Сhapter 55

Izumi had fully recovered from his wounds just by the time I started training with the clones again. Because of this, these very trainings had to be interrupted a few days after our comrade returned to the ranks. Sensei didn't want to stay in the village any longer, checked to see if Yamanaka had lost his combat capability and took the mission from the rank outside the village. This time it was quite a standard order for help with clearing the dam, which disrupted the irrigation system of several rice fields with its appearance.

In general, nothing particularly difficult or dangerous, it was not at all difficult to destroy a natural dam that was formed from several trees felled in one place. This mission took us only five days, taking into account that it took us four days to go back and forth and almost a whole day to find the place where the dam itself was formed. Nothing special, but we were paid very good money for it. As for two dozen D-rank missions, which is very significant.

Actually, because of this, Sesney soon stopped taking regular D-rank missions for us, instead registering the most paid C-rank mission for us once a week or two. Which suited us all more than completely. So we also had personal money, which is especially important for me, and additional time for rest or training appeared. Which I used in full, driving my own clones and, to some extent, our sensei… Who almost permanently became my sparring partner, without having the opportunity to dump such an honorable role on his clone…

Right now, Sensei's clones simply couldn't survive sparring with me. They were too fragile for him, and he did not put much effort into his clones. It was me with my reserves who could power a couple of individual clones so that they would calmly survive the loss of a limb without losing their integrity. Sensei couldn't do that… Which, given my current capabilities and the habit that has already begun to appear of using my clones to the fullest in battle, makes Sensei's clones simply unsuitable as my sparring partners.

However, during our sparring sessions, I still try not to overdo it with the number of clones. I didn't have enough energy for everything anyway, yet I used quite a lot of clones for other workouts. But in order to train in the same ninjutsu, clones needed to be sufficiently energized with chakra so that they had something to train with. Therefore, I didn't want to spend a lot of chakra on clones during sparring. And mental fatigue, as a rule, makes itself felt, just not allowing me to use really many clones during simple sparring sessions.

Although, of course, over time, I slowly began to get used to the constant need to process the memories of clones and endure the fatigue received from them. So, during the time that we had between missions with the rank, I did not have time to get really tired. I have chosen the most optimal training regime for myself. That is, in the evening, I have no strength left from the word at all, but I don't have time to work too hard for a week of "rest" between missions. Well, on the missions themselves, my training was reduced to a minimum.

On the way, it's not very convenient to train, and it's not safe, what's there. Even though we took fairly safe missions, but random encounters with nukenins occurred almost regularly. Two or three times a month our team had to deal with runaway Shinobi, including renegades of their native village… And the language does not turn to call these meetings pleasant. And even if I tried to perceive such skirmishes with other Shinobi as a precious experience of fighting with serious opponents. But I still couldn't call these meetings pleasant.

Especially unpleasant and dangerous was the case when a caravan guarded by us, the main value of which was the transportation of the elderly niece of our brave emperor, was attacked by a whole team of nukenins in the amount of eight Shinobi and a whole bunch of armed rabble. Yes, at that time the situation became really dangerous, and we ourselves almost failed our mission… But in the end, the worst option bypassed us.

Of course, there were many corpses and wounded among the princess's escort, but the princess herself got off with only a slight fright and a genjutsu session performed by our sensei… Although she herself is to blame for the latter – it's no good to get hysterical and throw accusations at the Genin team, who already got a lot because of the panic in the ranks of the guards accompanying the woman.

And yes, at that time there were wounds, even our sensei was rewarded with a couple of rather deep cuts and a fracture of the left collarbone, what can we say about our trio… Izumi, as usual, suffered the most, failing to defend himself properly in close combat. A couple of chunins almost killed our comrade, stuffing him with cold steel... if it weren't for my clones, he would have died altogether, having lost his head in that battle.

Although, it's not for me to talk about it, I almost lost my head myself in the first seconds of the fight, acquiring a deep charm just below the neck level… The first attack of the renegade from the hidden sand, which, most likely, was a full-fledged jounin, turned out to be surprisingly successful. It was only thanks to my reflexes that I managed to avoid death, and then Sensei arrived in time. However, my injuries that day did not end there, after all, the battle with the eighth Shinobi, two of whom were Juninins, and all the others were at least Chunins…

It was hard. I almost really died several times, snatching my life out of the clutches of death only thanks to clones and a completely disregard for the spent chakra. By that time, I had already mastered several fairly serious techniques based on Righton, with which I threw my opponents, sometimes sending clones into completely suicidal attacks. What no other Shinobi could afford, but not me…

My reserves were more than enough to hold off four Chunins at once for quite a long time and send clones to cover sensei, from whom, to be honest, our lives were hung up at that moment. I definitely wouldn't have been enough to fight with a full-fledged jounin, the speed and skills are not the same ... Although, of course, if the situation really got out of control, I would have "reached out" to the chakra of Kewie ... I think he would definitely not have allowed my death by sharing his power.

However, this was never needed, Sensei laid to rest a couple of renegade Junins, one of whom he caught thanks to my kamikaze clone, which is where this battle ended. Against my clones and our evil as a thousand devils Sensei, the rest of the attackers could not hold out for two minutes… Lucky, what else can I say. At that time, we turned out to be stronger than our opponents, even if Yamanaka left our team for a while... his injuries were too serious, the chakrosystem was partially damaged, and he broke down significantly…

In general, it turned out to be the weak link of our team, against which, even Inuzuka, who earned a burn on her entire right arm with her battered ninken, looked more than presentable… Sensei did not drive Yamanka in taijutsu for nothing. As practice has shown, it was this flaw of the boy that played a cruel joke on him. Experienced chunins easily coped with the sent Yamanaka genjutsu. Well, to protect him at once from a whole crowd of chunins did not work out corny. My clones in such situations are by no means a panacea…

Yeah, that mission was one of the most dangerous and memorable for us. Fortunately, no one died, but the Yamanaka that fell out of order… Well, Sensei promised to pick up a new partner for us quickly enough. We were not going to wait for Izumi's recovery. None of us wanted to return to the D–rank missions again, especially since the retirement of one of the squad members is more than ordinary among Shinobi. Replacements for such teams are found quickly enough…

And even if it was somewhat unpleasant for me to change my already familiar partner to some kind of leftist type. But if you look objectively… I was even glad that Yamanaka left the team. Despite the fact that in the academy he was considered almost the best student, in practice the same Inuzuka turned out to be many times stronger and more useful than our partner from the mentalist clan… And yes, he has always been our weak link, which in many moments had to be covered and protected, spending part of his own strength and attention on it.

Well, at the first serious skirmish, he was almost killed, unable to stand up for himself… Well, in order to save his life, I received several additional, not too pleasant wounds. Fortunately, nothing more serious happened to me than the first missed attack of Jounin. Broken ribs and a few cuts on my hands won't be a big problem for me, especially since our team has a little time to lick wounds anyway…

The search for a new member for an incomplete team of genins is a simple matter, in many ways even debugged in the office of our Hokage, but such replacements still do not happen quickly. Therefore, we had more than enough time to recover from that task…