Naruto: Tango with Death

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Because the Water Severing Wave Jutsu required more handsigns than most S Rank Jutsus, its price was slightly lower, only going for 10 Million Ryo.

Then, I used the remaining 15 Million for A Rank Jutsus. One of them was a derivation of the Water Severing Wave, it was the Water Colliding Wave.

This one started the same, but instead of a beam, the user would spit out a giant tsunami which would flood the area. This was the most expensive A Rank I found as it almost crossed into the S Rank category too.

Suiton is rather special because while the element can be created by the user, most Suiton users use already existing sources of water for their Jutsus, as it requires far less chakra to use them.

But sometimes, one simply couldn't find any water, resulting in a weakness. This jutsu however, by flooding an area, offset that weakness since the water would stay after the initial impact.

As for the other jutsus, I could have chosen one of each Chakra nature, for a more widespread research, as I had done until now, but I have recently decided to change the way I experimented with my Tenketsu Points.

Exploring each and every paths sure did give me an all around improvement, and would continue to do so. However, there was one major flaw, and that was time.

I hadn't reached halfway to chains of 10 Tenketsu Points, yet the few D Rank Jutsus I had learned formed chains of at least 51 Tenketsu Points.

So with the way I was working, I would take years before I even learned a single D Rank technique. For sure, by then I would have mastered every E Rank ninjutsu in the world, but that simply wasn't worth it.

So I instead decided I was going to start focusing on a certain path, and because of my affinity, I decided on the Water Path.

Every Jutsu had a base, and I had already discovered the base for each Water Jutsu, so I decided to only work on those for now.

This didn't mean I was giving up on the other paths either as every paths could be linked together, and for every failed combination I found with the Water Path, it would also mean those combinations wouldn't work with any other element.

So anyway, I decided to only take Water related Jutsus.

By the time I finished choosing all of my jutsus, Minato was done with telling the others about their bonuses.

So grabbing the booklet back, he listened to my choices, and said, "The scrolls will be sent to you as soon as possible."

I nodded, and Minato turned to Itachi as he said, "Karasu, I have a new mission for you and Cat."

Bear, Sugaru and I took our cue as we left the office, letting them discuss about their mission. Once outside, Bear asked me, "Do you want to come eat with us tonight? Without the masks."

I smiled and nodded, "I would love to. By the way, there's no need to split the mission's reward with me, I got more than enough with my bonus."

Bear chuckled and said, "Nonsense, you earned bonuses because you earned them. You've earned your share for the mission reward as well."

I wanted to refute, but Sugaru cut in with his gravelly voice, "Talk money tonight."

I nodded slightly, and asked, "Where do you guys usually go?"

Bear pointed at a building right outside the window and replied, "We hang at the Jonin Standby Station, in case we are needed."

I nodded, this was the place where Jonins would always hang, in case the Hokage had an urgent mission for them. For most of the year, it was a place reserved for Jonins and Anbu personal, although regular Chunins would come in from time to time.

We waited for a while, when Itachi came out with Yugao. Itachi sent a look at me and said, "Lord Hokage asked to speak to you, alone. But before you go…"

Bear cut him off, "I already invited her for tonight. She said yes."

Itachi nodded slightly, and said, "Then see you later, Spider."

I nodded, and got back into the office. I saw Minato smiling this time. He said, "You look better than yesterday. Your eyes have more energy."

I nodded and replied, "I wasn't hurt, I was only tired."

Minato nodded, before adding, "You completed your first S Rank Mission at 9 years old, as well as killed an S Rank Shinobi and made another desert his village… You know where I was when I was 9? At the Academy."

I replied, "The context is not the same."

Minato smiled, "You completed an A Rank Mission and an S Rank Mission on your own, but never got in a B Rank Mission. I think it is the first time this happened."

I did not say anything this time, waiting for him to say what he wanted to tell me.

After a moment, Minato sighed and asked, "You train with Guy in Taijutsu, with Shisui in Kenjutsu, with Kushina in Sealing and you just bought an S Rank Ninjutsu and several A Rank Ninjutsu, which I hold no doubt you can use without a problem with your chakra reserves. You know, each of your trainings give me feedbacks of your progress with them."

I nodded, this wasn't surprising. Minato added, "You have interacted with several Jonins to this day, so you should know what we consider as the threshold for a Jonin level in a particular skill."

I once again nodded, understanding where this was going.

Minato opened a file and said, "All of your trainers have reported back that you are not far from reaching Jonin level in their respective fields."

Minato continued, "The requirement to become a Jonin is to have reached Jonin Level in at least five skills."

I nodded, again, and Minato added, "I believe you deserve the title of an Assassin Master, and a Stealth Master as well."

Master was the level above Jonin. Genin, Chunin, Jonin, Master.

So I said, "When I learn the jutsus I bought, I will reach Jonin Level in Ninjutsu too. That would be three. So as long as I reach Jonin level for two of my three trainings…"

Minato nodded and continued, "You will be promoted to Jonin."

I nodded, and Minato asked, "But I brought you here to ask about a promotion you can receive today. Do you want to be promoted to Tokubetsu Jonin?"

A Tokubetsu Jonin is a Chunin who has reached Jonin level in less than five disciplines. It was a higher rank than Chunin.

However, I shook my head and said, "No thank you. A promotion doesn't really mean anything in Anbu. I would be happy to become a Jonin, but Tokubetsu Jonin… Might as well wait."

Minato nodded, he probably expected this answer of me. So he smiled and said, "I also heard about last night from Kushina… sorry about Jiraiya."

I replied, "It's fine, I got to break the nose of a Sannin."

Minato chuckled and said, "Happy to hear that."

I nodded, and left the room.