met free Chapter 128 Improvement in Strength
Chapter 128 Improvement in Strength
Chapter 128 Improvement in Strength (Seeking votes at the end of the month)
After cleaning up the battlefield, Captain Yamaguchi reassigned everyone's patrol duties.
This battle killed most of the Sand Village ninjas, with only one puppeteer escaping. The burden on Team 8 will be much lighter in the subsequent protection missions.
Sure enough, in the following five days, not only did the Sand Village ninjas not appear, but even the usual bounty hunter raids disappeared.
The mining area remained peaceful until February 15th.
That evening, the Tokugawa family finally sent someone to the mining area to inform Tokugawa Seki and the Yamaguchi squad that they could return to the family.
Judging from his expression, he showed no joy at having obtained the mining rights, which inevitably cast a shadow over everyone's hearts.
Upon returning to the Tokugawa family residence in Matsudaira Castle, the head of the family, Tokugawa Yasushi, still warmly welcomed the Yamaguchi squad, leading Captain Yamaguchi by the hand all the way to the banquet hall, during which he lavished praise upon them.
After all, he knew the details of the daily missions clearly through Tokugawa Seki's reports, and the Yamaguchi Squad had done an excellent job in this protection mission.
Putting everything else aside, they killed more than 20 enemy ninjas, including a Jonin from Sunagakure. This sacrifice far exceeded the scope of their mission reward.
During the meal, watching the crowd constantly offering compliments but not actually showing much of a smile, Captain Yamaguchi finally asked the question that had been bothering him.
"Master Tokugawa, is there another problem with the mining rights? We've been protecting the mining area very well lately!"
Upon hearing Captain Yamaguchi's question, the Tokugawa patriarch stopped picking up food, remained silent for a long time, and finally said dejectedly, "Sigh! He still found out!"
The head of the Tokugawa family sighed deeply, picked up the wine cup on the table and drank it all in one gulp before continuing, "It's not your team's fault. You completed your mission very well. Tokugawa Seki reports this to me every day."
As he spoke, the head of the Tokugawa family poured himself another cup of wine: "This morning, the castle lord's mansion issued an order to suspend the bidding for mining rights and postpone it for two months. During this period, mining in the area will still be carried out by our Tokugawa family."
The members of the Yamaguchi squad exchanged bewildered glances. It was obvious that the lord of the castle was favoring the Kawada family; he could even postpone a date that had already been set.
"We paid to get information from the City Lord's Mansion, only to find out that it was the second young master of the Kawada family who pressured the City Lord's Mansion to postpone this bidding process!"
It turns out that the daimyo of the land of rivers has been bedridden for some time and is said to be nearing death. His two successors are now fighting tooth and nail for the position of daimyo.
The eldest son supported by the Tokugawa family, like the old daimyo, has always been friendly to the Land of Fire, and should have been the natural successor to the daimyo position in this succession.
However, the second prince gained the support of Sunagakure and began to vie for the position of daimyo.
As things stand, the Second Prince still holds the upper hand, causing the various nobles of Shimokawa Province to waver. The lord of Matsudaira Castle is one of those who have begun to gravitate towards the Second Prince.
After some conversation, Tai and the others understood the whole story, but it was no longer within the scope of Team 8's mission, so they could only say that they couldn't help them.
However, Captain Yamaguchi also stated that he would report the situation to the Hokage, and the subsequent handling would be decided by the village's higher-ups.
After the banquet, the head of the Tokugawa family specially increased the reward for the mission as compensation for this mission.
Because the mission ended with such a change that affected Konoha, the team did not linger after completing the final mission confirmation and rushed towards Konoha without stopping.
Without the burden of ordinary people, the ninjas traveled very quickly, and it only took Team 8 three days to return to Konoha.
After the squad was disbanded, Captain Yamaguchi reported the changes that had occurred during the mission to the Hokage alone, while Taichi and the other two went home.
It was already a long-term mission, during which they were constantly harassed by the enemy and unable to rest. Finally, due to intelligence reasons, they had to travel overnight.
The team was exhausted. Back in their new home, Taiyi took a hot bath to relieve his fatigue and then lay comfortably on the big bed, taking stock of what he had accomplished on the mission.
[Congratulations, your Genin class level has been upgraded to Lv10 (0/2000)]
[Attribute Points +1, Skill Points +1]
[Fire Attribute Transformation Lv10 (1562/2000)]
At this rate, I should be able to accumulate 2000 experience points for Lv10 before this year's Chunin Exams. As long as I pass the village's assessment, I can smoothly advance in both my actual ninja level and my character's stats.
This year, I'm finally no longer a genin.
I glanced at the final evaluation on the panel.
[Comment: Your status as a genin makes you "proud," but I wonder how long you'll continue like this. Do you really want to be a genin forever?]
Proud! Taiichi's eye twitched.
That's the devil's pride!
This panel evaluation seems to indicate that the user is quite dissatisfied with themselves, and has even started to make sarcastic and sarcastic remarks, such as "eternal genin".
Taiyi closed the panel, deciding to avoid seeing it altogether.
Thinking about his fire attribute nature change, he was only a little over 400 points away from reaching the maximum level of Lv10. Taiyi had a strange feeling that a special surprise was waiting for him after Lv10.
Taiyi was also full of anticipation for this.
Thinking this, Taiichi slowly closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
Rewinding to the beginning, after Yamaguchi Seisuke reported on his mission.
Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at the mission report on the table and sighed inwardly. What was bound to happen had finally happened. The New Year had just passed, and Sunagakure was already making frequent moves.
"Go and inform the three elders, Danzo Shimura, Koharu Utatane, and Homura Mito, to come to a meeting."
"Yes!" From the shadows of the office, a member of the secret service appeared and then disappeared with a "bang".
Half an hour later, Danzo Shimura, Koharu Utatane, and Homura Mitokado arrived at the Hokage's office one after another. The four high-ranking officials of Konoha gathered together, and the small meeting officially began.
"Take a look, everyone!" Hiruzen Sarutobi handed the mission scroll on the table to Koharu Utatane, who was closest to him.
After the three finished reading it, the scroll returned to Hiruzen Sarutobi's hands.
The office fell silent for a moment, with only the sound of Hiruzen Sarutobi puffing on his pipe, the smoke swirling around him and quickly obscuring his face.
After a long while, Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice came from the smoke: "Why didn't Root warn us in advance about the critical illness of the Daimyo of the Land of Rivers? I only found out about it after other mission teams sent back information."
The second son of the Land of Rivers has now gained the upper hand with the help of the Sand Village, which is extremely disadvantageous to Konoha.
Danzo Shimura leaned on his cane, a sinister glint flashing in his single eye. It was the Eighth Squad again. Why were they always there whenever the monkeys attacked him?
Damn Matsushita Taichi, damn Uchiha Yohei.
Composing himself, Danzo answered the Hokage's question in a somber voice: "Root does indeed have information that the Daimyo is critically ill, but the eldest son refuses to contact Konoha and deliberately keeps his distance."
This was not an intelligence failure, but rather a deliberate act by the other side.
Koharu Utatane frowned and said, "Even so, as an important ally in this buffer zone, we cannot stand idly by and watch the Land of Rivers completely side with Sunagakure. It is unwise for the young master to distance himself from Konoha like this."
Mitomon Homura pushed up his glasses: "The problem is that if we forcefully intervene, it will only provoke the plans of the nobles of the River Country. What we need now is a more covert approach."
Danzo snorted coldly: "Sunagakure has already openly supported the Second Prince, so what are we still hesitating about? We should immediately send out Root members to secretly support the First Prince's faction."
"I'm afraid things aren't as simple as we think!" Koharu Utatane expressed her concerns. "Judging from the eldest young master's previous actions, he's showing signs of slipping out of our control."
"A kid who hasn't even grown a full beard yet, who hasn't even gotten the title of daimyo, is already thinking about breaking free from our control. He's just being overly ambitious." Danzo mercilessly belittled the eldest son. "If all else fails, we'll just support another one. The daimyo of the Land of Rivers doesn't just have two sons."
"Absolutely not!" Hiruzen Sarutobi decisively rejected Danzo's proposal. "Not only is there not enough time, but even if we were to do it, it would arouse suspicion from other nobles and even other small countries in the surrounding area."
"The most urgent task is to rebuild the trust between us and the eldest son." Hiruzen Sarutobi turned to Danzo. "Root must immediately rectify this mistake, investigate the situation of the eldest son's faction, and establish effective communication channels."
Danzo narrowed his one eye: "I will handle this personally. But if the young master continues to refuse to cooperate, we must also make other preparations."
A brief silence fell over the office. Finally, Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed, "Let's try diplomatic channels first, and at the same time strengthen border defenses. If the Land of Rivers falls, Sunagakure will directly threaten the borders of the Land of Fire."
At the end of the meeting, all four men wore extremely solemn expressions. The prelude to this great power rivalry in the Land of Rivers had only just begun, and Konoha had already fallen behind.
In the days that followed, Konoha significantly increased the number of troops stationed along the border towards the Land of Wind, and all outposts were notified to strengthen their daily vigilance.
Naturally, there have been more tasks in this area, such as escorting supplies, guarding outposts, and border patrols. These tasks, which are rarely seen in normal times, are now appearing frequently.
The eighth class also took this opportunity to carry out many such tasks, thereby increasing their experience in this area.
October 23, Konoha 45.
Taiyijia Training Ground.
Taiyi was practicing his swordsmanship. It's worth mentioning that a layer of bright golden flame was attached to Taiyi's short sword at this moment.
The flames clung to the blade like flowing water, but the distorted air around them revealed that they were not as harmless as they appeared.
As the blade danced, sparks would occasionally break free from its restraints and scatter across the surrounding land, or even further afield.
The sparks that landed on the ground instantly ignited everything, expanding into a fireball that scorched a crater in the ground.
The sparks that flew far away seemed to crash into a transparent barrier, exploding into sparks and creating ripples on the barrier.
With a fierce slash, another burst of flame shot out from the blade, colliding violently with the barrier in the distance. The barrier finally succumbed to the pressure and, with a crisp sound, turned into specks of light and vanished into nothingness.
Taiyi then stopped his attack, looked around at the cratered ground, and gazed at the dissipated barrier in the distance.
"The sealing technique is still too weak; the barrier I set up simply cannot withstand the massive attacks of my own flames."
Looking down at the short knife in his hand, he saw that the blade still gleamed with a cold light and had not turned red or deformed due to the high temperature, which made him smile.
At least now, when using the Flame Blade technique, there's no need to worry about damaging the short sword in hand. Thinking about all the short swords that have been damaged while practicing the Flame Blade over the past two months, even Taiichi couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache.
This is not only due to the improvement in chakra control, but also to the qualitative change in understanding of fire after breaking through the level 10 of fire attribute nature transformation.
[Fire Attribute Transformation Lv11 (523/3000)]
Chakra Mastery Lv10 (357/2000)
【Sealing Technique Lv6 (836/1000)】
After glancing at the three skills he had been focusing on practicing for the past two months, with a particular emphasis on fire attribute transformation, Taiyi had clearly felt that his control over fire had become much more adept since breaking through to level 10.
To put it simply, in the current Konoha, Taichi is arguably second to none in terms of fire-style nature transformation. Even Hiruzen Sarutobi, in terms of fire-style transformation, might not have achieved as much as Taichi. If Level 10 is still within the Jonin realm, then Level 11 is equivalent to entering the Kage level.
The exhilarating feeling of transforming into flame at the moment of breakthrough, when all fire-style techniques could be used at will, is something Taiyi has never forgotten. And indeed, after practice, Taiyi can now perform all C-rank fire-style techniques without hand seals.
This phenomenon reminded Taiyi of the famous scene in the original work where Hashirama Senju clapped his hands and shouted, and whatever came to pass. If only he could raise all attribute changes to Lv11, or even higher.
Just imagine when he clapped his hands together, and five elemental dragons flew all over the sky. That scene was no less spectacular than that of Hashirama Senju.
Of course, it's too early to talk about these things now. Reaching Kage level in just one nature transformation doesn't mean you have Kage level strength. You also need other conditions such as physical fitness and chakra reserves to achieve that.
But Taiichi now possesses the strength of a veteran Jonin without a doubt.
Sheathing his short sword, Taiichi walked to the four corners of the training ground and retrieved the scrolls he had used to set up the barrier. Looking at the four damaged scrolls, Taiichi couldn't help but sigh: "The damage is still too great."
This barrier technique was something I learned from Kushina after Taisei reached level 6 in his Seal Technique. It was set up in my training ground to prevent the noise from my training from disturbing nearby residents. Of course, the most important thing was to prevent my strength information from being discovered by those with ulterior motives.
However, while this barrier technique is useful, Taiyi's sealing skills are still lacking. The barriers he sets up are always broken by the aftershocks of his own attacks, especially when practicing the Flame Blade. Whenever he unleashes a bit more golden flame, the barrier will shatter.
This costs money; the scrolls used to write the barrier aren't cheap, and each loss is equivalent to losing the bounty for a B-rank mission. This also forces Taiyi to improve his chakra control and fire-attribute nature transformation much faster.
Taiyi put away the damaged scroll, formed hand seals, and earth-attribute chakra surged. The ground of the training ground seemed to come alive, slightly churning and filling in the pitted and uneven ground, which then returned to normal.
This is also a basic application of Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld; it's quite effective at leveling land.
After Taiyi finished tidying up, he went out to the 7th training ground.
Today should have been a rest day after the mission, but Taichi received a assemblies order from Captain Yamaguchi through Gigi. That silly bird flew away without explaining anything, and no one knows what happened.