns chapter)

Chapter 344: Sparring

"How is Koku's ninjutsu copying coming along?" Ishiro asked again.

Speaking of this, Ikura became even happier. He said, "Hehe, you won't believe it, but the results are quite good."

"Although without your Mind's Eye to coordinate, Koku's jutsu copying is much slower, there are only a dozen or so ninja who came from Sunagakure. Our ninja have challenged them repeatedly, and they only have a few techniques they're good at."

"Over ten-odd days, Koku has gained some understanding of the Wind Release jutsu that those Suna-nin have been using over and over. Among them, at least two B-rank Wind Release jutsu have already been completely copied. They just need to be organized later."

Ishiro was overjoyed. "Excellent, excellent. It seems we need to conduct this kind of sparring more often. After the first written exam is over, it will take a while for the candidates in the second round to complete their assessment. Let's not waste it. Hurry up and have people challenge the Konoha ninja."

"And don't let Hatake Kakashi go. We can send jonin, elite jonin, and even talented chunin up to get some experience."

"Chunin? Isn't that going too far? He is an elite jonin, after all. If we send a jonin, they might be able to exchange a few moves, but a chunin going up would be completely ineffective, right?" Ikura thought Ishiro was joking.

"Let's give it a try. Who knows if it will be effective if we don't try? Forget it, I'll handle this matter myself," Ishiro said seriously.

After parting with Ikura, Ishiro first went to find Himeki Suda. Ishiro had to see Himeki Suda's ninja cat; the little one was only four years old. Ishiro remembered that the little one, just like Himeki, had been very slow at learning ninjutsu before. How did it suddenly learn a jutsu? It wasn't that easy for a ninja beast to learn ninjutsu, let alone the fact that Iwagakure had never researched ninjutsu specifically for them.

Because she had just been promoted, Himeki Suda was currently practicing ninjutsu in the village; she hadn't left. Seeing Ishiro arrive, Himeki was very happy and rushed in front of him, chattering away and telling him everything he wanted to ask before he even had a chance.

It turned out that after Team Three was disbanded, Himeki Suda had joined the squad of White Cat and Dango. Thus, little Fūka became the only ninja cat who regularly had her mother's guidance. Perhaps because she hadn't had a chance to be with her child for a long time since becoming a mother, Dango was extremely happy to be on the same team as her child.

Dango gave all the good things she had to little Fūka, including her training experience, her insights into natural energy, delicious food, ninja tools, and so on.

In her two years with White Cat's squad, Himeki Suda's greatest gains were in worldly experience, combat experience, and adaptability; it was a process of turning what she had learned into practical strength. In essence, she was still the same newly-promoted chunin as before, and the improvement in her fundamental power was very limited. If not for this accidental promotion, she didn't know how long she would have remained at the chunin level; she might never have progressed in her entire life.

But Fūka was different. Under her mother Dango's guidance, Fūka avoided many detours. Especially in terms of chakra control, Dango used her own experiences as a textbook to guide Fūka on how to train properly. So, in these two years, although Fūka's physical development was not outstanding, she had, to Ishiro's surprise, learned her first ninjutsu.

"Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere."

Watching Fūka take a moment to gather her strength before spitting out a blade of wind from her mouth, Ishiro was in disbelief. The first ninjutsu Fūka learned was an unsealed jutsu?

And that wasn't the most important part. Most importantly, because she had mastered wind-nature transformation, Fūka's speed had also increased by a large margin. A ninja cat, already known for its agility, became even faster after gaining an understanding of the wind element. Her linear sprinting speed was already faster than a normal jonin's.

Ishiro suddenly looked at Himeki Suda and asked, "Himeki, if you and Fūka fight now, who has a better chance of winning?"

Himeki Suda stuck out her tongue and said sheepishly, "Fūka is too fast. I can't keep up. She can always find my openings and defeat me."

Seeing Himeki Suda's expression, Ishiro suddenly understood why she had become a Quasi-Jonin so quickly.

Originally, with Himeki Suda's talent and strength, she was still a long way from becoming a jonin at this stage. But she was likely spurred on by her own ninja cat. Perhaps while Himeki Suda was happy about Fūka's progress, she was also feeling inferior, feeling that she was holding Fūka back. It was probably this strong desire to catch up and surpass Fūka that caused her to transform so quickly.

Ishiro didn't know if this was a good thing. If Fūka could continue to grow, perhaps Himeki would remain motivated. But if Fūka's growth slowed down, then Himeki might also stop progressing. However, Ishiro didn't say any of this to Himeki. Every ninja should have their own Ninja Way. Himeki's Ninja Way was clearly related to the bond between her and Fūka. Ishiro couldn't interfere too much.

"The jutsu Fūka learned is Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere. It doesn't seem like it can be combined with Fire Release. Aren't you disappointed?" Ishiro asked.

"It's a bit of a pity, but Fūka's body is different from ours. She can't learn our hand seals. It just so happens that Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere doesn't require hand seals, so that's why she chose to learn this jutsu."

Ishiro nodded and then said, "Actually, you could go find Kazumasa. Isn't he researching hand seals? Have him think of a way to see if Fūka can learn hand seals too."

"Ah! Why didn't I think of that? I'll go find him right now!" After saying that, Himeki Suda completely ignored Ishiro and ran off by herself to find Yoshimura Kazumasa.

Ishiro rubbed his head. *She's been in the Anbu for two years, how has she not matured at all?*

Ishiro sighed, then left the training ground to find Katsumata.

As the only one among Ishiro's older disciples who had not become a Quasi-Jonin, Ishiro was quite worried about Katsumata's state of mind.

As a genjutsu ninja, Katsumata's intelligence was very high. After two years of experience as a chunin squad leader, he had also grown a lot. In fact, considering Iwagakure's pitiful foundation in genjutsu, Katsumata having his current strength could already be called a genius.

But everything is relative. Among the five who were originally in the same cohort as Katsumata, only Takuhiro Uchiyama had good talent. The other four were as ordinary as Katsumata. But these four all had their own special experiences and had all unexpectedly become Quasi-Jonin, leaving only Katsumata behind, which made him seem somewhat mediocre.

If one calculated carefully, most of the disciples Ishiro had recruited had completed the transformation from chunin to Quasi-Jonin in two to four years. The fast ones, like Megumi, Ogura Saki, and Takuhiro Uchiyama, took two years; they all transformed around the time of the Chunin Exams. Megumi probably took even less than two years. The slower ones, like Kajiyama Ri and Takumi, were among the slower ones in their cohort. Takumi only changed after Ishiro gave him special attention and a bowl of "chicken soup for the soul."

The current Katsumata was just like Takumi back then, needing some individual guidance from Ishiro. At the very least, he couldn't let his mentality become a problem. Ishiro didn't want Iwagakure to produce a Hiruko-like existence. It was acceptable to have no great achievements, but one could not go down the wrong path.

However, Katsumata's mentality was much better than Ishiro had imagined. Speaking of which, Katsumata, like Ishiro, actually had a talent for Yin Release. Their personalities were also quite similar; they both liked to think.

Back then, Ishiro was not bothered by the fact that he was far inferior to Ikura; Ishiro only focused on his own path.

Katsumata was the same. He was very smart and didn't care about temporary gains or losses. Because developing genjutsu was very difficult and required a high level of mental fortitude from the ninja, Katsumata had always been calm.

Katsumata's biggest change in these two years had been his mentality. Having left Ishiro's protection to face the cruel ninja world alone, and with his own strength not being outstanding among chunin, it was not easy for Katsumata to survive dangerous missions time and again with his three genin subordinates. He relied on his wisdom and calmness; as for genjutsu techniques, they had become more of a support tool in battle.

Katsumata knew about Himeki Suda's promotion even earlier than Ishiro, but he didn't have any negative emotions at all just because his peers had all moved ahead of him.

Katsumata knew that his path was destined not to be as smooth as theirs. He was even prepared to be a chunin for his entire life.

Ishiro brought Katsumata to an empty training ground and said, "Your mentality is good, very calm. You are a qualified ninja. But being too calm and lacking passion will make it much more difficult to get promoted like Himeki Suda and the others."

"However, since this is the path you have chosen for yourself, the Ninja Way you have affirmed, then, your teacher supports you. You can continue to walk your path of genjutsu research."

"Since your mentality is not a problem, your teacher won't say much more. I have something for you."

Saying that, Ishiro handed Katsumata a scroll.

"This is the S-rank Yin Release ninjutsu, the Spirit Transformation Technique, which I traded for from Orochimaru. At your level, you definitely won't be able to learn it, but you can use it as a reference."

Katsumata was stunned. After taking the scroll, he confirmed, "S-rank?"

Ishiro knew what he was thinking and said, "Don't worry, this is something your teacher traded for with his own things. Your teacher has the right to dispose of it."

"It's just that I can't give you something of this level for free. In the future, you will have to contribute an A-rank genjutsu that you develop yourself to the village."

Katsumata nodded. "Master Ishiro, I understand. I will not let you down."

As he said this, Katsumata's composure wavered slightly, but he quickly calmed down again.

Ishiro noticed but didn't mind. Although Katsumata's path was an exception among his disciples, there were many such ninja in the world. Many ninja with average talent would choose to do this, for no other reason than that this path seemed the most convenient. For non-genius ninja, this path was at least visible and tangible.

After giving the Spirit Transformation Technique to Katsumata, Ishiro stopped managing him.

Katsumata's mentality was something Ishiro didn't need to worry about at all.

(End of Chapter)

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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!

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