Chapter 165: Should I form a Personal Force?
Fujin's eyes in the meditation room suddenly opened. A frown formed on his face when he received the information, 'Wind and Lightning are indeed a bad combination. Though the clone found decent ninjutsus, there wasn't a single Lightning jutsu that could compliment my current skills.'
He analyzed for some time before concluding, 'Looks like other than Raikage's Lightning cloak mode and Sasuke's Kirin, the remaining Lightning jutsus won't be of any use to me when it comes to improving my strength. So that leaves only concealment.
Alright. I'll form a new combat system based on my Lightning jutsus. I won't use any Wind jutsus or jutsus that can connect me with Konoha except the Shadow Clone and Body Flicker jutsus. The basis of this new system will be speed complemented by high accuracy and high penetration power attacks.
While I don't have any immediate need of creating such a persona, I am currently in a very peaceful phase with a lot of free time. It's best to create this combat system before my life becomes hectic.
With that decided, time to start learning the jutsus. I'll start with…'
Fujin's thoughts were interrupted as he heard a doorbell. He wondered, 'Who'd come to visit at this time? Is Renjiro back? No, the chakra signature is too low.'
Fujin went up to check. Before opening the door, he sealed up the entrance to the basement. Fujin opened the door to see 5 faces that he didn't recognize. After a few seconds, he recognized a couple of them and was surprised. He thought, 'Well, what a surprise. I nearly forgot about these two. I wonder why they are here.'
Aoki Daisuke said with a bit of nervousness, "Hey Fujin. How have you been?"
Tatsuya also greeted Fujin.
Fujin said, "I have been doing well. How about you two? Anyways, come in."
The 5 young boys entered his house.
Daisuke looked around the house with marvel. He was already surprised when he saw it from the outside. He exclaimed, "Your house is magnificent Fujin!"
Fujin said, "Thanks."
They sat in the circular room. Fujin asked, "So, what brings you here? Also, who are these 3?"
Daisuke introduced them, "They are our good friends. They are Anzai Buncho, Handa Bunjiro and Iriye Ryoma. They are our best friends from our class and are orphans just like us."
Fujin checked each one of them. All seemed normal. He said, "Hey"
They greeted Fujin back.
Fujin noticed a bit of nervousness on Daisuke's face. He said, "Fujin, we actually came here because we wanted to ask for your help."
Fujin asked, "What help?"
He said, "Actually, we are struggling in the academy. Our graduation exams are less than half a year away and I am afraid that we will fail. We saw your fight in the Chunin exams and saw how you defeated everyone with ease. Even the kids from ninja clans weren't a match for you! So we wanted to ask for your help and guidance to pass the exam."
Fujin was surprised to hear that. It wasn't just the request that surprised him, but rather the change in Daisuke. He thought, 'I know that the adults in this world are scheming bastards. But how the fuck did this straightforward guy become such a smooth talker. He perfectly blended flattering with the request such that it wouldn't seem too much and instead look very genuine!'
Seeing that Fujin was not answering made the 5 boys a bit nervous. They had decided to let Daisuke do most of the talking as he was familiar with Fujin. But as Fujin didn't reply, Tatsuya asked, "Fujin?"
Fujin replied, "Can you tell me what have you learnt so far? And what areas are you struggling in?"
They immediately began telling Fujin their issues. Fujin paid half attention to their words. As for the remaining half, he was thinking, 'Hmm, what to do? I have no interest in teaching them. After all, even though I have time, I also have a crazy amount of stuff that I want to learn.
The only gain I can see from helping them is getting their favor. Another possible gain could be an improvement in reputation if my kind deeds are spread. But, neither gain is significant. Even if I gain their favor, what can a bunch of genins do for me? And, in a world where power reigns supreme, reputation isn't worth anything. At most, it could improve my image in Hiruzen's eyes, but I don't expect him to give me any more benefits anytime soon.
The only gain that could be worth it is if I gain their loyalty and they become my subordinates. In that case, I could create a small powerbase in Konoha. It won't be as powerful as any clan, but it would have great potential to grow. Especially once Danzo is out of the picture and the insane casualties of the 4th Great War leave a lot of Orphans that I could recruit.
But, do I even need such an organization, especially within Konoha? And will these guys be that loyal?'
Fujin analyzed quickly before reaching the conclusion, 'No. A faction within Konoha will be watched by many eyes. If I infringe upon the benefits of others, we will be hit by a multitude of schemes that would leave us a mess. And it would eat into my precious training times. All the attention would also make it much more difficult for me to do anything in the dark.
More importantly, these guys cannot be trusted to be that loyal. The Root is loyal to Danzo as he picked them up when they were orphans and has completely brainwashed and indoctrinated them. While Orochimaru picked up kids who had lost everything and had no hope and gave them food, power, hope and dreams. Which is why his subordinates were loyal to him. Of course, in addition, both also used seals to keep their subordinates in check.
Neither of those 2 cases applies here. Even if I stayed in touch with them after I entered the academy and became best friends and helped them, I wouldn't have that level of loyalty. At most, it will be a strong friendship bond and a sense of comradery like the bond between Naruto and Shikamaru.
That said, I do plan on creating an organization outside Konoha. I have a lot of plans that an organization could simplify. Perhaps training these guys could provide me with insights on how to train the ones I take in my future organization. I guess I will need to create a proper training system for the organization in order for them to be useful. Or perhaps create something like the curse mark to strengthen and control them.'
After a long internal debate, Fujin decided to aid them. He had heard what Daisuke said. Apparently, their class wasn't taught as much as Fujin's class was. They were taught the 3 Academy ninjutsu in the 6th year. In the previous 5 years, they were only taught theory, hand signs, leaf concentration, shuriken throwing, kunai wielding and various survival skills needed to be a ninja. None of the 5 ever mentioned visiting the library.
After they stopped speaking, Fujin said, "Let's go outside. Show me how you perform the three jutsus."
Their eyes brightened when they heard it. It meant that Fujin was planning to teach them. They left the house.
Daisuke started first. He said, "I will start with the Substitution jutsu."
He began making hand signs. Fujin thought, 'Correct hand signs, but too slow.'
Daisuke wanted to use the substitution jutsu to impress Fujin, but Fujin was staring right at him without looking away. The substitution jutsu worked on misdirection. With Fujin staring directly at him, he had no way to misdirect Fujin.
He tried to time his substitution jutsu to the time Fujin blinked his eyes. But, Fujin saw it clearly as he grabbed the log next to him and swapped positions with it.
Seeing Fujin's eyes following him left him embarrassed. Fujin said, "This looks alright. Though you have to be faster. Show me the transformation jutsu. Transform into Tatsuya."
Daisuke nodded and made hand signs and transformed into Tatsuya. There were a lot of imperfections in the jutsu.
Fujin said, "You will have to practice this more. Show me the Clone jutsu."
Daisuke made hand signs. Immediately, a clone appeared next to him. But the clone looked nothing like him. In fact, Fujin doubted whether it could even walk!
Fujin thought, 'I guess Naruto isn't the only one who sucks at this.'
Daisuke was embarrassed looking at the clone. Fujin asked the others to display their jutsus as well. All four could do one jutsu satisfactorily but struggled in the remaining two.
Fujin said, "Actually, there is not much I can do to aid you with the jutsus directly. You guys will just have to practice until you learn. I will instead help you with some other techniques that would aid you in learning jutsus faster."
Their expressions fell when they heard that Fujin won't be able to help them. But on hearing that he will teach them other techniques, they got excited. They had seen the jutsus Fujin used in the Chunin exam. They thought, 'If he taught us even one jutsus from the ones he used in the exam, we will be the strongest in our class!'
Unfortunately, their sky-high expectations were set to fall on the ground and be broken into a million pieces!