Tatsu—Ushi—U.
“Water Release: Wild Water Wave!”
A high-pressure stream of water shot out from Kuroda Ren’s mouth and blasted toward the jungle ahead.
Dozens of large trees were drenched by the water, but only the two directly in front of him were knocked down.
The others merely shook a few times and had some of their bark stripped away, suffering no serious impact.
“No good.”
Kuroda Ren shook his head slightly.
“Releasing the water from my mouth places too many limitations on the technique.”
“What if I don’t spit the water out from my mouth, but instead release the chakra directly outside my body and form the water that way?”
A thought suddenly occurred to Kuroda Ren.
When most ninja released ninjutsu, they preferred to fire it from their mouths because transforming the technique through the throat and oral cavity was the easiest method.
But that step was actually not necessary.
As long as one possessed sufficiently strong chakra control and a high enough mastery of the transformation of chakra’s nature, the technique could be performed through other parts of the body.
For example, Water Release: Water Formation Wall created a large amount of water around the user’s body out of thin air for defensive purposes.
The Water Formation Wall improved by the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, was even capable of making the water form a vortex, defending against attacks from every direction without leaving any blind spots.
“Wait, Senju Tobirama’s Water Formation Wall… that hand seal…”
Kuroda Ren suddenly recalled the strange hand seals Senju Tobirama used when performing Water Release: Water Formation Wall in the original story.
The standard Water Formation Wall required five hand seals in the sequence of Tiger—Snake—Rat—Snake—Tiger.
But Senju Tobirama’s Water Formation Wall used only two hand seals.
More importantly, the two seals were completely different from the twelve standard hand seals normally used by shinobi.
“What were those two seals again?”
Recalling the scene from the original story, Kuroda Ren tried to reproduce Senju Tobirama’s two special hand seals.
However, because he only remembered the physical movements and had no understanding of how chakra was circulated during those seals, the hand seals were merely an empty shell and produced no actual effect.
“I’ll ask my teacher next week.”
Kuroda Ren made a mental note of it.
The unique hand seals invented by Senju Tobirama might not be something a Ninja Academy teacher knew about.
But perhaps they were simply some kind of lesser-known hand-seal technique.
Such things normally weren’t taught at the Ninja Academy, but experienced ninja might have some knowledge of them.
In the shinobi world, the twelve basic hand seals were the most common.
Beyond those, however, there were also a considerable number of specialized hand seals.
For example, many secret techniques passed down through secretive clans used hand-seal methods that differed from the conventional ones.
“Yo, Ren-kun~!”
A voice suddenly came from behind.
Kuroda Ren looked over in surprise.
It was Umino Ikkaku walking toward him.
“I knew you’d be here.”
Looking at the messy scene around them, where the ground and trees had been blasted by water, Umino Ikkaku showed a hint of surprise.
Kuroda Ren looked at Umino Ikkaku and asked with a smile, “Is your mission finished?
Did everything go smoothly?”
“Very smoothly.
I just returned to the village yesterday.
I figured you’d be here doing extra training today since it’s the weekend, so I came over to take a look.
As expected, you’re quite diligent.”
Umino Ikkaku smiled.
“Are you practicing ninjutsu?”
“Yes.
My teacher taught me Water Release: Wild Water Wave.”
Kuroda Ren nodded without hiding anything.
“Water Release, huh?
Coincidentally, that’s something I’m not very good at.
My wife is much better at Water Release.”
Umino Ikkaku laughed and casually moved past the topic.
“How has your training been recently?
Is there anything wrong with the training plan I gave you?”
“I’ve been following the training plan you made for me.”
Kuroda Ren nodded and smiled.
“Although it’s somewhat exhausting, the results are really good.
I can feel that my body is developing noticeably faster than before.”
Over the past two months, Kuroda Ren estimated that his Constitution attribute, which had increased naturally through physical development and training, had risen by around five or six points.
Compared with the bonuses provided by the system, that amount was insignificant.
But for an ordinary Ninja Academy student, such a rate of improvement was already extremely fast.
After all, Kuroda Ren was only six years old.
He hadn’t even reached the stage of rapid physical development yet.
Once he reached his teens and his body entered its explosive growth period, the rate of development would become astonishing.
According to the theories of the shinobi world, the better one’s physical foundation was before puberty, the faster their body would develop during those few years of rapid growth.
“When I made the training plan for you, I didn’t take into account the fact that you’d also be practicing ninjutsu.”
Umino Ikkaku reminded him, then changed the subject.
“Since you have to divide your time between ninjutsu training as well, reduce the amount of taijutsu training appropriately.
You don’t want to exhaust yourself too much and affect your physical development.”
Umino Ikkaku paused before asking:
“Right now, you’re undergoing high-intensity training, which requires quite a bit of additional spending.
The allowance from the village probably isn’t enough to cover your expenses, is it?”
Kuroda Ren couldn’t help but nod.
High-intensity training certainly provided tremendous benefits for physical development, but the expenses were equally astonishing.
For one thing, simply maintaining the nutrition required by his body meant that his food expenses had increased several times over.
And if he wanted to ensure that he didn’t leave behind any hidden injuries, he would also need to regularly purchase medicinal herbs that could nourish and strengthen his body.
Even just the food expenses were already putting Kuroda Ren’s finances under considerable strain.
As for restorative medicinal herbs, he simply didn’t have the money to buy them.
“My neighbor, Teuchi, is preparing to open a ramen shop.”
Umino Ikkaku finally revealed the reason he had come.
“I talked to him about it.
If you’re willing, you can help him purchase ingredients every morning and evening and deliver them to the shop.
He’ll pay you according to the standard compensation for a D-rank mission each week.”
D-rank missions had a reward range of between 500 and 10,000 ryō.
Something as simple as delivering supplies obviously wouldn’t receive the maximum reward.
Most likely, it wouldn’t exceed 1,000 ryō.
But even if he earned only 1,000 ryō per week, that would amount to more than 4,000 ryō a month.
For Kuroda Ren, that was already a considerable sum.
Purchasing ingredients twice a day and delivering them to the shop wouldn’t take much time.
As far as part-time jobs went, it was quite worthwhile for him.
However, Kuroda Ren’s attention wasn’t focused on the job itself.
It was focused on the name of Umino Ikkaku’s neighbor.
Teuchi?
Could that ramen shop be the legendary Ichiraku Ramen?
In the original story, Konoha had been destroyed several times, yet Ichiraku Ramen remained completely unharmed.
It was practically a miracle.
In fact, many Naruto fans jokingly speculated that the owner of Ichiraku Ramen must be “Ōtsutsuki Ichiraku”, which was why Ichiraku Ramen had become the safest place in Konoha.
Of course, that was nothing more than a joke.
Still, Kuroda Ren was quite interested in Ichiraku Ramen.
Thinking about it carefully, the opening of Ichiraku Ramen seemed to have happened around this period.
“Ikkaku-senpai, I’m willing to take the job.”
Kuroda Ren agreed without hesitation.
It wasn’t because he was curious about Ichiraku Ramen.
He simply wanted to make money.
After all, maintaining high-intensity training consumed a tremendous amount of resources.
Money was something he absolutely couldn’t afford to lack.
“I’ve already spoken to him.”
Umino Ikkaku handed Kuroda Ren a piece of paper with an address written on it.
“Go to this place and look for someone named ‘Teuchi.’ Just tell him that I introduced you.”
“Since you’re not an official ninja yet, this counts as a work-study job rather than an official mission assignment.
It won’t be recorded in your mission history.”
Umino Ikkaku smiled.
“Though, that shouldn’t be a problem for you, right?”
◇ Bonus Chapter Goals ◇