Master Liu Bei, I'm Determined to Be Him

Explaining Chakra attributes and Nature Transformation to Naruto, whose Ninja Academy theory grades were worrying, truly cost Kakashi Hatake quite a bit of breath.

It was supposed to be nothing more than a leisurely D-Rank Mission to weed a field... Kakashi grumbled inwardly. Ever since becoming a supervising Jonin, I haven't even had time to finish the latest Icha Icha Paradise...

After thinking it over, it was obviously because there was a tryhard like Wu Yu around.

"So Wu Yu has Water and Fire, Sasuke has Fire and Lightning—what about me? What about me?" Naruto Uzumaki asked curiously, pointing at himself. Sakura Haruno beside him also raised her hand. "Me too..."

"..." Kakashi looked toward the employer, who was hiding in the shade nearby.

The employer smiled. "This is more interesting than listening to stories. As long as you clear the weeds from this field by this afternoon, I don't mind what you do."

Kakashi nodded, took two sheets of Chakra Paper from his pouch, handed one each to Sakura and Naruto, and told them how to test themselves.

Naruto and Sakura both channeled Chakra into their papers. The sheet in Naruto's hand split neatly in two, while Sakura's became wet on one side and crumbled apart on the other.

"So I'm Water and Earth," Sakura said.

"I only have Wind..." Naruto pouted. The other three all had two attributes, so why did he only have one?

Kakashi said seriously, "My advice is that the two of you put Nature Transformation training aside for now. Sakura, your Chakra reserves are about the same as Wu Yu's—Wu Yu in his normal state, that is. They're enough for learning Yin Release genjutsu, but practicing Water Release or Earth Release would not only spread your focus too thin; you don't have enough Chakra to allocate to them. As for Naruto, your foundation is a little weak. For now, you should make up for those basics first. Multiple Shadow Clones combined with Taijutsu are already more than sufficient at the Genin stage."

It was precise and practical advice. Aside from Naruto, who was somewhat indignant because he did not fully understand it—though really, he was just envious of flashy ninjutsu—both Sakura and Sasuke greatly agreed with Kakashi's assessment.

As for Wu Yu, he asked, "What I want to know is, Kakashi, you couldn't possibly have been born with all five elemental Nature Transformations, right? How did you train the extra ones?"

"..."

With his hands in his pockets, Kakashi replied evenly, "Do you think there's some shortcut for that? Training a Nature Transformation corresponding to a Chakra attribute you weren't born with is extremely difficult. You have to put in far more effort and endure harsher, longer failures before you can master it."

"Kakashi-sensei is so cool..." Naruto and Sakura stared at him in awe.

Sasuke suddenly said, "Did you train them despite spending so much effort in order to prevent enemies from putting you at a disadvantage by countering your Chakra attributes?"

"Mastering three Nature Transformations..." Wu Yu drew a circular diagram on the ground showing Water, Fire, Wind, Lightning, and Earth countering one another in sequence. As he considered it, he said, "As long as they aren't three consecutive ones, it seems like you can ensure you won't be countered to death by attributes alone."

"If the difficulty of training a Nature Transformation for an attribute you were born with is set at one," Kakashi said, holding up one finger before raising it, "then training an attribute you weren't born with is at least three."

What, then, was the difficulty of using two Nature Transformations simultaneously—a Kekkei Genkai?

Ten?

A hundred?

Wu Yu fell into thought.

"Alright, back to the mission!" Kakashi clapped his hands. "Wu Yu, Sakura, you can't keep making Sasuke and Naruto's shadow clones do all the work. Where's your team spirit?"

"I'm from Team Zero..." Wu Yu reminded him, only to be dragged toward the field by Sakura and Naruto together, with Sasuke following behind them.

"Phew... Finally, I can read in peace for a while..."

Kakashi pulled out Icha Icha Paradise, crouched leisurely on the ridge between the fields, and immersed himself in the raunchy tales Jiraiya had written after roaming the red-light districts throughout the ninja world.

Weeding the fields took up most of the day. By the time Wu Yu and the others returned to the Hokage Building to turn in their mission, it was nearly dusk.

"Are there any more missions? It feels like we can do another one before nightfall."

Hearing Wu Yu say that, Sakura asked speechlessly, "Aren't you tired?"

Wu Yu looked surprised. "Money this easy to earn, and you're complaining that it's tiring?"

The Third Hokage shuffled through the stack of mission papers before finally saying, "There are no more missions for Team Kakashi today. You may disband."

"A C-Rank Mission would be fine too..." Wu Yu said, only to be pulled back by Sakura.

"Yeah, yeah! Give us something difficult!" Naruto said, only for Kakashi to hold him down.

In the end, they still disbanded for the day.

The group parted ways in front of the Hokage Building. Wu Yu weighed the 4,750 ryo he had earned today in his wallet, feeling thoroughly satisfied. He returned the ninja tool pouch to Naruto and waved. "I've got something to do, so I'm leaving first."

Kakashi glanced in the direction Wu Yu had gone. It was not toward Wu Yu's home, but rather... No way...

Inside a bookstore in Konoha, Wu Yu picked up the latest volume of Icha Icha Paradise. Unfortunately, it was sealed, so he could not flip through it... There was hardly any censorship in the ninja world, so erotic books like this were simply displayed on shelves for anyone to buy. Wu Yu picked out several similar books, and when he reached the counter to pay, he asked about the sales of books like Icha Icha Paradise.

"Icha Icha Paradise is a bestseller! Lord Jiraiya earns tens of millions of ryo in Royalties every year with ease!" the bookstore owner explained knowledgeably.

As for Wu Yu's age, the owner did not care in the slightest.

This was a world where twelve-year-old children could take up blades and head to war to cut people down...

"Royalties?" Wu Yu took the bag. "There aren't any pirated copies?"

The bookstore owner laughed. "Are you joking? Anyone daring to pirate a bestseller like that wouldn't even need Lord Jiraiya to say a word. The publisher would probably send assassination missions to all five great ninja villages!"

"True enough. This is a world where assassin ninjas are everywhere..."

Wu Yu took another lap through the food street and bought a batch of ingredients before finally heading home.

He had gotten paid. Today, he was going to make himself a proper feast.

Wu Yu cooked at home—his shadow clone did the cooking, while his original body sat casually on the sofa, flipping through the scroll Kakashi had left behind, which recorded everything the Copy Ninja had learned.

Curse Mark Technique... Curse Mark Technique... Curse Mark Technique...

With his goal in mind, Wu Yu rapidly searched through the Kakashi Scroll. Strips of paper he tore off piled up on the floor. Even after reaching the end, he found no technique related to curse marks. He did find the Fuinjutsu known as the Seal of the Dark Seal, which Kakashi had used to seal Sasuke's curse mark, as well as the Seal of Fire Sealing Jiraiya had once used.

"A curse mark, as the name suggests, is a special technique imposed on a target much like a curse... In the manga, Danzo placed the 'Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal' on every Root ninja, making them unable to reveal any information about Danzo..."

As Wu Yu slowly rolled up the Kakashi Scroll, his eyes flickered. When Orochimaru and Kabuto used Impure World Reincarnation, they also had kunai carved with curse seals to control the reincarnated bodies they summoned...

Following that principle, he should be able to develop a Curse Mark Technique that controlled his own Mysterious Clones, right?

At the very least, it could prevent them from dismissing themselves without his permission... Damn it, were they trying to rebel? How dared they quit on their own without the original body's approval!

Wu Yu curled his lip. To be honest, his interest in Mysterious Clones had recently begun to wane.

His interest in this peculiar Clone Technique—which had appeared from nowhere, and whose principles he did not understand—had gone through several stages as his understanding of it deepened.

The first stage lasted from summoning Mysterious Tsunade to being ambushed by the real Tsunade.

During that period, Wu Yu only knew that the Mysterious Clones obeyed him completely. Even if he played with Tsunade to his heart's content, she would not refuse him. He had been fearless simply because he knew nothing.

Fortunately, Wu Yu had only used it twice during that stage, with Tsunade and Kaguya. Those two had captured his attention, preventing him from carelessly trying all sorts of Mysterious Clones during that most dangerous phase—the phase in which the secrets of his Mysterious Clones were most likely to be exposed.

The second stage lasted from his conversation with the real Tsunade until he used Mysterious Clones such as Karin to test the memory return mechanism of the Left and Right Mysterious Clones.

During this stage, Wu Yu learned that the memories of randomly appearing Mysterious Clones might be directly returned to the original person the clone was based on. Therefore, every time he summoned one, he would disguise himself beforehand with Transformation Jutsu.

If the summoned Mysterious Clone was not a sensory-type ninja, it would not even be able to tell that the transformed Wu Yu was its original body.

The third stage began after he discovered the memory mechanism of the Left and Right Mysterious Clones and lasted until Mysterious Clone Kakashi voluntarily dismissed himself.

During this stage, because Wu Yu could ensure that the clones' memories would not return to their originals, he began cutting loose again. Whenever he had time, he would summon Mysterious Clones; whether he had something to do or not, he would take a pull. This had been the stage in which Wu Yu used Mysterious Clones most frequently...

Without a doubt, after discovering that Mysterious Clones could dismiss themselves outright when Wu Yu's orders conflicted with their "Cognitive Anchors," his use of Mysterious Clones entered its fourth stage...

At this stage, Wu Yu possessed both the Tsunade Scroll and the Kakashi Scroll. He had more ninjutsu and secret techniques to learn than he could possibly keep up with, so his need for Mysterious Clones had clearly diminished. On top of that, he now knew they might just slack off and clock out...

Unless he discovered some new mechanism for Mysterious Clones, or learned a Curse Mark Technique that could control them and prevent them from dismissing themselves, Wu Yu did not intend to use Mysterious Clones frequently anymore.

Having a Mysterious Clone dismiss itself right in front of him was pretty humiliating for the original body.

Hmph~

Wu Yu felt that one Mysterious Kaguya was already more than enough.

From here on, he should focus on himself.

If his hardware was lacking, then he would continue improving his software—refining his skills... The stronger his techniques became, the more combat power he could unleash once he entered Jade Rabbit Mode.

And he could not neglect making money, either...

Being a ninja and taking missions paid well, but writing erotic fiction seemed like another possible path!

While waiting for his Shadow Clone to finish making dinner, Wu Yu took out a notebook and began jotting down ideas, planning out a novel. Ideally, it would be a serialized work that he could keep writing and publishing...

Although he had casually mentioned The Legend of the Condor Heroes to Sasuke before... Hey, why not write an erotic version of The Legend of the Condor Heroes?

Hmm... The master-disciple relationship had to stay... But the age gap between Little Dragon Girl and Yang Guo was too small, making them unsuitable as models for Tsunade. No, no...

Tianshan Child Elder?

Huh, there were conveniently three elders of Carefree Wandering. He could just heavily adapt them into the Sannin...

Wu Yu wrote out the character relationships and smiled. Then he turned to a fresh page and wrote the title: Carefree Wandering...