Chapter 56 : Revised

Isami launched an impressive lightning arrow at me which I promptly swatted away after giving her an approving nod.

A's blood had left her system but there seemed to be a lingering effect.

Her body's resistance to lightning and her lightning affinity was now extremely impressive...

I absently redirected her lighting palm and leaped away.

Isami gave chase and I rolled my eyes while taking her legs out from under her with a well-timed kick.

"Alright, that's enough for now." A clone meandered over and started healing Isami while I stood still and got lost in thought.

Although genetics determined your affinity it didn't completely determine the strength of your affinity.

It was part spiritual and part genetic.

As you used your element you awakened dormant DNA that subsequently toughened your body so it could better withstand your element.

There was also a spiritual component that I didn't understand too well.

According to Orochimaru's notes, repeated use of a technique was imprinted on your spiritual energy and that made said technique stronger and more efficient during future use.

Training made you better...

I rolled my eyes and ignored the stray thought.

Isami had seemingly skipped some steps somewhere and now could dish out some pretty powerful Lightning Jutsu and use them better then I could...

It was upsetting seeing my progress eclipsed by someone who had only learned the Justu a day ago...

And it made me wonder about what other people's blood would do...

Perhaps I needed some of A's blood as well...

I let the idea bounce around for a moment before eventually discarding it.

The physical energy and new chakra from A's cells had changed Isami's body slightly, it was an expected change but not a well-documented one.

So, it'd be best to wait...

Even if I couldn't immediately get some results, at least I had something to do for a while...

And that was frankly more then I expected from this experiment...

"Alright get up, you've rested enough." I ignored Isami's groan and started towards the middle of the impromptu sparing circle.

There was more improvement to be had for Isami.

And I didn't want to waste any time...

...

"What next Shiro-Senpai?" Rin my ever dutiful kohai bounced excitedly on her toes.

Minato had left but without his Genin.

So now some of my time was eaten up by my new 'friends'.

Thankfully most of our time was spent training, so It didn't feel like a total waste of time.

"I think Obito could use some encouragement..." I trailed off as I saw him dramatically dragging himself towards us.

Kakashi had left with Minato so it was just me and the Genin...

"I'm dying!" Obito was shouting to express just how badly he was 'dying'.

I ignored him and turned to Rin.

"It seems the Gravity Seal was too much..." I trailed off as I heard Obito groan in agreement.

Rin stopped her bouncing and shrugged.

"He'll get over it." She turned to Obito with her hands on her hips. "Isn't that right."

Obito bobbed his head from his spot on the ground.

"Sigh..." Obito was a sad sight, I was slightly wary of teaching the future big bad but I couldn't exclude him.

And exercising with a Gravity Seal wasn't teaching...

So, I was possibly in the clear...

That and the fact that the seal was on his right arm made me feel better about the training I was doing with him...

Hopefully, he would lose that arm...

I pushed the thought away and started towards the center of the field.

"Let's do some sparing!" I put as much cheer in my voice as I could.

I'd need the cheer, even if it was fake...

...

The level and potency of the chakra that a shinobi has affected their physical aspects.

The more chakra that a person has at any given time, the faster and stronger they are.

That was the passive increase that chakra provided.

With jutsu like the Shunshin or Tusnade's chakra enhancement, you could be further strengthened.

What I was after were the passive increases...

So, I wanted to use A's genes to increase my reserves...

I sadly couldn't jump straight to Tailed Beast level, I had already cheated when I jumped to High-Kage level and another abrupt increase in chakra would likely exceed what my body could handle.

So, if I did an Overwrite it wouldn't be immediately useful.

My chakra also needed an increase in density...

Being a Hyuga meant I already had dense chakra, but A had denser chakra then myself.

I wanted that trait but I'd have to give up the Gentle Fist in exchange...

I didn't use it anymore but I wasn't comfortable giving it up.

It was a large part of my early life in the Naruto-Verse and I had formed some fondness for the Taijutsu style.

Chakra density would also increase in time, so I could keep my current Hyuga genes and forget about the immediate increase in density.

So, yes to bigger reserves and no to denser chakra...

"Sigh..."

I also needed to think about poison immunity and disease immunity.

Even though they were called that I wouldn't get a full immunity...

It was just to protect against common diseases and commonly used poisons...

It wasn't useful for me, but my mother and Gai could use it...

So, I'd continue working on it...

Then there was the chakra stuff I was also working on...

Having someone else's chakra inside you seemed to awaken dormant DNA and provided slight boosts to your spiritual energy, physical energy, and affinity.

Or so it seemed...

There was also the problem of finding someone strong who's blood is compatible with me.

I could change my blood type but it was extremely complicated and not worth my time for the most part.

I wouldn't do so unless I caught myself an Ōtsutsuki.

But who knew what kind of blood they had...?

It could be literal liquid gold...

I had no idea, I wasn't an expert in Ōtsutsuki biology...

"Sigh..." Mom sent me a weird look and I rolled my eyes at her.

My lab wasn't a hangout spot, if my sighs were bothering her, she could leave...

I put her out of mind and started writing down what I needed to do.

I'd do the Overwrite soon and focus on Isami for a while...

Having Type-AB blood meant she was ideal for blood transfusions...

I'd also need to see what multiple transfusions did and see what a permeant or semi-permanent change to her blood would do.

Though that would involve a genetic change to her bone marrow...

Or a bone marrow transplant...

A bone marrow transplant would be easier but I wasn't likely to get any of A's marrow...

I nodded at my list and closed my book.

Sitting and thinking about it wouldn't do me any good.

My time was better spent interacting with Team Minato and my latest experiment/minion.

...

"I'm about to tell you something that you must never forget!" I stared deep into Obito's eyes.

Obito looked excited, I almost felt bad for what I was going to do.

"It's the secrete to my strength." I thought Obito couldn't possibly look more excited but I was wrong.

Obito unconsciously leaned closer to me and he looked to be close to bouncing in excitement.

"It's trash talk." I nodded sagely.

Obito whole body sagged and he glowered at me.

"Trash talk?" Obito numbly repeated.

I again nodded sagely.

"Even if you lose the battle you cannot lose the trash-talking war!" I pumped my fist and stared at Obito with conviction.

"Even if you are beaten, you must remember to insult your opponents' mother and question their sexuality!"

I lowered my fist and crossed my arms while trying my best to look serious.

"It's not over until you've crushed their spirits." I nodded and started walking like I had done a good job.

"Oh." I paused dramatically. "Chakra control is also important." I nodded to myself and continued towards my destination.

I could feel Obito's disappointed eyes boring into my back but I ignored them.

I wasn't interested in teaching Tobito.

...

Giving Isami more of A's blood didn't give her any more boosts after the original.

She could tap into a new chakra created from A's physical energy and her Spiritual energy but that was all that happened.

I figured continued blood transfusions would provide more benefit's but that didn't seem to be the case.

I decided that the next step would be to give Isami some of my blood and see what happened.

I wasn't sure if my blood would do anything for her and I figured it wouldn't do much as A's blood had already done most of what mine could probably do.

The blood transfusion was just unlocking dormant DNA with the introduction of strong chakra...

So perhaps blood wasn't even needed...

Maybe filling someone with chakra would strengthen them...?

I mulled over the idea for a while and concluded that's probably what happened to Madara when he was hooked to the statue.

I nodded to myself.

Now I had more stuff to look into...

At least I wouldn't be bored for a while.

...

"Things seemed to have slowed down lately." Mom said as she stared at Isami, Rin, and Obito who were training under the loving care of Duy and Aomi.

Aomi turned out to be a total freak and spent a lot of time training with Duy, I conveniently ignored that I spent a lot of time training with Duy in the past.

"Iwa and Kiri are focusing on Kumo, so Kumo can't spend much time on us right now."

Though that would change in the future, we were blocking key supply routes and Kumo would eventually commit to an attack.

"It's just a matter of time until we're pushed out of Frost by the Raikage." He just needed to be free enough to make his way here.

Mom remained silent.

I turned my attention back to the Genin and opted not to continue the conversation.

Silence was fine.

...

Orochimaru had made good progress in his experiments involving sleep.

Sadly, his progress came at the cost of my free time.

So, I got to man the desk and do the paperwork.

Aomi was dismissed from her job as my minion for the day so I didn't even have anyone to bother to pass time.

I could call Isami but she wasn't as much fun as Aomi...

A wave of memories hit me causing me to lose my train of thought.

The Overwrite Seal was done.

The clone had included some changes to my immune system or more specifically my white blood cells.

It wasn't something I had wanted but if the clone had gone through the trouble to do it, I wouldn't undo it.

So, I guess I'm getting a little boost to my immune system...

And the clone should have added some poison resistance genes while he was at it...

I rolled my eyes as I dug further through the memories.

The clone had worked itself into a panic imagining all the possible chakra enhanced STD's that existed and gathered blood from those who frequented brothels, eventually concocting a gene sequence providing instructions on fighting different illnesses.

At least the clone was productive...

"Sigh..." I stared at the mass of paper in front of me and tried to summon the will required to chew through it.

Thunk*

Sadly, I couldn't summon the necessary will and let my head fall on the desk.

...

With the power of delegation and clones, I finished the paperwork in record time.

So now I had a little bit of free time.

Sadly, not enough time for an Overwrite, but it was enough time to start on the poison immunity genes.

Everything was labeled neatly and I had a list of what each poison user used and had used against them at one point.

One poison user had most of what I required, but I'd still have to peruse other DNA to be as thorough as possible.

So, it would be pretty easy to do...

I would need to do some testing to ensure that it would work...

But other than that it was pretty straight forward.

Get the DNA, assemble the DNA, and make an Overwrite Seal so I could make more whenever I required it...

Easy peasy...

...

Duy handed me a picture of Gai and his team that he received.

Gai's features had grown more masculine as did his teammates, other than that I didn't notice anything different about Team Chōza.

Gai was still wearing his jumpsuit and I gave him a mental thumbs up.

Never let your youth fade!

I smiled and handed the picture back to Duy.

"Thanks."

I hadn't seen Gai in a long time and the occasional letter we exchanged didn't feel like enough.

"Where's Gai and his team now?"

Duy made a show of pointing towards the South-West.

"Gai and his team are fanning their flames of Youth in River Country while defending a fair maiden from a greedy noble!" I nodded.

Team Chōza was doing some sort of escort mission then...

"Thanks, Duy." I nodded and started to retreat towards my lab.

I was at my Daily limit for Duy time and had to escape.

"No problem most youthful Shiro!"

I rolled my eyes and sent Duy a backwards wave while continuing towards my lab.

...

I stood and stared at the Overwrite seal covering the floor of my lab whilst hesitating.

It looked good, there were no mistakes.

I was just hesitant to commit a good part of the chakra in my steal.

The danger of a Raikage attack was higher than it usually was and I wanted to have something to fall back on.

I took a deep breath and started calming my breathing.

As much as I wanted to save my chakra, waiting wouldn't do me any good.

Minato had some Seals around the camp and could arrive at a moment's notice.

I was as safe as I was ever going to be...

Sadly, that didn't make me feel better.

...

I unclipped my Kunai pouch from my leg and tossed it to the side.

Seals inside seals were usually a bad idea...

I unlocked the seal on my forehead and a single hand-sign later a clone appeared.

It started walking around the seal giving the seal its own check-over.

I closed the seal and started shunting the leftover chakra into the Seal by my feet.

The clone gave me a nod and I stepped into the seal soon after.

...

A lightning bolt the size of my torso streaked towards my face and I had barely enough time to make my mask.

Isami bathed me in lightning and my vision was lost for about thirty seconds.

Thirty seconds didn't usually feel like a long time.

But when my skin was melting and I couldn't see anything, it felt like an eternity.

"Alright that's enough, you've got me pretty good." I let my mask recede.

Isami looked pretty cocky.

"How'd that feel!" She started doing a victory dance.

I stared at her blankly, the only part of my skin that survived was my face and I felt rather sour about it.

I ignored the itch caused by my skins regrowth and thought about her bullshit Lightning Jutsu.

Every jutsu she launched with A's chakra was three times as powerful and twice as big.

It wasn't good for my poor skin...

I looked down at my pale hand, my skin hadn't had enough pigment and was now white.

My healing was faster than my body's ability to make pigment...

"Sigh..." I ran a hand through my hair.

Any hair I regrew would be white as well...

"That was painful, well done." My voice was bland.

Isami looked slightly guilty.

"Sorry I got too excited..." I wasn't sure what to make of the fake smile she sent me.

"Don't worry." I shrugged and started towards the lab while motioning her to follow. "I wanted to feel it's strength..."

I've never had this problem before...

Having to regrow my skin more then five times a day was less than ideal, I guess...

...

"You've been able to use the chakra for a while now, tell me what you think about it."

My observations had been lacking, so I wanted her to fill in some blanks.

"Ummm..." She tapped her chin. "It's really dense, so it's hard to use the right amount..."

I nodded.

"Is it harder to control than your own chakra?"

Isami shook her head.

"I don't think so, it was at first but now it's not..."

Tap* Tap* Tap*

I tapped my pencil against the paper while staring at Isami.

"Any discomfort after the first week?"

Isami quickly shook her head.

"No." Unexpected.

Perhaps she couldn't sense chakra well...

"Has your diet changed over the past month?"

Isami hesitated for a moment before nodding.

"How much has your food intake, increased or decreased?"

Isami hesitated again.

"Ummm... I've been eating twice as much as usual."

I nodded slowly while wondering if it was because of the chakra or puberty.

"Have you had an increase in weight?"

Isami scrunched her face up and didn't answer.

"Any changes in your mood that you've noticed?" I wisely skipped the question.

Isami shook her head after a slight bit of hesitation.

She didn't want to talk about it.

"Any increase in energy?" Isami nodded but looked uncomfortable.

I nodded to myself.

It was about what I expected.

"Alright, unless you have something you want to talk about, we're done here."

I stared at her expectantly hoping she had something to share.

"Thanks." She bobbed her head and darted out of the room.

I raised an eyebrow but put it out of my head.

I instead focused on the apparent ease that she manipulated the chakra with.

I was worried that the chakra would be uncontrollable but that didn't seem to be the case.

Lucky me I guess...

...

I jumped the gun and replaced my own blood with A's.

I was overcome with a fever a few hours later.

My mom immediately proceeded to smother me increasing my annoyance over the whole ordeal.

"Thanks, but I can feed myself." I pushed the spoon away with my finger.

My mom pouted for a moment before smoothing her features over and adopting a serious look.

"You've never been sick like this, what happened." I rolled my eyes and mom rolled her eyes to mock me.

I almost rolled my eyes again but stopped myself.

"I gave myself a blood transfusion and my body doesn't seem to like it." I did everything right...

It was upsetting, this usually only happened when there were bacteria or white blood cell's in the donor's blood.

Which there definitely wasn't.

Calling upon years of practice, I ignored mom's disapproving look.

"No worries, my white blood cells just don't seem to like foreign blood." It wouldn't haven't been a big deal had I not been over-confident and replaced most of my red blood cells with A's.

"I'll be better in two hours..." Give or take ten minutes.

Mom nodded and flipped the cloth on my forehead over.

"This better not happen again, we could be attacked at any time." I nodded but my mind was elsewhere.

I was trying to get A's blood to produce as much physical energy as they could before I flushed them from my system.

I wanted a little of that chakra to play with, even if it would stop me from ridding myself of the fever for a while.

"It won't."

Mom nodded.

"I hope so." Mom leaned back in her chair stared at the ceiling while I gave A's blood my full focus.

I blew a quiet breath from my nose.

Annoying.

...

...

Interlude.

"Shiro, why do you keep switching fighting styles?" Shiro turned towards me and I continued. "You always seem to retire your moves after a few uses."

"Hmmm..." His eyes turned judgmental, and he hummed.

I scratched my nose with my thumb, feeling a little uncomfortable. "I was just curious..." But I would rather have let it be had I known I'd be stared at like I was an idiot.

After a moment of staring at me, Shiro spoke.

"I don't want to be predictable." Shiro had a touch of a smile on his face. "I've never had trouble killing people that were predictable."

The smile faded. "I don't want to be predictable like that." His voice faded as well. "Those who are predictable die..."

"And thus, I'm unpredictable, both in life and in battle..." His voice was only a whisper.

I just nodded, unsure of what to say.

"Well, let's not dwell on that." Shiro's voice and expression returned to normal. "How's my favorite Genin?"

I blinked feeling a little thrown off at the sudden shift in mood.

"Rin or Isami?" Three Genin were bothering Shiro, but I figured it was one of the two girls as he seemingly hated Obito.

"Rin." Shiro smiled but it was fake.

I ignored it and gathered my thoughts on the girl.

"She's doing well but has trouble when in a group, if she has Isami or Obito around she can't seem to get any training done." She usually spends more time fussing over Obito though, Isami wasn't much of a problem.

"No big deal, she's got a gravity seal on, that'll make up for her dallying." I nodded but didn't agree.

She could be more, but she continued wasting time.

"Well, hopefully Minato will take them soon." Shiro said and I shrugged.

It wasn't likely, Grass was getting more hellish last I heard.

While Iwa lacked S-Ranked ninja they more than made up for it with numbers and fanatical loyalty.

"I'm about to feed the prisoners, want to join me?" Shiro gestured to the direction of the prison.

As much as I loved being spit on and called a whore, I'd rather it be done by a pretty lady and not a disgusting unwashed Kumo-nin.

I held back a chuckle at the thought.

"No thanks, you can have fun by yourself." That came out a little dryer then I intended...

Shiro smirked.

"Shame, you could have been the last woman those men saw." I rolled my eyes.

In their dreams.

"Alright, I'll go check on Duy and make sure he not in the hospital again." And then I'd sleep.

Yawn*

Shiro nodded and started towards the door with a yawn.

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow then."

I nodded.

"Goodnight." I smiled.

Shiro sent me a warm smile. "Night mom."

I nodded and watched the door close.

"Sigh..."

As much as he changed, he was still my son.

Even if that change was jarring.

I rubbed my face, as I remembered the days when Shiro trained with Tokuma.

This is probably something all mothers go through...

Years pass and before you know it your child is a different person then what you remember.

It felt like I blinked and Shiro had become a whole new person.

"Sigh..." It was best I put it out of my mind.

It wouldn't do me well to dwell on it.

...