CHAPTER 16

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Not far from the main gate of Konohagakure.

Azuma Izuno, a jonin of the Hidden Stone gladly agreed to lead a recon squad tasked with collecting information from ordinary civilians who had been instilled with genjutsu that they were loyal spies of Iwagakure.

The team members of the recon squad split up on the border of the Land of Fire, using earth elemental techniques to infiltrate enemy territory underground, thereby increasing their chances of going undetected.

If someone managed to break through the border, the reunion would have to take place not far from the main gates of Konoha.

Unfortunately, only he, the squad leader, was on the spot, and there was no sign of a successful breakthrough by the other members of the recon team.

* Apparently all the others failed. – Accepting the fact that the initial stage of infiltration into enemy territory was not too successful, the Stone jonin still had absolute confidence in the reliability of his village's shinobi. Even if they were captured, he believed that the Stone ninja would never betray their village, and they were more cohesive than those Konoha tree-huggers and electrified Kumo jocks put together.

Izuno decided to wait until tomorrow and retrieve the intel from the 'loyal spies'. Since there was no one else left on the team, the initiative was entirely his. There was no one to argue with him and express their displeasure about the risks of such an act now, which meant that it was possible to act according to his own plan. From the very beginning, he wanted to capture a squad of pathetic Leaf genin, with their trash jonin sensei, but the rest of his team found the idea too risky.

Having decided on a plan, he proceeded to wait, still confident in the correctness of his actions, because capturing enemy shinobi was a much more reliable way of obtaining vital information than data from ordinary civilians.

* Perhaps genjutsu? – He decided to try to get the information he needed through genjutsu first, and if that didn't work with the jonin, it was never too late to seal his dead body in a Sealing Scroll - the rest would be handled by the corpse research department.

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Yoshida family house.

- Yuske-kun, we're home. - Upon entering the house, Yoshida Hana's first action was to look for her son, and not seeing him on the first floor she called out, hoping to quickly check to make sure he was alright.

Everything she needed to know promised to be in front of her within the next few seconds, for immediately after the call the quick scrambling of child's feet could be heard from the second floor, speaking of the impatience and hurry of the runner. At such moments, she was even more amused by the impatient and childlike behavior of her son, who found ninja-related things the most valuable and interesting thing in the world.

- Paper-paper-paper, you brought it, didn't you?

- Hey, our impatient one, let us at least go inside. We'll eat, and then we can test your affinity for the elements. – Exhausted, Yoshida Sodha was eager to lie down on the couch until dinner and forget about work.

- No, Hana-san will still be cooking, and in the meantime, we'll have time to check out my affinity.

- Come on, stop pulling me. All right, let's go. Here take your chakra paper and wait for me, I'm going to wash my face to freshen up and then come to you in the backyard.

Already in the courtyard, Yuske was standing with a piece of paper in his hand, waiting for his father to arrive. He already knew what and how to do, but for the sake of appearances he decided to wait for guidance.

He didn't have a masterful chakra control as such yet, because it didn't make any sense to jump into training right away. It was necessary to wait for a little while for the amount of chakra to increase a little, and only then you can boldly begin to learn the peculiarities of chakra techniques. The recent spike in strength made it clear that it wouldn't take long to start such training.

To test the affinity, it was enough to get even the slightest crumb of chakra into the paper, and this could be achieved not only by perfect control, but even by simply running the chakra throughout the body. All that was needed was to stir it up slightly within himself, which happened if one tensed up, holding one's breath and applying a kind of pressure on one's internal organs.

- All right, the sooner we're done, the better. Hold the paper in front of you, close your eyes, and try to visualize channeling chakra into that sheet. Chakra is a kind of energy inside a shinobi.

It was so hard for Yuske to restrain himself from correcting Yoshida Sodha on his meager knowledge of chakra and fundamental theoretical foundations, but alas it would look too suspicious, and he wouldn't accomplish anything.

Forgetting the distracting thoughts, he reached for the chakra within him and stirred it up, channeling it chaotically throughout his body while promising himself to achieve at least a decent mastery of control in no time, thus removing the stigma of a hopeless knucklehead when it comes to chakra. Sure, the word mastery is a bit overkill, but the necessary control to not embarrass himself in such a simple task can be obtained in no time at all.