Wind of Change

Daichi look at Tsuyu in shock seeing how she could sink the leaf into the water already in mere 1 week.

'You can't be real… you made me feel like trash...,' Daichi had complicated feelings seeing how casual Tsuyu was with it. Even he took 2 months and his instructor already called him a genius back then…

"Senpai, I had my own method, as you know."

'God. Life is really unfair.' Daichi shed fake tears.

Tsuyu twitched her eyebrow. She hated the word God the most. It almost made her want to tell Daichi that the concept of God itself was already a paradox because a real God was supposed to be all-encompassing and benevolent - and wouldn't intentionally made humans with their flaws and selfishness, and wouldn't just let the world fall into sufferings. Therefore, a genuine God as believed by human wouldn't even exist in the first place. The reality was the beings claimed to be God were just the same as humans in their intentions, methods and cruelty.

Therefore, they were more like an alien with unreasonable technology that humans cannot fathom yet; and had their own intentions. If anything, she believed those Gods used 'faith' as a source of their own existence. Even if humans were their creation, it would just be that of a programmer making a programme. That programmer itself could be a shitty being and only trying to make mindless slaves for His use and never deserved worship. Tsuyu understood and accept Being X had unfathomable powers - but that meant nothing.

'Since you already did it, I will pass my technique to you. Hehe, but you owe me a little. How about… tens of your Explosive Tags? Hehe...' Daichi gave his sunny, sheepish smile.

"No problem. I will deliver it tomorrow to your house." Tsuyu didn't give it much thought.

'Niceee!' Daichi was more than happy. After all, Tsuyu's Explosive Tags were far better than standard and can be triggered way farther than normal. It suited his assassination jutsu.

Daichi started his lecture with vigor.

'The prerequisite to master the technique was high. It involved turning chakra into Earth nature and infusing them into the body tissue. How should I put it? It utilises Yang nature? You know how medical ninjutsu was like the opposite of genjutsu? Both required precise chakra control, but the application was different. One towards the body, the other towards the mind.'

'It was a sort of like medical ninjutsu where you applied Earth Release chakra through your bodily tissues with precision. You cannot do it blindly and train with it so you could do it with little thoughts. You should have learned basic human anatomy from your medical ninjutsu elective and from the ANBU course, right? There were specific parts where you would infuse only minimal chakra, such as the tendons. And as for the muscles, you only infuse a part of it, while at the skin and bones are where you infuse them the most. Unless facing certain death, you could infuse Earth chakra everywhere to completely negate the attack; otherwise, incorrect use would immobilize you and harm your body.'

There's also significant weakness towards Lightning Release as it could 'conduct' through the body - and it was almost a basic to know Lighting was strong against Earth chakra.

Tsuyu views on Daichi turned a little different, a little of respect and praise inside. She didn't expect this unreliable looking teen was an actual genius just from the sound of it and he wasn't joking. Daichi was invited into the ANBU very early due to his genius. Don't compare him to the likes of Tsuyu otherwise he might look like a jumping clown on the outside.

"I understand, senpai."

Daichi started to guide Tsuyu. First step was to transform chakra into Earth nature, and then infuse them minimally into bodily cells around the chakra network itself to allow better Earth Chakra conductivity and like a catalyst to favor flowing pure chakra to transform into Earth nature. Daichi's tips were to infuse starting from the chakra network and then outward - like a gradient growing from the center (chakra network) to the skin layer above and down into the bones below.

In short, only the skin tissue and the bones had maximum Earth chakra infusion, while at the starting point - from the chakra network itself it had minimal infusion.

Just from the amount of precision and 'layers' with different density of Earth chakra infusion, it was very clear it would take a lot of practice and time.

Although…

Shadow Clone Jutsu! Poofff!

5 Shadow clones appeared and each of them start practicing. Daichi twitched his eyebrow, not liking where this was going. He won't be surpassed by a junior, right?

With that, Tsuyu's schedule was quite tight. Practicing was one thing. Guiding Naruto was another. There's also making Explosive Tags for sale and learning more Fuin Shiki in her free time from the Sealing Squad. She had wanted to learn so many things to improve herself, but can only tackle one thing at a time.

Hiruzen received the report on what Tsuyu had been doing all the time out of worry; and seeing just how much Tsuyu was working towards gaining power - he started to doubt her intention and end goal. Naruto wanting to become Hokage was one thing and being hated and needing acknowledgement was understandable. As for Sasuke, he wanted revenge. Lee wanted to prove himself as not useless and can become a shinobi. They all had a reasonable motivation.

But Tsuyu's motivation was not clear and mysterious. Just where did the drive came from? Hiruzen cannot think of any. What was it? Just what was driving Tsuyu to be this hardworking? Was it really to protect Konoha? It perplexed Hiruzen. Was it like Orochimaru? That her motivation was selfish in nature?

Hiruzen was already almost close to the truth.

But the old man shook the thought away. He started to think in Tsuyu's perspective. Growing in a cold home, with no parents… she probably wanted strength to be able to protect herself and her brother. To provide for both of themselves. And perhaps seeing Naruto being bullied and being an outcast while she couldn't do anything made Tsuyu felt powerless inside.

Just how much frustration and burden did Tsuyu hide inside her cold facade? Hiruzen wondered, how could a child carry such a burden?

Hiruzen's eyes softened slightly, as if coming to a completely 180 degree misunderstanding.

No wonder she was always so harsh with Naruto…

Tsuyu's coldness was a need for her to mature up and her effort was to gain strength for both of them, as a family. Hiruzen felt a sense of deep pity, guilt, but also awe.

Hiruzen made a decision and stood from his chair; taking the Scroll of Sealing from the vault. He opened the scroll and end up in page where Flying Raijin was recorded.

He contemplated it…

He believed Tsuyu deserved this and as a way to make up for his failure to give Tsuyu a proper childhood. ANBU missions were generally more dangerous too, and in time, Tsuyu's achievements would definitely mean she would deserve this eventually. This jutsu was a perfect investment to ensure the life of herself as Minato's daughter and as the village jinchuriki. At least, he believed, he could make it up to Minato in the afterlife.

But giving an S-class jutsu still required the agreement of Council - as normally one would only be eligible for an S-rank Jutsu from having meritorious deeds. But being the Jinchuriki of the village technically already made the siblings up for consideration; especially with Tsuyu being known to be able to control Kyubi's power and being a genius. With how Konoha is in its weakest state since the founding, giving an S class jutsu wouldn't be too unreasonable. As for whether Tsuyu could master them, he wasn't exactly confident, as only Lord Second and Lord Fourth had achieved it. But perhaps with time Tsuyu could.

When Hiruzen brought up his opinion of the council, no one rejected. Having the Jinchuriki available at all times through the Flying Raijin was too good to be passed on anyway. Even Danzo had no objection and felt even more elated inside. Danzo couldn't just blindly stuff Tsuyu with all S-rank techniques like a fat sheep even if he planned to harvest her with Kotoamatsukami after she became a perfect weapon; since Hiruzen might find out about Tsuyu's training or any other ways.

Hiruzen didn't realise the mistake was he was making at this moment - at least not from his intentions.

The next day, and in confusion, Tsuyu received the scroll on Flying Raijin much to her astonishment after being called to Hiruzen's office.

Inside the scroll were the original version of Flying Raijin used by Lord Second. As for the improved version used by Lord Fourth, it was taught to Minato's personal Shadow Guard in the past by Minato himself. So if Tsuyu needs to she could ask them for advice as per Hiruzen's words.

Her initial assessment of Hiruzen raised by multiple points. To think the unreasonable teleportation technique her father had once used was now in her hands this freely; even she felt it was too much. It was like receiving a year's worth of salary bonus out of nowhere. Though Hiruzen made it clear, it was more of an investment and a 'loan' for her future merits, so the FTG was already considered as Tsuyu claiming her them. Unless she absolutely couldn't use the jutsu at all.

In her mind, Konoha was already the best employer she ever had in the past 2 lives. A lot of benefits, bonuses, and a lot of holidays in between missions and she didn't even have to 9 to 5 each day, and training was her own initiatives otherwise she could have lounged freely. Really, Konoha banzai!

***

Though Tsuyu's initial happiness was trotted, given the jutsu's unreasonable difficulty. How could a human learn such a complicated formula with their own mind? The seal itself was very complex to learn and make, with each lines of different formula used required understanding of how chakra need to be shaped for specific detailed function. And while Tsuyu's experience with Magic Formula in her past life helped a lot, but it was as if she had to learn and do all this without a computation orb. And she couldn't do a 'copy' and 'paste' either.

While the 'codes' were written in the scroll, but she essentially had to carve each codes made of chakra mentally and each of them had to be perfected otherwise the Jutsu wouldn't work. And 'coding' in Fuin Shiki had no such thing as perfection. As it was chakra you mold, and slight alteration might improve a specific function and achieve better performance whether its the speed at which the jutsu performed, the chakra cost, the travel distance, the accuracy of transport, aligning and resonating two chakra signals, differentiating between different coordinates of marked space, and even to ensure you arrive at correct orientation of space; there's so much lines of codes to be considered.

The Jutsu basically required extreme chakra control, massive chakra reserve, enough intelligence, and lastly dedication. What jutsu was all encompassing and required every talent in one person? No wonder only 2 people ever mastered it.

She believed she could do it, but the amount of effort needed would be massive. Each Fuin Shiki made would requires trial and error to be perfected for real use and need microadjustments for each formula. Hiruzen can use the jutsu too actually but due to efficiency problem he never opt to use it.

As for the initial barrier for chakra cost itself - Tsuyu was already in the clear.

She started to divide half of her times training Earth Armament Jutsu, while the other half learning Flying Raijin. Thankfully both of the jutsu had different nature in terms of training as the first focused on training with the body, while the other focused on the mind.

Though, Tsuyu never managed to master the latter half due to circumstances.

***

Akatsuki's Zoom Meeting

The projection of Orochimaru's twisted self licked his lips as he appeared. On his side, another projection of Shinno from Land of Sky also appeared. Only Pain, Konan, Orochimaru and Shinno were in attendance as the project was kept secret from Itachi mostly.

The projection zoomed out, revealing both of them standing atop of the Sky Fortress, Ancor Vantian that was flying in the sky.

Then it projected to Shinno, who had a buff body and a clearly crazed expression on him. Powerful purple dark chakra constantly emitting from him.

The Zero Tail was complete and a massive success. Though it lacked negative chakra to completely exert it's power as it was mostly used to power the sky fortress.

"Pain-sama! We are now ready to destroy Konoha!" Shinno felt very excited to finally show off the true power of Ancor Vantian. He believed he would soon have the 5 Nations beneath his- he meant Akatsuki's - feet! The completed Zero Tail unexpectedly bore more result than expected, producing enough dark chakra to power up the sky fortress to fly. Though... It was short a little to fire it's main weapon.

Shinno was too impatient and wanted to fire it outright, that's why he insisted Orochimaru to invade Konoha quickly. Once they invaded Konoha, caused chaos and destruction, the dark energy from the pain and suffering would be fed into the Zero tail and it would then had enough to fire them surely!

Shinno with over excitement explained to Pain about his brute plans.

Pain didn't care much and just gave him a green light since on the surface what Shinno and Orochimaru did had no connection to the Akatsuki. And both of them act due to personal enmity on the surface.

Pain wouldn't risk exposing Akatsuki and their true goals just yet in case they failed and had the 5 Nations cooperate together far too early. So in the upcoming invasion, Akatsuki wouldn't be joining.

Orochimaru licked his lips, feeling a little unreal that the time was finally coming.

But first..

Orochimaru decided to meet with Danzo first. He wouldn't underestimate Konoha just yet, and with Danzo's underhand it would lower risk of failure. The plan was he would deal with Hiruzen personally. In his view Zero Tail was powerful but it lacked power of a true bijuu and merely a chakra battery. Though it already made Shinno a Kage level Shinobi by hosting it. Meanwhile, his force from Otogakure, and the remnants Shinobi from the Land of the Sky would attack.

Orochimaru felt the wind that would blow the wheel that had been stuck for long was coming. And that wind was himself.

***