Chapter 823 : Tsunade's Curiosity

[A/N: Sorry guys. For some reason, took a lot longer to write. Won't be able to do a double today, but I'll write tomorrow too since I technically had a break yesterday.]

As soon as he reached his house, Fujin entered the basement. Despite his returning to his home after nearly a month, a Shadow Clone was sitting at the center of the basement with a pot placed in front of him.

Of course, no Shadow Clone could sustain itself for a month. The reason why there was still one there was that Fujin regularly sent Shadow Clones back to his house to keep an eye on Shukaku's chakra.

Since the pot needed to absorb nature energy, he didn't keep it with him. With strong ninjas like Renjiro staying around him along with several Hyuga ninjas and other sensors, Shukaku's chakra would have been discovered no matter how careful Fujin was.

Seeing Fujin, the clone dispelled himself and sent the memories and chakra back to Fujin. Fujin carefully observed the pot as he sighed, ‘It is way too slow now...’

As he expected, the chakra grew. Unfortunately, it is way too slow. Fujin thought, ‘The rate at which it increased initially was still decent.
I had around 5% of Shukaku's chakra and it increased by 20% in just 3 days, taking the amount of Shukaku's chakra in the pot to 6%. It took another week to increase to 7%. The rate dropped drastically after that and I still have only around 7.5% of Shukaku's chakra. I have a feeling that even if I wait for over a year, the amount still wouldn't reach 10%...’

The drastic fall in its growth rate discouraged Fujin from waiting any longer. The gains didn't justify the amount of time needed.

Fujin thought, ‘Anyway, the good thing is that the chakra didn't develop sentience. Even though the chakra is quite bale and I can feel Shukaku's hatred, it's not an issue since it can't think or act. There shouldn't be any complications with the seal though I need to monitor whether the vile nature and hatred would affect me. Still, I wonder how much chakra is needed before it can develop sentience…’

Fujin thought for a bit but couldn't make an estimate due to the limited data with him. He muttered, “Leave it. The next time I target any Tailed Beast, I'll try to steal more chakra. It'll be a good way to learn how sentience can affect my seal. That said…”

Fujin turned his gaze back to the pot and decided, ‘I'm not sure how absorbing the chakra inside the pot will affect me. Regardless, it'll be suspicious that my chakra reserves increased so drastically in such a short time. Normally I wouldn't have cared. In fact, it'd be very difficult to even realize that. However, Tsunade is now in the village and I can finally explore that method...’

Fujin thought for a minute before deciding, ‘I'll explore her method first. No reason not to say yes to a free power-up, assuming there are no complications. If there are, then I don't need to explore that method now that I have this seal.’

Fujin let out a yawn. Realizing how tired his body and mind were, he decided to get a good sleep. Unlike him, Shikaku couldn't return to the dreamworld due to Tsunade's orders. Instead, he disturbed Ibiki's sleep, though Ibiki didn't care much about it, unlike Shikaku. The two immediately worked on deciding which prisoners could be sacrificed for the greater good.

At around 8, the Konoha army finally returned to the village. Hoka disguised as Fujin and created a Shadow Clone to take his place as the army participated in the victory parade organized by the council to increase the ninjas' morale, motivate the students to train harder and encourage the civilian population to enroll more children in the academy.

The entire army marched around Konoha as several people flocked on both sides of the streets and cheered for them. It continued for several hours until they finally stopped in front of the Hokage Building at noon, where Tsunade delivered a speech before dispersing the army, except for the generals.

The generals met up with the council members on the rooftop. Tsunade observed ‘Fujin’ carefully and thought, ‘So, he's the wonder kid… Not bad. His temperament looks good for someone who accomplished so much at such a young age.’

She smiled and said, “We finally meet, Fujin. I've heard a lot about you.”
Jiraiya added, “Good work kiddo. Sensei would be proud when he learns what you did in the last few weeks.”

The other council members nodded in agreement as Hoka awkwardly wondered, ‘What do I do now? Shikaku-sama didn't say anything about fooling the council members and two of the Legendary Sannins…’

Luckily for him, Shikaku suddenly coughed and said, “If you want to praise Fujin, you can do it later when he actually shows up.”

Several confused glances landed on him as some asked, “What do you mean?”

They quickly turned their gaze back to ‘Fujin’ as Hoka dispelled the Transformation jutsu and his Shadow Clone and said with an awkward smile, “Sorry, I didn't intend to fool you.”

All were shocked to see that Hoka was disguised as Fujin. Jiraiya's eyes twitched as he wondered, ‘Did Fujin avoid the victory parade?’
Tsunade was taken aback too and asked, “What does this mean? Where is Fujin?”

Shikaku answered, “He returned to the village earlier as he had to report some information. Right now, he's probably resting at home.”

Jiraiya thought, ‘He really did that?’
Others were surprised as well. They had heard children bunking classes, but this was the first time they saw a Commander-in-chief of the army bunking a victory parade. For a moment, no one knew what to say.

Tsunade thought, ‘Skipping the victory parade? That's quite a way to make an impression…’
She turned her gaze towards Jiraiya as she wondered, ‘Why do I have the feeling that Jiraiya didn't tell me everything about this boy?’

Koharu muttered, “Skipping the victory parade… How insolent.”
She shook her head in disappointment. Homura sighed and said, “Well, he worked a lot for the past month. So, this can be excused.”
Koharu replied, “I know. Even though he made matters risky, the success of negotiations with Sunagakure can be attributed to him as well. That is why I didn't say much. Shikaku, did he tell what happened with the Third Kazekage?”

Shikaku replied, “He did, but that isn't very important. There is another hidden danger to the village he discovered which is giving me headaches at the moment. Luckily, it isn't an immediate threat. I'll think of some countermeasures and discuss them later during a council meeting. It'll be better if Lord Third can wake up by then as I'd like to discuss this with him too.”

Shikaku looked at Tsunade as he spoke the last sentence. Koharu wanted to ask how the Third Kazekage had died. However, with Shikaku diverting the subject to a more critical matter, which he refused to say as well, she couldn't force the answer from him.

Tsunade said, “I'm still working on it, but I'll need a few days to start healing Sensei.”
Shikaku said, “That should do. Fujin heard that you were working on this and wanted to help. He'll probably come to you later.”
Tsunade asked, “Does he have knowledge of souls too?”
Shikaku nodded, “He has some expertise, but I'm not sure to which extent. You can make the judgement when you meet him.”

Even though Shikaku and Hiruzen knew that Fujin had learnt the Spirit Transformation jutsu, it wasn't public information. As such, Shikaku didn't want to disclose it in front of the entire council.

Tsunade was surprised by Shikaku's answer. She couldn't help but wonder, ‘Did this kid dip his paws into every aspect? That's not a good thing at such a young age, but Sensei must have a reason to let him diversify his skills to such an extent…’

Tsunade's curiosity towards Fujin increased even further. The very fact that Fujin defeated Orochimaru and led Konoha’s armies to several outrageous victories had evoked her interest. She expected him to be an intelligent ninja completely focused on training and fighting. She never expected him to have a deep knowledge of Medical Ninjutsu and souls especially since he was already a Grandmaster in Fuinjutsu.

Tsunade said, “Alright. Just send him to the Torture & Interrogation Department. I'll head back there and continue experimenting.”

Shikaku said, “Alright. We'll focus on ensuring that Sunagakure honors the terms of the agreement. We also need to start a new recruitment drive to capitalize on the high morale of the citizens. With more children signing up for the academy's entrance test, the number of students who get selected will skyrocket.”

He turned his eyes towards the two elders and requested, “I hope you two can focus on this aspect. Lord Third wanted to create a new elite force from the next generation to raise our strength to the next level and this is our best chance. In his absence, only the two of you can handle such an important responsibility.”