Chapter 235: Powering Up the Little Companions
Shiranui Genma fished a fresh senbon out of his ninja tool pouch, his brow furrowed in utter bewilderment as he handed it over to Stelle. "Why is it that you guys are the ones making bets, but the item being lost is mine?"
"Because your stuff is exactly what we bet on! Hurry up and hand it over, don't try to back out now. A-Mu might be too embarrassed to call you out, but we certainly aren't!" Ebisu and the rest of the boys jeered, pushing Genma forward.
Stelle caught the metal needle, twirling it effortlessly between her fingers a few times. Leaving the noisy group behind, she strolled over to the clearing where Kakashi and Obito were wrapping up their latest duel.
Without a doubt, Obito had lost again.
He sat in the dirt, aggressively dusting off his goggles. "I was just careless just now and tripped!" he declared indignantly, pointing an accusing finger at the ground. "Who knew there would be a random pebble right there? If it wasn't for the terrain, you wouldn't have necessarily won!"
Kakashi simply laced his hands behind his head and offered a lazy, slow-motion shrug. He didn't even need to open his mouth; that single, dismissive gesture was enough to make Obito jump to his feet, practically vibrating with anger.
"Obito, the strong never complain about their environment," Stelle said, her tone perfectly mild as she approached him.
"A-Mu?" Obito looked at her, his shoulders instantly slumping. Even his spiky hair seemed to wilt, giving him the distinct appearance of a kicked puppy left out in the rain.
Stelle didn't miss a beat. She delivered the follow-up strike with practiced ease.
"I'm right. The strong never complain about their environment. Therefore, not only do I complain about the environment, I also complain about the strong." She shifted her gaze to Kakashi, letting out a heavy, theatrical sigh. "Why do you have to be so ridiculously powerful? It makes the rest of us look so mediocre. Your punishment is to eat the dinner I cook tonight."
Kakashi dropped his arms, his visible eye narrowing in disbelief. "You're blaming me?"
Hearing this exchange, the light returned to Obito's eyes. He lifted his spiky head, planted his hands firmly on his hips, and let out a bright, triumphant laugh. But just as quickly, his smile faltered, replaced by a deep pout.
"Wait, A-Mu is going to cook for him personally? Isn't that a reward?"
"A reward?" Stelle stared at Obito, her expression deadpan. "Are you absolutely sure about that?"
Obito hummed in eager agreement, nodding vigorously. "Very sure! So, I want to eat too. You have to make enough for me."
Stelle tilted her head, genuinely perplexed by his enthusiasm. "Obito, I really don't think we need to force ourselves to suffer. I don't even eat the food I cook myself."
Might Guy, who had been watching the sparring match from the sidelines, stepped forward, looking even more confused than the Uchiha.
"A-Mu, why wouldn't you eat the food you cook?"
"Because the food I cook is a biological hazard."
"Uh, how bad does it have to be to be used as a literal punishment? Is it worse than mine?"
Stelle offered a shy, modest smile. "I never consider how bad other people's cooking is, because I know with absolute certainty that none of it could ever be as bad as mine."
Guy's eyes widened in awe. He pressed his hands together and bowed deeply toward her. "Please let me experience it! This must be a new form of training to test one's internal endurance!"
Stelle stared at his shiny bowl-cut. '...Why do I suddenly feel an overwhelming urge to clench my fist and punch someone in the face?'
Seeing that some of their classmates hadn't finished their practical combat exams yet, the group simply leaped up into the thick branches of a nearby tree, sitting in the dappled afternoon shade to wait for the academy bell to ring.
Stelle casually mentioned that she had won her own sparring match earlier, and both Kakashi and Obito immediately voiced their congratulations, genuinely happy for her progress.
"Of course I had to win," she replied, leaning back against the rough bark. "That way, I'll actually be qualified to be your teammate in future teamwork missions."
It was the truth. With Kakashi being personally trained by Sakumo Hatake, the boy hadn't taken any of the detours he might have otherwise. His foundation was rock-solid, and his current strength was already far more terrifying than it had been in the original timeline.
As for Obito, his trajectory had completely derailed. Because of his deep emotional attachment to her, he had accidentally awakened his one-tomoe Sharingan years ahead of schedule. That single red eye had instantly turned him into a key focus for the Uchiha Clan's internal cultivation programs. Unlike the original story where he grew up wildly on his own, ignored by his clan, his strength was now advancing by leaps and bounds under proper tutelage.
With two such monstrously talented companions, if she didn't work harder to keep up the facade of growth, there was no guarantee that Hiruzen Sarutobi wouldn't try to pull some political tricks and separate them.
Looking at the current trajectory, her future genin squad would undoubtedly consist of Kakashi and Obito. If she didn't show some genuine combat utility, wouldn't she just become a useless burden?
She could perfectly accept playing the role of a cowardly, weak-willed girl to lower people's guard, but she absolutely refused to be dead weight on the battlefield.
Later that evening, after finishing a grueling day of physical conditioning, Stelle lay flat on her bed, staring up at the ceiling as she began to calculate how to artificially inflate her own visible strength.
Her Rinnegan was completely off the table. Exposing those eyes to the public right now would invite a disaster she wasn't ready to deal with.
The Kenjutsu she had been learning from Sakumo Hatake was progressing well. She could practice it with both hands; developing a dual-blade style would be quite flashy and effective. Alternatively, wielding a short blade in her right hand while performing Water Release with one-handed seals in her left would give her excellent offensive and defensive coverage.
But as she ran the combat simulations in her head, she still felt something was missing.
Her thoughts drifted to the other hidden villages. Kumogakure possessed the famous Lightning Release Chakra Mode. Why couldn't Konoha have their own version?
Back when she had researched and developed her Flame Release Chakra Mode, she had heavily based the foundational theory on the Raikage's Lightning Release techniques.
Now, with that knowledge already in her head, she could easily reverse-engineer a similar Ninjutsu based purely on lightning.
Although the traditional Lightning Release Chakra Mode was devastatingly effective, the physical burden it placed on the user's body was extreme, and the chakra consumption was astronomical. It wasn't like her custom Flame Release Chakra Mode, which bathed her cells in positive, regenerative buffs the moment it was activated.
Kakashi's chakra reserves were notoriously average. If she gave him the standard Kumogakure version, he wouldn't be able to keep it active for more than a few minutes before collapsing.
'It needs to be refined,'she mused, tracing imaginary seal sequences in the air.'I can change the original, crude lightning stimulation into a highly targeted bio-electric optimization.'
By applying precise electrical stimulation directly to the muscle fibers and nerve nodes, she could achieve the same exponential increase in speed and physical strength, but the energy consumption and cellular side effects would be drastically reduced.
Still, just making him faster was a bit basic. She decided to tweak the formula again. She would incorporate a secondary circuit: using an extremely small, focused amount of chakra to stimulate the cerebral cortex and visual nerves, artificially enhancing the user's dynamic vision. That way, when Kakashi eventually developed his signature Chidori, he wouldn't suffer from the tunnel-vision flaw and miss his target.
, during non-combat periods, the user could maintain an extremely weak, gentle current of Lightning Release chakra to continuously stimulate cell division and repair. This would passively accelerate injury recovery and slowly permanently improve his basic physical fitness over time.
That would serve as the basic mode. To take it a step further, once Kakashi actually created the Chidori, she could use that principle to upgrade the technique. She could transform the full-body Lightning Release Chakra state into a localized weapon, effectively turning his entire body into a massive, radiating Chidori cloak.
If she properly derived this mode and integrated some of the rotational physics from the Rasengan, it would become an absolute meat-grinder, just as lethal as a Super Wind Blade.
During a massive battlefield engagement, if Kakashi found himself surrounded by enemy ninja, he could simply activate the full-body Chidori cloak and crash straight through their lines like a human lightning bolt. Whoever he touched would be instantly vaporized.
'Wait,'Stelle paused, her hand dropping back to the mattress.'If Chidori isn't controlled perfectly, the sheer feedback will tear the user's arm apart. A full-body version? That's a suicide move. It kills a thousand enemies but costs eight hundred of your own health. Who could possibly survive using that besides me? I need to change it again.'Stelle mentally tore the jutsu apart, rubbing various elemental principles and chakra flow theories together. She looked at the new theoretical model and frowned.'Damn it, the wind-up time for the chakra molding is way too long now. In a real fight, he'd be stabbed before he finished charging it. Change it again.'
Finally, after a frantic flurry of mental adjustments and theoretical compromises, the jutsu structure stabilized. It was theoretically sound. She would test it on herself in the woods later; if it didn't blow her up, she'd write down the scrolls and hand them over to Kakashi.
But lying there, her mind kept spinning. She felt it could be upgraded even further. Kakashi was a genius who seemed to possess an affinity for all five basic elements. She could force him to practice Fire Release extensively, and then teach him to combine lightning and fire. By integrating the volatile activity and extreme high temperatures of Fire Release into the Lightning Release armor...
'Every single physical attack would carry a violent, localized explosive effect,'Stelle realized, her eyes gleaming in the dark.'Integrating that into the Great Chidori... wow. Burst Lightning Armor.'
If Kakashi's chakra reserves were as massive as hers, and he expanded the Burst Lightning Armor outward into a giant avatar, he could literally physically clash with an Uchiha's Susanoo.
It wasn't impossible. Back when she was trading ultimate moves and leveling mountains with Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara, she had used a custom armor forged from the fusion of four different chakra attributes.
A once-in-a-generation genius like Kakashi would definitely be able to learn a two-element version.
'I'll find a way to manipulate him into learning the Sage Mode of Mount Myōboku,'she plotted wickedly.'Then he can layer Sage Chakra over the Burst Armor. In the future Fourth Great Ninja War, while all those Uchiha are running around in their Susanoo mechs, Kakashi will just activate his Burst Lightning Armor. It'll still be a giant glowing Gundam.'
Wait. Stelle suddenly blinked, a deep realization washing over her.
Activating Sage Mode, and then igniting the Burst Lightning Armor—isn't that a multiplicative double buff? The power output would be astronomical! Kakashi's future was looking incredibly bright.
Well, except for his notoriously low chakra pool. That was still a glaring issue.
The theoretical framework was ready, but how to naturally bring it out without arousing suspicion was the real problem.
'Lately, I should start pestering Sakumo Hatake for more advanced Lightning Release Ninjutsu scrolls,'she decided.'I'll decompose them according to their fundamental characteristics in front of Kakashi. First, deriving the basic Lightning Release Chakra Mode will be fine. As long as I establish a solid, logical basis for the invention, the crazy elemental fusion stuff can wait a few years.'
As for her other little companion, Obito... a single Kamui eye was already broken enough to let him dominate the entire Fourth Great Ninja War. A Double Kamui Obito would be an untouchable god. She just needed to prepare a specialized tube of improved Hashirama cells for him when the time came, and everything would be perfectly set. They weren't called Bloodline Ninjas for nothing; genetics were everything in this world.
But she couldn't intervene too early. The boy needed to mature first.
Speaking of Hashirama cells... after Uchiha Kagami was secretly injected with them, did the man ever find out he could use Wood Release? He was a smart guy; he should have hidden it extremely well from the village elders.
'Maybe he retired from active duty precisely because he discovered he could use Wood Release,'Stelle mused, amused by the thought.'He probably wore out the entire Uchiha family tree scroll, flipping through it late at night, constantly wondering whose wife cheated and how the hell he ended up with Senju Clan genes.'
She had been living in Konoha for almost three years now, and she hadn't seen the man even once.
This background-character Senior Brother of hers was so unreliable. He wouldn't even show his face to let her scam a bit more pocket money out of him. So incredibly stingy.
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