"Eh? Is this for me? I thought it was..."
Tenten was happy, but also a little disappointed. After all, she had woven it herself, and she'd thought she was giving it away, only to have it given back to her.
Seeing the complicated expression on the girl's face, Kimura Takuya reached out and personally slipped the glove he had just "made" onto her hand.
It still looked like a half-finger tactical glove, except that colorful gemstones had been perfectly set around the knuckles of all five fingers.
The gemstones had also been smoothed down so they would sit flush against her hand.
It looked just like Iron Man's Infinity Gauntlet.
Only it was a little more understated, without the Infinity Gauntlet's extravagance.
But it was still quite beautiful.
After putting the glove on the girl, Tuoye ignored her flushed face.
He turned and explained to everyone.
"Tenten's chakra affinities are all very weak, but the strength of her chakra is far greater than that of an ordinary person.
"That's why she has such a talent for Space-Time Ninjutsu.
"Without sufficiently strong chakra, you can't pry open the door to Space-Time Ninjutsu.
"And, most importantly, Tenten has all five elemental affinities!
"She even has Yin-Yang Release chakra affinities. They're all extremely weak, though, so the ninjutsu she performs is much weaker than other people's."
At this point, Kimura Takuya turned to look at Tenten, who had her head lowered in dejection.
It was hard for anyone to accept the truth: she had the potential to use all seven nature transformations from birth.
And yet every single one of them was unbelievably weak.
Suppose someone else's Fire Release produced flames with a temperature of 1,000°C. When Tenten used it, the temperature would only reach 100°C.
She could use Fire Release, but she couldn't even start a fire outdoors. It was incredibly frustrating.
And that wasn't all. If Lee, who had no chakra affinities, couldn't learn nature-based ninjutsu, then Tenten, who had every affinity, could learn all of it—but only with tremendous difficulty, and the results were pitifully weak!
She might as well not have learned it at all. It was a complete waste of time.
That was why Tenten had hardly ever used nature transformations in the original story.
As for Tenten's all-affinity nature, Kimura Takuya had already suspected something when he watched the anime in his previous life.
During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Tenten had picked up the Sage of Six Paths' treasured fan.
That Six Paths Treasure Fan could unleash powerful ninjutsu attacks of all five elemental natures. Tenten had once used it to destroy one of Kakuzu's hearts with a single strike.
The fact that she could use the fan proved that her chakra quality was strong enough.
There was another prerequisite for using the Six Paths Treasure Fan: you needed to possess all five elemental affinities.
Otherwise, you couldn't use it.
In other words, the Six Paths Treasure Fan could amplify the user's chakra affinities.
No matter how weak your affinities were, as long as you had all five, you could use the fan to unleash powerful attacks of all five elemental natures—even all five at once.
But if your chakra wasn't strong enough, the Six Paths Treasure Fan would drain you dry and kill you!
So, to strengthen Tenten's chakra affinities, Kimura Takuya had designed and made this glove.
This glove was a ninja tool that could enhance chakra affinities.
In the world of Naruto, aside from the Six Paths' treasured tools with their mysterious powers, there were only a few particularly powerful items.
There were the Seven Ninja Blades of Kirigakure, the Kusanagi Swords that Orochimaru seemed to have mass-produced,
the two legendary weapons belonging to Itachi,
the Gunbai passed down through the Uchiha,
Tsunade's necklace,
the Sword of the Thunder God belonging to the Second Hokage,
and the twenty-seven Death God Masks of the Uzumaki Clan.
Apart from those, there seemed to be nothing but weapons made from Chakra Metal.
For a world with fantastical elements, didn't it have far too few extraordinary weapons?
In the neighboring cultivation world, you could say everyone had a magical artifact. Anyone who practiced cultivation could put together a few, let alone spiritual artifacts or magical treasures.
All you could say was that the development of weapons in this world was far too slow.
Even years later, all they had were things like cannons and Scientific Ninja Tools—neither of which had any style.
The only interesting thing was the Chakra Armor from the Land of Snow, and even that never caught on.
Maybe it was because ninja relied entirely on their own training.
All their strength came from hard work. The only way to seek power beyond oneself was Sage Mode, and only a select few could learn it.
There was no mindset of seeking the Way from the world around them from the very beginning.
It was also difficult to make much progress externally.
Whether a ninja was strong or not basically came down to bloodline. If your bloodline was exceptional, then you were exceptional. If it wasn't, then even if you worked hard your whole life, you'd only shine for a brief moment.
That was also related to the culture of the Land of Honzo. It lacked even a trace of the spirit found in the Chinese saying, "Are kings and generals born to their station?"
The entire Naruto story pushed one idea: that of predestination.
It had created two passionate characters in Guy and Lee, but in the end, their efforts as "ordinary people" only served to highlight the greatness of those with superior bloodlines.
Then there was Neji, who had been ruled by the idea of destiny from the start. It seemed that Naruto had helped him break free of fate.
But in the end, Neji was still forcibly killed to affirm Kishimoto's belief in destiny.
Otherwise, Neji wouldn't have needed to die at all. His death had no value beyond proving Kishimoto's twisted belief in fate.
Kimura glanced at Neji. Neji's chakra affinities were Fire, Earth, and Water, and they were all weak, too.
But as a Hyuga prodigy, his affinities were only weak compared to those of ordinary people. In fact, they were about average.
His ninjutsu was less effective than Gentle Fist and difficult to use in combination with the Byakugan.
The affinities best suited to Neji were actually Lightning and Wind, but he had neither. If he forced himself to train in them, they would be weak affinities, and usually there would be no point.
But if he could enhance his affinities, then using Chidori with the Byakugan might be possible. Lightning Release combined with the Byakugan could be another path.
"Tuoye, what exactly does the glove you made for Tenten do?"
"It enhances chakra affinities, making her ninjutsu—which was practically useless before—stronger. I also engraved Sealing Jutsu formulas on the gemstones, so she can store different ninja tools in them."
"So, Tuoye, does that mean you want me to use ninjutsu from now on?"
Tenten looked at Kimura Takuya in confusion, raising her hands in their specially made gloves like a short-legged kitten surrendering.
But he waved his hand and shook his head.
"No. Other than low-cost support ninjutsu, I want you to avoid using other ninjutsu whenever possible.
"But you should master the nature transformations of every elemental affinity."
"Huh? Why? Nature transformation is really difficult! And if I have to master them all, how long will that take?"
Tenten and the others already knew the difference between nature transformation and shape transformation.
The latter was the core of Konoha-Style Nintaijutsu.
But the former was a skill only elite ninja could master!
And Tuoye wanted Tenten to master all of them?
That was terrifying!
"Getting stronger is a lifelong pursuit. There's no end to the path of a strong person. Even the legendary Sage of Six Paths wasn't the strongest in the Ninja World."
Kimura Takuya looked around at everyone and shared his understanding of what it meant to grow stronger.
Everyone was a little surprised by Kimura Takuya's words.
Even the legendary Sage of Six Paths wasn't the strongest? Did an even stronger being exist?
And did Tuoye intend to surpass even that being?
"My ninja way is to become the strongest, surpassing all things, and turn every impossibility into a possibility! If you want to keep up with me, then work hard to become stronger, too."
Before you continue