Chapter 152: Frustration
Returning to the camp in high spirits, Ishiro immediately threw himself into Lightning Release training. With his Water Release mastery, creating a practice lake was a trivial task.
Using Earth and Water Release, Ishiro formed a perfectly circular lake. Around the edge, he evenly raised one hundred slender earth pillars. In the center of the lake, he constructed a small platform. Standing atop it, he cast the C-rank ninjutsu Guided Lightning. The jutsu successfully struck dozens of the earth pillars at the lake's edge.
However, none of the pillars were struck with precision. The lightning simply spread in a single direction, hitting whatever was in its path.
This was awkward—put simply, Ishiro's "score" was zero. In fact, calling it zero might be too generous. Technically, it was negative dozens, because none of the hits were intentional.
"This… training in the Lightning Stimulation Method feels like developing a second chakra nature all over again—completely hopeless!"
The difficulty of Lightning Release training was deeply frustrating. Days had passed, and Ishiro's results remained in the negatives. Not only could he not control the jutsu accurately, he couldn't even confine it to the central platform without it spilling to the lake's edge.
And then came even worse news: today, Kitsuchi handed him a report—Kumo-nin had learned about his Porcelain Release.
"What?!" was Ishiro's first reaction. He had clearly cleaned up all evidence—there wasn't even a corpse left behind.
His next thought was White Zetsu. Ishiro was confident he hadn't made any mistakes, but he was well aware of Zetsu's capabilities. If intel had leaked, Zetsu was the most likely culprit.
But Kitsuchi didn't know about Zetsu. He believed the mistake was Ishiro's. After hearing Ishiro's account, Kitsuchi quickly pointed out the flaw:
"That chunin was out of your sight for quite a while. Didn't it cross your mind that he might have left something behind?"
Ishiro was stunned. He had never even considered that possibility.
It wasn't a matter of intelligence, but rather awareness. Ishiro could accept sacrificing himself to cover a comrade's retreat—but using oneself as bait to protect intel? That was still beyond him.
It was a blind spot.
In his past life, people had admired how Hoshigaki Mangetsu had sacrificed his life to protect intel. But in the ninja world, that was just standard procedure—especially for those on infiltration missions. Sometimes, intel truly was more important than life.
There were even times when survival was impossible, but transmitting intel still had a chance.
"The best move then wasn't to search for clues—it was to ambush anyone who might come to retrieve them. Or, during interrogation, force him to reveal where he hid the intel."
Ishiro nodded. No one could know how many clues that chunin left behind—searching them all would be impossible.
As for interrogation, that wasn't easy either. The target's resolve was so firm that he'd break out of genjutsu after just a few questions.
Unless Ishiro had Sharingan, and genjutsu enhanced by it, he'd never break through that level of resistance.
Despite the failure in Lightning Release training and the intelligence leak, the Eastern Division had at least achieved its initial goal: drawing the attention of Kumo-nin.
If Ishiro had immediately responded with lethal force when they first built the camp, Kumo wouldn't have reacted strongly. But by first driving them away without killing them—showing "goodwill"—and now suddenly resorting to deadly attacks, it was only natural that Kumo grew suspicious.
Especially since a trade route had just been established between Konoha and Iwagakure in the Eastern Division's region.
Kumo began to wonder: Is Ōnoki up to something again?
Kumo's response wasn't immediate. First, they were cautious—wary of secret dealings between Iwa and Konoha. Second, the distance was an issue; they had to cross a sea.
If not for the recent joint declaration of war by the Lands of Earth and Lightning against the Land of Fire, the Raikage would have thought Ōnoki had sided with Konoha.
Eventually, Kumo dispatched a 2,000-strong force.
They didn't land directly in the Land of Earth, but under the pretense of escorting their daimyo's envoy to the Land of Iron, they landed on a small island off its northwest coast.
Though the island wasn't part of the Land of Earth, it was close enough—and coincidentally near Ishiro's camp. This marked the beginning of formal confrontation.
As Ishiro expected, Konoha reacted quickly. While Minato's camp wasn't abandoned, about a third of the ninja stationed there were transferred elsewhere.
Seeing Konoha's response, Ishiro breathed a sigh of relief. Under such circumstances, Minato was unlikely to launch an attack on his position.
Kumo's deployment to the Land of Iron, with clear intent toward Iwagakure, confused the other great nations.
They had to pay attention. With the current situation being four against one, any open conflict between Kumo and Iwa could collapse this advantage. Even if the two sides didn't go to full-scale war, neither would be able to go all-in against Konoha.
Thus, Ishiro's actions actually caused other battlefronts to quiet down slightly. But that peace was short-lived. Seeing that no real fighting broke out on the Eastern front, things soon returned to the usual rhythm. In fact, Suna even began expanding their offensive operations again.
For Ishiro, this was ideal: he had caught Kumo's attention without triggering a major battle, and Konoha was now feigning neutrality.
"There should be a few days of peace—I should make use of that."
Lightning Release training had to continue, but progress would be slow. Ishiro's Lightning chakra was weak, and even learning a new C-rank jutsu would take time. Developing Fire Release would be even more difficult. With war looming, Ishiro shifted focus to natural energy.
His greatest gain from the Evil God Cult encounter was a dramatic increase in his affinity for natural energy. He had, essentially, gone from zero to one.
So now, he revisited the idea of natural energy—a "bug" that could let a normal ninja stand up to near-Sage-level opponents.
In his past life's memories, natural energy had one key trait: it was overwhelming.
To harness it, one needed:
1. A massive amount of chakra – Ishiro's body wasn't there yet, but it was improving thanks to Porcelain Release.
2. Harmony with nature – Previously, Ishiro had lacked the mindset for this.
3. The ability to perceive natural energy – normally difficult due to its scarcity, but he had solved this with a seal.
The first requirement would take time. Ishiro didn't know how far his body would evolve with Porcelain Release. But he could begin preparing for the second.
In the original story, Naruto's Sage training involved several steps, some of which relied on unique tools like toad oil and black rods—none of which Ishiro had. But the mental training aspect? That was replicable.
Naruto's process involved:
1. Using toad oil to absorb natural energy.
2. Training his mind to absorb it without help.
3. Learning to manipulate Sage chakra.
Thanks to his sensory techniques, Ishiro could skip step one and start straight with step two—training within a sealed space filled with natural energy. But he still faced two problems:
1. Learning to quiet his mind.
2. Figuring out how to actually absorb the energy.
Quieting his mind was easy—he'd just copy Naruto's method.
But as for absorption… that was a challenge. Ninja training had never involved drawing in outside energy. Chakra came from food, not the environment.
Still, Ishiro had a theory. Perhaps chakra inherently carried a connection to nature—that would explain why eating a little food could fuel incredible power.
He didn't need to understand the mechanics. He wasn't a Sage—just a jōnin. He just needed results.
So, how could he absorb it? Maybe he could learn from Dan'go when the time came.
With that thought, Ishiro used Earth Release to create two stone spikes, mimicking the ones Naruto used during training. Each had a pointed top. He placed a wooden board on one and sat on it, practicing balance.
Unlike Naruto's original version, Ishiro's spike was only one meter tall—he didn't want to break his neck. The second spike was for Dan'go.
Shironeko watched curiously, joined by Ishiro's three disciples. Together, they gathered around the man and the cat, watching them wobble and struggle to stay atop the spikes without chakra.
Chiko Tomoe asked, "Sister Shironeko, what is teacher doing?"
Shironeko replied, "He says he's training to quiet his mind… to merge with nature."
Kajiyama Ri asked, "Then why is Dan'go doing it too?"
"Probably something to do with natural energy?" Shironeko guessed.
"Should we try it too?" asked Kawakita, thinking it might help his swordplay.
"I'm not sure. Let's wait and ask Ishiro once he's done."
Just then, Ishiro fell off the spike. The three disciples rushed over to check on him.
Having made no progress, Ishiro didn't know how to explain, so he just said vaguely, "I'll tell you once I succeed."
Shironeko ignored him—her focus was on Dan'go, who was still perched on the board, wobbling slightly but never falling.
Cats had excellent balance, and Dan'go had already absorbed a good amount of natural energy. He hadn't reached Naruto's later stillness, but he was clearly doing better than Ishiro.
Watching, Shironeko asked curiously, "Ishiro, why did you fall while Dan'go didn't?"
Ishiro was speechless. What am I supposed to say? That I'm worse than a cat?
Dan'go's power was improving rapidly. He could now match a special jōnin in speed, and his other weaknesses were being compensated for.
Still… Dan'go was a ninja cat. Ishiro was an elite jōnin.
To say he was losing to a cat? That would destroy his dignity.
♧♧♧
-> SUPPORT ME WITH POWER STONE
-> FOR EVERY 200 PS = BOUNS CHAPTER
♧♧♧
-> 30 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.patreon.com/c/Segais
(Just remove the hyphen to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you