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"Let's go."
Having finished packing, Sakumo led Jin out of the camp.
He took one last look back.
The camp had already vanished, hidden by a genjutsu barrier.
He still hadn't managed to meet up with Tsunade.
What a pity.
"Married women are nice, but Tsunade isn't married yet, so she's still just a girl."
Sakumo remarked, almost as if he could read Jin's mind.
"She's in her twenties. How is she still a girl?"
Jin scoffed.
Besides, he didn't like married women; he just preferred mature ones.
Just as he was musing over this,
A dark shadow suddenly loomed over him.
He was caught completely off guard.
Jin furrowed his brow, sensing that something bad was about to happen. Without daring to look back, he asked Sakumo,
"Sakumo-sama, where did you meet up with Tsunade-sama?"
"At the camp entrance."
Sakumo replied, quietly stepping back a couple of paces.
Jin looked up and saw two towering peaks.
He touched his nose, relieved that no nosebleed was coming out.
However, while his nose was safe, other areas were in danger.
"A perverted brat trained by Jiraiya, I see."
Tsunade gritted her teeth.
"Tsunade-sama, if I say this is a misunderstanding, would you believe me?"
"What do you think?" Tsunade sneered, glaring down at the brat who barely reached her waist. His gaze was fixed on something it shouldn't be.
Her clenched fist was already showing bulging veins.
Who was this brat calling not a girl!?
Seeing Tsunade's reaction, Jin realized that even if he were in her shoes, he wouldn't believe it either.
Tsunade roared, and her fist came crashing down.
"Die!!!"
Boom!
The ground beneath Tsunade's fist caved in, forming a large crater.
But Jin's figure had already appeared in the distance, his voice echoing back.
"No need to see me off, Tsunade-sama."
Tsunade's forehead veins bulged with anger.
"That brat..."
And also,
"Damn Jiraiya! Just you wait!"
Back on the Iwa battlefield, Jiraiya sneezed hard.
Sakumo quickly caught up to the fleeing Jin.
"You did that on purpose!"
Jin glared at Sakumo, seeing him silently turn his head away.
Yes.
He did it on purpose.
For the first time, Jin felt someone could make him this furious.
The veins on his forehead were faintly bulging.
Sakumo, you're really infuriating!
"Don't get so worked up. A shinobi is supposed to endure everything."
Sakumo continued with his infuriating remarks.
Jin suppressed his anger. If he could win in a fight, he'd show Sakumo that Jin wasn't to be trifled with!
The two walked in silence for a while.
Since it wasn't an emergency order, they weren't in a hurry.
As they moved through the forest,
Jin suddenly asked curiously,
"Sakumo-sama."
Sakumo stopped walking and turned to look at Jin.
"Why are you insisting on bringing me along? I'm just a lowly Uchiha."
Sakumo considered his words before replying, "There's no such thing as a lowly Uchiha."
"Is that so?"
Jin looked at Sakumo's expressionless face, which was like a wooden carving, and suddenly burst out laughing.
"Sakumo-sama, I've heard that you can see into people's hearts?"
In his previous life, Jin had read comments that Sakumo could discern a person's potential.
There were similar rumors here too, but it was said that Sakumo didn't just see potential.
He saw into people's hearts.
It was considered a bit of a secret, with rumors suggesting that Sakumo's promotion to chunin was due to capturing many spies.
They said that whenever Sakumo returned to the village, all the spies would tremble in fear.
"It's just a rumor." Sakumo shook his head. "Just like how you can't tell what kind of figure a woman has under particularly thick clothing."
"Everything relies on imagination."
Jin's smile froze and then vanished.
This perverted jōnin was beyond saving.
"You should just die!"
Jin quickly formed hand seals.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
Jin spat out a massive fireball, hurling it at Sakumo.
With a single swing of his sword, Sakumo split the fireball in half, making it fall harmlessly to the sides.
"Come on! You can do it," Sakumo encouraged Jin from the side.
"Just die already!"
Jin drew his sword and started chasing after Sakumo.
He had a feeling that if this continued, he might really end up like Kushina!
(Kushina: ???)
Jin chased after Sakumo, continuing to move forward.
As he kept his eyes on the figure always one step ahead of him, his mind wandered to the knowledge he had gathered about Sakumo.
Specifically, his understanding of the third layer of the Basic Inner Technique.
The Basic Inner Technique was a mixture of all the sealing techniques in his family. Though it seemed crude, it was designed with room for future development.
These shinobi didn't fully realize his intentions and only saw its imperfections.
After all, their core philosophies were different.
Now, through the continuously updated information from Konoha's shinobi, he had found a way to improve it.
It was about turning the Basic Inner Technique into a fully developed ninjutsu.
Or perhaps a new system altogether.
He had found a direction, but several aspects needed careful consideration, leading him to pause in its development.
There were too few options for change right now, and he wasn't satisfied with any of them.
This would require future contemplation.
What was important was that Sakumo had opened up new ideas for him.
To use one's willpower to forcibly mobilize chakra and form a seal.
Isn't willpower also a form of power?
However, materializing willpower was incredibly challenging.
After all, apart from Sakumo, he couldn't think of anyone else capable of such a feat.
The third layer's design involved his desire for immortality, which raised the difficulty significantly.
The sealing technique was ten times harder than the second layer, equivalent to an A-rank sealing technique.
But the key was the chakra involved because the third layer no longer completed the seal within the body; it had to be done externally.
So chakra materialization was a must.
And chakra consumed outside the body dissipated much faster than expected, except for tailed beast-level chakra.
Only people like Hashirama, Tobirama, and Madara had that kind of chakra.
This made the third layer extremely difficult.
In theory, chakra that didn't dissipate for decades could achieve the third layer.
But in times of war, who could go decades without using chakra?
To truly accomplish this, one had to find another way, like Sakumo.
The most likely candidate for success now was actually Kushina, the jinchūriki.
Jin's technique now called Rokukou Senshi (Six-Library Immortal Thief) was also developed to reach the third layer.
But it turned out that Rokukou Senshi's capabilities were still insufficient.
He needed a method to devour chakra.
Jin and Sakumo continued their bickering as they journeyed.
It wasn't until they reached a city that they finally settled down.
They rented two rooms in the city.
"I'm planning to go drink and have some fun. Want to join?" Sakumo asked Jin.
Jin's face darkened.
Wasn't this guy's wife pregnant or something?
But then his eyes lit up, and he casually waved Sakumo off.
"You go ahead. I'm too young for that place."
Sakumo squinted at Jin, sensing that the boy might be up to no good.
Jin smiled back, his face full of mischief.
After all, tattling was one of his specialties.
(End of Chapter)