With talent like that, he still worked so hard. If all the village's youngsters pushed themselves as fiercely as Lei Dou did, how could Konoha not prosper?
Meanwhile, at Root's underground base.
As Danzo listened to his subordinate's report, a flicker of shock crossed his single eye.
"He could hold his own against Kakashi. Although Kakashi must have held back, forcing him to use Lightning Blade is enough to prove that this brat is a threat."
Sending ordinary cannon fodder to assassinate him was clearly no longer an option.
And now that old fox Hiruzen had arranged for Kakashi to protect him personally, striking would be even harder.
It seemed he would have to lie low for a while, then kill the brat in one blow when he was alone!
Early the next morning.
Lei Dou woke groggily and glanced at his alarm clock.
Knowing how things went in the original story, being three hours late was practically standard procedure for Kakashi.
So!
He promptly rolled over and went back to sleep!
By the time Lei Dou had slept and drunk his fill and leisurely strolled to the meeting spot...
He noticed that something was off.
Kakashi stood there with a dark expression, while Sasuke and Naruto looked constipated beside him, hardly daring to breathe.
The three looked as though they had been standing there as punishment for hours.
When Lei Dou finally appeared, Sasuke's glare could have killed him, and even Naruto looked resentful.
Lei Dou was baffled.
What's going on? Has Kakashi turned over a new leaf? Why is he here so early?
What happened to the king of tardiness?
The butterfly effect was hitting hard. He couldn't trust everything in the original plot anymore!
Kakashi stared at Lei Dou for a good ten seconds before saying ominously, "Good. Now that everyone's here, let's get straight to the point."
"Congratulations. Your first mission as Genin is-a C-Rank escort mission!"
Lei Dou thought he had misheard. "An... escort mission?"
"That's right. Team 7's debut will be a C-Rank mission. We're escorting the Bridge-Building Master of the Land of Waves back to his country."
"Due to certain special circumstances, some fools might try to intercept and kill him along the way. Our job is to serve as his bodyguards and get him home alive."
After hearing the briefing, Naruto and Sasuke remained calm, even looking a little excited.
They thought this was simply a ninja's everyday life.
Only Lei Dou felt as though ten thousand Grass Mud Horses were thundering through his mind.
This plot is wrong! Completely wrong!
In the anime, Team 7 had spent over a miserable month catching cats and weeding until they wanted to puke. They had only gotten a C-Rank mission after Naruto threw a tantrum.
Why do I get the hell-mode Land of Waves dungeon right out of the gate?
Did the system automatically raise the difficulty because my performance was too impressive?
"However, our client has only just arrived in Konoha. He still needs to buy some bridge-building materials in the village and take a day to rest."
"So we'll have to wait another day. We officially depart tomorrow morning at eight!"
"You're dismissed for today. Go home and pack. If anyone dares to be late tomorrow..."
At that, Kakashi gave Lei Dou a pointed glance, his gaze sharp as a knife. "I'll leave him at the village entrance as dog food."
He stared at Lei Dou. "Do you think anyone will be late tomorrow?"
Lei Dou scratched his head awkwardly. "Absolutely not. I stake Sasuke's head on it!"
"Hmph. Let's hope so!" With that, Kakashi vanished in a puff of white smoke.
The three were left exchanging looks.
Lei Dou was speechless too. Who could have imagined that Kakashi, the grandmaster of tardiness, would ever show up on time?
"Lei Dou!"
Sasuke had just stalked off with a dark expression when Naruto suddenly approached and grabbed Lei Dou.
Lei Dou turned to look at the visibly nervous Naruto. "What's up?"
Naruto rubbed his hands together, looking embarrassed. "Um... Lei Dou, could you teach me a few more powerful ninjutsu?"
"Uh, if it's inconvenient, forget it! I was just asking!"
It seemed Naruto's desire to grow stronger was even greater than in the original story. He had also wised up enough to seek help from someone stronger.
It made sense. Lei Dou had taught him the Shadow Clone Technique before.
But after watching that show-off Sasuke spit fireballs every so often, then seeing Lei Dou's terrifying swordsmanship...
Naruto felt that knowing nothing but Shadow Clones was far too pathetic. He was seriously dragging the team down.
Lei Dou looked into Naruto's hopeful blue eyes and considered it for a moment.
Those few seconds felt like an entire century to Naruto.
Fortunately, Lei Dou soon nodded readily. "Sure, no problem!"
"Really? Awesome! Lei Dou, you're practically my second parent!"
Naruto was so excited that he lunged forward and hooked his arm tightly around Lei Dou's neck.
"All right, all right, enough with the mushy stuff. We're teammates. Helping each other is what we should do."
"Come on, let's find a little grove where nobody will bother us. I'll give you some private lessons!"
Naruto's chakra nature was wind.
At present, Lei Dou knew only one Wind Release technique-Wind Release: Beast Wave Palm.
Although it wasn't some ultimate move, it was practical, consumed little chakra, had a short cooldown, and worked at range.
If Naruto could learn it, he would at least have a way to attack from a distance.
Otherwise, a proper ninja spending all day brawling and spinning chakra balls was honestly a little embarrassing.
Even if he later turned those balls into nuclear bombs...
Wait!
Spinning chakra balls?
Lei Dou raised an eyebrow. With his ridiculously precise chakra control, forming a Rasengan should be child's play.
Why not... give it a try?
They arrived at a dense forest outside the village. This time, instead of heading to the waterfall, they simply found a clearing and began their lesson.
Lei Dou decided to start with Wind Release: Beast Wave Palm.
Lei Dou carefully broke down everything for Naruto: the hand seal sequence, the chakra pathways, and the timing of the release.
Although Naruto had yet to undergo nature transformation training, his chakra naturally possessed a wind affinity.
Even without understanding nature transformation, simply blasting his chakra outward would pack a punch thanks to its innate wind nature.
"Have you memorized the hand seals and chakra flow?"
Naruto nodded vigorously. "I have!"
"Then give it a try!"
Naruto took a deep breath and began his first attempt.
But understanding something mentally and getting his hands to do it were two entirely different matters.
The first attempt fizzled.
The second attempt fizzled too.
After five consecutive tries, Naruto hadn't produced so much as a fart's worth of wind, and his face had turned bright red from straining.
Naruto lowered his head in discouragement, feeling that he simply wasn't cut out for this.
Lei Dou wasn't anxious at all. Meanwhile, he gave the Great Sage a command in his mind.
Great Sage, use my memories to derive a training model for the Rasengan!
[Great Sage: Task received. Derivation commencing...] [10%] [20%] [30%]
With Lei Dou's current understanding of chakra and the Great Sage's computing power, reverse-engineering a Rasengan was almost unfairly easy.
Watching Naruto's snail-paced progress, Lei Dou offered a pointer. "Naruto, don't just stubbornly train alone. Make some Shadow Clones and have them train with you!"
"Shadow Clones?" Naruto froze.
"You dummy, Shadow Clones are basically an officially approved training cheat! When you dispel them, all their training experience and insights return to the original. That's called multithreading. Get it?"
You can use them like that? Naruto instantly felt as though a door to a whole new world had opened.
"Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!"
If you encounter ads such as "Are you a real person?", simply ignore and close them. Do not scan any codes or send text messages!
Poof! Poof! Poof!
A thousand Narutos instantly packed the grove. The sight was so overwhelming that it could have triggered a fear of clustered objects.
As expected of the cheating protagonist, his chakra reserves were downright unreasonable.
Before, one person had been fumbling along at a crawl. Now a thousand people were tackling the problem together.
Even if each clone improved only a tiny bit, their combined progress would be rocket-fast.
Before long, one clone successfully unleashed Wind Release: Beast Wave Palm, carving a deep gash into a tree trunk.
Lei Dou nodded in satisfaction. "Not bad. Now that you've learned this, I'll teach you a real ace up my sleeve."
"This technique can be unleashed instantly without any hand seals."
No hand seals?
Naruto's eyes went wide as saucers. Such an incredible technique existed?
"This move is called..."
Just then, the system notification sounded at exactly the right moment.
[Congratulations to the host for comprehending a new skill: Rasengan]
"Rasengan!"
Before his words had faded, Lei Dou opened his right hand.
Blue chakra spun furiously in his palm, compressing into a rapidly rotating sphere of blue light in the blink of an eye.
The violent airflow sent both their hair whipping wildly.
Lei Dou casually pressed the sphere against a nearby tree.
Boom!
Wood chips flew everywhere. The tree, so thick it would take three people to encircle it, was blasted in half, its broken surface covered in spiral tears.
Seeing its terrifying destructive power, Naruto practically drooled. "I want to learn it! I'll learn this even if it kills me!"
Lei Dou's lips curved slightly. "All right. Watch closely!"
"Step one, rotation. Step two, power. Step three, maintain it and crank it up like your life depends on it!"
Lei Dou held up three fingers, giving a concise final summary.
Naruto listened with a blank stare, practically sprouting question marks above his head. His brain's CPU had clearly overloaded.
But he was a typical hands-on learner. As soon as Lei Dou demonstrated it, his eyes lit up. His body reacted faster than his brain, and he immediately grasped the essentials.
As for the necessary training props, such as balloons and rubber balls, Naruto would have to figure out how to get those himself.
After sending Naruto off, Lei Dou settled his mind. He still needed to keep grinding away at fine chakra control.
Yesterday's record had been twenty meters. Today's goal was to stretch his Chakra Threads to thirty-five meters while keeping them intensely condensed and their thickness completely unchanged!
That was the nonnegotiable target Lei Dou had set himself.
Judging by his current progress, he probably wouldn't even have to wait until lunch. A few hours would be enough.
Sure enough, when Naruto returned carrying a pile of balloons and rubber balls from who knew where, the sun had just climbed overhead.
Lei Dou slowly withdrew the chakra from his fingertips and let out a long breath.
"While maintaining high-density compression, I can now extend them beyond thirty-seven meters."
Lei Dou's lips lifted into a satisfied smile.
"Great Sage, that should do the trick, right?"
[Great Sage: Calculations confirm that the host's chakra control has fully met the requirements and substantially exceeded the projected model. Subsequent computation time has been significantly reduced.]
It can even shorten the computation time? Lei Dou's heart stirred. Then could I push it a little further?
[Great Sage: Recommend stopping. Chakra control precision already exceeds requirements. Further time investment will yield minimal returns due to diminishing marginal benefits.]
All right. It pays to listen to good advice.
Since even the system said so, there was no need to keep wasting precious time on this project.
"Lei Dou! Food's ready!"
"I brought instant noodles especially for you. Pick whichever flavor you like!"
Uh...
Lei Dou turned and saw that Naruto had actually built a wood fire nearby. A small, blackened pot sat over it, bubbling and steaming.
Seriously? Has this guy turned the training ground into a campsite?
Still, the smell of MSG did make him a little hungry. Instant noodles would do.
After noisily slurping down the noodles, he had to admit that Naruto genuinely had a talent for cooking them. The noodles were springy, and the broth was rich.
It seemed the kid had survived on this stuff quite often. He had maxed out his proficiency.
"Lei Dou, those Chakra Threads I saw you sending out from your fingertips earlier-what were they for?"
Naruto widened his eyes curiously as he slurped his noodles.
"Training fine chakra control."
"Fine control? What's the point of practicing that?"
Lei Dou took a tissue and wiped his mouth, smiling. "The better your control, the more powerful your ninjutsu will be, and the less chakra it'll consume. Get it?"
"Got it! Once I manage to make a Rasengan, I'll practice that too!"
"Of course. Chakra control is a ninja's bread and butter."
The prerequisite for the first step of combining kekkei genkai was now in place. His chakra control was maxed out.
The next hurdle was the hard requirement for the strength of his nature transformations.
To combine the two advanced natures, Boil Release and Ice Release, their nature transformations still needed a little more power.
There was no rush with Ice Release. Lei Dou had put it in his skill slot to train automatically, and the strength of its nature transformation was climbing rapidly.
By the time he finished grinding up Boil Release's strength, Ice Release would probably have reached the required level through passive training too.
He could also slot Boil Release in and wait a few days, but Lei Dou was impatient.
If he actively worked on it, he could probably finish in a day.
Saving two days was saving two days. Time was money.
Besides, improving Boil Release didn't necessarily mean slogging away at its nature transformation.
Developing or practicing new Boil Release ninjutsu could also strengthen its nature transformation in turn. That was practice driving theory.
At present, Lei Dou had only one Boil Release trick up his sleeve-Boil Release: Peerless Strength.
It packed a serious punch, enough to split mountains and shatter rock, but it was still just a burst-damage finisher.
There was nothing wrong with using it as a trump card, but Boil Release had far more potential than that. There had to be more tricks he could pull off.
Since he was going to train anyway, he might as well develop a few new techniques along the way, practicing skills while raising his proficiency. Two birds, one stone.
As a kekkei genkai, Boil Release had two core properties.
One was extreme heat; the other was terrifying corrosiveness.
The heat could make chakra boil, unleashing tremendous strength in an instant.
As for its corrosiveness, Lei Dou rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He felt there was plenty of potential there.
In the original story, that woman Mei Terumi could breathe out a Boil Release: Skilled Mist Technique and melt even Sasuke's Susanoo.
Clearly, if he developed that strong-acid property properly, its destructive power would be on par with a nuclear weapon.
But!
While a technique like Boil Release: Skilled Mist Technique looked terrifying, its weaknesses were far too obvious.
First, he had to trap his enemies in an enclosed space. Otherwise, a gust of wind would disperse the mist, and it wouldn't hurt anyone.
Second, the mist spread at a snail's pace. If the battlefield was too large, everything would be over by the time it filled the area.
And while the corrosive effect was powerful, it wasn't an instant kill. It needed time to work.
Lei Dou felt it lacked punch. It wasn't brutal enough.
Great Sage, what if I mixed Boil Release's nature into a Rasengan and made a Boil Release Rasengan?
Lei Dou silently posed the question as he watched Naruto beside him, struggling with a balloon, his face bright red from the effort.
[Great Sage: Theoretically sound. However, your concept relies on Boil Release's corrosiveness to inflict direct damage. If incorporated into a Rasengan, the high-pressure acid mist released upon detonation may destroy your hand first.]
Even my own chakra would hurt me?
[Great Sage: The corrosive effects can be negated, but your body cannot withstand the extremely high-temperature shock wave released upon detonation. Furthermore, throwing it from a distance would result in an extremely low hit rate.]
So that's how it is. Looks like this approach won't work. Boil Release really isn't suited to being stuffed into a Rasengan.
[Great Sage: Analysis complete. The Boil Release application best suited to you at present is to imbue a weapon with it.]
A weapon?
Lei Dou glanced down at the black Ninja Blade, Zangetsu, hanging at his waist and casually drew it from its sheath.
How do I combine it with this thing?
Zangetsu might have been made of a special material, but surely it couldn't withstand prolonged exposure to strong acid.
If he melted his own blade before cutting down the enemy, that would be a joke.
[Great Sage: With your current fine control, you can form a high-density chakra membrane over the blade's surface, then coat it with ordinary chakra and apply Boil Release's nature transformation. The resulting "heat breath" will possess both extreme heat and corrosiveness.]