Chapter Four

I smiled as I had finally reached the point of my training where I can sense Nature Energy without the aid of the toad oil.

However the matter of gathering it without the oil is proving to far more difficult than I suspected.

According to Shima Sama gathering Natural Energy is a difficult task that takes years of dedicated effort to accomplish.

It made Naruto's progress in the Pain arc seem like complete and utter bullshit to the me who is struggling with it in the here and now.

I lost count the amount of times I have let my frustration get the best of me as of late.

I suspect as does Shima and Gamabufo that I'm simply putting too much pressure on myself to master it instantly.

It took all of my composure not to explode at that as I have perfectly adequate reasons for wanting to get stronger so soon.

"Holy shit" I said as a moment of realisation struck me.

"I sound like Emo Sasuke" I added with a shudder.

If anything would pour cold water on ones desires it would realising you were behaving like the most annoying character in all of Naruto not named Sakura.

"Maybe they're right. I don't need to rush this. In fact it might work out better for me in the long run as apparently the Leaf think I'm dead" I thought to myself.

It was with that last thought I called it a day and went to relax in one of my favourite spots while "eating" the Bento Shima Sama had lovingly prepared for me.

There I once more got introspective and wondering how I had come to such a place.

And so my mind went back once more.

I sighed with relief as the sword stopped just short of piercing through me like a kebab.

Kamisori looked absolutely confused by her inability to impale me.

She pushed with all her strength to such a degree her arm began to shake and sweat dripped from her brow.

"What did you do?" She demanded.

"What am I an anime character. Do you think I'm honestly going to explain things to you?" I said sarcastically.

"What's anime?" was her confused reaction.

I simply shrugged, that and I didn't want to let it be known I committed the cardinal sin of using the Boruto anime for inspiration in her Fuinijutu capture like how the Genin of Boruto caught Kakashi.

Obviously I put my own twist on it to make it usable just by myself.

The reason I would admit however is that I was instead focussing all my Chakra control through the Seals I had placed on the ground that was keeping her paralyzed.

Sadly this is also keeping me stuck on the spot also so it's not like I can capitalise on capturing her.

Due to this and my refusal to speak what then took place was the worlds most awkward staring contest.

Not the most epic end to a battle I know but it got the job done.

I was just fortunate that Aquilla arrived just as my Chakra was close to bottoming out.

Her Anbu uniform was covered in blood and gave a particularly garish sight.

Seeing myself and Kamisori in a stalemate she promptly removed a Kunai and pierced the Missing Nin's throat making her bleed out almost instantly and die just as quickly.

"Good work" she complimented me just as she made sure Kamisori was dead.

I however barely listened as I was on my knees gasping for air.

"Wow talk.......About...Cutting it.......Close" I wheezed out.

While I recovered somewhat Aquilla proceeded to store Kamisori's body to be examined back at the Leaf, while she told me how her side of the mission went.

From her accounts it couldn't have gone any easier.

Shibo was killed like the fat pig he was and his thugs barely put up any resistance.

Such is common when comparing a Shinobi to an average individual.

Is it any wonder Shinobi's are so feared and respected in this world.

And to think that I'm one of those nightmare like existences to those civilians.

And yet this didn't bring me any kind of pride, why would it?

After all there are threats coming that I have to prepare for.

People of the Kage level crawling out of the woodwork and they were the minions of the real threats.

Quite frankly my current strength is woefully insufficient.

Hell just look at the state of me after stalling a Jonin level ninja.

Sure I had a few tricks left in the tank such as the Strength Of One Hundred Seal but that would have only helped me to prolong our stalemate once I had captured her in my Fuinijutsu.

This was definitely a real eye opener for me as I thought with everything I knew up until this point I was making progress.

Which I am but I am no where near as prepared as I previously thought I was.

Frankly I was arrogant and Buma Sensei would have had my head if he saw it.

I sighed and closed my eyes and offered him a quick prayer "I'm sorry Buma Sensei. I'll do better, and I'll avenge you".

Not long after that I had recovered enough to travel and while not at my full speed we still set off in the direction of the leaf.

Our return to the Leaf was thankfully uneventful.

We gave our Captain our report and handed over the body of Kamisori.

The fact we took down an S class Missing Nin would result in a nice little bonus in our next payslips so there's something at least.

Our Captain impressed with our work gave us the rest of the week off to recover, but I planned on using it to improve on the things I'm lacking.

I refuse to stagnate I got to keep moving no matter what.

And so my next weeks regime was already decided from the moment he dismissed us.

I immediately returned home and after an intense reunion with my Mother who held onto me for dear life after she asked me how my mission went.

I couldn't tell her much Anbu rules and all but once she heard I went up against an S class Missing Nin on my own I thought she was going to finish me off with that hug instead of Kamisori.

Once she got her feelings back under control I decided to take her out to eat instead of having one of us cook like usual.

And so we went to Yakinuku Q where I treated her to the deluxe BBQ menu. What the hell I have the money thanks to Kamisori.

We spent an enjoyable evening talking about what I want to do with my time off.

Her desire to help me was aflame behind her eyes the moment she heard what I had in mind.

And so Mother and I spent my time off examining one of Tobirama's Flying Thunder God formula's.

This was left behind to Buma Sensei and my previous half hearted attempts at decoding it hadn't gotten me anywhere as of yet.

This week however was going to be different.

After all between Mother, Myself and Three Shadow Clones all working on individual sections the task became much more manageable.

And so each day we worked on the Seal, while at the night I would go out with Aquilla and hang around the village doing whatever came to our mind at the time.

Some of our activities were often date like in appearance but we never really called them such not wanting to put any such labels on whatever this is just yet.