Chapter 38 - Ino Knows

After the preliminaries came to a close, Minato announced that the participants would get one month to train before the finals took place. All of the people that made it this far, would get the month off duty to be in their best shape for the finals. When all was said and done, Chojusen walked Ino and Karin back to the village and split off to go to his house.

He told Choza that he had made it to the finals and proud yet pained look molded his face. Choza said "My little man is finally fully grown..." he paused, looking out to the sky through a window and said "As is tradition in the Akimichi Clan… you are now allowed to leave the compound and live in your own house."

Chojusen was completely shocked; this news had come out of left field. Choza spoke again before Chojusen said anything else "Don't worry, even if your don't have the money to buy a house now, I can help you pay for..."

"Money isn't a problem, I never spend my money and have most of things I need are covered with the allowance you give me. Even if I didn't have the money to buy a house, I could just buy some land and make my own house out of wood or earth… I'm just surprised to see you let me leave the house so soon."

"Well, if it's not a problem let's go look at some houses now..."

Choza and Chojusen then went around the village to look for a house Chojusen could buy for himself. It didn't take them long to find a nice little house that was also close to the Akimichi compound. Chojusen had his house after he gave a real estate agent 17 million ryo and signed a form.

The house didn't put much of a dent in Chojusen's wallet as he had done hundreds of missions formally with his team in the past year and a half. Moreover, the true source of his wealth were the thousands of secret C rank missions Minato gave him during this time.

Chojusen's new house was very nice to behold. It was a two story tall house with four rooms on each floor. The house had a decorative courtyard outside as well. Chojusen moved all his things from his old room in the Akimichi compound to one of the rooms on his house's second floor.

When Chojusen finished putting all his things in his new house, a knock in his door prompted him to meet his house's first guests. Ino and Karin had been looking for Chojusen in the Akimichi compound until Choza returned and told them that he had purchased a new house. They immediately went to Chojusen's new house after Choza gave them the address.

Chojusen invited the two girls into his house and after they marveled at the house for a couple minutes, Chojusen said "So, what did my two lovely ladies come here for?"

Karin said "Can you train us before the finals? I know I didn't make it… but I know that Ino would come to ask you to train her and I don't want to fall behind her."

Ino nodded her head at Karin's words and Chojusen thought about their request. Suddenly Karin said "Honestly, you're a really good teacher. By relying on what you taught us last week Ino managed to beat her opponent in the preliminaries and I… well air walking wouldn't have helped me in that case, but I learned a lot! If only you could train us for a bit more time..."

"Time? Oh, right!"

Karin said "What about time?"

"I can change it in..."

Ino cut in "You can change time?"

"Yeah, like I was saying, I can change time in my personal dimensio..." It seems he only realized Ino was in the room right now.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I… I'm fine." Chojusen noticed that Karin had a look that seemed to say "tell her the truth," so he said "Ino… I know this might come off as me lying to you but..."

Ino was immediately thinking of the worst; her ability to jump to conclusions was astounding. She thought 'Could he have gotten yet another girlfriend? Or maybe he no longer likes me? Or maybe… he and Karin have already done it...'

Chojusen said "So do you believe me?"

Ino had been so absorbed in her own world, she had missed what Chojusen had said entirely. Chojusen said "I guess I'll just have to prove it. Take my hand." he turned to Karin and told her to do the same.

Ino took Chojusen's hand somewhat concerned. What would holding his hand accomplish? The next thing she knew, they were in an icy tundra. She thought "What?! How are we here?"

Chojusen then created a Supernova attack in his right hand and threw it so far, Ino could no longer see it flying in the distance. A couple seconds after the miniature star left Ino's line of sight, she heard an apocalyptic boom and a frighteningly hot shockwave hit her. Ino could see a towering cylinder of fire several kilometers away. When the fire storm dissipated, all that was left was a massive amount of hot steam and cold mist.

Chojusen's words woke her up "So now do you believe me?"

"What on earth was that? And how are we here in the first place?"

"Did you not hear me when I said that I've been hiding my strength all my life?"

"..."

"Ino?"

"Oh, I thought it was something serious… Anyways why did you hide your strenght?"

"Wait you don't care about my powers? I just teleported us millions of kilometers away from the village and nuked a mountain sized glacier."

"Yeah, that's cool. It makes you even more attractive than you already are."

Chojusen could not comprehend this dissonance of what he thought her reaction would be upon seeing his powers and the reality of the situation. He said "Well, I thought you and the rest of our friends would see me as a monster for having these powers."

"No, no, no. If anything, showing us these powers might make us come onto you even harder. Pretty much everyone we know has a same common goal: to be strong enough to protect the village. If you revealed your powers, they might come to you begging for you to teach them new abilities."

"Ok… Anyways, now that you know about my strength, I'll finish what I was saying back in my house."

Chojusen teleported the three of them back to his house and said "So, one of my powers is that I have my own little dimension. I was saying that I can change the rate of time in my dimension."

"Dimension? You mean like an entire world?"

"It's better if I just show you."

Chojusen took Ino and Karins' hands and the three of them entered his personal true dimension. Chojusen teleported them to an area that had a majestic lake surrounded by mountains.

"So, I can change the time here between sixty times faster or slower that the outside world."

Karin said "Sixty times? Wouldn't that mean that a month outside is about five years here?"

"Yeah something like that. So you guys want to do that?"

Ino said "Well… I'm don't mind training with you guys for five years. But, what are we going to eat, and where are we going to sleep."

Chojusen said "I can take care of the food. As for where we'll live..." Chojusen activated his Elemental Creation and created a cozy wooden log cabin next to the lakeside.

Chojusen teleported Ino and Karin back to outside world and the two girls went to ask their parents for permission to train at Chojusen's house. Karin and Ino didn't take long to bring Chojusen news that they would be allowed to stay at his house for the "month" to train.

He teleported them back to his personal dimension and said "Well, now that both of you know my strength, I'll be teaching you a lot of neat tricks." Chojusen then started to laugh maniacally. Both Karin and Ino felt their backs dampen after they sweated involuntarily. What was their overpowered boyfriend planning on doing?