Chapter 142: Envy
Ishiro pulled out a scroll and handed it to Chiko Tomoe.
"I never gave you a B-rank jutsu before," he said. "Now that you've broken through, your chakra will grow rapidly in the short term. This one suits you well."
Seeing Kawakita and Kajiyama Ri looking over with envy, Ishiro chuckled and pulled out three more scrolls.
"I recently visited some old friends I hadn't seen in over a year. When they heard I'd taken on three disciples, they each sent you a gift."
He handed a scroll to each of them. Then he stepped back and watched them eagerly unravel the scrolls.
"B-rank—it really is B-rank! This is amazing!"
The moment they received the scrolls, all three disciples forgot about Ishiro entirely and immediately rushed off to train, capitalizing on the medicinal energy still coursing through their systems.
With nothing else to do, Ishiro created a small Earth-Style Wall and sat on it like a bench, calmly watching them.
Though his physical wounds would take a while to fully heal, it didn't mean he couldn't train. Even during his bedridden days in the Akatsuki base, Ishiro had practiced the newly-learned Banshō Ten'in—named after Nagato's technique, since the effect was the same and he hadn't come up with a new name.
Now, in addition to training Banshō Ten'in, Ishiro also resumed his work on chakra fusion.
He had already completed the first two steps before his journey—this time, having mastered an S-rank jutsu, he was confident the third step would no longer be a barrier.
And he was right. His time away had been like a long period of building momentum. Now it was time to harvest the results.
In just over an hour, Ishiro was able to simultaneously emit two chakra types—Earth in his left hand, Water in his right.
All the other chunin around the training ground couldn't help but steal glances of admiration.
And who could blame them?
They'd just witnessed Ishiro casually hand out four B-rank jutsu scrolls. Most of them were still grinding away at C-rank techniques. Some who had only scraped through the promoted ranks were still learning their very first C-rank move.
But Ishiro's disciples? Each had a B-rank technique now. And Chiko Tomoe had two!
What they didn't know was how many other jutsu these three had received in private. Was this what it meant to be the disciple of an elite jōnin?
Some even whispered—did Ishiro get hurt because he went out of the village just to find those B-rank jutsu?
If so… what an amazing teacher.
Ishiro, meanwhile, paid no attention to the murmurs. He didn't know any of these people.
Even those who knew his students didn't come to chat—after all, Ishiro was present.
So the master and his three disciples trained quietly, undisturbed.
Once Ishiro completed the third step of chakra fusion, he began working on the next stage as described in the secret scroll: external chakra merging.
This stage was much more complex, but the scroll included warnings and advice from predecessors who had succeeded.
The core of the technique could be summed up with one word: grinding.
The process wasn't technically difficult—it just required constant repetition. Ishiro had to slowly blend Water and Earth chakra outside his body while continuously replenishing what was lost.
To pass this stage, he had to successfully create enough of the new fused chakra to equal a single C-rank jutsu's chakra volume—before he ran out of chakra.
At first, Ishiro thought it would be easy. His reserves were equivalent to 30 A-rank jutsu, or 300 C-rank.
A typical C-rank jutsu required about 1 C. He guessed that since he was still unfamiliar with the fused chakra, he might need around 10 C worth to succeed.
"That should be simple, right?"
He began by releasing 100 C of Water chakra from his right hand and 100 C of Earth from his left.
But as fusion began, both chakra types were burned through at an alarming rate. It took the entire 200 C just to form the equivalent of 0.1 C of fused chakra.
Worse—this new chakra quickly began to evaporate.
Its decay was faster than he could replenish it.
In other words, if things continued like this, Ishiro would never be able to sustain even one C's worth of fused chakra.
The scroll had anticipated this.
Every successful fusion practitioner had gone through this stage. The only solution was repetition.
Chakra, being a mysterious force, could somehow retain memory of prior training. The more he practiced, the easier the process would become.
Even simple-minded shinobi could learn complex techniques this way. Ishiro had experienced this before—many of his jutsu had become clearer the more he trained.
Seeing no other choice, Ishiro resumed the grind. He glanced over at his disciples, still hard at work, and continued channeling chakra.
But just as he started again, someone approached him—it was Ikura.
Ikura had spent the last six months training in an S-rank jutsu, but progress had stalled. As a near-Kage-level ninja, he had yet to fully ascend.
His frustration deepened when he heard from Ōnoki that Ishiro had mastered his own S-rank jutsu in just two months—and one no other Iwagakure ninja had ever succeeded in learning.
Naturally, he was curious. He wanted to learn from Ishiro's methods.
It was around dinnertime, and Ishiro's three students would need to eat their medicine-infused meals soon.
So Ishiro and Ikura went off to eat and talk—at their favorite barbecue shop.
They started discussing their S-rank jutsu training.
Ikura's jutsu was a massive-area trap designed to collapse a vast zone and bury anyone within it—ideal for containing large enemies.
As soon as Ishiro heard that, he understood.
Ōnoki must be grooming Ikura as his successor.
This kind of jutsu wasn't just for giant summoning beasts—it was for tailed beasts.
After all, if a potential Tsuchikage couldn't handle their own village's tailed beast, how could they lead?
Ishiro began to wonder. When Ōnoki had steered him toward the Ultra Light-Weight Boulder Jutsu, was it because he wasn't being considered a successor?
But that probably wasn't it.
Ultra Light-Weight and Ultra Heavy-Weight were a pair. Mastering one made learning the other easier. Combined, they could also take down giant beasts.
He shook those thoughts away and focused on Ikura's technique.
It was part-ninjutsu, part-fuinjutsu.
It reminded him of Gaara's techniques.
"I'd recommend carrying some rocks with you," Ishiro said.
Ikura blinked. "You want me to… carry rocks around?"
"…Okay, maybe that's too much. But try infusing chakra into specific rocks and practice using them repeatedly. See if that makes them easier to manipulate."
"If it works, you can seal those rocks away and use them in battle. It's worth trying."
Ikura found the advice strange—but the more he thought about it, the more sense it made.
"I'll try. So… how did you learn your S-rank jutsu?"
"Heheheh…"
Ishiro grinned. For once, he'd beaten Ikura at something. It was a rare win.
Aside from that time he'd comprehended what it meant to be a shinobi first, he'd always lagged behind. Ikura was nearly Kage-level. Ishiro was still a top jōnin.
But now—just once—he had the edge.
Ishiro activated Banshō Ten'in and pulled all the meat off Ikura's plate into his own.
"That's my S-rank jutsu," he said, grinning as Ikura stared in disbelief.
Then, as he chewed, he explained the whole process.
When he finished, Ikura was silent for a long moment.
"…You're insane. If Nagato had reacted a few seconds later, you'd be dead meat."
Ishiro winced at the memory.
He agreed—Planetary Devastation was terrifying. Never again.
They moved on to another topic: the chunin exams.
Ikura described Chiko's breakthrough in detail.
Ishiro thought for a moment, then said,
"She probably found her path as a ninja after hearing the crowd cheer for her."
"Her ninja way… it's likely the same reason I took her as a disciple. She wants to find hidden talents and help guide them."
Ikura didn't know her well, but Ishiro had trained her for over a year.
He understood her—and felt a twinge of sadness.
The girl had grown up… so quickly.
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