352 Chapter 349 : Training Begins!

Fujin immediately stopped providing the chakra. The winds lost their sharpness and slowly dispersed away. 3 long cuts had appeared on Fujin's forearm.

Fujin sighed and thought, 'I was expecting something like this to happen. That is why I didn't try this idea when I had it. Unfortunately, after learning medical ninjutsu, I became busy with a lot of matters. Since high-level ninjutsu were readily available, I didn't bother learning this jutsu.'

A green glow appeared on Fujin's right forearm. The 3 cuts stopped bleeding and started healing at a rapid speed. If Hiruzen saw this sight, he would be shocked. Fujin was healing himself without using any hand seals. An extremely small number of ninjas were capable of this feat.

Fujin observed as the cuts closed up and thought, 'Sealless healing sure is convenient. But the chakra control needed for this is nuts. I needed over two and a half years to learn this. And my current speed of healing isn't high enough to shrug off any damage I take in between a fight. Fortunately, I can play a game of cat and mouse until I am healed.'

Once the cuts closed up, Fujin's right forearm became black in color. He once again gathered chakra around his fist and forearm. The chakra transformed into wind and began revolving around his arm at a rapid speed.

As the speed increased, Fujin felt several blows to his arm. Fortunately, the Iron Skin jutsu prevented any more injuries. Once the speed reached an optimal level, Fujin flickered and appeared before a tree. He sent a punch towards it but stopped just before his fist made contact with the tree.

The mini-tornado around his fist moved forward and hit the tree. It created hundreds of cuts on the tree every second. After around 5 seconds, the winds began losing their sharpness and dispersed away. Fujin withdrew his fist and observed the tree. The tree had thousands of small cuts on its trunk and a few small holes drilling through it but was still standing.

Fujin analyzed, 'Hmm… This is much weaker than I thought. But it's understandable as this is the first time I did it and didn't physically punch the tree. Once I master it, I should be able to blow the tree apart. The power will still likely be weaker than the Senju Taijutsu style but it will be more lethal. But, something doesn't feel right. It's as if the jutsu wasn't as free-flowing as I imagined it to be.'

Fujin went silent. He once again hardened his right arm and created the tornado around it. He closed his eyes and allowed the winds to flow rapidly for a few minutes. He submerged his mind focusing only on feeling the wind to understand what was wrong.

After 5 minutes, the wind slowed down and dispersed. He opened his eyes and thought, 'There are two main problems. Though using Iron Skin jutsu protects my hand, it also takes some of my concentration away from the Winds. The reason for this is that I have to simultaneously convert my chakra into Wind and Earth at the same time. So the jutsu isn't as free-flowing as I envisioned.

The other issue is the very fact why I need to use the Iron Skin jutsu. I can feel the wind hitting my arm randomly. Just like the tree, the wind hits my arm hundreds of times per second. Even though the Iron Skin jutsu protects my arm, the hit from the wind imparts some force to my arm. And this force isn't aligned with my punching force.

One way of seeing this can be me punching an opponent and my opponent using his palm to attack my forearms and divert my punch away. Due to these random hits on my arm, the direction of my punch will change slightly.

So my punches won't necessarily hit where I want them to. But… Is this a bad thing? After all, some unpredictability is always good.'

Fujin began analyzing the pros and cons of his wayward punch. Soon, he shook his head and realized, 'No. This waywardness will be useful only when my opponent is dodging. If my opponent hits back, then this uncontrolled punch can cost me dearly.

The most ideal way would be to properly control when the wind would hit my arm and use it to catch my opponent off guard. Unfortunately, that is quite difficult. I will first have to completely prevent any such random winds from hitting my forearm and fist.

Then I will have to find a way to hit my arm with the same winds, but without their sharpness and in a controlled manner. Either that or I could use the Assassin's Rush as a reference to do something like that. But first thing first. I need to stop getting hit.

Luckily, this training will also allow me to improve my control over the winds further. Something that will be very useful for my plans to create new Vacuum Jutsus and Wind jutsus.'

Fujin began his training. Since the technique didn't require a crazy amount of chakra, he created 3 Shadow Clones. Fujin and a clone continued hardening their right arm and tried to control the winds while the other two did the same with their left arm.

While Fujin lost himself in his training, Shikaku and Hiruzen were very busy. Shikaku had already arranged for the next 500 ninjas to move. So he and Hiruzen focused on the next most important issue - How Iwagakure could know that Fujin would be sent there a few months in advance.

Hiruzen entered Eagle's office. Eagle, who was busy handling the files, looked up and saw Hiruzen standing in front of him. He asked, "What brings you here, father?"

Hiruzen said, "The current deployment is due to the mission you assigned to Fujin. The one behind those incidents in the Land of Waterfall was Iwagakure. Fujin's identity was compromised and Iwagakure knew about his arrival far in advance."

Eagle's eyes widened. He was surprised to hear that. Hiruzen obviously wouldn't doubt his own son. He asked, "Did Danzo or anyone else influence you to send him?"

Eagle shook his head and said, "That's impossible. No one asked me or even hinted at sending Fujin to that mission. In fact, I didn't know I would send him there myself. I only decided that after the previous Anbu squad returned empty-handed. Considering that the incidents started around 4 days ago, there was no way Iwagakure knew that he would be sent there."

Hiruzen fell into a thought on hearing his words. He thought, 'His words are logical. How could anyone know that Fujin would be deployed four months ago? The only way would have been if Iwa could arrange for him to be sent. But that doesn't seem to be the case. Did they somehow predict, or perhaps gamble, that we would send Fujin when we learnt that this matter needed an Elite Jounin to handle?'

Hiruzen said, "Alright. If you find or recall anything strange about this incident, come to my office."

Eagle nodded. Hiruzen disappeared as quickly as he arrived. Later in the evening, Shikaku once again arrived in Hiruzen's office. Dark bags were visible under his eyes due to his lack of sleep. He asked, "Did you find anything from Eagle?"

Hiruzen shook his head and answered, "No. No one influenced his decision to send Fujin. Did you find anything?"

Shikaku replied, "No. I didn't find anyone suspicious. This means that Iwa didn't know that Fujin would be sent there in advance. They might have been wanting to target any Elite Jounin we send sneakily and eliminate him.

It's likely that they had some spies in the Land of Waterfall who identified Fujin's squad when they reached there. So they either activated the trap that they had in place or called for reinforcements within the 3 days when they were silent."

Hiruzen nodded. He had reached the same conclusion as well. He said, "So that leaves us with just one more question…"

Shikaku muttered, "How hard Iwa will retaliate considering the losses they took?"

Hiruzen nodded and said, "47 Jounins is a huge number. Onoki should be in a rage once he gets the information about the losses his forces took. But, he should also know that a war between us will be detrimental to both our villages. Suna and Kiri aren't in shape to take advantage of it. So Kumo will benefit heavily."

Shikaku agreed. He said, "Yeah. In addition, though they suffered a heavy loss, they were the ones who attacked first. And the war won't be just between us. Taki will assist us as well.

Kusa might help as well considering that Iwa sent their Jinchuriki into their territory a few months back. At the very least, we can ask them to deploy their forces on Iwagakure borders to pressurize them and split their forces."

[A/N : Bonus chapter on next Sunday if the fic gets 1000 Power Stones. Bonus chapter on next week's Saturday if the fic gets 2000 Power Stones.]

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