Day seven of the Land of Waves escort mission.
They had already reached the borders of the Land of Waves and were less than three days from their destination.
"Ora ora ora ora! Idiot Sasuke, eat my dust!"
"Damn it, moron Naruto! Just you wait."
Hongshi rested a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Naruto-kun! Your speed and stamina have improved a lot!"
Tazuna took another swig of liquor and laughed. "Oh! Young people really do improve fast! Sasuke, you can't let that little runt overtake you! The Land of Waves is right ahead. Keep it up!"
The group reached the beach by the sea, and Kakashi raised a hand. "All right, stop and rest!"
They stopped for lunch, and Tazuna said, "Kakashi, I'll go find a boat."
Kakashi smiled. "No need. This is just right for our next training exercise."
Sakura asked, "Kakashi-sensei, what kind of training is it this time?"
Kakashi pointed his chopsticks at the water nearby. "There. Walking on water."
Naruto spoke around a mouthful of food. "Walking on water?"
"Yes." Kakashi put down his boxed lunch and walked to the water's edge. He paused, then stepped straight onto the water and stood steadily without sinking.
"Apply a small amount of chakra to your feet and keep it steady, and you can walk on water."
Naruto's eyes shone. "That's amazing!"
Kakashi pointed at Hongshi. "Hongshi, you'll carry Mr. Tazuna this time. We'll cross the sea together."
Only then did Sasuke breathe a sigh of relief.
Hongshi didn't refuse. "I'm pretty fast on water, you know."
After lunch, Tazuna and Hongshi rested in the shade of a nearby tree, while Naruto and the other two began learning how to walk on water from Kakashi.
Sakura had the best chakra control, and her chakra nature was water as well. After one failed attempt, she got the hang of it.
Sasuke and Naruto had slightly worse control and kept falling into the water. Sasuke was highly talented and mastered the technique after half an hour.
Naruto's fundamentals were poor, to say nothing of his control, but Hongshi knew the Nine-Tails inside him was making trouble. He called out to Naruto and beckoned him over.
"Hongshi-kun, what is it?"
Hongshi patted Naruto's shoulder and whispered in his ear, "Kurama, look into my eyes."
At Hongshi's call, Naruto instinctively looked at him. For an instant, he felt as though Hongshi's eyes had turned purple, with many concentric rings and a tomoe on each ring.
They were precisely the pair of Six Paths Ten Tomoe Rinnegan he had exchanged for from the Lord God.
But it lasted only the briefest instant. Even Kakashi nearby didn't notice.
Thump, thump!
Naruto's body suddenly shuddered, and he blurted out, "Old man?"
The voice was low and chilling, nothing like Naruto's own. The others nearby were rather puzzled.
Hongshi smiled. "You could say that. Behave yourself, all right?"
"Kurama? What Kurama?"
After saying just one sentence, the Nine-Tails retreated back inside him. Naruto had no idea what he was talking about.
Hongshi had no intention of answering either. "All right, go try again."
Sure enough, the Nine-Tails inside Naruto stopped interfering. Naruto tried once more and succeeded immediately.
In fact, Naruto's talent wasn't much worse than Sasuke's or Sakura's, and he was willing to work hard. Without the Nine-Tails interfering in the early stages, he would have grown even faster.
"I did it!!"
Kakashi smiled. "All right, let's set off. Training exercise number two: walking on water. Be careful, though. It's a long way, and there's thick fog over the water. Don't go in the wrong direction."
Hongshi smiled at Tazuna. "Sir, let me carry you."
With Tazuna on his back, Hongshi stepped onto the water without any preparation, as though walking on level ground. Even Kakashi couldn't help praising him. "I never expected your control to be this good!"
Hongshi thought, ╮(•́ω•̀)╭ I make nuclear bombs every day to train. If my control weren't good, the damn village would've blown up ages ago.
After years of training, Hongshi's control over Nuclear Release had reached a precision of one part in ten thousand. There probably weren't many people even in Konoha who could achieve that degree of finesse.
Sasuke turned his head away, unwilling to concede, and said nothing.
Sakura comforted him from beside him. "Sasuke-kun, don't be discouraged."
Naruto rolled his eyes at Hongshi. "Tch! So what if your control's good? You're still slow at walking. You'll be lucky to keep up with us."
Hongshi formed hand seals. "Naruto-kun is right, except... Dog-Tiger-Rat-Rabbit. Water Release: Water Glide."
Splash... Water sounded as a hemisphere of water rose beneath Hongshi's feet. He attached chakra to his soles and stood on it. With a thought, the watery hemisphere slid forward like a skateboard, moving extremely fast. In no time, he had glided over a dozen meters away.
Kakashi: "∑(❍ฺд❍ฺlll) What? A self-created ninjutsu?"
Naruto: "∑(❍ฺд❍ฺlll)"
Sakura: "∑(❍ฺд❍ฺlll)"
Sasuke: "∑(❍ฺд❍ฺlll)"
Hongshi: "Ohohoho..."
Watching Hongshi glide farther and farther across the water, Naruto shouted, "Kakashi-sensei, he's cheating!"
Unexpectedly, Kakashi began forming hand seals too. "I'll give it a try. Dog-Tiger-Rat-Rabbit. Water Release: Water Glide."
Splash...
Leaving the three of them dumbfounded, he said, "Ohohoho!!! What a practical ninjutsu!"
Sakura clenched her fists. "You bastard teacher!"
Just then, Hongshi circled back over the water with Tazuna on his back and shouted to the three of them, "Hey! Keep it up, you three!"
Kakashi glided up beside Hongshi too and waved at them. "Dinner's at six sharp! Come late and there won't be any left!"
"Bastards!"
"Yohohoho..."
"Yohohohoho..."
Hongshi and Kakashi glided forward, laughing strangely.
Gritting their teeth, the three could only hurry onto the water and walk forward one step at a time.
Now the differences between the three became apparent.
Sakura had the best control but the least chakra, not even half as much as Sasuke. After walking for two hours, she couldn't keep going and was scooped up by Hongshi, who had already reached the opposite shore and returned.
Although Naruto no longer had the Nine-Tails interfering, his control was still considerably worse. With the Nine-Tails supplying chakra, he finally reached the opposite shore after walking for four hours.
Sasuke, meanwhile, exhausted his chakra after three hours of walking and fell into the water. Hongshi returned again and fished him out.
Looking at the three of them, shivering miserably, Kakashi smiled. "Walking on water showed you the weaknesses in your abilities, didn't it? Naruto, you need to work harder on your chakra control. It'll help you learn stronger ninjutsu later. Sakura needs to increase her chakra reserves. After all, that's the foundation of a ninja's strength. With a shaky foundation, knowing more ninjutsu won't help. As for Sasuke... neither is particularly good, but you need to improve both."
Naruto's face had turned blue from the cold, and his teeth chattered. "C-c-clack... Y-you... you... cheated!"
Kakashi smiled. "You saw Hongshi use ninjutsu to glide over the water, but think about how much chakra that consumes. Running fast and jogging over the same distance-which is more tiring? And Hongshi made five trips back and forth."
Naruto wasn't having any of it and kept making a fuss, but Sakura and Sasuke understood. They remained silent, drinking the hot tea in their hands.
Kakashi's implied meaning was that Hongshi was at least three times as strong as they were.
Hongshi: Tch, with my real strength, even you couldn't beat me... Oh, no, maybe you could, because you're Kakashi Hatake, Mr. Fifty-Fifty.
Kakashi: "Achoo! Hm? A cold?"
Tazuna patted Hongshi's shoulder. "You're the reliable one."
Hongshi ate his boxed lunch. "(͡°͜ʖ͡°)✧ You're too kind, too kind."
At this point, Sasuke stood up and walked over to Hongshi. "Hongshi-kun, do you have any Super Military Rations Pills left?"
This was the first time Sasuke had taken the initiative to speak to Hongshi, which rather surprised him. "Oh, of course."
He took one out and handed it to Sasuke. "You'll sleep for a few hours after taking it. Wait until you're ready for bed."
Tazuna looked at Hongshi. "I've got something I'd like to discuss with you."
Hongshi asked, "Mr. Tazuna, what is it?"
Tazuna looked somewhat embarrassed. "The Land of Waves has abundant water resources, and traveling by water is our main form of transport. But right now, all water transport is controlled by Gato, the owner of a shipping company."
Kakashi was startled. "Gato? You don't mean the one from the Gato Company! He's one of the wealthiest men in the world."
Tazuna nodded. "Yes. On the surface, he's a company owner, but in secret, he's a thoroughly evil bastard who controls shipping to traffic drugs and restricted goods, seizing other people's wealth and even their countries."
Hongshi, Sakura, and Sasuke listened with great interest, while Naruto beside them had no idea what they were talking about and continued eating his boxed lunch.
Tazuna continued, "A year ago, Gato set his sights on the Land of Waves. In a very short time, he took control of all shipping throughout the Land of Waves. That amounts to controlling the entire country's wealth, and the bridge I'm building now threatens him."
Kakashi understood. "So he wants to kill you on the way and prevent the bridge from being finished?"
Tazuna nodded. "That's right. Even if this bridge is finished, it's only one bridge. There are too many islands in the Land of Waves. It's a drop in the bucket, so I'd like that ninjutsu of Hongshi-kun's."
Hongshi smiled and nodded. "No problem. I can teach you."
Seeing Hongshi agree so readily, Tazuna couldn't help getting a little excited. "Really! Thank you so much."
Hongshi waved a hand. "It's nothing. It's only a D-rank ninjutsu."
Kakashi, however, said, "Mr. Tazuna, Hongshi is willing to teach you, but you might not be able to learn it. Even if you can, you might not be able to use it for long. Learning ninjutsu takes talent, and it also takes a long time to understand the concept of chakra."
As though a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head, Tazuna's face fell instantly. "Right, I don't have the talent. Damn it, do we really have to stay like this forever? If only there were some way for ordinary people to use it too!"
Kakashi smiled. "It's all right. There'll be a solution. For now, we need to finish this first bridge."
Hongshi sank into thought. Hmm... Something ordinary people can use too!